Your Dreams In September: Operation Tsutari

Chapter 1: snap back to reality

Tsubaki's POV

I spent the whole summer locked up in my room thinking. Thinking about what it will be like when I go back to school. We've grown apart since summer began. I only see them once a week. I miss them. I miss her. I wonder how Kousei's doing, I wonder about what girls Watari has fallen for, I wonder if up in heaven Kaori is still playing the violin, I wonder if she remembers us, and most importantly I wonder if things will ever be the same between the three of us again. This is how I spent my whole summer. Well except for those few occasions I went outside to hit a couple baseballs around and when the three of us would meet for ice cream every Tuesday and it was always really strange, none of us knew what to say so we all just sat there in silence eating our ice cream. Other than that my summer was very, incredibly, extremely dull. My summer is at an end. We start high school tomorrow and I'm not ready. I'm not ready to face them. To face Kousei and Watari. After I came to the realization that I only liked Kousei because I knew he'd never like me I stopped. Now I feel light. Like there's this huge weight lifted off my chest. Yeah I'm ready. Now I'm ready.

*Beep beep beep* my alarm clock goes off. I get up. I put on a white and aqua tee shirt with a blue tank top underneath and a pair of running shorts (baseball tryouts today) I get my sneakers on brush my hair which surprisingly has not grown an inch. Wash my face, and brush my teeth. I rush downstairs for breakfast. I look out the kitchen window to see Kousei looking through his kitchen window at me. Oh jeez this will be fun. I grab an apple and make a sandwich, pack it up. And head out the door for school. Kousei gets up and leaves too. Oh no. Please please don't talk to me. We might as well save the awkward for when Watari is here too. I then see Kousei leave his front door and just as he's about to close it Watari walks outside too. "Um... how was your summer?" Kousei asks. To whom is rather vague because I'm walking behind them and he's just been with Watari so I say nothing. "I think she's giving us the silent treatment" Watari whispers to Kousei a bit to loudly. "I can hear you. I didn't actually know you were talking to me... it was a little vague" I say awkwardly. "Oh" Kousei says. The three of us walk in silence. "So no matter how awkward things are between us we'll always walk to school together huh?" I say. "It seems so" Watari says. "So why were you at Kousei's house?" I ask. Watari stops in his tracks. "Watari?" I ask. Kousei keeps walking. "I-" he starts to say but then bursts out crying. I hug him not knowing what else to do. Eventually we can't even see Kousei. "What's going on?" I ask. "My parents... they're getting divorced and it's my fault." He says. "Oh my god. I am so sorry. But I doubt it's your fault!" I say. "No. it is. They said to me that it's my fault!" He says sobbing into my shoulder. "Please stop crying. Because if you keep crying then-" I say but he cuts me off "then you'll start crying too. That's one of my favorite things about you." He says smiling. "That I'm an emotional cry baby that starts crying whenever one of my friends is sad?" I ask laughing. "No. that you care so much about us that when we're sad it makes you sad." He says. "Oh" I say. He looks up from my shoulder and stares straight into my eyes. We stay like this for a few minutes. His eyes, they're so pretty. They're like the color of amber or a dying fire. How have I never noticed this before? I quickly snap out of it. "Um... we should probably get to school. We're gonna be late." I say. "Um yeah..." he says awkwardly and we both start walking. We get to school and just in time too. I head to my first class: Math. We get assigned seats and of course Kousei is in my class and of course the teacher assigned his seat next to mine. "So we'll be sitting next to each other at least once a day" Kousei says. "And?" I ask. "We're gonna need to talk to each other at some point, Watari knows it too. You can't spend all of high school alone!" He says. "I'm not alone, I have Kashiwagi!" I say hitting him with a book. I guess some things never change. "OWWW!" he says. "Ha!" I say and turn by back on him. "Anyway, if you want, have lunch with Watari and I, bring Kashiwagi too." He says. "Oooooh!" I gasp! "You like her!" I say pointing at him and laughing. "I do not!" He yells, but his cheeks say otherwise. "Whatever you wanna say" I say. class then begins. I gaze off into the distance remembering the feeling of just staring into Watari's eyes. It was beautiful. What is going on with you Tsubaki?! I need to snap back to reality.