Exquisite ~ Book One

Twenty Three~

Waking up, there's no sign of Dennis nor Andrew and so I leave heading for Dennis'. I open the door silently as I don't quite yet hear conversation and then shut it just as quietly. By the time I hear conversation, it's low.

"Don't tell her anything." Andrew whispered from just around the corner, leading into Dennis' room. I wait on Dennis' reply as I near.

"She's bound to know, she's not dull minded." He answers back. I smile slightly to that before I fall back into my straight face.

"Hi guys, where have you been?" I ask once I finally make it around the other side of the doorway. Looking in I say Dennis pushed up against the wall and Andrew's eyes gleaming for as long as before I spoke. Both of their heads snap in my direction and Andrew pulls away from him, groaning as he does so with hands tugging at his hair. I gasp and no longer know what to do, as on instinct, I run.

-

Maybe it was the secrets passed between them or silent giggles laughed. The way they constantly had to be touching one another... Everything with me started to fall.

-

"Come on guys, it will be fun. Besides, there will be s'mores!" I bribe.

"You got us there." Andrew chimes in with a higher pitches voice than I was accustomed to hearing from him.

"Agreed." Dennis pitches in. I smile and start the fire, sighing as I bring my journal from behind my back pocket, covered by my jacket, kissing the leathery material before tossing it into the center, flames bursting at the instant. I smile to myself and back up, watching the flames engulf it before silence fell. Just like that, they were gone. I shivered.

"May I join you?" A voice creeps up on me, startling me. I turn to see John and manage a smile. "Well isn't it Bella." He says with a sly chuckle.

"That it seems to be," I offer in a grim mood. His face falls and he nears me.

"Cold?" He asks, ignoring my ignorant mood.

"Yes, actually. If you wouldn't mind." I add quickly after with a shy blush of the cheeks. He removes his jacket and lays it over my back. I hold it to my chest with my half buried hands. "Thank you," I say.

"The pleasure is all mine." He pauses, looking around me to see no one else near us. "Where have the boys run off to?"

"A room, I wouldn't be so ashamed to guess." John nearly chokes on smoke over this.

"Are you meaning to tell me that-"

"Yes." I answer with a frown. "Laugh it up." I go on, waiting for his laughter to sink deeply within my gut.

"I'm not laughing Bella." He says with a calming voice. It makes me almost miss Andrew's.

"But I got played." I insist.

"By all the wrong people, to assume being played would be right in any manner." He says with an accent. I smile to it.

"You're not incorrect there but there is no valid reasoning as to why." I frown again. "I wish they knew just how wrong of them it was." John just watched me for a while before responding.

"Love is love, and we have no choice nor say in who it is we fall for." I look up to him, face evermore warm.

"Are you meaning to say..." He laughs now and nods his head.

"I'm meaning to say that you are as exquisitely beautiful as a rose petal yet sharp enough to have thorns. You're not to be compared to as just a singular rose but a bundle, a whole rose garden. But even then, you'll still manage to be the center of attraction." He gives me a crooked smile and his eyes gleam with something near to hope. I bite my lip and turn back to the fire. John waits a short minute before changing the subject. "So why'd you toss the journal?" He asks, nudging his head over to the burning bindings.

"I guess I needed a new beginning." I say with a half smile. John laughs and takes my hand, leaving me to gasp. "John?" I ask in a small voice.

"Yes my Belle?" He asks in a low voice for only me to hear.

"It's-"

"I'm not forcing you into anything, and if not anything closer than a friend, then I'll warm you up to the spot of being my lover. I'm going to prove to you my worthiness." He lets out truthfully.

"I believe you, but I'm scared. I've lost the only two people I've trusted-"

"But are they truly gone?" He asks, making me rethink myself.

"I guess you have a reason to say so, I've really only lost their love." I say slowly.

"But to a sense, you've not even lost that, but aside from it all, you've also gained love of your own." I smile and lean into him, snuggling into his jacket as my eyes tend to burn.

"Would you like me to take you to bed?" He asks in a welcoming tone. I nod my head and stand up. "Where to are thou taking you, my fair lady." I laugh and then freeze in mid thought.

"I don't really have anywhere to go." I say, the room taken over by the guys that I once thought to love, and Dennis' house no longer a home to me.

"Can I take you home with me then? Will you trust me?" He asks in a secure tone.

"I can trust you." I whisper to him with a smile, proving myself to him.

Hand-in-hand, we walk to his place where he sets himself up on the couch and leaves me to lay on the bed after kissing my forehead goodnight. It was warm and cozy and smelt of him, nearly putting me to sleep. But I waited before sitting through the desk of his in search for paper and pen. After finding them I set it out and take my stool as I set off to writing the first day of my new journey, and the end of my last.

"Dear John..."

The End!