Tragic Magic

Chapter Eleven

"Vivian!" I say out loud. I totally forgot about that little orange cat, I hope she's okay.

"What?" Craig gives me a look.

"My cat," I start laughing, "I left her back at my old place. I really hope she's okay."

"Well let's go get her then. Just take my car, I don't want you getting killed," He says handing me the keys.

Holy shit, he just gave me the keys to his favorite car. My life must actually mean something to him then, at least more than his car's life.

"Are you sure?" I give him an odd look.

"I'd rather have a few scratches than take my chances with you slamming into the pavement. I'll follow you over there," He kisses my forehead and walks back to his motorcycle.

I hope Ronnie's ready for some visitors. I think I'll take a few other things while I'm over there, I mean, it is my place after all.

The drive back to my apartment was so much fun. Craig's car is really fun to drive and it's so smooth. Every now and then I would break fast and swerve just to make him angry and it totally worked. The look on his face was priceless.

I park in my usual space and Craig parks right next to me. My car is a few spaces down, so I know he must be home. I just don't know who else could be home with him.

I get out of the car and meet Craig at the front of the stairs, "Come with me. I need you to carry some stuff."

"I thought you gave Radke your keys, how are we going to get in?" He asks, leading me up the steps.

"There's a spare under the flower pots. It's my house after all, I know how to get in several ways." I glare over at Craig, "Wait, don't you still have a key?"

"Oh, yeah!" He laughs, "Don't blame me, you're the one who gave it to me."

I search through the key ring and finally find my house key. Right before I unlock the door, I hear a familiar voice call me.

"Jewels! Are you doing okay?" Brad yells from the bottom of the staircase.

"Oh, it's just you. Yes, I'm doing alright," I cling to Craig's side.

"Ronnie hasn't had any connection with that girl since the other day. We actually talked about it last night. He was on drugs Julie, he misses you," Brad finally meets us at the top of the stairs and gives me a hug and Craig hugs.

"It's fine, I'm with someone else now." My eyes tear up, but I wipe it off before anyone can notice.

"I always knew you guys would end up together eventually," Brad smiles, "I need to get to bed, I have work in the morning. I hope I can see you guys again. We need to have lunch sometime."

Brad scurries into his apartment after a very long and awkward hug.

I unlock the door very quietly and let myself in. Vivian meets us at the door and a rush of relief floods over me. "Can you take her to the car and then meet me back up here?" I ask Craig.

He rolls his eyes and picks Vivian up, "I'll be back in a second."

I explore my apartment in the dark picking up some things I wanted to take. I wasn't planning on coming back here anytime soon, so I thought it would be best to just grab everything I needed.

I grab a few pairs of shoes and a few jackets that I had lying around the living room. I needed to get into the bedroom and get some more clothes and my makeup. I don't want to wake Ronnie though, he'd kill me. I don't think I can even look at him without feeling a huge gust of pain.

I bite my lip and sneak into the bedroom. Who know's what could be waiting there for me? Thankfully it's just Ronnie and he's sleeping. I sneak into the closet and grab a few outfits. I can have him ship me everything else later on. I head into the master bathroom and grab my makeup bag and some toiletries before heading out. As I'm leaving the bedroom, a hand grabs my arm.

"Fuck," I say out loud.

"Julie, what are you doing here this late?" Ronnie asks.

I refuse to look at him. I just face forward and try not to cry, "I was just getting some of my things, I'm leaving now."

"So it's really over this time, huh?" I can hear the sympathy in his voice.

"Yeah, I need to go," I pull away from his grip and walk back into the living room.

"Julie, please come back, I need to talk to you," Ronnie says in a tired voice.

I run out of that place as fast as I can before he hears me cry. I almost scream when I bump into Craig outside. That's when I finally fall apart.

"Juliet, what happened?" Craig pulls me into a hug.

"He heard me getting my stuff and tried apologizing when I was leaving. I just don't want him in my life anymore. I don't know why it still hurts, there's just a lot of memories," I sob.

"I know," He says gently, "It'll get better as time goes on. Until then, I'm here whenever you need me. I don't care if I'm busy, just let me know what you need and I'll get you it. I know this is hard, I just want to make it easier for you."

I look back at the apartment door then at Craig, "You know you're perfect right? You say the right thing at the right time. We need to get going before Ronnie gets to my head though."

I take Craig's hand and run down the stairs as fast as I can without killing us. Of course, we're stopped again by my "friendly" neighbors.

"Julie, where have you been lately?" Belle waves at me.

I slow down a bit to talk to her, "It's a long story, but I'll call you! We're in a bit of a hurry."

"Oh, okay! I'll catch you later then!"

Vivian and I raced Craig all the way back home. Of course, he won, but it was fun anyways. I park his car in the over-sized garage and meet him back inside with Vivian in my arms. I can get the rest of my stuff out of the car tomorrow morning.

I set Vivian down on the floor and let her explore the house while I search for Craig. Of course, he's standing in the kitchen drinking a beer.

"That took longer than it should have," I say, grabbing a beer for myself.

"Go to bed, loser," He ruffles my hair.

I roll my eyes, "You can have your guest bedroom back, I think I like your bed better."

"Whatever floats your boat, Julie," He says sarcastically.

"Okay, goodnight."

I run up the stairs and fall into bed, exhausted. Craig follows me soon after, I'm not surprised.