Rhodochrisite Ring

Ch. 1: Silver and Gold

I sighed and continued down the street towards the twilight town shopping district, with boredom and despair written all over my face. My best friend, Namine, just got dumped, and It was my duty to cheer her up. Again.

Jeez! How does this always happen!? Namine is a smart girl, and yet, she is always choosing the worst possible boyfriends that end up hurting her in the end! When I was still dating, I always listened to her advice! If she said he was a scumbag, I listened, when she said he was cheating on me, I listened! But does she listen to me when I tell her her boyfriends are doing the same? NO! Its always 'he's just a little different, Kairi,' or 'I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding, Kairi.' And in the end, she always gets hurt! Ugh, I need and asprin.

Well, I guess most of it isn't her fault. Most guys break up with her because she ends up being something they didn't expect. She meets most of the guys at the university in class, so they don't really get to see what she is really like. In class, she always wears comfort clothes like tanktops and sweats, and when she goes out with them later, she goes in her regular clothes. What are those like? Well, just go google pyramid collection. It's her favorite store, and she wears almost everything on that site. Or, well, she would like to. Some of it is a little expensive, but she is working on it. Her favorites are the renaissance dresses.

Well, anyway, I happen to be heading to the shop right now to pick up something she doesn't have. Partly to cheer her up, partly to see our friend Aerith who works there. She already knows about the messy breakup, so she should have some merch. all ready for me to look through. She's the best.

* * *

By the time I got there, day was just breaking and the cicadas were getting steadily louder as I continued down the only just crowded streets. The pyramid collection store was on the corner of riverside blvd. and crimson avenue, in a earth-tone green paneled store. As soon as I walked in I was hit with a refreshing rush of cold, patchouli and sage scented air. The twinkling of a bell alerted Aerith at the counter in the back of the store.

She smiled and waved me over. I smiled back as I made my way past the many colorful pieces of clothing and jewelry. Everything was so close together the silk of the flowing skirts tickled my ankles. Coming in here always made me feel light-headed, but in a good way.

Aerith set down the catolouge she was reading and laced her fingers under her chin, " well, hello there, Kairi."

"Hey, Aerith!" even though I was sad for Nami, it seemed almost impossible to be sad in the shop.

I came to a stop in front of the counter and examined the items she had put out for me. Lets see... everything looked really nice, and Nami didn't have any of these yet, but, there was one item that caught her eye. The it was a silver ring with a pinkish stone, the tag read; Rhodochrosite Ring: Crystal healers credit rhodochrosite with the qualities of love and balance-and the ability to attract the wearer's "twin soul"! This polished gemstone glows in a classical setting of antiqued sterling silver. Price $39.95.

I delicately picked up the ring and examined it in the light. Twin soul, huh?

Aerith giggled when she saw what I had picked, "nice! That's totally what Namine needs!"

I laughed too, " Yeah, I know!"

"so I assume thats the winner?" she was already getting the gift box from the back room when she asked me that.

" Yeah, this should do the trick!"

I handed her the ring when she came back out. She carefully took the ring and placed it in the brown and gold gift box. "Gift wrap?" it was more of a statement than a question.

I nodded my head vigorously, " course!"

she already had the purple and red, shimmery wrapping paper out and she began to expertly wrap the box. Aerith finished quickly and handed me the box after I handed her the money.

"hope she feels better!" she yelled at me as I left the shop.

We hadn't known her long, but Aerith always seemed to be the first person we went to when we needed help. She was a really nice person and was always willing to help us with whatever we needed.

Jeez, why in the hell am I in such a good mood? Eh, whatever. I need to hurry up and go get Namine in a good mood so she can take me shopping for the new final fantasy game I want!

* * *

I got home about twenty minutes later in time to catch namine in between sappy, crappy romance movies. Her eyes were red, her nose was runny and a seemingly permanent scowl was planted on her face. But, thankfully, she seemed to brighten when I entered the apartment.

I'm such a bitch. I waited ten minutes to give her the present. The whole time I watched her expression change from excitement, to confusion, to disappointment, to excitement again when I pulled out the pretty wrapped package.

It took her no time at all to rip the paper apart and open the little gift box. I swear her smile streached from one ear to the other when she picked up the pretty ring. She put it on,screamed happily, hugged me, said thank you about a hundred times and picked up the card to read about it.

When she finished, she came back over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck again. "thanks, Kai."

I hugged her back, " of course! Sooooo... does this mean you'll take me to the video game store?"

She giggled again and nodded her head, " of course to you too!"

But, before we had a chance to do anything else, someone knocked on the door. " hold on, i'll get it!" she practically skipped over to the door and threw it open.

There, in the doorway of our apartment, stood a tall man, a little older than us, with crazy, spiked up hair and clear, blue eyes.

"um, hey. I'm your new neighbor, but I can't seem to find the apartment, do you know where apartment number seven is?" Damn. He was H-O-T!