Sorry for the wait!! I know, I pretty much suck. But...at least it's here now? I think there's only going to be a few more after this. That kind of makes me sad. I actually really like this story. Not this part in particular, but as a whole, I'll be sad to see it off. :(


Griffin was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch while I sprawled out across it, staring at the ceiling. We had spent the last hour mostly sitting here, sometimes talking. I mostly waited for Griffin to say something, because I was out of things to say by this point.

I really exhausted the 'You can tell me anything' bit. Griffin understood it by now, but he really wasn't ready to tell me anything. And I was okay with it, as long as he knew he had the option.

I knew that he would be bad at discussing things. I just didn't know he would be this bad. It was just like he lost words altogether. But as time went on, I realized that maybe words weren't as important as I was making them out to be.

"Barbie I...well, shit, I don't do this," he said frustrated, rubbing his eyes.

"We've established that, sunshine," I said with a lazy smile.

"I just don't know what you expect. I've never had a girlfriend before."

"Me either," I said, grinning again.

He looked up with a glare.

"Smartass."

I smiled again, shaking my head.

"We don't have to talk about this," I suggested, sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the couch.

"We don't?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Griffin, you're isolated and bitter. I'm sarcastic and annoying. I think that match is pretty perfect without forced conversations. We can just try to let things...be for a while," I said, looking at him for confirmation.

He looked utterly relieved, and I swear I saw his jaw unclench as he nodded vigorously.

"Fuck that sounds good. I was running out of things to say and I've had to take a piss for the past hour."

I watched him get up and walk toward the bathroom and found myself grimly smiling.

I've never felt so lucky.

I woke up and looked around, seeing that it was already pretty dark out. I must have fallen asleep when Griffin was looking through all his notes and information he wouldn't let me look at. I sighed and stood up, seeing that he must have went somewhere because I couldn't see or hear anything indicating a human within thirty feet.

I yawned and stretched a little, contemplating what to do. Griffin's place wasn't exactly a funhouse. If you didn't want to kill Paladins or play a video game, you were pretty much out of luck. I wish he would have left a note or something, saying when he would be back. But that's so un-Griffin like that I almost laughed just thinking it.

I began to move toward the outside when I saw the pile of papers and discs that Griffin was looking at earlier. I looked around quickly, knowing that Griffin wasn't here, but feeling the need to be paranoid anyway. As I crept closer, I swear I heard something, but a quick survey told me I was just being crazy.

I didn't think about my days in school a lot, but this was eerily reminiscent of something that had already happened...

My roommate, Melinda, and I were...let's just say polar opposites. She was the outspoken, perky one and I was the only spoken when spoken to, sarcastic one. She mainly ignored me, but in our last month of school, I swear she became more...interested in me. For some strange reason, I just always felt like she was scrutinizing my actions and whenever I made a movement, her eyes would flicker toward me.

So, one day, as I was leaving the room, I waited outside with my ear pressed to the door. I held my breath, knowing that it would be hard to explain why I was listening if she caught me. I heard her footsteps coming toward the door, so with wide eyes I nearly flew into the bathroom across the hall. I saw her walking down the hall, looking around and finally disappearing from sight.

I felt my heart beating faster as I opened the door and walked back into our room. When I entered, everything looked the same, except for the pile of papers messily shoved under Melinda's pillow.

I looked around. She could come back at any minute, but I had to look. Curiosity would always, always get the better of me.

I could almost hear my heart beating as I tentatively picked up her pillow and looked down at the flurry of papers. Some just had phone numbers and names I never heard of, but some of them had...notes. I couldn't make any sense of them, they were just places and dates, some with stars and others with names of airlines and times. I looked through every small piece, wondering just what the hell they meant, but finding no clue.

I couldn't shake the feeling that Melinda hated me before, but now she wasn't ignoring me anymore. I felt like a spy, but a completely untrained, stupid one that only got themselves into messes.

I looked around quickly, straining my ears. I didn't hear anything, but I could only imagine the doorknob turning at any second and Melinda walking in, face turning to fury. So, I shoved all the papers back, neatened up the bedspread, and walked out of the room, more confused than ever.

I never found out what was going on with Melinda, because pretty soon there were finals, and then graduation. She never said anything more to me, or did anything to me. I guess I just have the personality that makes everyone out to be crazy or something. So, I never saw her again, but as I was about to look through Griffin's papers, all the feelings of nervousness and paranoia seemed to rise back up within me.

With some hesitation, I reached forward, flipping open a book and seeing CDs inside. I scanned over the words, seeing that most of them were names of places. London, Rome... they were all like that.

I put down the book and reached for the papers, picking one up and starting to scan my eyes over it.

"What do you think you're doing, Barbie?"

My heart leaped in my chest and I spun around, dropping the paper. I tried to calm my breathing as Griffin looked at me with an eyebrow raised, arms across his chest. I felt my shock turn to guilt and I shrugged my shoulders.

"I was just...curious?" I offered, biting my lip.

"Curious because I told you not to look?" he asked.

"Curious because I thought I was going to help you and thought that maybe I should look," I quipped.

"Or curious because people are always curious about things they shouldn't look at," he retorted.

I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering how it was just this morning that we were having that conversation about us.

"Where were you?" I opted to ask instead, tilting my head in question.

"Egypt," he said effortlessly, as if it were a normal occurrence, "And don't think you get off that easy."

I felt myself almost smiling, the atmosphere somewhat lifted now that I knew he wasn't going to get mad at me.

"Oh yeah? What did you get me?"

"Now, I've never had a girlfriend or whatever before-" Griffin claimed.

"Neither have I," I cut in, again. It was just too easy if he kept saying that.

He glared at me momentarily, but continued as if I hadn't spoken.

"But I'm pretty sure it's not custom to buy them presents to places that they can just as easily go," he finished.

I looked up at him, moving closer and taking my chances by putting my hands around his waist.

"So let's go somewhere," I suggested.

He looked a little awkward, but tried to mask it as I smiled, kind of enjoying his hesitation.

"Like where?"

I let go of his waist, leaning up to kiss him quickly. He was still so unsure about this whole thing that he wasn't completely relaxed, but I took his effort as a good enough sign.

"Seriously, where are we going?"

"I'm not going to kill you," I said with a laugh.

"Just tell me where," he tried to say demandingly.

"No," I said back with a chuckle.

"Yes?"

"No."

I grabbed his hand, and began to walk toward the entrance to the outside.

"Now I know you've never had a girlfriend before," I mocked. "But sometimes...things just have to be a surprise," I said, smiling.

And then I jumped.