Chapter 14: The Talk
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.
Lauren leaned against the door frame just as the door was pulled open by Colonel. "Oh! Er, hello... young lady. Is there, er, anything I can help you with?"
Lauren smirked at him beating her fingernails against the wooden frame. Tck, tck, tck. "I'm here to see Tug if that's okay?" She bit her lip unconsciously, nervously anticipating the Colonel's decision.
The Colonel pulled on the edge of his collar before replying "Er, right. Right away. I'll get him, I mean."
The Colonel walked away, quickly, as Lauren silently laughed. She had not been expecting him to comply with her wish that easily.
Shortly, Tug appeared, without the Colonel this time, and he stopped in his tracks at the sight of her. "Like what you see?" Lauren asked, grabbed a small piece of her dress and swishing it around, laughing.
Tug walked up to her, took her arm, and said, "Yes, yes I do." He smiled down at her as Lauren snuggled her head against his chest. Before Lauren could talk about what she wanted to talk about, Tug pulled her closer and asked, "Do you wanna get out of here?"
"Sure," Lauren replied, a little downcast. They walked several dozen yards away and Tug showed Lauren a little stone bench, hidden in a grove of trees. Lauren and Tug sat down, leaning against each other.
Lauren opened her mouth to begin talking to Tug when he said, "So what brings you by?"
Lauren sighed with relief, she was finally getting to talk. It made her nervous, what she was about to bring up, but it needed to be. "Well, I wanted to talk to you."
Tug smiled and asked, "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Lauren sighed softly before saying "I wanted to talk about us."
"Ah, my favorite subject." Tug replied with a grin. He took his hat off, ran a hand through his hair, and asked "So what part of us do you want to talk about? And why are just dressed up so ravishing?"
Lauren smiled coyly and replied "The occasion is you. I dressed up to talk to you." "And as for us?" Lauren looked away from Tug, then, and spoke, looking at his kneecap. "That's just the thing-"
"Wait, you're not breaking up with me, are you?" Tug asked, his face falling.
Lauren's eyes immediately went from looking at his kneecap to looking in his eyes. "No! Of course, I'm not!"
Tug's eyes lit up and he smiled. "Ah, good. It would have been a real shame to see you this lovely and yet not be allowed to kiss you."
Lauren's eyes fell yet again to Tug's kneecap as she spoke. "Tug, I wanted to talk about the future us."
"Well, I'm quite certain they'll be just as in love as we are."
"How can you be certain of that? You're going to want to go to college and-"
"Hey, hey! My place is with you, for now, and always."
"No! You have to go to college! You're so smart, Tug! You could go to any college you wanted to. They would fight amongst themselves to have you attend."
"Even if I wanted to, even if I could bear to leave you, there's no way I can afford college. I've already talked it out with my folks. My dad has me a job at his shop and if you wanted, you could work there with me and... what are you doing?" Tug stopped, watching Lauren rig through her purse. She pulled out a small velvet pouch with a gold drawstring thread. She thrust it into Tug's hands. "What is it?" he asked, opening it up. Inside were dozens of gold and silver coins. "No, I can't accept this. It's too much."
Tug tried to hand it back to Lauren but she wouldn't accept it. "Now you can pay to go to college. I'm not taking that money back so at least spend it the way I'm asking you to."
"Lauren... this is a lot of money. And what about you? I want you to go to college as well."
Lauren smiled at him, then. "I'm not going to college, Tug."
"Why not? You're smarter than I am by a long shot! You were the smartest person in our grade last year! You could get a free ride anywhere in the country! You could get a free ride anywhere in the world! It would be stupid of you not to go!"
Lauren's smile vanished in an instant. Her eyes hardened into a glare. "It's my decision not to go if I don't want to!" Lauren snapped at him.
"Yeah, well it's my decision not to go either so take your money back already!" Tug yelled, throwing the bag at her.
"I'm not taking it back! You need to go! You must have a good future!"
"But what about your future? I want you to have a good future, too!"
"I don't have a future!" Lauren screamed at him.
Tug's face softened and he reached out, pulling Lauren into his lap as she cried out "Ah!" in surprise. Once Lauren was in his lap, Tug asked her "What are you talking about? Of course, you have a future! You're going to go to college, get a great job, marry someone, and have lots of children!"
Lauren laughed before saying "Ha! That's your future, not mine! You're human, Tug, and being human means you have all of those things."
"But Lauren, you're human, too!"
Lauren groaned, leaning her forehead against his shoulder. This was not a twist she had expected the conversation to go in.
"Lauren? Are you okay?" Tug asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... been a long day for me is all."
"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Tug told her, kissing her on the forehead.
"I'm sorry, too!" Lauren cried, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Then let's forget about it." Tug replied with a smile, kissing Lauren on the lips. Lauren kissed him back, smiling under his lips. They pulled apart and smiled at each other, leaning their foreheads against one another's. "Let's pretend the last twenty minutes never happened." Tug murmured against her mouth.
"Done and done." Lauren murmured back against his lips.
Tug smiled against her mouth before kissing Lauren yet again. Lauren moved her hands from being clasped around Tug's neck to knotting themselves in his hair. Tug wrapped his arms around her waist, pushing against the silky satiny material of Lauren's dress. He gently laid her down on the bench and laid down on top of her. Their bodies molded perfectly together, like two puzzle pieces that were meant to connect with one another. "I love you, Lauren. I love you so much. And we will stay together. The future won't change things. I can't imagine a world without you in my life. And if you don't want to go to college, don't think you'd be holding me back, but I wouldn't be going, either, because you are my life now."
"Tug, you don't have to do all of this for me, you know."
"I do know, but I want to. I would be miserable in college if I didn't have you there with me."
"But-" Lauren began but Tug interrupted her.
"Lauren. I love you. That may sound cheesy or overrated, but it is the truth. I love you and I can't imagine a day in my life when I don't have you by my side. I feel like singing your name to the heavens and letting the whole world know that I am in love with you!"
Lauren shook her head before smiling up at him. "I'm crazy in love with you, too, I trust you know that?"
"Of course I do!" Tug replied.
"And I love you so much that I couldn't live with myself if I let you miss out on an opportunity to go places in your life."
"The only opportunity I would be missing out on is the opportunity to spend four more years with you."
"I'm being serious, Tug. I don't want you to throw your life away just to spend more time with me!"
Tug took Lauren's hands in his and said "You are my life now, Lauren. I love everything about you and I don't want to spend a single day of my life without you. I made my decision a long time ago when I first realized I loved you. If you weren't going with me, then I wasn't going and that's the end of the discussion." And with that, he kissed Lauren yet again, dipping her downward and wrapping his arms around her waist to support her weight and keep her from falling off of the bench.
When they pulled apart, Lauren said, "Well, if you're sure."
"I've never been surer of anything in my entire life."
"That's a whole fifteen years! You must feel pretty proud!" Lauren quipped sarcastically at him.
Tug nuzzled her nose before saying "You are definitely worth sticking around with, baby." Tug told her, smiling affectionately down at her.
Lauren smiled, equally affectionately up at him. "You're my life, too, Tug. I love you! And I am so thankful that we are able to go to schools that are right next to each other, even if I do miss my old friends and classmates. You were most assuredly worth the move."
Tug smirked then, and replied, "You bet your probably very expensive dress I was."
Lauren gave him a look and Tug replied with a smoldering expression and pouted. This successfully broke the glare and Lauren's stone-cold expression. She traded it in for a laugh which she loudly let out. "I'm so lucky to have you as a boyfriend, Tug, especially compared to the other guys that attend your school."
"Again, obviously." Tug replied.
"Don't push it," Lauren said light-heartedly. Tug mock cowered at her, resulting in making the both of them laugh like a pack of hysterical hyenas.
"And you are much better looking than all of the other girls at your school. Better than all of them combined."
Lauren's face fell at his words as she asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Just that you're the most beautiful girl in the world. I wasn't making fun of them if that's what you're worried about." Tug replied, fingering a loose lock of her golden hair and tucking it behind her ear. "The girls are great! They seem much more interesting than the guys at my school anyway."
Lauren shook her head before saying "You are unbelievable."
"Unbelievably attractive, unbelievably smart, or unbelievably charming?"
"Close. Unbelievably annoying is more like it."
Tug gaped in mock hurt, placing a hand on his chest for an extra measure. "Well." Tug said with a gasp.
"Kidding! I was just kidding!" Lauren told him with a laugh, hugging him.
Tug hugged her back. "You know, Lauren, the sign of a really great relationship is the occasional fight but I think we've used up that particular playing card."
"I agree. Besides, yelling causes stress which causes premature wrinkles, something I know you wouldn't want."
"You don't seem to realize that you would look beautiful to me no matter what happens."
"Oh, Tug." Lauren sighed happily, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Tug gingerly wrapped an arm around Lauren's shoulders, pulling her body closer to his. "I'm really glad you came by today, Lauren. I've had a really fantastic time." Lauren gave him a look. Tug laughed before saying "I really have. I always look forward to seeing you whenever you decide to stop by."
"And I love stopping by to come and see you. You're my boyfriend, Tug, and I love you."
"I love you, too. Hey, I was thinking, maybe tomorrow I could stop by Miss Grimwood's?"
"Oh, you don't have to do that."
"No, I wouldn't mind. Besides, I think the guys look forward to your visits a little, okay way too much."
"The girls would just love to see you stop by. You, a dashing, good-looking guy with your debonair smile, in a school far away from your own that's full of girls who would have you outnumbered five to one. You'd be defenseless and powerless to stop them." Lauren told him, flashing a smile as she ran a finger down his chest in a seductive manner.
"Eh, you would fight them off for me."
"Yeah, no. There is no way I could take them all on. You would be torn to shreds."
"More of me to love you, then." Tug replied with an easy shrug.
"What am I going to do with you, Tug?" Lauren asked affectionately, running a hand through his silky hair.
"Keep me around forever." Tug replied, grabbing her arms and pulling Lauren closer to his body.
"Like I'm going anywhere else. I love you, Tug." Lauren told him, tapping him on the nose with her index finger. In response to that, Tug lightly tapped Lauren on her nose before pulling her in for another kiss. "Stop! You're making me blush, Tug!" Lauren cried, laughing and throwing her head back with mirth.
"Good." Tug said, stroking her cheek. "You look even more beautiful when you do."
Lauren took Tug's hand away from her face and held it in both of hers. Tug flipped Lauren's hand over, clasped it in his own, and began running his thumb in small circles around and around on her palm. "Do you want to meet up tomorrow?" Tug asked her.
"Yes of course! Maybe we could meet tomorrow before sunset at the boundary wall?" Lauren suggested eagerly.
"I would love nothing more." Tug replied with a smile. Suddenly a trumpet sounded, splitting apart the quiet and causing a large murmuration of birds to shoot out of the trees and fly away, loudly squawking. "That will be the Colonel." Tug said with a sad sigh.
Lauren took his hands in hers and asked, "Does this mean you have to go?"
"Unfortunately." Tug stood up, took Lauren's hand in his, and kissed her softly on the knuckles. "Until tomorrow."
Lauren laughed lightly, smiling, and said, "I love you, Tug."
"I love you more, Lauren." and with that he left, running towards his school, securing his hat back on his head.
Lauren watched him run off until Tug had fully disappeared from sight. Lauren stood up, dusted the back of her dress off, and began walking back to her school. She could have teleported, but it was such a nice day out and she was just glowing with happiness that she decided to walk. "I'm glad I wore these sandals instead of those high heels." Lauren murmured as she climbed up the concrete wall.
Once at the top of the wall, she took one large step and propelled herself forward, jumping from the wall. She flew a couple of feet in the air before slowly descending to the ground. After she had landed securely on the ground, Lauren gave her head a little shake before walking onward, back toward her school. She had a sneaky suspicion that the ghouls would be awaiting her arrival either in her room or at the front of the foyer. It was the latter of the two choices that the other ghouls had chosen to go with. Lauren hadn't even fully walked through the door of the school when Lauren was bombarded by the ghouls. They pulled Lauren into the foyer and encircled her.
Sibella took a bit of the material from Lauren's dress in her hands and her eyes bulged out of her head. "This dress looks fangtastic! I bet Tug was head over heels for you, I mean, you look to die for! So how did it go with Tug anyway?"
Lauren giggled excitedly in response, took Sibella's hands in her own, spun her around, and exclaimed "Oh, it was such a magical day! We talked for-" Lauren stopped and checked her watch before continuing. "We talked for over an hour!"
"And did you talk about the... you know, the issues you were talking about early today?" Winnie prompted concernedly.
"Yeah, we talked about it at first, but it didn't take that long before we had it all nice and settled. Then we simply just talked the rest of the time."
"You didn't tell him about your parentage, did you? I remember you saying you wouldn't." Elsa asked worriedly.
"No, I let a bit slip in frustration, but fortunately for me, he didn't catch on. I love that boy, but sometimes he can be a bit of an idiot. A very loveable idiot, but an idiot nonetheless." Lauren replied, affectionately.
"And when are you meeting him again?" Tanis asked wistfully.
"Tomorrow night, if we don't have any other plans."
"Why would he have any plans that don't revolve around you? You're the best thing that's ever happened to him!" Phantasma snapped.
Lauren chuckled at them before saying "He has a life outside of our relationship, you guys know."
"Yeah, a boring one!" Winnie put in.
"Seriously, you're his girlfriend, he's supposed to spend every waking second either with you or thinking of you," Sibella added, crossing her arms.
Lauren eyed them before laughing and saying "That's not quite how relationships work but okay then. Believe what you want but still, you don't see me spending every second of every day thinking of Tug or spending every second of every day spending time with Tug, do you?"
"No, but that's because you are the girlfriend. You are not the one who has to do all of the thinking of and spending time with. That's his job. Your job, on the other hand, is to be so irresistibly attractive that Tug will never stop thinking of you, even if a model were to walk by him." Tanis explained smartly.
"Er... actually, the job of a girlfriend is to be there for her boyfriend whenever he needs her. And the same thing goes for the boyfriend. In the job being a girl, or boy, friend, the person must listen to the other, care when they've had their feelings upset, show compassion, be understanding, even of the little things that seem trivial at the moment. You need to be their best friend, their sole confidant, their shoulder to lean on in hard times or to cry on with no regard for the salty tears they may get on your clothing, even if it happens to be your absolute favorite because you love him and want him to be happy. You would do anything for him to make him happy. It's not just about looks and high levels of attractiveness, you know." Lauren turned her head back over to the ghouls who were all looking at her with various degrees of sappiness.
"Oh, that was just beautiful, Lauren! You have such a way with words!" Sibella cried, wiping her eyes with her hair.
"Yeah, I wish I had a boyfriend!" Phantasma wailed.
Lauren smiled sympathetically before replying "Oh, don't worry. I am absolutely positive that eventually each and every one of you will have a boyfriend. You're intelligent, beautiful, not to mention all of the other stuff I've mentioned during the past ten minutes."
"Thanks, Lauren."
"Yeah, you always know what to say to make us feel better!"
"Aw, well, it's the truth. Nothing is too good for my sister ghouls." This was met with a group hug between Lauren, Sibella, Tanis, Phantasma, Winnie, and Elsa. After a minute, the hug ended and they all fell away from each other.