Destined

Ten

The sound of the door slaming woke me up. I sat up at my desk, disoriented as my eyes focused on the drawing of Vince on my table. Rubbing my eyes, I stood and went downstairs. I don't think I'd ever fallen asleep while drawing. Downstairs, I found Maddie in the lounge looking angry as hell.

"Are you okay?" I asked and went to sit beside her. She nodded. "How are the Rivers?"
"Mrs. Rivers hates me,"
"Nothing new there," I muttered.
"I thought we'd gotten passed it, at least for these circumstances,"
"What happened?"
"She was condescending and offensive the entire time I was there. While I helped do the dishes and packed up Roger's things with them, she just kept dropping these snide comments, that her son was too good for me. That I'm a spoilt little rich brat that was corrupting her boy. Oh she made sure I knew that she had never approved of our relationship,"
"And you stayed through it all?"
"How could I not? We may have had our differences, but I loved Roger," she whimpered and tears filled her eyes.
"Hey," I moved closer to hug her. "He loved you too,"
"I just... I can't believe it. Why would anyone want to hurt him?" She wiped the tears that started to fall.
"I don't know, Mads, I don't know," I soothed her.
"You know the day I met Roger, we were in the ninth grade, remember our schools visited each other a lot for soccer? I was trying to avoid the cliche, cheerleader and quarterback," she laughed. "So every time he asked me out, I said no. It just made him try harder. And he was so sweet about it. He'd score a goal and dedicate to me, despite the fact that I was cheering for my team and not his. And it was tradition that the losing team take the winning team out to dinner, cheer squad included, and the guy would find a way to pay for my meal," I sat and listened as she told me things I already knew, knowing she needed this. "It was almost a year later when I agreed to go out with him. And we went cycling," she laughed as tears rolled down her cheeks. "He knew how much I loved to ride my bike as exercise and he took me riding. We went down to the lake, had a picnic, it was perfect and I knew in that moment, that he would be trouble for my heart, but never, I never expected this, Krissy," and then she wasn't talking anymore because she was sobbing uncontrollably.
I hugged her and let her cry until she was too tired to do anything else. We sat in silence for a while before I asked, "Hungry? I'll cook dinner,"
"Famished,"

I quickly cooked up some fried rice with sir fry. She took her plate to her room wanting some privacy so I had dinner on my own, as the others were still out, while I watched friends on tv. Chandler and Joey always managed to make me laugh. Talia came in as I was walking up the stairs to my room after dinner.

"Tyler asked me out, on a real date, we're having dinner Saturday night,"
"Good for you," I smiled.
"Is it? Feeels kind of weird, wrong, with everything going on,"
"We can't stop living our lives," I said. "All we can do is offer our assistance with the Rivers,"
"Yes, I told Celine we'd go with her tomorrow to drop off some of Roger's things at the goodwill center and get something to eat, that okay?"
"Yeah, right after I'm done with my History of Culture class,"
"Great, then you can both help me pick out what to wear to my date,"
"Of course,"

I turned my phone off and sat down at my desk to do some studying. I did so for at least two hours before I got up and went downstairs to get some water. But when I returned to my room, I dropped the cup on the floor, spilling all its contents.

"Burning the midnight oil, aren't we?"

Vincent Delavigne was a beautiful man. I had recently come to accept that wholeheartedly. His hair had that 'just-got out-of-bed-look' again but he looked so perfect. He stood in my room looking at me as though I was the intruder. I stared at my open window and registerd it as the point of entry.

"This is a crime you know," I said. "It's called a B&E, I'm sure you know what that means,"
He smiled, "Breaking and entering," he said. "I know. So why aren't you screaming?"
"Do you want to make me scream?" I asked and blushed when I heard the words that had escaped my mouth.
He cocked his head to one side, "Depends,"
"On?" I asked.
He shook his head, "I really am sorry for the mess I put you in. But I fixed it,"
"And you won't tell me how you fixed it,"
"It's best you don't know,"
"Well thank you," I sighed.
"You are welcome," he answered.
"You came here tonight just to tell me, again, that you'd fixed it?"
"More or less, it seems I enjoy talking to you," he said. "I saw your light on as I was driving down the street,"
"You could call,"
"I don't have your number, and I'm already here, so why not talk in person?"
"What do you want to talk about?"
"You,"
"What about me?"
"Why a judge?"
"Why not?"
"I'd ask no matter what career path. I want to know what drives you,"