30 Days Together

Chapter 10

Kyle didn’t know what to say. Should he tell her that she was almost r***d because he hadn’t kept his promise?

“What did I do? Please tell me,” Akina pleaded.

She looked cute staring up at him like that. There was a certain vulnerability about it that Kyle just wanted to protect her and the fact that he had failed, it just made him angry with himself. What happened shouldn’t have happened. Period.

“I mean you drunk a lot,” he said. It was all he could think of at the time. “Then, okay now this is funny.”

“What?”

“You can’t dance to save your life,” he said and then started laughing. It was true, Akina couldn’t dance to save her life but the fact that she still did it even though she was terrible was what Kyle admired about her.

Akina groaned loudly and covered her face as a blush crept across her face. “Where are my glasses?” she asked pulling the covers further up to cover her body.

Kyle stood up and retrieved them from his nightstand. He handed them over. She put them on and then got out of the covers. “You know,” he said mischievously with a smirk on his face. “You look really hot right now. Like the T-shirt just accentuates your legs in a really sexy way.”

Akina blushed and threw the sheet over her exposed herself. That only made Kyle laugh. He was enjoying it as he plopped on the bed and stretched his body fully.

“Where are my clothes?” she asked, “please tell me you weren’t the one that changed my clothes.”

Kyle arched up as he stared at her incredulous. “Those jean shorts kinda looked a little tight,” he said and then folded his hands at the back of his head.

“Where are my clothes?” Akina asked once more.

“In my closet.”

“Umm, can you pass them to me?”

“Nope. You can get them for yourself. I mean, aren’t you into the whole feminism thing?”

Akina shot him a glare. “This has nothing to do with feminism, I need you to pass me my clothes.” She was holding the sheet tightly to her body. “Can you stop being an arsehole for a minute and just give me my clothes.”

“Well, well, well, look who just cursed.” Was Kyle’s reply as he grabbed his phone and started playing with it.

“Kyle come on, I really need my clothes.” Akina pleaded.

“You could have thought of that before you called me an arsehole,” he said incredulously. He opened his i********: and scrolled through his feed. “Just leave the sheet and get them, it’s not that hard you know.”

Akina reluctantly removed the sheet and made her way to Kyle’s closet. As she let the sheet fall, Kyle quickly took a picture of her.

“Why did you do that for?”

“Because I can, and because I wanted to,” Kyle replied cheekily.

Akina shot him a look as she opened the closet and got her clothes. She turned back around with an expectant look in her eyes.

“What?” Kyle asked playing dumb. Of course he knew what she wanted. But teasing her had become his new favourite thing to do. “Do you need something?”

“Yes. I need you to leave so I can change.”

That elicited a laugh from Kyle. “You are funny.” He said as he thought about posting the pictures he had taken of Akina but then something made him change his mind.

“Please!” Akina pleaded.

“Nope, it is my room after all and I don’t feel like leaving.”

“Kyle!” Linda called for him from downstairs. “Get down this instant.”

Kyle rolled his eyes and got up. “If Linda hadn’t just called me, you would have had to change in front of me,” he said and the closed the door behind him.

He made his way to the kitchen where Linda and Mike were. Linda was busy flipping pancakes while Mike sat by the kitchen island typing rapidly on his phone.

“Yes Linda.”

“Where is she?” Linda asked instead. “Isn’t she joining us for breakfast?”

Kyle sat down next to Mike. “She’s just getting changed,” he replied. “I thought you wouldn’t be okay with a random girl spending the night.”

Linda shot him look. “She isn’t like those girls you sneak around in the middle of the night. She seems like a decent girl.”

“Hey!” he protested but both Mike and Linda gave him a knowing look.

“Don’t think I don’t know what happens,” Linda said. “Now go and get her.”

“Mike.”

Mike looked up from his phone bored, “I’m not doing it. You might as well just forget about asking.” And then he went back to typing on his phone.

Did his family really think like that of him?

Huffing, Kyle stood up. “I don’t know how I’m related to you,” he said.

“Neither do I,” Mike shot back.

Kyle flipped him off as made his way back upstairs where he met Akina coming down the stairs.

“Just the person I was coming to get.”

Akina looked at him and then continued downstairs. She was dressed in the same clothes she had worn yesterday and Kyle couldn’t help but stare. Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail and her glasses were pushed up her nose. He stood on the bottom step and just watched her go.

She entered the kitchen and he heard Linda speak. That was his cue to go back into the kitchen before Linda said something to make him look bad or worse, to embarrass him. He could live with being a bad guy but he did not in any way want Akina to know any embarrassing stories about him… yet anyway. He wanted to be the one to tell her.

“What are you telling her now Linda?” he asked as he entered the kitchen.

Akina was sat next to Mike who no longer seemed to be interested in his phone. He was too busy gawking at her as she talked effortless with Linda.

“I was just asking why such a beautiful girl like her could want to spend time with you,” Linda gave him a look and Akina laughed softly.

“I didn’t, he basically forced me into it,” she said.

Kyle shot her a disbelieving look as he sat down next to her. “And here I thought we were friends.” He placed as a hand on his chest dramatically, “after everything I have done. I bring you into my house and you get my family to turn against me. I am wounded Akina.”

That made everyone laugh. Linda flipped some pancakes and bacon and put them on a plate in front of Akina. “Coffee or tea?” Linda asked.

“Tea would be nice, thanks.”

Linda got to making Akina’s tea while Kyle sat there like a stranger in his own house. “I feel so betrayed by you Linda,” he sighed with a dramatically. “I expected this from Mike, not you. I feel like a stranger in my own house. I’m just sat here watching these guys eat.”

Akina giggled as she took a bite of her pancakes. “These are really good,” she almost moaned and Kyle looked at her weirdly before he quietly laughed to himself. He found it cute.

Linda passed her the tea and then made a plate for him. Akina took a sip and smiled gratefully. “Thank you. If only these two appreciated my cooking a little more.”

Kyle took a huge forkful of pancake and stuffed them in his mouth before he stuffed a piece of bacon. “This is really good Linda, remind me to be eating more.” He grinned at her and then took a sip from Akina’s cup.

“Hey!” she protested. “Get your own cup.”

Kyle smiled with his mouth full. “Sharing is caring Akina, don’t be such a Grinch.”

“You both eat like pigs,” Linda rolled her eyes at Kyle and Mike. “Leave the poor girl alone and make yourself a cup if so you badly want one.”

“But sharing is caring,” Kyle replied and then added, “you taught us that.”

The look that Linda gave him was enough to make Mike and Akina burst into laughter. Kyle grinned back as he stuffed his face with more pancakes and bacon.

Mike sputtered his coffee as he coughed which only made Akina to laugh even harder. She had long since forgotten her food as she continued laughing. Kyle was almost done with his food and took a pancake from her plate.

“Hey!”

“What? If you aren’t going to eat then I might as well just help you out,” Kyle replied with a grin and food in his mouth.

That earned him a smack on the head from Linda which had Akina laughing so hard that tears were now rolling down her cheeks. She was gasping for air as she tried to not laugh to loudly.

“What was that for?”

“That was for not acting like a gentleman,” Linda replied.

Kyle rolled his eyes but apologised nevertheless. “I’m sorry Akina, please forgive me.”

“Anyway, is dad around?” Mike asked. “I need him to sign some school form for me.”

At the mention of his father, Kyle’s smile was wiped off his face. Even Linda seemed to have a sombre look.

“Yeah he’s not around,” Kyle replied seeming to have lost his appetite. He pushed his plate away and stood up. His father was always a sour topic for him to talk about without getting angry. “He’s never around so the least you can do is stop expecting him to actually care about any of us.”

Akina stopped laughing and stared at him and he realised that he just yelled and caused a scene. He cursed his father for always being able to get a rise out of him even when he wasn’t around.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and sighed. “I’m sorry about that.” And then he left. He wanted some time to calm down and not make another scene in front of Akina. How would she look at him now? Probably like someone with daddy issues and he hated the thought of that.

Kyle grabbed his car keys and slammed the front door shut on his way out. He got in his car and sped out of their driveway heading to the place that he always found peace-his mother’s grave.

                                                                  **************

Kyle stumbled as he tried to make his way up to his room. He was drunk and he knew it. After he had visited his mother’s grave, he had called Jackson and they had gotten drunk like the old times. 

He bumped into something and quietly laughed to himself trying to not wake up anyone. But it seemed like he didn’t have to because Linda was sat on a barstool in the kitchen waiting for him. She was in her night gown and had a mug in front of her.

She sighed as she saw him and she stood up to help him up. “You can’t keep doing this each time someone brings up your dad.”

Kyle tensed at her words. “I wouldn’t have to if he wasn’t such a f**k up and was actually here,” he slurred.

Linda shook her head as she led him up to his rooms. “You know he’s always busy, you just have to understand him.”

“I don’t care about him. He has proven that he doesn’t care about any of us, so why are we wasting our time with him?” Kyle asked. He wasn’t that drunk but he wasn’t sober either, he wished he was drunk and wasted out of his mind. That way he wouldn’t be able to think at all. “He wasn’t there when mum needed him the most because of his f*****g job.”

They made it up to his room and Linda sat him on the bed. She took a seat next to him and he c****d his head to the side.

“It wasn’t his fault that she died Kyle, you have to learn to forgive him and yourself.”

Kyle scoffed. It was his fault that his mum had died. If only he was there and not out travelling for some business trip, then she would still be alive. “I can’t ever forgive him Linda,” he said as his fell back on the bed. “Where is Akina?” he asked sleepily.

“She left just after you did,” Linda said as she took of his shoes off and placed the covers over him. “You are going to ruin things with her if you keep holding onto this deep hate towards your father.”

He thought he heard Linda say but he wasn’t sure, he was almost sleep.

“You’ll be okay,” she whispered and then shut the door.

                                                                 ****************

Sundays were not Kyle’s favourite day of the week. They always meant that he had to be at school the following day and he wasn’t a fan of school. To him, school was just designed to mentally torture students for no reason. But this Sunday was worse because he woke up with a massive hangover.

Kyle opened his eyes and rubbed his eyes. The memories of the previous day came back and hit him hard. He slowly rolled out of bed and took the Tylenol and water that Linda had left for him. This was one of the reasons that he admired Linda so much. She always took care of him and he didn’t know what he would do without her in his life.

He out up and took a shower to help clear his and then made his way to the kitchen. Mike wasn’t there and Kyle was glad, he wanted to talk to Linda alone.

“Where is Mike?” he asked as he took a seat at the island and rubbed his head. It would be a while before the headache went away and that was one of the reasons that he hated drinking in the first place.

“At a friend’s,” Linda replied as she handed him a cup of coffee. She sat next to him and gave him a strange look.

Kyle wanted to just go back to sleep but he couldn’t. He had to find Akina and make up for their lost day. He knew he now had 28 days left and he hadn’t done anything to make her see what life really had to offer her. He took a sip from his cup and the hot liquid burned his throat as it went down, but that was what he needed. He needed to be reminded that his actions had consequences.

He finished the coffee immediately and then stood up. “I’m heading out.”

“I hope this still isn’t about your dad,” Linda said softly. “You can’t let it keep getting to you each time.”

“It’s not, really I promise. I’m heading over to Akina’s, I want to show her something.”

Linda nodded her head sceptically not quite seeming to believe him.

“Honestly I promise, I’m okay.”

“All right. Make sure you greet her for me,” Linda said with a smirk. “I really like her. I didn’t know that Shawn was her dad.

“Me neither.”

Kyle left the house and made his way next door. He didn’t know what they were going to do but he really wanted to see her and apologise for how he had acted yesterday. He rang the doorbell and waited. His nerves were getting to him and the hangover wasn’t helping.

The door swung open and there stood Shawn, Akina’s dad in front of him.

“Kyle what can I help you with?” he asked.

“Is Akina around?” he asked instead.

Shawn looked at him for a moment longer before he finally replied. “She’s in.”

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. He figured she wouldn’t be around or didn’t want to talk to him after how he had behaved. “Could you please tell her I’m here.”

“Sure, just come in while I call her.”

Shawn opened the door further and Kyle entered. Akina’s house was the same as his. The only differences were that hers was smaller and looked less lived in, everything looked brand new. There were no pictures hang up and he wondered why that was. Shawn led him to the living room.

“You play video games?” Kyle commented taking a seat on the leather couch. “I didn’t figure doctors also played video games.”

“What can I say, I may be a grown man but I’m still a kid at heart,” Shawn replied with a grin. “Pumpkin you have a visitor,” he shouted.

There was a noise upstairs before Kyle heard the voice of Akina.

“Coming.”

Shawn sat down and placed his feet on the antique coffee table. “What games do you play?” he asked casually.

“I can play almost anything,” was Kyle’s reply, “but I prefer FIFA.”

Moments later and Akina came bounding down the stairs. “I’m here,” she said breathless.

Kyle turned around looked at her. She looked frazzled with her hair in a mess and baggy sweats and a hoodie. It was oddly a cute look on her and Kyle wondered why he still hadn’t seen her around school until recently. Was he really that ignorant?

“I wasn’t expecting you to come.”

That took Kyle by surprise. He had expected her to be livid at him or not even want to talk to him. An amused smile made its way on Shawn’s face.

“Well here I am.”

Akina rolled her eyes as she adjusted her hair tie. “Clearly I can see that. But what are you doing here?”

“Do I have to remind about everything?” Kyle asked incredulously.

“Probably.”

“What am I going to do with you?” he stood up and headed for the door. “C’mon, we don’t have much time.”

He saw Akina throw a cautious look at her dad.

“Go have fun, just not too much fun.” He smirked. “Just bring her back before midnight.” He waved his hand and Kyle smiled while Akina stared at him dumbfounded.

“You heard him, now let’s go.”

They got in Kyle’s car. “Buckle up,” he said grinning.