Love is Wicked: Eclipse
Chapter 9
Previously...
I switched it on but nothing happened. Great.
Then suddenly, small lights illuminated from all around me. I turned around and my eyes widened and my jaw dropped. Candle lights were lit on a table in the middle of the room and on the lamp post by the bed. But most shocking of all was the person on the bed dressed in a silky looking night robe sitting on the bed looking at me with a smile.
My eyes grew wide.
"S..s..Serena?" I asked, not believing my eyes. I watched as she gracefully stood up from the bed, pushed her hair behind her ears and walked to the other side of the bed. I saw her pick up something and she began lightening candles. One after the other, candles all around the room came on. When she drew closer to me, she stopped and looked up at me. Then as if she wasn't tempting enough, she dropped the robe and stood before me utterly naked. She walked slowly and gracefully toward me and stopped an inch away.
"I promised you that when you turn eighteen, I will make love to you. But you changed the rules to until I believe in your love for me. That doesn't mean that my promise is canceled. But I accepted your rules. I may have been gone all this month, but it is the way you have been handling my absences that has convinced me to believe in your affections for me." She said as she touched my cheek and spread her fingers over it.
"And in accepting your feelings, I have found the courage to examine mine and found an answering call to yours. I have always been afraid of loving, even before the first guy I thought I loved. Yes, thought because until now, I have not known what real love is. The feelings that I have for him is only a shadow of what I feel for you. And while that scares me, it also excites me. I am not scared of the feelings; I am just scared of rejection. Simply put, I am head over heels in love with you and I want you just as much as you have made me believe you want me. If you will have me, I am all yours from this moment on. My body, soul, heart and mind. I'm ready to be claimed and branded by you. Make me yours today if you want me." she said. I didn't react. I was too shock, too surprised to do anything other than stare. She was back. Back and wanted us to be together. She wanted me as much as I wanted her! Little by little, everything she had said started to register in my mind. But I guess my silence was making her nervous because she searched my eyes with a worried look.
"Darien? Darien, do you want me?" That did it.
We were on the bed before I even knew what I was doing. This month without her had been so horrible that I felt drained emotionally, mentally and physically. I had been so lonely, so desperate and felt so abandoned and she was asking me if I wanted her? Did I have any choice in that anymore? I could not not want her even if I try. I can't unlove you, that song by Rogers (I think that's his name); I think finally made sense to me. There was no going back anymore.
I wasn't even aware when my clothes and boxers came off. I had fell on her like a savage man, tearing her mouth mine, biting, nipping, seeking and sucking on her flesh, desperation and an overwhelming sense to erase the loneliness of the past month drove my every action. Nothing I did was gently; the force that drove me was too strong. I pressed myself so hard against her that she should have gone as flat as a paper. I wanted to me one with her, our bodies to merge and become only one body. I left bite barks everywhere I kissed and I was sure I left hand prints on her breasts.
When I finally entered into her, everything calmed. As fevered with want and desire as I was, I hadn't expected to find my making love to her to be gentle at all. But when I made to enter her, I remembered that she was a virgin, so I stilled, looked at her to let her know what was about to happen. When she nodded, I slowly eased myself into her past her body's resistance. Her face scrunched up in pain and I wanted to yank myself out of her. But that would not help her or me. The first test was getting past the pain and I loathed myself for having to be the one to cause her such unbearable pain even though I would have no one else do it. I continued my gentle and slow passage into her even as she screamed softly and tears poured out of her eyes.
"Serena, I can't do this." I said, slowly drawing out of her. When I was out, she laid on the bed with her chest rising up and down heavily as if she had just ran a mile or two.
"No Darien, lets finish this. It won't be so hard after awhile. Besides, if we don't do this now and get it over with, the next time we try, the same thing will happen." She said and I knew she was right. I knew it but I couldn't accept it. God why? Why did women have to suffer like this before they can please themselves or their men?
"But…"
"It's alright. Please, continue." She said. I searched her eyes, there were pain and worry, but above all was determination. I sighed and tried again. Gently and slowly, I eased into her. Fortunately, the second time wasn't nearly as hard as the first though the pain must have still been the same since her face tightened. I knew she was trying not to cry. I wanted to turn away but I couldn't. Even in pain, she was beautiful. And while I couldn't do anything to ease her pain, if I had turned my eyes away, I would have abandoned her to the pain I was inflicting on her. So I watched her with each in and out and eventually the pain receded and she became active in it. When I was sure it was alright, I began to move faster in her. Faster, faster and faster until she was even urging me on. We had gotten past the pain; everything afterwards was pleasure and moaning that drove us on from one horizon to another. From one climax to another.
After days of longing, hoping, sighing, praying, searching, and wishing, we were finally one. One in body, mind, heart and soul and I couldn't be more content. It was official now, mine. I didn't own her as a slave, but she was mine forever as my partner. Well at least I hope it would be forever and that she wouldn't get bored with me. At the moment, all seemed well. I had forgotten the bigger problem that was my mom. All I could see, all I could think about, all I wanted to see, think and dream about was the beautiful, misunderstood woman beneath me whom I had just surrendered my everything to. Yes, there were still many challenges ahead of us, but this was the first step into overcoming all of them. I knew it, I felt it and this time I felt ready to face through it if she were by my side. How happy I felt I could not describe in words. The joy of knowing the person you love with every fiber of your being loved you back was nothing short of a miracle.
With our thirsts quench and desires dulled and our bodies exhausted, we slumped together on the bed and held each other. A month away had not changed her alabaster skin or its smooth and silky texture as it had not changed my feelings for her. On second thought it had changed my feelings, where once I could have hoped to be without her no matter the pain it would cause me, now there was absolutely no choice but to be with her. Not because she had just given me her most precious possession, her virginity, but because she had proven to me that I need her. I felt the need, I knew it strength and I knew I had no strength of my own that could rival that dominant emotional and physical need I felt for her. I had crossed the line, it was too little too late to turn back now. Unsurprisingly, I didn't want to turn back. I looked at her face, ran my fingers down her cheek, over her mouth and down her breasts. This beautiful, gorgeous and sexy woman who was the apple of every man's eyes loved me. Me! A nobody! I was so happy; in fact I was too happy.
We held each other for a long time in silence. Wanting to hear her voice, I straddled her and cupped her face with both hands as I leaned my face closer to hers.
"I missed you so much it drove me insane." I said as I began kissing around her neck.
"I'm sorry. I hadn't meant not to tell you but I left early in the morning and I didn't want to wake your mother by calling. Then when I later tried to call back, your phone was off. Which I later learned was because your mother caught it off. Not being able to communicate with you was unbearable and the distance made it worse."
I thought I was the only one who had suffered from the distance but I hadn't been the only one. She had suffered too; she had missed me and had lived through the same loneliness as me. Our feelings were mutual. I had asked God for peace and ease of loneliness. When I had still felt lonely throughout the school day and I had not been given the peace I wanted by the being left alone, I thought God had not heard my prayer. But he had heard and delivered both to me in the best way I could not have expected.
This was the best birthday present ever!
"Happy birthday Darien." She said as if on cue. I stared into her eyes, searching, finding and I knew I was finally home. I leaned down and said "thank you" against her lips before kissing her. And as the kiss stretched one, her body gently moving against me, our desires arouse again and with her consent, we buried ourselves into each other, laying our claim and branding our bodies as nobody else's but our own. God, I loved this woman. I loved so much, so much that I would follow her through the ends of the earth, through hell or heaven. And I prayed that our final destination if heaven really existed would be there, in that glorious place, our happiness forever lasting, forever immortalized.
I had found it. At age eighteen, I knew I have found that which every soul and heart, conscious or unconsciously, sought. That possibility, that possession, that very elusive star cross eternal love that we know as soul mates. I had found my soul mate.
At age eighteen, I already knew my future and she was lying right beneath me.
It truly was a most happy birthday!
Around nine we were up, showered and dressed. And by nine thirty we had finished eat. I didn't want to go home but Serena didn't want to take the risk of infuriating my mother anymore claiming that now that she was set on being with me, it was best to make peace with my mother and that she didn't want me to ever have to make the choice of her or my mother. I was grateful for her consideration but I wanted to spend more time with her, I wasn't ready to be parted from her. But Serena would always be Serena, whenever she decides on something, nothing can change he mind.
So we drove to my house.
Luckily, when we arrived, mom wasn't home so I dragged Serena in to talk to me for a while. After getting us both a glass of water which we sat on the table stand in the circle of the living room couches, he pulled her onto my lap on the long couch. We made out first but I wanted to feel myself inside of her again. That incredible feeling I had felt with my flesh inside of her was addicting. I had felt truly one with her and I wanted to feel it again. She was not about to take off her clothes again but she compromised when I sat on the dining table chair and she sat atop of me. Since she was wearing a tight, mini skirt with a zipper at the front, all she had to do was pull it up. I left my pants on but loosened my groin out through the zipper of my pants. She stood facing me; her legs spread on either side of the chair and slowly sank down on me and me into her. I felt a sigh from every part of me as if it was a burning day outside I had just entered I very air conditioned building that cooled me down automatically. I pushed her lacy blouse up and sucked and licked on her nipples. She moved up and down on me with my hands at her waist and just like that, we made love four like the fifth time with the hours I had reunited with her in the hotel.
Eventually our legs began cramping but by then we were well satisfied. We adjusted our clothing and I sprayed some air refreshment to hide any lingering scent of sex. We went back to the long chair and she laid out on it. Her feet though, she kept off the couch respectfully but I took a hold of them and brought it firmly on the couch. It was a leather couch; it wasn't going to get dirty. Besides, her feet were clean, very clean. I could kiss it all night long. I lay behind her on the couch though she warned me to move away or my mother wouldn't be happy if she came to see such a scene. I promised her I would move before mother came.
As we laid there with my arms wrapped around her, she told me of the reason she had to suddenly go back to the US. Her grandmother was at the brink of losing her business, which was the clothing line called Dreams of Moonlight and since she was the one who often handled all her grandmothers major problems, naturally her grandmother had called her. She hadn't gone into specifics but it was clear she had had a very busy month tracking down the person cheating her grandmother and had them arrested, trialed and imprisoned all within the month. Then did some things to get her grandmothers business back under control and her finance back on track.
"But not everything is solid yet. I will be working a lot these coming days to make sure not even a single cent has been taken off the record." She said.
After which she asked I give her full detail of how my month had gone, softly rubbing my hands when I expressed my loneliness and fear when she wasn't here and turning her head to kiss me softly as if it could make up for a month of bereavements. It didn't fully make up for it but it was a start. I knew a few more weeks in her presence and I would not look back on the past month with such pain and fear of it happening again.
"I love you." She said after the kiss and I smiled at her, she did and I knew it. It was plain in her eyes and in her voice and through her body as we had made love. She loved me; I believed it and I knew I was lucky for it. Then she confessed that the story about her father coming to town to kick my ass was a fab that they made up to get me to the hotel without me suspecting that I was secretly being ushered to meet my destiny. Victorian Inn was now added to my personal favorite list.
Eventually we ran out of things to say though she confide in me a little more of herself such as her dreams to inherit her grandmothers business, her fear of her pending doom if she didn't get a heart transplant soon and the bigger fear of losing herself if someone else's heart was that which lived it her.
"Would I still love you? Even if the heart is not mine?" she asked, looking at me, seeking a reassuring answer that I did not have. I wish I knew what to say. At that moment I realized just how childish I was, here my girl was looking for some sort of comfort and there was nothing I could say to calm her fears. Instead I did all I could do, kiss her, tell her how much I loved her and that even if the new heart she would get did not love me from the beginning, I would win her love back. Then I pressed lips at the crock of her neck, kissing, licking and biting and she sighed and moaned in pleasure.
And as I held her, peace overcame the both of us and we nodded off.
You heard of rude awakenings right? Good cause that's exactly what happened.
Water drenched us. Our eyes flew open immediately and we looked up to see my mom standing there with a look of contempt, our two glasses of water empty.
"Mom!" I said indignantly.
"Get the hell out of my house!" she hissed at Serena.
"Enough with this nonsense mom!" I said as I stood up between her and Serena.
"How dare you bring this slut into MY house and cuddle with her on MY sofa! I thought I raised you better than that!" she screamed in my face.
"And I thought you had more manners than that!" I screamed back at her. She lifted her hand as she made to slap me. If this had been the old me, I would have just stood there and let her slap me but I was changed. I was no longer that little boy who had no choice in what to do with his life. I was growing up and she was going to have to accept it and let me make my own decisions and mistakes. I caught her hand in a vice grip, her eyes wide with astonishment, anger and hurt.
"You dare?" she hissed.
"Enough mother." I said as calmly as I could but hell, she was pissing me off. She yanked her hand out of mine. She turned her back and went to the kitchen. I sighed and turned back to Serena who was recovering from her shock. I knelt in front of her and took her face in my hands.
"I am so sorry. I didn't know she would go this far." I said softly, feeling very ashamed of my mother. This was the woman who had brought me up teaching me that I had to be hospitable to any guest in my house even if I didn't like them? Serena looked down into my eyes, smiled softly and ran her fingers through my wet hair.
"It's alright. I'm sure if we sat and talked properly, she will come to an understa…" she never finished her sentence as a river of water poured down on her from above. We both looked up and saw my mother standing there with a big empty bucket, smirking. I was about to do something very foolish but the temperature of the water suddenly hit me and I felt just how hot it was. I looked at Serena as she had her face in her hands, she was all red! That water was damn hot!
"Mother, I have had enough of this. What the hell is your…" I felt Serena's had on my arm and I turned back to her immediately. She stood up and wiped the water that was dripping onto her face from her hair.
"It's alright. I will see you later." She said, leaned down and softly kissed me on my lips. she began walking toward the door and bent to pick up her bag she had left by the foot of the kitchen table. I followed her, quickly opening the door for her. Her skin I could see were swelling up and she was drench from head to toe. I followed her silently to the passenger side of the door. As she opened it, I stood back. I was suddenly afraid. She tossed her bag in and walked up to me and just embraced me. I held her, tears softly falling down my face.
Why was this happening? I had watched, read, and heard lots of stories about families not liking the chosen lover of the man or woman and how far the family often went to part them. I had never imagined that I would be at the receiving end of such circumstances or that Serena would be so rudely treated because of me.
"I'm sorry." I whispered as I held her tightly to me. We just hugged like that for a while before she stepped back.
"If she thinks melting off my skin with hot water is going to prevent me from being with you, then you can be sure that she will not succeed." She said, looking up at me with a smile. How could she be so strong? How?
She touched my cheek, leaned up as I met her half way in a searing kiss that I hoped convey all my apologies for my mother and pain at seeing her being hurt like she was. When we parted, she leaned up more and kissed my forehead.
"It will be alright. Just hand on strong." She said. I took her hand and walked her to the two or three steps to her car. She sat in, stared up at me for a moment as I stared down at her. She smiled as she was about to close the door, I held the gate, leaned down and quickly kissed her.
"I love you. With every fiber of my being, I am in love with you." She smiled wildly and kissed me again.
"I know." She said. I leaned back and watched as she closed the car door and maneuvered onto the street. Before she sped off, she waved a goodbye at me and I watched her go. The distance between her and I grew and ever smaller she got, until all together she vanished at the bend of the traffic light.
Angrily I stomped back into the house and pushed the door of my mom's room open.
"What the hell was that all about!" I demanded. She looked up from the bed she was sitting on with one raised brow.
"I just got rid of a pest." She said calmly as if Serena was an unwanted fly buzzing around and annoying us. I was pissed.
"I never took you for such a cold hearted monster!" I said to her. She looked straight at me for a minute, her mother set in a straight line. Then she rose up and pointed out the door.
"Get the hell out of my room. The next time I see that girl anywhere in or near my house, she will have more than raw skin to deal with. This is MY house and if you feel you are at the age of where I have no right to tell you what to do, go get a job and pack out. Now get out!" I stared at her, shook my head and followed her order. But I stopped at the door and turned my head back to her with a sad look on my face.
"I was young but I was not blind. It was this same attitude that drove father away. And if I leave, you will have no one to blame but yourself. You raised me to become a doctor so I can take care of you. You didn't do it purely for me. Every action of yours has purely been in your own self interest." I said and walked out, slamming the door behind me.
In my room, I, Darien Endymion Shields, eighteen years old today, lay on my bed and cried. Call me a wimp but if you haven't experienced it for yourself, you will not understand how truly painful it is to watch the person you love so much be treated in such a shitty manner because of you.
That night, I tossed and turned, finding sleep impossible and not having a phone to call Serena, I took out my journal and began to write. Everything that had happened since I first met Serena. And as I wrote down everything, things became clearer and much more focus. I saw the changes that had come on Serena, changes caused by me. Because she loved me, she was willing to make compromises. Haven realized this, I knew that I too had to find the strength somewhere within me to stand up for her, to protect her, to be strong for her as she had been for me tonight. I loved her and nobody was going to keep us apart!
Not even a psychopathic mother!
At exactly seven thirty, Serena was at my door knocking. I was so overwhelmed to see her that I nearly knocked her over. I had debated walking to school but something told me to stay. And I'm glad I had listened. She gave me a very juicy morning kiss that immediately whipped away the nightmares of the previous night.
I was already ready to go so I grabbed my back pack and followed her into that silver car she would have left for me. As we sat in the car ready to take off, she pulled two cell phones from her purse, both identical but one looked way too brand new. She stretched the new looking one at me.
"Here." She said. I blinked at her as I took it.
"What…" I began but she cut in.
"It is such an inconvenience not being able to talk to you on the phone. Since you mom has cancelled the house phone, I figured you either get a cell phone or I would go mad having to wait to see you in order to talk to you. Here." She said, stretching out her hand again. I opened my hands and a key on a keychain that had her picture on that clear plastic square thing. In the picture, she was blowing a kiss.
"Serena, is this what I think it is?" I asked, my eyes wide.
"I will be very busy for a while and won't be able to come see you and frequently as I want. This way, you can come see me if I can't come see you." She said as if this was normal.
"I can just take a taxi you know." I said dryly. This was too much. A cell phone, now a car? What next? A house?
"Just save the taxi money for gas." She said as she started driving.
"Serena, this is all too much." And it was. She didn't say anything for a minute and when I looked at her when we stopped at the traffic light, she looked sad.
"What's wrong?" she looked up at me, tears wavering in her eyes.
"I just love you so much. Is it too much to give you gifts that will help our relationship in times of trouble?" she asked softly, looking at me. I felt like an ass. Here my beautiful girlfriend was going out of her way to make things work between us despite what my mother had done to her and I was turning her gift down for such unimportant reasons.
"I'm so sorry. I accept your gifts, thank you!" I said enthusiastically, hoping that would cheer her up.
"Promise you won't return them?" she asked.
"Not even if you want them back!" she just looked at me. "I promise." I said. Knowing that was what she wanted to hear.
She smirked.
"That was easy." She said and I realized I had been made a fool off….again.
"Serena!" I said indignantly and she laughed.
"You're stubborn so at times I've got to play a little dirty!" she said in her defense.
"Hmph!" I said as I turned away. I wasn't really mad; I just wanted to worry her a bit. She touched my cheek and my face turned to her automatically, I didn't even think about it. She leaned a little up a softly kissed my lips. A horn blew from behind us and Serena strengthened back up again. The light was now on green. She winked at me and the plan to make her worry went down the drain. I was too much of a sucker.
A month of being away without being there to defend her honor to that stupid rumor of me 'banging' her (though now that was true) had Serena in a think crowd being questioned endlessly. At first it had shocked people that she was back and shocked them even more as they saw how close we kept together and how our hands were always interlaced. Troy and Amy had been the first to come congratulate us on finally being an item though Serena's sisters plain out ignored us as if we were that easy not to be noticed. Mina also came to wish us happy and eventually dragged Rei over who grudgingly admitted that we looked good together. I thanked and smiled sincerely at her and she flushed. This was the first time I hadn't made it plain that she was a nuisance. After that she, Mina, Amy and Rei were pretty much together the whole time when she wasn't with me. Troy and I got to hang out together alone too without Amy's constant presence. At first I thought just the two of us would be awkward but it really wasn't at all. He gave me the speech any brother would give a new boyfriend about hurting their sister, of course with Troy, I knew he wasn't joking and was very capable of delivering every subtle threat that came with the warning.
At lunch there was a crowd of people over at our table, popular or nerd, it didn't matter. It was almost as if unknowingly, the barrier of status had collapsed. Everybody was far too interested in me and Serena's affairs that they didn't take into account who sat or stood by them. Over the month I had broken from the nerd status with my changed looks as well as Amy, some of the other nerds finally found the courage to break free from the dress codes that designated them as nerd and were now slowly but surely moving into the notice of those who once thought them the unfortunate humans. Of course, not all succeeded but I was glad to see that they were trying to change what people assumed of them. I was happy about that.
Not much class time was spent on studying as even the teachers were interested in delving into our personal lives and since we had a football game the night, we had a half day and an assembly from eleven to twelve when school ended. I suddenly had an idea. I had never introduced Serena formerly to Andrew so I wanted to take her there to meet him and seeing as we still had a large number of crowds following us instead heading home, I thought to bring the along with me. It would definitely boost Andrew up on sales today and hopefully everyday afterward.
"Everyone, do you know the Crown Arcade on the other side of town? The one run by Andrew? Well do or don't that's where we're heading. Hope to see you there!" I said as I grabbed Serena's hand and maneuvered her to her car. I opened the front passenger side door for her as she was glancing at me oddly. She didn't say anything, instead went in and sat down. I walked to the driver's side and sat.
"What gives?" she asked.
"I want to introduce you to one of my very best friends. He is as much of importance to me as Amy, if not more." I said, smiling at her brightly. She returned my smile, but timidly.
"And the crowd?" she asked.
"My friend, Andrew, is the sole heir to inheriting the crowd. He works there every single minute he is out of school. Hopefully he is there now. I just want to give him some business for today." I explained.
"Ah." She said with a nod. I reverse and started off. "Amara said you picked up driving quickly."
"Yeah, it surprised me too." I said, remembering how pissed off Amara was when she thought I had lied to her that I couldn't drive.
"You're one of those people." Serena said.
"Those people?" I asked, casting her a glance from the corner of my eye. She sat facing forward with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Yes, people who can learn just by watching. And they can do it almost as if they had done it before even though all they did was watch. Such people are often called protégées I think." She said.
"Oh." I hadn't ever thought of that but as she said it, I realized that it was true. I did learn best by seeing. Just like soccer when I was in high school. I had never played it before but I spent an afternoon watching the team practice and the next day at gym, I was playing well enough that the teacher begged me to join the team. I was so happy and I wanted to so badly but mother wouldn't have it. She thought it would distract me from my studies. Nothing I or the coach said shifted her resolve.
"It's for your own good." She had said. Just like every other thing I had wanted to do but couldn't because it would 'distract me from my studying' and how not doing it was for 'my own good.' Thinking about it now, I realized how very lousy and lonely my childhood had been. All I knew were my books but books never listened. They only tell you things. Expecting you to accept it for whatever truth it believes it hold. They could not communicate as people could, back to back. Instead, it just stated it opinions, listening to one else's, it resolve to stay the same unchanged. Like my mother.
I felt a soft, cold touch on my cheek and I looked to my right to see Serena watching me with a worried expression.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice so soft and so worried. I shook my head; I should stop feeling pity for myself. The past was the past, gone. There was no point dragging it with me everywhere I went.
"Sorry, I was just caught up in the past." I said. For a while she never said anything then took a big sigh as if about to ask me something she wasn't sure it was a good idea to ask.
"When I asked you before where was your father…um…you told me he left. Why?" she asked now. I didn't answer. I didn't know how to or that I was afraid to I'm not sure.
"Darien please, I've told you about my past the least you can do is return the courtesy." She said and still I didn't say anything. We arrived at the arcade in silence and we stepped out. As we were walking inside, I saw that cars from my school were also parking.
As soon as we were inside the air conditioned room, all activities stopped as they took in Serena, dressed in black leggings, sandals and a big light shirt with a belt at the stomach. She was decently dressed but that did nothing in hiding her curves nor did it take away from her beauty. Though she was still a bit red from yesterday. She had told me her body was very sensitive to the temperatures and it would take about two to three days for her alabaster skin to resurface. I walked closely behind her, my hand at her waist as a sign that she was already taken as the guys' eyes trailed her every moment. Dogs! I thought but then remembered I had been no different the first time I had seen her.
"Andrew." I called out, waving to him as he stood behind the counter with his jaw on the floor. He snapped out of his incredulous look and rushed over to us.
"Serena meet Andrew. Andrew this is Serena, my girlfriend." I said, the word girlfriend coming out slowly and softly. I realized that I had claimed her in heart, body, soul and mind but this was the first time I was publicly claiming her. I was testing the word girlfriend, finding it realism but it didn't fit. For some reason I felt calling her girlfriend was a cheap interpretation of what we really had going on. I knew boyfriends and girlfriends do in fact have sex, they do everything Serena and I do but somehow, it still didn't match us. The feelings, the absolute necessity, the surety, no….girlfriend wasn't the right description. And soul mate was a bit too cheesy. It's ok to think that to myself but said out loud just sounded too cliché.
In the end, Andrew didn't give me the chance to change the world.
"Pleased to officially meet you Serena. Darien never shuts up about you!" He said, his eyes bright as I glared at him.
"Pleased to meet you as well. I was beginning to worry that Amy was his only friend." She replied.
"Not exactly. We have other friends too but we all go to separate schools." Amy said as she and Troy came up beside us.
"Oh." She said simply.
"Well come, come sit." Andrew said as he led us to a seat by a window. The seats were made for two people sitting side by side, in front of the bench like chair with the back like a couch, a table sat in the middle and another seat sat on the other side of the table facing us. That seat was no occupied by Troy and Amy. While Serena sat by the window on our side, Troy sat by the window on theirs.
"Here is the menu, enjoy." He said, looking up at the crowd at the door.
"What the hell?" he asked.
"I thought to bring in customers for you." He looked at as, then at the crowd that was staring at us and grinned largely.
"I owe ya." He said
"And I will collect the debt, you can count on it." I replied as he walked of, laughing and greeting the customers and leading them to various places they could all sit. Soon noise picked up, chatting exploded in peals of laughter and giggles. But each time I looked, at least five eyes were on us. I eyes I could not stand were the guys whose sole purpose were to undress Serena with their heated gazes. Whenever I noticed them staring, I would glare but there were some impudent enough to smirk.
"You're going to have to get used to this kind of behavior from people as long as you are with me." Serena said. I turned my gaze at her, then at Troy who shrugged and Amy who tactlessly looked away. I rolled my eyes.
"It's just annoying." I said.
"It is but it isn't going to stop just because you find it annoying." She said as she opened the menu. I was getting irritated; shouldn't she be pissed about this too? Or did she just enjoy the attention?
"Whether I enjoy the attention or not is not the problem. If I were to get pissed off every time someone looked, I will never know how to smile. You learn to see past the look and just let it go. Besides, my policy is look all you want, just don't be stupid enough to touch. That's when it gets bloody." She said, reading through the menu. It's a continues surprise how she is always able to guess what I was thinking. Was I just that visible?
She looked up from reading the menu and rolled her eyes at me. Andrew popped up.
"So, have you decided what to order? It's on the house." He said. Serena turned to him with a smile and a look in his eyes shifted. Even he was affected by her!
"Your menu lives little room in my head that I want to try everything on it so why don't you serve us something you think we will really like? Of course, by we, I mean me. Unless anyone is of the same mind as me." she said looking from me to Amy and to Troy. Troy nodded his head.
"I will have whatever you wish to introduce as to." He said. Andrew nodded then looked at me and Amy.
"I will have the special usual. I think you should bring that too to Serena and Troy, they will like it." Amy said and Andrew turned to me.
"The usual plus fries and a chocolate milkshake." I said.
"Got a sweet tooth today?" Andrew teased.
"I just want something wet and cold and sticky to throw at you." I said and his eyes grew big in a playfully shocked way.
"Oh dear, that wouldn't go so well now would it. It might end up being a milkshake battle and I thought we grew out of that." He said with a sigh and his hand on his chest.
"You're never too old to have some fun." Serena said, smiling. Andrew smiled at her.
"I think I'm going to like you." He said.
"I know I already like you. Anyone who offers me free food is a favorite on my list." She replied and he laughed as he walked away. She turned back to the menu but stopped and looked up as Troy stared at her with a baffled expression.
"What?" she asked. He shook his head.
"Nothing" he answered.
"Nothing wouldn't make you look at me as if I have done the most outrageous thing in the world." Serena replied.
"It's nothing really." He said. We all stared at him and he realized that he had to fess up. "I'm just still amaze by your ability to befriend people so easy. You've always been good at that from as far back as I can remember." He finally fessed up.
Serena shrugged as if it was no big deal.
"Smile and people feel easy, don't smile and they feel uneasy. It's that simple. A girl once told me that when black people's hairs are straight, white folks are relaxed. If their hairs are nappy, white folks are unease. She is black by the way and not at all racist. She was just telling me her observation. It's good to be unique and stand out, but know when to blend in." Serena said and I wondered how the heck the analogy she had used of the black and white fit anywhere in answering Troy's comments. I guess I was the only one of that assessment because Amy and Troy nodded as if they understood.
"Oh yeah, are you guys going to the concert?" Amy asked and we all looked at her.
"What concert baby?" Troy asked and I wondered where he'd learned that term from. I wasn't trying to be cynical but Troy appeared to be the kind of person who should be saying 'sweetheart' 'dear' or even 'honey' than 'baby' or any variations of it.
"The three lights of course!" Amy said enthusiastically. She had always been a fan of the lights, especially when three years ago they had performed here. She had signed up to help set things up for them so she had had a personal one on one conversation with Yaten or Taiki, I'm not exactly sure what name went with what face, and she was hooked on. Apparently, the guy had a soft spot for books which had won him a place in Amy's heart forever apparently.
"You know I'm there." Molly answered as she and Melvin came up behind Amy. Melvin's eyes were all for Serena. Molly finally looked around, finding Serena and Troy of some interest.
"Hello." She said.
"Serena, Troy, I want you to meet Molly Baker and Melvin Smith." I introduced.
"Hello" Serena said.
"Hello." Troy said.
"Hi." Molly said. When nothing came from Melvin, we all looked at him as all he could do was stand there and stare at Serena as if she was an apparition. Molly smacked him from the back. He yelped and glared at her.
"That hurts!" he said.
"Then stop ogling at her!" Molly snapped.
"I am not! I just feel I've met her before!" he said defensively. Molly rolled her eyes.
"No duh, at Darien's house? Last month?" Molly said, her words clipped with annoyance.
"No not there." he placed his hand on the side of his head, a sign that always said he was looking through memories that were very far back. Suddenly his eyes brightened and he smiled.
"Yes! I remember you now! Diamonds girlfriend!" he screamed aloud. Too loudly because the arcade suddenly went silent as all attention turn on our table. Serena blinked and started laughing.
"Oh that. That was in kindergarten." She said with a giggle. Melvin smiled hugely as if he had just solved the world largest puzzle or many of the unfathomable answers we chug off because there are no answers to them.
"I knew I recognized you from somewhere though your hair was golden then if I'm mistaken."
"Your right. It was died then so that people wouldn't make fun of me for having 'old people's' hair at my age. You know how kids are, they tease mercilessly." She said. Melvin nodded as if he knew it all so well.
"Well it's good to see you again; I think I remember you now." Serena said.
"I wish you didn't." Melvin said with a groan and Serena laughed.
"Aww, don't worry. I thought you were cute." She said. He blinked at that and smiled largely. We just watched the two of them smiling at each other and my irritation rose up again. What memories did Melvin share with MY woman that I didn't know about? And who was this Diamond guy? And at kindergarten she had a boyfriend? Molly grabbed Melvin's hand and pulled her to the seat behind us.
"What the hell was that all about?" She hissed at him. If she was trying to be quiet, she was failing miserably.
"Was he not the guy who confessed his feelings to you in kindergarten and had diamond beat him up?" Troy asked. Serena nodded.
"What? You confessed to her?" Molly hissed again. Poor Melvin, Molly's anger was legendary.
"So..." I began as casually as possible. "Who exactly is Diamond?"
"My kindergarten sweetheart." She answered simply. Well no duh. Exactly what was it I was trying to get out of her?
"Anyway Amy, what were you saying about the Lights?" Serena asked.
"They will be performing here in two weeks! I need to go get my tickets!" Amy said, again with the enthusiasm.
"I see. I do enjoy the lights songs too. Tell you what, don't get any tickets because by now the seat you will have will probably be at the very back roll. Let me handle getting us a place at the front roll ok?" Serena said and Amy's eyes widened.
"You can do that?" Amy asked.
"Let's just say that Seiya owes me a favor." She said simply. Which got me thinking what kind of 'favors' he owed her. I know, I know, I sound like a jealous boyfriend and that I'm acting like a child but things were starting to bother me. First she has this kindergarten sweetheart she won't tell me about and now some celebrity owed her a favor? Do celebrities just owe people favors? Granted Serena wasn't exactly the normal person with her mega rich back ground, but still, even Rei can't claim to being owed a favor by a celebrity as big as Seiya!
"So, what are we talking about?" Andrew asked as he appeared with a tray of foods and a waitress behind her holding another tray of food. He set the food down and placed every body's orders in front of him or her. Taking the foods from the waitress's plate to complete everything.
"Just talking about the Lights coming back to town." Amy answered.
"Ahhh. Hopefully I will get to meet that cute manager of theirs." Andrew said.
"Still has the hots for her." I asked.
"I will have you know that we've been keeping in contact since she left!" he said and Amy and I looked at him.
"Really!" Amy and I asked at the same time. He nodded.
"Not on the phone but through emailing." He said.
"Wow." Amy said.
"Good for you man." I said.
"Problem is, she still insists on just being friends." Andrew confessed.
"Are you talking about Beryl?" we all looked at Serena.
"Yeah, do you know her?" Andrew asked. She blinked and a worried look covered her face. She looked at Troy and he sighed.
"You do know that she is married right?" Troy said what was probably going through Serena's head. We all looked at him in shock.
"Are you serious?" Andrew asked, his voice breaking. I felt for him. Serena sighed.
"Yes." But there was something in her voice that made me wonder if hated Beryl or something. "The person you most likely have been talking to is Rita, Beryl's sister. She filled in for Beryl after Beryl got married. She has a one and a half year old son now and is expecting. Rita probably told you that you guys have to be friends for her sister's sake.
"Oh." Andrew said and looked away. Poor guy. That's rough.
"Truth be told, I'm glad you and her aren't ever going to be together." Serena said and we looked at her.
"Why is that?" Andrew asked.
"I'm sorry to say this but she was a bitch. A real hard core open your legs for anyone whore. It's hard to believe that she and Rita are related. Rita is the total opposite of her. Achievements earned through hard work instead of sleeping with people to get what she wants. She is a hard worker, a sweetheart, a romantic and a really kind person. If you are going to pursue anyone, pursue Rita. She might not be much in a way of a challenge to win her heart, but she would most definitely make you happy." Serena said. Troy nodded.
"And Rita is prettier than Beryl too." Troy added.
"Not much in the way of access breasts or butt like Beryl but she is definitely more prettier. And very innocent. She is the kind you can see following her husband through thick and thin." Serena added. There was silence after a while then Serena picked up her fork as she began to eat the Mushrooms filled gravy with mash potatoes. On a different plate was a mushroom curry that would be filled into the breads by it side.
I too began eating my mushroom burger and fries. The crown was famous for its delicate mushroom delicacies. Once you've tasted it, you keep coming back for more.
"Oh." Serena said as she looked up at Andrew with a wide grin. "This is excellent!" she praised sincerely. It broke Andrews's train of thoughts and sad contemplation and brought a smile on his face.
"Thank you!" he said.
"This is really good." Troy also commented.
"Am I to assume I have regular customers?" he asked, looking from Troy to Serena. The siblings looked at each other, then turned to Andrew with a smile and a nod of their heads.
"Excellent!" Andrew said as if he had just saved a soul from going to hell.
"With a food like this, even Terence with his cold heart will warm up." Serena said.
"Come now, he's not that bad." Troy said.
"Not that bad?" Serena snorted. "Yeah right."
"Who is Terence?" Andrew asked.
"Their older brother." Amy answered.
"Oh, the silver haired piano man?" I asked and she nodded.
"Yup, one and the same." Serena said.
"What is the other one's name?" I asked.
"Travis." Troy answered.
"Noticed the T's and the S's? Terragon, my father, Terence, Travis and Troy. Then for the females there are Selenity, Selene, Selena and me, Serena or Serenity. S and T's." she said rolling her eyes.
"It was an idea mother had as a young woman to have all the girls with their names beginning with S, after her and the men T after father." Troy explained. While that made sense, it did not explain why Serena was an S too. She had a different mother.
"I was named after my mother." She said.
"Oh." I said. It made sense. Her mother and aunt were twins so it made sense their names were so close. Selenity and Serenity. No wonder the twins were Selene and Selena. What a thoughtful family unity.
Andrew raised his brow at the discussion as we had long lost him but I shook my head. I would explain to him later.
"Well then, enjoy your meals as I serve other customers." He said and walked away.
It was around two when we finally decided we had had enough of the crown for the day and Serena said she needed to return home to do her grandmother's business. I really didn't want to have her part from me but she insisted it had to be done as soon as possible or things could go bad. Deciding to drop being selfish, we drove to her house. Amy and Troy had split, saying they had something to do and Molly and Melvin had stayed at the arcade, still arguing. In the car, she was silent and I remembered this silence as haven brought on by my refusal to answer her question about my father.
I thought about how I had felt when she wouldn't reveal any more details about who diamond was. Betrayed, as if she didn't want to share her past with me. That she felt to keep something of hers a secret from me. It hurt and thinking about it, I realized how she must have felt too when I refused to share with her my past. Truth be told, she had opened up to me almost about her entire past. She knew nothing of me save the man she saw before her and she would never know if I kept my past hidden from her. It was time to open up.
"When I was about eight years old, my father up and left. He left because of my mother. She was always in his stuff, had no trust in him, paranoid that he might be seeing someone behind her back. He let her see through her phone records and everything that should have been his privacy but mother wouldn't listen. She was always screaming at him, demanding things go her way. Eventually he grew tired of it and left. I don't know if mom ever misses him but I do. He left and until I was twelve he would often come pay us a visit. But since then, since I was twelve, he hasn't come back. The last time he came to visit, mom was fighting with him again. By then I knew he was remarried. My mom was always bitter about that, that he had been able to move on with his life. I guess she wanted to show him that she didn't need him and that she could raise me by myself to become a very important person someday. So she pushed me on and on. When he stopped coming to see me, her reason for pushing me changed as well to her own self interest." I said and paused for a moment before continuing.
"The only friends I have ever really had are Andrew, Amy, Melvin and Molly. We all met in middle school and though I skipped from six grade to eight, then from eight to eleven, we managed to keep a tentative friendship. Mostly because all of them are very smart and those are the kind of people mom wants me around. When you asked me, I didn't know what to say. My father has always been a part of me I never like to talk about because I felt that when he left, he took with him my happiness." I confided. For a long while, neither of us said anything. We finally reached her house and she had me park inside the gate.
"Come." She said and I got out to follow her inside. Amy had been right, inside was beautiful and grand. Everything was glittering gold or silver with royal purple and crimson touches here and there. Inside was huge. Tapestries, paintings of knights and kings, family portraits in breath taking back grounds that made them look like they existed in a world of their own. Though I noticed pointedly that there were only three pictures of Serena. One with her mother, the other with her father and the third with both of them. Her mother was very beautiful, just like her aunt but there was something about her that was different. She had this air of mystery, of a seductive temptress or a hunter about her that I sometimes recognize in Serena. She didn't have a single picture in which she was in by herself like the others whose pictures could count up to twenty and over. From their childhood to as they are now while Serena's pictures looked identical, as if in one moment, all three pictures were taken. Only one moment of her life, captured. I was really beginning to understand just how lonely she has been living with these people. If they treated her like a person even if not as a family member, she would not have been so lonely. But they pointedly treated her in a way that drove home that she really was alone. Poor thing.
At the heart of the first floor, a spiral staircase led up to the higher levels. I realized the first floor housed the kitchen, indoor gym, swimming pool, and activity room. I followed Serena up the second floor which housed another indoor pool, game room, their personal salon, sitting and recreational rooms and a ballroom.
"The third floor is where our bedrooms are." She said as we went up the third floor. I also noticed that they had an elevator. The rich really did live big. The entire place was beautiful, something right out of a fairytale, not a magazine for even magazines has a limit to its awesomeness. Like a castle just not so obvious from the outside. I followed her to what she called the 'west wing' until we reached this big oak close double door. She knocked but no one answered. Then taking hold of the doorknobs, she opened the door on one side and peered in. she opened the door wider and walked in with me right behind her. On the left was a double door with a book shape handle and on the right was another double door with two round glass handles. Serena walked to the left door and pressed a button at the handle.
"Come in." A voice answered a second later and I felt something race through me. The voice was very deep, similar to Terence but deeper. Much much deeper. Serena grasped the handles on each side of the door and opened it. There was a curtain blocking our view of whoever was inside. Serena pushed the curtain aside gently, took my hand and led me through a narrow hallway that very soon opened up into a wide arch. To the left were thousands of books on books shelves and to the right were an office desk and chair and couches and behind all of that were more books stretching up to the ceiling of the room. It reminded me of the library in the beauty and the beast Disney movie where the beast was offering the library to bell as a present. On the desk seat sat the man I had seen that first day with Serena's aunt. As Serena could not accept her as her mother, neither could I refer to her as such. The man, I knew immediately if not from the pictures before, that he was Serena's father.
"Father." Serena said and he looked up from whatever he was doing on the paper he was looking at. He's eyes landed on Serena with no emotion, then slowly lifted to me. I felt a sudden need to bow. It was as if I was in the presence of some mighty king.
My hands got sweaty all of a sudden and I was having trouble maintaining my gaze with his.
"Father I want you to meet Darien Endymion Shields, my boyfriend. Darien, meet my father." She said as if she was introducing me to one of her friends/ I unconsciously wiped my hand on my pants, moved forward and extended my hand.
"It's an honor to meet you sir." I said. He took my hand and shook it firmly.
"Likewise." He said and let go of my hand. I felt Serena come up behind me and locked her hands around my arm. I looked down on her and she smiled before turning to her father, the smile still in place.
"He will be having dinner with us, if you don't mind." She said.
"That is fine." He replied and it struck me as odd that his voice was just on tone. No inflection, no feeling. Just an automatic short responses, like a robot.
"Well I see you are busy, we will leave you to your work. Good day father." She said and turned to walk out.
"Good day sir." I said and quickly turned to follow her. When I caught up she took my hand and we walked back through the narrow hallway and out of the room. I seemed to have lost my voice so I didn't say anything and followed her out of the main room and back down the hall to the other side which I assume was called the 'east wing.'
At the end of that hallway, another hall crossed it which made it look like a T, she took a turn at the left and I followed her through the dark hallway to the window at the far end. To the left was a double door painted absolutely black but the handle was a gorgeous silver crescent moon and another handle sat right on top of it that was shaped in like a horse with wings and in its mouth was a red rose which I realized was made of precious stone. She took out a card from her pocket, pointed it at the rose and something red flashed. The rose suddenly came alive as if a light has been light in it. Then the light turned blue, making the red rose seem purple. She touched the flying horse and the blue light washed over her hand.
She grasped the two handles, twisted it in opposite ways and the door unlocked. She pulled the door outward and walked in with me right behind her. As soon as she entered, lights came on and she turned around to lock the door while I stood there gaping like a fool. The room was like how Amy had described it to me earlier; gold and silver with crimson here and there. her ceiling though had paintings of otherworldly things like baby angels, beautiful fairies and exotic creatures like phoenixes, unicorns and a baby dolphin. It was so out of place in that whole scene. The wall by which the head post of her bed rested had a lovely picture of her in a very beautiful silver dress that I couldn't imagine existing. In the painting, she was stepping into water in a scene that showed as a courtyard. Her hair was tied in a strange style, two buns at each side of the head with the rest of the hair trailing back from it.
I just sort of looked and stared at it.
"Like it?" she asked as she encircled her hands from behind me.
"It's breath taking." I said.
"Took me the two days to do that." She said. I blinked and turned around to stare at her.
"Only two days?" I asked in astonishment. She nodded, then walked to her bed and sat. Her room was big with a big flat screen TV taking half of the wall facing her bed and on each side were speakers, two really big shelves that held movies that were arranged in categories and in alphabetical order. They were labeled too. Disney, Warner Bros, Tyler Perry, Animes and other labels like comedy, drama, action, and so on. There were two medium shelves which housed CD's that were also labeled as R & B, Rap, Classical, Anime sound tracks, Movie Sound tracks, Gospel, Disney and Soul. At the sides of the room by the bedpost were also hanging flat Screen TVs, just not as big as the one facing the bed.
"What's with all the TV's?" I asked.
"I get tired sitting and facing the TV, so when I am trying to be comfortable and I turn to whatever side, I want to be able to watch the TV without having to be in any awkward position." She responded and I shook my head. Beside the TV on the left was a sliding door I assumed was her closet and by the TV on the right was a see through door which led into a gym. I went and stood there and spied on all the beautiful, brand new looking machines.
"Maintaining my figure doesn't come cheap." She said as she came to stand by me. it was maddening seeing all these expensive unnecessary stuff.
"Come, there is one place I want you to see." She said. She touched the door, a red light washed over her hand and the door slid open. She walked into the exercise room and I followed her. The walls of that room were all glass that looked outside into a beautiful courtyard that you only see behind castles. I drew my attention back to her as she stopped at another door. This door was the cheapest looking door I had seen throughout the house but it was still much better looking than my own. She opened a heart shaped pendant that hanged around her neck that I had not seen there before and inside the pendant was a silver key. She took it out and unlocked the door with it. She entered into the darkness and I followed her but I was surprised that the light hadn't come on immediately. I stopped at the door and a second later the light came on and I found Serena's had on a light switch. The room we were in was covered from floor to ceilings in white wall papers but on the papers were smeared paints and art.
There were canvases, paints, brushes and everything an artist I presumed would need on the right. Which was not all that tidy. On the left however were papers, pens, pencils, light drawings on the paper covered wall, a table and a desk which was piled with books. In the middle of the room was a mattress with pillows and a blanket on it. There was nothing grand about this room, nothing absolutely beautiful, but it was the only room that felt real, that felt lived in. I turned to Serena with a raised brow.
"This is my art studio where I spend all my time when I am not outside of the house. It's the only place I feel at home." She said as she walked toward the blind. She pulled the rope and the blind flipped up to reveal a wide window halfway of the wall to the ceiling. It over looked a flower garden.
I walked toward her standing by the window and pulled her into my arms. This woman was still hurting; no matter how strong she appeared to be.
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