The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 179

Hm…? Where am I…? That’s an unfamiliar ceiling…also, I don’t think I’m on a bed. Huh? Wait, am I on the floor? Ow, my back is kinda sore. I sat up a with a groggy groan, before rubbing my head as I felt a slight pain…did I hit my head? No, I don’t think so…this feels more like a headache than a bump or something.

Oh, wait, it’s starting to come back to me…we played several rounds of that water tag game, and we took shots in between, plus smoked some more joints…no wonder my head feels so heavy, I probably have a hangover.

And my throat is all dry and rough, it feels annoying, the more I try to clear it, the more irritating it feels. I don’t like it. Hm? Oh, I’m not alone…looks like everyone else had fallen asleep in spots where you usually wouldn’t go to sleep. Most of them were on the floor, while some were sprawled across the couches.

They all looked pretty heavily asleep, and as I slowly got back on my feet, I noticed that my surroundings were slightly blurry. Where are my glasses? Oh, there they are, on the edge of the coffee table. I stumbled over towards it, careful not to step on any of the others as I reached out and picked it up.

Ugh, the lenses are all smudged. I used to corner of my t-shirt to wipe them, but the material wasn’t suited for that, so I only ended up making the smudges worse. Well, whatever, I can manage without them till I get home, my eyesight isn’t that bad.

My eyes then widened as I glanced at the time, to see that it was past 12 PM in the afternoon. Holy crap, how long had we been out? It’s no good, my memory’s all blurry after the second or third round of water tag.

Well, anyway, I should get back home. I’m gonna spend the rest of the day sleeping off this hangover. I won’t have classes till the 2nd of January next year, which is also next week, when I’ll be moving up to the Level K course. And on the 15th of January, the annual X-Warrior Zone elections will commence.

Director Silva’s been pretty busy lately, setting up measures to ensure a smooth transition, since she seems pretty convinced that she won’t be re-elected. And looking at the general public’s opinion, that certainly looked like it would be the case.

Well, we’ll see what happens when it happens, no point in speculating about it now. I tapped on my I-Watch screen and opened up my inbox, sending a message to Mitchell, thanking him for inviting me and letting him know that I’m leaving. He looks pretty fast asleep, snoring heavily, so I won’t wake him.

I then quietly headed for the front entrance, before nearly bumping into someone as I turned the corner, narrowly avoiding a collision. Oh, it’s Katie, guess she must have woken up before me…I just assumed that everyone else had been asleep back in the hall, didn’t notice that she wasn’t there.

“Hey, good morning. You leaving too?” I asked her.

“Oh, h-hey…,” She responded as she averted her gaze, “Good morning to you too…and yeah, I was just about to head out.”

Huh? Instead of her usual blank expression, she looked kinda embarrassed or something, it was just a hint of an expression but it was definitely there. What’s with that reac-…and that’s when it came back to me, what had happened when we were paired up during the hide and seek game…

“So, uh, about last night-,” I began, not sure what exactly to say.

“W-wait…one of the others might hear us if we talk about it here, let’s go outside,” She interrupted, before taking hold of my wrist and heading for the door.

I let her lead me as we walked out of the house and shut the door behind us, before she continued to drag me off somewhere.

“Where are we going?” I asked her, just going with the flow since it felt like too much work to question it…ughh, this hangover is killing me…

“There’s a park nearby,” She replied, right as it came into sight.

Oh, right, she’s from the East Quadrant too, so she should know this area quite well. I could see a few people strolling about, but the park looked pretty big, with plenty of tall, thick trees spread out all across it.

“Hey, want me to freeze time? Someone might recognize us from the X-Warrior Championship,” I pointed out, as I noticed a couple of people staring.

I was doing my best to keep my cool, but it’s pretty tough, especially since she’s visibly flustered, subtle though it may be. Considering how she usually is, her current attitude was seriously cute and really throwing me off, making it hard to focus.

“Huh? Oh, sorry!” She responded, seeming to have not realized that she’d been holding onto my wrist the whole time, “And sure, that sounds like a good idea, do it.”

“Got it…<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>,” I chanted after taking hold of her hand, to make sure that she won’t get frozen too.

As I grabbed her hand, her face turned red after an initial look of surprise, before I felt her give my hand a light squeeze. Yeah, she’s making it really hard for me to maintain a poker face and stay calm.

We headed into the park in a slightly awkward silence, she kept glancing at me, before averting her gaze each time our eyes met. She’s so fidgety, and it’s freaking adorable! Okay, I need to focus, stop getting distracted by the cuteness.

“Over there,” She gestured with her free hand, pointing at a secluded spot behind a large tree.

“Okay,” I replied, as we headed towards that spot, my heart rate spiking slightly…yeah, I’m starting to get kinda nervous.

“So…I’m going to get straight to the point. Last night, while we were hiding…when I, um…,” She trailed off with a look of embarrassment.

“Kissed me?” I completed her sentence for her.

“Y-yes, that.”

“Was that only because you were dru-…uh, never mind,” I cut myself off, as she glared at me with an indignant pout.

Nothing subtle about that expression…

“Of course not! Well, uh, I guess you could say that I probably wouldn’t have done it had I been sober…but it’s more like the alcohol helped me do something that I wanted to do, you know? And…if nothing else, I definitely…don’t regret it,” She mumbled awkwardly.

“Huh? You mean-…?” I began, taken aback for a moment.

“Wh-what do you think I mean!? I…really like you, Kilzachs. So, um…let’s go out on a date before classes start back up again!”

Huh? Wow, uh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her raise her voice like this before…

“H-hold on, I need a second to process-,” I started to say, my mind an absolute muddle.

“There’s nothing to process, just say yes,” She interrupted with a slight frown.

“Uh…okay, fine…yes.”

“Great, leave all the details and planning to me, I’ll text you soon…all you need to do is show up. Okay, you can resume time again,” She remarked, before letting out a huge sigh of relief, her usual unreadable expression starting to return as she added, “Alright…I really said what I wanted to say, this feels really good. Really embarrassing, but still…”

Man, I never would have pegged her to be so aggressive like this…

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>,” I chanted, before responding in bemusement, “Gotta say, you’ve really caught me off guard with this.”

“Glad to hear it. Well, I’m heading back home now, my head is killing me…I’ll see you soon,” She replied, her eyes gleaming as her expression finally settled back into its usual blank slate.

“Uh, yeah, see ya-…mfph!” I began, before she cut me off with a quick kiss, jumping up since she was too short to reach otherwise, before I remarked as she stepped back with a hint of redness on her face, “Wow, uh…what was that for?”

“No reason, I…I just felt like it,” She mumbled as she averted her gaze, before turning around and jogging away as the tips of her ears turned red.

Huh, this feeling…it’s similar to how I feel when I’m absolutely stuffed with desserts, the sensation of overdosing on sugar. Well, minus the bloated feeling in my stomach, of course.

But now that she’s gone, it’s starting to fade, and the headache of my hangover reminded me of its presence, as I let out a slight groan.

“Okay, yeah…time to go home.”

…

About an hour later, I was back at my place in the North District, flopped down on my bed and staring up at the ceiling, having just showered and changed. Thanks to the hangover and being totally caught off-guard the whole time, I couldn’t fully process what was happening back there…but now that I think back on it, holy shit!

That was seriously bold on Katie’s part, I’d have never seen that coming. I probably would have written off last night as a random drunken act had she not said anything, but now, I definitely can’t do that, even if I wanted to.

This might have been the most expressive I’ve ever seen her, and it was so cute…the way she held my hand, her blushes, her averting her gaze whenever our eyes met, and that kiss at the end…I felt my face start to heat up as I recalled all of that, before I turned around and buried my face into my pillow as I let out an embarrassed groan.

Damn, my heart’s really pounding too…I can’t deny that when she said that she liked me and asked me out on a date, I definitely wasn’t against the idea. In fact, now that I’m thinking back on it, gotta say…it’s making me feel kinda giddy…

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