Ric:This RP takes place on Wednesday 1st April 2015.
I roll over and the first thing I touch is a body. My head is pounding. I feel like someone curb stomped my skull in last night and can't think of why there's a body waking up next to me. I don't bring anyone dead or alive with me to my cave. It's an unwritten rule, really. I attempt to sit up, but as I do this, I lose my balance and find my back again on a pretty soft surface. I move both hands to my head to see what injuries I've sustained, but can't find a single one. Or at least, I can't feel any blood coming from anywhere. But this isn't the first time I've felt this way. I groan and roll to my side and let my eyes focus in the dark. It doesn't take long, since I am a night dweller, but something is very wrong. I see walls. Not a gravel surface. And the body is identified as Skylar's right away. I can tell. It smells like her. The hair length is the same as hers, and her frame is the same. My eyes move away from her, to what it is we are lying on and that's not hard to tell either. We're in a bed. The bed she bought. Our bed, I guess you could say. Since it's in our apartment, in our bedroom. I groan and roll over to the other side. Something isn't right. Is it the same night as last night? I push off the bed and sit up, grab my phone off the bed side table and that's when I notice it. Right after the phone lights up. A ring. On my left hand. On my ring finger. I don't move. I don't say anything. I just sit and stare at it. Then, I crane my neck, bring the phone over to her body and check her hands. ****. I nearly jump out of the bed, while yanking the damn thing off my finger, the phone lost somewhere in the bed.
Skylar:
I feel movement in the bed before I open my eyes. I should be alarmed as I always wake alone but then my mind isn’t exactly working just yet. So, first things first… open my eyes. With my eyes open I find I’m staring into the room; nothing new there. I sit up, stretch my arms and am about to swing my legs out of the bed when I realise there’s light in the room. But more than that, there’s someone in the room. Ric’s here. I scoop up his phone and blink as I look at the time.
“You made it home in record time. Am I late getting up?”
I don’t have a hangover. The alcohol is out of my system but parts of the night are fuzzy and others are completely blank. I don’t try thinking too much – not yet – it’s not all that important and Ric being here is a little distracting.
Ric:
"No." I say after shaking my head and hiding my hands behind my back. I hide this by walking a few steps back and leaning against the wall. "I woke up here." I say. "I don't know how it happened either. But my head is pounding again. Like after the Altaire thing. With Aliyah and Calix and all them." I close my eyes and count to ten, hoping that will help. I even take a breath in and fill my lungs. Anything to make me feel better. "Did I get in a fight last night?"
Skylar:
I stare at him when he says he woke up here. That’s new. He never wakes up at him. He told me he’d tried everything to stop that happening so I have no idea what’s up with that. Why now? And why does he have my hangover? Or my non-hangover? That makes no sense. Whatever.
“I dunno. But wow.”
I climb over and off the bed and run over to him. I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly before kissing him twice.
“This is good right? You waking up here. I mean… Maybe… It’s never happened before. Only now it has.”
I hug him again.
“Good mor- evening babe.”
I’m ignoring his symptoms and the fight question for a moment, because him waking up in our bed is huge. I kinda like it; though I’d of liked it more if he wasn’t already trying to get away from me.
Ric:
She hugs me and I can tell she's excited. Only, I'm not. Waking up in the same place for months on end and then not doing it doesn't make sense to me. "No." I say. "I don't know. Something isn't right." I say as my right hand goes to my head and massages my temple. "It would be good, if I knew how it happened and how I came to get this massive headache. I do not get headaches. Except that one time." I push off the wall and wobble. Just a little bit. I wouldn't fall, because Skylar has a hold of me, even if I was a little wobbly tonight.
Skylar:
“What do you mean no?”
I want to backhand him or elbow him or something but he’s kinda leaning on me for support.
“You sure you can’t get drunk? Cos this isn’t the first time you’ve basically complained of having a hangover. I mean. It sounds like one to me. Only it’s kinda funny. Cos you don’t drink. I do. And I don’t get them anymore. Not since I died. Not that I got them all that often before. But you know what I mean.”
I think about it for a moment and start to replay a few thing from the night before. I was out with the guys. Again. Only we were celebrating Ric and mine’s relationship. Five months is a long time for me, the longest yet in fact. Though it’s probably a bit weird celebrating something like that with friends and not the guy you’re dating. Russ said it’s a sign of me growing up or something. I think I punched him in the arm. Though that’s not important. Drinking. I drank. I got off my face and I called Ric? Did he pick me up or did he summon me? I don’t remember. But I do remember him biting me. I shiver with excitement as I remember that. Mmm.
“Ricky? You think you can get drunk by proxy? I mean you can’t drink or nothing but you do drink from me. My blood alcohol level has to be pretty high at times. Is that possible you think?”
I start running my right hand through my hair, combing it down cos I must look pretty ******* shocking. I still haven’t noticed the band on my left hand, though there is something trying to come through haze.
Ric:
I sigh. She's doing that girl thing again. "Fine it's good. But how did it happen? That's the problem. I tried everything." I remind her. "Something happened last night. Something that messed with the routine." I liked routine. Even if waking up in a cave wasn't the most thrilling thing ever. Routine made me comfortable. I see the ring on her hand, and she hasn't said anything about it. I slip my ring off and ball it up in my hands before stepping away from her. "By proxy?" Is that possible? I've never had a hangover before. Or, one that I was aware of. "I don't know." I say before going in my dresser drawer and pulling out a shirt. The ring falls in to the drawer, on the pile of shirts in the drawer.
Skylar:
He moves away from me and I’m left wondering why he’s not as thrilled about this as I am. He didn’t want to wake up in that place night after night, he told me as much when he said he’d tried everything not to wake up there.
I walk over to him and stand behind him, placing both hands on his shoulder before I kiss him between the shoulder blades. I pull my hands back and am about to run my hand up into his hair when I notice the band on my finger.
“Good question. What the **** happened last night?”
I pull away from him and rush over to the light switch. I flick the thing on and wince at the sudden brightness and then stare at the gold band on my left ring finger.
“What the **** is this?”
I’m asking him and my accusatory tone says as much as I hold my hand up for him to see and point to the ring.
Ric:
She's behind me and I stay at the dresser. I close my eyes as she kisses my skin, trying to think. I remember biting Skylar, like most nights. I remember leaving the apartment after that. I remember a building. I've seen it before in the city, but not really paid it any attention. And that's about it for now. I open my eyes as she asked what happened, in a tone. I hear it. She moves away and I turn to look at her and then shrug. I know what it is and so should she. Anyone does, really. How it got there though, I haven't the foggiest. "It looks like a ring." I say. There's no tone in my voice. I just say it as a matter of fact.
Skylar:
“No **** Sherlock!”
I’m yelling at him but I probably shouldn’t be. I mean for one, he’s got a headache and for two, if this is what I think it is… then I’m complicit in this whole thing.
I stare at the ring and force myself to focus. The memories are there. Maybe? Or parts of them at least. That’s when it hits me…
- We’re at the I do’s. Only I don’t say I do. I say.
“You ******* bet I do.”
I’m looking at him like one of those love struck brides I’ve never understood and I know I’m doing it because I can feel it. I’m happy. Like deliriously happy.
“Oh god… ****…”
I whisper, unable to tear my eyes away from the band that shouldn’t be there. A band that for some reason I hadn’t even tried to remove.
Ric:
"You asked." I say as a hand goes to my head, still keeping distance from her. This is her fault. Whatever this is. I told her we were never getting married. So somehow, this is her fault. I put on the shirt I grabbed from the dresser drawer. I take my time. I actually keep my head in the shirt longer than I need to. We're inside a building. At a desk? Office? No, it's like a window and a desk in one. And the person behind it, some lady is asking for cash. Two hundred bucks and our information. Personal information. They have our personal information. They have MY personal information. Because of her. My head pops through the head hole and I stare at her. No, I'm glaring at her. "Don't oh god, **** me. You did this." My left hand goes to rest on the back of my neck and it rubs at it.
Skylar:
I look up him from the floor. I had to sit down. I couldn’t trust my feet to be beneath me right now.
“Me?”
I’m clearly in shock. I can barely say the word let alone get angry at the accusation. I’d been happy to say I do. Me. Me! I was happy. And now here I was…
I look back down at the ring. How did it get there? I mean. I know why it’s there. I know technically how it got there, but how in the world did the topic of marriage come up? Why in the world would both willingly agree to this? Wait. Willingly. Had Ric done it willingly? Did I have a new power? **** that. Did he have a new power? Did I do it willingly?
I blink at the band. I can stare at it as much as I like and the damn thing is still there.
I try to recall the I do’s again. Clearly we’d both agreed. Did I give him a ring? Is he wearing a ring? Did he agree? What did he say? Why did I seem so ******* happy? Was I high? Did I smoke something dodgy?
I shake my head. Nope. Can’t blame this one of drugs. Drink maybe but not drugs. Drink and some really deeply buried desire to belong… to him. Why to him? I look up at Ric and all I want to do is cry.
Ric:
She's shaking her head. She doesn't agree that it's her fault. But I know it is. "I said we weren't getting married." I now sound like I'm accusing her. Because I am. I told her from the get go, or, well, after Nix said she was marrying Blake. And I told her why. I damn well told her why and they were damn well good ones. "We can undo this, right? If we were both drunk. Or whatever." I think we could undo it. The ink to any and all signatures couldn't even be dry yet. "We could break in and undo it." That's an even better choice. Less people to deal with. Because I hate people.
Skylar:
I listen to what he says but none of it sinks in. Another memory surfaces and I see myself putting a ring on his finger. Only he’s not wearing it now. I focus on his left hand. I know I put a ring there. I’ll be fucked if I know where the thing came from but it was there. Or it had been there.
“Where’s your ring?”
It’s a stupid question to ask, only it’s not; I want to know. No. I need to know. Why have I woken up with a ring and he hasn’t.
Ric:
I look down at my hand and then shrug. "Maybe it got lost. Or you married someone else." I say as I move away from the dresser. I'm half naked, but I don't think it matters anymore. The getting dressed part. "I can't even remember what happened last night and you expect me to remember where a ring is?" I keep rubbing at the back of my neck, trying to ease the headache I feel and the tension in my neck.
Skylar:
“I gave you a ******* ring.”
I glare at him, returning a look he was likely familiar with since he wore it so often himself.
“My memory may be swiss cheese right now but you agreed to marry me and took the ring I gave you. Just like I agreed and took the ring you gave me.”
I hold up my hand again for emphasis.
“And **** me if I didn’t seem happy with all of this at the time. I didn’t even say I do like a normal ******* person. No. What did I say? I said; you ******* bet I do.”
I lower my hand into my lap but keep my eyes fixed on him. If he’s lying to me I want to know and I half fancy that I might be able to feel it. If I’m lucky.
Ric:
I keep rubbing at the back of my neck as she says these things, because I know it's true. "I was drunk. Apparently." I remind her thinking harder about the night before. Then I remembered. I stabbed some guy for the rings. I offered him cash, he told me to piss off, so I stabbed them and took them. And then we paid the two hundred dollars. Or I did. A lesson learned. Never carry that much cash on me again. But I probably would have stabbed someone else for that two hundred dollars. "You gave me a ring and I gave you one. But we were both drunk. Both. Alcohol makes people do stupid things."
Skylar:
“So where’s your ring?”
I can’t figure out why he keeps rubbing his neck and cant my head slightly to the side. Is that a nervous gesture? Something to do with his headache? And more importantly… Why the **** do I care? I mean, look at what’s going on here.
“Alcohol makes people do silly things. Yeah. I’ll give you that. But it sure as **** doesn’t make you lie. If I said I do. I ******* meant it. Just because I don’t think I could say it right now doesn’t mean ****. Commitment scares the **** out of me.”
I don’t think I’ve admitted that to him before, so unless he’s been reading my diary, this is probably news to him. He probably thinks I’m like every other ******* woman on the planet and that this was all some big manipulative act on my part. It’s not. But he doesn’t know that.
“And yet I’m still wearing the mystery band.”
I want to ask where it’s come from but it’s probably not the right time for that question right now.
“So I’m gonna ask you again Ricky. Where the **** is your ring? Why aren’t you wearing it?”
Ric:
Skylar is being, well, Skylar. But she's a woman and it's expected. I groan and then move back to the dresser. "Right here." I open the drawer and pull it out, showing her it." I don't say why I'm not wearing it, because she'll do what Skylar does best and freak out at me. I know she can't help it since it's in her genetic make-up, but I don't like it. "It's not a mystery. The band. I gave it to you. We apparently got married. Mystery solved."
Skylar:
“Urgh. I meant where the **** did we get rings from in the first place. I mean it’s not like we planned this. Did we? Did you plan this?”
The moment I say the words I know I’m being ridiculous. There’s no way he planned this, and I certainly didn’t. So where did we get the rings? I’m staring at the band again and then I look back to him.
“How’d it get in the drawer Ricky? And if you say you put it there, so help me god I’ll find a way to ******* end you. Why was your ring in that drawer?”
I point to the rings ‘resting’ location, because a drawer wasn’t a place for it. Drawers were for hiding things. So who was he hiding it from? Him or me?
Ric:
I look at her and shake my head. "You know my stance on marriage. No. I did not plan this. It is almost a ninety-nine percent guarantee that this was not my doing." I assure her, before putting the ring on the top of the dresser. I'm not wearing that thing. "The rings came from a couple. We offered to pay them money for it." I don't add in that I stabbed the guy for them. I wonder if he's dead. Did I stab the woman? I doubt it. Most women will go to the aid of the male once stabbed or run away. She must have done one of those and left us alone. "I put it in there." I say, even at her threat. I doubt she will 'end me.' She doesn't even use any weapons. Or barely does. "It was in there because I put it in there. Because you tricked me in to this. That's the logical explanation. With your crazy ideas about marriage and dressing up dolls and bears and stuff. This was all you." I say flatly.
Skylar:
“What the **** are you talking about?”
I push myself up from the floor, finally finding the strength to stand on my feet again.
“What dolls and bears? And I was with you on the whole ‘we’re never getting married thing.’ I was? ****. Past tense. Why is that past tense?”
My thoughts spill out of my mouth as my filter apparently goes on holiday or something. Not that it was a particularly hard working entity in the first place.
Ric:
I realize my mistake too little too late. But can't take it back now. "The pink and brown one you married off." I say it as if I was there. As if she invited me to the teddy wedding event when she was a kid. "Because we are married. You can't speak past tense when it's past. When you changed your mind and made us get married. It's illogical." I move away from the dresser. "So we doing this? Getting the paper work and ripping it up, throwing it away, burning it, or whatever people do?" I ask because I need to know how I should dress for the night and figure out a course of action.
Skylar:
“I… When… How the **** do you… I never told you…”
I can’t think straight. I know I talk a lot - even more if I’m drunk - but I barely even remember that. Why would I ever tell him about me playing pretend as a child? And when exactly did I lose my passion for marriage? Apparently I did in fact have it once; like most kids do.
“And no. Because that’s stupid. You don’t B&E to get out of a marriage. You get an annulment. And I’m still coming to terms with the I do’s being said. I can’t even begin to think about erasing the whole event. Cos quite ******* clearly, we both agree to this. Drunk or not.”
Ric:
Annulment. I'm okay with this. Skylar should be too since she's anti-marriage. I groan and move back to the dresser to get some boxers on. I stare at the ring. Long and hard. I glare at the damn thing. I hate it. I hate the idea of marriage. I hate being part of a statistic, no matter what side it is. The good fifty percent or the bad. As I'm glaring at the band, I begin to remember more about the night. The woman was asking for witnesses. I offered some random strangers some cash to be those witnesses. A lot of cash. Yep. Never, ever, carrying cash on me again. I make a mental note of this. There is a guy reading something. A judge. He's reading what he's supposed to for a marriage ceremony. Why aren't I leaving? Why are we both not leaving? Why am I stabbing people and shelling out cash like it's nothing? How drunk was I? How drunk was she? I look back at her and sigh. "I can't remember it all, but I'm thirsty. Maybe that will help." I don't tell her what I've learned in the last few months about seeing parts of her past this way. If I did, she wouldn't let me, I'm sure.
Skylar:
“I haven’t eaten yet either Ricky. Way to think with your stomach.”
My anger subsides slightly and I quickly realise why; my damn treacherous body. I’m practically lusting for the guy just at the thought of him sinking his fangs into me.
“Fine whatever.”
I pull my hair back from my neck and as I do another memory comes forward.
- I’m standing before the guy reciting my vows. My vows! Not that ‘till death do you part crap’ cos that ship already sailed and I don’t fancy Ricky using as some sort of loophole.
“I promise to keep pushing at your boundaries till you admit you ******* love me, and until you actually enjoy having sex with me. No wait. More than that, until you actually want to have sex with me without me asking for it. Or you using it as some sort of weapon to shut me up. Because I know you ******* do that Ricky.”
I poke him in the chest.
“Oh and I can promise to do all kinds of kinky **** once you’re comfortable with the whole sex thing. Oh and love you of course. Okay. I think I’m done… Maybe… oh no. I promise to stick around and look after you and stuff, if you do the same for me. Oh and I’ll tell you stuff. Like anything and everything you need to know. No lies or secrets or anything. And now I’m… Nope. No I’m not. I kinda like that you’re an arsehole, so don’t go changing too much. I like my guys with a bit of bite.”
I start sniggering because that last part is funny to me. I’d promise to let him bite me daily but that’s probably not an option in this place. People might look at us strange. Or stranger. I probably should have sounded my vows out in the toilets beforehand or something.
When she gives me the okay, I don't think twice about it. I'm at her side, sinking my fangs in to her neck. As I drink the first memory I get is one I've seen before. One with her brother and some guy that broke her heart. I pull back, interrupting that memory and try again for another one. Hopefully, the right one. The scene starts to play out and I see it from her eyes. Even if she doesn't remember it. It's buried in there. We meet up after she's hanging out with the guys. And she's drunk again. Nothing new there. I feed from her when we're back at the apartment and not long after that, we both start talking stupid. That part is a bit fuzzy, but we're on our feet and off. Tearing across the city to the town hall. Where we meet the judge and when we are asked about the rings, I come up with the brilliant idea to get them by any means possible. I want to get the rings. I had to get the rings. I wanted to get married. Skylar was right. I back away from her and swallow down the rest of her blood.
Skylar:
He’s backing away from me like I just spooked him. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. At least nothing I can think of.
“What’s wrong? My blood taste funky?”
I turn to look at him. Again I’m wondering why I care. I mean besides the obvious. Weren’t we arguing? He wants to go burn down city hall or something to erase what we did. It’s hardly the nicest thing he could do. I mean sure. It’s like waking up in bed with a hippo of a woman on your arm and wanting to chew your own arm off. It would work, but it’s not exactly the ideal solution for either party. I want to know what happened before he ******* pisses all over it.
“You hoping you might get buzzed again so you can understand your own reasoning? Cos marriage, like a lot of couple activities kinda takes two Ricky.”
