No Time To Talk!

So, I recognized very quickly that this was the guy from the school who everyone had a cult-like obsession with. And let me just say, he was as obnoxious a person as I expected.

Like, OMG this guy just wouldn’t stop talking! It was just ‘blah-blah-blah, I’m so special, blah-blah-blah!’ Reading his yapping lips was such an exercise for my eyeballs that they would have let me into the Salty Spittoon, and it was so much worse whenever he’d tilt his head and do some anime level dramatic pose.

I wanted to ask his name, but I couldn’t figure out the right way to do it without sending him on a two hour showtune introduction. Dude, seriously, do I need to smack you again?

And did he just mouth the word Blondy to me? It would have been polite of him to ask what my name actually was. But he was so self absorbed with his own identity that he probably didn’t care about anybody else's.

I bet his real name was Tamaki! Not because he was romantic in the slightest, but because of that ego!

That being said, as much as he deserved a little humbling... Little... Hah! I felt bad for hitting him. He scared me at first, because I thought he was some creep looking for a girl to pick up. I mean, yeah, that was exactly what he was probably doing. But, he was harmless and kinda’ stupid. A big, dumb, self absorbed idiot who didn’t know boundaries and made his own.

You know what? If he’s going to call me Blondy, I’m gonna’ call him Baka! Yeah! That’ll show him!

Anyways, Baka was confident, his shoulders broad and his posture upright. Anyone would have assumed he thought very highly of himself, and that would have been long before they heard his ego.

But what others might not have noticed was how stiff he was, very clearly uncomfortable and keeping a distance from me. That probably wasn’t normal since he didn’t seem to have a problem touching me before.

Was he afraid of me now? Maybe he was worried I’d hit him again if he came too close.

Darn it… He wasn’t a great guy, but I didn’t want him to have that impression. The first person to go out of their way to notice me and I had to go and hurt him. Those two bruises on his face were a reminder that I chose violence in response to stupidity. He probably meant nothing by grabbing my shoulder and just wanted to get my attention…

But, where I came from, that was how a girl defended herself. Not that I would have had any experience, since I was always locked up in my room while dad played the protective papa bear. He still was in that mode even since we moved here. It was for my sake, and I loved him for caring so much, but now that we were in Japan, a much safer country, I felt like I finally had the chance to stretch my wings.

There was nothing I wanted more than to see the night sky in all its beauty here on Earth. It was so pretty, what with those stars and planets from angles that I’d never imagined. I wanted to visit them if I could! But, that may or may not have been possible right now, commercially speaking.

I’d settle for just being a stargazer for the time being.

The Perseid meteor shower was the perfect start to that ‘grounded’ cosmic journey. It was every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped, and I remembered every last meteor. And even if my mind failed me, I wrote everything down in my journal.

This almost wasn’t possible though. I had to lie and tell dad that I joined a club at school. It was the only way to make sure he wasn’t going to be waiting at the front entrance to take me home the moment the bell rang.

Oh wait… Speaking of which, what time was it? How long had I been here?!

I did my best to signal to Baka that I was trying to figure out the time. I’d left my phone in my stupid locker because I was an idiot who just wanted to get away from that cult he was running!

Baka didn’t know sign language, so that was out of the question. And I couldn’t speak for the life of me with this demented chicken voice, so I had to think of some other universal way of communicating…

Something did come to mind! I rolled up my sleeve and started pointing to it, like I had a watch.

He responded by mouthing ‘Did you hurt your wrist hitting my smoldering face?’

For goodness sake…

I pouted and tried again, but he wasn’t getting it. This time I pointed my fingers up like a clock with one hand on twelve and the other on seven. Then I made the motion of the hands ticking.

He nodded with a dumb smile, then started mimicking me!

NO! You ‘Baka!’ You're not supposed to copy that like an interpretive dance!

What was the Japanese word for time? Wasn’t it ‘jikan?’ No… Well, yes… But there was a specific way I learned to ask for the time…

Come on… What did Suzie-chan ask Ryu-san in the Kenki textbook when they first met?

Toire wa doko de…… Ew no!

Oh! It was the second thing! ‘Ima nanji desu ka?’ That was it. I tried speaking that out loud, but he gave me this ape-like expression that showed it was just intangible gibberish to him.

His very articulated mouth began to yap again and I continued to read his lips.

‘Miah… Mi…ima…?’ his eyes went wide with realization. ‘You want to know what time it is?’

He really figured that out? Maybe I wasn’t so bad at talking after all. Whatever. I just nodded and started hastily poking my wrist again to show urgency.

He held up five fingers, then closed his fist.

So five O'clock? *Phew!* I had an hour to get back to school before dad would show up.

Wait, why did he open his hand back up with five fingers again? What did… Then he did it again.

Was he saying it was five fifty five?

Uh-oh… I had five minutes to get back to school before dad would pick me up…

CRAP! How was I going to get back there in five minutes!?