This is Kaoru's Eleven

With that, I think she finally realized I wasn’t going to be giving into her shenanigans. A pouty-expression and an arm-cross later Kaoru finally began putting words on the document. “Words” might be an over-exaggeration though—I scrolled up on the page to see the progress on the section I tasked her with rewriting.

When Suzuki opened the door Ryu-san was on one side of the room with a spilled suitcase lying next to her. On the opposite side of the room, her face colored red, was Michiyo-san.

“Suzuki-chan! This crazy lady threw her suitcase at me!”

“Yeah I did! You shouldn’t say things like that to your bandmates!” Michiyo-san crossed her arms.

“Hold on you two, what’s going on… What did Ryu say?” Suzuki sounded tired of their antics before understanding what they were about.

Michiyo-san turned her head and lifted her chin. “She asked if I wanted to shower with her.”

“No! You misheard me! I said ‘Do you want to shower?’ then you cut me off by throwing your suitcase at me! I was going to add ‘or can I go first?’ You overreacted!” Ryu-san threw her arms up, her face red like an emergency-light from embarrassment.

And then! Kaoru is freed from this prison and she can play the Future/One Limited Sword Works visual novel! And Makoto gets me a pizza too!

I can pretty obviously see her additions… I need time to decompress I guess. Things have been coming at me non-stop it feels. Like one of those game-show obstacle courses, except the punishment is having my dreams crushed instead of getting a little wet. With a sigh like a mom would give her child after he’s procrastinated homework for hours, I said to Kaoru. “Want to get something to eat…?”

“Really!?”

“Yeah, I could use you a moment to collect my thoughts.”

Kaoru slapped me on the back quite hard a few times with a big smile. “Great suggestion buddy!”

***

“Do you know why Ocean’s Eleven is the best movie, Makoto?”

“What?”

“You know—” Kaoru made a rotating motion with her right hand. “The heist movie.’

“Yeah, of course I know it,” I responded.

“You know why it's the best movie?”

“I wouldn’t say that’s a big claim, I’d say it’s a weird one—I think that’s the first time anyone’s said that.”

“No-no-no, hear me out.” Kaoru and I stopped at a crosswalk. The little man flashed red faster-and-faster until he flipped to a dull shade of green. Pretty sure that means the LED’s are dying. We were on our way back home from picking up some burgers from a local place Kaoru found.

“Listen,” Kaoru continued. “Think about it, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts…” She paused to think. “George Clooney! Matt Daemon!? Don Cheadle too?” All of these American A-listers in their primes, brought together to make a heist movie? Come on.”

“Your reason as to why it’s the best movie can’t be, it has a lot of famous actors. If that’s your reason, wouldn't a Marvel movie or like Twelve Assassins be your favorite?”

“No, you’re not listening.”

“I am listening, that’s the issue. I don’t have my brain off.”

“Nah.” She had a stupid smug look on her face. “But they aren’t just “A-listers”, they’re the actors to cast. The-the casual class of them all.” She started off with a stutter. “The quick dialogue of each scene still feeling perfectly in pace, and like new suits ever scene!? The actors and the directors didn’t just put on a masterclass, but the set-designers and costume… you know, costume people did too.”

“So you’re saying, because there was no weak-link—” She joined in and said weak-link in unison with me—I’m just feeding her wrong opinion aren’t I? “That makes it the best movie?”

“Listen, all I’m gonna say is you had-to’a been there.”

“Been there in 2001? Like nine years before we were born?”

“Yup.” She ran her tongue across her bottom teeth.

I turn the corner up into my apartment’s stairwell first and Kaoru follows behind. “How ‘bout this—” She’s still stuck on this? Her point wasn’t made already? “Most movies with big star-studded casts take themselves seriously—serious to a point of no-return. With Ocean’s Eleven, they know what kind of movie they're making. Jazz music, goofy transitions, Matt Daemon. Just… just so much bubbly charm.”

We entered our— no, not our… MY apartment. I tossed the keys into the key-bowl and slipped off my shoes. She’s forced herself to be such a regular presence in my life it’s causing me to slip. It used to be civilized, I go to school, do the work, come home, write. But Kaoru? She’s crazy, it’s a whole new level of throwing-off my routine.