Ribs - bokuaka

Chapter 16

    When we both wake up, Bokuto is in an oddly good mood. It's almost off puttingly pleasant, like he is trying to deflect the tension with his chipper attitude. He doesn't bring up a single thing about last night, so I don't either. I don't want to scare him off by mentioning it and ruin our day, so I will just have to wait for later.

    Once we have all our things together, and our phones fully charged--I insisted Bokuto charge his this time--we make our way back to his car. We both get situated in silence, and for the first time on this whole trip, Bokuto reaches over and turns the radio on. I take that as a hint that he doesn't want to talk, and leave him alone.

    The music stays on for hours, not giving me a chance to mention anything from last night. The most I have been able to get in is a request that we stop at the next gas station, and even then the only thing he responded with was a quick nod. He won't even look at me.

    I feel guilty for making him so uncomfortable. He has never once in his life not wanted to be talking constantly. Generally, the only times he's quiet are for my sake. I stare hard out of the window, blinking a stray tear out of my eye. I have no reason to be crying, he is the one who is hurting right now. It's my fault he's ignoring me in the first place.

    I clear my mind of any and all negative thoughts, and focus on the music he has playing. Lucky for me, it's just some random pop song that was most likely released recently. If it were some sappy ballad about breakups I might just lose my mind.

    It doesn't take very long for me to fall asleep, considering I don't even like pop music.

    When I wake up again, it's almost dark. I look out the window to see where we are, and notice that the car is stopped. We're on the side of the road somewhere, and Bokuto is not in the seat next to me. Quickly, I get out of the car to try and find him.

    I scan our surroundings, and find him sitting in some grass behind the car. He had set out one of our blankets and is currently putting candles on all four corners of it. I walk over, and notice an array of various gas station foods spread out on and next to the blanket, presumably for us to eat.

    Bokuto looks up and notices me, a bright smile appearing on his face. "Akaashi, hi!"

    "Where did you get all this?" I ask him, kneeling down beside the blanket. He pulls me onto it with him and gestures grandly at his handiwork.

    "I stopped at a gas station while you were sleeping! I thought it would be nice to stop and look at the stars instead of driving all night, and I figured you'd be hungry, so... " he smiles again, that same smile I can never quite get over, "I set us up a picnic!"

    For a moment, I completely forget about all of the worries that had been plaguing me since last night. "That is very sweet of you, Bo."

    A light blush spreads across his face at my words, and he nervously rubs the back of his neck, eyes fluttering away from mine. "It's really nothing," he says with an awkward laugh.

    "I still think it's nice." Very carefully, I lean into him and tilt my head back to look at the sky. It's just barely getting dark, so there aren't many stars yet, but when I glance at Bokuto the expression on his face tells me that he doesn't care.

    This happiness is a lot different from this morning, he seems to be genuinely really happy. This morning's was fake and completely forced, I never want to see Bokuto like that again.

    He looks down and catches me staring, but I don't bother trying to cover it up. Instead, I just offer him a small smile. He looks delighted.