Friday, June 20, 2008
Friends with benefits (Chapter 2) - The boy, the girl and the infatuation
[Background music : Lightyears by Mozella]
"We're just friends," she told him multiple times. And he would agree with her vehemently. They were on the same page, each was sure. However, the page that was spoken of - the 'just friends' page - was not the page they were on.
She was madly intrigued by him. She'd call up Hana, saying how wonderful he was. Of course, she'd been like this before; spotting out a guy, or a guy spotting her out, and finding herself lost in a full-blown state of infatuation. Hana had, many a times, lost track of the number of men had been in the life of Ira Syahira's. Quite honestly, if asked to name all the 'significant others' she's had in her life, she wouldn't be able to name more than the two or three most recent ones - and that being on a good day. But none of these men had ever been significant to her. Infatuations, that's what they were. Attracted on a physical, shallow level. Such interests never lasted more than a few weeks. Of course, she often defended herself and her reputation by informing anyone who asked - and some who didn't - that the relationship never went past steamy make-out sessions. "I'm not a whore," she would say if whomever she was talking to gave puzzling looks.
But she knew Naqi was different. From the get go, things had been absolutely out of the ordinary for her. It's been two weeks since they went on that first 'date', and had met up quite frequently just to 'hang out'. Upon explaining this to Hana, her sister seemed confused as how this is unordinary, to which Ira replied that not once had he put a move on her. And not once did she ask why.
He was different than the others whom she'd become 'involved' with, and it intrigued her in a way which she could not explain.
"You're weird," she said, looking up at him as they walked back from the restaurant they had attended up at that evening.
Naqi blinked, raising an eyebrow. "Why am I weird?"
She shrugged, snorting faintly. "You just are."
"No reason?"
"Yes there's reason. I just don't feel like saying it."
"Oh."
She was silent for a moment, during which she stuffed her hands into the warm confines of her coat pocket, finding the cold night temperature to be of inconvenience when walking down the streets of a city. She looked up at him again, his facial features outlined in the yellow glow of street lamps. Smiling, she lowered her gaze back at the cement sidewalk.
"When are you ever going to kiss me?" she asked off-handedly, removing her hands from her pockets, crossing her arms, instead, over her chest.
He blinked, looking down at her. "What do you mean?"
She raised an eyebrow, looking up at him. "I mean you haven't kissed me yet, and it's been two weeks."
"Friends don't kiss each other, do they?"
Ira stared at him for a moment before returning her stare at the pavement. "Right."
"Right." He shrugged, stopping them both long enough to place a small peck of a kiss on the top of her head. "There."
She laughed, shaking her head. "Nazarul Naqiudin you are an idiot."
"I am not. I kissed you, there you are." He smiled, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, which she appreciated greatly due to the extra warmth it allowed.
"That's hardly a kiss."
"You told me you'd only go on one date with me, Syahira."
"I did."
"This is the longest spanned single date I've ever been on, then."
"Maybe." She looked up at him for a moment, sighing lightly.
"And you also keep telling me we're only friends. And I respect that. So here we are, just friends, walking down the street after having had dinner and watched a movie."
She paused, contemplating. "What about friends with benefits?"
He let out a snort, an attempt at refraining from laughter. "It would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?"
She sighed heavily, now, stopping to stare at him. "You're being dense; stop it won't you? I'm in the process of trying to get you to fall into my traps because I'm infatuated with you and just want you to kiss me for god's sake!" She let out a noise of exasperation. He smiled, shrugging.
"I already did."
"Nazarul Naqiudin, that hardly constitutes for a kiss."
"I'm not sure how 'friends' are supposed to kiss, Ira Syahira."
"Oy!" Irritated, she stepped forward and stood on tip-toes, reaching up to kiss him, arms looping around his neck. It wasn't terribly long or terribly deep, but it was well enough - and, she figured, leave well enough alone. So she stepped back again, shrugging. "It's not rocket science," she muttered, starting her stride back up again.
He stopped her, though, taking her hand in his. She turned her head, raising an eyebrow at him in question. It was a question answered when he pulled her back to him. He simply wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning down and setting a light kiss on her forehead, more like a gentle caress.
She looked up at him, searching his eyes, an intriguing shade of green.
"I don't normally kiss a girl on the first date," he said with a shrug, releasing her and continuing to walk forward; she followed.
"Well if we're being technical -"
"Are we?"
"- this is more like the fifth date. Or something equally far from the first date."
"Well, in my mind this would be the half date."
She blinked, looking up at him. "There's no such thing as a 'half date', dumbass."
"Says who?" he queried.
"Says I! You can't have half-dates. That's like saying 'Well, this is only a quarter date.' Or, something equally pathetic. It's either a first date or no."
"So, then, what is this?" he asked with a small chuckle, amused.
"I told you already. This would be a fifth or sixth date."
"Those other times of hanging out don't count, Ira Syahira."
"Says who?"
"This is like a weird, reverse deja vu. So, I'm not going to answer that and fall into your trap of filibustering nonsense."
She blinked, looking at him as if he had suddenly grown three heads.
"What?"
"That makes no sense. 'Filibustering nonsense.'" She snorted, rolling her eyes and stuffing her hands back inside her coat pockets.
"It makes no less sense than your words do half of the time."
"Yes, well, I'm not the one talking about half-dates."
He shrugged, smiling lightly. He put his arm back around her shoulders, and she allowed her head to nuzzle into the side of his chest in full appreciation of extra warmth. Frankly, he did want to just sweep her up in his arms and kiss her. He was past simple infatuation and intrigue to the point of a real want to be with her. But he didn't, he just half-hugged her as they walked, hand on her shoulder.
"You know," she said thoughtfully, successfully interrupting the moments of silence, "I'm almost twenty."
"Uh-huh."
"Well, in another month and twenty days. But that's close enough." She nodded decidedly.
"Of course," he said, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"And you're twenty and turning twenty-one."
"Not for another three months am I nineteen,not twenty-one" he said with a small laugh.
"Still, that's getting old!" She looked up at him.
"That's hardly 'getting old', Syahira."
"Yes, but it's still nearly old. Imagine being almost twenty-one and single," she said, voice insinuating this age and relationship status to be unheard of. "You wouldn't want that, would you? I mean, people would think you're gay."
"Not necessarily, and again, it's nineteen, not twenty-one,plus, you're argument is irrelative" he said with light amusement.
"You're so naive, Naqi." She snorted faintly, shaking her head. "If someone is still single by - oh - nineteen or twenty-one (for example!), one is expected to be gay. Or have some horrible character flaw."
"So, what if I have a horrible character flaw?"
She looked at him, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Your horrible character flaw is the fact you're not falling into my traps." Shrugging slightly, she turned her attention back out in front of her.
Naqi snorted faintly, a half-laugh. "Is that so?"
"Yes it is," she said with slight indignation.
He chose not to reply to that, merely giving her shoulder a light squeeze as if to reassure her. What he was reassuring her of, he wasn't sure of. He smiled lightly, looking down at her a moment before realization hit that their destination had been reached.
"I'll see you later, Ira," he said, removing his arm from around her shoulders.
She looked questioningly at him, raising an eyebrow to accentuate this lack of knowledge and understanding. "What? - Oh." She let out a single small laugh, shaking her head lightly. "Right, I forgot. This is where I live, right."
"It is." He smiled, lifting a hand in a good-bye wave.
"Wait, before you go." She looked at him expectantly. "What are we, then?"
Blinking, he answered, "Human-beings, I believe."
"No," Ira said with some exasperation. "I mean, are we just friends or are we - what?"
He looked at her for a moment before saying anything. "What do you want to be?"
"More than friends," she said with a small nod, shrugging lightly.
He smiled. "Okay, then that's what we'll be. More than friends."
"Okay then." She blinked slightly, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Well?"
"Well what?" Naqi asked with a small laugh.
"Since we're officially more than friends, aren't you going to kiss me?"
"I already told you; I don't kiss girls on first dates."
"Oh, but this isn't a first date, Naqi. It's a half-date, don't you remember?"
He laughed. "I do remember. I thought you said it was nonsense?"
"I did. But now I've changed my mind."
"You're awfully fickle, Ira Syahira."
"Must you use my full name?" she implored, frowning faintly, eyebrows knitted.
"I must." He smiled. "But, I've got to go, now. It's getting late and all." She nodded, grabbing onto his hand, holding it.
"You can't go just yet."
Raising an eyebrow, Naqi asked, "Why's that?"
Shaking her head in a manner which suggested he should already know, Ira stood on tip-toe, placing her other hand lightly on the back of his neck. She kissed him, and he obliged.
With a small smile she stepped back again. "That's why."
Naqi nodded comprehension, turning back around to cross the street. He stopped, however, when he looked at her over his shoulder with a question. "Are we, then?"
Blinkingly, she repeated his question. "'Are we'?"
"Together. I mean - you're not going to go about changing your mind within ten minutes of my leaving?" He smiled lightly, good-humouredly.
"Promise I won't." Nodding, she waved him off, making towards the entrance door of her apartment building.
It was he who stopped her this time, pulling her back around by her shoulders. She had, in surprise of the sudden contact, brought her fingers around his wrists in a grasp, loosened only when he kissed her. It was a light kiss, from which he soon parted. Naqi smiled.
"I'll call you tomorrow, then."
Ira nodded, smiling. "I'll hold you to that."
He lifted his hand in a wave as he, finally, started his walk down the street. She waved back despite his not being able see her as she did so.
Upon feeling content and rather elated, she entered the warmth of the apartment building.
*grin*
Shout a comment
9:51 PM
8 comments
9:51 PM
8 comments
