A Date With the Redheaded Girl

There were butterflies in my stomach as I left my house and rode my bike towards downtown. I'd been hanging out with Akari a lot these past few weeks, but for some reason today felt different. Her friends were going to be around, so maybe that's why I was a bit more self conscious than usual.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

"Is that cologne I smell?... And you slicked your hair back with pomade. You didn't go this far for that last date with the art girl. Are you actually going to try and shoot your shot with a girl that's way out of your league?"

Red was sitting in the basket of my bike. He sort of looked like a certain extraterrestrial from a certain 80s movie. I wasn't going to tell him that though because I knew he'd just yell at me for copyright infringement.

"I know I have no chance with Akari, but I at least don't want to embarrass her in front of her friends. She's done so much for me lately, the least I can do is hold up my end of our deal."

"I guess she's been useful, but like I told you before, she's not a devil."

"No offense Red, I've enjoyed having you around, but it kind of seems like she's helped me a lot more than you have."

"Wha-...what do you mean? I've done a lot for you. Like... Um... Getting that friend of yours on board."

This was the first time I'd seen him flustered, probably because I was calling him out.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Sometimes it seems like you're more concerned about getting me in situations that you can use for your manga than actually helping me."

"That's not true... If I didn't get knocked out, you would have won that tennis game... And there was my umbrella plan. That would have definitely worked if a different girl had been around. I can't help that the universe just hates you."

"Either the universe hates me or you're just not as good an advisor as you claim to be. Akari was the reason I got the art club's endorsement. You might have pushed me into that milk crate speech, but if it wasn't for her I'd have thrown up again. You know, I'm starting to wonder if you actually did know Napoleon."

Red suddenly looked a bit hurt.

"Okay that's crossing the line! First of all, I did advise Napoleon and you're not even a fraction of the man he was. Second, I didn't want to tell you this unless you really needed it, but I secretly recorded that evil brown haired girl. The tape I have of her would drastically shift this campaign in your favor."

"What do you mean you have a recording!? I've been trying to dig up dirt on Sato for half the week."

"Yeah, well since apparently I've been no help to you at all, I'm not sure if I'm going to give it to you. In fact, I think I've helped you enough."

"Woah, come on. I didn't mean it th-!"

He shouted over me,

"Nope it's too late for that. I'm just going to sit back and watch to see how well you do without me. From here on out if you want my help you're going to have to beg."

Honestly, maybe I could have been a bit less blunt with him, but he was acting kind of childish now. He sat with his arms crossed in my bike's basket pouting and refusing to talk.

I decided to just leave him be. I knew he had no choice but to stay with me or he wouldn't be able to finish his manga.

...

Once I made it downtown, I chained up my bike to a rack and crossed the street to the plaza where I was supposed to meet Akari and her friends. Red trailed behind me, still refusing to speak. It seemed like he actually was just going to sit back and watch like he said he was.

It was Saturday, so the streets were packed. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd find them. Luckily though, through the crowd Akari noticed me and waved.

"Over here!" She shouted.

She was sitting on a bench along with two other girls. As I approached them, I was caught a little off guard as Akari got up and embraced me.

"Uh... Wha-?"

She nudged me kind of hard in the ribs to remind me to get into character.

"I missed you so much... Kurey!" She said.

Kurey? I'm pretty sure she thought that one up on the spot.

"Yeah I... Missed you too."

I hugged her back, trying my hardest not to look too awkward.

"Come on, let me introduce you to my friends."

She grabbed me by the hand as she turned towards the two other girls.

"These are two of my best friends from school. This is Emi and this is Hibiki."

"Hm, I didn't really picture him looking like this. I thought he'd be taller." Emi said.

She seemed like more of a serious, blunt type of girl. Her brown hair was shorter in length and her bangs held back with a plain dark blue hair clip. The outfit she wore was a baggy yellow sweater and a black short skirt.

The other girl, Hibiki, got up from the bench and got uncomfortably close to my face.

"Something about you totally looks familiar. Are you like a social media influencer or something?"

She was definitely a gyaru type of girl. Her bleached hair was long and wavy and her skin was coated in an obvious spray tan. Her outfit consisted of a white half shirt with a pink heart decal and ripped up light colored skinny jeans.

"Uh... No." I replied, slightly nervous.

I crossed my fingers, hoping she wasn't thinking about the #pukeboy video.

"Huh, you must just resemble a vlogger or something I watch."

Lucky for me she wasn't able to put two and two together.

"Come on you two, don't just start badgering him with questions right off the bat." Akari said, as she pulled Hibiki away.

I noticed Akari was dressed just as fashionable as her friends. She was wearing short jean shorts and a black tank top. There was really only one word that kept whispering in my mind when I thought of her and that was "hot".

"Aw, I was just curious. You're the girl that has rejected every single guy that's ever asked her out. I want to know what makes him so different." Hibiki said.

"Yeah, I agree. You've had some of the most popular guys in our school ask you out. Honestly, you seem like you're kind of out of this guy's league." Emi concurred.

Akari hugged me again as she spoke. I had to admit, she was kind of playing it up a little too much.

"Believe it or not, Kurey's actually quite popular with the ladies at his school. I knew I had to shoot my shot or I'd lose him to someone else. It was me who actually approached him."

She was making me sound pretty cool. Little did her friends know that wasn’t the case at all.

"So are we still waiting for both of your boyfriends or something?" I asked.

Emi stared at me blankly, while Hibiki burst out laughing.

"Unfortunately Emi and I are still single, so I guess it's your lucky day, Mr. Popular-kun. You get to spend all afternoon getting escorted around by three beautiful girls."

I whispered to Akari,

"I thought you said this was a group date."

"I did. There's a group of us here, isn't there?"

I'm pretty sure Akari didn't know what a group date was. I assumed her friends would have dates too, but that wasn't the case. She was essentially having Hibiki and Emi tag along as third and fourth wheels.

"So what's first on the agenda?" I asked.

Hibiki was the first to speak up.

"How about you lead the way, Popular-kun. Show us a good time."

I guess I was essentially going on a date with all three of them.

"I guess we should go somewhere to eat then."

I led the group to a nearby cafe. Where we got a table. Akari sat beside me with the other two across from us. From the moment we sat down Emi and Hibiki pretty much nonstop razzed me and flooded me with questions about myself. They talked so much I nearly forgot Akari was next to me.

Something about her was a bit different today. The way she kept clinging to me and even the way she talked felt a little unnatural. She was trying to play a character, but was completely overdoing it. At some point, Emi and Hibiki went to the bathroom, leaving me a few moments to talk to her.

"Don't you think you're overcompensating a little too much?" I asked.

"What, you don't like my little nickname, Kurey?"

She laughed.

"You seem a bit unnatural at this girlfriend thing." I said.

"I'll be honest with you, I've never actually been on a date before. This doesn't exactly come naturally to me. I just need to sell this to my friends. Then hopefully word will get around and everyone at my school will leave me alone."

I would have thought someone as attractive as her would have been on at least one date before. That would mean even I have been on more dates than her.

"But if you play it up too much, won't it start to seem unbelievable?"

"Hm, maybe you're right. I have to make this more believable... I want to apologize now for what I'm about to do." She said.

"Apologize for wh-?"

Just as we were in Emi and Habiki's view as they headed back to our table, Akari leaned in and kissed me on my mouth.

Both of her friends paused for a moment as they both got grins on their faces.

"We turn our backs for a minute and come back to you two making out in public." Hibiki teased.

"Isn't it kind of inappropriate to do that in a restaurant. I mean people are trying to eat." Emi added.

Akari didn't really seem all that embarrassed. She sort of just laughed it off with her friends.

"I guess I forgot other people were around."

I, on the other hand, still had not fully processed what just happened.

"..."

"Is he okay?" Emi said.

My face was bright red and my body felt as if it had been stunned.

"..."

"Hey, I was just teasing you guys. I didn't mean anything by it. No need to get embarrassed." Hibiki said.

A childish instinct inside of me wanted to call out to my mom... No, I had to be a man and get a grip.

"Ha ha, that's embarrassing. I guess you two caught us." I said, trying to get back into character.

Hibiki obnoxiously came behind Akari and I, wrapped her arms around us and pulled us together.

"So, what should we do next, you two love birds?"

"This might sound a bit weird, but do you mind if we scour some bakeries? I need to look for a particular tasting cookie... for a school project."

I already filled Akari in on the cookie situation over text the day before, so she was well aware of why I needed them. The other two though would probably think I was crazy if I told them they were actually to bribe the school newspaper with.

"I told you to lead the way, Popular-kun. We're just here for the ride."

...

We left the restaurant and began making our way to a few of the local bakeries to hopefully find the world's greatest cookie. Unfortunately, we didn't make it too far until we were stopped.

"Bro, who are these chicks?"

Ryo had coincidentally crossed our path. He was wearing workout gear, so I'm guessing he just got done at the gym.

"You know that guy?" Emi said.

"Yeah, this is my friend Ryo. Ryo, these are Akari's friends, Emi and Hibiki."

Ryo got a mischievous smile on his face.

"Bruh, can I talk to you over there for a minute... It's 'school related'."

I follow him just out of the girl's hearing distance.

"The heck bro. Why wasn't I invited?"

"This is something Akari put together for our little agreement. I didn't know it was going to end up like this."

"Well, what exactly are you doing now with them?

"We're going to hit up a number of bakeries. I need to find a certain cookie."

He stared blankly at me.

"Cookies? You're hanging out with a group of baddies and the best you can think of is cookies?"

"It's a long story, but basically I made an agreement with Yori from the school paper to get her the world's greatest cookies."

Ryo started to laugh.

"Pft, you should have told me earlier, I can hook you up."

"These can't just be any cookies though. They have to be better than these European sugar cookies she has."

"Just trust me bro. I know a guy. Nobody can beat his cookies."

"Who exactly is this guy?"

"I can't tell you that. All you need to know is he's my cookie plug. I'll call him up and get you a box or two, but in exchange I want to join in on your little date."

Part of me wasn't sure if I should take Ryo seriously, but as my best friend I decided to put my faith in him.

"You got yourself a deal, Ryo." I said.

"Awesome, now how about instead of wasting our time at some lame bakery, we hit up some karaoke."

Against my better judgment, I decided to go with his idea. All five of us went to a nearby karaoke place. Everyone actually seemed to have a good time. Ryo did however try to make several passes at both Emi and Hibiki. All of which end with him getting shot down.

Eventually I got a bit of time to speak alone with Akari while we were getting snacks at the concessions.

"Thanks for your help today, Kuro. I really do appreciate it." Akari said.

"It's not a problem. You've helped me more than I can ever pay you back for. It's the least I can do."

She smiled at me.

"I know you probably weren't expecting today to end up how it did, but I think everyone is having a lot of fun. We should all hang out like this again once you get this election out of the way."

"Yeah definitely."

Unfortunately, I wasn't sure if that could happen. I felt a bit sad deep inside knowing that Akari and my relationship wasn't real. I knew it would be pointless to pursue. She already stressed she had no interest in having a boyfriend. Also if I didn't find a real girlfriend soon, I was going to be nothing more than a pile of ash by the end of this election.

As we headed back with our snacks, she teasingly whispered in my ear just before we entered back into the room.

"For the record, that was my first kiss."

My cheeks turned red and I stuttered a bit as I muttered back.

"M-mine too."

She laughed with a huge smile as we rejoined the others.