Chapter 21

Silva avoided looking at the time. She already knew that she had arrived much too early and now she was unsure of what to do. Even hiding away was not something she was willing to do, as there was a chance, that Mika, also, would arrive earlier than they had agreed to.

The attempt at making herself presentable had also been a serious hurdle. She had tried everything she could and still felt that it was not enough. Not only that, but she had to redo most of her make-up because after being done with it for the first time she had realized that it was too much and had to tone it down.

In the end, Silva decided to head for the nearby benches and sit down. From there she would have a free view on the whole square and she would when Mika arrives.

As it were she did not have to wait for long. To her surprise, she saw her friend rushing towards the spot she had stood in just a minute ago. This called for another check of the time, to see if she had not made a mistake. It was barely over 2 am, while the agreed time was an hour later, so that was not the case.

Watching her friend march with a determined steps Silva realized that it would be hard to see her from the cinema entrance, which was the spot they had agreed to meet each other. The plan was to start their outing with a movie, but now that they both had already on the site, they would have to figure out something else to do till the movie started.

Silva gathered her courage as she stood up and headed towards Mika. She nervously tried to fix her hair and almost laughed when she noticed that Mika turned to face the nearby window and started to do the same. It was a bit of a relief that her friend too was feeling a bit of pressure.

After they both had fixed their hair Silva waited for her friend to notice her as she slowed down her approach, but it did not happen as Mika started to fix up her clothes next. From where she was watching her friend it did not seem that there was anything worth fixing, but Mika obviously disagreed as she started to straighten the coat creases that only she could see.

In fact, she was so absorbed by her undertaking that Silva managed to approach close enough to touch her without her friends notice. For a moment she considered how to proceed. She did not want to startle Mika, as she had already gotten a few reprimands because of accidentally doing that, but at this point, it did not seem like she could avoid it.

Silva softly coughed and to her amusement, her friend jump straight into the air. When Mika landed she started to slowly turn to face her revealing that her friend had also made ample preparations.

Mika was wearing make-up, which she usually didn’t, or at least did on a lesser extent. She sported a new hairdo with a single bride hugging her hairline on the left, while on the right her hair was falling freely and both of these styles were joined together in a ponytail at the back.

Silva could not tell what Mika was wearing under her overcoat, but it was either a dress or skirts. Whatever it was only her friend was not afraid to show off her legs, as the yellow fabric barely reached Mika’s knees.

“Hi, I see you also came early.” Silva greeted her friend who was scanning her in return.

“Oh, yeah, hi!” Mika belatedly returned her greeting. “I could not wait… That is I thought you may come early.”

“You were right. I could not calm down so here I am.” Silva tried to give a smile, as her friend seemed to enjoy them.

“And you decided to dress up too…” Mika observed. “I kind of expected that maybe you wouldn’t.” Seeing Silva start fidgeting she corrected herself straight away. “I mean, I am happy that you did, you look great, I mean, from what I can tell with the jacket on! We should go in? So that I could see it all, I mean, the clothes you picked. See the clothes.”

“Thank you, you look good yourself, I mean, from what I can tell.” Silva decided to tease her friend. “But we are too early for the movie.”

“Ah, well, we can get the tickets and go to the cafe inside, or we can go for a walk if you want!”

It was a bit too chilly so both of them agreed to get their tickets and head for the cafe to warm themselves up.

“You really do look good,” Mika commented as they sat down at the table with their orders. They had decided to have a light snack and Mika had gotten a coffee mentioning her lack of sleep last night.

“You too.” Silva returned, and she meant it, under the overcoat Mika was wearing a brown jacket with a light yellow dress under it accentuating her comparably bigger chest. The cut was a bit too low as well, naturally drawing the eyesight down. “So what is the plan?”

“To chat here and then the movie?” Mika airily answered.

“No, I meant, you know, is that all? We could have chatted and watched a movie at your home too. It seemed that you had something more in mind. Was I wrong?” Silva wondered.

“N-not really wrong.” Mika stammered. “We came to have fun. You know, we are both single, and we don’t get much of a chance to do this. I thought it would be nice.”

“Still no luck with that ‘can’t tell’, huh?” Silva remembered her friend not answering about her love life.

But instead of answering Mika gave a hollow laugh and quickly drank her coffee. When she finished she checked her surroundings and changed the topic.

“Anyway, I think I had some luck with that ‘meditation’ stuff. Yesterday, after getting back from the relatives, I think experienced a bit of what you told us about. Only for a moment and now I know why your explanations were so vague. It really was a mysterious feeling. I did not ‘see’ the streams inside me, but…” Mika did not finish.

Her friend’s success pleased Silva. It meant that she was not going crazy. Or crazier. Depending on from which viewpoint you looked.

“Is that why you couldn’t sleep?” Silva made a connection, but Mika reacted to it somewhat strangely.

“No, I was… Yes, that must have been it. No other reason.”

They spent the rest of the time until the movie discussing how Mika could progress further. Silva tried her best to give more explanations of how she immersed herself into her inner world while Mika listened with rapt attention. She was barely blinking while she watched Silva talk.

When Silva finally remembered that they had come here to have fun it was already time to go to the movie.

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away…” She apologized. This was a topic they could have discussed another time.

“It’s fine, it was really fun,” it did not seem that Mika minded it. Both of them now were holding popcorn and a drink.

“What is the movie about?”

“You did not look it up?”

“No. Didn’t you?”

“No… Steven suggested it… I may have made a mistake.”

“I have a bad feeling about it, what was the name again? I’ll look it up.” Silva pulled out her phone.

“Me and my family’s secrets.” Mika looked at the ticket.

“Oh, oh no…”

“H-, how bad is it?”

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“Well, the movie has a good rating…”

“But?

“Mika, I am-, I am not very good with horror.” Silva felt like tearing up and saw Mika’s face become a tone paler.

“Maybe we can trade the tickets, we don’t have to watch the movie,” Mika suggested, but when they checked if you could they were politely refused.

“How bad could it be?” Silva asked not wanting to throw away the ticket. It was not exactly cheap and her wallet was already strained.

“I-, I’ll be there with you, so you don’t have to worry!” Mika claimed with baseless confidence.

When they got to their seats the whole audience seemed to be full of anticipation. Silva heard stray phrases talking about how this was one of the greatest and scariest movies to come out in years.

As the lights dimmed Silva’s uneasiness grew, but she tried to keep a calm facade. To her dismay, it took only fifteen minutes into the movie for her to not be able to keep it up. She grabbed her friend’s hand, which elected a gasp from Mika.

Silva apologized to Mika for scaring her but did not let go of her hand, squeezing it even tighter. It did help, though it did not allow her to enjoy her snacks, which lied in her lap forgotten.

By the midway of the movie, Silva decided that the popcorn was a hindrance as she put it down on the ground. She glanced at her friend who seemed to be taken by the movie.

Silva did not share the interest but did not want to leave and interrupt her friends watching experience. Instead, she decided to lightly nuzzle closer to Mika.

When the music got too intense Silva turned sideways and slid one hand over her friend as she pushed her face into Mika’s nape. It was the closest safe place she could find.

The ragged breath of her friend only reinforced her unwillingness of seeing the movie. Even Mika was scared and Silva pressed tighter. At least her friend’s smell was nice a soothing, bringing her agitation back down a little. Still, she did not let go until the movie ended.

When both of them exited the cinema Silva could tell that Mika was out of it as she responded to everything with a delay, going even so far as making Silva pull her friend behind her.

“I-, it was worse than I thought.” Silva summarized.

“Yesh.”

“Sorry, if I bothered you during the movie.”

“Ish fine.”

“So, was it any good?” Even if Silva herself hated it. At least Mika seemed to watch the whole of the movie.

“Very good.” Mika’s face seemed to radiate satisfaction as she nodded.

“I did not know you were into horror.” Silva let go of her friend as she seemed to regain her usual demeanour.

“Hmm?”

“I was too scared to even look at the screen, but you seemed to be absorbed by the movie, what did you enjoy the most?”

“Movie?” Mika tilted her head.

“I know you enjoyed it, but why?”

“Oh, the movie!” Mika clapped her hands together. “What was that again?”

“Uh, never mind, maybe it’s better for me to not know.” Silva withdrew. It was not the best idea to know what exactly made that horror movie that good. She would rather sleep at night.

“Sorry, my head is kind of a mess now. Where were we?”

“I guess we go and grab something to eat now,” Silva remembered that she had not eaten anything during the movie, and so had not Mika. By now she was getting hungry and Mika had said that the place she had reserved the table at had very delicious food.

They had to walk for a bit to get to the restaurant and it had gotten much colder outside. Mika was still light-headed, so Silva once again grabbed her hand and started to pull her along. Mika did not protest, though her movements were still stiff. Silva did not blame her, the movie had been rather long and some stiffness was understandable.

Unfortunately, Silva did not know the exact address of the place so she nudged Mika to start leading her, which her friend promptly did. Her friend seemed to be very content with holding hands, as she did not let go, not that Silva minded, but it was still embarrassing, even if just a moment ago she had not minded it.

It was very different when Mika was the one to pull her along. Silva almost objected, but in the end, her friend’s enthusiasm did not allow it.

They arrived a bit early, they had their table reserved for 7 pm, but as the table happened to be free they were quickly seated. Silva did not have any real experience of going out to eat, mostly due to her family situation, so she let Mika do the talking. Her friend had also promised to pay for the dinner, which Silva was thankful for. She had initially refused, but upon Mika’s insistence she had given in and so, here they were.

The restaurant had a nice ambience, despite it being almost full people here were formal and talked in hushed tones. Quiet classical music could be heard from time to time when the conversations died down. The lighting was subdued and it smelled of a good meal.

Silva now felt even more embarrassed, partly from the lack of experience, as she did not really know how to act and partly from the fact that most of the people here had come as couples.

It did not seem to phase Mika as she studied the menu and soon made an order. Silva left the choice of their dinner to Mika. She was not sure of what to pick, and Mika seemed to know the menu already. That did beg for the question of who she had come to this place with before.

Silva hesitated, not knowing how to present the question, as she was not sure if she would like the answer, but… She really wanted to know.

“Um, so you have been here before?” Silva asked hoping that her voice did not betray her nervousness.

“Hmm? Yup, as I said, this place has a good chief. My father says that he is the best in the city, but to be fair this is the only place he takes us, so I can’t compare and I am sure that he actually has not tried any other place for years.” Came Mika’s explanation.

A wave of relief washed over Silva, only for her to fall into confusion of the reason she felt the relief for. This confusion was soon forgotten as they restarted their chat about nothing in particular as they waited for their food.

Curiously Mika did not mention the movie at all, being more inclined to talk about the usual stuff, that being Steven’s shenanigans, school and the news that lately haunted them.

Soon their order arrived. Mika had mentioned the name of the dish, but it was something of a tongue twister. What mattered was that it was a meat dish and tasted good, which it did. Mika herself ate some kind of a salmon dish with pasta.

“Atmosphere here is very romantic.” Silva casually mentioned. There was even a candle on the table. The following noise of cutlery falling took her by surprise.

“Ah, um, ha-ha, you think so?” Mika faltered. She had dropped her fork and was now fishing it out of her plate.

“Yea, it’s nice. I would not mind coming here again if I find someone to come with.” Silva remarked and in front of her Mika suddenly withered and Silva hurried to back peddle. “I-, I did not mean anything by that. I’ll definitely come again with you. I just thought that this place is really suited to couples.” She explained.

This, however, did not seem to improve Mika’s mood. Her expression did become more determined though.

“I know what you mean.” Mika belatedly agreed. “Say, mind if I accompany you to your home afterwards. I had something to explain.”

“That’s, ominous…” Silva gave a questioning look, hoping that Mika would tell more.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would not say it is something unpleasant... Just something I have to get off my chest.”

Her words did not ease Silva, who was still worried about the topic, but she decided to believe in her friend. She would listen to her no matter what she had to say.