First Love

Chapter 2

Two weeks had gone by so fast. I was so depressed. On the day they were leaving, Kei knocked on my bedroom door at around ten. I remember it was a Saturday and their flight was at twelve thirty. He came in and had something in his hand.

"I want you to have this," he said. It was his Nintendo game boy. He never let anyone touch it, not even me. He gave me his game and I automatically threw my arms around his neck. I was already crying. "I'll write you all the time, ok? We'll keep in touch." Kei tried to calm me down.

"Kei! We have to go!" Mr. Ichihara called from downstairs.

My hug tightened. But it was time to break it off. I hated time, making us do things we didn't want to do. Let go of things we didn't want to lose. I looked at Kei's green pools and, in a blink of an eye, he planted a kiss on my left cheek.

"Take care of yourself, Sam." I could tell he was fighting his tears too.

Kei walked out of my room and the world fell into silence, except for the doors and the engine of Mr. Kenji's car. I could hear it all the way to Pelican Drive. But the sound disappeared when they turned there. I hugged the game boy and lay in bed all day that day.

On the following Monday, I felt so out of place. On the way to school, it was just Daniel and me. In class, I was alone. I ate alone at lunch. I stood alone during recess. I cried alone in the bathroom. It was miserable. For the first time in my life, I hated being in school.

The next few weeks were unbearable. My parents tried to cheer me up, even promising a visit to Japan when possible. But the only thing that finally cheered me up was a letter from Kei. I received it about two months after he had left.

Hey Sam,

How are you? I hope you're doing good.

We finally settled in, and I started going to school. I am having a hard time because I only speak a little bit of Japanese. I don't even know how to write it. But I got a tutor who is helping me. His name is Tanaka and apparently, he is my cousin. He's four years older than me, so he goes to high school and he's really cool.

My dad wants me to start doing this traditional Japanese dance. It's called Kabuki. Apparently, my dad's family is very famous in the Kabuki community. I started training, it's very weird but I kind of like it.

Tokyo is very different. I haven't seen a lot of it, but everything is so different from Miami. I hope you can come visit soon, I think you would like it.

I hope you're not making any trouble at school. Be good, ok?

I can't wait to hear from you. Tell me what's new with you.

Love,

Kei

His letter made me happy but as I read it over and over again, I felt sad. Kei hadn't said that he missed me, not even once. It was also obvious that he was having fun discovering the city, meeting new people, and even starting to learn how to do that dance. I, on the other hand, have been really depressed and alone for the past seven weeks.

I didn't think it was fair, so, I didn't write him back right away. I didn't have anything exciting or new to share with him anyway.

One Wednesday afternoon, I was lying in bed. I remembered that almost every Wednesday at five for the past four years, Kei used to have his piano teacher come to his house for his lessons. I used to sit at my window and listen to him play. At first, he was horrible, but his playing had improved a lot.

I stood and walked to my window, when I saw an unfamiliar object on the Ichihara front lawn. It was a 'For Sale' sign. My eyes widened. They were never coming back, I thought. This realization made me sit at my desk and finally write my first letter to Kei.