That Summer

Chapter 3

I woke up in my bed much earlier than usual. I heard birds chirping along with the sound of chimes softly blowing in the quiet wind. For once, I wasn't tired. I didn't want to go back to sleep and wake up at lunchtime. I felt completely different. It's like all the lost hours of sleep from college finally returned and I was livelier than ever. I couldn't even remember the last time I felt this well-rested. I moved my hand around and felt a white chrysanthemum petal touch my fingers. I picked up the flower and held it up towards the ceiling. It was amazing that I actually enjoyed waking up to these flowers every morning. I put the flower on my nightstand and stretched my legs. I wanted to get up but there was something weighing me down. I looked to my right and he was sleeping next to me and his arm was tightly holding onto me. My eyes twitched and I couldn't help but grimace.

"Ow. You didn't have to push me off the bed so hard." He sat on the floor and rubbed the back of his head.

"You have some nerve trying to sleep in a bed with a girl. Aren't you supposed to have some morals since you're a servant of a god?" I threw a pillow at him.

"Why do humans always believe that spiritual beings should have better morals than themselves just because they put us on some pedestal." He hugged the pillow and sniffed it.

"It's not like that, you narrow-headed pervert. Humans just expect others to have better morals than themselves so they can justify why they make bad choices. It has nothing to do with you guys being considered better than humankind. Humans just like shifting responsibility to others whether it's real or not." There was no point in bad mouthing humans, they did that enough to each other.

"Is that really how it is? I really misunderstood humans then." He seemed concerned.

"It's not your fault. Humans misunderstand a lot of things too." I tried to take my pillow back from him.

"So tell me, do you also think like these humans you speak of?" He put his face very close to mine.

"First of all, I don't really believe in God or gods or whatever. So, no my judgment is not biased like some other people." I hit him with a pillow.

"You don't believe in spiritual beings? No wonder you seem to treat me like an equal even though I am still your pet." I took the pillow from him before he started sniffing it.

"It wasn't always like that. Since entering high school, I gave up believing in things like that. And even though you told me you're a spiritual being, it doesn't mean that I'm going to treat you any differently than before. I don't consider you my pet and never will. Everything and everyone deserves to be treated equally." I threw the pillow on the bed.

"You have very high morals all on your own. It makes me wonder if that has something to do with not believing in the spirits. Again, you have shown me your complex character. It makes me want to know more." He grabbed my hand and tried walking towards the window but I stopped.

"What are you doing?" I tried to pull free of his grasp.

"We are going to learn more about you." He smiled.

"What? We can't go flying around the place."

"Why not? You can't let your mom know you're here because you shouldn't be here. You can't go to school because that's where the future you is. So, we have no choice but to do whatever I choose." He pulled me closer to him and we jumped out the window and floated up towards the sky.

"You conniving crow." I hit him on the arm.

"Your nicknames are starting to get very clever." He smiled as he flew faster across the sky.