The Lying Serpent

Epilogue: 5 Months Later

I dragged my luggage behind me, eyes scanning the crowd for a familiar blond head. I continued the journey through the roped area, until a hand wrapped around my arm, causing tingles to shoot up my spine. I turned around to face him, a grin lighting up my face as I met his brown eyes.

"How was China?" He also had a huge grin on his face, his eyes drinking up the sight of me.

"Good, I got to learn about my culture-or well my family's culture. I even learnt a bit of Mandarin! It was smoggy and polluted but the overall experience was pretty amazing."

"I can imagine," he smiled, then jerked his head in the direction of the carpark. "Let's go."

He lifted my luggage over the rope and I ducked under, reaching for his hand out of habit once I had gotten out of the roped area. It was so good to be home. I leant into his body, craving his heat and scent.

I had spent the last two months overseas, my original plan had been to go for a whole year on an OE before I went to uni, but after two months I had been missing my friends and Ryan too much. It was also beneficial to cut my trip short so that the money I had saved up wouldn't all go down the drain. Despite this, it had been amazing to see Dad again and to learn my culture.

The spring sun bore down on us as we walked to Ryan's car.

"I missed you," I whispered into his arm. He smiled at me.

"I missed you too."

"Nǐ zhīdào wǒ ài nǐ ma?" (You know that I love you, right?)

"Shì de, wǒ yěshì, wǒ yě ài nǐ." (Yes I do, and I love you too)

I gasped, looking up at him. "Since when do you know mandarin?"

He smirked down at me. "Since I took some classes while you were away."

I grinned. "Well, looks like we have another way of pissing off our friends now, huh?"

~~~

I swivelled around in my desk chair, tossing a stress ball up into the air and then catching it continuously.

"You're making my head dizzy Linny," Sabrina groaned. I smiled at her apologetically.

"Sorry. So what did you wanna talk about?"

Ryan sat on my bed, with Sabrina on the floor. Sabrina had popped in unexpectedly, claiming she had to talk to us about something important.

"Ok, so, basically," she began, looking at her hands as she wrung them in anxiety. "I sort of met this girl."

I gasped in delight, clapping my hands like a giddy child. Ryan had a grin on his face, about to congratulate Sabrina, when she cut us off. "But, there's a problem."

"What is it?" Ryan asked, confused. I was just as lost as he was, surely her meeting a girl was a good thing?

"You see, I didn't necessarily meet her...we began talking anonymously. But around a week ago I found out who she was, and well let's just say I haven't had the best history with this girl."

I bit my lip. I didn't want to prod Sabrina for details, but I was unsure of how to advise her with this little information. "The real question here Breeny is this: do you have feelings for this girl?"

She hesitated, her bottom lip snagged between her teeth.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ryan grinned.

"Breeny, you should talk to this girl. Surely whatever it is that happened could be forgiven and forgotten?"

She thought it over, before finally nodding. "Yeah, I guess you're right Linny. Now enough of this shit, we're celebrating your return tonight!"

"Yeah- wait what?"

"Bri!" Ryan reprimanded.

"Oops."

"What's happening tonight?" I asked, utterly confused. Sabrina smiled guiltily, and Ryan sighed dejectedly.

"Ummm, basically we're all going to Nita's to celebrate your return from China."

"You guys don't have to do that!"

"Yes we do," Sabrina and Ryan said simultaneously.

"Fine. But Breeny, you're helping me pick out a dress."

"Ok," she replied, clapping her hands and jumping up and down in excitement.

"So my opinion doesn't count?" Ryan asked, a hand to his chest in offence.

"No, you don't have Sabrina's taste in clothes."

"Fine, I see how it is." He attempted to get off the bed, but I hooked my arms around his neck, and pulled his head down for a chaste kiss.

Smiling, I leant my forehead against his and whispered, "Now leave."

"You are mean."

"Bùguò nǐ háishì ài wǒ," (Yet you love me anyway) I smirked.

He laughed as he left through the door, calling back to us, "Very true."

I turned back around to a very confused Sabrina, her expression almost wistful.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her, concerned.

"Oh, nothing. Now, let's get you ready for the party!"

~~~

Lively conversation filled the air, the atmosphere joyous and rowdy. Nita's living room was decorated with streamers and balloons of all colours, and a huge blue banner hung from the ceiling. In black writing, it read 'Welcome Home Linda!'

Nita rushed in the room, calling out, "Everybody! The cake is ready."

Everyone else cheered, and my eyes lit up, despite me uttering to Lissie, "I didn't need a cake."

"Oh hush up, it's your favourite cake."

We all traipsed into the dining room and I gasped in delight at the sight of a black forest cake sitting in the middle of the wooden table.

As we distributed and ate the cake, among all the noise and laughter, my whole body hummed with joy.

I'm home.

The End

~~~

Disclaimer: my Mandarin translation is poor as I am not Chinese and do not speak Mandarin, so please correct me if it's not accurate. Hopefully my next protagonist will be Indonesian :) (#asianrep) 

A/N: Wow, I've been so caught up with stupid petty dramas and the crushing stress of high school that I took a very long break from everything I love. I haven't posted on my Bookstagram for months, possibly almost a year. I took an extended break from wattpad and didn't write or read for almost a year on this platform. I recently got sick and began reading on wattpad as a way to pass the time. Mock exams had drained me and I was sick with no motivation to study. I clicked on my own profile by accident and read through it, checking if it should be updated. As a person I grow a lot. I change continuously every day. And so I felt it necessary to check. Imagine my surprise when my account tells me I have 1K reads on this story! I'm not sure how reliable that statistic is, but I'm just happy that even 1 person decided to read this crappy story. This book is not reflective of my writing ability, I attempted to model it after other works I've seen and it became a haphazard rushed mimic of so many other books out there. But it's finished. And so that's the end of The Lying Serpent. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's been over a year since I started this book on my docs, and ages since I decided to upload it. I know, I left a lot of romance out when it came to Linda and Ryan, but I feel like they aren't the type of people to make a huge deal about their relationship, and they aren't huge on PDA. Since this book is over, I will be working on other stories, so be sure to check them out, as I believe they'll be more reflective of me as a person and a writer. I'm also uploading a story of shorts/brain dump book titled "short stories shed" in December (I have stories written, I just need to make sure my friend is available to make me a cover sksksksk).