by Karla Luna
“What are you planning on doing?”
I puffed my cheeks as I thought. All right, so while I was staying at the Orphanage, I did get to study a bit and do tests in order to get my high school diploma and all. I knew I had to do something with my life, and I think that the career I chose to do would surprise pretty much anyone who knew me.
“I plan on studying criminal justice, actually.”
He seemed surprised (which I guessed from the start), but he also seemed pretty happy about it. “I… wow! Really?”
“Sure, why not? It actually interests me now. I mean, have you ever heard of a gang leader that has now become an undercover cop?” I smirked at him and it only took him a couple seconds to realize who I meant exactly.
“Nooo!” he started, and I just nodded. “No. No, no way. Really? No.”
“Yes! It’s quite awesome actually. I was even surprised. But it could work for Drake, and it could also probably help me out, too.” I raised my eyebrows at him and shrugged.
Zavier smiled and shyly looked down. “Yeah, that’s amazing. Do you know, um, what college you’re going to yet?”
I sighed. “No. I mean I’m looking but…” I trailed off when I finally noticed it. I mean, I should’ve noticed it already when I was looking around, but now it just sort of jumped out at me.
Zavier noticed me looking, so he turned and saw the teddy bear there. When he turned back to face me, he kept his eyes down. So I smiled and went over to grab the teddy. I softly stroked its ears and furry coat, kissing the top of its head as well, remembering how I got told that Zavier had been holding it almost every minute that I was at the hospital in a coma.
“You know,” I whispered, “I actually left the teddy bear for one reason.” Zavier didn’t reply, but I knew he was watching me. My back was just facing him. “It was like a little message. I left it because, it was like me telling you then that it wasn’t a goodbye.” I bit my lip when I actually felt tears forming. But I grinned happily when I took a look at the promise ring still on my finger. The ring I haven’t let go of at all.
“I wanted to give it back to you, but I was just so clueless to remember I had it in my hands when I went to give you the ring.”
“Well, your promise ring was definitely a message, too.”
I smiled again and was about to place the teddy back where it was, when suddenly I felt a warm hand close itself around my other wrist.
I got twirled around and soft sweet lips suddenly caught mine.
Zavier’s hand was on my hip, pulling me impossibly closer to him while his other hand gently cupped my cheek as he kissed me like he hadn’t kissed me in years. Almost as if I was his only lifeline. Like he’s been starving since forever and needed me to help him remedy it.
I ended up smiling against his soft lips and wrapped my arms around him, gripping on to his dark locks to kiss him deeper. And throughout that, I still had the teddy in my hand.
Zavier smelled of roses and his touch was warm, and safe, since I felt protected just by being close to him.
And damn, did I still love him.
After a while, he pulled away from me and I touched the pad of my thumb along his bottom lip, making him smile and peck my lips again. Then he grabbed my hand and sweetly kissed it as well. He took a look at the promise ring and a look of admiration and kindness seemed to pass right over his eyes.
“I gave you this promise ring,” he said. “To remind you that I'm here for you no matter what. That I love you and that we’d be together, whether you found someone or not.” He kissed my hand again. “That we wouldn’t lose each other.”
I knew, I remembered exactly what he had said that day at the airport. I ended up whispering it to myself sometimes before going to sleep and it made me smile in my slumber. It was just too perfect.
“I’m here for you, Evelyn. We’re not going to lose each other. We’re together now. And I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” I felt the damn tears again so I just kissed him hard on the lips, already missing the taste and feel of them. “You’re still mine, teddy bear?”
He chuckled. “Well, if you say, yes.”
I frowned at him and slightly cocked my head to the side.
“What?”
“Evelyn Jo, will you marry me?” he asked, and I swear my heart skipped a ton of beats as I stayed still, only staring up at him in surprise and shock. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
I couldn’t help but grin like crazy as he said those words. Did he really just say what I think he just said? Because I know I heard right. But still…
Even though I felt crazy happy on the inside, I tried acting casual about it and pulled a bit away from him to give him a serious look as I rested my hands on my hips.
“Where’s my ring?” I asked jokingly, biting the inside of my cheek to stop from bursting out laughing at his adorable face.
He chuckled and grabbed my hand to pull me close again. “I’ll get you a ring when we’re ready. Anything you want, my love.” He twirled me again as if we were dancing, and we ended up being intimately close. “Just be mine forever.”
“Yes, teddy bear,” I said. “I would love to marry you.”
We were just about to kiss, when we heard a series of ‘awws’ just outside his room. We stopped mid-way and stared at the door, where we then heard a couple of whispers and maybe even cries.
Zavier sighed and walked over to open the door. When it finally got open, Ian, Jesse and Darrel fell to the ground on top of each other.
We both stared at the three guys and crossed our arms. They shyly smiled up at us and waved, trying to act as if they weren’t just eavesdropping on our whole conversation back there.
“Heyyy, guys!” Darrel trailed off.
“Nice ceiling, really nice ceiling,” Ian said with a nod.
“Still sweating, totally not crying,” Jesse whimpered out as he rubbed his eye with his fist.
I shook my head at them and helped Darrel up as Zavier went to help out Ian and Jesse. Once they were all up, I clapped my hands together and smiled.
“All right, we gotta take these down to the car. Okay, guys?” I said to them as I motioned to all the boxes. “Whose car exactly?”
Zavier placed the palm of his hand over his cheek in thought when I stared at him. “Um, well my mom was going to take me, I guess, or Jesse can…”
“Hey!” Darrel shouted out as he raised his hand up high in the air. We all looked at him and it seemed like he was pretty excited. Zavier kind of jumped a bit when he shouted out to get our attention. “We can all go in my truck!”
“You have a truck?” Zavier asked.
“It was the closest thing to hijack here when we got here.”
“Of course…”
“Well, let’s go then!” I shouted out as we all grabbed a few boxes to take outside. I took a look at the teddy bear and gave it another kiss as I gently placed it in one of the boxes as well.
In the truck, there was actually only really room for three people up at the front. We securely kept the boxes at the back of truck. Darrel drove, Jesse was in the middle seat, and Ian was in the seat next to him. They all decided to come and take us over to Massachusetts, so that Zavier and I could get an apartment and live together.
Zavier and I decided to stay with the boxes at the back because there wasn’t any room at the front. But I would’ve chosen this too since this way, I could be alone with him. He had his arm wrapped around me, our legs were entwined, and we snuggled close, resting my head on his chest and playing with his soft cotton shirt.
I was happy.
And nothing would tear us apart now, as long as we were together.
We were opposites. And people could try and tear us apart, but we both knew we needed each other more than anything to survive. Others just didn’t matter at all. Only we did.
As we rode to Massachusetts, we told each other what had been going on in our lives ever since we got separated. I listened
to everything he had to say and he listened to mine. He was rather surprised over the fact that I stopped drinking and doing drugs. Because believe me, they had plenty of that stuff at the Orphanage and being the girl I was, I would’ve sneaked in and stolen them all just to drown out the pain of not having Zavier with me. But he was the reason it didn’t happen.
I also told him what happened with Stormy and he promised to call her when we got to Massachusetts. Because I wouldn’t want them fighting and acting like they didn’t know or care about one another. I wanted them to be okay.
After that, we just talked about other random things and made each other laugh.
“You know?” I started as I looked up at him, playing with the buttons on his shirt. He looked at me and kissed my nose, waiting for me to continue. “You should totally become president.”
“That is like, close to impossible. I don’t even know where you got that.”
“Pfft, nothing’s impossible. I think we’ve already figured that out long ago. You being president would be the most awesome thing. Can you imagine? Have you ever imagined it?”
He playfully rolled his eyes. “Okay, yes, but I…”
“You would honestly be great. And if you do become president, hmm…” I knitted my eyebrows together and pretended to think a whole lot. “Then I can become one of your spies or maybe even your bodyguard! We can secretly make out in the oval office.”
He only laughed at the thought and pulled me close to give me a long kiss on the lips. “I would like that actually. Though I’d rather you just be mine all the time, Mrs. Coin.”
My heart ended up doing that thing again, where it goes faster and faster by the second. It only happened with him because he was just that special. He could even simply look at me and it would happen.
“Perfect,” I whispered as I rested my head back on his chest right after kissing his adorable dimple. But then I lifted my head up again to look at him. “Oh, and… by any chance, it really does happen, can…”
“No, Evelyn, I will not make beer free.”
I playfully slapped his arm and gaped at him. “I wasn’t going to ask that! I’m over beer, did you not listen?”
He chuckled and held one hand up. “Okay, okay. No beer.”
I nodded. “All right.”
“No free fried chicken Friday either, though.”
I pouted at him. “Come on, please?” He only smiled and shook his head. “Chicken is life, you are crazy. Out of your mind. Loco.”
“Loco enamorado de ti,” he said, making me frown at him yet blush a little. I hated it, but it seemed to only happen with him, and only at times like these. Dammit, he was good.
“I thought you didn’t know Spanish.”
“I know just a few simple things. Plus, I’d like to tell you I’m crazy in love with you in many different languages.”
“You gotta stop being so damn perfect.”
He gave me a little smirk, and before kissing me, he said, “I’ll stop once you do.”
And that, my dear folks, is how the bad girl and the good boy ended up together. Who would’ve thought that being in your underwear would make a great first impression?
Epilogue
College life worked pretty well for the both of us. While my teddy bear studied Politics and Economics at Harvard University, I stayed at a local community college to study Criminal Justice, which was still weird to the people I knew, considering I once was a criminal myself.
We were finally happy, with no trouble following us at all. Sure there were a couple of fights and arguments, since that was normal for couples. But the fact that we could go back to our nice apartment and have hot, make-up sex… well, it has made all the difference.
Zavier somehow got hotter. I don’t even know how that was possible. He was still showing off that nerdy appearance, yet he was a hot bad boy within. It was crazy how he got a tattoo of a yin-yang symbol for me, as well as an infinity one. I never pictured him being the type to get tattoos. But once he got one, he wanted more and he ended up adding more on his sculptured arms. And man, they looked sexy.
I should say I was still a bitch. Or the bitch, as I liked to call it.
Zavier had gotten me a beautiful diamond ring, an engagement ring, to be more precise. But a year into college, we didn’t want to get married right away so we waited a while, at least until we graduated and were officially ready to live our lives and have a family.
Drake, Ian and Darrel came to visit once in a while and as usual they made everything weird and fun. Those motherfuckers were the best, and I loved that they constantly came to visit us. They were my family. Even Jesse was like a brother, and Ethan was at his side yet again like during high school days. I didn’t want to forgive him for what he had done, and Zavier didn’t make me. Though like him, I had to get past that and forget what he had done.
Davne found out about everything, considering Zavier was actually brave enough to go visit him in jail. He thought Davne deserved the truth, and not because he wanted to get back at Ethan for all his lies. He just wanted honesty and peace between everyone. He was such a good guy. I didn’t want anything happening to the love of my life though, so I asked Drake to stick around in case Davne tried to do something. Drake did it for me, especially since he still didn’t like the guy at all. But he was a cop now, too. He knew more than Davne.
And so Davne had reasons to be afraid. Just like he was afraid when his sister died, when his mother left, and when he poisoned both his dad and older brother.
Yeah, he was a psycho. Oh, well.
The day of my wedding was the best day of my life. I finally got to call myself Mrs. Coin. I had a beautiful lace vintage dress and Zavier had a dark suit with a bowtie. Drake led me down the aisle like my father would’ve if he was with me. Jesse was Zavier’s best man (and he was still not admitting to crying), and let’s just say, both my Maid of Honor and bridesmaid were guys. Although Ian and Darrel definitely did not have to wear dresses. They just wore pretty suits with flower pins. And they did admit to crying, unlike someone I know.
I still had to stop the things I did, but I told my sexy husband that there really was no need for house keys if I could easily pick a lock (just sayin’).
It became necessary for me, however, to stop all of these things when Zavier became a teacher at a local high school. Even more so when a couple of years after that, he changed careers and decided to study law and go into politics. In the next few years, he ran for alderman, next for congress and then the senate. Then in 2030, he entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries and got the party’s endorsement. That same year, he joined the Presidential Election and won!
I swear he looked so adorable, and I knew he was going to be the best President this country has ever had when he did a happy dance at his victory party. Bruce Wayller, his opponent, even cracked a smile when he saw the dance and gracefully congratulated Zavier.
Even in his mid-30s, Zavier still looked young, refined, and handsome. Teenage girls actually called the United States President the hottest piece of ass out there. Because he was, and he was all mine.
Our kids, fraternal twins, looked just as beautiful as he does. We could tell that they each got at least two of our characteristics. Our son, Vans, was a cutie and Zavier got to name him. He liked unique names. So instead of Vance or something like it, he switched it to Vans, reminding him of the shoes he loved and still wore. I named my baby girl. I was always intrigued by the Eiffel tower and wished to someday see it up close. She gave me hope that I’d get to see it before I died, and I just loved her with all my heart.
Plus I wasn’t all that good with names, so that was the best I could do. That was the best we could both do. But we knew we could be the best parents out there.
To this day… I just love everything life has offered me. I no longer believe that only the bad in the world exist, even if it’s still there. I no longer call myself a bad person either. I am just me. And what I am, is a badass, tough, and awes
ome chick, madly in love with a nerdy yet sweet guy.
I am more than lucky.
Life does get good.
THE END
Can’t get enough of Evelyn and Zavier? Make sure to sign up for the author’s blog to get FREE copies of what happens next with our fave couple!
Sign up TODAY for freebies and updates!
karlaluna.net
Here’s a sample from a story you might enjoy:
One
If you have managed to claw your way to your last year of high school, I congratulate you. I really do. Not only is there the expectation that you have to provide a minimum number of hours per subject to study, but there are other expectations, too. Some of them are unspoken, like the fact that you’re supposed to have kissed someone by the time you finish high school, or at least have been in a relationship. Because even though it isn’t a written rule, the student body expects you to have completed it by the time you step up and take your graduation certificate. Other expectations are more vocal.
Like how you’re supposed to demonstrate a particular level of maturity because you’re suddenly given so much more freedom and opportunities. But when you’re seventeen and still have to have a teacher’s signature to go to the bathroom, it’s arguably difficult. When you have to have permission to wash your hands, how does society expect you to decide what you want to do with your life?
Maybe it’s the stress of graduating. Maybe it’s the inner child in all of us, demanding release. Maybe it’s all the expectations being thrown at us. Either way, the graduating students of Gregory High were definitely not acting like the mature and responsible individuals we were expected to be. “Would you rate his butt a seven or an eight?” Mel whispered.
Our school had been having huge career expositions for all graduating students, just to give us an idea of what our future options were. University professors and highly trained experts from various disciplines presented us with basic information on different courses. The lecture we were attending was hosted by the local police department. The two guys doing most of the talking looked like walking donuts, but at least they had brought along an undeniably fit rookie. “I don’t know,” I said as I squinted and leaned forward to get a clearer view. “His left butt cheek looks bigger than the right one.”
