March 18th.
Thursday.
10:28 P.M
Location: Winhill Train Station.
Operation: Damsel in Distress
Procedure: Step 1: Wait for Caraway's meeting to start.
Step 2: Rinoa Heartilly will ask her guards if she is allowed to use the restroom, the idea being she has already hidden her necessities in the restroom.
Step 3: Rinoa will then convince her guards that she has … lady issues… and she has no… hygiene products…to take care of herself. Ugh.
Step 4: Since she cannot leave the house, one of her guards will have to go off and um… buy some I guess. Keep in mind there are only two.
Step 5: Rinoa then will knock out her other remaining guard with chloroform. Her dad keeps the weirdest shit in the house. Especially the bathroom.
Step 6: Rinoa will climb out the window of her bathroom and run across the yard.
Step 7: My good friend Balthier will then pick her up and bring Rinoa to the train station where she'll escape to my house!
Commencing.
What the hell am I doing? I'm trying to hype myself up for a goddamn kidnapping attempt that's what I'm doing. This is a lot harder than they make it look like in the movies. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing actually.
Rinoa and I just made this shitty plan out on a whim. We have no experience with kind of stuff, just teenage naivety and wishful thinking. Though we did have a professional pirate on our side.
Balthier Bunansa was the greatest pirate in the world. Or so he says anyways. The bastard tried to break into my house and my old man caught him by hitting him over the head with a pan, like a freakin woman. Then Laguna thought the fact that he was actually able to catch this man was of the greatest feats in the world and actually let him go. Yeah you read that right. Laguna Loire is not known for being the brightest light in the harbor, but he did manage to capture one of the greatest thieves in the world so that has to count for something.
So since Balthier was so grateful that Laguna and the rest of the family hadn't turned him in he offered us each a favor. It was time he paid what he owed.
"So I go in, get the girl, and bring her back to you? That's it?" Balthier asked me between his smoking his cig.
"Yeah that's all you have to do. Shouldn't be too hard."
"Well that's not why I'm asking, I mean I figured you would ask for something better kid." He took another puff of the cig before tossing it to the ground and crushing it.
"This is something really important Balthier."
"Oh I bet, girlfriends and all that." He chuckled before getting into her black Mustang. "I'll try to be back within two hours, but I ain't gonna promise anything. Especially if the girl isn't all that smart. The leading man doesn't always have things go his way you know."
I walked over to his window "She's not dumb. She'll be there. She has to be…" I whispered the last part.
Balthier chuckled "Alright, alright, if you say so kid." With that he put black shades on his face and gave me a reassuring smirk. His car's engine revved and he drove off.
I was left there to hope for the best. Rinoa is going to make it out okay. I repeated those words to myself over and over again. The magic of chanting had to work, otherwise we're screwed.
Teenage naivety.
Wishful thinking.
I remembered Rinoa's happiness when I promised to set her free. To be honest I don't know what came over me when I promised such a thing. It was a stupid idea, a stupid plan, and a stupid false hope. I was praying to God that pain Rinoa had suffered in that house was not was bad I thought it was, or at least as bad as she made it out to be. She was scared of that man, the man that's supposed to be her father.
I sighed as walked around the train station alone. I only told Irvine and Cloud of this plan, Irvine thought it was cool, and Cloud thought it was the stupidest thing he's ever heard in his life. … I had to agree. Despair started to hit me again. Tidus and Zell have always told me that if I keep thinking something bad is going to happen, then it will. But with a 50-50 chance I only thought of the negative.
I heard my phone in ring in my pocket, I grabbed it out and lifted it to my view so I can see the caller I.D. Speak of the devil.
"Irvine, I am not in the mood. Whatever girl slapped you for whatever you did, I don't care. I never cared."
Irvine pretended to be offended. "Hey man that's kinda harsh. Besides dude, I wasn't even calling you to keep ya updated on my Selphie plan." Remember that girl I told you he wanted to get with? Yeah her name is Selphie Tilmitt. See Irvine has this black book where he wrote down all the types of women he's screwed. The manwhore has filled three books so far, and next on his list of women is "petite girl who can utterly kick your ass". Yeah, I know he has a sex problem, yeah I know it's not good to play with a girl like that, but since when does he listen to me?
"Alright then what do you want?"
"I just got a text from Rinny."
"What?"
" Yeah thought you'd like to know. She told me she's fine, that's she's coming to see us soon. I'm guessing princess has made it to the pirate's car. Oooor she has a lot of confidence in this." he chuckled.
"Oh… thank god." I sighed.
"Awww was Squally-kitty worried about his witlle girlfriend?"
"Shut up! And quit with that dumb nickname!"
Irvine laughed on the other line. "I'm just fucking with ya man. We were all worried about her, no need to be embarrassed. So what's your plan Squally-kitty?"
I wasn't too sure how to answer that one. "Balthier is going to bring her here, and then I'll just take her back to my place, Laguna will be overjoyed to see her again so no questions asked…. For a while anyway."
"So what do you plan on working out with her dad, you know with her disappearing and all, he's going to know you had something to do with it."
"We can handle it."
"Alrighty then, but don't be afraid to ask if you need anything." He chuckled. "Want me to go and meet ya there?" I guess he changed the subject because he knew I was going to start freaking out.
I shrugged, not that he could see me anyway. "Whatever."
"Aww come on Squally Think about how I hooked you two up! You gotta let me help ya!"
I didn't want Irvine involved in any trouble that I knew eventually would happen, but I did owe him a lot. I nodded, again, he couldn't see me so there really was no point. "I'll meet you at your place."
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"I can't believe you actually convinced me to come to this stupid fucking dance." I groaned dejectedly
"Squally-kitty, you needed to get out more often, show the ladies that the cold hearted Squall isn't really him." Irvine grinned.
"No, no, he really is."
"You're just being a baby. Now don't go in until I meet my date." Did this guy really want me to stand out in the cold with him? Damn it all.
"Ah! There she is!" Irvine started waving frantically, nearing jumping to gain attention. A jet black limo pulled up in front of our school. A tall man left the front seat and bowed towards Irvine. He was dressed as a chauffeur, his hands covered by black leather gloves, it matched his black suit. He opened the back seat, took off his hat and bowed in front of the now opened car door, extending his hand respectfully. A small hand gently touched his, and the chauffer help said hand up, revealing a petite body dressed in white. I chuckled as my mind finally clicked that it was a girl in the car. The whole moment was in slow motion, out of a fairy tale even. She wore a white dress that just barely made it past her knees it had slight frills at the bottom, the only thing that help up her dress was the criss-crossed strap that covered her neck, her hair was up in a tight messy bun, a flower clip holding it up, with her bangs falling in perfect alignment with her face.
The chauffer bowed formally, and the girl giggled. She said something but we were too far to hear her. Irvine smacked my back and nodded his head towards her.
"Beauty isn't she?" He chuckled." You can pick up your jaw from the floor now, wouldn't want your first impression to be a idiot, no matter how true it is. Come on I'll introduce ya."
"Whatever." We made our way to her, took her a while to notice us.
"Oh, Thank you again Wedge, I would like to be picked up at midnight, on the dot." The poor man nodded, must sucked having to listen to a 16 year old rich snob, when you're a 25 year old man. Yeah, rich snob, that was my first impression of her. Seemed about right if you ask me.
"Midnight ma'm? Your father made it clear for you to be home at 10." The man replied nervously.
"I'll take care of him, Wedge I said midnight." She told him sternly. Okay, spoiled rich snob, this just keeps getting better and better. Wedge remained silent, and the girl kept staring at him, maybe she expected him to give in and get fired or something. Before I knew it, she and Wedge began laughing hysterically. "I'm just fucking with ya Wedge, Irvy said he'll bring me home isn't that right?"
Irvine scratched the back of head and nodded at her, "Wouldn't want to get you fired Wedge." The chauffer smiled and got back in the limo.
"Make sure to take good care of her Mr. Kinneas." He said tipping his hat.
"Drive home safely Wedge!" The girl cried out as he drove away. She turned to us with a bright smile on her face. "Well aren't you going to introduce me to your friend over that Irvine?"
Irvine smiled, "I was getting to that. Squall this is Rinoa Heartilly, Rinny, this is Squall Leonhart."
She smiled brightly at me and extended her hand towards me. I gently shook it. She tilted her head, "You're awfully quiet. It's nice to meet you."
"Eeeh, Squally-kitty is always like that. Don't mind him. Come Rinny let's get going!"
We made our way to the gym, which had been decorated by the Festival Committee to look like late 1800's ball room. Hence why I was dressed in a black suit, a black tie, white under shirt and black dress shoes. Irvine was in similar attire but in dark brown. The dance wasn't anything important, like prom and whatnot; it was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the school. Winhill is a pretty poor town, most schools only fit about 200 kids in, so when the high school was finally made you can imagine the excitement that ran through the people. Place holds at least 2000 students, it ain't a bad place, its diverse and tolerate so there's no big problems besides the classic asshole\bitch.
"Squuuuaallly wanna do me a favor?" Irvine said in a whiney voice.
"Not really. No." I responded.
"Well too bad. Show Rinny around the gym, I gotta take a piss." He pushed Rinoa into me and ran off.
This ass really wanted me to hang out with a complete stranger… shouldn't he know me better?
Whatever.
Rinoa looked up at me, her lips curved into a smile. "I'm thirsty, is there a punch bowl or some shit around here?" A swear? I didn't expect that to come out of little rich girl's mouth. I nodded and walked towards the left side of the gym, Rinoa skipping behind me. The table for with the snacks and whatnot stood on the back wall, chips, pizza, brownies, punch, drinks, everything and anything were displayed on the long table. Rinoa squealed and ran towards the punch bowl, filling a cup and drinking it hastily.
"Don't you just hate formal dances like this?" It took me a minute to realize she was talking to me. I shrugged and grabbed myself something to drink. "Oooh they have brownies too! …With walnuts. Ekku."
I chuckled. " 'Ekku'?"
She pouted, sticking out her bottom lip and all. "It's what I say to something gross, or scary."
"So walnuts are…?"
"Both. They taste bad, should never be in brownies, and they look scary."
"…They're walnuts, what's so scary about them?"
Rinoa shuddered. "They look like they tried to copy peanuts, but epically failed." She hugged herself and shuddered again.
I laughed, this girl made no sense. "So do you hate peanuts too?"
"No they're delicious!" She smiled brightly. I couldn't help but laugh again. She suddenly ran over to my side and poked me right in the side of my lip. "I got you to talk! Yay!"
"… Whatever."
She pouted once again, she seemed to do that a lot. "Oooh! Don't go back to being all silent again. I was having fun." You know this isn't exactly what I expected from this chick.
"The hell is Irvine?" I groaned.
"You know I was just thinking that, I mean how long does it take to-" The gym was filled with music. It sounded like the orchestra version of Julia Heartilly's 'Eye's On Me'. I heard Rinoa gasp next to me, her eyes were getting all watery… oh God, she better not cry.
She did the exact opposite. Rinoa jumped in front of me. "You're the best looking guy here. Dance with me?"
I sighed. "I don't dance."
"Oh, I get it. You won't dance with someone you don't like." Officially this chick is weird, cause she starts waving her finger in my face like she was trying to hypnotizes me or something. "Look into my eyes: you're-going-to-like-me. You're-going-to-like-me. Did it work?" She really wanted me to say it. She couldn't just leave it alone. I sighed deeply this time.
"I can't dance."
She smiled widely. Damn it now she's going to laugh at me.
Instead she grabbed my had and started dragging me to the dance floor. "You can't leave a poor girl like me on the dance floor alone!"
Rinoa put one hand on my shoulder and held my other one, as I told her I can't friggin dance so I… nervously put my on her waist. She smiled and took a step to the right and I followed her nearly tripping on my own feet. She took a step back, again I followed but this time I rammed into the poor girl. Next step and we smashed into another couple.
"Watch where you're fucking going!" some punk told us. Rinoa stuck out her tongue at them.
I shook my head and pulled away from her. "This isn't working." I was making the biggest fool of myself. Rinoa pulled me back before I could walk away.
"You're doing great." She's kidding right? Gently she place my hand back on her waist, then she smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!
"Are you serious?" I could barely breathe since I was laughing so hard.
"And then the broad cut me off so I rammed into her!" Rinoa took another swing from her can of beer. "This stuff sucks dude."
"Beer is the drink of the gods Rinoa. Zeus drinks beer you know." I responded chugging down the rest of her bottle.
She gave me a slight glare before saying, "Zeus drank ale dumbass."
"This then in turn, made beer. Same fucking difference." I retorted. We've been at Irvine's after party for a good hour now. The dance ended at 10, which is probably why Rinoa's old man wanted her home at that time, who knows, it was lame anyway. This whole day was full things I didn't like; Parties, dances, dancing, people…. Overall it wasn't supposed to be… fun. Somehow Rinoa Heartilly managed to keep me interested. She was extremely outspoken, fun, nothing like the rich snob I thought she would be, and if I admitted it… she was cute.
"You know if Irvy really wanted to get laid why didn't he just do his usual thing? I mean using me pretty much failed." Rinoa giggled. I couldn't help but chuckle myself, it was true. Irvine was pretty mad at me for stealing his date, but as it turned out, the girl he wanted to impress wasn't even there.
I popped open another can, "He says he's got a book to fulfill. It's apparently the book of men. Why I never heard of it I'll never know."
"That's cause you're not quite a man yet squally-poo." To my left entered Irvine. "it's the book of real men."
"What's it of" Rinoa asked., she shifted, so Irvine could sit on the couch.
"Well you see Rinny-dear, it's the book of all the different kind of women out there that I need to have sex with."
"That sounds kinda sexist… and why is this important.?"
Irvine grabbed my can and took a swing, "Because, 'Cute Girl who can kick your ass' is on the list. I'm only missing some girls anyway."
Rinoa tilted her head "…So you found said chick and need to do her."
"You're damn right I do. Now if you'd excuse me, I have to attend to my guests." Yeah he did, there were a lot of people here…. Ugh. Rinoa shook her hard, and patted the seat next to her.
"Come sit over here." I obliged, and took a seat next to her. She leaned on my shoulder. "T-tell me about yourself. " She grinned, a big goofy grin.
"umm Well, I was born and raised here. I umm like to play the electric guitar, umm I-" I was cut off because she crawled my lap. "Rinoa...?"
"Will you play me a song? I looooove music."
"I don't have a guitar with me..." even if I did I probably wouldn't play anything.
Rinoa leaned in closer " That's true." Her voice faded with the last word. My gaze would fall upon her eyes and then her lips, I couldn't help it. Rinoa was doing the same. I would lean forward and so would she, soon our lips grazed one another's. I began to press my lips onto hers more, I heard her let a breath out, and open her lips inviting me in. My hand touched her cheek, and she gripped onto my shirt. We closed our eyes and soon we-
"Riiiiiinnnnnnnyyyyyy! We gots to go if you don't want to get in troubbblee!" Irvine called.
Rinoa jumped off me, and grabbed her shoes from under the small table in front of us. "Coming!" She responded. She looked back me, her cheeks were tinted red. "I'm… I'm sorry about that."
I shook my head. "Don't worry about it…" I was regretting not doing it earlier…She nodded at me and ran to Irvine. I stood and followed her so I could say a proper good bye. Rinoa was hopping on one foot trying to get her heel on.
"Hurry up Rin." Irvine told her teasingly.
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" she cried. I don't know what came over me, but as Rinoa put her other heel on, I grabbed her hand and started dragging her to the back door. She struggled against my grip. "What're you doing?"
We got outside and I quickly pushed her against the wall. I wrapped my left arm around her waist and placed my right over her head.
I crashed my lips onto hers, kissing her deeply. Rinoa pulled away and stared at me with concerned eyes.
"S-squall?" Her cheeks were tinted red again. "What… what was that for…?" Instead of answering her I placed a kiss on her lips again. Something about her made it feel right, and when she began kissing me back, it felt great. I was cheating on Kylina… I knew I was, but I never felt this way, we had so much in common, we had fun, and we both knew we were… attracted to each other. I felt none of these things for Kylina, ever. At this moment, when Rinoa and I were in a deep passionate kiss, I realized I was only dating Kylina out of impulse. It was awful to think that, it was awful to even consider it, but honestly, I was never with these kind of things… and Rinoa made me feel comfortable with it… Is that normal? To feel this way when first meeting someone…? Rinoa pulled away from me, she blushed immensely and covered her lips with her finger tips.
"Will I see you again?" I whispered.
"Yes."
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I chuckled to myself as I recalled that memory. It was quite possibly the lamest thing I've ever done in my life. Clearly I was wasted; at least I'd like to think I was. Irvine and I have been sitting at his place playing Street Fighter IV for the past hour and a half. No call form Balthier yet, but it does take a bit to get around Deling, so I remain calm… for now. "Speak of the Devil…." My phone rang and 'Stupid Pirate' happened to be the I.D. "How'd it go?" I asked. Irvine looked over to me, gesturing to me, to know what was going on. "Rinoa." I simply told him.
"….She never showed… sorry kid."
'The leading man doesn't always have things go his way you know.' Those words rang in my head.
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I have been losing sleep over this girl. Laguna told me it was going to be difficult taking care of a girlfriend but come on! The fuck! I slammed by tray of food down on our table, our daily breakfast ritual began.
"So what's up?" Tidus asked cheerfully. He likes to know things… he's weird, asks us that every morning and we reply:
"Got another date." Zidane and Irvine said in unison. They looked at each other, grinned, and gave each other a high five.
"Started practicing a new chord with the bass, by the way my fingers are still bleeding from it." Zell said as he stuffed three pancakes in his mouth at once.
"Hm." Cloud's reply, without looking up from his book might I add.
"…" I sat there spinning my fork over the sausage, trying to figure out the best way to impale it.
"Squall?" Tidus asked.
Irvine leaned over and whispered, "Rinny didn't make it last night…"
Tidus nodded "I'm so sorry dude."
"Whatever."
Cloud closed his book, and slammed it on the table. "You mean to tell me, you still haven't gotten her out of there?"
"Whatever."
"Squall, you suck." Zidane grinned.
"Shut the hell up. It's not like I grew up knowing how to do this shit. Not like I'm some hero trying to save the world from like, a crazy sorceress trying to eliminate time or something. I'm a regular guy, you tell me how to save your girlfriend from her psychotic alcoholic father!"
Cloud took off his reading glasses. " it's simple."
"Oh yeah, how the hell do you figure that?" I nearly screamed.
"…You have her commit suicide." He grinned.
…. This boy is a genius.
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That took WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too long and I am sooooooo sorry about that! Well guys here's the new chapter and I'm really sorry if it wasn't satisfying. It ain't that great =( Oh this chapter is dedicated to Niqsta and Ne9star.
And Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy Kwanza!