Chapter IV

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"Musa! Stop moving dammit," Riven snapped. He sent the girl a glare as she swayed her body back and forth. She was supposed to be a steady support for the ladder Riven was standing on.

Ignoring his complaints, Musa continued to move her body. "I'm sorry, but it's cold," she whined. Even with her NorthFace Jacket and snow boots, she was still cold. The breezy winter air seemed to blow through her jacket and nip at her skin.

"Imagine standing up here on this ladder," Riven murmured. After spending the last two years in a tropical place, the five degree Fahrenheit weather was beyond freezing to him. He couldn't feel his fingers and his nose was frozen.

"I'd rather not, I did that once." Musa's words drifted as she stared out into the woods. Her mind relapsed into remembering the previous holiday memories with the Harrington family.

It was always Musa and Riven's job to string the Christmas lights along the peak of the cabin. They were the two tallest out of everyone in the house. Riven stood three inches taller than his brother Roy and Musa was several inches taller than Layla and his mother. Of course Grandma Faragdona could not support herself on the ladder. So together the two would work together and string the Christmas lights.

One Christmas holiday, several years ago, Musa couldn't reach the top of the peak of the cabin from the porch roof. Her and Riven had this great idea to place a smaller ladder on the porch roof. While Riven was supposed to be holding onto the ladder to make sure it didn't slip on the slant where the snow seemed to melt the most, he let go of the ladder to throw an ice ball down at his father and his brother who were stringing Christmas lights below on the porch. The same time he let go, Musa stood on top step of the step ladder. When she placed both of her feet onto the step ladder, the bottom of the ladder gave out underneath of her, sliding down the slanted roof. Musa screamed, and tumbled off the roof, following the ladder.

After she fell off the side of the roof, she laid in the snow not moving. She was too scared to move. When she opened her eyes, Riven, Roy and Lucas encircled her, tossing questions at her.

"Musa, I'm so sorry," Riven panted before trying to help her out of the snow. She wined telling him that it had hurt to much to move. Together, the three got her into their vehicle and they drove forty-five minutes to the nearest hospital.

Short story, Musa ended up leaving the hospital diagnosed with a fractured clavicle. She spent the rest of the holidays with her arm wrapped in a aircast and an immobilizer for her arm and shoulder.

"MUSA," Riven shouted after he had said her name for the third time.

"Huh," Musa tore her gaze away from the icy trees in the woods. She looked up at Riven with a dazed look in her eyes.

"I said we have finished the stringing the Christmas lights, we can go inside and get some hot chocolate now."

"Oh, all right."

"Are you okay?" Riven asked.

"Yeah, I was just thinking of the time when you let go of the ladder," Musa laughed. At the time of the fall, she had been scared to death. Aside from a few deep bruises and a broken bone she had been lucky. The doctor had said she was lucky she didn't break her neck from the fall.

"I forgot about that," Riven laughed, stepping off the step ladder. Quickly, he folded the small step ladder up and tossed it over the side of the roof. It fell right into the snow mound next to the house.

"Oh, I didn't. I'm still scared to death of ladders and roofs," Musa commented. "Hence why you're standing on the ladder this time. If I let go, I wouldn't have felt so bad. Pay back really is a bitch."

"But you're on the roof now," Riven pointed out and laughed.

"Only because your mom asked me to be."

"Okay, okay," Riven and Musa carefully stepped towards the edge of the ladder. "By the way, I didn't forget about your fall. I still feel bad and pretend it never happened."

"Don't feel to bad, it only gets sore every so often now," Musa said as she pointed to her right shoulder where she had fallen.

Musa chuckled, carefully following Riven down the ladder.

Once the two were footed on the ground surface, they headed for the back porch of the cabin. They stopped moving when they heard Lisa yell for Lucas.

"Lucas, your mother is here and she brought Techna and Timmy."

Musa watched Lucas drop his Christmas lights and run to the front of the cabin where his mother was. She stood there pondering who Timmy was. She vaguely remembered Techna, Riven's brainy cousin. In fact, she and Techna graduated from the same high school. She left Gardenia and attended some science institute across the country. Musa hadn't seen the red-headed woman in years.

When they had followed the footprints of Lucas to the front of the cabin, standing around was Lisa, young Roxy, Layla and Roy, and now Grandma Faragonda and Techna with a man who must be Timmy. Techna had grown and changed from the last time Musa had saw her. Her long hair that was always in a pony tail was now cut into a cute pixie cut and she had traded in her mud boots for a nice pair of Stuart Weitzman boots. She was dressed in dark wash jeans with a peacoat on while the man next to her was in jeans, Doc Martins and covered in a parka.

"My God, Musa is that you?" Grandma Faragonda pushed through the Harrington boys and pulled Musa into an embrace. She was always the favorite out of everyone.

"Grandma Faragonda, I've missed you," Musa returned the hug.

"I'm so glad my grandson finally decided to give to win you back and give it another try. I've been hounding on him for the last two years about it. When I went to visit him months ago he was still with that tramp Darcy," She groaned into Musa's shoulder. Their conversation was so quiet, the rest of the family couldn't hear it.

Who was Darcy? Musa froze, unsure of what to say. She didn't want to break the old woman's heart. "Unfortunately, we aren't together. It just happened to be a fluke that we are both here. Lisa invited me and Riven decided to surprise his family for the holidays."

Pulling away from the hug, Musa heard Grandma Faragonda say "Well then this is fate then" with a smile on her face.

When the two pulled away from each other, Riven and Roy groaned at the same time. "Grandma, how come Musa always gets the first hugs? We are your actual grandsons," Roy grumbled.

"Because I like her better boys. She wasn't a hellion growing up and I didn't have to raise her. Come here Layla and Roxy," Grandma Faragonda walked away from Musa and walked over to the other girls and embraced them.

"That's fair," Riven said to his brother and the two conversed with one another while

"Hello Musa," Techna said. Musa weaved away from Lisa and Lucas and stood next to Techna.

"Hey, how have you been?" Despite her flairs of nerdiness, Musa had always liked Riven's cousin. Techna was Lucas's twin brother Aaron's daughter. Techna was the opposite of Riven. She was laid back, she never had a temper and she was focused and determined. Whereas Riven was sometimes quite the opposite. He had always had a bad temper, especially when he was a child. He was impatient and he was always stressing over something.

"Great and for yourself?

"Really good."

"Oh Musa, this is Timmy, my fiance." The words struck Musa like a bulldozer. Techna had a fiance and Musa couldn't even keep a pet fish alive. What had the world turned into? It seemed as if everyone had somebody but her.

"Nice to meet you Timmy, I'm Musa," Musa extended her arm out, shaking Timmy's firm hands.

"Hello Musa. Nice to meet you too. I take it you're dating Riven?" He questioned. Techna leaned forward, curious to know the answer as well.

"I'm not actually. My dad went to Europe for Christmas and Lisa invited me, unknowingly that Riven was surprising her for the holidays. So here we both are at the cabin."

"But they used to date," Techna intervened, giving Musa a knowing smile.


Musa left the living room, heading to the room she was occupying for the week. Quickly, she slid off her jeans and put on a pair of university sweatpants on and laid in the bed. This was the first moment all day she had to herself and she was going to take advantage of it while the men went to town to pick up some more groceries and get firewood. Grandma Faragonda, Techna Layla, and Riven's mom were all occupied in the living room, talking about family things. Musa made the excuse she was tired and she darted for the room. She was used to overbearing situations, but even for her, this was a bit over the edge.

She was almost asleep when her phone buzzed in the night stand. Groggily, she rolled over and pulled the pine drawer open. Earlier when she had tossed her phone in there, she hadn't bothered to pay attention to any of the miscellaneous items in the drawer. To her surprise, there many trinkets and items that had been passed between she and the youngest Harrington boy at the cabin were still in place there from where they had left them.

The phone buzzed again, forcing Musa to tear her eyes away from the arrangement of items.

"Stella, of course," Musa said to out loud to herself.

"Hello?"

"Musa Pennington! I haven't heard from you since yesterday when you were upset. Are you okay? I take it you ended up going to Andy's. Flora said she hadn't heard from you and I was starting to get worried you would be spending the holidays alone."

"Stella, Stella, slow down," Musa breathed. Her best friend always rambled when she was worried. It was a common trait of hers. Musa was glad to have a friend that cared as much as her friend did. However, it was annoying at times and she was way too tired for this conversation.

Knowing what was coming next, Musa held the phone away from her ear and began to confess to her friend. "I'm not at Andy's. Instead, I'm at the Harrington's cabin for Christmas."

"What?" Musa heard the girl scream. Due to her perplex hearing, Musa faintly heard Brandon run into the room asking if everything was okay.

"How? What? Why? M-m-Musa!" The girl stammered.

"I ran into his mother at the spa and she invited me. She told me Riven wouldn't be here for Christmas. Pretty much she forced me to come over."

Musa heard a deep sigh on the phone. Stella followed after the sigh and the dramatic pause, "Well in that case, I guess that's all right. His mother was always a gem. I hope you're enjoying your time with the Harrington family."

Musa heard footsteps by the door and she lowered her voice. "I wish that were the case, however, Riven surprised his family for Christmas the same night I got here. So he's here and so am I."

"Oh my God. Musa, do not. I repeat do not," Stella didn't even get to finish her sentence before Musa interrupted.

"I'm not Stella, calm down. We are being civil towards one another."

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Stella added.

"We have to share a room now. He slept on the couch last night, but his two cousins came and there is no room in the living room for Riven. So he will be sleeping on the floor while I sleep in the bed."

"I can't believe this Musa. Remember, Andy. Remember you and Andy have a future together. You and Riven don't," Stella reminded her best friend.

"Hardly," Musa snapped. She knew her friend wouldn't approve of the situation, but she was tired of her encouraging her to be together with Andy.

"Look I just want you to be happy Musa. When Riven left, I was there for you and I just don't want to see you in that same state again. You're better than that and I don't want you to make poor decisions. You deserve the world and Riven isn't the guy that is going to give that to you."

Musa closed her eyes, throwing her body back into the bed. "But Stella, is Andy going to give me that? I have waited these last six months for him to sort out his life and he keeps screwing it up. I don't know..."

"Musa, just give him a call. I want you to figure this out before you're so caught up in this Riven-esque nostalgic extravaganza."

"All right, I'll give you him a call if it will appease you."

"Let me know how it goes."

"Okay, bye Stella."

Musa took a deep breath, putting the phone to her face once again. "Hey Andy."

...

Riven stepped into room, surprised to find Musa curled up into a ball facing the wall. He was about to say something to her until he realized she was on the phone with someone. He was going to turn around and walk out of the room. However, Riven was interested to know who Musa was talking to and why she was having a conversation as such.

"I don't know why you're being like this," Musa argued into the phone, not realizing Riven had stepped into the room. Riven couldn't hear the other side of the phone conversation, he could only hear what Musa was saying.

"No Andy, I'm not coming home." Musa said in a monotonous voice. It was obvious to an outsider that Musa was tired of the conversation she was having.

"You made that choice. I called you for the holiday plans and some girl answered."

"Oh she was just your friend? I'm sure she was."

"We are doing this again because you're antics are shitty," Musa began. Her voice immediately stopped as if she was listening to the other person.

"You know what Andy, fuck off," Musa snapped, hanging up the phone. She tossed her iPhone onto the bed and let out a long groan. She was never one to use profanity but in situations like these, it was needed.

"If this is bad timing, I can come back later," Riven said striking up a conversation.

Teary-eyed, Musa glanced up to find Riven standing in the room. She felt her face flush from the embarrassment of her yelling into the phone and here she was in the cabin in tears over another man. How much had he heard? She wiped the corner of her eyes and sat up in the bed, pulling her legs into her chest.

"No-no-no, you're fine. This is your room. Come in whenever." Her voice was brittle compared the angry tone she was using moments before.

Before Riven could even ask her if everything was okay, she changed the subject. "How was going into town?"

"It was like old times. Dad and Roy got the wood while I went into the convenient store and got some of the groceries mom wanted. I should take you there tomorrow. That old Christmas store is still there, you know the one you love? We can buy an ornament and put in on the tree tomorrow before we set it up and decorate," Riven smiled, placing his hand on Musa's knee trying to cheer her up. When his hand touched her knee, he couldn't even embrace himself for what he felt. It made his heart lurch forward.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Does it still smell like Christmas?" Musa asked, eyeing Riven's hand on her knee.

"Of course. Well if Christmas has a smell. The same old man that is your favorite still works there. He asked about you today."

Musa breathed, "Really? He was such a sweet man. I wonder if he's still lonely. I remember he lost his wife around the same time I lost my mom."

"Well you can find out for yourself. I told him I'd bring you there tomorrow. He works all day. And guess what?" Riven leaned in, building the suspense.

"What?"

"They even have those homemade chocolates that you adore. I even bought some for you. I figured if I hadn't, you would have thrown me off the roof this time," Riven winked, making her laugh.

Musa's eyes widened and a smile formed loosely on her face, "God, chocolates and Christmas? What more could I ask for? Let's go eat them." Musa stood up, smoothing out her t-shirt and sweatpants. Her bare feet padded against the wood floors.

"Hey, are you really okay?" Riven grabbed her hand before she could leave the room. He stared into her eyes exquisitely asked, eyeing the girl carefully. Despite their changes and differences, he still knew her and the look in her eyes said otherwise.

"I will be." She pulled her hand out of his and headed towards the kitchen.

Riven nodded his head, accepting her answer. He paused for a moment, breathing in and out. Holding her hand was too much for him. She was enigmatic and he needed more of it. Once he was able to breathe normally, he followed out of the bedroom.

"Don't eat all of those chocolates," Riven called after her.


Just an Author's note below:

I've had several requests of longer chapters, which I hope I did with this one. It took me a little longer to write but here it is.

One thing as a remember, a good story always takes it time. While a story starts slow, it builds up. We see the characters grow, develop, their personal habits expose, we engage with the plot build up and so much more. I'm going to continue taking my time on the story that way once it comes to the end of it, everything will flow well together and it will be an awesome story.

I'll try to write longer chapters though.

Anyway, Thanks for being awesome and reading my work!