Dresses and Rings

Rory was sitting on the end of our bed as I paced the room. "Stephen." I didn't exactly ignore her, I just didn't acknowledge what she said. I was too busy tugging at my hair and thinking over how tonight would go. "Stephen, stop." She knelt up on her knees and took my hands away from my head before replacing them with her own. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing as she ran her fingers through my hair. "You know, you're sexy with messy hair." I could hear the smile in her voice.

"This isn't an amusing situation for me, Rory," I mumbled darkly as I brought my hands to rest on top of her's on either side of my face.

"It is for me. Its funny to watch you freaking out over something so... stupid."

"I am not stupid."

"I didn't say you were," she clarified. "I said the situation is. You could have said no. You shouldn't have left the decision up to me. You know I am stupid."

I pressed my forehead against her's and stared her straight in the eye. "You aren't stupid either, alright? I just wasn't sure if you would want to go or not. Its a very nice restaurant, and I wasn't sure if you'd be able to have the experience again." I sat beside her and held my head in my hands. Rory's fingers scratched lightly over my scalp.

"Have you been there before?"

"Once. For my thirteenth birthday. Do you have a dress?" I lifted my eyes to her's again as I spoke.

"No, why?"

"You'll need one," I said as I stood and walked to the closet, rifling through it in search of something for her to wear. I pulled out the nicest jacket I owned.

"Is that necessary?" She asked curiously, running her finger over the fabric as I laid it out on the bed.

"Its required," I said blatantly and returned to my task of trying to find her a dress, but all I could find were her old Wexford uniforms and jeans.

"There's a dress code?" I nodded absent-mindlessly. I pulled out something black and lacy looking, although thick enough to keep her warm, hidden behind all the clothes.

"What about this?" I held up the dress for her to inspect, but her face went completely blank and she looked away.

"I... I only wear that to funerals..." Her voice was weak and she glanced at me quickly before looking away again. "I'd rather keep that far in the back, please."

My eyebrows pulled together before I understood what she meant. "Oh," I said quietly, and hung it back up. "Rory, that was nearly a year ago. You don't have to worry about it anymore." I knelt down in front of her and placed my hands carefully just above her knees. She nodded. "Why'd you hide the dress?"

"Because I didn't want to have this conversation," she said quietly, still not looking at me.

"I just want to talk, Rory. I just want to know what's wrong." She had been waking again during the night, waking me up, too. Whenever she woke me up, I'd only try to find out what had woken her, but she would just start kissing me, and wouldn't tell me anything. I was starting to worry.

"Nothing's wrong. You know, one time, back in Louisiana, my friend's goldfish died. Well, we were, like, six, so she had an official funeral and all. She invited everyone in our class, and she was crying. We were all crowded in her tiny bathroom, and before her parents flushed it, she asked if anyone wanted to say anything. So, my friend, Jared, he got up and pretended like he was going to say something, then he tried to eat the fish, so she was really angry at him.

"Anyway, her parents flush the fish down the toilet, and my friend is just sobbing because she's a little girl whose fish just died and some kid in her class just tried to eat it, you know? Well, then her brother, who was about three at the time, he was just potty-trained, so he ran through the crowd of kids, and whips it out in front of all of us and goes to the bathroom. We were all pretty mortified, mostly the girls, because we didn't know about guy parts yet. We thought he had some kind of growth or something, I guess. So, her brother just looks around expecting everyone to be so proud of him, and then his sister just started yelling at him, saying he peed on her dead fish, and Jared said that she should've just let him eat it. So now both she, and her brother, and some of the other girls are crying, and then she wet herself in front of us. It turns out she hadn't used the bathroom all day because she wanted the toilet clean for her fish." She stared at me, and it took me a moment to realize she was finished. "So... yeah. That was my first funeral, technically. And I guess my first dick, too." She chuckled and shook her head.

"That sounds like an eventful day. Anyway... dress?"

"Callum and I are going out today. I'll pick something up before we come back, okay?" She stood and pulled her hair back, moving past me and grabbing her coat.

"Okay." I followed her as she walked to Callum and Boo's door, and pounded on it with the side of her fist. "Ready, Callum?" she called.

We heard a startled cry and thump, and then Callum cracked the door open, holding a sheet around his waist. Boo was laughing in the background. "Not yet," He said sharply. "Kinda busy. Be ready... whenever." He shut the door in our faces and Rory laughed.

"Alrighty then," she said looking up at me with shining eyes. "I guess we should get breakfast?"

I hadn't known that Rory could cook before, but I probably should have guessed. It made sense since she liked food so much. She had explained to me one night that she could cook fairly well, she was just too lazy to do it most of the time.

I sat across from her eating the omelette she'd made as both of us tried to ignore the noises coming from the other room. "This," she told me over her cup of coffee, "is why we need our own apartment."

"Yes, well, I've found some in our price range. We can start looking at them tomorrow."

She covered her face with her hand and I shifted uncomfortably as a particularly erotic noise reached our ears. "I want out by Christmas, if that's possible." I nodded, agreeing with her sentiments completely. A few moments later, Boo and Callum stepped out, fully dressed. I avoided eye-contact with both of them, instead deciding to train my gaze into my cup of tea. Rory was snorting into her eggs. Callum ignored this and clapped her on the back saying, "Ready to go?" Rory nodded and leaned over to kiss me lightly, following it up with a quick, "Love you."

"I love you, too." Rory put her coat on, and walked with Callum out the door.

Boo poured herself some coffee, and I finally found myself able to look at her. Boo's hair had grown out in the past few months, and she'd let it. Her bangs were swept to the side, falling over one of her eyes. She pushed it away as she turned to survey me, only to have it fall back in her face again.

"Somebody's happy," I noted as she drank from her cup.

"What d'you mean?" She smiled questioningly.

"You're glowing. Something's different about you. You seem... I don't know. Its a good different, though."

Boo moved to sit in Rory's previous spot and started eating her leftover eggs. "Thanks, Stephen. Sorry about this morning. Callum sort of attacked me, I just couldn't say no."

"Its okay." Of course I knew why Callum had been so exuberant lately. Ever since he'd confessed to me that he was going to propose to Boo, he'd become somewhat like a dog. He never wanted to leave her, and whenever he was away from her for a while, he went mad. Upon seeing her, he'd usually just pick her up and take her straight back to their room. That was usually my cue to take Rory out for a few hours. Callum was practically swimming in lust these days.

"I've been thinking that something's going to happen, something big. I can't place my finger on it though." I shrugged, but she narrowed her eyes and stared at me quizzically. "Stephen?"

"Hmm?" I was just bringing my cup to my lips when-

"Are you going to ask Rory to marry you?"

Tea immediately traveled down my windpipe, causing me to splutter and cough into my cup. Once I'd gotten some control over myself, I felt fear and panic settle in me stomach. I stared at her wide-eyed. "What?" She raised an eyebrow. "I- Not soon. We haven't been together very long, and she's still pretty young. She doesn't need to be married at nineteen. What would people think?"

"Who cares what people think?" Boo swatted the air, as if she was waving away my reasoning. "Do you love her?"

"Of course I do."

"Can you see a future with her?"

I hesitated, working my jaw as I tried to come up with a response. "I can't see one without her."

"Well, then, there you go. That's why you'd get engaged, not just cause its the right time or she's pregnant or something. And besides, whose to say you haven't been going out long enough? Its not the length of the relationship that matters, yeah? Its the quality. I mean, look at Callum and I. How long have we been going out?"

"Practically since you met, in my opinion."

"Exactly. And look here: do you see a ring on my finger?" She raised her hand to show me. Not yet, I thought. "No, you don't. See it doesn't matter how long. Callum isn't ready to propose, and that's fine with me. When he is, I'll say yes because I love him, and I want both of us to be sure of that and both of us to be ready. From what I see, it seems like both you and Rory are ready now. Even if not for the marriage, at least for the engagement. You don't have to get married right away, you know."

"I don't think we are both ready. She was hesitant when I told her I loved her. I almost thought I'd frightened her off."

"Oh, yeah, she told me about that. She was really just in shock. I doubt she'd take you proposing badly. Anyway, don't worry about it. I won't keep hounding you, I was just curious. The truth is that I'm going shopping today, and I wanted to know if you want to come with me."

"Sorry, but I think I should decline. I'm tense about tonight. I think I'm gonna stay here and take a shower. I'm also probably not the best shopping partner either."

Boo nodded, and took care of her dirty dishes before going to her room to get changed. I finished my breakfast, and started washing all the dirty dishes, trying to distract myself in anyway I could. "You sure you don't want to come?" Boo was at the door, knotting her scarf around her neck.

"Yes, Boo. But thank you, anyway."

"You're welcome, love. Don't think too hard."

And then the door shut.

I stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel off the rack. I'd washed and dried them before my shower, so I appreciated the warm and fluffy feeling of the fabric. I dried my face and hair off and wrapped the towel around my waist. I checked my phone. It was four thirty, and I had a message from Rory saying she and Callum would be home soon, which had been received ten minutes before.

I waited to put my glasses on until I was fully dressed. I was sitting on the couch tapping my foot for what felt like forever when Callum and Rory walked through the door. "You have forty minutes before we have to leave."

"I can do forty," she said, carrying plastic bags on hangers into our room.

"She decided to get more then one dress, but dude," Callum said, flopping into the chair beside me and looking at me sharply. "You should see what she's wearing tonight." This statement did not make me feel any better.

"Oh, shut up, Callum," Rory said from behind the closed door. "It isn't bad, its very classy. I look like Audrey Hepburn."

It took some time for her to come out. "Is Boo here? I need her to help me with my hair."

I didn't even care about her hair. I understood what Callum had meant now. Her dress didn't reveal her in anyway, but it was pulled in at her waist then flared at her hips, ending at her knees. "She went shopping," I said.

"Good." Callum stood up. "I can go hide this then." He went to his room.

"Hide what?" I asked Rory. She came and sat next to me, lacing her fingers through mine. "Callum and I didn't really go ghost hunting today," she said. "We went ring shopping."

"Oh, so you found one?"

"Yeah. Boo's and mine fingers are almost the same size."

Callum walked back in. "Christmas," he said. "I'm gonna ask her on Christmas."

"Sounds romantic," I said.

"That's what I'm hoping for."

"Too mushy," Rory decided, wrinkling her nose. She stood again and went into the bedroom. "What do I do with my hair, then?"

"Something. Just put it up," Callum replied, putting his feet up and turning on the TV.

When she walked back out, she had pins holding up pieces of her hair while the rest was left down. "You curled it," I stated. "And you have lipstick on."

"Yeah, yeah, are we leaving or not?" She smiled at me, buttoning up her coat. She knew what I meant.

"I guess. We'll see you later tonight, Callum." I pulled on my over coat, and went to open the door for Rory.

"Oh, yeah. Boo and I are going to the pub on the corner. You should come after this thing."

"Yeah, sounds fun," I said absently, already worrying about how tonight would go.

"We'll be there," Rory confirmed. I shut the door behind us, but she stopped me before we could go any further. "Tonight is going to be fine, okay? Don't worry. I don't want you worrying. If you start panicking, just let me know some how, okay?" When I didn't reply, she took my chin between her thumb and forefinger. "Okay, Stephen?"

I nodded, my eyebrows furrowed together. "Okay." She stood on tip-toe and pressed her lips to mine softly. I put my hand on the small of her back, and held her there, just for a second. She smiled at me, and pulled me down the hall. We walked out of the front door, right into a flurry of snow. Rory tucked her chin into her coat.

I lifted my head, taking a deep breath of the cold air, and pulled Rory closer to me. I always really liked the snow.

AN: I was gonna make this and the next chapter one, but I decided to split them. So both this one and the next chapter are from Stephen's POV! Yay! Don't forget to leave a review! Love you guys! Can I just say I reread this chapter and all I could think was naked Stephen, naked Stephen with glistening abs and wet hair and, oh naked Stephen.Sorry. For updates, go follow me on twitter AFictionWarrior