Pre-Chapter Note: Sorry this took so long to get to you guys, somehow my SSD failed while trying to write that part in Word, and I had forgotten I can just write my chapters here on the site itself. Forgiveness, please.
We're finally getting to the nitty-gritty, some of the good parts now! And believe me, you're not going to want to miss out, as things only get better (for me, at least, can't say the same for my OC) from here, I'm this close to the climax!
Oh yeah, if I didn't have a language warning before, I'm definitely putting one now, there was several uses of "hell", "damn", and "pissed off" here, it's closer to the end of this part that I'm starting to go unhinged at this. Plus, it's a damn retelling, I have full control over how I tell it.
Anyways, let's get on with this! And as always, please watch Elemental before reading. Thank you!
6:45 PM, the very next day...
I've basically put myself on-call all day for Gayle to respond back about the glass wall solution that Ember pulled out of nowhere last night. In which, in my case today, wouldn't happen for nearly the whole day, I've basically been worried that she wouldn't approve of it and I wouldn't know until it was too late. She'd be spending all day settling a dispute between 2 Earth business owners regarding overgrown bushes outside some competing business. Yeah, that can happen too, I've done this before. Probably one of my only favorite things about this job.
Meanwhile, me, Reid, & JoAnne were all just hanging out, watching some TV in the living area. Our living area was mostly a "pool-style" plan, meaning our living & dining area you could swim around in for as long as you like. It's kind of nice if you ask me. But as for Marco & Pollo, they take advantage of this and spend more than 90% of their day swimming around in these waters, so in true reality, you never knew where they were. We were watching a re-run of some Mission Impossible style movie when out of the blue, we could hear the door knocking. JoAnne, being the pushy younger sister she was, sarcastically said "Is that the smokin' one?"
Even I knew that door was high risk for Ember, it too was water made. "JoAnne... I swear to god... that door is made out of water as well! Even if she were to be here, that'd be a high risk for her, so no, it's not her. Don't get your hopes up about seeing her, PLEASE!" I said to JoAnne. I was starting to get tired of her constantly asking me to bring her over. I don't think JoAnne knew about Ember's busy life, nor did I remember telling her about it. "Yeah, please." Reid said back, then followed up with "I've been told more or less about why she can't come anyway."
Instead, it'd be my oldest sibling, Lola. She'd come home for the weekend for visitation purposes. I also forgot the fact that some of my extended family would be coming over tonight as well. Unfortunately, Paul (my still ex-father) wouldn't be in this mix, however, Max would also be at the door alongside her. Lola, of all siblings, loved me more than everyone here. "Sam! Big man and all... how's life going?" Lola asked, giving me a big old hug in the process. Of all people that knew I hated my City Inspector job, I only shared this information to Lola, Max, & Ember. "Life's... fine. Not the greatest." I said to Lola, while also recalling yesterdays hilarious incident at The Fireplace. Of which everyone had a great laugh about it. Meanwhile, Olivia (mother, in case you all forgot) was just coming back with everyone else that needed assistance coming in. Everyone else after Lola & Max that were still capable of coming in on their own would follow shortly after.
Everyone was very happy to see us, even Marco & Pollo, who I barely get to see, but loved. The reunions & such were all going well, mostly until JoAnne had to chime in somewhere in my conversation between my siblings & cousins, "Oh yeah, did Sam ever tell you about his hot date!?"
I could tolerate most of her snarky remarks about Ember, but this pushed Reid & I over the edge. "JOANNE! FOR THE LAST TIME SHE ISN'T COMING TONIGHT! WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO DO! JUST SHUT UP!" Reid & I snapped. This was the angriest we've been with her since she broke Reid's laptop he used for Rockwell. On a weekend home 4 years ago, JoAnne was messing around with Reid, making him more angry as she went about being annoying around him. She then "accidentally" dropped his laptop on the floor, which broke in about several pieces. Upon finding this out, Reid & I were super fed up with her over this, that we made her pay every cent for a new laptop, and was grounded for as long as it took for her to save up for and buy the new laptop for him. It was the first time I became a father figure of sorts, since I've mostly been trusted as such since the divorce.
"Sorry guys. Didn't mean to lose my temper with you all... but she's not wrong. I did get myself a girlfriend recently, at least my whole family plus Max know this. But the hot date part... yeah, take a wild guess on which element my girlfriend is!" I said back. I got a few sarcastic responses when I said this, otherwise all were happy with me for getting myself true love. Lola was the most happy for me, "SAM! Congrats on this! Believe me, this will work well if you play your cards right, I had an Earth boyfriend before, didn't end well unfortunately. Maybe you having a Fire girlfriend will finally get me over my fear of fire." Lola said back. Oh yeah, she too knew about the lighter fluid incident, which made her fear for fire only increase by a ton.
"Yeah... I know how badly some of you want to see her..." I started, before I remembered what Ember said, then finished with "BUT, if things work, MAYBE, just maybe, it might just happen!" I got them pretty damn hyped for that! I was just hoping for the best at that point.
But little did I know... Ember was actually on her way over here right now! When The Fireplace closed for the evening, she was able to walk out and take off on her moped-like motorcycle. The best part was, her parents never bothered to stop her whatsoever. But her mom (Cinder Lumen) knew something was up, she knew someone was in love if she sensed it, or confirms it in her separated portion of the shop where she'd do something known as a "smoke reading", it was sort of a matchmaker type thing, if you will. She could just tell Ember was in love, so decided to attempt & follow her to wherever the hell she was going. She what Ember meant when she said her parents were watching her every move?
I signaled to the rest of the guests that I'd be waiting for her potential appearance, then headed down the stairs and out to the front entrance, and waited. However, this would prove to not be that long of a wait, as it was all but about 5 minutes before I saw her come around the corner, I think she knew it was my place when she saw me outside at the entrance. "Ember! You made it!" I said, just genuinely surprised she even bothered showing up. She also was here for another reason.
"Sam... any word from Gayle yet? I've been worrying about this all day. This has to break my way!" Ember said, internally panicking. "Oh... right! Uh, unfortunately not as of now, she's been pretty busy all day, however, promised me she'd call back about it sometime tonight." I said, which put the both of us on edge a little. "But, you came across an opportunity here! I currently have more than half of my extended family plus my best friend over for dinner. To say that a few of those people have been begging & begging to see you would be a complete understatement. If you want, not only can I finally make those certain people happy, but we can wait for her to call back as well." I said back to Ember. Well, I half expected her to turn this down at this point. "Wait... your entire family is up there right now!?" Ember asked, looking a little perked up, she knew this'd be her chance to see my family since she said she wanted to the previous night. "Yeah, I literally just said that a little bit ago." I playfully responded. This was laughed upon instantly. This was then followed up with "Okay, sure... I'll come up for a bit. Even if to put them out of that misery from you." that last part of being put of that misery meant that they'd finally stop asking me to bring her by, that too was a taunting response. So, in we went. All the while her mom was still trying to follow her, much to her dismay, she couldn't be let in at all. Fire citizens were allowed in the apartment complex here, but it was a "enter at your own risk" type place. Because some Earth & Air citizens live here too, meaning Fire visitors had the extreme high risk of being put out.
"Wow, so you really own this place?" Ember asked all surprisingly. "Oh, ha ha. No, I wish. It's my parents place, they bought this place after they were married... man I still wish I had my dad around." I told her. Yes, both Olivia & Paul bought the place together shortly after they were married, it was one of the best apartment/penthouse hybrid you could get on the market back then.
I opted to take the stairs back up to my residence, as taking the elevator was strictly for Water & Air residents only. I mean, worst case scenario, if Water & Air mixed in there, it could just cause more water on the grounds, it just creates a rain effect. Putting Ember in that elevator would just be asking for a natural disaster to happen.
5 minutes later
"And here... we... go!" I quietly rambled. Ember & I were at the front door at this point, again, this door being made from water, I had to be the one to knock the door. "Mom! I'm back!" I announced through the door, I usually did this in case there was an unwanted guest. Now, I'd normally have the key to let myself back in the penthouse (I think I'll just refer to this as a penthouse at this point), however, this was mostly only useful to me if I was coming back from a late night shift. Shortly after that, Olivia came round and opened up. You could just see the excitement that lit up when she saw Ember.
"And you must be Ember! So good to finally meet you!" Olivia said rather pumped up. "Yup, in all her burning glory! Maybe now JoAnne won't push it on me anymore!" I replied in such a agonistic way. I'm like this with a lot, but it's mostly to be funny.
After which, Olivia started going about wanting to give Ember some sort of welcoming contact, but since she hasn't had interaction with Fire since 1999, she completely forgot about what'd happen if they mixed. "Haven't seen fire in so long... how do I do this... do I hug... do I wave... what do I do?" Olivia was being exaggerate about this until Ember knew what was to happen, then responded "Oh uh... a hello would be fine."
All the while, a thought rushed into my head that I thought of saying, "Uh, mom, you don't!", there was a good reason I didn't say this out loud. "Yeah, she hasn't seen any fire citizen since 1999, forgiveness, please. Sometimes she doesn't know any better." I said back to Ember. At that point, Olivia signaled to us that we were about to have dinner served. "K! We're coming" I responded back. Well, that was before Ember saw the entire ground past the welcome mat was water. I was just thinking of how to handle this, I was trying to make the best of it, and replied "Just a sec!"
When I slightly panicked, there really was next to nothing I could do to still have Ember be safe around here. During the process of this, Ember kept looking at me with an expression that one could translate to as "Are you okay?". Funnily enough, Ember couldn't hold back and asked if I was okay. When finally, I took the inflatable chair that literally only I used, and put the welcome mat on top of it. "Okay... this should work. Sorry I flipped out." I responded back to her. "Try this." It took Ember a small bit to get her balance up to par, but eventually was able to work it out. After which, I went and pushed the chair through the water interior.
"Alright. Now just one thing I think I feel is important to say here... they're going to want to know a lot about you, which I can expect, being that they wanted to see you for a while. But if at any point they start making you feel uncomfortable, you do not have to respond to any of this." I said, this was one lesson I was taught as a kid that I could officially hand down to another person. However, Ember still didn't think she cared. "Sam, it's fine! It'll be good for them to know me better." Ember responded. Before I stopped outside the waterfall that separates the dining area from the living area.
And with that out of the way, I decided that a "grand entrance" style introduction to her was the way to go. "Alright guys! I'm back! And I have someone that I just KNOW some of you were pushing & pushing me to bring this certain someone over for a while! So without... wait, why am I talking to a waterfall?" I started, nearing the end of that, putting my arm over Ember so as for her not to disintegrate when going through that waterfall. Being the comedic person I was in my family, they bust out laughing when I joked about talking to a waterfall. After getting myself mentally prepared at the overjoy my family would have... in we went to the dining area.
"Everyone... this is Ember Lumen!" I announced. To say that everyone was over-joyous and was frantically introducing themselves to her was just the gist of it all. Neither one of us could keep up. Even JoAnne had her jaws drop. She thought I had a "fire" girlfriend in the way where it was a nickname, not actual fire. "I thought you said you had a smokin date in the way of it being a cutesy nickname. THIS IS BETTER THAN I EXPECTED!" JoAnne chimed in. "See, told y'all I wasn't crazy!" I said, with us getting seated. Everyone had so much they wanted to share with Ember, as did Ember, she too had a few things to say.
15 minutes later
Things were going just as expected, all of us sharing & recalling our moments in life with Ember, and despite her life being dedicated to the shop, Ember had a good amount of moments she'd share with all of us. Having your whole life be at The Fireplace wasn't so boring after all, right? I even told everyone how we met, some of which were surprised in that regard. Basically, this was until one of my more annoying cousins just had to chime in, "Yo Ember! Did Sammy here ever tell you that he's definitely afraid of the SPONGE?"
Even Max wasn't having it with him right then. "Alex! Even YOU knew I was traumatized from that!" I yelled at him. Usually I was go-with-the-flow and whatnot, but even one person bringing this event up pushes me over the edge a la rude customers pushing Ember over the edge. Max & Reid even knew this wasn't funny, each agreed to not be a part of that situation as Alex (youngest cousin) continued to be annoying about this event, even Ember was in with this.
"DAMN IT GUYS! Why do y'all think that was the greatest thing to happen in life to me!? CLEARLY IT WASN'T AND IT NEVER WILL! SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!" I snapped, that was the equivalent of me having a purple flame going off. While everyone was in hysterics about something that wasn't extremely memorable to most, Jeremy (middle sibling amongst my cousins) dropped his glass mug he used for his tea. Both Ava (my aunt) & I were less than happy to see this. Me especially because that was $500 down the drain, or so I thought...
In the middle of arguing about this, everyone heard out of nowhere, "I can fix that!"
It was Ember.
Everyone was unaware of her ability, except for me. After she collected the glass that shattered, off she went in "fixing" this mug. Instead, she was making a whole new one, almost in the form of a vase. Even I was surprised, given I already knew about this. Even included the handle every mug would have, talk about having the attention to detail! About 45 seconds later, she was finished.
"Yeah... sorry it's not how it was originally." Ember said.
"Not how it was originally... EMBER THAT WAS AMAZING!" Max said, everyone joined in on his reaction as well, applauding her for her art. "It's just melted glass..." Ember tried to assure everyone before Max chimed in once more, "What do you mean "just melted glass", take a look around you, every building around here is made from just melted glass, nothing more, nothing less. You seriously need to do something with that talent, I've seen glass makers like you before... let me just say, you've a bright future ahead with that!"
Ember felt more than appreciated to hear this. I'd turn to her after this and said. "See, I knew you were special.", in which I got a smile from her in response.
Seconds later, I felt an idea come over me, one I always had the honor of sharing. "Hey guys... who's up for a round of the crying game after dinner!?" I asked. I didn't expect everyone to unanimously want to do this all at once.
"Crying game? Hell yeah! I am UNDEFEATED at that game!" Max responded. I get a little competitive playing this game, so this was of no surprise to hear from him. "Oh ARE YOU now!? We'll just find out!" I said very taunt-like.
"Let me guess, you try to cry!?" Ember said back. It was pretty clear she didn't know about the crying game at all. "Nope! It's vice versa, try not to cry!" I said. I genuinely began to think this was going to be too easy.
The real strategy with this game was to find their darkest memory in which one would easily cry at.
20 minutes later
And we were all ready to play this game. I of course opted to versus the "undefeated champion", Max. "Oh, by the way, I'm implementing that rule, 30 seconds per player each!", I said, and all agreed. This made the game a bit more tense, however, first to cry within the 30 seconds still lost the round.
"Alright, Sam & Max! In 3... 2... 1... GO!" Reid was the announcer for this game, flipping the timer, I started off with one of his most darkest memories ever known to him. "There you were! 13 years ago, outside the nursery in the heart of the Earth section of town..." I started before his cocky behavior dissipated and he sobbed VERY hard, about the hardest anyone ever did. "Oh, still undefeated, are we!?" I said very tauntingly, it was clear even then that Max was a huge liar, no getting out of this. I then called JoAnne up front & center as my next opponent. JoAnne NEVER won a single game of the crying game.
"Maybe I'll finally win this time!" JoAnne said before Reid flipped the timer. She still was unaware I usually went first each of these rounds. "Halloween night, 15 years ago!" was all I could get out before she lost immediately! Yeah, these never work out well, do they? Oh, and don't ask, because I won't go into detail on what happened on those 2 instances. I then let the next person chose my opponent. Ray (my uncle) suggested Ember went next. So... that it was!
"Yeah, this is literally putting me at an unfair advantage, I've never once cried in my life!" Ember said in response when she got up to go against me. "Are you sure about that!? Sounds like a challenge if you ask me!" I said back before making a suggestion to Reid in terms of how this round was to be played. "Reid, since Ember literally dared me to, and the fact she's never played this game before... I think it's only fair if I get the full 60 seconds." I said, and once again, got unanimously agreed upon to get the full minute on Ember.
"Alright Sam, get 1 minute to make fire cry! And... GO!" Reid was certain that I'd somehow be able to make her cry even tho she literally stated it'd be damn near impossible to do so. I at first didn't know what to say, so started small.
"Butterfly... butterfly... windshield wipers... half a butterfly!" I was stammering, before I thought of something I hadn't heard in over 15 years. "Long ago, a couple layed together on their death bed..." I started. This was for sure a tear-jerker to ANYONE that knew what this was, this was a plot-line for one of my grandparent's favorite primetime syndicate's finale episode. "...both knew they had a hard life on one another, every indifference they overcame, amongst other things... was something they knew they could get over. One day, they promised... that day never came." I came close to crying. Being a buff on this type of thing, I knew everything I was talking about here. Realizing it's been slightly over 30 seconds and still no teardrop of any kind from Ember, I decided to pull an ultimatum move I was going to save for later... confess my feelings for Ember in front of my whole family.
"Ember... when I first met you, I... I felt like I was just a nobody in life, like I was drowning with no one around. You've given me so much, shown me so much, that I can't even begin to explain. And all I want to do now is to be near your shining light that showed me life as I never knew it... forever..." I said. Ember then internally visualized what I said, which if seen to be believed, was a beautiful thing, and after this... Ember let a teardrop escape her. Yup, I still won that round in clutch. Everyone was in awe, while Ember looked emotional to everyone.
Reid quietly added... "How the hell did you win that round!?"
I didn't hear him loud enough for me to answer this, honestly. Seconds after this, my home phone rang.
"Oh, hang on!" I said. Picking up the phone, I was 99.9% sure it was the call I was waiting for.
"Ripple residence how can I help you!?" I answered, before Gayle had to confirm she was indeed calling the right number. "Yes, this is he" I responded back
"GLASS!? You repaired it with glass!?" Gayle responded back, at this point it could go either way. "Okay, to be fair, that wasn't my idea." I said before a noticeable delay was heard over the phone, they confirmed it was tempered glass.
"Tempered glass! Why didn't we think of that before!? I like it, solid as a rock! Consider the tickets CANCELLED!" Gayle responded.
YES! The Fireplace was officially saved! I gestured this emotion to Ember before I responded back to Gayle, "Thank you! Have a great night!"
"We did it!?" Ember responded in anticipation. "We did!" I said back. Both of us were celebrating at this point, and at that point, Ember took out the brochure, and burned it into nothingness. We almost shared a hug between each other before realizing we simply couldn't.
Marco tried EVERYTHING to get us to do so. "Marco, come on man! Unless you want her put out, stop trying!"
45 minutes later...
"Thank you for everything tonight Mrs. Ripple. This really has been great" Ember said outside my front door. I was set to take her back to The Fireplace. Max came in after Olivia gave her goodbyes to Ember. "Ember! Wait! One more thing!" Max said frantically.
Ember started to pay attention after that. "When I said you needed to do something with your glass making talent, I meant every single word I said. Sam knows this, but I own a very large firm, and someone I know that works there has someone they know that owns one of the largest glass making firms in the industry! Sometime after you made that mug, I reached out to that very supervisor who put in a good word for you... long story short, they're looking for an intern, as they just had to fire their last one some time ago for undisclosed reasons."
"Wait, really?" Ember responded. She had to play along with this despite the fact she already had her life planned out, but not by choice. "Yeah! We all think you have a bright future ahead!" Max responded. And that was the last we heard from them, the second we went outside of the place, I could just tell she didn't want anything to do with this!
"Ember! Wait! What the hell is going on!?" I asked, albeit a tiny bit frantically. "I can't believe they just tried to offer me a job." Ember said back.
"RIGHT!? It'll be an excellent opportunity!" I responded. With this response, I may have accidentally triggered her purple flames to show again.
"Yeah! That's great! Be able to move out, start a new life, a new job, and do WHATEVER I WANT!" Ember sort of aggressively responded. I was embarrassed to see this.
"WHAT THE FUCK!? We were just trying to be nice! What are you doing!?" I dramatically responded then.
"I'm going home!" Ember responded, well before I jumped on the back of her ride. "Well, regardless, I'm coming!" I said, before she just took off.
Few minutes later...
"EMBER WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? WE'RE GOING 1000 MILES PER HOUR!" I said, being incredibly scared of my life at this point. Ember was riding this thing like a goddamn maniac, I genuinely thought I was going to fall off several times. After this, Ember responded with "You don't know me Sam! STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU DO!"
"OH I'M SORRY! I DON'T KNOW YOU!? WHAT ELSE DID YOU THINK WE WERE DOING THE PAST FEW DAYS!? WHAT EVEN IS THIS ABOUT ANYWAY!?" I asked back, I was beyond mad to hear this. I knew she was lying about that too.
"Nothing... everything... I DON'T KNOW!" Ember panickily responded. Another 15 seconds pass, and we finally stopped outside The Fireplace. Ember once again changed emotions, I knew she was hiding something that she thought only I could know, these suspicions would be confirmed a short time later.
"I don't think I actually do want to run the shop... that's what my temper has been trying to tell me." Ember said. I knew it, her parents were trying to turn her into something she wasn't.
"Well... I'd maybe start by telling them this information. Ember... some things you can't hold back forever, this is a perfect example." I said. While Ember wanted to at that point, she believed that I'd be the reason for that, and after yesterday's incident where I got banned from The Fireplace, she made sure never to show her true feelings for me around anyone, it was extremely tough. "Sam... you don't understand. For years I've been praying to the blue flame hoping I'd be good enough to fulfil my father's shoes. I've never once been asked what I wanted to do..." Ember started. This hit me a little.
"Because sometimes, in order to repay a sacrifice to one another, you have to sacrifice the people you dearly trust. And it's not easy at all, I would think of all people, having lost both of their grandparents in a single day, you'd know this." Ember finished. I then get hit harder, because it made me reminisce that day again. It was so hard to let them go. "Ember... there's something I should've told you a while back that I never did..." I started, before I could hear someone else in the distance.
"EMBER!"
This voice would be Cinder Lumen, her mother.
Both of us panicked. "Uh, who the hell is that!?" I asked.
"Oh FLAME! It's my mom!" Ember said back to herself. "DON'T! MOVE!" I could hear her from the top of that very section where the train ran.
90 seconds later
"Oh this is embarrassing." I quietly said, attempting to make the best of it, I instead was making things worse, or so it felt like it.
Her mom finally shows up, looking like she's out of breath. She ran down every single stair before anyone asks. "Look, mom! It's okay, he's just a friend!" Ember was being a little too frantic. "Si..." Cinder started before I pulled another "I can explain!" from in me. It's all I could say in awkward situations such as this.
"Si...LENCE!" she was able to finish. I was unsure if this was directed to me, so I in retaliation said, "Statement withdrawn"
Ember did everything she could for the next 10 seconds to explain everything in a condensed form. Even I knew Cinder wasn't buying it. I was just listening, hoping I wouldn't be harmed by her either, however, she was less likely to do so.
"Just stop! I could sense this from a mile away!" Cinder responded to Ember's attempts to explain everything. This caught my attention. "Sense what!?" I asked, before Ember decided to answer this herself.
"You... you were smelling love on me!?" Ember asked all surprisingly. "So sensing love on one another is a thing?" I quietly responded, not loud enough for them to hear me, thankfully. "If your father finds out about this... FIRE & WATER CANNOT BE TOGETHER!" Cinder said back.
"Yeah I think I'll just..." I started. I intended to just leave the situation and maybe call her back (I got her number somewhere in between the last part & this one), that was before Cinder finished it off with something I wasn't ready to hear on the spot. "I'll prove it! Come on!"
"Oh boy..." I muttered back. I was screwed.
5 minutes later
She got everything ready for the smoke reading between us. This felt awkward. I felt as if she meant what she said when we couldn't be together, even though I did EVERYTHING I could to make it work.
"I splash this on your heart to bring love to the surface." Cinder said, starting this off by splashing some liquid in us. This felt weird for a second. "Oh uh.. okay then..." I said back.
"And then you must light these with your... fire... then I read the smoke" Cinder then said after that. Simple enough for Ember. Meanwhile, I was trying to find any way possible to get it work in my case. Nothing came of it. "Damn it!" I kept thinking.
"See? I told you this would never work!" Cinder said back to Ember... and then I get an idea about 10 seconds later.
"No... wait, hold on, I got an idea." This was when Ember found herself behind me. I was internally freaking out at this. "Oh dear god I promised I'd never do this at all!" I quietly rambled, before lifting the hem of my shirt. A light reflected off of this, Ember was confused as to what I was doing at first, but slowly I regained control of this light, and put it straight down nearest the pole this dot would have to climb, and that's when Ember caught on.
The idea here is this thing I was doing can cause a smoke reaction if done correctly and if near smoke or fire conditions. A short while later, it had worked. I put the hem back down and just watched the smoke effect happen before my very eyes. "How!?" was all Cinder could think when getting our smoke reading. Somewhere in the middle of this... "Cinder!?"
Hell no! It was Bernie! "Uh..." I started. Everyone involved looked freaked out at this. "Sam, you have to go, now!" Ember said back, neither her or Cinder wanted to be in trouble with him for something petty as this. All of us had to basically get me out in such a quiet manner so as for him to not hear a thing.
"You never said if we were a match or not!" I said before having the door slammed on me. Yeah... it was a set in stone at this point, as if it weren't obvious enough, we had been a match for a while now.
"Well, that confirms it." I said, clearly talking to myself at this point. During all of this, I was just eavesdropping them. Nothing interesting was going on for about 45 seconds. That was before I heard Bernie again. "In 3 days... I retire!"
"3 days..." I whispered back to myself. Then I hear him talk about wanting to throw some big event for them. Yup... Ember was officially taking over. "Oh dear god... no!" I was saying to myself. I KNEW this wasn't what she wanted, but she actually had to act like it at this point. Maybe if I was lucky, Ember would slip this event to me. But, her ashfa I KNEW wanted nothing to do with me.
"3 days to the grand re-opening... I think I can make this work..." I said, realizing I probably was making a big mistake saying this, even though no one else was around. I just decide to cut my losses for the night and head home.
And that's that for this part! This was overdue, as, again, I had to recreate this from scratch, and I forgot I could write my chapters here. Honestly, it's better than writing these in Word (IDK what that program has against the word "actually").
The smoke reading was meant for the next part, but I decided to incorporate it here, as I'm THIS close now to the part I'm excited to write more than anything! In fact, I kind of have an "in-betweener" idea here that I feel like writing after everything is over. It'd be in between the climax of having the relationship being truly too far gone and the flash flood scene, I never seen anything like this happen on this site yet, like... why else do you think she took Wade back instantly when he came to rescue her from the flash flood, sacrificing himself in the process. What could've happened in-between those two scenes with Ember? So many unanswered questions here! Maybe one of y'all could answer this.
Anyway, have a great day/night!