Meanwhile...
Since it was already nighttime, Victoria can finally go off to the Royal Academy to meet up with Ray there. She already gotten permission from her father to go and meet up with him, which he approved...however, she didn't actually tell him that she was going to be meeting up with her friend at the school while it's closed. She told her father that she would be meeting him at his house instead. Regardless, Victoria was able to convince her father to meet up with her best friend.
Upon her arrival at her old high school building, Victoria couldn't help but stand there and stare at the facility from afar. She's been to the Royal Academy when it was nighttime numerous times back then, but that was mainly for school plays which was during the semester. She wasn't sure why, but staring at the schoolhouse while it's closed for the summertime felt very eerie to her. There wasn't anyone inside the building from the looks of the windows. There wasn't any sign of any teachers, janitors, not even Principal Rosalyn. Obviously, the building wasn't shut down...but still, to her, it just felt like she was walking into a building that's been abandoned for an entire decade. She just hopes that Ray is somewhere close by.
Taking a deep breath, Victoria places her hands into the pockets of her dark pink winter coat, then headed to the location of the school area where the courtyard was at. It wasn't too hard to find. The courtyard was nothing more but a spot near the back of the school that has a giant tree with about four benches surrounding it. It wasn't anything too special, especially to everyone else back when they enrolled here, but to her, this spot was always remembered fondly to her. Even before she met Ray, she'd normally come out here to think to herself and relax whenever she had a stressful day. She was grateful that the teachers still haven't decided to get rid of the tree yet.
When she arrived at this part of the schoolyard, she saw Ray sitting down in one of the benches waiting for her. "Ray! My dearest!" Victoria shouts as she began to run towards him. "I'm here!"
Ray looks up from the ground, turning his head towards the direction the drama girl was running from. "Victoria, hey..." He said before standing up from the bench, just as his friend ran up to him. "I'm glad you could make it here."
"Yes..." Once the British woman approached her friend, the smile she had on quickly became a frown seconds after. "I...hath received thy text saying that thou and fair Raven hast...broken up. Is this true?"
"I'm afraid so."
Ray turns around to face the bench he was sitting on, where on one side of it laid a box full of stuff. There appeared to be a lot of items in there, but Victoria could make out some of the items that she can see in it. Some of the items include a dark purple stuffed-animal bat, a 'Metallica' t-shirt, a few bracelets that were black or purple, and a couple books. There were multiple other items that she could see in there, but she couldn't make out some of the other stuff.
"What is all of this?" Victoria asked.
"Just a bunch of stuff that Raven gave to me...or gave back to me, I mean..." Ray said, sitting down next to said box. "Everything in here are presents I gave Raven throughout our entire relationship, from the start of it to this year. She gave this to me right before I came all the way out here."
"Oh...I'm terribly sorry, Ray." Victoria said, before sitting on the other side of the box. "What are you going to be doing with these?"
"For the most part...I'm pretty much going to be returning these things back to the stores where I got these from. I doubt I'm going to find any use of having them around my house, and I heavily doubt that you would find any use in any of these either."
Victoria looks down at the box beside her once again, now taking notice of what appeared to be a toy zombie hand. "I...definitely wouldn't..." She said awkwardly, all while cringing at the sight of the toy. "So what happens now?"
"Personally, I don't really know. Raven and I are no longer dating...Violet hates me...I'm pretty sure James hates me now...as for Ghostly, I don't know. Aside from Goth Boy, Yuki, and Crystal, he's really the only person who's willing to talk to me after everything that has happened between us." The goth then sighed in a depressed manner, before picking up the box and putting it onto his own lap. "So...I guess I can safely assume that he's the only one out of all of my friends who hasn't completely turned against me. Although, I doubt Violet's going to be too happy knowing he's still friends with me." He then turned his head towards the drama girl now. "I guess if anything, the only friends I really do have now are Goth Boy, Yuki, and...well, you, of course."
"Oh blimey..." Victoria muttered, guilt clearly heard in her voice as she said that. "Ray, my dearest...I am deeply sorry that your friends turned on you. I always wanted to be with you, but...I never wanted something like this to be something you have to endure because of it."
"Don't blame yourself on this one, Victoria." Ray said while he shook his head at what his friend was saying. "I'm pretty sure that even if I broke up with Raven rather than cheat on her, she and my friends probably would've turned on me anyway. I don't think there was any actual way that I would've started this relationship with you without them getting pissed off with me about it."
"Well...in hindsight, I certainly agree..."
After thinking about it some more, Victoria knew that Ray was right. She always thought that things would've been a lot more better if Ray were to simply break up with Raven instead of cheat on her, but was now starting to believe that things probably wouldn't have been so different. Not to mention, she probably would've been called out by James for starting a relationship with his best friend regardless of such, and his and Ray's friendship probably would've ended immediately afterwards too. It didn't really seem like anyone was going to be happy in the end.
"So...where do we go from here, Ray?" Victoria asked as she rubbed the side of her neck, clearly unsure about their current situation.
"Well...I don't know if now is a terrible time to ask, considering that the bullshit I went through this morning, but..." Ray started off saying, before taking a pause for a second. He turned his head towards the drama girl next to him, finally asking her something that she's always wanted to hear him ask her. "Do you want to be together?"
"R-Really?" She asked as her eyes widened at what the goth just asked her.
Ray places a hand on top of the British woman's hand, looking at her in her eyes as he then proceeded to talk. "Ever since we reunited days ago, I've been wanting to do so much with you that we missed out on doing together back in high school. It would be nice to do all of it knowing that you're my girlfriend when we do all of it. Whether it would be us hanging out at the mall, the movie theater, the beach, the park, or maybe even another carnival...I want to spend it all with you by my side." The goth then frowned as his eyes peered away from his friend for a second. "My friends...I know they're mad at me...but hopefully, one of these days, we'll be able to put everything that happened today behind us. Although...I'm not expecting Raven to forgive me at all..." He lets out a depressed sigh, before smiling at her once again. "Look, I guess what I'm saying here is that today was just not a good day whatsoever...but who says that it has to end badly for us, right? If last night was fate saying that we should be together, then lets actually date." Victoria remained silent, still feeling awestruck about all of this. "So what do you say? Shall we make it official and...start going out?"
Victoria tried to say something in response, but found herself almost unable to. This was something that she's always wanted to happen, and she knew if Ray ever asked her out that, she would say 'yes' on a dime. Now that it was truly happening to her, she didn't know why, but she felt her tongue go dry before she could even give him an answer. She was still so in awe, that she honestly didn't have any words to say. Eventually, she was able to say something after about an entire minute passed.
"Oh Ray...thou dost not know how long I hath waited for thee to utter those words to me." Victoria said, sounding almost breathless. "Of course I will be thy girlfriend!"
"That's great." The goth said as a smile formed on his face.
Ray places the box of gifts aside, before scooting closer to Victoria, who was also scooting closer to him. Once they were close to each other, the two leaned into each other's faces, kissing each other on the lips. Both of then allowed the kiss to last for about an entire minute, as they were letting themselves enjoy this moment for all that it's worth.
This kiss they wanted to be special for the both of them. Granted, they already kissed last night, but they weren't exactly a couple yet. But right now...in this very spot...the spot where they spent a large majority of their time together back than...they wanted this very moment to be the moment, they're kiss to be the kiss that ultimately starts their relationship. The kiss only lasted a minute, but in the end, it was all worth it.
"I love you, Ray." Victoria whispers to him.
"I love you too, Victoria." Ray whispers back.
The two were about to continue kissing, but right before they could, Victoria heard the sound of her phone beeping in her pocket. The two relented their kiss, as the drama girl pulled her out of her coat pocket to see who was texting her right now. Unfortunately for her, it was a text from her step-mother, informing her that her father was going to be heading home in about twenty minutes. Groaning in frustration, she faced her new boyfriend once again.
"Oh blimey...it's Emily." Victoria mutters, before standing up from the bench. "Ray, my dear, I hate to break off such a tenor moment, but I must go now. My father wouldn't be too pleased hearing that I was out in the city at night without him knowing about it."
"Alright." Ray said, before picking up the box of gifts next to him and standing up from the bench. "I got to continue returning these things anyway." He then kissed the British woman on the cheek, before patting her on the shoulder. "Whenever you want to go out on a date, please give me a call, okay?"
"I certainly will." Victoria kisses her new boyfriend on the cheek, before placing her hands in her coat pockets and making her way over to the exit of the schoolyard.
Once the two of them were out of the schoolyard, they exchanged waves and went their separate ways until the next time they go out together. Victoria was heading back home, while Ray was heading his way to the city so that he can start finding the stores he got Raven's gifts from. Despite the latter that things turned out somewhat good for him in the end, he felt like tonight was going to be a very long night for him. He pretty much forgotten which gifts he got from which store. Hopefully, he was able to find all them before midnight.
The moment he got to the town, he walked down the sidewalk for a few minutes until he stumbled upon the location of where the movie theater was at. Like James said, it was definitely 'Couples Night', as he could see so many couples either standing together, talking to each other, or maybe even kissing each other. Speaking of which, he didn't see James among the crowd of people who were waiting in line to see any of the movies that were there. Then again, considering that today was just as bad for him, he couldn't blame his former best friend for not showing up.
'Damn...he's not there...' Ray said in his thoughts as a solemn expression appeared on his face. 'He may not be my friend anymore, but I sure hope that he's able to get together with Jenny after everything he's went through.' The goth sighed, before proceeding to walk off to one of the nearby stores.