Yay! Summer's finally here so I'm hoping for more updates. For those who probably hate me about tearing Adrian's heart twice in a row, this chapter should make you much happier! I wanted this chapter to be all about the Christmas Shopping and the time the gang spends at the mall but I realized halfway through that the trip is much longer than I expected it to be so I broke it up in two parts. It's ridiculously late at night now or I guess you can now say early morning so if you find any mistakes, please tell me so! There's another author's note at the bottom.
Read and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Richelle's awesome characters but I do own my plot!
Chapter Sixteen
Christmas Shopping Part One
Sydney POV
My mother always told me to hang on to what I have now because I might not have it tomorrow. I never took that seriously. I have always wanted more, things that I am not capable of. I can't be thin and beautiful like Jill and Lissa, I can't be as talented as Adrian, and I can't be as strong as Rose. I'll never be like them but I can do with what I am and what I have.
Yesterday night, I lost what felt like everything. There's this random man, a very good looking man, who knows Jill. How had he recognized her voice? Does he know her? I still didn't ask Jill about picking up the phone and answering to Marcus. Truth be told, I can't bring myself to look at her. Every time I look at her, I think of how broken Adrian had looked the night before. I shouldn't have been so harsh on him, so cold. He was just being protective, he was worried about me.
The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that he had been drinking. Was it because of me? Why was he even at the restaurant anyway and with Dimitri of all people? I sigh and reach for my phone for the thousandth time. A part of me is telling me to call him and apologize but the other part is saying to drop the phone and that calling will only make things worse. If I call, he might jump to conclusions. I have to action now. After calling me all night and realizing that I'm not going to pick up, he gave up on me. A part of me was sad, a very big part, the other satisfied.
My phone rings for the first time this morning and I look at the caller ID. It's Adrian. My hands start to shake and I run a hand through my hair. I can't continue ignoring him like the coward I am. Before I can change my mind again, I answer his call.
"Sage?" Adrian says.
I stop breathing.
"Sage you there?" he asks again.
I shut my eyes and lean back against my pillows. I can't do it. I just can't. The tears I have been holding back since the time I woke up start to fill my eyes again.
"I'm sorry Sydney ok? I was drunk and angry from Belikov watching over me. The Marco guy looked like he was harassing you Sage and so I took over things. What else could I have done? Let him…" Adrian says. "I don't who he is or what you were doing with him. It isn't my business and you don't have to tell me anything. Just talk to me again ok? Give me another chance Sydney, please."
I shut my cell off and slip it into my bag. A small knock brings me back to the world and I quickly dry my eyes.
"Come in," I call.
"Hey," Rose says stepping in. "We're going to head over to the mall now for Christmas shopping, are you ready?"
"Yeah," I tell her and get up. I slip on my jacket and purse and walk out of the cabin while Rose follows me, making sure to lock the door.
Jillian POV
Christmas is the best time of the year. It's the time where everyone come together and spend the day as a family with good food, presents, kisses under mistletoe, and stories by the fireplace. I remember the Christmases I shared with mom. They were filled with love, smiles, and laughter from the morning till the night. The best part of preparing for Christmas, besides cooking, is shopping. The mall is the perfect place to shop. I never know what exactly I'm going to buy until I walk by the different stores and let my mind wander among the different goods, services, and mouthwatering food.
This Christmas Eve isn't the best I've lived through. Everything's jumbled up and broken. Sydney's avoiding Adrian, Lissa's avoiding me, and the worst of it all is that Eddie won't even look at me or talk to me.
It's been three whole days and there's still no hello, how are you, or anything and it hurts. I know what I did was stupid, but I couldn't let him go alone and get hurt because of me. I won't be able to live through that. Maybe one day he'll understand why but that's far away from now. He's with Angeline, my friend, and their happily together. But never did I think that Eddie would be the one to yell at me like that. I expected Rose to blow off of her head but she didn't. She kept her mouth shut after seeing my broken face and had a feeling that Eddie already took care of it. Eddie has always been the friend who holds me up during tough times, he's the one who tells me everything's ok when it's not, he's the one who makes me feel safe, whole and wanted.
I walk through the town's surprisingly large mall with Adrian and Mia by my side. Sydney, Rose, and Lissa wandered off to a shop together and Dimitri and Christian to another. Eddie's somewhere behind us lurking amongst other people, not wanting to be seen.
"Oh my look at those boots!" Mia says stopping in front of these beautiful, high heeled, olive green, knee length boots with belts decorating the soft leather like material. "They'll look absolutely gorgeous on Rose!"
I smile. "They'll look awesome on her, what do you think Adrian?" I ask looking at him. I frown as I follow Adrian's gaze to the store next door where Sydney's shifting through some clothes uncomfortably while Rose and Lissa practically tear down the whole store, pulling out thousands of shirts and pants. "Adrian, are you ok?"
He nods and slowly turns to look at the boots. "You should buy them Mia, they're perfect for Rose."
Mia grins. "Thanks, do you mind if I go in and look around a little before I buy them? The store looks good."
"Yeah," I say. "Go ahead, and Adrian, you don't have to follow me around either. I'm going to go to that jewelry store over there."
Adrian nods and looks over his shoulder at Eddie. "Ok Jailbait," he says ruffling my hair. "Make sure Castile goes with you ok?"
I nod and watch him walk towards a book store. I stuff my hands in my hoodie and walk over to the store named Maru. It doesn't seem like a big store but I've heard from my friends back at St. Vlad's that they sell beautiful jewelry for a low price. I walk over to the glass box where the more expensive jewelry is and I look through the bracelets, earrings, and necklaces and stop at a beautiful charm bracelet locket. It's so beautiful, so…enchanting.
"Can I see that one?" I ask the lady up front, pointing to the bracelet.
"Of course dear," she says handing me the bracelet.
I take it in my hands and slip it on carefully. I turn my wrist around and smile as the charms clang against each other like summer bells. My fingers brush against the locket and my smile widens. I've always wanted a locket where I can put a picture of my family. Maybe I can get a picture of mom, Adrian and even Lissa.
"It's beautiful isn't?" the lady says. I nod. "You can have words engraved on the locket for just fifty dollars."
My eyes widen as I slip of the bracelet and hand it back to the lady. "How much is it?"
"Two hundred and fifty dollars," she says and smiles at my shocked face. "It's pure silver and the locket is gold."
"I'm good, where are the uh, much cheaper bracelets?"
The lady chuckles and points out an aisle. "Over there sweetie."
I walks through the aisle that's lined up with different kind of bracelets from gems to beads that are at a much more decent price. I stop walking as I come across a bead bracelet that looks completely Angeline. I want to buy her something and maybe ship it to her house for Christmas. It'll probably get there around New Year's but it's worth it. I don't want her to feel left out.
I pick up the bracelet and walk over to where Eddie's standing. "Eddie, do you think Angeline will like this bracelet?" I ask.
Eddie shrugs. "I don't know,"
"How about these earrings?" I ask picking up a beautiful, dark maroon hangings that dazzle under the store's bright yellow lights.
"I really don't know Jillian," he snaps. "I'm pretty sure you're capable of making a decision yourself, I don't think you need a guardian for that to."
My heart plummets into my chest and my eyes fill up with tears as his cold words echo through my head. I look away from him so he can't see that I'm crying and set the earrings down. I pick up my purse and walk out of the store while Eddie's back is to me. I don't look back to see if he's following me.
Sydney's POV
After two and a half hours of shopping and completely finishing our Christmas shopping, we all meet back at the food court.
"I'm starving," Rose says rubbing her stomach as she leans into Dimitri.
"You're always hungry," Christian says.
"Oh be quiet Sparky," Rose says sticking out her tongue and rolls her eyes as Christian sticks his out at her.
I can't help but smile at the two as I sit down on a chair. "Where are we going to eat?" I ask as Jill leans her head on my shoulder. I look at her surprised at her and frown as I take in her fallen face. Something must have happened. I wrap and arm around her and give her a squeeze. "You ok?"
She nods and forces me a smile. "Adrian's looking at you," she says. "You should go talk to him."
"Yeah," I say sighing. "I probably should mom."
She rolls her eyes and smacks my arm playfully. "Haha," she says.
"How does Chinese sound?" Lissa asks Jill shyly.
Jill blushes and sits up straighter and nods. "I like Chinese."
"That's great, I need to go the bathroom. Do you want to come with me Jill?" she asks.
Jill nods and looks at me nervously before following her sister into the bathroom with Rose behind her. Christian stuffs his hands into his pockets and looks at me and Adrian.
"Dimitri and I are going to go in and order something for Lissa and Rose. Do you want us to order something for you or do you want to go and get a menu?" Christian asks.
"I'll get a menu," I say.
"Same here," he says getting up. "Go get a table Sage, I'll get the menus."
I nod and watch the three leave. I look around the food court and find a table by the water fountain and walk over to it. I sit down on one of the seats and put my bag on the other seat for Adrian. I lean my head against my arms and tap my fingers on the table. I've never had Chinese before, the most I know about it is that it's very oily and very fattening. Maybe I should find a place where they're selling a salad.
"Sage?" Adrian asks softly.
I blush and look up at Adrian as he hands me a menu. "Sorry," I say and reach for the menu while picking up my purse from his seat. "I was just thinking about something, I didn't mean to zone out on you."
He chuckles and sits down. "You don't have to apologize," he says as he looks through his menu.
I open mine up and look at Adrian above the authentic menu. I take in his familiar stylishly messy brown hair and his emerald green eyes that move across the paper, stopping every now and then. His hands seem to tighten on his menu and I bite my lip, unsure of what to do next. We have to talk sooner or later. Sooner is the right way to go no matter how much later sounds better.
"Adrian?" I whisper.
He looks up from his paper with an eyebrow raised. "Yeah, you ok?"
I nod. "Look, about yesterday night…" I say, struggling for the right words.
"I shouldn't have done what I did, I know, and I really am sorry Sydney," he says as he leans forward on the table. "I didn't mean to get so defensive."
I give him a small smile. "He shouldn't have talked back to you like that either, he led you on, it wasn't all your fault."
"It wasn't all my fault," he says grinning.
"Well some part of it was, you shouldn't have gotten so defensive over me, I'm a big girl."
"You're not that big to me Sydney, you'll always be vulnerable to me no matter how deadly you look when you're fighting."
I blush and look down at my menu, unable to meet his eyes. We return to our usual silence and I look back up at him. He catches my eyes this time and frowns as he takes in my anxiousness. He reaches across the table and takes my hand in his. I take comfort in his warmth and despite myself, I lean a little forward on the table.
"Sydney," he says, calling me by my first name, the six lettered name that sounds more like a lullaby when he says it than a name. "What's wrong?"
"His name is Marcus Finch, he said that he called my cell before and that Jill picked up. Jill never says her name before asking who the other person is and she never tells her name to those who know me Adrian but somehow, he knew, he knew that it was Jill who picked up the phone!" I say, my voice getting a little high as my heart pounds against me chest. I've been wanting to talk to him for so long and now that we're back to the talking zone, I can't seem to be holding myself back. I can't hold back the fact that I'm scared and need someone supportive, someone like Adrian to talk to.
"Sage calm down," he says squeezing my hand. "Is Marcus the guy who was at the restaurant?"
I nod. "Yes, he was the guy I was trying to look for remember?" I tell him. "He was the guy in the picture Clarence gave Sonya to give to me."
"Yes, I remember that. But wait a minute, he contacted you before you could get a hold of him?" Adrian says, his frown growing deeper.
"Yeah he did. Adrian, he said that he heard that I was looking for him. How did he know that?" I whisper.
Adrian's hands tighten around mine as he narrows his eyes. "I don't know Sage, I don't know what's up but I don't like it."
"Sydney, Adrian are you alright?" Dimitri asks. "You still haven't ordered yet."
Adrian nods and lets go of my hand. I blush and pull my hand back onto my lap.
"We're just about to order. Dimitri can you do Sage and I a favor?" Adrian asks.
Dimitri raises and eyebrow surprised. "Sure, what is it?"
"Can you give me Sonya's number or email?"
Well what did you think? I made the chapter long to make up for the wait Eddie was very mean wasn't he? You're probably wondering why he's taking it out on poor Jill so much but you'll find out next chapter! I started a blog, .com. You can find out the summaries of upcoming chapters and when to expect an update so check it out when you have the time
Review's are appreciated! They make my day and again, if you guys see any mistakes please tell me
~ Purrfictionist