The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 19 - Christine

"How are you?" Dei asked RJ as they walked hand in hand by the shore the next day.

"I'm okay," he answered. "You?"

"I'm good. I just want to thank you for... last night. Thank you for not pushing it," Dei told him, and she really was thankful. She couldn't imagine how much self control he needed to stop at that moment and she was honestly amazed by it, and annoyed at herself for letting it get that far.

RJ sighed and squeezed her hand. "Don't mention it," he said simply.

"Matt texted me about snapchats earlier. He said you haven't been answering his calls and texts and he wanted me to let you know that he's pissed. Very pissed." Dei said, stifling a laugh.

"Ignore him," RJ answered. "I told him I didn't want to post about this since this is a private trip."

"Yea, me too." Dei said.

They spent the rest of the day swimming and snorkeling. It was raining lightly in the morning but by mid-afternoon, the weather had gone worse so they decided to leave earlier than planned to avoid getting stuck on the road.

Both the girls sat on the backseat this time so Ken and RJ could drive alternately. By 9PM they were still stuck in traffic and had just entered the city proper.

"Where do you live again, Dei?" Ken asked behind the steering wheel.

She told him where and he shook his head slightly. "It's farther south and it would be a tough drive with all this rain and traffic. Are you okay with staying at our apartment for the night? It's nearer, and Beth will be sleeping there too."

She bit her lip and glanced at RJ and found him watching her on the side mirror. "It's okay, Dei..." he said empathically, apparently able to read what was on her mind, and his eyes were telling her to trust him.

"Okay, that's fine." Dei finally said.

They got to Ken and RJ's apartment an hour later and the rain still hasn't stopped. RJ led her to his room and placed her bags on the bed.

"Don't worry, I'll sleep on the couch downstairs," RJ said quickly and she nodded.

She looked around the room. It was medium sized and the wall paint was in dark tones of gray and blue. On one part of the wall was a huge shelf that was filled with books on one part and different CDs and vinyl records carefully arranged on the other. Beside the shelf was another guitar - this one was red and looked a bit different than the guitar he brought to their unit. Near the window was a keyboard.

"You love music," she remarked, "and you're so organized," she added, amazed by the neatness of the room and the systematic arrangement of his collections.

RJ chuckled. "I used to have a band in college," he told her. "We sang in parties and school events."

"That's cool. I wish I could've seen that," she said looking at him.

RJ shrugged and smiled. He started fixing their things as Dei examined his collections.

She ran her fingers through the spines of the books and found that he was a fan of crime thrillers and mystery novels. There was a huge collection of legal thrillers too. He had a bunch of Grisham books, of Robert Ludlum and of Tom Clancy. She noticed a couple of Dean Koontz books too, and made a face. She wasn't a fan of Koontz' work at all. All in all though, she was amazed at how similar their tastes were in books.