𝐒𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐀𝐃𝐄 | 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐭

Chapter 57

They don't speak for the first two minutes. Instead, they fidget while never daring to even slightly graze one another. It's painfully awkward. It felt almost like the tension building up the entire day had suddenly been thrust into their faces. The countless indicative stares and their adamant behavior to avoid an awkward encounter have led to this. Standing side-by-side with little arm room in a dark, stuffy closet.

"I, uh," Daiyu attempted to speak; however, she felt incapable due to the agonizing silence. "I feel like I've heard about this game in an American movie when I was younger, but my English was too shit to understand."

Tommy doesn't say anything, so she continues, "If I'm remembering correctly, I'm fairly sure this game involves kissing."

He suddenly chokes on his own spit, searching for Daiyu in the dark, "Wuh-why the fuck would you agree then!?"

She huffs, "I dunno. Why did you?"

"Because, I–" Tommy squeezes the bridge of his nose. "I don't fucking know. Why are you even bringing this up?"

Daiyu clicks her tongue, "Just saying we're playing the game wrong."

At this, Tommy feels his body heat up. Did she realize what she was implying?

"Are you, like, suggesting we kiss?"

She scoffs, "No, I'm just stating a fact."

"What's the fucking point then??"

"It's really suffocating in here if you can't tell. And I'm just grabbing at loose ends to make this any less awkward, okay?"

He hesitates, sighing. "Whatever, maybe let's not talk."

They're quiet for a minute. Daiyu shuffles back and forth audibly. Tommy never thought being stuck inside a closet with Daiyu could be considered hell—until now. The silence molds itself into a sharp dagger, proceeding to stab him in the chest. Daiyu's following words only serve to twist the blade painfully.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Holy shit, not right now, Daiyu–"

"Because I feel like I did something wrong."

Tommy blinks his eyes harshly. "Please, not now."

Her body touches his. He can feel her swaying anxiously, teetering off a cliff.

Daiyu exhales loudly, "I don't know what happened, but I know it's my fault because you can barely look at me without looking like I fucking hurt you."

"It's not your fault," he cringes at his voice crack.

"You don't look at anyone in this house the way you look at me." Yeah, Tommy thinks, that reason is glaringly obvious.

I love–

Instead, he counters weakly, "We said we'd talk about this at home."

"I know, but that's until I realized whatever happened is still affecting you. You can't blame me for thinking it's something awful, and if I did that, then can you blame me for wanting to fix it??"

"Do you actually think we can have this conversation in, what, 3 minutes!?"

"I don't care if we have an entire lifetime to have this conversation. We need to talk about this problem now because you're not the only one being affected by this!"

"Well," Tommy began, "this is not the right time or place to be having this type of conversation. Not here. Okay?"

Daiyu elbows his side with little force, taking Tommy by surprise. "Fine, but I'll let you know I'm really frustrated." With you, his mind echos.