After we were done with school for the day, we decided to go for a walk around the mall, that being permitted by Abby having forced me to leave all but the notebooks of the subjects we had today at home. Last year I hadn’t had—and arguably this year too—the oversight to decide that on my own and had to walk around with a heavy back digging in my shoulder.

Honestly, maybe we should have gone somewhere else. The mall was so full, it looked like the whole town had gathered here, making it hard to walk around without bumping into someone.

“Wanna stop by somewhere?” she asked me.

I did since she should be hungry right about now and I was feeling a tad exhausted by the heat and crowd, but finding a place where we could order some food without having to wait for a long time in line and then struggle to find a place to sit was looking like an impossible task. I repeat myself, but it really felt like the whole town had gathered here.

“It’s not surprising, after all, it’s not just us who want to do something fun after being stuck inside four walls the whole day.”

Yeah, I suppose she’s right.

On a closer look, many of the people surrounding us were about our age. Putting two and two together, the difference before today and now is that they all came here at the same time due to school instead of their numbers being spread throughout the day.

Nevertheless, I suggested we go look for a place to eat elsewhere.

“Erm, do you mind if we go to your place instead?” she asked after checking her phone.

I asked if she was short on time. Partially yeah, but it would be more accurate to say that we were short on time. There were so many people at the mall that it took us double the usual time just to get around, robbing us of precious minutes of quality couple time.

It was a bit of a bother to go home without having stopped to eat as planned, but with how full the place was, it was a welcome change of plans.

She chuckled at me commenting that, asking if I hadn’t gotten better at dealing with crowds with our trips to the pool.

Maybe I was, but if that was the case, it was only very slightly.

“Haah, fresh air,” I sighed after we got out the door.

“Not really, it’s pretty stifling today.”

I went to say that I was painfully aware of that and what I truly meant, but her joking smile told me I’d just be stating the obvious. Well, my mouth was already open, so I carried on, saying that I couldn’t wait for Autumn to come.

Her eyes lit up with child-like glee.

“Right!? I can’t wait for it to get colder so I can eat your meat stew again. Ah! And baked sweet potatoes! And chestnuts! Do you like any of those?”

This is Abby when hungry, you mention something, and she’ll jump right into talking about food she likes if she can form a segue between the two.

“I mean, dad and I eat those a few times during Autumn, so I guess I like them well enough?”

“…Is there any food you really like?” she asked with a slight frown and weird tone in her voice.

I couldn’t really think of any dish I’d pick if I had to choose amongst all that I have ever eaten before, but thinking about being a good girlfriend, I told her it was the food she prepared for me. I liked it a lot, don’t get me wrong, but even amongst those I was finding it hard to pick one.

“Why, thank you. Still, it’s a bit sad that you don’t take more joy out of eating. There’s so many yummy foods in the world after all.”

That thought had occurred me many times before, and I had to admit, I felt a bit sad seeing people getting all excited about a particularly well cooked steak while I simply thought “yup, this is really good”, but the excitement I felt being completely opposite to what my thoughts might suggest. I had even at times thought that eating was a chore I wouldn’t go through if I didn’t need for my survival.

There were a few times though, now that I was thinking hard about it, that what I ate was deeply engraved in my memory. Not the taste though, the moment. Like, that night before I even knew she liked me that I got home after a bad shift, tired, grumpy and icky, and Abby was waiting with my dad with a sandwich she had prepared for me. It was the first time she “cooked” something alone and specifically for me. It was good, the taste, but what got me more excited about it was what I stated before.

“…Rather than taking joy from eating, I think that what I really enjoy is the moment,” I spoke out, breaking the silence that had been going on for at least ten minutes.

“Hmm… Well, that’s also important. Perhaps even more so. I had plenty of nice dinners and lunches with food tasting like ash because… you know. There are also lots of junk I ate that tasted good because I was with you.”

“Like those hamburgers that tasted like cardboard?” I asked, the memory of a particularly bad lunch date—the food was bad, not the date—coming into mind from her comment.

“Pfft, ah-haha! Yeah, even those. We aren’t going there again though, so don’t worry. I still can’t believe you ate it all despite that.”

I told her I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to go there, but she scolded me that, despite my overall apathy towards eating, there are limits to what I should submit myself no matter if it made her happy or not.

Food is still food, even if it tastes bad, as long as it doesn’t taste foul or rotten. While she agreed in general with that statement, she still didn’t fully appreciate my logic. I made the mental note to try and be a bit more picky with what I eat. Abby was giving me the feeling she’d get mad at me if I ate something she’d disagree with, even if it was perfectly edible apart from the taste.

 

Arriving home was met with a bit of a hassle.

We got inside, took out our shoes, and Abby made some comment about me looking nice taking them off—a bit weird, but ok—and after hearing her voice, we both heard the unmistakable sound of Oliver’s nails on the floor as he hurried to meet us. He was acting like we had been away for years.

“There, there,” Abby hushed him, taking Oliver into her arms and cradling him like a baby. “You missed us, huh? You poor thing.”

He let out a sigh and began purring at full throttle, happy to finally have his “mothers” back home.

“Abby, he’ll fill your uniform with fur,” I told her, but my words met deaf ears. What she told me back was for me to change into my casual clothes so I could take him. Why was that? Because she had to clean his litter box, check his food and water and see if there was enough ration left.

I titled my head, going through my mental schedule. Today was supposed to be me doing those chores.

“I never agreed to that,” Abby retorted. “Besides, since it was part of the agreement for keeping him that I would be the one taking care of Oliver, it should be me, even more so when we take into account that I won’t be sleeping here for the unforeseeable future. And before you say anything, I’m not taking a no as an answer.”

Her stubbornness knew no limits at times, but her arguments were also sound. I could point out that I also never agreed to having her as the sole person responsible for him, but at a stressful time like this, I’d go along with it if it helped her be a bit more at ease.

I opened the bedroom door, but it felt like I had opened a lit oven.

Change of plans.

I’d just grab the clothes I wanted and a hanger, change inside the bathroom, and come back to hang the uniform somewhere in the bedroom.

…There’s no way we’ll be doing anything in there…

Not unless we had a death wish or something.

“Here, have our fur ball of fury,” she said as she passed him over to me. “I just brushed him, so he’s extra fluffy.”

The fact he had also put up some more weight helped. I thought kittens were supposed to be playful and dart around the place like they were connected to electricity, but this one acted more like an old lazy cat, always lying around and doing nothing other than looking cute. If anything, it looked like he got the appetite from Abby, and the energy levels from me.

“You tired?” Abby asked after hearing my grunt after I sat on the couch.

The heat, all the people and noise at school, forced interactions with the teachers and repeating the same introduction, over and over… I was drained. School was a pain I had forgotten about during such a nice holiday. How nice it’d be if I could just sleep away the time that was left until the next summer.

“Yeah, a person like you, I bet you’ve always spent the whole time waiting for that time of the year to come,” Abby commented, sounding absent-minded. By the sound of it, she was taking care of Oliver’s litter box.

How did I spend my time before? It certainly wasn’t waiting for school to end and Summer to start. School was bad because of all the people, the stress about homework and exams, the getting up early and coming home after ten hours away, the commute… you wouldn’t be blamed if you thought the same Abby did. However, it simply wasn’t true.

While I could stay in peace and quiet at home the whole day, that came at some heavy costs. The house was too hot for one, but there were other, more hurtful, reasons behind me disagreeing. At school, I was reminded of how alone I was, but once holidays started… that feeling came tenfold. It was hot inside the house, so why not go outside? Reasonable enough, right? Only… go where? Had I had friends before, that’d be answered with “go hanging out with them”, but I didn’t have any until high school started. I felt a crushing sense of loneliness then, and when I got out to buy groceries, I felt it even more seeing other kids go around, laughing and chatting in their groups while I only had a bag with stuff I bought as company.

How did I spend my time then?

In a very depressing way.

In a bit Abby would go home, but at least this time I had Oliver to make me some company, right? Me and the cat. Was I turning into a cat lady? Perhaps so. I was already starting to have crazy thoughts after all.

Blasted heat.

“All done!” she cheered, coming to sit on the couch with me. In her hands were cans of juice that were looking awfully fresh with their condensation covering the surface. “What will you have with this?”

“Something that I can eat with only one hand,” I said, pointing at the kitten nested against my chest, a paw covering his eyes to hide them from the light.

“Aye, aye ma’am!” she saluted as she got up with a jump. How could she be this peppy while I felt like crawling into the fridge? Really, I think I could fit in there. I just had to pull everything else out of it first, I’d deal with the mess later.

…Haah, more crazy thoughts…

Abby came back with a tray filled with goodies while I rubbed the can of juice on my forehead to cool off. Sliced cheese, cream crackers, and the best of all, grapes fresh out of the fridge. I wasn’t hungry or anything, but the grapes with the juice were a godsend.

“Are you all right?” she asked, leaning in closer to my face. “You look a bit feverish.”

“It’s just the heat that’s getting to me. I thought I had gotten better at dealing with it due to our pool trips, but apparently not.”

“We’d go inside the water to cool off though,” she told me with a hand on my forehead. Her always warm hand was feeling at the same temperature as my own skin, scaringly enough. “Today we’ve jumped around classrooms with the ACs off since nobody wanted to bother turning them on for fifteen minutes.”

She stuffed a cracker with cheese in her mouth and got up, disappearing for a bit and returning with the thermometer. I thought she was overreacting, but I also wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I readied one of my armpits to receive it.

“This one doesn’t go there,” she said, jokingly moving a finger around, telling me to turn my back towards her. Even knowing it was a joke, I clenched hard, the idea of inserting it where she was playfully suggesting giving me a shiver.

Abby cackled, her laughter ringing in my ears, prompting me to shush her.

“Sorry, sorry. I just had to say it,” she mumbled from under the hand she was using to muffle her giggling.

I forgave her, of course. Abby was just being Abby, and if I weren’t feeling so cranky, I’m sure I’d have laughed too.

While we waited for it to measure my temperature, I observed her eating. No matter how many times I watched, it never got old, her nibble, nibble, bite, nibble, nibble, bite. Like a hamster or tiny mouse.

“Humm?” she hummed, curious as to why I was watching her so intensely.

Much to Abby’s amusement and delight, I told her my reasoning, causing her to giggle and bob side to side, asking if she was cute. I was cranky, but seeing her acting so bubbly was always medicine for the soul, specially at times like these.

“Let’s see here,” she hummed, taking a look at the thermometer. “It marks very slightly above the normal human temperature, which is to say, you’re with a bit of a fever. You really don’t mix well with the heat.”

Which made me wish for the Autumn and Winter to come. I also didn’t do well with the cold, but that’s far easier to combat than this blasted heat. Too cold? Put more layers on or snuggle Abby. Too hot? Put on less clothes. What’s that? You’re already on your birthday suit? How about taking off your skin? Would that help? Summer is the worst.

“Urgh, when we become adults, let’s migrate to the artic during the summer months,” I grunted in despair.

“Now, that’s an idea,” Abby joked, flopping on my lap. “We’d be avoiding mosquitoes too. Are we like migratory birds who mate for life then?”

“I guess so,” I chuckled, not able to resist her silliness.

I placed a hand over her belly and started moving it around, Abby shutting her eyes and smiling, over the moon with my caresses.

But while she smiled, I frowned. It wouldn’t be long until she had to return home. Home, where I wasn’t going to be. Incredible how, in just three months, that word became to mean “the place where Abby is waiting for me” instead of “the place someone lives in”. Maybe it was childish naivete, but her previous joke of us being birds that mated for life felt very real. I certainly couldn’t fathom a reality where she wasn’t there, and I was absolutely sure Abby felt the same way. For better or for worse, that feeling alone would make us go through many tribulations just to make that feeling a reality. And I was fine with that. What’s worth it rarely is easy after all.

“Haah, I guess I can stay another twenty minutes,” she lamented after checking her phone. “Will you be ok?”

“Yeah… I’ll just take a cold shower to cool off and try to keep hydrated after you leave.”

“…Let’s take one together now,” she said, opening her eyes.

“Now?”

“Why not? We didn’t take one this morning and I still have half my stuff here. It’d be a waste not to take the opportunity, don’t you think?”

Putting aside my desires for a second, having her with me sounded like a good idea merely by safety reasons. My head was feeling very hazy and heavy, giving me the impression that I’d be feeling dizzy when standing up. With Abby with me at least I didn’t have to worry about cracking my head open like an egg dropped on the pavement.

“Come on, put our child to the side and let’s go,” she hurried me, getting up and clapping her hands together. “I don’t want to become a widow before even getting proper married.”

It was scary how many times she echoed the exact same thoughts I had going on in my mind. Scary, but oh, so reassuring.