IN TIME~Vinnie x Kio

V

On the following Monday, I get up early, which is a rare occurrence for me. 

I got up about two hours before school started, deciding to actually eat something before school, I crack a few eggs and get cooking.  

"Woah!  Look who's up early."  My dad, in short, scared the absolute shit out of me, as I thought I was the only one up this early.  I laughed sort of relieved, still a bit jittery from the unintentional scare.  "Why are you up so early?"

See? It's not just me who knows this is unusual.

"Woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, how was the movie?"  I ask him, trying to make conversation.  I love talking to my dad, though he's tough sometimes, he's really one to carry a conversation.

"It was fine, your mom wanted to see a romance film," he huffed, my dad hated romance movies with a burning passion, "While she was sobbing on my left, I fell asleep halfway through.  So I didn't really watch it."  

Of course, I'm not surprised in the slightest.

"Well, what did Reg think of it?"  I asked, flipping the egg, breaking the yolk in the process, "Damn it!"  I sneer in a hushed voice.

"Oh he ditched us when he saw some of his friends, I think they went and saw the reruns of Die Hard."  I laugh when he says that and I roll my eyes. Reggie watching the most gruesome and dramatic movie?  Wow, never would've seen that one coming.

To say the least, that was pretty much all of our conversation, but I took what I could get.  I begrudgingly ate my egg with a cooked yolk in the center, and headed out the door.  I didn't even know what I was to say to Kio.

What do you say after something like that?

I got in my car and drove to Mae's house.  Today she had on a white lace dress and Birkenstocks.  It wasn't even the fact that she was for some reason super dressy today, but that it was now December. 

 I could see she was freezing running from her house to my car. 

 I raised my eyebrows at her when she got in, like a strict mother would when she saw her kid wearing a tank top with straps that weren't two finger length.

She put her bag down, not recognizing my glare at first, my eyes trailed down to the obvious goosebumps covering her pale legs.  

"No jacket? Mae it's freezing outside," I tell her.  Wow I do sound like a mother. 

She looked at me confused and looked down at her outfit.

"I'm keeping it on, Vin."  She told me, and I put my hands up in defense. 

"Okay, have fun getting frostbite."  I said, and started heading over to the next street to Hanna's house.  I looked at Mae and she laughed, nodding.  I did what I do whenever anyone is running late and I rest my head on the horn.

I get a gorgeous view of Hanna tripping out the door still tightening her belt, waving a hand quickly at me, signaling for me to stop.  Needless to say, I didn't until she got in the car.

"Vinnie, will you shut the f-" she coughs, "my mom's still asleep!"  

Mae and I burst into laughter as I speed away from her house, trying to avoid getting chewed out by Hanna's mom.  

"Kio just texted me, he needs a ride."  Hanna gapes at her phone.  My smile fades and I mentally prepare myself for the holy awkwardness that is about to occur in the car.  I pray that Mae and Hanna can keep up a conversation with Kio. 

It is silent until Kio's house.  I pull up and see him coming out (don't you dare take that out of context) in a white long sleeve tee shirt and a dark blue bandana around his neck.  His hair is more styled than it was on Friday, more slicked back.  

He enters the back seat and sits next to Hanna, he gives me a genuine smile and I return it in the mirror.  

I can already feel my face heating up, so I roll my window down.

"Vinnie!" I hear Mae whine.  

"It's not my fault you dressed like it was sixty degrees out."  I shrug and give her an evil smile.  I hear Kio giggle softly in the back and my stomach clenches.

I blink a few times, feeling a little prickling behind my eyes.

Do not cry.

Hanna and Kio are having a conversation about something, I can't even focus, as I'm trying to tilt up my head slightly so I can try and get rid of that feeling.  My heart is beating out of my chest once again, and I can finally out full focus back on the road.  

I let out a sigh and pull in to my designated senior parking space.  

"Thanks Vinnie," Kio gave me a smile.  

He's acting like nothing happened at all.  I don't know if I should be relieved or offended by this.  He actually seems somehow impossibly happier than Friday.  I decide to go with the first option and nodded at him, smiling back at him.  

I leave to go to class quicker than they probably want me too.  It's not that I'm shutting Kio out, I don't know what to do, my brain is kind of a mess.  My mind I suppose is doing some sort of defense technique is what I stuck to.

There was no way in hell that I was able to pay attention in health class.  My mind kept wandering off to one place, one person.

He seemed completely clueless to that by me telling him, or unintentionally rather, it changed my life.  

Now one person knew, and it's eating me alive.  I make a decision in the middle of class to text him, saying a quick, 

"Meet me in the bathroom,"