Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty

The rest of my lunch seemed blurred as I tried to wrap my heard around what I had been asked by Stephen. I now understood what it felt like when I left him with an ultimatum, except his one was worse. I didn’t even understand why I was thinking or even considering it. I could never leave Trevor for the likes of a vampire. Trevor was the love of my life, the man that looked after and cared for me and would never do anything to hurt me unlike Stephen who we already knew about.

Work went by quickly as usual and I couldn’t wait to get home. Finding Trevor lying down on my couch was a great surprise as well.

“Hey baby,” Trevor cooed moving only his head in my direction as his sea blue eyes were brightened by his smile.

“Hey,” I drawled feeling exhausted. Dropping my bag on the floor and taking my coat off, I collapsed into his side, snuggling close to him as I remembered what it felt like to be close to a guy that was warm blooded, or should I say human.

“I guess work was stressful then,” Trevor guessed correctly, nuzzling his chin in my hair comfortingly.

“Yep. I just want to sleep right next to you until our wedding day,” I yawned feeling my eyes fluttering closed.

“I wish that we could do that too,” Trevor agreed.

- - - - - - - - - -

“Stephen, where are you taking me?” I questioned beginning to panic as he led me into only God knows where.

“Somewhere,” Stephen mumbled a smirk evident on his lips. I knew him so well that I could tell when he was smirking without looking at him. He had randomly invited me on a date earlier today and here I was, being led somewhere outside, in the night time.

“Well can we hurry up please because I’m hungry,” I complained hearing him laugh.

“I doubt that you’re as hungry as me,” I heard him mutter underneath his breath.

“Whatever,” I retorted, rolling my eyes internally.

“Were here now,” Stephen’s gruff voice informed me, removing his cool hands from my eyes, however staying close behind me making me smile slightly. Opening my eyes I instantly recognised that we were in the middle of nowhere, or some sort of forest. This wasn’t mainly what had caught my attention, instead it was the neat black cover on the floor with a picnic basket in the centre, surrounded by lavender scented candles which I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t smelt them before.

“You didn’t do this all yourself did you?” I gasped in disbelief, it was beautiful.

“Obviously not, the girls helped me out a little bit.” Stephen answered honestly earning a smack in the stomach as I giggled at his honesty.

“Hey, I was just telling you the truth,” Stephen defended. With a grin, I spun around to face my boyfriend who was staring at me weirdly.

“Are you okay?” I frowned.

“I’m fine, you just haven’t said what you think about it,” Stephen continued to stare, looking slightly fascinated and concerned at the same time.

“Oh. It’s beautiful! Thank you very much,” I smiled, looking at the ground shyly.

“Well then your very welcome,” Stephen smiled pulling my chin up to face him before placing his lips softly on mine, my body igniting in heat only for a second as my lips were left tingling as i was entranced by his black eyes once again.

“Well let’s enjoy this and by the way, have you looked up?” Stephen smirked, which confused me slightly.

“Looked up...” I wondered, doing as he suggested instantly taking in the remarkable and stunning stars which literally took my breath away.

“Where did you find this place?” I quizzed after we finished eating the sandwiches that he had got the girls to make and now lay under the stars beside Stephen.

“I was walking through here once when I was trying to clear my mind and I came across it,” Stephen shrugged pulling me closer. My body never seemed to get used to being close to him and so in response my heart started beating faster and I couldn’t help but smile as tingles began to flow along the side that was now pressed against his body.

“Thanks for the best date ever,” I thanked him, turning my face to him so that I could get lost in his extremely dark brown eyes.

“Thanks for being with me for a year. Happy one year anniversary,” Stephen whispered as my large light brown eyes shone in happiness. I had thought that he had forgotten or hadn’t even known when we had gotten together in the first place. With a smile, he placed his lips onto mine taking my breath away as it always did.

- - - - - - - - -- -

What had gone wrong the day after this? I had no clue. I could still however say, after 3 years that it had and would always be the most perfect date that I had.

Waking up to Trevor’s arms wrapped around my body snapped me out of it. That date was to be forgotten. Forever. Stephen was to be forgotten, along with that date since it will never happen again, with the same person since I had figured it out what my answer was to his or my dilemma. Checking the time on my side table, I realised that it was only two in the morning and so after snuggling closer to Trevor and giving him a peck on his soft, temperate lips, I fell fast asleep again.

“Wake up Mel. It’s time to get ready for work,” Trevor whispered in my ear as I felt a hand softly caressing my cheek causing me to smile softly.

“Mmhh,” I sounded, opening my eyes and squinting due to the brightness of my bedroom lights.

“I’ve already got the shower running so just hop in and if you need help getting out of your clothes too, please don’t hesitate to ask. Please,” Trevor urged making me giggle slightly at his persistence.

“I do not need help Trevor,” I replied covering my mouth as I sat up so that he didn’t get a sniff of my morning breath.

“So hurry up,” Trevor commanded as my made my way towards my bathroom receiving a hard slap on my butt.

“Ouch!” I complained, running the rest of the way to my bathroom. Funnily enough, Trevor had began running my shower at the perfect temperature and I was not sure how he knew, but was very thankful.

***

“Are you ready girls?!” Lisa exclaimed as I watched at her in fright. I definitely wasn’t. Dressed in a short slinky pink Valentine’s Day outfit, with a banner which read ‘Bride To Be’ in bright red letters, I was not ready to leave my house and let people judge me tonight.  I had opted to wear a pair of tights since I did not at all feel completely comfortable showing my legs but my plea was denied.

“Yeah! Let’s go! I wanna see all those sexy guys!” Jennifer yelled in reply as she led the way out of my house and to the limo that was unfortunately waiting outside.

“No guys. I’m not ready. I’m not even sure if I want to do this,” I complained, standing outside of the limo, gazing at the girls as they stared at me in awe.

“No way are you gonna do this Mel. You agreed to this!” Jessica reminded me as they had been doing for the past week.

“I feel like a slut, a slag...a flipping prostitute!” I screamed, looking over myself once more. I was not used to this and the idea of becoming a married woman tomorrow was causing my mind to go into panic.

A chorus of whistles interrupted our conversation and to my horror, they had come from a group of young boys making me feel even more horrified at the way i was dressed.

“You look stunning lady; do you wanna come to my house so that we can have a little fun?” One of the four boys questioned, causing his other chuckle at his rude and disrespectful joke.

“Can’t you read? It says ‘Bride to be’ you idiot!” I retorted, showing the boys the banner around my shoulder.

“Get in the limo and ignore them,” I faintly heard Jasmine insist inside the limo.

“I hope you don’t speak to your mother with that disgusting mouth,” I added before doing as Jasmine said.

“Arg! Young guys these days are so disgusting,” I grumbled.

“That got you in the limo! Now let’s go driver, to Club Ink!” Lisa commanded and with a scream in agreement from all of the girls, except me, we made our way, sadly to Club Ink.

I didn’t want to get out of the limo but I was dragged and pulled fighting into the club and to my dismay, we were on the VIP list thanks to Lisa, so we didn’t have to wait in the queue until we were consumed by the darkness and loud music. The last time I had been in a club was when Jennifer and Jessica had taken me as a treat, when I notified them about my engagement with Trevor. This was also when I and Stephen had danced too close which brought back unwanted memories.

Speaking of Stephen, I hadn’t heard or seen him since the dilemma that he left me with. I hadn’t been about to sleep or even think straight which showed me what I had probably put him through when I had asked him to be friends or nothing. Lisa had not tried to interfere, leaving me alone in this situation with no insight of what Stephen felt or even thought. There was something inside of me that wanted to see him, or plead for him to allow us to at least be friends since I wouldn’t live without him since he had now come back into my life; I didn’t want him to leave me again. Obviously however, I had pushed those feelings deep down, ignoring them as hard as I could since this meant that my wedding could continue and go ahead as planned without any interruption.

My week had not been very productive as I only worked and spent some more time with my fiancé who told me about an enormous surprise that he had planned for me on our wedding night. Knowing that, it only added to my anticipation and made the day which would soon arrive even more frightful. My mother had tried to calm me down and eventually got me to clear my mind and try not to think about everything in too much detail in case I made a run for it and luckily for me, it worked. So there I was, watching the girls gulp down shots of pure vodka whilst I stared at them in amazement due to their bravery.

“C’mon Mel, just have at least one Miss Good-Two-Shoes,” Jessica suggested, pushing the tiny cut of clear liquid towards my mouth. Imagining that the drink was water, I quickly swigged the drink down my throat, hissing sharply when the cool acidic drink burnt my throat as it made my way into my stomach. This was where the party really began for me.