~Author's Note~
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It's Canadian Thanksgiving! So It's much better than the American mess ;) lol jk, or am I? hahaha. Okay babies, I am really proud of this chapter so I hope you all like it ;) This chapter brings tears to my eyes. I would just like to say that some of you will be happy. Some of you may be sad... BUT please show me your support/comments/critique! LOVE YOU ALL BABES!
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for everyone of you guys! To Assassin and all my little silent readers! I love you all, thank you guys for everything and for all your support! Love you all!
Sincerely,
~Ms. AtomicBomb
It was mostly flashes. Her mother was screaming, she was too. The car spun as it slid across the intersection and finally stopped when it hit a pole. Everything went black.
There was ringing in her ears and smoke filling her lungs as she struggled to breathe. Her head felt heavy right while her eyelids pried open, her sight was blurry but she could still see the smoke fogging up the warm summer night. The white air bag had been stained with something dark that she could not quite point out. She had not noticed the excruciating pain in her leg until she struggled to push herself off the deflating air bag. She did not even dream of looking down at her knee for fear of seeing it completely broken, so instead she gave a cough—wincing at the pain—and turned her attention toward the left.
"Mom?" She questioned, her voice hoarse and barely audible, "Mom?" She couldn't speak well and so she did not try to say 'mother' as she usually did, it was hard to even think straight at the given moment.
Igraine's hands were hanging loose as her head was on the air bag, hair—that had been tightly and neatly placed in a bun—was a complete mess; stray hairs flying around her like a halo and bun half-undone. Her face was covered with loose strands of hair and since Arturia was having a hard time processing anything, she could not really see her mother very well. Things were becoming hazy for the young teenager and she was having trouble understanding what had occurred.
Arturia slowly and carefully sat back so as to not cause herself any more pain. Lying he head back on the headrest, she groaned while she moved her aching arm to the seatbelt buckle, "Mom?" She questioned after hearing the seatbelt click open and it having flown back to its resting position, "Mom," she reached towards the older lady and cautiously shook her.
Horns and loud sirens filled the silent summer night and Arturia had begin to comprehend everything, a bitter taste forming in her mouth as something rolled around in her stomach, "Mom? Mom?" Her nose began to sting and she was starting to tear up, "Mom, please, I'm sorry." She slowly shook her mom.
The horns finally stopped but the lights were blinding her as what seemed like a firefighter pried her door open with a lot of difficulty. His voice was strong but there was no way she could understand what he was saying, it almost seemed as if he was speaking in a different language.
"My mom, she—"Arturia could not hear her own voice—"help her."
The firefighter signalled someone over to the other side as the ambulance had finally made it to the scene. The man had said something about Arturia's knee but she did not process it as he carefully pulled her out of the car. Everything else was going back to flashes. Paramedics flooded the area and she caught glimpses of how battered up her car was while they pried the driver's seat open. The left side of the car was completely destroyed while the other car had the entire hood of it had receded to the dashboard and there was a man still inside. Her mother finally being pulled out from the passenger's side was the last this she saw before the darkness engulfed her again.
Arturia gasped as she woke up, sweat covering her body in a thin layer and her breathing erratic. She rolled on to her side and looked at the time, it wasn't even twelve—she wasn't going to sleep tonight, was she? Turning back towards the ceiling, she sat up from her bed and silently slipped out, making her way to the bathroom.
Wincing at the light as she switched it on, she tried to let her eyes adjust before opening the faucet and stopping to hear the calming sound of the water running. She washed her face with cool water and looked at herself in the mirror before herself. Lifting her bangs, she could see the scar on her forehead and she sighed. Oh how she wished it had all truly been a dream. Closing her eyes shut for a second or two, she turned off the light and headed back to bed.
Feeling the soft cotton against her skin she went under her covers again, reaching over to her phone. She thought about calling Jeanne but the poor girl needed as much sleep as she could get what with her two jobs and all. Arturia also did not want to worry Jeanne with what she thought were trivial matters. It wasn't until the ringing of the phone stopped and was proceeded by a voice that she had truly realized what she had done.
"Hey, Arturia, don't tell me that you're planning on throwing an all-nighter just to study for the in class assignment tomorrow, are you?" The voice was sturdy and Arturia kept silent in order to hear the voice of the man carefully.
"I'm not," she whispered, "Are you marking tests?"
There was a chuckle, "I thought as much, and uh, how did you know? Are you secretly watching me?" It seemed that he was a more playful person when he was beyond bored or tired.
Smiling softly, not forgetting what was keeping her up, she took a deep breath, "I can't sleep."
"You can't? Do you have a fever?" He asked, voice laced with concern and she could hear the frown in his voice.
Sliding her hand over her wound she shook her head, "No, just can't sleep. Can you talk? I don't want to interrupt you while you're working…" Her voice slowly trailed off.
Another laugh from the male, "You never bother me, Arturia, unless you are obviously teasing me." There was silence for a while, making her think that he had possibly hung up. Then she heard another voice in the background before he spoke to what sounded like his younger brother before turning his attention back to his girlfriend on the other line, "So what's keeping you up, sweetheart?"
"Nothing…" She replied bluntly, "I just can't sleep, that's all."
"Not buying that," Diarmuid chuckled, "Now, tell me what's cooking?"
She laughed at his tone of voice, which seemed to be much lighter and outgoing than usually, "Just a nightmare. I've had it a few times before but hadn't for a long time now. Thought I would be over it by now."
"Oh," He hummed and proceeded to put down his pen, "You shouldn't be worried about getting over it. I don't exactly know what nightmare it was, and you don't have to tell me if you are not comfortable, but I get nightmares too." He began, "My biggest fear is—as cheesy as this sounds—people using me to their benefit. I've been through something like that before… where I gave it all to someone and they just crushed me." He stopped and Arturia heard shuffling, "I'm also scared of spiders, ha, like they're so weird with their lanky legs and eight eyes." He sounded much cheerier than before and he tried to make a funny tone that it made Arturia laugh.
"How can you be scared of spiders? You're a grown man." She asked, giggling all throughout her words.
Joining the laugh, he spoke again, "Hey, just imagine like seventy crawling all over your body—ugh." He sounded as if he had a chill run down his spine, "Anyway, back to reality, it's alright to be scared of something. We all are…" After speaking some more encouraging words, they continued to talk about little things and Diarmuid had started to hear Arturia drifting into sleep.
It wasn't until about two in the morning when he was certain that she fell asleep before murmuring, "Good night, Artie," and then hanging up the call, focusing back on the tests he had promised would be marked the following day.
Along with Friday morning came a freezing breeze on Jeanne and Arturia's way to school. They weren't able to get the car out of the parkway because of the heavy snow build up and Jeanne's mother had advised they not take the car for fear of how bad the roads would be. So, with laziness, the girls dragged themselves towards the bus stop, speaking of the upcoming day and the holiday break that followed.
"I am completely embarrassed; I fell asleep while talking to Diarmuid." The green-eyed girl brought a gloved hand to her head.
The Frenchwoman let out a chuckle, "That sounds super cute." Trudging through the snow, hoping to get to the bus stop as soon as possible, "I'm surprised school wasn't cancelled today."
After scoffing, Arturia gave her friend a funny face, "They would not even cancel school for a tornado, let alone a snow storm."
It wasn't long before they had made it to the bus stop and it took a long while to finally get to school, but they weren't late—which made Jeanne very relieved for she thought her perfect attendance would be broken.
The day had gone by slow for both Arturia and Jeanne—as was common of days before a long break. It felt like an eternity before lunch time finally arrived and all the teenagers all but ran into the cafeteria with hopes of being the first ones in line or to get a good table. Arturia had seen Jeanne and Guinevere already at a table and had made her way towards them, a little upset that she had not seen Diarmuid anywhere.
"Hey babe!" Guinevere smirked just as the short blond took a seat next to her.
Arturia nodded at her friend, "Hello, how are you both?" She asked, setting her bag on the table.
"Great!" The brunette almost sounded like that tiger that advertised a cereal brand, "Jeanne was just telling me about the date she has after school, right Jeannie?" Her loose curled locks bounced as she chirped.
"What date?" Arturia gasped, her previously nonchalant demeanour changing with a sentence she would not have thought she would hear that day. Well, she knew Jeanne was bound to be asked out any day but that Friday was not a day she would imagine.
Jeanne sighed, "Sometimes I wonder if you ever listen to me," she frowned, "I already told you that Cú asked me out a million years ago. It's just an outing…"
"Wait!" Guinevere nearly screamed right as her boyfriend and Gawain made it to the table, "Cú? Cú asked you out? What? No way! And you are actually going out? Yo!" She clapped her hands, "Guess who won!?"
"No, they're on a date, they're not actually going out yet, are they?" Lancelot jumped into the conversation, understanding that the brunette did not actually mean going out as girlfriend and boyfriend.
"We're not even on a date," Jeanne argued, her face red in embarrassment, "it's an outing!" She fidgeted with her uniform blazer.
The table fell silent as someone took their seat next to Jeanne and she looked to her left, seeing a blue braid and she could clearly hear Guinevere 'whisper' (if you could even call it that) to Arturia, "Couple goals." Shooting a glare over at the brunette, she turned back to Cú Chulainn, gulping and trying to supress her blush, "Hi."
"Hey, lass, how was fitness?" He asked.
"Yo," Guinevere interrupted, a sly smirk on her face, "What do you think of the name Jealainn?"
"Sounds great," Arturia responded while Gawain gave a nod of approval.
Lancelot almost let out a chuckle—a change from his stoic expressions, "Perfect."
Jeanne suddenly understood and she glared daggers at the female in front of her as her blush rushed back to her cheeks. She knew way too much about ship names.
Cú seemed to honestly and innocently consider it, "I love it, it's pretty cool… What do you think, lapin?" He turned to look at her, using the first French word he thought of that sounded cute.
With his answer, Jeanne seemed more like a tomato. He knows, doesn't he? He's teasing me… And am I really a rabbit? "It's ridiculous." Jeanne replied with a small shaky voice, feeling her face burning like hot water.
Guinevere laughed, "Five against one… Well then." That darn sly smirk was getting Jeanne agitated.
"What's it for?" Cú decided to ask, curiosity taking the best of him now as he leaned on the table towards her, "Something for your blog?"
Giggling a little more, the brown-eyed girl continued her subtle teasing, "Yeah, I guess you could call it that."
Lunch had consisted, mostly, of Jeanne trying to hide her blush as basically everyone in the table gave her 'the eyes', the ones that were filled with tease and mischief. She had tried to ignore them a couple of times but was relieved when they all had to leave to attend class.
Third period had flown much faster than expected, and so Jeanne and Arturia promptly made their way to their chemistry class. It wasn't until they reached the doorway of the classroom that Jeanne was held back, someone taking her arm.
Jeanne turned around but Arturia had not noticed and simply continued walking inside. The violet-eyed female came to contact with ruby red eyes, and she proceeded to bring a short smile to her face, "Hello," She greeted the tall man.
"Hey, Lancelot said you lent him your textbook and he forgot to give it back to you, so…" The blue-haired male lifted the chemistry textbook up, "he sent me to bring it to you."
"Oh! Thank goodness! Thank you, it completely slipped out of my mind, thank you so much. I would be completely lost without it in class." Her smile grew—thankfulness in the corners of her lips—and she proceeded to take the book from him.
Instead of being able to get the book, the boy quickly lifted up as far as he could and Jeanne's smile faded as her jaw dropped. "Cú…"
Cú grinned, "You can reach, come on!"
Giving him a straight face, rolling her eyes a bit she nodded, "Okay." She gave a nod and then jumped for the book, but he only lifted it higher, "Cú." She whined.
The pout on her lips seemed very tempting and he decided to tease her, "Well…" he thought to slyly flirt, "You are my petite amie, so I promise you I won't fool you again."
The girl's cheeks lit up in seconds and she stared at him in shock. Had he… Had he just called her his girlfriend? "P-Pardon?" She replied in French, disbelief in her shaky voice.
Fuck, she's cute, "You are my friend, and quite tiny." The embarrassment she was in was starting to rub off on him.
"Oh!" She almost seemed disappointed, "Right." She was nodding as to assure herself and not let her mind wander.
Biting the inside of his cheek, he smirked, "Want to reach now? I know you can do it."
Running her teeth over her pale lips, she had Cú in a trance—without even knowing, "Don't tease me too much." She warned, flipping her braid over her shoulder, she had had enough of it today, what with Guinevere and all.
"Promise." He gave her a nod, holding the book a little closer towards her. She jumped up to get it—and even if it was a swift motion—he was much to skilled in this that he was perfectly able to pull her towards him with his free arm right as her hand landed on the chemistry book. Cú did not even give her a single moment to breathe before catching a glance of her surprised lavender eyes before landing a kiss on her lips.
He moved his lips against hers for a short while as he felt her arm drop with the book in hand. Orange juice was the only thing that he could taste and he smiled against her lips as he lifted his—now unoccupied—hand to her neck. Cú pulled her closer and she almost kissed back—almost—if it weren't for the damn bell that snapped her out of the trance as it did to him. Pulling away from her and letting his hands slip away, he tried his hardest not to frown, Fuck the bell.