Chapter 32: Opening Up

I told Sam, wanting to clarify everything that she had just told me. “You heard that the waterfall outside is amazing so you want me to take you there this weekend because I know the way.”

Sam nodded eagerly, her long red hair shaking widely around her face when she did.

“I know it isn’t super popular but there is so much that I still haven’t seen around this campus.” Sam said, explaining why she wanted to go.

Like, for example, how apparently the teachers and staff have this whole town with shops and stuff for themselves that they never let us see!”

I scoffed loudly at that, shaking my head at how gullible Sam was.

“Yeah . . . I really don’t think that is true.” I said, amusement clear in my voice. Sam rolled her eyes at my expression before continuing.

“Anyways, the waterfall is something special about this campus and I would like to see it as soon as possible. Will you please take me this Friday?” Sam’s eyes widened and her lip popped out as she made a pleading expression. My already weak fight was taken down with that look and I finally sighed as I gave up.

Sam cheered and did a small dance in her seat. She had managed to convince me to take me to the one place that could only remind me of Dean in a matter of minutes.

The two of us had been waiting for class to start yet that short amount of time between classes is all that she needed. I was completely convinced and ready to go through the effort.

“You will not regret it, this will be so much fun!”

~~~~~

Now, it was Friday. I walked through my bedroom, passing by the two empty beds to get to the closet. Warlo and Nick were both out. Warlo was hanging out with some of his other friends and Nick was . . . well, I didn’t know exactly where Nick was. I just knew that he was gone.

I quickly pulled on my jacket and right before I pulled on my shoes, I texted Sam.

Sam:

What are you wearing?

I frowned in confusion. I did not know what that had to do with anything.

Sam:

I want to take some pictures while we’re there. If you aren’t dressed hella cute when I see you then I will send you back.

I sighed, rolling my eyes but knowing that I would do it anyway.

Sam:

Yeah, of course. 😘 Love ya!

I sent a quick kissy face back -Sam would have hounded me about it if I didn’t- and turned the closet to my personal closet to change.

It took me a little over fifteen minutes to settle on an outfit. I worried that it might be a bit too much for the woods but then reminded myself that Sam was extra. She would support just about anything that looked good in a photo.

I sent her a quick text telling her that I was on my way to the dorm entrances before leaving the room. I walked out of the room and started down the hall. After a couple of moments of walking, I felt the buzz from a text message.

Pulling out my phone, I read it and furrowed my brows in confusion.

“She wants me to meet her in the woods?” I murmured to myself, sighing as I read it aloud. “And I have to walk in instead of teleporting because there might be other students there.”

I wanted to message her back to tell her that she was wrong. I had been going to that waterfall so many times before and I knew that there was probably nobody out there. Not only that, but this was a school that taught magic, there were plenty of magic users here and any students who saw him probably wouldn’t be surprised by his use of magic.

But, the last thing that he wanted to do was get into a fight for no reason. It would be much better to simply go with what she wanted. So that was exactly I did.

The walk into the woods was long and annoying. Being so accustomed to the speed and convenience of teleporting to any place I could has probably made me lazy, but little logic was used to decide my attitude. I didn’t want to walk and took the childish way by complaining about it in my mind the entire time.

As the short, but still unpleasant, walk started to come to an end, I noticed that there was an odd amount of light coming from the waterfall. I continued to walk forward but was now moving slower as the area in front of me became brighter and brighter.

My jaw dropped when I walked out of the trees. All along the edge of the small pond, small coloured lanterns were flickering with a soft gentle light. Lanterns also made a small path from where I stood forward and to the right. My eyes, which were glued to the ground, followed the wide path until they came across the cliche, red and white checkered picnic blanket.

On the blanket was a classic picnic basket. Surrounding the basket was an assortment of food, all appearing homemade and delicious.

My mind, which was still very focused on how beautiful the decoration and waterfall looked, failed to come up with a reason for why it looked this way. My un-asked question became answered when I finally noticed Dean stood next to the basket.

I quickly realized that Sam wasn’t coming. Her random requests and specific were all made to get me here to meet Dean. I quickly acknowledged the fact that this was all probably his doing. It was easy for him to talk to Sam as he was her teacher and he had class with her every day. But, I was slow to anger because it was all so amazing.

And he looked really good.

He wore a pair of black pants and a dark green button up that was left open slightly at the top. He shifted his feet, which were covered in a pair of black shoes, from one to the other restlessly. He had his hands in his pockets but due to my stare, took them out and started to rub his hands together.

His hair was perfectly tousled and his face clean shaven, but despite all of that his eyes and actions were enough to make it clear. He was nervous. The thought warmed my chest wonderfully.

“Hi.” He husked, quickly clearing his throat when he heard his rough, and incredibly sexy, voice. “Hi, Sebastian.”

Hearing my name, I suddenly remembered why we hadn’t spoken in as long as we did. I was supposed to be upset at him. Still, I greeted him and thought that Dean looked adorable when his shoulders fell in relief.

He gestured to the picnic, stumbling on his words for a second then grounded himself and trying again.

“I thought that I would, uh, set this up. For you!” Dean cursed himself after his poor excuse of a sentence left his lips and I couldn’t help the snort that I released. “I wanted us to talk, here.”

I looked down at the picnic then looked back at Dean again.

“This is how you wanted to make up for everything?” I asked simply, raising a single brow. Dean stumbled by the expression on my face. It seemed he wasn’t prepared for it.

“I . . . I’ll explain. Can you sit down first?” A part of me wanted to shut him down immediately. He gave me a lot of power with that simple question and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to use it. But I cared about him and what he said too much. Also, he looked incredibly cute when pleading.

“Fine.” I fought to keep back my smile and sat down on the blanket without another word. Dean sat down in front of me and before I could make another comment, pulled out a box.

The box was relatively small, smaller than a basketball or football. It was made of a shinier cardboard looking material and reminded me of a box for a card game. But there was no name on it.

“This is my apology.” Dean told me, handing me the small box. I opened it and was a bit surprised to see that it was, in fact, many cards.

“What is this?” I asked curiously, pulling out one of the cards and reading it. “‘When was the last time you really cried? Like sobbed . . .’ Why did you give me these?”

“The questions are actually for me.” Dean let out a tight smile and tried to chuckle but he was so tense that it lacked its usual light. “I know that I haven’t trusted you as much as I should. And although I don’t completely trust you yet, I know that I care about you. I’m never going to really trust you until you get the opportunity to hurt me and you don’t. So, I want to give you many by opening up like this.”

My eyes were opened wide and Dean sighed deeply when I didn’t speak. This was not what I expected to get from Dean.

I had honestly been expecting another week to pass by before my resolve was weakened enough and he would have the courage to give me an apology. A simple apology. Dean was a simple guy and even though I had a romantic in me, the romantic knew not to expect much.

This . . . this was so much.

I hadn’t realized how much I wanted him to do this until he had. He was trying to be honest. And, at this moment, I wanted it more than anything else. I wanted to know that he cared about me this much to be willing to do this more than anything else.

“I honestly believe that you care about me too, so I am going to do my best to do right by you. Starting by opening up.” Dean finished his explanation with a small smile. “Go ahead, ask away.”

I blinked dumbly after I heard the command, but nodded and slipped the first card back into the middle before grabbing the one at the front. I cleared my throat and started to read out the question.

“‘What is your family like?’”

Dean sighed and gave me a pained smile.

“Small?” Dean laughed softly and I found myself laughing along. “Gavin and I don’t have many relatives. A single aunt here and a great uncle there, but most of them aren’t in touch. And after our parents died, our family basically became each other.”

Dean glanced up at me and smiled when he saw how my bottom lip wobbled.

“You don’t have to cry about it. It was a long time ago and we were able to stick together and get here.” Dean reached forward and wiped the tear off of my cheek. “That beautiful tanned skin doesn’t need to get streaked with tears for me.”

My face heated up at the suddenly romantic comment and Dean quickly pulled back when he realized why.

“Sorry, the mate bond makes it harder for me to keep my feelings quiet.” He explained quickly, his eyes large and slightly panicked. I nodded and smiled to ease his worries.

“It’s fine.” I waved him off when he tried to apologize again and switched out the card for a new one. “Next card?”

~~~~~

The unaddressed tension that had been covering us for longer than I had realized seemed to evaporate the more we spoke. Despite the solum mood that regularly came whenever certain topics came up, the two of us had never felt closer.

When I found myself sharing things that I had yet to even tell my sister, I realized that our short fight had actually been good for us. It brought us further together than we ever would have been.

I didn’t want the moment to end.

Dean, after a lot of coaxing, managed to pry the box out of my fingers. The two of us started to actually eat the large picnic meal and after the first bite of the linguini, I didn’t regret having to put the cards away.

We eagerly dug in, ignoring our urges to eat cleanly in front of our partner and relaxing enough to slurp and let the sauce fly where it may. Making casual conversation over the food was wonderful and I had a great time debating over which items tasted better with my boyfriend.

When the food was either finished our packed away to be enjoyed later, the two of us moved to the slightly damp grass and laid down.

My entire left side was pressed tightly against Dean in the position that we were in, but neither of us moved. We didn’t want to.

We also didn’t want to speak and silently agreed that we would simply stare up at the stars. Which we did. Until we weren’t staring at the stars. We were staring at each other.

I had started looking at Dean first, but it only took a moment for him to look back. He never looked away, and I couldn’t pull my stare away from his warm eyes. We probably stayed like that for a long time, but it only felt like a second before he was closing his eyes and I was leaning in.

As soft kisses turned heated, and the touch of lips to lips became lips to jaw, neck, and chest, I decided that was when I wanted to stop time. I wanted to constantly live through the moment where rough hands smoothed over soft skin and my breath escaped quickly before returning again. Where quiet whines and loud moans weren’t of pain, but of pleasure.

That night when Dean wanted to gain my forgiveness, he gained so much more. That night, I had lost some of my innocence.

And I never wanted it back.

~~~~~

Woah! Vague descriptions of hoo haa. I bet you were not expecting that if you finished my first book. That last scene in my first book, in my eyes at least, was horrendous and I shall, probably, never make that attempt again.

I’m sorry if that was a surprise. I tried to put #nosmut in all of my other books but it might not have worked.

Anywho,

I would have had this Chapter up much sooner but when I got home I spent hours playing the game Just Dance.

Anywhere,

Yay! Those two are alright!

More than alright actually.

Also, I am kind of debating whether I wanted to do my original idea of some drama while they are dating or just give you guys an epilogue and move on.

There are pros and cons to both options and I am not sure which one I want to go with.

I am kind of leaning to one but I think that I want your opinion.

Anyway,