Sorry it took me so long to update today:( I had this report that's due Friday and I figured I might as well get it out of the way with the other homework I had:) SO anyway, here's Chapter 2:)
Special Thanks To:
SmilesSaveLives
and
NataONE
Disclaimer: I DO NOT, and sadly never will, own the HON series!
Chapter 2: The Cube
Rephaim was definitely stubborn. Stevie Rae knew that but she didn't know how stubborn he actually was.
She had been digging through her boxes that she had just gotten back from the House of Night when her and Zoey had used to share a room. They had kept her stuff in this depressing little storage area when she had rejected the Change.
Going through them was like reliving Christmas as a six year old. She was discovering her cute little knick knacks that she's had since she was nine. She was even making ohhing and ahhing noises at the little things she was pulling out. Rephaim was just watching her intently, staring at her and glancing at the items she held in her hands.
"What is that?" He slid off of the bed and onto the floor next to her, getting a closer look at the thing in her hands.
"It's a Rubik's Cube," she smiled at him. He looked so cute with his eyes wide with curiosity, his head tilted in wonder.
"What does it do?"
She pushed the box gently off her lap and sat up straighter against the bed. "Well, you gotta get all sides to match," she twisted a side, getting a row of red, green, and white. "Here," she placed it in his lap, going through the box again. "You can try it if ya want. I could never get it."
In the corner of her eye, she saw something spark in his eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder what had she just done.
Sure enough, Rephaim was dead set on matching all six sides. She had once walked out into the kitchen, looking for him, and saw him just staring at it. She had asked him what he was doing, he didn't answer her. He seemed to be thinking awful hard so she had just left to go hang out with Zoey.
"Stevie Rae," he whined, stomping into their room, angrily shoving the blanket aside. "It will not work."
"I told ya already plenty a' times that I couldn't do it."
"Yes, I know, but..." he trailed off, glaring at the cube in his hands. He was holding it as if it were some sorta explosive.
She stifled the urge to laugh at him. "You don't hafta beat yourself up about it if ya can't do it. Not everyone can."
Rephaim shook his head, making a derisive noise. "No, I do have to do this."
"Why?"
He looked away, placing the Rubik's Cube on his knee. "Because, I want to show you that I can do this."
"It doesn't matter to me whether you're able to do it or not. Only geniuses can do it. Are you a genius?" She gazed at him, touched by how he was stressing himself over this just for her.
"No, but I could be."
She blinked. There was something else, too, about what he was saying. There was another reason he was doing this and Stevie Rae wanted to burst out giggling.
Pride.
Stevie Rae shrugged, smiling. "Okay, if ya say so. Do whatever ya want. I'll be here when you decide to give up."
Rephaim stood, squeezing the cube, and walked back out.
Oh, how much she loved him.
Later that night, twenty minutes before dawn, Rephaim came back in, running excitedly. She was brushing her hair and pulling it back into a short ponytail for bed, already dressed in her pajama shorts and matching tanktop.
"Stevie Rae! Stevie Rae, look! I did it!" He held it out in one hand, panting with a grin on his face.
She picked it up, examining all six sides. Yup, all the colors were matched perfectly.
"How did ya do it?" She beamed up at him, clutching the Rubik's Cube to her chest.
A strange look came over his face. "Uh, well, I guess it just came to me somehow..."
That was when she saw his other hand hiding behind his back.
"Whaddya got behind your back?" She peered around him and saw a screwdriver.
"Nothing," he turned, hiding it from her view, but she already saw it.
"This don't count. You took it apart and put it back together like this. That's cheatin'." Stevie Rae shook her head, still smiling. It was sweet to know that he went to the troubles of tearing it apart for her, and his pride.
His shoulders slumped. "I don't care. I am tired and it is almost done. At least I did not give up." He flopped down on the bed, throwing the arm with the screwdriver across his face.
"No, you didn't," she murmured, giving him a kiss.
But they both knew that she wasn't talking about the Rubik's Cube.
Aw:) Ain't that sweet? So tell me what ya think:) I'll be dying to read your reviews:) Please read and review:) Hope you enjoy it as much as I did:)
-RSR
