BackBone

Date 2

So. We are currently at Tori's place. When I say we, I mean, Tori, Leo, Keith and me. Yes.

We are having a double date at Tori's place.

Keith wanted to take me out, he said he'd either take me to the museum for an exhibition or to an amusement arcade or anywhere I liked, but Tori said she'd like to get to know Keith better than what she knew of him in school, especially since he was taking interest in me. She sounded like my mom, but my best friend kind.

So instead of going out this Saturday, we're here, although Keith and I can still go elsewhere if we wanted to after spending time with Tori and Leo.

Tori's parents were scarce nowadays, so much that I wondered how Tori did it, but at least whenever they were around, they made sure Tori had them to herself for as much as possible. So I guess that's why Tori doesn't whine about her parents never being there, they make good use of their presence.

Keith and I are settled in one sofa while Tori and Leo are in another, opposite ours.

"You play?" Tori asks with glee in her eyes.

Keith nods as he says "Yup, but no, I don't sing, a lot of people ask right after I tell them I can play the piano".

Tori giggles "Um, duh, piano obviously goes with singing" she sighs with pleasure "although it's a melody on it's own".

Keith smirks "Pianos fasinates you?".

Tori nods "Yes. I love to hear it, but don't love to play".

Keith laughs "How does that even happen, if you love it, you should play it".

Tori pouts her lips and squints at Keith like she's thinking, or maybe she is thinking.

"You know, playing wouldn't be bad" she leans into Leo, looking up at him and batting her lashes.

"No babe" Leo says immediately.

"What?" She pulls away laughing "I haven't even said anything".

Leo chuckles "You don't need to, batting your lashes already let's me know you're about to ask me to do the impossible".

She laughs more and leans into Leo again "I was just going to ask you to learn to play".

"See?" his eyes skips from Keith to me "Impossible".

Keith and I chuckle at them before I say "Trust Tori to request things like that, but, I hate to break it, we've been chatting away for hours now, why don't we do something else".

"You guys sure you're not hungry? Becky prepared what we could eat". Tori asks.

Becky's the help.

"Honestly" Keith says "I think I'm ready to eat something".

"Seconded" I chip in.

"I've wanted to eat since I got here" Leo says, but looks deeply at Tori.

Message passed and received.

Tori lightly slaps Leo on the chest "Ew babe! We have guests!".

Keith and I give each other amused looks before focusing on Tori and Leo.

"Cassidy's not a guest, and one more smart person understanding my message isn't going to kill you" Leo says and looks at Keith with a smile which Keith returns.

I'm loving the mood in the room. It's been relaxing and interesting.

"Yeah" Tori rolls her eyes but chuckle "Wow. What a smart way to code something" she stands "now I'll go see what I can dish out".

As she walks off, Leo stands too "Right behind you babe, let me lend you a hand".

I bite down on my tongue and curb the urge to make a dirty comment, rather I say "Just hurry up in the kitchen, we actually need to eat something very soon. So, don't take long".

Leo laughs hard and Tori replies "When have we ever wasted time in the kitchen?".

"All the time" I say to myself, smiling.

When they disappear into the kitchen, I turn in the sofa to look at Keith "You know they're not coming out anytime soon, right?"

Keith throws a glance at the kitchen, smiling "I mean I suspected".

"Suspicion confirmed". I say.

"So, do you want to go get it yourself?" He asks.

I shake my head "Naaa".

He pauses. Then asks "Come over to my place?".

When I smirk at him, he quickly gushes out his sentence "Not like that, I'm just trying to pass time? Rescue us? Get us something to eat? We can go to a restaurant? Although I never wanted to take you to a restaurant, it's so cliche".

"Hey" I say while chuckling "It's okay. I get what you're implying, nothing's wrong, I'm not thinking out of the box. Infact, I think it's a great idea".

He chuckles nervously "Oh. Okay".

It's so cute to see him him breakdown nervously. Being this close to him and seeing him from a different dimension makes him even hotter!

We get up from the sofa and I smoothen my flay purple gown. Then I call out to Tori and Leo "hey guys! Keith and I are going over to his place!".

There's no response. As expected.

Keith asks "What happened?".

I giggle and shake my head "Nothing, just two people who really locks out the world when they're at it" I emphasis 'it' and beckon him to start towards the door.

We leave Tori's place and get into Keith's car, once inside I shoot a quick text to Tori, whenever she sees it, at least she knows what happened.

Tori?

Hey! Keith and I are going over to his place now, have fun eating sausage.

I laugh to myself as I stuff my phone in my purse. Those two.

**

When we get to Keith's place and he lets me in, I marvel at the organization and the decorations. It's a big house, I mean, he's one of the rich kids, but the setting of everything, makes me look around in awe.

"Wow" I breathe out as I step into his living room "your place is amazing".

"Meh" he shrugs, but adds "thanks. It's technically my parents place, so, they did the good work" he stands beside, proudly taking in his living room.

I look at him, smiling "It's still yours". We stare at each other for a heartbeat and more.

"Want something to eat or drink first?" I see him struggle to break eye contact and end our moment, but he does anyway "I mean, that's why we came here anyway".

"Sure. I'll drink first" I reply and nod.

He smiles fondly "Said my mind" as he walks off he asks "What do you want to drink? Do I turn on the TV first?" He pauses to get my reply.

I grin "It's fine, just get the drink first, I'll have whatever you're having".

He nods and retreats to the kitchen.

I concentrate on the wide and beautiful living room, and I get pulled to the photos. Cliche, especially in movies, but was pretty accurate. His family photos looked...welcoming and filled with love.

One had his father grinning proudly at the camera in a black tuxedo. The other had his mum, shying away with a clumsy smile with a white flowing gown, the picture made me smile. The next one had Keith's older brother, Simon, I'd seen him once or twice, number of times he'd come to the school. Simon just gazed at the photo, this neutral gaze that still had a captivating effect, I stared a second or two longer, before skipping to the next. Keith, in a boyish pose, he had a contagious laugh, bit of hair falling out, his head slightly bent down and his hands stuffed in his suit pocket. Beautiful, this creature is perfect. I stared, longer. Then forced myself to move on to the next picture, his younger sister, Daphne, her brown hair down, she blew a kiss to the camera and stunned in a black dress. Cute.

The next picture had all three of them, a wholesome picture of siblings love. All laughing happily, it showed it's reality so well.

"That's my best picture of them too" Keith says as he walks out of the kitchen.

I look behind me at him as he sets the bottle of champagne and two flutes down on the glass table.

"Why'd you love this one?" I ask smiling at him.

He stands and shoves two fists into his jean pocket "Well as happy as we were in that picture, that's how we were when we took it" he starts walking over to me, eyes on the picture as he stands beside me "Dad said something totally ridiculous, we were laughing and the picture got taken" he looks at me "last time we were less occupied, Simon's working now, it's hard to come over, Daphne's in boarding school, Dad and Mom are around, but work".

I nod continuously "I get you" I sigh "when it comes to your parents, actually" I shrug "I don't have siblings, so, I can only imagine".

Keith looks at me for the longest time, before pulling me close and kissing me, I sigh in satisfaction against his lips, I was wondering when we'd get to do this again. Last time, it was because of a game.

His hands found the back of my thighs as he lifted me, my legs wrapping instinctively around his waist and our fiery kiss never breaking.

Guess we finally ended up ditching our main goal like Tori and Leo.