A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Fourteen: Part Five

“Good afternoon, Hotaru-sama.” Megane’s welcoming voice greeted as I approached the limousine door that he had pulled open.

“Good afternoon,” I replied as I gave Megane a small smile. As I ducked into the limousine, I scooted all the way into the inside of the car into the seat farthest from the opened door.

I made it a routine to lie down across the seat once Megane had closed the door. It was so peculiar and informal to lie down across a seat in a limousine. Since the windows were so tinted, I figured no one would see me lounging on the seat.

Of course, I didn’t sit like this purely to lounge. Looking out the windows and watching my surroundings drift through paths and around corners and in circles made me nauseous. I was so used to walking as my main transportation.

But the door that Megane held open remained open. I knew that Megane always closed my car door once I was inside the car.

Something was different today. He only held the car doors open on the school campus for two people: myself and Keita.

I turned in my seat and arched my gaze over the back of the leather chairs that I sat in. The seats in the back of the car were occupied with cardboard boxes.

There were small boxes, tall boxes, short boxes, fat boxes, skinny boxes, flat boxes, wide boxes, and just about any other kind of box that you could think of.

And the first thought that went through my head when I landed my eyes on these boxes was “Did this limo get attacked by an avalanche of boxes?!”

Because, believe me, this really looked like it was that kind of situation.

But since all of the other seats were occupied with boxes, this only left one other seat available for the second person that had yet to arrive.

And that seat was right beside mine.

Well—actually his seat and my seat had this giant gap in between for one extra person, but I still had to sit beside him.

And if I even thought about leaning over and putting my head on the base of the seat, I’d be in his seat territory, and that wouldn’t be very formal.

When I heard Megane’s welcoming voice announce, “Good afternoon, Hanabusa-sama,” and Keita’s blunt response of “Good afternoon,”, my heart felt like it had skipped a heartbeat. When he slid into the seat beside mine, I nervously lifted my gaze towards him.

His head peered out the window, and his hair hung over his head in a way where his eyes weren’t visible to mine.

When I saw Megane hurry around the limousine and open the door, I tightened my hands into fists. When I heard the whirr of the limousine’s engines, I immediately ducked my head, digging my fingers through my hair and shutting my eyes as hard as I possibly could.

I couldn’t see a thing with my eyes shut as tightly as they were. What I was hearing through my ears was a mix of a car engine gently whirring and the not-so-gentle pace of my heartbeat thumping against my ears. Even though I didn’t witness the earth swirling around me, I definitely felt it. And don’t get me wrong—when I was lying down across the car seat, I felt it too. But the shifting of the car impacted my senses even worse when I was sitting up.

And I was absolutely, positively against getting sick and vomiting.

I had so many bad histories with the flu. It caused nausea, stomach pain, coughing, and vomiting. When I lived in the small apartment and I had caught the flu, I had to deal with it all by myself, alone, with no help from parents or relatives. And I never bothered my neighbors to help me with my flu. I knew they probably had more important things to worry about than the young girl who lived next door.