“Well? C’mon.” She spun around and made her way in front of me, then pointed at the vending machine in the hall.
“A drink?” I repeated.
“Which do you want?” Ignoring my question, she jumped right ahead to the next one.
“I’m fine… I don’t have money on me, anyway.”
As if she had anticipated this, the girl proudly stuck out her chest. Then she tapped the vending machine lightly, as if to say that I could just leave everything to her.
“It’s my treat.” For some reason, she looked pleased with herself, as though she was expecting me to be impressed. Her eyes sparkled brighter than the lights on the vending machine.
I accepted the challenge and used the school backpack she wore against her. “You’re not supposed to carry money around at school.”
“I’m not?” Her eyes went wide, like it was the first time she’d ever heard of such a thing. I had always assumed that it was a rule, and I thought I remembered someone telling me so, but maybe I was wrong. “C’mon, it’s fine,” she wheedled, giving me a friendly pat on the shoulder.
When she moved, a drop of water flew off her bangs and hit me in the face. I was getting vaguely annoyed. “No thanks.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t need you to treat me.”
I didn’t want to be in debt to this girl, or anyone else for that matter. Plus, if we started to do little things like this for each other, we might end up actually becoming close.
“Okay, um, then I’ll just buy a drink for myself, and you can have a little.”
The girl tugged on my sleeve to stop me from leaving. I didn’t know what to make of that, so I all I could do was stop. “A little?”
“Yeah, or a lot, if you want.”
That’s not the problem.
I looked at the girl. The look on her face was clingy, pleading… She was basically making puppy-dog eyes at me. I wished the cats treated me like this.
My grandmother’s voice echoed in the back of my mind… Right. Friends. Breathing out a sigh, I sat down on the bench next to the vending machine. Realizing that this was my way of answering her, the girl broke into a smile.
“Are you okay with carbonation?”
“Sure.”
The girl pushed a button. Glancing over, I saw that the button she had picked was under a red paper carton.
“Isn’t that apple juice, though?”
“Yup.”
“Then why did you ask about carbonation?”
“I was just curious.” The girl sat down next to me. She stuck the straw in and drank a little before handing it to me. “Here you go.”
“Thanks…” I hesitated. This was my first time doing something like this with someone outside of my family.
The red carton in my hand was cold, but it felt nice. The straw had vertical blue stripes. I glanced at the girl, who looked back at me oddly, so I put the straw to my lips. Immediately, the sweet, tart taste filled my mouth. I was definitely thirsty after getting out of the pool, so the excessive sweetness was a welcome surprise. Even so, I took care not to drink too much of it.
As I gave the paper carton back to her, a small thought came into my mind, so I decided to ask about it. “Have you been swimming a long time?”
“Huh?”
“Because it seems like you’re really good at it.”
Although it took you long enough to listen to directions.
She took the juice back and answered, “I’ve been coming here for about a year now. I just like being in the water.” Her eyes and mouth crinkled into a grin. There was a shine to her damp hair that looked nice with her tanned skin.
“Lately, I’ve been liking it even more.” She leaned against the back of the bench and looked up, taking a deep breath and releasing it.
“I see.”
“Want some more?”
I took the juice she offered, drank some, and gave it back. The cold sensation trickled down my throat, and as I took a breath, I felt myself calming down a little.
“Do you live nearby, Saeki-san?”
“It’s about a fifteen-minute walk.”
“Hey, that’s pretty close. I bet your house is big, too.”
I didn’t really understand how those things were related, but she wasn’t exactly wrong, either. I gave her a look that asked why she thought that.
“’Cause you just kinda seem like a rich girl.”
“Really…?” I wanted to ask what made her think that. But I remembered our front gate and that she was more or less correct. For one thing, as far as I could tell from conversations with my friends, it seemed like having a maid was unusual.
“Have you ever been to a family restaurant?”
“Are you making fun of me…?” I acted insulted, but the truth was that I really hadn’t. My family had never taken me, so that was that. I had seen them before, of course.
“Summer vacation is coming up. Got any plans?”
She wasn’t even drinking her juice anymore, just chatting away. Her expressions changed wildly from moment to moment.
“Homework and lessons.”
“But isn’t that what you always do?”
“Look, are you going to drink your juice or not?”
The girl looked down at the carton she was holding. She started to bring it up to her mouth but seemed to reconsider and pulled it away.
“You want some?”
“Just drink it,” I told her. She had bought it for herself, after all. But for some reason, her eyes wandered, as if she was nervous.
“Uh, right,” she answered vaguely. Her fingers fiddled with the carton, pushing it back and forth. “But once I finish drinking it…well, you know, right?”
“Know what?” I didn’t know what she was saying or what she was getting so hung up about.
The girl pouted unhappily. “Once I finish drinking it, you’ll probably go home.”
“Yes, of course I will.”
She brought her face closer to mine. The smell of chlorine hit my nose all at once.
“This is the only time I get to see you, so I wanted to talk about lots of stuff.”
I could clearly see her red tongue moving, a sharp contrast to her suntanned skin. She just wanted to talk to me. How long had it been since someone at school had come to me with such a request?
“Well, I…”
“Ahh, I wish I could go to the same school as you, Saeki-san.”
Before I could say anything, she drew back and stretched, releasing this lament. She wanted to be at the same school as me? I could easily imagine her coming up to me while I was studying and chatting endlessly. It was probably for the best that she couldn’t, I thought. But when her eyes met mine, she grinned, as if she didn’t realize how I felt about it at all. It was bright and friendly, sort of like the way my grandfather smiled.
But there was something more important than that, something I needed to ask her, no matter what.
“Listen, why do you like me so much?”
I hadn’t known this girl for long. And we hadn’t had a chance to get to know each other, so much so that this was the most we had ever talked to each other. The only sides of her I knew were how unserious she was and how she got uncomfortably close and acted like she knew me, and I honestly hated all of that about her. Or at least, I had until about two weeks ago.
Despite all that, she was clearly very fond of me. We seemed to have completely contradictory opinions of each other, so I couldn’t help being curious.
When I asked her that, she looked down at her hands, which were wet from the condensation on the carton.
“Well, all this time…”
“Huh?”
The girl looked at me. I wasn’t sure if she was aware of this, but her face and lips were screwed up tight, almost like she was in pain.
“Whenever I see you, my palms get all hot. It’s been like that since the first time I saw you. And my back feels hot, too. I start to feel sweaty, and I can’t seem to stop it. I don’t feel like that when I see anyone or anything else, only with you, Saeki-san. So I always thought there must be something special about you.”
The words spilled out all at once, as though she were exposing everything that had been pent up inside her. The part about feeling hot seemed to be true, because her cheeks were faintly red, like they were on fire.
She bent forward as if she was pleading for something. She was so close. My shoulders froze, like I’d been exposed to a strong headwind.
Those things the girl felt. I didn’t have any personal experience with them, but I felt like I knew what they were. But it was an impossible combination. I mean, the person next to me was a girl, and so was I.
“Um, so, why d’you think I feel like that?” The girl leaned so far forward that she nearly pitched over, looking to me for an answer. Don’t ask me, I thought.
“I’m not sure. I’m not the one who feels that way, so…I have no idea.” I turned my face away as I lied. I’m sure I wouldn’t have known what it was if I were in her place, either.
“Right.” The girl smiled meekly. “I thought you might know, since you’re so smart.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I might know a lot, but I still have lots and lots to learn.”