The Adventures of Memories (TAOV #2)

Chapter 2

Kay's POV:

I finish packing up my things and sling my heavy backpack over my shoulder along with everyone else. I tried to make my bag as light as possible. But, being me, that didn't work. It felt like I was carrying a huge rock on my back. I didn't get a very comfy backpack, either.

As we are preparing to keep walking, I hear it. Mayu's name. I slowly turn behind me, followed by the other three, and see a group of people- no, VOCALOIDs- running towards us. Oliver screams our names, jumping and waving. 

When Mayu sees him, she blushes. She has a crush on Oliver? Eh, I can see that.

 We arrive about 6 hours later, my feet and back aching. "I'm ready to take a 2 hour bath." I manage to say with what little energy I have left in my exhausted body. "You can say that again," My sister, Aikae, agrees.

Haku chuckles and opens up the door. I see the living room, the same as when we left, but this time it is occupied with awake people, not sleeping. I see a few VOCALOIDs sitting on a coffee table, explaining everything to the 8 whose memory was wiped.

I quickly run up the stairs, with Aikae and Val following behind me. I open the door to the closest bathroom, relieved to see that it is empty. I quickly take off the same clothes I had been wearing for the past 2 days. A red off-the-shoulder sweater with '100' on it, a black skirt, and brown boots. I stretch a little, glad to have room to move my feet.

I turn on the water and wait for the bath to fill up and turn on some music. I check the curtain for cockroaches, a habit I never got out of from when I was a child. I smile at the memory. Even though cockroaches aren't a very nice thing to remember, I still liked being a child more than I liked being a teenager.

As I am reflecting on my old life, Val comes to mind. Late-night Skype calls. Dancing over the phone. Katie and I were good friends. At one point, we believed that we were actually in a relationship. Do you still believe that? a small voice in the back of my head whispers.

Maybe I do. I was still a little bit too young to be thinking of dating, but it's a possibility. Do I really want to have a relationship with a girl? What will my parents think of that? What if they don't love me anymore?

I stop thinking about it before I burst into tears. My parents. I ran away with Val, to Tokyo when I was 12. For all I know, they could still be looking for me. What about my brother? He and I were really close as kids. I wonder how he's doing.

Maybe I'll give them a call later.

I smile and step into the bath.

***

I finally get dressed, feeling refreshed from my long bath. I walk into the room I share with Katie, towel wrapped around my body. I see her sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at her phone. She looks up as I walk in. "Hey," she says. "Hi," I reply. 

"Can you um..."

"Huh?"

"Turn around?"

"Oh yeah. You need to change. Yeah, sure."

Val turns around and I quickly change, looking behind me every now and then to make sure she's not looking. I slip on a Rilakkuma onesie and tell her she can turn back around. She smiles at me and then goes back to scrolling through her phone. 

"Whatcha' doin'?" I ask her, curious. "Looking through Twitter." she replies, her expression not changing. "Oh," I reply, not wanting to bother her. I pick up my phone, decorated with a silicone Hatsune Miku case. I turn on my phone and unlock it, starting to scroll through my YouTube.

Soon after I left home, I got famous on YouTube. Well, not that famous. 300,000 subscribers. Of course, that didn't happen overnight. When I started uploading videos with the VOCALOIDs, I became more popular. Val, who didn't care much for her channel, seemed a little bit jealous. So I didn't really talk about it around her.

I started thinking about Val again. I tried to think of something else, but she seemed to always come back into my mind. She had long, wavy brown hair, that falls to her waist. The ends of her hair were dyed purple and red. She was 15 now, one year older than me.

We had spent a long time together. 4 years. I didn't understand how she put up with me. I would've left me a while ago, but here she was. Sitting right next to me, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. She pops another bubble of gum in her mouth, and continues chewing it.

I sigh quietly and open iMessage, scrolling down to her contact. I find it, and open it. I think about what I am going to do for a moment, wondering if this is the right thing to do. I mean, my parents don't have to know. And me and Val aren't really sisters. Just adopted to the same person.

I finally decide to do it. I start typing. I didn't write a whole paragraph, because that would take way too long and would start to get sappy. So I wrote just one sentence.

Will you be my girlfriend?

I sit there for a while, my finger hovering over the send button. I didn't have all day. And neither did she. After a while of just sitting there, listening to Katie popping gum bubbles, I do it. I hit send. Her phone beeps, next to me, and I regret my decision.

I keep my eyes trained on my phone, waiting for it to say she read it. She goes silent, and I see it. "Read 6:57 PM" We sit there for a while, until I see that she starts typing. I hear her tap three times at her phones screen, and I get the message.

Yes

I almost jump up from excitement. But I don't. I just sit there. Smiling like an idiot.