Fairytale Green

The deep voice commanded ‘Be ready for me in five minutes.’

After flicking through the channels for a good ten minutes, I finally found something worth watching. Two grown women pulling at each other’s hair and fighting one another for their same interest in a man.

I was no longer watching the television because my phone rang from an incoming call from the giant.

‘Where are we going?’ I questioned while trying to keep my excitement to a minimum.

‘I am taking you out.’

I smiled to myself before I asked, ‘Like as in a date taking me out of as in an assassin taking me out?’

Stone chuckled before rasping out ‘Come and find out.’

‘How do I know it’s worth my time?’ I teased into the phone ‘I think I might just stay here.’

‘I’m outside.’ The rough low voice grumbled playfully ‘Get your tiny self down here now.’

I hummed teasingly.

‘Medusa.’

‘Yes, Lurch?’

‘You are coming with me whether you like it or not.’ The gruff sound escaped his throat demandingly ‘I will come up there and drag you down.’

He would do that. I knew he would. He had flung me over his shoulder several times before. I was well acquainted with his arms and shoulders.

I might have challenged him to throw me over his shoulder again but the smell from the kitchen stopped me. I had just had my dinner. If he threw me over his shoulder, my stomach would probably react. The consequence could be that his leather jacket gets ruined, and I did not want to do that. I was planning to steal it at some point.

I really liked that jacket.

‘You are going to have to convince me, Lurch.’ I voiced to him while I turned the television off ‘At least give me a clue on where we are going.’

I was going to go and meet him, but I liked to see him all agitated. It was not like he did not purposely go out of his way to annoy me either.

Skipping through to the hall, I grabbed my jacket from the coat-hanger before turning to face the mirror on the wall and fixing my hair.

My black shirt had a skull and some flowers on it. It had a low hanging V-neck so I spent some time arranging my boobs so that there was the perfect amount of cleavage showing.

‘We might be going somewhere that involves books.’ The deep voice on the other the end of the line informed.

‘Okay.’ I sighed ‘But I do have boobs up here.’

My eyes widened as the words left my mouth. My mouth hung open when I released my mistake.

I was meant to say books, but I was too busy preoccupied with fixing my boobs that the wrong word slipped out.

The phone line went quiet for a few seconds.

‘We should definitely stay home then.’ Stone chuckled.

I could not think of anything to say so I hung up the phone and made my downstairs to the ground floor of the apartment building.

His large form and irritating smirk became visible as I walked over to his black truck.

He watched me walk over to him with a glare and his response was to smirk even more at me.

‘It was autocorrect!’ I blurted out lamely.

‘We were on the phone.’

‘Be quiet, Lurch.’ I shushed him before murmuring jokingly ‘I don’t why I said it. I have never spoke about my boobs to anyone before—’

Stone grumbled, a dark rumble of a noise ‘You better not have.’

The amusement in his eyes returned as I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him.

‘I hate you, you big oaf.’ I laughed the words at him while ignoring his hilarity at the situation and climbing into his truck ‘Let’s go.’

He circled the truck, got in and started the engine while stealing a few glances my way.

‘Are you sure you do not want to stay home?’ He questioned amusedly ‘I was planning to carry you if you put up a fight, but you have convinced me to stay.’

As I put on my seatbelt, I glared at the side of his head. His tone was smug and annoying, and I knew I was never going to hear the end of my accidental boob speech.

‘Drive.’ I tried to growl but it sounded too playful and not at all like his animalistic growls.

We pulled off my street and drove along past the beach. I was not paying attention to where we were going because I was too busy glaring at the side of his head.

He kept his eyes on the road, but his lip twitched every so often when I looked at him from my seat.

When we approached a set of lights, Stone gave me his full attention as he mentioned ‘I have told you something about me nobody knows but you have not told me anything.’

I thought back to his love of Alice in Wonderland and I smiled.

‘Well, what do you want to know?’ I replied.

Raising a brow, he let out a single laugh ‘If it is something nobody knows then how would I know what to ask?’

‘Smartass.’ I coughed but then I decided that it was only fair to let him know something, so I admitted “I hate coffee with a passion.’

‘That is a big secret?’

I nodded ‘Nobody else knows that.’

He continued driving when the lights turned green, but he shot me a look of confusion ‘Why is you not liking coffee a secret?’

‘I drink coffee because I feel I have to. A bookworm is always depicted drinking a cup of coffee while reading. It is pretty much a universal truth that coffee and books are the perfect mix.’ I explained before further adding ‘When I read at the library or at a cafe, I always order coffee and I stomach it because I feel I need to. As a nerd, I have an obligation to drink coffee.’

The car went silent.

Then Stone tipped his head back and laughed.

It was deep and rough. It was loud and so unexpected that I almost jumped out of my seat.

He remained to laugh while shaking his head to himself ‘Where do you come up with this stuff?’

Turning slightly in my seat, I faced the side of him and asked, ‘You are a classified book nerd, do you drink coffee?’

Stone nodded.

I then proved my point by asking him further ‘Have you seen someone in a cafe reading with a hot chocolate or tea?’

He remained silent and I was left feeling victorious.

‘Let me guess. You only drink black coffee.’ I voiced with certainty.

‘What makes you think that?’ He asked, his lip twitching.

‘The colour matches your soul.’ I joked before adding on a more serious note ‘I can’t see you sitting with a Frappuccino with whipped cream, marshmallows and sprinkles.’

‘Yes, Medusa.’ He confirmed, ‘I only drink black coffee.’

I did not have any coffee in my apartment, so I made a reminder to myself to buy some when I went grocery shopping. I also needed to pick up some more apples because he had wolfed down two bags of them last time.

‘Tell me something else.’ He insisted persistently ‘Surely there is more secrets to Drizella Miller.’

I tried to think of something interesting about myself. Nothing came to mind, and I was left with the thought that I should probably pick up a new hobby.

When something finally popped into my mind, I told him ‘When I was thirteen, I had a blog where I would post theories every day.’

‘You had a blog when you were thirteen where you posted theories?’ He repeated.

‘Is that not what I just said?’ I sassily replied, watching his lips move up in a minuscule smile.

He glanced at me, and he chuckled ‘That is so fucking cute.’

‘I do not know what you are laughing at.’ I rolled my eyes ‘Thirteen-year-old Ella knew what she was talking about. I once got one hundred and fifty thousand views.’

‘What kind of theories did you write?’

Stone was definitely teasing me, but I was too far into the conversation to turn back.

‘Just the usual theories.’ I said before listing some of them ‘Existence of aliens, alternative universes, Elvis still being alive, time travel—’

‘Wait.’ He stopped me mid-sentence ‘You think Elvis is still alive?’

‘Not so much now.’ I told him ‘I was eleven when I wrote that one. There was a whole blog post about how Jailhouse Rock was a hint that he was stuck in a prison of his own making and faking his death was an escape. It was a load of bullshit but my argument on it was very convincing.’

He smiled evilly. A smile that I imagined the devil had just before he released sin into the world.

‘I am sure it was.’ He retorted ‘If you give the name of your blog then you will have one more view to add to your one hundred and fifty thousand.’

‘No way.’ I argued, knowing that he would be able to terrorise me for the rest of my life with that kind of information.

The street was dimly lit so I could not see that well where we were, but it looked familiar. Really familiar.

I leaned forward in my seat and looked out of his window. Once it hit me where we were, I looked to Stone who was already watching me as he parked the black truck.

‘Why are we at the library?’ I asked before feeling the need to mention ‘I doubt they are open at night.’

‘Come.’ He said as he opened the truck door.

I hesitantly opened the door and followed him.

He gently grabbed my arm when I walked over to him. He pulled me to his side and then walked with my arm still in the embrace of his calloused hand.

‘We will miss it.’ He said as he took long strides that were hard to keep up with.

I was going to question what we were going to miss but I was unable to because I was out of breath trying to keep up with his pace.

‘Can you slow down?’ I huffed as we walked inside the old looking building ‘I am out of breath here, Lurch.’

Stone did slow down and rubbed at my back like it would magically make me fitter.

‘Sorry, Medusa.’ He said with a chuckle ‘I forgot you had such small legs.’

I swatted his arm in response, following him into the large open space filled with books.

The library was a lot more classic looking than other ones in the city. The shelves were wooden, and they towered the place. The place still had modern books, but a lot of the largest aisles were filled with old hardbacks to fit the aesthetic of the building.

I never really visited this particular library a lot. I should have because I loved the feeling of the place. It reminded me of the one from Beauty and The Beast and it made me want to prance around the aisle of books.

The library however looked different. In the middle of the large room, the shelves had been moved to clear a large space. Instead of books, people were sat facing a white sheet hung on the wall.

The white sheet had a black and white scene of Santa Monica pier playing from the projector a few metres away. At least fifty people were sitting in front of the scene watching intently.

Turning my head away from the mini cinema to the awfully quiet Lurch, I asked ‘What is going on here? Why is the library even open at this time?’

He was about to reply but stopped when the film everyone was watching started playing on the speakers.

The first words I heard were familiar from the film were ‘It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know—’

‘By the name of Annabel Lee.’ I finished the line and looked to Stone while tilting my head.

Stone did not meet my eye when explaining ‘In the thirties, some actors from a theatre in Los Angeles came to Santa Monica to practice film making. They filmed themselves acting out Edgar Allan Poe poems. This library has the only copy on film, and they show it every year.’

I was lost for words. Completely and utterly stunned into silence.

He picked up on my silence and quickly added as he rubbed his jaw ‘I thought you would like it but if you want to go somewhere else then—’

My excitement could not be contained any longer. I let out a high-pitched squeal that surprised Stone and myself.

Thinking about how much I did not want to miss a single poem, I grabbed his hand without thinking and pulled him to where everyone was sitting.

Once we were sat in the crowd of people, the warmth in my fingers travelled to my face as I realised that I had grabbed his hand.

I tried to pull away, but he did not let me.

I did not try to untangle our fingers again, but I raised an eyebrow at him.

While squeezing my hand, he nonchalantly told me ‘It is mine now.’

To hide my smile, I focused on the screen where a man sat on a cliff’s edge and looked to the sky. My eyes stayed glued to the screen as a few more poems were acted out.

I did not understand why the films were never shown in the theatre. They were amazing and beautiful. I did not watch a lot of black and white movies but this one I could not imagine in colour.

It was perfect in monochrome. It was perfect the way it was.

Kind of like the guy who was beside me who laughed at my quoting of every line from memory.

‘I feel bad.’ I whispered from beside me.

He was already watching me when I turned to face him.

Stone frowned and asked, ‘Why?’

‘You are kind of losing your street credit by being here.’ I told him with a small laugh ‘Imagine if I told someone at school that the terrifying silent giant was sitting watching people from ninety years ago reciting poetry. They would never believe me.’

The hand which was not clutching mine reached out to move a piece of hair from my face as he questioned ‘Why do you feel bad about that?’

‘You have to sit here through this with me.’ I stated like it was obvious ‘I don’t even know if you like Edgar Allan Poe.’

‘I have read a few of his poems.’ He said back and then added, ‘I would have read more if a small green girl did not steal her book back.’

‘How did you even know about this?’ I motioned to the screen.

He did not answer.

‘Stone, thank you.’ I told him and meant it ‘I think this is the nicest and most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.’

His large arm nestled around my waist before he lifted me onto his lap. His attention went on to the screen as he did so as he overlooked my shoulder.

I was going to argue but I figured I owed him for his gesture so instead I turned my head to the side and glared at him, but I did not move.

‘Next time we will do something that you love doing.’ I whispered to him

He said lowly against my neck ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘I don’t know.’ I voiced before thinking of something ‘We could always just go to a public place and glare at everybody to scare them away. You love doing that.’

His glare was not successful because he ended up letting out a rough laugh after it. This was also after I let out a small giggle.

A smart comeback was probably on the edge of his lips but a middle-aged man in front of us turned around and shushed us.

The angry shusher in front of us quickly apologised after meeting the gaze of the scary man I was resting on.

Covering my mouth to stop myself from laughing, I focused back on the short film playing. I let my head rest back on to his chest as I remained to lose myself in the words of the poet.

I watched it intently for a while until I saw that Stone was not watching it

‘Are you bored?’ I asked in a hushed voice over my shoulder

‘No.’ He replied, still not even bothering to look at the screen.

I moved my head back so I could look up at him and I could utter ‘Then why are you just watching me?’

‘Because you are beautiful.’ His mouth said against my hair ‘You are also mouthing every word. I am not missing a thing.’

Flustered, I tried to hide half my face by pressing myself into his jacket. I could feel his laughter by the vibrations of his chest. The last poem was being performed so I focused on that instead of his compliment.

I attempted to put it to the back of my mind anyway. I do not see how it was possible when he was pressed up against me and his lips were near my jaw.

‘The only thing that would make this better is if there were gummy bears.’ I said but it was more to myself to plan for the next time that I left the house.

Stone moved from behind me and fetched something out of the pocket of his leather jacket. I heard rustling before he put something on my lap.

He had bought me a packet of gummy bears.

I grinned up at him before I opened them and started picking out the apple flavoured green ones and handing them to him.

‘Thank you, Medusa.’

It was still hard to believe that he had planned something like this for me. What I said about it being the nicest thing anyone had done for me was true. It was probably an understatement.

Watching the man on the screen talk to the raven, I thought about how I had no idea how to even start to show my appreciation to Stone.

Nothing seemed a big enough thank you.

The credits on the short film rolled. I could not help but feel disappointed. Disappointed that the marathon of dark poems was finished and that I had to pull away from him.

Without letting go of his hand, we stood up and walked out of the library. I pretty much skipped out of the library feeling giddy and grateful. He watched me amusedly as I twirled on my toes.

When we stepped outside the main door of the library, I pulled him closer to me and directed him towards the side of the building instead of the parking lot.

He followed willingly as I led him to a side alley and leant my back against the wall.

I rose on my toes when he neared the front of my body.

Stone watched as I stretched upwards and then he took pity and lifted me up, so I was at eye level with him.

Before I could lean in, he kissed me.

His lips collided with mine. His arms wrapped around my waist instantly and mines tangled hastily behind his neck to bring him closer. He lightly nudged my chin up so he could deepen the ferocity of the kiss. It was full of need and desire. His tongue trailed over my lip before meeting my own as my lips parted more to let him take over. Stone demanded dominance and I happily complied.

It should have been impossible to have felt as much sweet pleasure and warmth from merely a kiss.

It was not mere. It was everything. It was scary how addicted I found myself to the kiss. To his kiss.

I could not imagine it ending or wanting it to.

Unfortunately, it did. We pulled away as our need for oxygen matched our need for each other.

Stone did not let go of my waist and he instead kept his forehead against mine as he huskily asked, ‘What was that for?’

‘It was a thank you.’ I revealed ‘Thank you for bringing me here. I loved it.’

He chuckled against my lips before he roughly let out “A kiss for bringing you here? It is a real fucking shame that they only show it once a year.’

I released a small breathy laugh, and I was about to kiss him again when my phone went off.

Disappointedly, I pulled back and bit my lip to stop myself from letting out a moan of discontent while looking at my phone.

‘Hello?’ I spoke while I put the phone to my ear.

‘Hey, my bestest friend in my world.’ Lana replied, ‘You know I love you more than anything, right?’

‘What are you after?’ I asked into the phone ‘It better not be a Barbie marathon again.’

‘Brennan just picked me up from my house to go to the pier. It is really awkward.’ She sighed before pleading with me ‘Can you come?’

‘You want me to come with you on your date?’

‘Please.’ She replied ‘I have convinced Brennan to text Stone as well so you will not be alone.

I looked up to Stone and he was reading his phone too. He must have sensed that I was staring at him because he turned his attention from the phone to me.

‘Ice cream?’ I insisted nicely to the giant.

‘I am going to kill Brennan.’ He grumbled under his breath.

I let out a small laugh as we walked back to his truck.

Stone sped down the road and he looked to be deep in thought. Whenever the road was not busy, and the traffic did not require attention then he would look my way.

‘I had a really good time.’ I spoke up.

‘When did you start liking Edgar Allan Poe?’

I laughed before looking down at my lap and admitting ‘I meant that I had a good time with you, you jumbo-sized jackass.’

He never said anything until he howled a deep laugh. I joined in and laughed into the wind as I rolled down the window to the truck.

The ice cream parlour was not that busy when we arrived. A few people occupied the booths and that included Lana and Brennan who were sitting at the same seats we were at when we all met.

‘So, you two just bumped into each other?’ Brennan asked us both, looking unconvinced at our lie.

Stone silently nodded and I acted like I was concentrating on devouring my mint chocolate chip ice cream cone to hear him.

Once Brennan dropped the question, I looked up from the delicious green gloop and spoke ‘What have you two been up to?’

None of them looked in a rush to reply.

‘Let me guess.’ I tapped my chin and lore tended to think ‘It is Brennan so no doubt he took you to get a candy apple to reminisce on how you two met.’

‘You know me so well, Little Ella.’ Brennan replied, ‘That was my plan after we left here.’

Lana had not spoken since we first arrived.

The place we sat together was where Lana and Brennan met back when it was all rainbows and butterflies. What was left was an awkward silence.

The pier and the ice cream place were also where I met him.

Things had changed from back then, but they had also stayed the same. Everything had been heightened since then.

When I peered at him now, I realised that the feeling I had when I looked at him was the same feeling that I had the night of our meeting and every time with him since. It was just a lot more obvious.

I guess it took me a while to address the big elephant in the room or more appropriately the big Lurch in the room.

I had meant every word when I told him that I had liked him from the start. What I lied about was how much.

Eating the remaining spoonful of ice cream and staring at him, I was not paying attention to anything else.

That is why Lana felt the need to kick me under the table to gain it.

I jolted in my seat and looked to her, telepathically asking What is it?

She communicated back We need to talk.

I nodded my head at her in understanding before we both got up from the booth.

Stone’s gaze remained on me the same as it was a minute ago but one of his dark eyebrows had raised.

Brennan’s expression was similar, but he voiced what he was thinking ‘Where are you going?’

The person who he wanted to answer did not and that left me to quickly think on my feet.

I ended up blurting out ‘We are away to powder our nose.’

‘Powder your nose?’ Stone chuckled at my pathetic excuse of an excuse ‘Are you also away to travel back to the nineteenth century?’

I rolled my eyes ‘Would you rather I say I was away to urinate?’

Lana and I scurried away from the boys to the bathroom. As soon as the door to the bathroom closed, she looked around for a sign of anyone else being there. She confirmed that there was nobody in the cubicles before she let out a small breath.

‘What is going on, Lana?’ I asked while putting a hand on her arm to stop her from pacing.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then told me ‘I don’t know. I am confused.’

‘About Brennan?’

Nodding, she pulled herself onto the edge of the sink for a seat ‘Sometimes it is so good between us. We get on well and we laugh, and he is amazing. He is more than amazing.’

‘But?’

‘But.” She started to explain ‘Other times I feel that am forcing everything between us.’

I joined her by sitting on the sink next to her as I questioned ‘You think you are forcing your feelings for him?’

‘It sounds stupid.’ She huffed ‘Surely this is a just a phase and I will feel different in the long run.’

‘Maybe but it might not be.’ I insisted before adding ‘I just want you to be happy and sure of yourself.’

I felt guilty and I felt like I had betrayed Brennan. It was a confusing situation because Lana was my best friend, but Brennan also meant something to me.

My parents never had any children other than me, and I had always wanted a brother. If I could have picked anyone in the world to be my brother, then I would choose Brennan without a doubt.

‘What do I do?’ She sighed.

‘I know best friends always know best but I really do not know.’ I tried to be helpful ‘Brennan is a great guy but if you are not happy with him then you need to be honest with yourself.’

She nodded as she let her head fall on my shoulder.

‘I am terrible at this kind of stuff. I am sorry.’ I replied lamely ‘I have never had an epic romance or a great love story.’

Lana seemed to brighten up at my words and she cocked her head with a smile ‘Are you not?’

I did not miss how she used present rather than past.

The chequered floor looked like a good place to focus on instead of her.

At my action, she laughed ‘Like you said best friends always know best.’

Still avoiding confronting what she was hinting at, I patted her back ‘Let’s go back. He will be wondering where you are. Talk to him. If he tries to buy you a candy apple or take you on the Ferris wheel, then work with him. Maybe you will reconnect.’

We walked out of the bathroom and made our way back over to the two who were already watching us.

Lana at least appeared a bit calmer than she did before. She offered Brennan a smile which he returned instantly.

On the other side of the table, I stuck my tongue out at Stone who was smirking in his seat.

Brennan started a conversation with Lana while Stone leaned closer and rested his thick muscled arms on the table.

His voice was a deep low noise ‘What was that all about?’

‘I just had to tell Lana some stuff.’ I kept my answer as vague as possible.

‘Like what?’

I gave him my biggest and sweetest smile ‘Just telling her how amazing and how smart Valentine Stone is.’

He smirked and his reply was dripping with sarcasm ‘Really?’

‘Of course.’

Stone shook his head while chuckling ‘What drugs did this place put in your ice cream?’

‘I can compliment you.’ I argued before giving an example ‘Lurch, you have an excellent taste in companionship to take to an Edgar Allan Poe film showing.’

An hour passed with several backhanded compliments between us. He definitely had a few good insults but not enough to win the round.

Brennan pitched into our conversation by smirking at Stone and asking me ‘Ella, is Stone your type?’

‘No,’ I joined teams with Brennan to tease Stone ‘I usually go for more well-built and larger guys.’

It was a complete and utter lie. There was nobody bigger than Valentine Stone.

The giant sat back in his chair and silently challenged me like he did not believe me for one second.

His question came out as a small growl ‘Like who?’

I shrugged ‘Brennan is pretty buff.’

‘Yeah. I am.’ Brennan added, kissing his arm muscles.

Another growl from Stone and then the two males decided to go against each other in an arm-wrestling match.

Poor Brennan had to get his dislocated shoulder put back into the socket after.

We all got up and left the ice cream parlour. By the time we were outside, none of the rides nor stalls were open. The pier was only lit up by the lights on the railings.

I slowed my pace so Lana and Brennan could get a few yards in front, so they had the opportunity to speak.

Stone hung back with me, and it was not long before he started the teasing again.

He eventually asked, ‘So what are we going to do about them then?’

‘What do you mean?’ I questioned, wondering if he had picked up on the tension between the two.

‘We told them we bumped into each other.’ He mentioned before adding ‘I am your ride home’

‘We could just make a run for it and ditch them here.’ I joked then gave him a real answer ‘I can just walk home.’

‘Not happening.’ Stone dismissed the idea in his commanding voice ‘I am not letting you walk home, and I am not missing out on watching you pretend to hate inviting me inside your apartment.’

I nudged him ‘Who says I am letting you inside?’

He shot me a cocky grin and I glowered at him.

‘Especially after that stunt you pulled last night with the heating.’ I added, pretending to be angry about it.

I was going to let him in, but I would make him wait outside my door for a good ten minutes to appear that I was not eager for his presence.

I changed it to five minutes when he saw me shiver from the night air and he placed his leather jacket over my shoulders.