Chapter 6 - Keep friends close

~ Raph ~

As soon as he went to one knee and took Luna's hand in his, he knew it was wrong. His lips were still burning from the wonderful kiss he had shared, and he was feeling that a nightmare was about to start. The moment was so important, he could see from the corner of his eye that everybody just stopped whatever they were doing to admire them. That was something very damn special, but not for him. For a brief moment, he captured the image of a purple dress disappearing from the doors, and he knew that Selene had gone out. All his being was screaming to move his ass after her, and only with a really strong will, he remained in place, but he felt a little sweat running down his back. He moved back at Luna and saw that her smile was made of ice. She knew something was off. Her eyes were throwing arrows of fire toward him, but she was considering herself too much of a lady to cause a scene. She pushed her finger into the ring that he was holding between his fingers.

That was the moment when, in the ballroom heard a wave of applause was heard. It was what people wanted, and they obliged.

Soon after, they retreated into a chamber not far because Luna asked him to. The moment he closed the door, he heard her venom voice:

" I never thought you would like to mingle with the peasants. Not at my engagement party, anyway," said Luna with rage.

Raph knew exactly what she meant, and oddly, he felt nothing for her, but for the girl that he attracted in the garden and stole a kiss. What he was saying... that was so much more than just a simple kiss.

He was saying nothing, making Luna want to slap him very hard, and to the little slut that was the confusion that she could put her little dirty hands on the Alpha would have ripped her hair off.

Raph turned with his back to her, making her clench her fist and yell at him,

" If you go out that door, I will make sure she will regret the day she set her eyes on you!"

He turned slowly at her, with a mocking smile on his face,

" I want to see how you try to do that," he answered.

She was preparing an answer to that mock when the door opened and a bodyguard approached Raph's ear, whispering. They both remained still for a few seconds. She because nobody before entered inside a room without knocking, the staff, and Raph because of the things the bodyguard was saying in his ear. She could see how he turned livid and exited in front of the bodyguard. The man was apologizing with his eyes before he closed the door in a total rush.

Luna turned and went to the window, where she had a splendid view over the town behind them after the garden ended. She clenched her fists in such anger that she felt drops of blood running down the carpet. The only thing she could think of, and not feeling the pain, was that she could not allow that little human bastard, who didn't even know who her real parents were, to ruin what she had managed to build for years now. She was coming to an end, and she will have her trophy. Even if that would mean that she needs to step on dead bodies...

~ Selene ~

" I am telling you, I should never have gone to that party. I have never experienced so many emotions in only one night!" Selene said, sighting.

Her best friend Tamy was all ears and eyes at what Selene was telling what had happened the night before, and now that she had finished, she was even more amazed. She cleared her throat before she started to speak,

" That was it? You left the things just like that?"

Selene looked at her in disbelief. She raised her beautifully curved eyebrow before she answered,

" In your opinion, I should have chosen one and run with him? Or maybe with both of them?"

The big smile on Tamy's face confirmed to Selene that she had something like this in her mind.

" Don't smile like that, Tamy. One is a total stranger and the other one... Well, also a stranger"

Tamy threw a pillow at her dear friend while asking, and making her laugh,

"And none of these strangers impressed you so much that you would have wanted to run with him, somewhere, only two of you?"

Selene felt a blush over her cheeks because images of the two 'strangers' started to contour in her mind. She moved a bit, annoyed by the reaction she had only to some thoughts, and annoyed at her friend, who was doing her best to annoy her.

" Seriously, Tam, I thought you missed me, and you keep on and on about my strange encounter from last night."

Tamy was serving a small sandwich with tuna and pickles, Selen's mom's specialty, and answered only after she put the sandwich in her mouth and licked her fingers.

" Honestly, my dear, what you have told me beats the fact that you left me for four years now. This is so juicy that I just want to tell it in the four winds."

Selene jumped to her feet from the window where she was sitting when she heard Tamy.

"You can't!" she pointed with her finger at her. "You need to swear that you won't!"

Tamy laughed at her,

"Calm down, I won't... but you can't say you would watch satisfied Luna's face if she were to hear something like this."

Selene remained with her mouth open at her friend.

" You know she is a vengeful little bitch, who knows what she would do to my family if she finds out something like this? I am not afraid for myself, but for my parents. What if she decides to take them out of the community because of the stupid thing I did?"

The genuine concern on Selene's face took away all the smiles on Tamy's face. She approached her friend, trying to console her.

"She won't. And as far as there were no eyewitnesses, you did nothing wrong..."

Selene started biting her lips and looking into Tamy's eyes while answering.

" As far as I know, she might have already found out. "

Both of them remained silent next to one another. And both of them were remembering back flashes from when they were in high school, and Luna would pick them up constantly. It was a time when they had lost their confidence in themselves, and they had no other friends than themselves.

Tamy broke the first one during the moment of silence that they were having.

"I never recovered, she said in silence. She broke all my confidence back then. I recovered, but not totally. When someone treats you the way she did, you are lucky if you recover. And you left too..."

Selene was having tears in her eyes, but she grabbed her friend into a warm hug before she could see how much she was still.

" Selene started talking with Tamy in her arms after she cleared her voice,

" I had to, Tam, you know that I asked you to come with us."

Tam moved away from the hug and placed her hands around herself, looking away through the window,

" You know I would have come, but who would have remained back to take care of my mother? There were days when I wanted to kill myself because when I would go to town to buy anything, I was a total mockery for the colleagues who knew me from school and knew how Luna was treating us. But my mom was more important and I got through..."

Tamy's mom was sick for years. She was ill with an unknown disease, and no doctor could have told her what was wrong with her, but it took away all the childhood and teenage years from her daughter because she needed assistance and care. She wasn't able to get up from the bed without assistance. She had no power in her hands and legs, and she was carried around with a wheelchair by her daughter.

Selene felt the tears pushing more and more, and her eyes were burning. She was feeling so bad for her dear friend.

" If I had known..." she whispered.

Tam turned back to her, now with a smile on her face.

" You would have returned and stayed with me in the community even though you know that most of them don't stand you? No, I wouldn't have accepted that," she approached Selene and took her hands. " You bloomed away from here. It would have been such a stupid thing to do on my part. To ask you to come back. No. But now you are here..." she ended with a smile.

Selene felt like she had just received a punch in her stomach. But she owed the truth to her best friend.

" Actually," she started, " I am not gonna stay too long. I just came to visit my parents and you, and we return to Los Angeles." She stopped when she saw the glimpse of pain in her friend's eyes. A glimpse that disappeared as fast as it appeared.

" With Nick?" she asked with a faded voice.

Selene could only nod her head yes. She knew the feeling Tam had for Nick, and she thought that maybe over the years it had stopped. She might have been wrong about this. She decided just to ask her before jumping to conclusions.

" You're still in love with Nick?" she just asked

Tam widened her eyes, looking a bit lost.

Selene wanted to bite her tongue at that moment. She realized that it was a bad thing to say, and she probably had hurt her friend. It was her time to grab her friend's hand to comfort her.

" I am sorry. It was a stupid thing to say on my part. Please forgive me."

Tam squeezed her hands softly, answering her,

"There is no reason to apologize because it is not like you said something untrue. I do love him still, but I pushed somewhere back in my heart, this love, not to think about it, only from time to time when I feel that my world will collapse and I need to have something beautiful in my life. Then I leave myself flooded by that love, and I think, what if?"

Selene was speechless. She did not know what to think exactly. The fact that her friend's life was so miserable that she would find satisfaction in thinking about a love that seemed impossible because Nick was madly in love with Luna, or the fact that she was still loving him after all these years.

She could not think any longer about that because a small knock was heard at the door, and her agitated mother entered the room so nervously that she was biting her lips.

She started to speak fast, another sign of her nervousness,

" So sorry to disturb you girls, I know you haven't talked in ages, but I need you to come with me, Selene."

Selene was a little panicked about her mother's behavior, so she asked,

" Are you ok, mom?"

She nodded her head before she replied and held out her hand for Selene. 

" It is quite urgent, my dear, let's go."

" Mom," she replied, " You scare me..."

"Don't be silly, dear," her mother replied with a nervous laugh, " let's go."

Selene looked back at Tam, but she was as confused as her. 

Too amazed to say something more, she followed her mother out of the room, not before she asked Tam to apologize to her.

"What is happening, Mom?"

Her mother turned back at her with a radiant smile on her face as she stopped in front of the living room.

" Please enter," she said, " You have a guest."

Selene was with her mouth open, but she stepped inside the room.

"You!" she whispered, while her heart skipped a beat.