‘That’ Side Character Chapter 11: Friends

“My phone is dead. Here I am talking about keeping batteries for you when I don’t even have any battery life left in my own phone.” You laughed.

“What phone do you have?” he asked.

You showed him.

“It’s same as mine,” he replied.

“Oh! Awesome, do you have a charger?” you asked, following him to his front doorstep.

He nodded and you followed him inside and up to his room.

Seeing as it was the second time you had been in his room you felt immediately comfortable and chucked your bag onto his bed, then flopped down onto it while he looked into the bottom draw to get the spare charger.

Finally, he pulled it out and handed it to you and you thanked him happily and plugged it into the wall at the end of his bed, then plugged the other end into your phone and waited for your phone to start up.

“You got the charger for your game thingy?” You asked him over your shoulder.

He was plugging it in, sitting cross legged on the floor facing the wall and you smiled when you saw he was getting it sorted, the start screen lighting up in his hands.

Just then your phone turned on and you unlocked it then went to the Internet and typed your question in, then read the answer.

“Ok, it says here, that women speak more, on average than men, but how would I ever find out how much I speak? I’d have to count every word I said.”

You thought for a moment.

“I could do a small sample with Kenma today I guess?” You looked back at him as he waited for the game to load.

“Hey, Kenma,” you asked… “that’s two words.”

He looked over his shoulder at you, looking at you and waiting for you to say something.

“How are you?” you asked randomly… “that’s 3 words… so 5 words so far.”

He blinked.

“Are you counting the words you’re saying?” he asked.

“7.” You replied bluntly, “you’ve said more that me so far… no wait… hang on… that’s… 13, 14, 15. Plus. 16. 5. 17…” you fell silent as you tried to work it out in your head.

“This is a waste of words,” he said and you looked at him trying to calculate his extra words as well, “are you still counting?” he asked when you just stared at him vacantly.

“That’s another 4 words,” you thought.

“You are, aren’t you,” he deadpanned.

“4.”

“I can tell,” he replied before turning his attention on his PSP.

You waited for him to keep talking but he had had his attention diverted and you turned back to your phone.

“I still don’t think I talk that much,” you replied with a smile.

After he had charged his PSP enough, he unplugged it from the wall and moved to the bed at your feet and you rolled over onto your back with the phone held above your face.

“Hey,” you suddenly said, raising your head to stare at him at your feet, how come your hair is so long? Why don’t you cut it short?” 

You got up, leaving your phone to charge, and crawled over to him to pull one side of his fringe back.

The second your fingers touched his hair and shifted it l, he jumped and pushed your hand away.

“Don’t,” he said softly.

“Why?” you asked.

“I don’t like having too wide a vision. It gives me anxiety,” he said softly.

“Oh. Yeah, I can understand that,” you replied with a shrug, “but your baby pic looked cute so I just thought maybe you should cut it short so I could see what you looked like.”

He looked at you, his face very close to yours.

“Why would I try and look cute?” he asked, confused as to why anyone would want to try and look cute.

“I dunno?” you shrugged, then went back to your phone.

You stayed at Kenma’s for a long time that afternoon. Not talking much, but just kinda present with each other in the same room while he occasionally grunted while playing his PSP. It looked like he was having a hard time doing something in game but you didn’t want to disturb him so kept your mouth shut- which you were really proud of yourself for.

As the sun started to set, you picked up your bag, and unplugged your phone that was now at 70% and said goodbye, telling Kenma you would see him tomorrow.

Off you skipped home, suddenly remembering that you hadn’t told him that you now had his phone number.

“Oh it’s fine, I’ll tell him next time I see him,” you thought as you got to your front door. 

 …………………………

The next morning you got up, got ready, and ran to the front door to get to Kenma’s house early.

He was waiting out the front of his place and you ran up to him with a smile.

“Hey! Did you beat that boss, or whatever you were trying to beat, last night?” 

“Yeah,” he said.

“Oh, good, because you looked annoyed and I thought maybe you would be happier today if you had beaten it.” You adjusted your bag on your shoulder and swung your arms as you started heading off to school with him walking along beside you.

On the way to school you saw a squirrel and nearly knocked Kenma out with your enthusiasm as you pointed hysterically at it.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!! It’s so cute!” you screeched in a barely audible voice, grabbing Kenma’s shoulder and shaking him violently.

He looked so done, and school hadn’t even started for that day, but he tolerated you the rest of the walk there then you parted ways to get to your lockers and then head to class.

You were really happy that day. 

You and Kenma were back on talking terms and it made you happy. You were also going to watch him play that afternoon but he didn’t know that yet.

As school came to a close he was nowhere to be found but you knew where he was and so got your things, then skipped to the gym.

You could hear the boys inside before you could see them and you jumped through the open door with your arms out wide.

“Kenma!” you shouted happily, “the main character has arrived!… it’s me. I’m the main character,” you added, just in case it needed clarification.

Kenma had his back to you but froze when he heard your voice and for a second you thought he was going to tell you to go away.

You waited.

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‘That’ Side Character Chapter 12: A Trust >>>