Chapter 3

The Date

The next day, Neo arrived at Izzy's house, still hoping to change her mind about dating Ramona. When she entered, she found Izzy and Julia talking on the couch. They both looked up at her the minute she walked in. Before Neo could start signing, Izzy jumped up from the couch.

"Neo! You will never believe what happened!" she said excitedly.

"She's serious, you won't be able to guess" Julia said.

Neo looked at the two with a quizzical expression on her face, also taking note of the smiles on both their faces.

"I got a date!" Izzy exclaimed.

"With whom?" Neo signed flabbergasted.

"Ramona, obviously!" Izzy said.

And that's when Neo's plan went up in flames. All she could think about was how on the face of the earth Izzy managed this before Neo could even give her Ramona's number. Before Neo could even ask how that happened, Izzy immediately began explaining.

"So last night I rented a DVD online, and earlier today it was delivered by none other than Ramona herself! Turns out she skates, which I gotta say really su-" Izzy began before getting cut off by Julia

"Izzy, focus, you're getting off topic again" she said with a groan.

Neo was in disbelief, all that work to get the number in the first place was for nothing, even though there was little to no work put in anyways since Roxy was quite easy to fight against, at least for someone like Neo. Though now she knew there was no way to convince Izzy to change her mind.

"I'm happy for you" she signed reluctantly.

"Now... question is what are you going to wear?" Julia asked.

"I... I guess my usual outfit? I didn't really put much thought into it to be honest" Izzy admitted.

"Yeah, maybe wear something else" Julia suggested.

"I guess... but what?" she asked.

Neo grabbed Izzy by the arm and dragged her upstairs to her room, followed closely by Julia. The two began to dig through Izzy's closet as Izzy herself just sat on her bed waiting patiently.

"When's the date again?" Julia asked.

"I told her to meet me at the park to give her a tour of town at 7" Izzy replied

Over time, Julia and Neo picked a set of clothes for Izzy to wear. This included black boots, a long black skirt, black tank top under a black leather jacket and finally, Izzy's favorite choker.

"You really need more color in here" Neo signed.

"NO!" Retorted both Izzy and Julia.

This did not surprise Neo in the slightest since both Izzy and Julia were goth girls, though sometimes it hurt to watch the two of them all in black whilst she was in a mix of white, pink and gray. Izzy grabbed the choice of clothes and entered the bathroom to change. Once she exited, she had Julia do her eyeliner and nail polish.

"So... how do I look?" Izzy asked.

Julia gave her a smile and excited giggle whilst Neo gave her two thumbs up.

"You look amazing!" Julia exclaimed, proud of her work.

"Before you go, I got something for you" Neo signed.

Neo reached behind her and unclipped something from her belt. That something was a parasol, like her own, but black to suit Izzy's color preference.

"Wow! It's amazing! Thank you so much Neo!" Izzy said, hugging Neo tightly.

Neo swatted Izzy away, pointing at her watch.

"Oh shit! You're right! I'm going to be late! See you two later!" Izzy said whilst quickly rushing out the door.

Once Izzy left, Julia turned to Neo with a concerned expression.

"You gave her a parasol, didn't you?" She asked.

Neo nodded, smirking whilst twirling her own pink parasol around.

"You think she'll realize or know how to use it?" Julia asked, to which Neo shook her head.

"Damn it..."

Izzy walked through the park towards the place where she agreed to meet with Ramona. The weather was so brisk, you could see your own breath. It was also snowing which, which Izzy used her parasol to shield herself from the snowflakes raining upon her, despite there not being that many of them. The closer she got to the meeting location the more worried she became, she was starting to become anxious and was worrying that Ramona might ghost her or lied about showing up. 'Who would willingly date someone like me?' Izzy thought to herself. To her relief, Ramona was indeed waiting for her in the place they agreed to meet.

"H-hey, y-you actually came!" Izzy said, cursing herself for stuttering.

"I said I would, didn't I?" She replied.

"y-yeah... y-you did." Izzy said.

The two began walking through the park as it continued snowing. Izzy just kept getting more and more nervous the longer she stood near Ramona. It was unbearable, the voice in her head kept degrading her and it was getting too much. Without thinking, Izzy spoke.

"So, where you from?"

"New York actually, I got a job delivering DVDs for Netflix here in Toronto a few weeks ago. What about you?" She replied.

"Born and lived my whole life here in Toronto" Izzy said

"So, then what's your profession?" Ramona asked.

"I'm uh... I'm between jobs... yeah..." Izzy said in an attempt to brush off the topic.

"Between what and what?" she asked.

"Well... one is a long story filled with yawns and sighs... and the other isn't really that interesting and worth telling" Izzy explained, earning a small giggle from Ramona.

"Alright then, keep your secrets" she said simply.

The two eventually reached a small playground. Since it was dark and cold, nobody was around. Ramona walked over to the swing set and sat down on one of the swings, causing Izzy to do the same.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself?" Ramona suggested.

"Well... I'm exactly what you'd expect. Shy. Introverted, dark, rock and metal fan, you know... the classic goth girl stereotype" Izzy said with a sigh.

"Well... I wasn't exactly all that popular either, I mean... boys used to be all over me but... it was for my looks mainly, I wasn't popular or anything. So... I gotta ask... are you one of those girls that self-harms and insults herself?" Ramona asked.

"Of course not!... well... not the self-harm part anyways..." Izzy admitted.

"You verbally abuse yourself? Why?" Ramona asked, a little worried.

Izzy had always hated these kinds of topics, it always made her uncomfortable talking about her personal dilemmas. Ramona could sense the unease within her, feeling guilty for potentially overstepping any boundaries. Before Ramona could say anything else... Izzy spoke.

"Growing up for me wasn't exactly easy... my parents were very strict on me... I lived a life of constantly having to outdo everyone else... just to feel some ounce of accomplishment... it was never enough... I would get straight A's on my exams... and it would never be enough... my twin sister however kept getting C's and my parents were treating her like a bloody princess... they favored her over me... and I never understood why" she explained in a sad tone.

Ramona instantly felt a pang of guilt after hearing this. She was about to say something, but the snow began to pick up. At first it just looked like it was falling faster but soon it was clear that it was turning into a snowstorm.

"Come on, we better take cover!" Ramona said, grabbing Izzy by the arm.

The two rushed through the snowstorm, desperatly seeking for cover. It was getting harder and harder to navigate as more and more layers of snow began to build up. It was also getting slippery and hard to move around effectively.

"Where are we even going?!" Izzy yelled.

"you'll see!" Ramona yelled back, her grip on Izzy's arm tightening.

It was nearly impossible to see through eh heavy storm, however, all that Izzy could see was Ramona's pink hair. Eventually Izzy could see a very bright light and the two of them were headed straight for it. It got brighter the closer they got, until all Izzy could see... was white.

what a chapter, It was originally meant to be longer but I decided to split it so that i'd actually get it out this weekend. hope yall enjoy this chapter and i'll see ya'll next weekend when chapter 4 comes out!