Smoke And Steel

• The End - Part One •

REALLY FUCKING SORRY FOR THE WAIT. I LOVE YOU ALL BUT SEMI LOST HOPE WHEN, AFTER FINISHING THE CHAPTER, IT DECIDED NOT TO SAVE AND I LOST IT XOX

Ebony

"Ebony Smoke!" Mandy shrieked, pulling my hair just a little too tight.
"It's been a month and a half since you guys started dating, and you haven't been on a proper date yet? This is preposterous!"

"That word seems too big for even you Mandy, plus, we've had school and with everything we haven't had time," I said, flicking through one of the magazines she kept on her night stand.

She pulled my hair tighter as her fingers skilfully wove it into a Dutch braid.

"Girl," she said, sounding way too sassy for my liking. "You need to do something soon or it'll end up staying the same and never progressing."

"It's not like we have -"

"Ebony. Touching each other up and making out when I'm with Jake, and hanging out at lunch time does not make a relationship. You need to do other things too - like going out."

"We will we just need to -"

"Excuses, excuses, Ebony. As someone who has been with the same guy for the past year and a half, and someone who is still happily and crazily in love, don't you think I'd know what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said in defeat. When did I start taking advice from my ditzy room mate?

"You know I am, babe." She quickly finished braiding the end of my hair and tied the end off. This was probably the most intimate thing we'd done in the years that we'd been dorm mates (some how we always got paired together, though I suspected that there was a part to play on her side). In the past few weeks we'd grown closer, which was good because it was nice to have someone to talk to when Tash was unavailable or I felt like I was being annoying. Mandy was always up for goss or giving advice (she'd given me some really weird advice which would be too awkward to repeat, but it worked).

Once she finished my hair she spun me around. "Looking good, Smoke. Although, you can probably thank the person who did it for that."

"Thank you, Mandy," I said, hopping up off of our floor and giving her a hug.

"Your welcome. But about that date... You should do something soon girl."

With that she left, Country Road duffel bag in tow. It was Friday, which mean that she was going home.

I on the other hand, was going back to my house for the weekend. Maybe I would read a book, maybe I'd watch an entire season of Downton Abbey.

It was the first weekend in a while that I hadn't been with Avery for at least part of it, and I knew I'd probably feel kind of lonely - not that I had to be with him or I'd die, but a different lonely.

As I drove home that night in Esmeralda (that's what I'd decided to call my car) and pulled into the comforting familiarity of my driveway, I remembered the first time that I'd met Avery and how he had completely and utterly pissed me off. At least that hadn't changed about him.

"Hey Eb," dad greeted me as I walked through the door. "How was your week?"

"It was good," I said with a smile. "And yourself?"

"It was really great. I got the promotion at work that I've really been working towards and I won the big case I've been working on for the past couple months."

"That's great dad! I'm so happy for you." It was good to see that his hard work wasn't all for naught.

"Yeah, it's great news. What do you say? Should we celebrate with burgers and milkshakes? I know a little diner that has a table with our name on it."