"Where the hell are we?"
"Shut up."
...Silence…
"I think we're going in circles."
"What did I just tell you? Shut. Up."
Another brief silence.
"I've seen that tree before--we are going in circles!"
"Marti, we're in the middle of the fucking forest. All the trees look the same."
"But I swear I--"
"Will you quit your whining already?" Rustan snapped. He was seriously beginning to regret taking Marti along with him. She was such a girl
Another moment of silence ensued. Thirty-five seconds passed (Rustan was actually counting in his head) before Marti spoke up again.
"Stop walking so fast, you're way ahead of me," she whined. "And my feet hurt."
Rustan could imagine the pout forming on her face and he rolled his eyes.
"Well do you have to be wearing heels?" he called over his shoulder, still not stopping to wait for her.
"Yes." What? Heels were sexy.
He growled in frustration as she went on and on with her rambling. No more than ten minutes later he decided he had had enough.
"Fine!" he shouted in defeat, coming to an abrupt halt. Apparent Marti hadn't been very far behind him, because she stumbled into his back.
"What?" she asked in confusion, rubbing her nose which had hit Rustan squarely between the shoulder blades.
"We'll stop here and rest," he grumbled, acting as though he was giving in to the demon's complaints. In all honesty he actually had no clue where they were, but he would never admit that to the brat.
"Yay," she cheered happily, and abruptly flopped on the ground and proceeded with massaging her perfectly manicured feet.
He sauntered off, going as far as he could go without letting Marti out of his sight--but unfortunately the forest was thick, and he couldn't go more than ten yards. He let out a long sigh and then sat on the ground himself, leaning up against the smooth trunk of a white birch tree. Glaring straight ahead, he watched as Marti tended to her sore heels.
A long moment of silence passed between the two. He felt relieved that Marti had shut up for such a long time, and he considered this to be a comfortable silence; Marti, however, didn't. After a while she saw her fidgeting, looking as though she wanted to find something to say. The damned girl couldn't relax without having to blab about something, could she?
"So..." she said slowly. Rustan enjoyed watching her struggle with her words and he did nothing to help the conversation.
"What made you decide to leave and find Chase?" she asked. He decided he didn't want to answer the question and continued to glare, which made her even more uncomfortable. He found it funny that he could make her feel awkward so easily, and he started laughing (on the inside).
And then suddenly a thought struck him; and before he could clamp his mouth shut, curiosity got the best of him.
"What made you leave?" he blurted out. Damn it, he just started a conversation.
Much to his surprise, however, she didn't immediately start chatting away. It seemed as though she was more uncomfortable than before and she was clearly hesitating; he thus became even more interested and waited patiently for her to reply.
"It's similar to the same reason as you, only it's the opposite," she explained slowly, biting her bottom lip. "You fell in love, but I fell out of love."
Rustan inevitably snarled in repulsion at the mention of the L word, but she took no note of it.
"It was Lawrence..." she continued.
He couldn't help but let out an exasperated groan. "Is that seriously your reason?" he asked in a mocking tone. "Because your little girl feelings got hurt? I didn't even know that it was possible for demons to have feelings."
"We do too," she snapped back, her tone suddenly going from sorrowful to angry. Rustan heard her mumble something incoherent about him being a jackass.
Unfortunately he's the kind of person that if you insult him, he'll insult you in return.
"My mistake," he sarcastically apologized. "What I meant to say was I didn't think that it was possible for a demon slu--"
He was interrupted as a rock (read: boulder) smashed into his face. He let out a yell in pain and then glared at Marti, who was obviously the one that threw it at him. She merely returned his glare and folded her arms across her chest, tapping her foot as if she was waiting for an apology. But instead of doing what she wanted, Rustan put two fingers up to the bridge of his broken nose and cracked it back into place, wincing from the pain; but other than that he remained quiet.
After a few moments of exchanging death glares, Marti finally realized that he was not going to say sorry (if she knew him at all, she would have known that already). She spoke up first:
"You don't have to take your bitterness out on me," she said coldly, her blue-gray eyes turning to a silver shade similar to Lawrence's. "It's not like it's my fault you made so many mistakes."
He let out a low growl, but neither confirmed nor denied that she was right.
"And I'm not a slut," she continued. "I am a succubus."
"Same thing," he muttered.
"No it's not," she said stubbornly. "I was born a succubus; it's not like I can help it."
Rustan fell into silence. Marti saw that he was no longer staring at her hatefully, and she took this as a sign to continue.
"Everything for me is always so...shallow. There have been so many men - even women try, sometimes - that just wanted me for sex. I won't lie, my whole existence practically revolves around sex and...well, yeah. Sex. But I can't prevent that. It's not fair."
There was a minute where neither of them spoke.
"And you're blaming Lawrence for this?" Rustan asked after a while. "For everyone else that's treated you like shi - er, poorly?" In the back of his mind he made a note not to mock her in a situation like this; she was being personal right now, and she could easily be angered. He knew how angry girls could get (example: Chase).
"No," she huffed. "I try not to hold grudges. I'm just blaming him for what he did - which was basically the same as everyone else. He got bored and well, that was that. He's just here for the power; nothing else."
Rustan just made a sound that seemed like it could be taken for understanding; he really didn't know what to say at the moment.
"I'm not disposable," she muttered after a moment, and began tearing the grass on the ground in front of her. She had said it so quietly Rustan was almost unable to hear it, and he got the impression that she was talking more to herself now.
"All that sex and virginity crap is overrated. And that 'special first time.' Bullshit. It's all just natural...and people still consider me to be such a terrible person. Whore, tramp...Hmph. I might be a demon, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a soul. Assholes..."
She continued to mutter to herself, trying to sooth her anger. Rustan decided it was time he zoned out on what she was saying. She had brought up that 'soul' business again; he didn't even want to begin pondering whether he had one of his own or not. He knew that thinking about that would only lead to thoughts about Chase, and he didn't feel like dealing with -
Chase.
Her name raced through his head at the same exact moment he picked up a peculiar scent in the air. He was startled that he hadn't noticed it before, and at the same time scared that he was imagining it. He stood up abruptly and sniffed the air again. There it was; it was so strong now it seemed like she was standing right next to him.
"There wouldn't happen to be any vanilla orchids in this forest, would there?"
"In Vermont?" Marti asked incredulously (they had passed several state boarders by running so quickly overnight). "Uh, no."
He smirked. Marti looked at him curiously; she hadn't seen him smirk like that since...Chase left.
"That's her scent then," he said, sounding almost happy. "We've almost found her."
N O T E
Rule #20: Never eat a popsicle when you're around your guy friends. They will tease you mercilessly.
If you don’t get this, then you are clearly not perverted enough for us to be friends.
If this happens to you (and your friends are also easting popsicles), then all you have to say is: "If you make fun of me one more time, I'll bite your popsicle."
Trust me. They'll shut up.
