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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:06:58 GMT -6
"Then lead the way." He held a hand out, gesturing for Sevyrn to take the lead. With that the pair started to venture off side by side, and the entire time Sev was filled with a deep need to just reach out and take his hand in her own. Was that wrong? Despite the carefree and almost flirtatious air of their afternoon, she questioned it. What if he was simply being pleasant to her, a familiar face that he used to lay eyes on every week?
Logic said otherwise. Logic said that had that been the case he simply would have said hello and gone about his day, not bought her something to drink and sacrificed the rest of his day for her.
Was it worth the risk? Was the fleeting chance of this going somewhere worth the risk thst came with it? Sevyrn felt confident that it was. Something held her back, though.
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:07:31 GMT -6
The urge was undeniable, and it was half way to her house that Sevyrn finally stopped denying it - in a sudden movement she had tucked her body in close to Ryden's and took his hand in hers, a tentative touch that she was prepared to break in a moment's time. Her heart fluttered within her chest, a combination of fear and butterflies that only quelled when he looked towards the unexpected touch and a soft smile formed on his lips before he squeezed her hand and held on tighter. There was nothing that needed to be said - the small gesture seemed to say everything that both people were thinking.
They spent the rest of the walk like that - side by side, hand in hand. They didn't need anything else. Eventually, however, the finally turned the corner on to Sevyrn's street, and her home was only a few houses away.
She didn't want him to leave, but there was no way that she could ask him to stay and not give him the wrong impression. Should she at least kiss him? Would he kiss her?
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:08:34 GMT -6
"Well… this is me," she said as they made their way in front of her quaint little one-bedroom home, front yard brilliantly lit up by the bright colors of summer flowers. He looked towards the door and then back to her. He looked like he was going to kiss her.
Their gaze met, soft and sweet, and Ryden ran his free hand through her short hair. Sevyrn swore that he was going to lean in and kiss her, yet he remained still. The sweet touch pulled at her heart, though she ached for something more.
"I don't have any classes over the weekend," he said suddenly, pulling Sevyrn's attention back to reality. That was a strange sentence to open a conversation with - where was he headed? The young woman waited to see, hoping it was going somewhere positive. "If you want, I'd like to see you again. Maybe we could meet up on Saturday at the cafe again, around noon?"
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:08:57 GMT -6
"Yeah." Sevyrn's lips pressed together, turned up in to a soft smile. It seemed that fate had turned in her direction after all. Planning - that made it a date, right? "Yeah, I'd really like that Ryden."
He pressed his lips to the skin of her forehead and gave her hand another squeeze before bidding her farewell. "Then I'm really looking forward to it," he returned, and she found it hard not to pull him in. "I'll see you in a few days, Sevyrn."
He stayed until she got inside before walking away, turning back in the direction that they came from to head back to his own home. Ot seemed that he had detoured entirely just to ensure that she had arrived home safely rather than walking home alone in the night. Sevyrn glanced back to the road before closing the door, watching Ryden for a moment as he walked away.
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:09:14 GMT -6
What a twist of fate - not in a million years could she have planned for a day such as today, though she would be lying if she were to claim such a thing hadn't played over and over again in her daydreams since the day she had first laid eyes on him. Her luck seemed to be turning around, it seemed.
Sevyrn closed the door behind her and made her way straight in to the back yard, where she crouched down in front of her happy little nyssafaux. "You know the cutie from painting class I was telling you about Al?" She asked the little creature, who cocked her pink and white head towards the excited girl in front of her. "Guess who has a date this weekend?"
She did - the answer was that she did, or at least she thought that she did. Sevyrn prayed that she hadn't made the wrong assumption.
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:25:26 GMT -6
Three Days Later He sat for almost an hour in that little cafeteria come Saturday afternoon, slowly sipping at a coffee. At first he thought she might have been coming late, but with time the strange feeling that Sevyrn was not going to show up settled in… That didn't make sense at all - she had seemed interested up until the moment that they had last parted. Why would she bail on him now? Ryden had a bad feeling. Would it hurt to go check on her? Would it be weird for him to? Probably? He walked out of the cafe and down the road anyways, only pausing once he reached Sevyrn's street to decide if this was really something that he wanted to be doing. Her not showing up could have been the words she had been afraid of saying to his face. But he just deeply felt like something was wrong, and he couldn't explain why. 21
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Post by Sevyrn on Oct 10, 2020 2:25:47 GMT -6
Sevyrn hadn't expected anyone to be knocking at her door - but as soon as it happened, she had assumed that it was her friend Quinn. If she had known who was on the other side she likely would not have answered - not because she didn't want to see him, but because she didn't want him to see her like this.
She was a mess as she pulled the door open, tear stains rubbing the flesh of her cheeks red and raw and with bags under her eyes so deep that she looked like she hadn't slept since they had parted last. She was a walking disaster compared to the last time that he had seen her.
As soon as Sevyrn laid eyes on Ryden, she burst in to tears once more and the man on the other side was left nothing more than confused. What exactly had he walked in to? She was obviously having some kind of moment…
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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 11, 2021 9:29:20 GMT -6
“I’m sorry,” the twenty year old choked out, surprised that Ryden still even stood there. Anyone else would have left – turned away and never come back. Anyone else wouldn’t have even showed up at her door, especially not over a first date – they would have simply assumed they’d been ghosted and taken that for that. Some people were that kind of way, after all.
She wasn’t, though. She wasn’t that kind of person and he seemed to know that even though he barely knew her at all and Sevyrn wanted to both hug him and send him back home at the same time. She sure as fuck hadn’t expected him to show up at her door, looking all concerned and almost pitying but in a gentle way... she hadn’t expected anything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours in general, actually.
“What’s going on, are you okay?” Physically yes, she was okay, but mentally she was more broken than she had ever felt before.
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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 11, 2021 9:29:34 GMT -6
That simple question was all that she needed in order to break down – and any other man would have been scared away by some girl he barely knew collapsing on to his chest in tears after standing up their first date but when Sevyrn’s head hit his chest and her arms wrapped tight around him, Ryden could feel the way that her body shook in his arms and everything told him to hold on to her in return.
“Hey,” he whispered, holding the back of her head in the palm of his hand to cradle her close. “Everything’s going to be alright, Sev. What happened?”
“My dad died.” Sevyrn struggled to even choke the words out when she tried to respond, and she wasn’t even sure if he would understand what she was trying to say. Ryden understood what she had choked out, though, and he hoped that he’d made the right choice in showing up.
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Post by Sevyrn on Feb 11, 2021 9:29:49 GMT -6
There was a strange intimacy in seeing someone vulnerable like this – she was young, this was probably the first time that she’d lost someone in her life. She probably had no idea what to expect of her own feelings both now and in the difficult time that would come. Was she close with her dad? Ryden realized that he knew absolutely nothing about her personal life, had no way to put any kind of assurance together...
But as much as he liked to pretend that he wouldn’t be hurt if he got the news that his own father had passed, part of him would still be broken by the news, the fact that there would never be any reconciliation – and he didn’t even like the man.
He’d leave it up to her, what she wanted. He could stay and offer her comfort, or he could leave. She would know best what she wanted, and this was a situation worth rescheduling a date.
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