Paper Wishes (#1)

Chapter Nineteen: Nox Makes a Friend

Weeks had gone by without me seeing Kai, whereas Nox saw him quite frequently for work. Nox would report back to me; he let me know that Kai seemed to be okay and taking care of himself. He also said that Kai was still seeing Nikki which, of course, I already knew about because she and I had started hanging out again. Sometimes Jez would come along with us, too.

Nox tagged along when he could because he hated to be apart from me, and the girls were okay with that because, as they had so tactfully put it, 'When he looks at you, you feel like your ovaries explode because he's so handsome.' I was still shocked that my eyes hadn't rolled right out of my head when they'd said that. Sometimes those girls were too much, I thought as I shook my head and smiled.

***

"Guess what?" Nox asked after coming home from work one day, his excitement palpable.

"Chicken butt?" I couldn't help but smile at my own intentional lameness. I knew that was a played out and terrible response, but there was no way I wasn't going to say it. I knew if Nikki were here she would have made a terrible chicken related pun and both of us would have felt the shame caused by a mass eye-roll. I smiled as the scenario played out in my mind.

"No," Nox rolled his eyes as he smiled good-naturedly at me. "I made a friend today."

"That's great!" A great big goofy smile appeared on my face as I went to give him a hug. I was so happy for him that my smile was simply uncontrollable. Nox had been having a difficult time making friends, and it brought him down a little. I suspected part of the problem was that he was always with me, and the other part of the problem was that, for whatever reason, a lot of the guys in school didn't want to be his friend.

"Kai and I had to go into the office today, because his dad wanted us to meet all of the new hires – that's how I met him," Nox said. "His name is Tsubasa, and he said he just moved here."

I threw my arms around him once more, to give him another hug. I was just so darned proud of him. "That's awesome! I'm so glad you made a friend today."

"Me too," he smiled. "You know what was weird, though?"

"What?" I asked as I stepped back from our embrace.

"I feel like I've met him before..."

***

Nox, Jezabel, and I were waiting to meet up with Tsubasa at Barnes and Noble. Nox was excited about having us meet Tsubasa. I had to admit that while his enthusiasm was contagious, I was more excited about being able to spend time with Jez.

Jez was sipping on an iced coffee drink from the in-store café when she elbowed me and whispered - although not too subtlety - "Check out the hottie walking toward us!"

I glanced up from the book I was holding, and saw a tall Asian-looking guy strolling directly toward us. It was obvious he knew that he was handsome by the way he walked; he just seemed to exude confidence. "I see him," I replied, my whisper considerably more discreet than hers, before looking back down at my book.

"Hey," said tall-and-confident hottie as he and Nox bro hugged. Ah, this must be Tsubasa.

"Tsubasa, this is my girlfriend, Vilvian – I call her Hikari, though – and our good friend, Jez," Nox said gesturing at each of us respectively.

"Nice to meet you, Hikari," Tsubasa said as he stepped forward to hug me. I was surprised that he'd called me Hikari instead of Vilvian, but I brushed it off when I realized that he had a Japanese name, too. Calling me by my Japanese name probably made him feel more comfortable about his. I shrugged mentally, since it didn't bother me I decided to let it go.