I Don't Care if the Necklace Fits! I'd Rather Not be Kidnapped by Immortals!

Chapter Twenty-Six

A few hours later…

I walked into Kay’s room. She was sitting on the bed, reading some book. She looked up at me and smiled.

“Where is everyone?” she asked. I felt a pang of misery hit me and my smile faltered. She looked at me curiously, her own grin fading.

“Tell me what happened.” She demanded. I tried to hold back a cry as I thought about it.

“Well, I-I did it. I ended the war.” My voice cracked. Now she looked absolutely concerned.

“I’m aware. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now. Skip all that and tell me what’s wrong.” She commanded. I felt a few tears slip from my control.

“I… Well… Elliot.” Was all I got out before I burst out crying. She ran to me and hugged me tightly.

“Don’t tell me he died.” She said. I nodded, and let out a tortured sob. She hugged me tighter for a moment.

Three years later…

After the first few days, we finally had gone back home. Kay and I moved out. There were too many memories at that house for me to stay there. Ray moved in with us. He and Kay ended up going out, and it was expected. They were very considerate of me, though. Especially Ray. He’d been my best friend forever. I was sitting on the couch, watching TV. My thoughts on Elliot were always pushed into the back of my mind.

Once we got back to the house, Nuri totally disappeared off the face of the earth. When I’d called Ari every now and then, he would ask me sporadically if I’d seen Nuri. The answer would always be the same. No.

I’d been keeping to myself for the most part. I’d been taking Cyber School and catching up on the things that I missed. I had to repeat sophomore year, but it wasn’t so bad for me. I knew I was going to have to do it eventually. I’d started taking college courses and spent the majority of my time either in the house or at the library. I had a lot of catching up to do. Things in my life never really went back to how they used to. Kay tried to get me to go to a party every now and then. I never went. I couldn’t go back to hooking up with 8 guys every night. I still wore the ring that Elliot had given me every day. Now I was in my first year of real college. I’d gotten a free ride through college. Ari was helping me pay for it. Not really helping. Actually, he was paying it out for me entirely. I was taking courses that would allow me to become a teacher. I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

I was sitting at my desk, doing some stray work that I needed to get out of the way. It wasn’t a big deal, but the little things can often pose as a problem if you didn’t do a shitload of them. I was just finishing the last sentence on a two-page essay when I heard a knock on the door. I put down my work and walked over to the door, taking a quick glance in the mirror before being satisfied and opening the door.

“Excuse me, miss, but I’m a bit lost. You see, I’m supposed to be moving in somewhere around here… I think. And my car broke down. Can you help me out?” An adorable man said. He had long brown hair. Not the really long hippie-like hair, but the OMG-he’s-so-sexy hair and light blue eyes. When he talked, he had that sweet, charming voice that made you want to listen to what he had to say.

“Of course I’ll help you!” I exclaimed, smiling. I invited him in and he thanked me. It was January 21st, and it was 10 below zero out there.

“Thanks so much miss…” he trailed off, waiting for my name. I rolled my eyes.

“Just call me Triv, hunn. But my full name is Victrivia Ambrosine. What about you?” I called. He smiled, and I was drawn in by it.

“I’m Ryan Mabbitt.” He answered.

“So, Ryan, where are you moving from?” I asked, grinning at him.

“I’m coming from Cali. I came here to go to college. I want to go to Pitt U. Only because I got a full scholarship there.” He replied.

“Wow, that’s impressive!” I exclaimed. He laughed and shook his head.

“Not when your great uncle owns the school.” He stated. I laughed airily. We were sitting on the couch, just talking. It felt good to socialize again. This was one more step toward becoming my normal self again. The thing was, I wasn’t really sure if I still wanted to do everything that I used to.

“I go to Pitt U. I was working on an essay before you came in. What are you aiming to do?” I asked.

“I don’t know what I want to do yet. Sometimes it’s just that simple.” He explained. I nodded. I noticed his smile fade, and he looked at me for a moment, just a moment, and then looked down at his feet.

“What’s wrong?” I pestered, now concerned.

“Nothing, it’s just… Well, would you possibly consider going out with me for a cappuccino or something?” he proposed, looking at me with a sweet twinkle in his eye. Dear GOD what am I going to do? I stared down at my feet for a long moment and decided that three years was long enough to start seeing people. I didn’t even look at anyone else since that day, and it was finally time. I smiled at him sweetly.

“Here’s my number,”

Two weeks later…

This was the fifth date that Ryan had taken me out on. This morning I had a battle with myself over whether to tell Kay and Ray about him yet, but I decided that tonight I would bring him home and they would all meet. Right now we were sitting in a booth at Peppercini’s, a pizza shop. Ryan had insisted to me that it was high time that he paid for the entire bill now. I caved in after he tickled me in the car.

“So I think that today you should meet Kay and Ray.” I said bubbly. He looked at me smiling.

“You call your parents by their first names?” he questioned. I giggled and pecked him on the lips.

“No, Kay and Ray aren’t my parents. They’re more like roommates. Better yet, best friends.” I explained. He nodded.

“So do I get to introduce you to my own friends next time, then?” he asked. I laughed at him.

“You have no friends for me to meet!” I exclaimed. He made a pouting face and I realized my mistake. “Not like that. I meant that you just moved here. The only friends you have are Brady and Jared, and I’ve already met them because we triple dated last time. Remember?” I explained. He grinned and pecked me on the lips.

“Yeah, I remember, baby. I remember that waiter kept checking you out. Who can blame him? You’re stunning.” He whispered the last part into my ear.

“Oh please. You’re just saying that because you see the dirty looks I give to half of the girls that walk past.” I mumbled.

“What was that?” he called, tickling me for a moment. I squealed and squirmed because I had nowhere to go. He was on the outside of the booth and I was on the inside. The only thing near me was a wall. I was cornered.

“Okay, okay I give!” I squealed.

“That’s what I thought.” He said stubbornly. I smiled up at him and kissed him. Ryan and I were taking it pretty slow. The first date was nothing but hand holding, save for when I quickly kissed him on the cheek before scurrying into the house blushing like mad.

“Here are your drinks, your food will be served in a few moments.” The waitress said, setting two fountain drinks of coca cola down on the table before running off to the bar to help someone else. I smiled up at Ryan and he kissed my forehead, as he often does.

“I think that tomorrow we should double date with Kay and Ray.” I offered.

“Sounds like fun.” He replied, grinning. I looked down at my feet, feeling guilty for leaving a stack of assignments on my desk. Since I’d been going out with Ryan two or three times a week, I’d been doing less and less of my work. It wasn’t so much that Kay and Ray have noticed. I was brought back from my thoughts when the hurried waitress sat a medium cheese pizza in the middle of our table and left.

“Why do you want to pay so bad? You know that I’m going to eat the majority of this pizza. I’m going to feel bad when I ate 2/3 of it and didn’t pay a cent.” I whined.

“That’s how I roll,” he replied with a smile. I rolled my eyes at his child-like remark and dug into the pizza. Just as I had predicted, I ate over half of the pizza, and Ryan laughed at me once I’d chugged down two fountain drinks. I didn’t care how much I drank, because we got free refills so it didn’t matter.

“You know how to eat,” he pointed out. I grinned and excused myself to the bathroom. 64 ounces of coca cola will do that to you. While in there, I popped a piece of Stride forever fruit into my mouth. Today might be the first day that we do anything more than a peck, and I don’t want that first impression to have garlic-sauce on my breath.

I came back and sat down as he was leaving money on the table. He pecked me on the lips when he saw me.

“Are we going to go see your friends now?” he asked. I nodded, grinning. We left the restaurant and got into the car. On the way there, he had The Maine in the CD player, and we sang along to the songs together. He pulled into our small driveway that’s only meant to fit two cars, but we can get four in there anyway. We got out of the car and went inside holding hands. Kay and Ray were in the kitchen, throwing whipped cream at eachother. I cleared my throat when we got in and looked straight at Ray. Hopefully he didn’t make a big deal out of this.

“Nuh-uh!” Kay screamed when she looked at our intertwined fingers. I smiled happily.

“Ryan, these are my best friends and roommates. That’s Kaylynne, and that’s Ray. Guys, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Ryan.” I said, smiling ear to ear.

“How long have you two been together?” Ray asked calmly.

“I’d say about two weeks now.” Ryan replied in a charming voice. Ray gave me a stern look, and I knew that later he was going to chastise me. Oh well, I’ll live.

“Triv, I can’t believe you kept this from me!” Kay squealed happily. She was always an easy pleaser. It was going to take a while for Ray to decide that this guy was right for me. He always was protective, both over me and Kay.

“I know! I was thinking that you guys could all talk tomorrow at a double date. Just the four of us, y’know?” I proposed. Kay immediately turned towards Ray to see what he would say. All eyes were on him.

“Why not?” he decided.

“Alright, well I have a lot of school-work to catch up on, so I think I’ll go. I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Ryan said with a charming smile. I followed him out and shut the door behind us.

“Just don’t get intimidated by Ray. Eventually he’ll be forced to like you.” I explained. He nodded in understanding.

“I don’t blame him for being protective. He has both his girlfriend and you to look after. I can only imagine having to keep a mischievous little thing like you out of trouble.” He teased, whispering the last part into my ear. I shivered, not just because it was cold, but because of the seductive way he said it. He then cupped my chin and pulled me into our very first deep kiss.

The next morning…

I awoke the next morning to find arms around me. I turned over and saw Ryan’s closed eyes. I smiled to myself. It had been a long time since I’d woken up with a boy next to me. It was great to know that I was really loved again. I leaned in and gently kissed him onto the lips. I was about to pull away when he pulled me back into him to kiss me again. I giggled into the kiss and allowed him to explore my mouth with his tongue. I kissed back with a bit more force than before, and he was letting his hands roam to places that hands hadn’t roamed to for a long time. I grabbed one of the hands that had started to play with the top of my pajama pants, and I could tell that he was disappointed.

After that, he caught on pretty quickly with the fact that I wasn’t going to let him do that. At one point he grabbed my shirt and started to pull it upwards. I pushed him away, breaking the kiss.

“What the hell?” I said. He looked into my eyes with more lust than I’d ever seen on any of my boyfriends that I could remember.

“Please? I… I’m just really fucking horny right now.” He explained. I shot him a glare.

“No. How the hell did you get in here last night anyway?” I asked.

“You have a spare key on the lamp in case you guys get locked out. You told me that last week.” He replied.

“Whatever. I suggest leaving before Ray finds you. He’d kill us both if he caught you in here.” I offered.

“Fine. I will.” He said in a condescending way. He grabbed his jacket off of the chair beside my desk and left the room. I stretched and yawned. While I did my morning routine, I thought about how bizarre it was for Ryan to do that. He usually never pushed me to my limit like that. He’d never done it to me until today. I knew I couldn’t tell Kay about it, because then she would tell Ray and he would have a fit. I stopped to find a note on the hair straightener.

Dear Triv,

We went out. Have fun with Ryan! (;

Love ya!

Kayy.

So they were gone. Hmm. I was just putting the finishing touches on my appearance when there was a knock on the door. Figuring it was Ryan coming back to apologize, I opened the door.

“I’m glad you came back. I was thinking about it and maybe we could—” I was cut off, shocked to find out that the person at the door was indeed, not Ryan.