When I'm In His Arms

Chapter 26 :)

"The only solution," Melissa said as she pulled the car up to the curb in front of her house, "is that we find someone ten times better than Louis and have him take you on a date."

"No," I said without hesitation. "I'm fine on my own."

"Well," she took the party supplies from the trunk and handed me a couple bags. "Yives might or might not have asked me out... and I might or might not have said yes... and possibly he could have brought up something about a double date with a friend who might or might not be named Marcus..."

"Um..." I laughed nervously. "You're joking, right?"

"Does it loook like I'm joking?" She raised an eyebrow and planted a hand on her hip in a stubborn stance.

My jaw dropped. "No," I said. "Take another friend, just not me!"

"Come on, it'll be fun. You need to open up your eyes to other fellas, hun. Broaden your horizon a little bit. Besides, Yives wants to make it up to you for being a complete jerk-o."

Deep down, I knew she was right. It had been almost a month and maybe holding on so long was dragging me down a trail of unescapabe insanity. I kept imagining a world with him, my own life in the midst of a fairytale. And maybe even those short couple days was a fairytale all together... but I still seemed to be anticipating some closure that would predictably never happen.

"Mel... what makes you think I'd benefit from this?" I questioned.

She smiled. "When my first boyfriend broke up with me, I was lost, Saby. I kept thinking things would work out, and someday, no matter how long in the future, he would somehow get back to me. Even when he had a new girlfriend I imagined him breaking up with her to be with me. But then it was two years, Saby. Two years since he left me. And I knew I had to move on."

She grabbed my hand. "Your first love is always the one you never want to let go of because you haven't ever seen what other amazing things life can throw at you. And then our first heartbreak always comes to us like a slap in our faces because of our ignorance that love can ever end. But to every end, there's always a new beginning."

I pondered this for a while. Of course she was right, I just didn't want to give in and show her that she was because Melissa loved to hear those words.

Finally, I rolled my eyes and said, "fine."

Melissa grinned. "I knew I was right."

I totally called it.

"What time?" I asked.

She checked her watch. "Well, it's six now, and they'll be here to pick us up at... seven."

I gaped at her. "You sure you're being serious?"

She gave me a curt nod. "Positive."

I sighed as I pulled the front door open. "Well, we better start getting ready like right now! I'm at least going to look good for this date."

Melissa squealed, almost breaking my eardrums, and dropped the groceries by the door. "Come on, you can browse through my dresser if you want."

She ran me to her room, which was on the main level of her house. "By the way, we're just going to a restaurant, so you don't want to overdress but you also want to look good."

I nodded in acknowledgment. She started throwing some cute pencil skirts at me and baggy, short-cut, T-shirts. I tried on a deep azure skirt with a thin material white shirt that had a grey rose diagonally across the front. It fit my shape well and I told Melissa that it was what I wanted. She agreed and handed me a pair if tights and knee-high boots ebcause it was supposed yo snow that night. I never had been really excited about snow, mainly because I wasn't ever excited about life in general. But this time, I was considerably happier and looking forward to a light white sweeping over New York.

"So, I'll just wear my leather jacket over this, I think."

"That would be perfect!" Melissa was rushing around collecting hairspray, curling wands, and Bobby pins, along with a gigantic trunk of makeup. She wore a high-waisted black mini skirt and a frilly flower blouse.

After my hair was halfway curled, Melissa came over and started playing with my curls.

"Gosh, I wish I had your hair, Saby."

I laughed. "Our hair is pretty much the same, Mel. I mean, I have natural highlights and my hair is more of a caramel color rather than milk chocolate, but otherwsie it's the same. Same length, same volume..."

"Yea, and I'd love to have highlights like that!"

I was about to say something when suddenly there was a knock coming from the front door. We exchanged horrified looks and then checked the clock.

It was 6:50, and both if us only had half heads if curls.

As it sunk in, Melissa ran to the bathroom across the hall and grabbed some hair ties.

"Here!" She threw a couple at me. "Just put it in a side pony tail, I'm wearing a bun!"

She scrambled towards the door and shouted, "JUST A MINUTE!"

Then she came back into the room and started mumbling about how rude it was to show up ten minutes early. We threw on our coats and stepped outside to a face-full of snow. The wind billowed around us, and we rushed to the car parked by the curb. Yives stood with the passenger door wide open. "What took you two so long?"

Melissa shot him a look. "You were ten minutes early!"

When Mmshe slid into the passenger seat, he shut the door and ran around to the driver's side.

When I reached the car, the back left door opened and I slid in beside another boy.

His eyes were the color of hot chocolate and his hair was as dark as night. He was clearly Italian, somewhat tan and very tall. He was maybe five feet and eleven or ten inches and completely dwarfed me, especially because of the large, chiseled muscle in his arms that his winter coat failed to hide. And he was extremely attractive, dropping my jaw and leaving my hazel eyes practically bulging from their sockets.

"Hi," he said. His voice was deep and gentle and his breath smelled like spearmint gum. "I'm Marcus," he said extending his large hands.

I let my hand slide into his and smiled, starstruck. "I'm Saby."

I made eye contact with Melissa in the mirror. She gave me a sly grin and raised her eyebrows up and down. I rolled my eyes and started a casual conversation with Marcus as the car started to pull away.

It felt good to talk to someone else, someone who looked like an Abercrombie model and actually seemed interested in what I had to say. Maybe moving on wasn't so bad.

But somehow, a part of me felt out of place, like something was missing from the center of my half beating heart. As this new guy started talking about his passion for playing guitar and singing, there was one thing I could think of while looking at his snow white smile...

That ardent smile that danced in Louis' cheeky expression when he spoke of the things that he loved. Suddenly, my mind was a warzone, my emotions jumping around like flames in a stove. My mood started swinging dangerously in a downward spiral. I couldn't tell if Marcus noticed my sudden change in expression, going from shocked, to ecstatic, to suddenly petrified, and I didn't want to because I didn't want him to know the real me before I even knew him.

But I was okay. This was good, this was my new beginning, and I was done losing.