The first time I saw Tavros, I knew he would be my new project. We were in high school and through mutual friends we met at a party. How stereotypical right? It was one of those parties where most of the house is filled with the dull smog of cigarette smoke and a little bit of something else too. He looked woefully out of place, standing on the sidelines with furrowed brows and a frown. I could tell he definitely did not belong at all with his nicely ironed and clean jeans and cute little maroon sweater that his mom probably picked out for him. I had complete intentions on mocking him mercilessly, I just never got around to it. It wouldn't be a bad assumption if you figured I just didn't know how to talk to boys.
"Hey," I said to the boy. He jerked his head in my direction, looking at me a little wide eyed. It was precious and kind of disarming. "I haven't seen you around here before." In an effort to look like a fifteen year old bad ass I lit a smoke. I didn't even barely smoke it, I was too paranoid on getting addicted. Mostly the appeal was carrying them around and looking like a teenager who didn't care about the rules. Eventually I stopped because of how much Tavros laughed at me when he found out. But here, he was still gazing at me with his large brown doe eyes, as if he still wasn't sure whether he could trust me or not.
"I guess you could, uh, say I've never seen you around before either." He gave me a cheesy grin. I stared blankly back at him. "This is my first time going. I'm Tavros." Tavros the short boy standing in the corner of the room then honest to God stuck his hand out to shake mine. I didn't know if I should laugh or not, but eventually I did. If I ever had any doubts of us being friends from that moment on they disappeared.
After that party, we were inseparable. A more accurate thing to say though would be that I latched myself onto him. For awhile I think I frightened and intimidated him. Granted this was probably true, I ran with a shady crowd, but after awhile that stopped. You could argue that he stopped me from potentially being a meth head prostitute, but I have enough evidence to support my case that I would be a pimp instead. It's irrelevant now but I guess I do owe him a thanks for that. But I contributed to. Before me, he was just the wallflower with the mohawk. After me, well, he was still kind of a wallflower and he still had a mohawk but he could hold a conversation and express his opinion more fluidly. He did not take as much think it was as fun as I did though, and never held shouting matches, lord knows I tried though.
The first time we kissed it was senior year. I had been nervous as to whether I would be able to graduate or not thanks to my total lack of caring my first two years in school. Tavros graciously volunteered to tutor me to pass the finals and all the tests I needed to take. We studied at his house which was a modest one story that was warm and cozy. His parents were very kind to me, and treated me as though for life I had been a family friend. I remember standing there awkwardly in my sweatshirt and skinny jeans wondering if this is what having a real family was like as they all laughed and smiled at the dinner table. When we actually got around to studying it was halfway studying halfway me madly flirting at every opportunity. I have this fun little game called Make Tavros Blush, probably the easiest game in the world.
Our first kiss is unbelievably awkward to me, but Tavros thinks it is overwhelmingly cute. Long story short, Tavros leaned over to grab a cookie off the plate or something inconsequential like that and I thought he was leaning in to kiss me. So I did. I opened my eyes to see him blushing like mad and then I realized my mistake. We both stuttered a whole lot and I booked it out of there. I didn't even take my books, I later found those in my locker waiting for me. The moral of the story is, let him kiss you. I guess. We didn't talk again until graduation. I remember standing there in my long white gown hating the world, but also loving it because I would graduate with my class, thanks to Tavros. He beamed when my name was called. When our class was allowed to stand up and leave the auditorium we found each other in the middle and he kissed me. We were basically making out in the middle of the room, I think his parents still have a picture of it. It was very romantic and like it came out of a movie until Karkat started shouting that this was not a movie and then there was some general shouting of hormone obsessed teenagers.
And now we're here. I never really thought of us as getting married but I never thought of us breaking up either, which is why the ring was so surprising. I had admittedly been thinking of it way too much. I was walking home from work a week later, beloved Starbucks in one hand, purse in the other. I like to think that I look tough and that I am a super bad ass but the sad reality is that I am a 5'3 girl in high platform shoes who is potentially crossing the border in being underweight. I probably looked like an easy target to muggers and maybe I was. The street was normally safe, though it was dark, late, and it was empty save for a male heading for me quickly. I gripped my purse tighter and tried crossing the street but the guy pulled on a ski mask and started jogging towards me.
In a moment of fear I didn't move, just stood there shaking. I ducked as he ran at me, reflexively holding my purse closer to me.
"Give me the purse." It was not a request, it was an order. But I didn't want to. I didn't seem to want to move either, but I didn't give up. A purse was not worth dying over and I knew that but I was scared shitless and I didn't know what to do. "I said give me the purse!" This time it was a slightly raised voice. I whimpered, staring past my shoes onto the concrete hoping someone would hear him.
I felt my attacker press a knife lightly into my shoulder before I looked up and started to hand it over, tears in my eyes. Before I could fully relinquish my purse, someone ran out of a building. "Hey! Leave her alone!" That was all I needed was a quick distraction and I was scuttling away, still crouched. The mugger considered a fight for a moment before ultimately running away. I heard footsteps making their way closer to me and I looked up, frightened. My defenses lowered when I saw it was the nerdy boy who caused me to have a scabbed face.
"Are you okay? That guy has been prowling around lately, I am really sorry! Oh man, I always seem to be saying sorry to you. I'm John, by the way." He offered me an apologetic grin, showing off his too shiny buck teeth.
"Yeah, yeah I'm alright." I had since blinked back my unshed tears and did my best to put back on a facade of false bravado. "My name is Vriska. Thanks for saving me that could have been very bad." But I think it was already very bad. I just want to go home. Or not be in the street. I think I was shaking at this point and I saw John noticing.
"Why don't you come with me into the bakery?" He jabbed his thumb behind him in the general direction of a cluster of buildings maybe twenty feet away. There was a woman about our age working inside who looked like a female version of him. "My sister is inside so you don't have to think I am going to try anything!" He laughed awkwardly here. "You can call someone to come pick you up if you need to. Say, why aren't you riding your bike?"
"I thought after what happened last time I would try to pick the safer mode of transportation. Apparently I was very wrong. But thank you so much for the offer that sounds amazing." And with that John smiled and led me the way into his and his sister's bakery. I was right, they were twins. The most different thing about them though was that he had bright blue eyes and hers were almost a lime green. Her name was Jade and she gave me a delicious pumpkin roll to hold me over till Tavros could pick me up. I was already a fan of her. In the end, he was already asleep. After working all day oftentimes he just comes homes and crashes, figures today is one of those days.
I frowned before saying, "Well thank you so much for everything, but my boyfriend isn't picking up so I guess I will just walk home." The appalled looks on Jade and John matched perfectly.
"No way, sister!" Jade declared. "I still have to clean up and finish setting up for tomorrow morning but John is technically done for today so he can drive you home." She grinned at her obviously genius idea. I will admit, it was difficult to resist. In the end, I didn't. I didn't want to walk home anymore than they wanted me to. John and I said our goodbye's to Jade and then we got into his slightly junky black car. He was a gentleman who giggled at everything and conversation flowed very easy between us. It was easy and comforting to talk, I didn't want to have time to sit and think about what could have happened with the potential mugging.
Once we pulled up to my apartment and I was walking up, he waited the whole time and made sure I was safely inside before shouting "GOODBYE VRISKA!" and speeding out of the parking lot. I didn't know if I should be embarrassed or laughing, so I was a little bit of both.
I had never been so happy to see my ugly apartment and I rushed into bed just to see Tavros spread out looking as comfortable as can be. My boyfriend cracked a single copper colored eye open and smiled at me as I got into bed. He made a content humming noise and pulled me closer to him in the warm bed. I gnawed on my lip before ultimately deciding that he would be much happier not knowing and being ignorant about what happened. Besides he had given me mace multiple times to me proclaiming that I knew how to take care of myself. For the record I obviously did not know how to take care of myself and I lost the mace maybe a week after I got it. I suppose I should find that again.
My brain though was stuck on the siblings I had met that day. I was mostly just very thankful that someone had been there for me. My heart beat still went fast when I think about it. As if feeling how nervous I was, Tavros wrapped his arms around me a little tighter, pulling me in more. With that I could let my fears disappear for a night and let myself slip into a comfortable night's sleep.
