Chapter two - Kenji

I find myself smiling as I step out of the car and towards the hotel lobby. The rain's getting harder and a rumble of thunder sounds overhead, followed by a flash of lightning, but it's peaceful and I pause, getting drenched but enjoying it for just a moment longer because I know as soon as I walk through my hotel room door, it's going to be anything but peaceful.

"Kenny, did you bang her at the pub?" Harrison calls out as soon as the door opens and he sees me walk in alone. 

He's sitting on the sofa, a half naked girl grinding on his lap and I'm not sure whether it's just a lap dance or they're actually having sex, but there's another girl sitting on the top of the sofa behind him, sucking on his neck and rubbing her hands down his chest. 

I grab a beer from the table, shaking my head as I pop the top off and he laughs, patting the ass of the girl on his lap.

"Hey baby, you want to fuck my friend here?" He asks her and she turns to look at me over her shoulder, her hips still making circles on his lap.

"Wait, you're Kenji Ikeda, right? I'll fuck you." The girl sitting behind Harrison struggles quickly to untangle her limbs from his back before the girl on his lap gets up.

"He asked me, Lana." The girl who was on his lap almost trips in her rush to stand up and then I've got two half naked girls rubbing their hands all over me and trying to rip my clothes off.

"Hey ladies, mind if I join in?" Harrison grabs one of the girl's and she squeals as he lifts her in the air, wrapping her legs around his waist and pressing her up against the wall to fuck her right beside me. "How come you struck out?"

"I didn't." I grin at him, taking the hands of the remaining girl who is trying desperately to pull my jeans down and holding her away from me. "I'm seeing her first thing tomorrow, which means I'm heading to bed now and you can enjoy your girls, all to yourself."

"What?" Harrison barks out, both the girls stare at me as though I've said something insulting, which shows they're only here to brag about sleeping with someone from the band. I don't know why that's bugging me tonight, but I'll let Harrison have his fun.

"Night Harrison." I laugh at the shock on his face and he smirks, pulling both girls back towards the sofa to resume their activities. I bang on the other bedroom doors and shout night to Jamie and Laurie who are clearly entertaining girls in their own rooms.

The sound of sex is loud in the suite and usually I'd be right there with them, in fact, when I sat down with Jenny tonight, I'd hoped to be bringing her back here, but it didn't play out that way and part of me isn't even disappointed. 

Something is different with her, maybe it's because she didn't know who I am, or that she said she's got a boyfriend but for the first time in years, I actually enjoyed my night with a girl, without so much as a quick blow job, she was just so entertaining and a little bit terrifying at times. There was a moment when I did wonder if I'd unexpectedly met a serial killer, but turns out she's just got a bit of a dark sense of humour.

I'm looking forward to meeting her tomorrow and although she said she had a boyfriend, I'm not one hundred percent sure that that's the truth, she might have just been saying that so that I didn't make a move on her. She definitely responded positively to my flirting on the phone just now and I'd swear she was flirting back.

So yeah, I'm hopeful for what tomorrow might bring now and maybe we might end up back here before I have to leave at the end of the week.

~*~

The suite is quiet when I wake up, Harrison must have taken the girls to his room, because no one's in the communal space when I walk out.

I wasn't lying to Jenny when I told her I'm struggling to buy my sister a birthday present. Akira is the most difficult person in the world to buy for and I'm partially to blame. I send her and my parents money every month, which in turn, she uses to buy everything she wants, when she wants it, which means when it comes to birthdays she's already got everything. 

Add to that, that she's never been one of those girls to fake pleasantries, she'll tell you right to your face, "thanks, but no thanks" if she doesn't want something. It's both an admirable strength and annoying flaw in her personality.

Jenny text me at eight this morning to tell me she was ready when I was. It was fairly formal, no pleasantries, just, informative, a far cry from the flirtation of last night so I'm not sure what to expect and to be honest, it's got my nerves unexpectedly on edge.

I replied saying I'd be there in an hour and would take her for breakfast before shopping, putting a couple X's at the end which she I'd not include when she sent back her ok.

She's already outside when I pull up, in my own car this morning, so it takes her a moment to realise I'm there and I can check her out.

Her jeans and hoody look like she's trying for a chilled vibe, but she's put make-up and jewellery on which look a little dressier and give me hope that she at least wants me to find her attractive. Or this is just how she dresses and I'm totally overthinking it all because I'm attracted to her. 

Fuck, she is hot though!

"Jenny." I step one foot out of the car and wave to her as a call over to her. Her head snaps in my direction and she smiles widely, hurrying across to the car with a surreptitious glance back at the house before shutting the door.

She makes nothing of the fact she's just stepped inside a brand new Audi R8 Spyder and I'm not sure she actually noticed, except to ask me to put the roof up because it's a bit cold. 

This girl really isn't like the ones I'm used to!

"So, what were you thinking for your sister?" She asks, after plugging her seatbelt in.

"That's what you're here for." She rolls her eyes, giving out a soft chuckle.

"Ok, so are we thinking something basic and simple like jewellery? Or has she got some hobbies that you could buy for?" She actually brings out a notepad, where she's made a list of possible gifts. "You didn't tell me how old she is?"

"She's turning seventeen." I pull onto the main road, driving us to the main shopping centre car park. "She's a typical girl, she likes fashion, clothes, jewellery, make-up. She doesn't have any major hobbies, she just dosses around with her friends."

"Right." She crosses out a few things. "Clothes are hard to buy for someone else, but we could go for make-up or jewellery." 

"Brilliant, more importantly, what do you want for breakfast?" I take her notepad from her hands and toss it onto the floor by her seat. "I say we go big, like a full English or pancakes or something, to give us energy to get through the day."

"Uh…" She hesitates and I might be wrong but it feels like she's mentally working out her finances and I remember what that used to be like, so I step out of my car and bend down to look at her.

"My treat, come on, I'm starving." I shut my door and pull my hat low, my scarf high, glad that it's winter and I can get away with such a simple disguise to avoid being recognised.

A quiet word in the ear of the manager has us seated in a private booth at the back where few people will have reason to pass us.

I order us both the biggest breakfast on the menu, which is a fry up with pancakes and maple syrup on the side, but admittedly I didn't expect the amount of food that finally arrived and takes up half the table.

"You said you were hungry." Jenny bursts out laughing, pulling one of the plates towards her but every time she looks at the mass of food between us, she ends up giggling too hard to be able to eat.

"Ok, challenge. You manage to eat all this…." I divide the food between us, pushing half of it towards her. "And I'll do anything you want tonight. You fail and you have to do whatever I want."

"What are you thinking?" Her cheeks flush red but she lifts her fork and stabs a chip, because of course as well as hash browns and toast, this particular fry up also comes with half a plate of chips.

"I'm not sure yet. Personal slave, all my laundry, clean my room, or maybe just watch a film?" I grin, deciding to tackle the pancakes first, although there's no real method to my plan and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish any of it.

"Oh really, it's like that is it?" She narrows her eyes at me, then takes an aggressive bite out of a sausage. Pretty sure the action was meant to be a challenge, but all I saw was half the sausage disappearing between her lips and I'm reverting to a horny teenage boy again. "Well, if I do manage this, you're going to be cleaning my room with a toothbrush."

"Your toothbrush?" She shakes her head, going haphazardly from one item to the next and washing it down with the pint of orange juice that came with the fry up.

We chat about ideas for Akira's present and settle on some glittery make-up box with her name inscribed on it and multiple levels that all show up when you open the lid.

G****e says they have some in a shop nearby and we eventually give up on trying to finish the food, a decision which Jenny takes harder than I do, because I've just won an evening with her doing whatever I want.

I can't decide exactly what I want to do with her, if I take her back to the hotel, the guys will embarrass me and she'll definitely question why I'm living in a hotel and I'm enjoying being just me around her. Not that I think she'll care, but it's nice to know she's enjoying being around me for me.

"Ok, I've decided on your forfeit for losing the challenge." I tell her as the sales assistant takes the make-up box back to engrave it.

"Hang on a minute, you lost it too." She retorts hotly and I don't think my grin could get any wider 

"Technically, I only challenged you to finish it, nothing was said about me having to." She opens her mouth to reply, but then pauses and scowls at me. "So as I was saying, I think you should cook me dinner at yours and we can watch a film. You can choose the film."

"You're serious?!" She questions, putting down the necklace she's been eyeing the entire time we've been here.

"Deadly." I step close to her, lowering my voice and this is definitely a moment. You know those moments in films where you know the two main characters are attracted to each other and can't hide it. Well this moment is just like that, we're inches apart, gazing into one another's eyes and it's as though everything else fades away.

Like a magnet I feel the pull towards her and she's leaning towards me.

"Cash or card?" The shop assistant places the box on the table with a bang that makes us both jump away from one another. The mood disappears in an instant, leaving me feeling disoriented.

"I uh… I'll be right back." Jenny turns around and walks straight out of the shop, it's only when the shop assistant clears his throat and repeats his question that I realise I'm staring after her.

"Oh...um … card, sorry. Card." The necklace seems to sparkle in front of me, so I pick it up and hand it across to him. "This too, please."

When I find Jenny, she's outside staring at her phone earnestly but as soon as she notices me, she slips it into her pocket like I've caught her doing something she shouldn't have been.

"Ok, what do you want to do now?" I ask, hoping she doesn't have anywhere to be.

"I um… I'm not sure. I don't have any plans." She says, with a bit of sadness in her tone.

"Ok, well then, I think it's time you showed me around. I'm not from here so you can be my tour guide." She shrugs, as though she's not bothered, but I'm choosing to think the fact she didn't immediately ask me to take her home means she actually wants to spend the day with me and we actually have a lot of fun.

We wander aimlessly, she points out places she's been but since it turns out she only moved here a couple months ago to start university, she doesn't know the place much better than I do, so we run around like a pair of tourists, dropping into places that look interesting and exploring at random.

We're so stuffed after breakfast that we miss lunch, only having a weird but surprisingly tasty milkshake that had sweets or chocolate bars mixed in, when we pass a restaurant specialising in them.

"Ok, so, you definitely wanted me to cook for you, right?" She asks when we somehow pop out near the car park where my car is. "Because I'm exhausted and feeling like I want to cheat and get a takeaway tonight."

"I'm ok with that, you can cook for me another time." I wink at her and pretend not to see her blush while I pack the car.

She directs me to her favourite restaurant, an Italian place which does takeaway meals and although I try to pay, when we get there I find she's already ordered and paid on her phone.

"You got breakfast." She reminds me and I drive us both back to her house, where she sneaks me in and up to her room like I'm a fugitive. 

"Are you sure it's ok that I'm here?" I ask when we hear voices down the hall and she freezes on the spot.

"I just don't want them jumping to conclusions." She explains, motioning for me to follow her and then slipping inside a room.

It's a weird thing to be inside a girl's bedroom, especially one you like, it's almost like getting a glimpse inside her mind and this girl is ridiculously organised.

She's got filing cabinets, actual filing cabinets with locks on, beside her desk and rather than the messy cork boards with fluorescent sticky notes and random leaflets I've seen in the past, Jenny has her lecture timetable with a study timetable beside it and an academic year calendar with exam dates and assignment deadlines filled in.

"I can feel you judging me." She says from behind me. "I've got to be this organised to keep on top of everything, that's all."

"What's DV?" I ask, noticing the tiny letters repeating at random throughout the calendar and she blushes, moving to turn the TV on.

"It's when I visit my boyfriend." She says, flicking through the channels.

"You have to schedule that in? And you go weeks without seeing each other? Is he in the Army or something?" I'm being nosy and I can see she's uncomfortable, but I can't not ask, the closest time period between two visits is three weeks.

"Uh… no… he lives at home with his parents and they're quite strict, he's not allowed a girlfriend, plus his sister's best friend is one of my housemates so we have to be really careful." Her cheeks resemble tomatoes at this point but apparently my mouth has a mind of its own.

"Your housemates don't know? I get not telling the parents if they're like that, although presumably he's an adult? He's an adult, right? You're not dating someone underage?"

"Of course he's an adult, he's older than me." She snaps, thrusting the bags of food at me. "Now, enough about my personal life, can we eat?"

I set the food out on her desk in tense silence, my eyes drifting to her calendar over and over again, the letters DV are going to haunt me. I really hadn't expected her to have a boyfriend, she hasn't mentioned him all day, but come to think of it, she had been checking her phone regularly, like she's waiting for contact from someone.

But what about our moment earlier, I can't have been the only one who felt it?

I turn to look at her and I know I should leave, but I've been having so much fun with her. I was joking yesterday about unmei but there is definitely something that's keeping me here.

Fuck, what am I doing here? I don't want to just be friends with this girl and I don't think I can just fuck her either. Not that she'd let me, not when she's got a boyfriend.

"Is this ok?" She points to the TV and Hancock is up there, a superhero film I've seen once, a long time ago, but I'm fairly certain it's safe for a non romantic evening with someone I shouldn't be attracted to.

"Yeah, definitely." I overload my plate, figuring it'll give me something else to focus on since I've just realised the only place to sit is the bed and the room seems to have shrunk with that realisation.

She sits beside me on the bed and my body comes alive, I'm hyper aware of the three spots where our body is connecting, our elbow, thigh and ankle, and those points are burning at the contact.

It's worse when I can't eat anymore, because Jenny takes our plates, placing them on her desk and now there's nothing to distract me from wanting to touch her.

The film chooses this point to take a romantic turn that I don't remember being in it and the atmosphere of the room heightens dramatically, I can feel every breath she takes beside me and when I place my hand down to shift position, I accidentally put my hand over hers and she looks at me.

Once again the room fades away as we seem trapped in whatever bubble encaes us, but this time, there's nothing to stop us and our lips meet in the softest, most life changing kiss of my life.

Call it what you will, unmei, love at first sight, soulmates, I have no idea, but I know this girl is going to be important, possibly the most important of my life.

We don't go any further, we don't even talk about the kiss once it's over, but neither of us seem to want the night to end and after Hancock finishes, we put on another and another, until at some point I must have fallen asleep and somehow, I can still feel her beside me.