My Ex-Boyfriend From Kindergarten

Chapter 10: Say It In A Song

This is yet to be edited.

The group study ended with lunch. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Whenever I came over to Nai’s place, her mom would always make me eat at least one meal. I was never one to refuse because her mom’s got serious culinary skills.

“Hey Cairo, don’t forget to memorize those song lyrics,” she said. He gave her a smile and a nod. “And Dune, call me after your date with Sunny,” she smiled at me. I gave her a look and a nudge.

“A date with Sunny?” Cai asked right away.

“Again, it’s not a date,” I said while looking at Nairobi but simultaneously watching Cai through my peripherals. From what I could see, he was looking at me. I faced him and learned I was correct. “It’s song practice,” I said as casually as I could.

“He’s picking you up here?” he asked again.

“Well, no. We’re meeting at the park.”

“At the park?” he asked.

“Yeah, at the park. You know, the park where we were this morning,” I clarified.

“You’re doing song practice at the park on a Saturday afternoon?” he continued to ask.

“Sounds like a pretty sweet date to me,” Nairobi said, then put her arm around me.

“It’s song practice!” I corrected her for the nth time.

“Hey Nairobi, we haven’t practiced our song yet, right?” Cai asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, since Dune and Sunny are practicing…” he said.

“Do you have Siobhan’s number? ‘Cause I don’t,” she said, understanding right away what Cai implied.

“Well, two is better than none,” he told her. Then he faced me, “So how ‘bout it, Dune? Mind if we come along for, you know, song practice?”

If I said no, they’d be convinced it was a date and not a song practice. If I said yes, argh. I’d have to spend the whole day with Cai.

“I’ll go get ready!” Nairobi said with a big smile. “Is it okay if you guys wait for me here? I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

“Sure,” Cai and I said, but with different tones. His was happy, mine was… Well, less enthusiastic.

“So… Sunny…” he said after Nai was out of sight.

“Yeah, Sunny.”

“So you two are like, going out?”

“What?” I was surprised by his sudden straightforward question. Maybe some of Kyle’s directness rubbed off on him. But hey, what was his right to ask? I wasn’t nosing around about him and Fifer. “It’s just song practice, Cai.”