by J. E Hanson
I hate it when Skylar blames herself, “I know she does, but she shouldn’t be upset about it. The case is over, and my grandparents only have two of their children left. I have no idea on how I would feel or react, if it were my son. Under the circumstance, I believe they handled it the best way they could. They only have Oberon and Skylar left. They also have Ember and me. I have no idea with how my grandmother is coping right now.”
“I guess that I’m overbearing with my children. I love them from the moment my stomach flashed. I can’t even imagine what Titania is going through,” my mother-in-law hugs me and then she continues, “we raise our children with the hopes that they will do the right thing. Sadly, in her case she probably feels overwhelmed. Titania is understandably heartbroken over both their losses. She spent all these years trying to keep her babies together. I know that she blames herself. I’m still in shock that your own uncle did that. Right now, she’s probably reflecting on his childhood to think of what she could have done differently. But, sadly, nothing could be done. I think Everest was born with a few screws loose. Even as a child, he had issues. He was always different from my sons. I really don’t know, Rosalie. I wish you still had your mom, and I wish Everest didn’t do what he did.”
I drink her herbal remedy, and I feel even better.
Joey joins us, and he kisses my lips, “He did a lot of strange things, but I’m relieved that you have your answers.”
Violet points to the calendar, “When is the wedding?”
My husband grins, “I have everything set up and ready to go. Now it’s up to Rosalie, and she has to find a dress. Is Phoenix escorting you down the aisle this time?”
I feel incredibly blessed, “I love the fact that he’s here with us. Uncle Phoenix loves the idea that I selected him for the big wedding.”
Speaking of Uncle Phoenix, he casually enters the room with a set of golf clubs, “I love the great game of golf these days. Thanks to Rosalie, I have acquired a new talent. I’m going to play against Charlie and Uriel right now. They are the other Enforcers from the BIB and the AOM. Try not to worry about me too much.”
I have to hug my uncle tight, “I love you, Uncle Phoenix, and I will always worry about you.”
Uncle Phoenix grins, and he snaps his fingers. He changes into a cute golf outfit with the checkered pants and the hat. I watch him leave, while I wave goodbye to him. Every time I look at him, I see my daddy.
Joey wraps his arms around my waist, “Your dad loved you very much. I know what you are feeling and thinking right now. He would be so proud of you, and he’s probably relieved that we’re together. Think about how lucky our baby will be.”
He takes his hand, and he rubs my stomach. I can almost feel my parents near me.
Violet snaps a picture of us, “I’m so keeping this one, and I will make you a copy, Rosalie.”
“I really wish they were here, but they are gone, and it’s time to move on with our own baby. I’ve stressed myself about it enough. We have a wedding to finish planning,” I comment sadly.
He kisses my neck, “I promise that our wedding is ready to go. All you need to do is find a wedding dress. I have all the details completed, so that you won’t have to worry about anything. I even have our wedding cake ordered. Trust me when I say that our final wedding is ready to go.”
Violet rubs my stomach again, “You two will make a beautiful baby either way. But, you need to find a wedding dress.”
I take their hints, “Alright! I will go and grab Ember to pick out dresses!”
Joey won’t allow me to drive, and so he offers a limousine, but I refuse. There’s nothing wrong with snapping my fingers. I call Ember first to make sure that she isn’t in the sheets with Gabriel. She gives me the okay to snap my fingers. He doesn’t like it when I teleport.
I snap my fingers, and I make it to her house. We peer through all the wedding magazines. I chose a classic wedding dress, and I picked out another long train and veil. I want a strapless and sleeveless dress. Ember takes out her keys, and she drives on the interstate. We enter a boutique on the island of Meropis. We notice the wedding dresses in the window. We are on the fairy and angel side of the island.
We walk in the boutique together, and we see a woman who appears vaguely familiar. She’s returning a wedding dress, “I have to cancel my wedding. The man, who I was supposed to marry, chose to marry someone else.”
Ember ducks behind a row of wedding dresses, and I stare at her oddly. The familiar woman sobs.
The shop owner hugs her, “I’m so sorry, Ariel! That’s really soul breaking!”
Ariel appears upset, “Gadriel isn’t getting married either. Their wedding was also called off, because he doesn’t love Mariah. I can’t believe they did this to us!”
I peer at Ember, and she puts a finger to her lips to inform me to keep quiet. I take my shades off to search for a wedding dress.
The shop owner notices me right away, “I will be with you in a minute.”
I peer over at the shop owner, “I completely understand, and please take your time.”
Ariel glances over, and she realizes who I am, “Oh, great! Well, if it isn’t her cousin! That’s just fucking great!” she yells out.
I face her, “I have no idea who you are, but please refrain from talking about Ember like that! What did she do to you? It was your man who left you.”
The angel traipses over to me in a tight pink spandex dress. The dress barely covers her ass. Ariel is over six feet tall, bright blue eyes, with short platinum blonde hair. Ariel has a huge rack, “My name is Ariel, and I was Gabriel’s fiancé until your cousin decides to steal him away from me! Your friend is nothing but a fucking whore! I may never feel hate, but I will tell you that I can still express my opinion about your stupid cousin. You can send her a message to her from me. Gabriel will never fully love her as he much as he loves me. I know that for sure. Your cousin even managed to break up Mariah and Gadriel’s engagement. She seems to struggle with keeping her fucking lips off our men. She will always be a fucking hybrid, and we will NEVER consider her a full angel! Michaela would be so upset with her over what she’s done to us. I need to leave, but she’s very lucky that we’re not another supernatural creature. You can give her the message for us.”
I scoff at her, “I thought you were supposed to be an angel. Angels are not supposed to act like this! I’m not her earpiece, so you can go and tell her yourself. Oh, and by the way, Ember is having his baby.”
Her face floods with even more tears, “What do you mean by pregnant? Whose baby is it? She sleeps around! If she thinks that she can pin her baby on Gabe, she has another thing coming. I struggle to believe for one second that she’s actually pregnant with his baby. You just said that to hurt me. I know for sure that fairies are nothing but pathological liars anyway. This is just another deceivious ploy.”
Ember emerges from the rack, “I am pregnant with his baby, and I am a month along! Thanks for calling me a whore! You made your mistake, when you left him at the altar in the first place. At least I never did that to Gabe!”
Ariel is still angry, “You’re still a filthy whore, and if the shoe fits—wear it sweetheart! I can’t stand you! One of these days, you will learn your fucking lesson—you nasty whore!”
Ember doubles up her fists, and I hold her back, “I think you need to be on your way. My cousin is pregnant with his baby. You need to learn to suck it up. If he truly loved you, he would have married you years ago. I can see that he’s madly in love with Ember now.”
Ariel leaves the shop sobbing, and the shop owner stops us, “I think you two need to leave. We will never welcome your kind here. I’m siding with Ariel and Mariah on this.”
The shop owner musters a laugh from me, “That would be a very bad idea, but we will go ahead and leave. I will inform my husband about your terrible customer service skills also.”
We left the shop, and I drive her car for her. We drove to another part of the island, and it reveals
another cute boutique, ‘Fierce Apparel.’ She’s still distraught from the name-calling. We walk inside the boutique together, and we meet a short chestnut hair vampire with dark eyes. For a prop, he wears clear glasses. This guy has to be at least five feet tall.
He twirls around, and his bottom jaw drops, “Oh my goodness! Are there three of you?”
We glance at each other strangely. The short man walks over to us, “Wait a minute! I know you two! You are the fairy and angel princesses!”
We glance at each other not knowing what to say next. Ember finally opens her mouth to talk to him, “We chose to ask nicely, if you have a wedding dress for my cousin here. I know this is sudden, but she needs a wedding dress by next weekend for her second wedding to Joey.”
The man squeals with delight as he rests his hand on his hip, “Of course! I have wedding dresses! I guess that you’re a size two, right?”
I nod a quick yes, and he grins, “I have a whole slew of wedding dresses ready for your gorgeous ass to wear! I’m so lucky to be serving Princess Rosalie Cirrus! I’m a huge fan of you both, and I love your styles too!”
The door opens, and we greet a familiar face. Christian Hunter does a double take, “Hello girls, what are you two doing on our side of the island?”
“I have to find a wedding dress for next weekend,” I roll my eyes.
He has an amused expression on his face, “I see, and have you found one yet?”
“They refused to serve us on our side. Ember apparently caused a scene, and now the owner refuses to wait on us,” I fill Christian in on our present situation.
She rolls her eyes, “How am I supposed to know that Ariel is good friends with the shop owner?”
Christian frowns, “Was that the boutique on Main Street? Did they refuse to serve you, Rosalie?”
I nod yes, and Christian takes out his phone, “I will handle this for you girls. I owe you for helping me out with Jeannie anyway.”
We flash a smile at each other, and Ember casually asks, “So… how is Jeannie doing? I never properly expressed my condolences for your loss, and I’m so sorry.”
Christian takes out a ruby velvet box from his coat pocket, and he shows us the ring.
He intrigues me, “Is that what I think it is?”
We both whistle, “That ring has a lot of diamonds! I think it is!”
Christian beams with pride, “Jeannie is improving daily, and she is back in the castle. Thanks for your advice, Rosalie. I am forever eternally grateful for your advice. Jeannie is at home asleep right now. I’m picking up a dress for her to take her out. I plan on asking her really soon.”
I take Christian off guard by hugging him, and he feels ice-cold to the touch, “I hope she says yes and congratulations! I know that she will have to say yes to that gorgeous ring. You just make sure we meet her soon.”
His eyes are dancing, “You will meet her on Monday. I believe she is taking the same courses as you girls.”
She also hugs an ice-cold Christian, and she kisses each side of his cheeks, “Congratulations, and I can’t wait to meet Jeannie.”
“Your wedding dress will be bought by me. You can go wild, Rosalie. I will also take care of that other boutique,” Christian shocks and informs me.
Christian peers over our shoulders, “Sean, I want you to help my dearest friend. This is Rosalie Cirrus, and anything she orders, you must charge to my card. Is her dress ready?”
Sean grins, “It’s ready for you, and I want to wish you good luck, Chris.”
Christian flashes a non-vampire smile as he takes the dark dress bag from Sean. He nods to us, and he left the boutique.
Sean wheels around grinning, “I’m going to show you my wedding dress collection, and this is so exciting!”
I try on a few classic wedding dresses. We put the ones that we like to the side, and we return the ones that we don’t like to Sean.
“I like the first one the best and the others appear to make you so uncomfortable.”
I agree with Ember. Sean also has bridesmaid dresses. We pick out canary strapless dresses for all my bridesmaids including Ember. She will always be my maid of honor. We purchase all the bridesmaid dresses with Joey’s credit card, but we charge my wedding dress to Christian’s card. I hug an ice-cold Sean, and I happily dance down the street. We chose to shop for college, by purchasing backpacks, and extra items for school.
“These are really cute, Rosalie!” She flashes pencils with kisses on them. We purchase everything with Joey’s credit card, and we snap all the items to my house. She left me to take her things home.
Joey patiently waits for me in the living room, “What did you buy?”
“Some stuff for school. I chose my wedding dress and the dresses for my bridesmaids too.”
“I think you might need this for school too. Oberon told me that you borrowed his, while you were in high school.”
The case opens to reveal a brand new silver laptop. I gaze at him, “I’m speechless and thank you! You really didn’t have to buy me one though.”
“You’re welcome, but you will need one. They take notes via computer, and they don’t bother to use pens—or pencils. I thought you should be informed.”
“How do we work with workbooks and stuff like that? I always thought that you need pens—or pencils for at least the workbooks.”
“You are at an advanced college. There are no workbooks—or paper. The professors will teach each class with electronics—or computers. You will only use books to study. Even with those, they hardly ever use them. I believe starting next year that books will be online too. We try to keep Meropis University up-to-date on everything.”
I turn it on, and boot it up, “Are you serious? I just can’t imagine using only technology for college.”
He kisses my lips, and then he stroke my cheek, “Sorry babe, but we all agreed to keep it up-to-date. I know this will be a readjustment phase, but this is what we’re doing today.”
I forgot to make sure he eats, “I need to make you something for dinner.”
He stops me, and he holds me close to him, “Momma is already whipping up dinner. You can focus on our midwife appointment in about ten minutes.”
“I have an appointment? I had no idea! What do I need to do?”
He takes my hand, and he snaps his fingers. We return to our master bedroom.
He hands me a flimsy transparent gown, and he grins like a Cheshire cat, “You have to take everything off, but I’m happy to assist you—if you want.”
I seductively take my dress off in front of him. “You really want me to cancel it—don’t you? Thanks for adding extra torture, babe,” he complains.
“I’m ready anytime, darling. So… who is the midwife anyway?”
“We have a fairy midwife, and her name is Dr. Olivia Hail. She will handle our pregnancy.”
“Oh! I’ve never heard of her. Is she any good?”
“She handled all my mother’s pregnancies. She comes highly recommended, and she’s the best in the field. She even beats your Uncle Oberon. But, she comes with a hefty price tag, and she’s worth every penny.”
A rapid knock sounds on our bedroom door. The doctor shows us that she’s at least punctual. Joey opens the door to reveal a grey fairy, who I have never met before. She hugs him, and then she walks in with her bag.
The woman yanks my blanket down, “My name is Dr. Hail. I’m here for your first appointment.” She does a quick pelvic exam, and then she presses in on my stomach, “Everything seems to be in good working order. Now we will test to see how strong this baby is.” She takes out a weird contraption, and then she places it over my lower belly. My belly lights up and it still flashes like a firefly.
She smiles at me, “Your baby is growing normally, and is just fine. I will say that the light will turn a citrine color. The citrine color will stay solid—until you deliver. When you’re about to deliver, the citrine color will turn into a mustard color. I believe you need to know, since this is your fi
rst pregnancy. You will also recognize the scent of your baby. A girl baby will have more of a flower, fruit, or spice scent. A boy will have more of a nature, animal, or musk scent. You will know as soon as the light stops blinking, and it remains on. There will be a bizarre scent that you’re unable to explain. You’re right on track, and I will return next month to see how things are progressing. You take care, Princess Rosalie.”
Dr. Hail left quickly, and I’m somewhat disappointed, “I thought she would stick around longer.”
He helps me out of bed, “She will return once again next month. The good news is that our baby is just fine, and we have nothing to worry about.”
Momma makes an enormous meal. Puck and Skylar remain in Avalon. Momma even cooks for all the FOL members. I love her version of fried chicken. We always pig out, when she cooks for us. For desert, she makes us not only her famous cookies, but she also makes her homemade pies.
On Sunday, she makes steaks and twice-baked potatoes. Momma makes sure that we’re full from all her food. Momma wants to stay, but she has to return, “I will see you next weekend, and try to rest before your first day of school, Rosalie.”
“Bye momma and we love you very much.”
She smiles at us, and she disappears into thin air. Only Wally will remain with us. Wally, Joey, and I are playing the Wii. I defeat them both in bowling once again.
Wally grins at me, “You beat me again!”
I yawn, and he peeks at the time. Wally even starts to lecture me now, “You have school in the morning, and you better drink those vials.”
I suck another one down, but I’m still tired. I barely make it to the bed, when I drift off to sleep. My body stays more tired here, than when I’m home in Avalon.
~~~***~~~
He wakes me up two hours before I have to go to school, “You might want to wake up Rosalie, because this is your first day of school. This gives you additional time to do what you need to do.”
“What do you have planned today?”
