Forever (Book 1 of the FOREVER trilogy)

Chapter 23

Ever's P.O.V

I hugged Damien tightly, causing him to drop his suitcase. His arms enveloped me, making me feel warm and sad. When we finally let go, I backed up and stood by Rie. He put his arm around me and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

"Call me every night. If you forget, I will hunt you down and beat you up," I sighed, trying to keep my composure. "Be safe. Please." I ran back into his arms and he ran his fingers through my hair and kissed my forehead. I buried my face in his shoulder and took a deep breath. I released him once again and sighed. Someone grabbed my hand from behind and pulled me back. I squeezed Rie's hand and waved to Damien as he grabbed his suitcase and got in his car.

I dropped Rie's hand after Damien pulled out of the driveway and turned to go upstairs.

"Hey," Rie said, making me stop at the bottom of the steps, "He's gonna be alright. He's a big boy." I gave a broken laugh and smiled at him. "I hope he packed enough pull ups."



Rie's P.O.V

"How you holding up?" I asked as Ever called for me to come in. I handed her a hot chocolate and sat at the foot of her bed.

"Fine," Ever said, focused on the sketch pad in front of her. She scribbled furiously on the paper and she had the sketch pad propped on her knees so I couldn't see the drawing. I craned my neck but she lifted he knees higher.

"I wanna see!" I whined.

"Nope." Ever said simply.

"Can I see when it's done?" I asked.

"Nope." Ever said, lifting her knees even higher.

"Fine them." I said and grabbed the sketch pad.

"Hey! Give it back!" Ever jumped for the sketch pad I was holding above my head. I ran to the corner of the room and shielded myself so I could look at the drawing. Ever beat on my back as I studied her drawing. The sketch was of two howling wolf heads over a dream catcher, drawn in a lacy, tribal style.

"Dang, Ev! Your good!" I said, turning through the pages. I stumbled on a sketch of Damien and I shut the book quickly and handed it back to her. She slung it onto her gray comforter and punched my arm. I pretended to be hurt, fake wincing that turned into hysterical laughter. After a while of me laughing alone like an idiot, a grin spread across Ever's face and she laughed to the point of falling down. We laid there on the ground and starred up at the ceiling.

It was silent for a while until Ever jumped up and pointed to the door.

"Out." She demanded. I rolled up off the ground and looked at her confused.
"I need to do something real quick. So out." I walked out without question and shut the door behind me.

Thirty minutes later Ever called my back into her room. She told me to close my eyes and guided me into the room.

"Open'm," Ever said. I dropped my hands and a grin spread across my face as I stared at the wall which was now full of pictures of her and Damien, Dakota, and me, drawings from the sketch pad including one of me with my wings unfurled, magazine articles, band posters, etc. She smiled up at me as I stared at the wall.

"Like it?" Ever asked.

"Love it!" I exclaimed. Ever smiled and handed me a battered sketch pad. I flipped through it and it was full of drawings of me. I looked up at her in awe.

"There are full ones for Damien and Dakota too," Ever said, pointing to a stack of worn sketch pads on her bookshelf.

"Wow," I said as I flipped through the pages if the sketch pad. "These are amazing!"

"Thanks," Ever smiled and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. I went to hand the sketch pad back and she pushed it back at. "Keep it."

I smiled at her and took the opportunity.

"I've got something for you too," I said.

"You what?" Ever asked.

"Be right back!" I said and ran out of the room, grabbed the small box, and ran back to Ever. I held out the small navy blue box and she took it gingerly. She pulled the brown twain binding the box an opened it. She lifted the mint green string bracelet out of the box and gasped. She traced the ring in the middle, which was a dream catcher. A single feather hung from the dream catcher in the center; one of my feathers. I clasped it around her wrist and she stared up at me.

"Why?" she asked simply.

"For protection and luck. The dream catcher is for luck and my feather is for protection. An angels feathers are sacred and have special properties," I said pointing to the feather that dangled above her feather mark.

"Thank you," Ever smiled and hugged me. We broke apart and she walked over to her bookshelf. She grabbed a sketch pad labeled DAKOTA and walked towards the door.

"You got me in a gifty mood!" she smiled. "Thanks again." She left the room and I followed her out but turned to my room instead of following her downstairs. I plopped down on my bed and sighed. I flipped through the sketch pad and laid my head back. I am breaking the rules so hard right now...