Unsteady

Four

"This museum is huge!" Adaline says gapping at the stone building. Her eyes sparkle with excitement as she takes in the sight; the stone pillars were cracked with age, the letters were carved into the stone, the big entrance that stood in front of them open with welcome for all to see its just as gorgeous interior. Evan turned to her with a proud grin on his lips, proud that he thought of bringing her with him to this amazing place, and proud that she could look so excited in a different place with him with that adorable gleam in her eyes that signified her happiness. "Yeah, I know right? They say its about one hundred and forty- two feet."

"Wow."

"Yeah! Ready to go inside?" He asks reaching out his hand to her and she gladly takes it.

The inside was just as they had thought. It was prettier than what they had ever seen in their entire lives. The stone walls were the color of bronze, elegant trims line almost every section of the very top of each wall, patterns of circles and squares contrasting with one another adorn the ravishing marble floors before them, grand doorways surround them, and the dome ceiling over their heads is the color of sand with a small cranny in the center leaves Adaline speechless. "Hey Addie, check this out." Evan was in the other room looking at a statue. Maisy rolls her eyes and quietly follows after Adaline into the next room. "Turns out Zeus' Roman name was Jupiter... pretty neat, huh?"

"Yeah, you didn't know that?" She asks.

"No, all we did was breeze through our mythology and ancient Greece and Roman lesson, didn't really teach me much." Adaline laughs at his little joke and turns away to get a better look at the statue. "It's pretty interesting right?" She turns around to another female voice behind her. She was a petite red-head with hazel eyes. She was a few inches shorter than Adaline, but she was definitely pretty. She was never one to get jealous but she suddenly had a small disliking to the small girl from the way she was watching Evan as he admired the other statues. "I'm Cato. Yes, I know it's a male name from Roman times but my mother really liked the name." She extends her hand out to the both of them. "Evan."

"Adaline."

"Good, good, nice to meet you two. Would you like for me to show you around more?" She smiles politely at Evan. Maisy chuckles from her place on the wall and pushes herself up. "You better do something. I'm pretty sure if you don't Evan will leave you for her." She whispers. She twirls Adaline's hair between her fingers as she watched Cato chat with Evan. "Go ahead, join in." Maisy pushes her forward. She accidentally stumbles into Evan and he grabs her arms to steady her. "You okay? Do we need to leave?"

"No, no I'm okay. I just... lost my balance." Evan nods, looks into her eyes a few seconds longer before turning back to Cato. "I think we'd like that tour now." He laughs and she nods at them. "Of course, right this way."

Cato leads them farther into the right side of the building. Explaining and pointing at the statues and artifacts that they pass along the way. "Where are you from?" She asks them. Adaline slides her hand quietly into Evan's and he smiles down at her. "We're from Virginia."

"That must be in America. Correct?" The two of them smile at her and she stops walking to explain the statue. "This statue is an example of one of the roman citizens. Their clothes were basic for the most part. Usually the two types of clothes that were worn were tunics and togas." Evan raises his hand as a polite way of asking a question. "Was this the standard dress for them?" He asks. Cato nods at him. "Yes! This was typically worn by slaves and non- citizens all the time and worn by the romans during their leisure time in the comfort of their own homes." She looks at the two of them as if asking if there were anymore questions before she moved on; they said nothing and she escorted them to a stone artifact. "This one is pretty strange and disturbing in my opinion but you may find it interesting. So we all know how Christians use bread and red wine as a symbolic representation of Christ, correct?" Evan nods while Adaline waits for her to continue speaking. "Well the romans misinterpreted and thought they were practicing cannibalism. Also since we're on the topic, Christians were called Atheists by the Romans because they didn't pay tribute to pagan gods. Weird right?"

"Yeah, no kidding." Adaline mumbles. Evan laughs at her comment while Cato watches quietly with a small grin. Maisy walks up to Adaline and whispers in her ear. "He's only laughing so you don't seem stupid, but he can't really help you with that." She turns around and sees Maisy smirking at her. Adaline could feel her heart aching, Maisy hates her now. She didn't mean to make her angry with her or make her unhappy to the point she hated her. She had to fix it somehow, but she doesn't want to think about it right now. She was on a trip with her boyfriend and she wanted to make sure she had fun. Cato leads them to the last portion of the hall where there was a big painting on the back wall. "This painting shows how their community restrooms were set up. They were extremely hygienic people but ironically they didn't shower."

"Really?" Evan asks.

"Haha yes, they applied perfume oils to their skin and scrape it off."

Evan was more interested than Adaline was at the moment. She had drifted off into a whole other world while Evan and Cato engaged in more conversation about the artifacts. She didn't even realize they were finished talking until he tugged on her arm. They thank Cato for giving them a tour of most of the museum and walk back to the car to discuss what they were doing next. "That was fun, don't you think?" Evan excitedly elbows her in the arm. She doesn't say anything, she just nods and continues to look out of the window at the people walking by. Evan notices that she doesn't seem as happy as she was before. "What's the matter?" He leans forward to look at her face. She moves her head so that he couldn't see and shrinks further down into her seat. "Adaline, tell me what's wrong. Did I do something?" She shakes her head.

"Did someone say something to you?"

She shakes her head.

"Did someone hurt you?"

She shakes her head again and Evan sighs. "Okay. Well we're going back to the hotel to change. I want to hit the beach to take pictures before it gets dark. Did you want to go? We don't have to if you're not in the mood." He says considerately. She sits up and turns to face him. "No, I'm okay. I want to go." She buckles her seat belt and waits for him to drive away. He looks at her for a few seconds longer before putting the keys into the ignition. He can't figure out what was wrong with her like he usually could. He just hoped that she wasn't thinking like she was a couple years back when they first started dating. She was always sad and she wouldn't tell him anything; he ended up having to take her to the ER because of an overdose. It scared the life out of him, he was a mess for the few days that she was in intensive care. He wished that he would have been more observant with her in the beginning so he could know what to do to stop her from doing what she did.

He didn't want that situation to happen over again, he cared about her too much. He leaned across the armrest and took her face in his hands and pecked her lips. She was slightly confused as to why he kissed her so suddenly, but she didn't really care. She rubbed her thumb across his jawline and looked at him as she did so. He kissed her forehead and sat back in his seat and buckled himself up. Gripping the stirring wheel, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I love you, you know that right?"

"Of course. I love you too."

"Okay... just making sure."