Scarlett 'Arranged Marriage'

Chapter17

Sira's P.O.V.

I love knowing that I've pushed myself to my limits. And once I get there, I love pushing myself past them. I make myself go farther, faster, and be better and stronger. Some may call me a perfectionist, and some may call me insane, but to me, nothing is as wonderful as making myself stronger. Christian doesn't agree with me. I believe his actual words were, that I was, "crazy, and destined for a looong stay in the nut bin." He's just bitter because I did more reps than he did. He absolutely refused to let me drive back. "No," he said simply,everytime I reached for the keys. He opened the passenger side door for me and I hopped in. As he walked around the car to the driver's side, I could've sworn that I heard him mumble, "Never again." Big baby. The conversation we'd had earlier had been skipped over and danced around, and we were back to our normal selves, joking around and laughing again. We cranked up the radio in the car, and sang the song that was playing, which just so happened to be "Ride or Die" by Trey Songz and Ace Hood. Christian did the rapping parts, while I sang. We sounded good together. We had fun, screaming the songs at the top of our lungs, out of the windows. By the time we got home, our laughter could be heard all the way upstairs. This was one of the best times that I'd ever had. He walked me up to my room. "See you later," I said to him. "Maybe sooner than you think," he replied, and then, without another word, he walked away. 'Man, he's weird,' I thought. 'What does he mean by that?' As I pondered this, I started up the shower. I climbed in and washed my hair. As I let the conditioner set, I let the water run over me and soothe my aching mucles. All of a sudden, I heard my ringer go off on my phone. "Crap. The phone would ring when I have soap in my head," I grumbled, as I struggled to get out of the shower, put my robe on, and get to my phone in time. Breathlessly, I flipped the phone up and answered it. "Hello?" I asked, shaking the water out of my ears. "Hey," Christian replied. "When you're done getting ready, come downstairs. I think I missed a few places on our tour," he said. There was a slight click, and when I looked my cell phone, it read, "Call ended." I sighed, calming myself as much as possible. 'Fine,' I thought, as I got back in the shower to finish washing my hair.'But he betterhave a good reason for hanging up on me.'I took about 20 minutes getting ready. After a few careful revisions to my outfit, I finally decided on a pair of form fitting dark blue jeans, and a horizontally striped blue and white polo shirt. I let my feet stay bare, and my wet hair hang. I put on a little mascara and eyeliner, which brought out my hazel eyes. After I finished, I raced downstairs, and skipped into the kitchen. "S'bout time," Christian said teasingly, as he sipped a cup of blood. I took a deep breath, and forced myself to look at him while he drank it. I'd have to get over it if we were going to be together. "I thought you might stand me up for a second there," he said. I looked into his emrald green eyes, smiled and said, "Never." He grinned at me for a second, and then drained the cup, tossed it in the sink, and stood up. He did all of this so fast, that it scared me. I took a few steps back. "Sorry," he said to me. "It's alright, I just gotta get used to it, that's all," I said quietly. He reached out, took my hand, and laced his fingers in mine. He looked at me, as if waiting for me to pull away. I never did. Slowly, we made our way to the elevator. "Where are we going?" I asked. "We have two stops to make. The first one is the war and weapons room," he explained, staring into my eyes. "And the other stop?" I asked with difficulty. I still had trouble speaking when he did that. "It's a surprise," he said, secretly smiling over my embarrassing incohenrency. We stopped on the 14th floor, and walked around the corner to an all black door. With one hand, he reached into his shirt and pulled out a little golden cross that looked almost exactly like the one I was wearing. He swung in front of a scanner. "Hello, Prince Christian," the little machine said. He noticed me eying his cross, and he asked, "What?" I looked at the cross first, and then into his face. "I have one that looks just like that," I said, in wonder. I pulled it out of my shirt to show it to him. He smiled. "Your parents gave it to you when you were a baby?" he asked. I nodded. "We're a lot more alike than we thought," he said finally. Then, he reached out and pushed the door open. Silently, we walked in. The room had only purple UV lights to light it, and on the walls were different swords, knives, guns, and hand grenades. In the center of the room, was a boxing ring. I looked at the ring, then at Christian face in surprise. "You said you were voted 'Most Lethal Fighter,' right? Well, I wanna see just how lethal you really are," he said. I stepped closer and said, "You sure you wanna do that?" in my most menacing voice. He raised his eyebrows. "Definately," he replied. "Alright, then," I said to him. We put on gloves and mouthguards, and when the bell rang, we started to box. The round was over in less than a minute. I hit him once in the face with my strong hand, my left. Instantly, he hit the canvas. He stared up at me with wide eyes. "That didn't count," he said, frustrated. "I wasn't paying attention." "Of course you weren't," I said, mockingly. 'Ow,' I thought. 'I felt that through the glove.' He stood up, and the second round began. It ended in pretty much the same way as the last round, only this time, I let him get in a few hits. I could have easily dodged the punches he threw, but instead, I decided to not totally destroy his pride. The first hit I let him get was a short, unpainful jab to the face. The next, was a soft tap to the shoulder. 'Are you kidding me?' I thought to myself. You brought me here to fight me, and then you wimp out? If you're gonna fight me, then fight me already!' The last hit was a weak punch to the face. Actually, it was more of a push than a punch. 'Enough's enough,' I thought, and I hit him in his face again. After that, I could tell we were done boxing. I flopped down on the canvas next to him. "So," I said, as I pulled off my gloves and my mouthpiece. "How'd you like the view from down here? I mean, I don't really get to see it all that often, but I heard that it's nice." He looked at me from his pitiful position on the canvas. "Don't rub it in," he said, with a slight smile on his face. "You know," I said softly, as I laid down with my arms folded beneath my head. "The words 'I told you so' might fit in this situation quite nicely. What do you think?" He looked at me with a mischevious look on his face. He rolled over to look at me full on. "You're gonna be sorry if you keep rubbing it in," he told me. "Really?" I asked. "Yup," he said. We stared into each other's eyes, neither of us blinking, a definate challenge. "I doubt that," I said to him. I couldn't resist rubbing it in one more time. "Especially seeing as you couldn't even beat me in a fake boxing match," I teased. "That's it," he shouted, and rolled over and started tickling me. "Hey! No fair!" I said, between bursts of laughter. "Ha! I may not be able to beat you in a boxing match, but this, is where I shine," he said, keeping up with me easily as I squirmed. "And for a super strong vampire, that, is pathetic if you really think about it," I cried as I hopped up and out of the ring. Soon, he was chasing me around the room. He smiled as he caught my hand, and said, "Come on, gorgeous. I think it's time for that surprise I promised you." We walked out of the room in a happy silence. I expected him to be upset that I'd kicked his butt, but I was pleasantly surprised at the way he'd handled it. I mean, I liked him, but I didn't have time to babysit a grown man and his ego. But he still reached for my hand and laced his fingers in between mine. We climbed into the elevator. "Where are we going now?" I asked, though I didn't really expect for him to answer me. But he did. He completely surprised me by saying, "The 18th floor."