Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE ~PART FOUR~

Sure she's drop dead gorgeous, but that's not all. There's something else.

"What should we do now?" Cynthia asks still coddling Tristis after that overemphasized elbow to his gut. I don't think she meant to hit him that hard.

"What about my place?" Aubri says; her voice sending enjoyable shivers down my spine.

"How far is it from here? Can we walk there?" I ask.

"Yeah, my apartment's about two or three miles from here. But it's not too bad of a walk," she says pointing presumably in the direction of her apartment.

I look to the two others and nod for their approval. They both respond with a similar head nod and it's settled. We begin our way towards Aubri's place. I hang with Aubri in the front as Tristis and Cynthia take up the back.

We fill the time it takes to walk to her place with conversation. Conversations about her life. Mine. Her interests and mine. She tells me about her love for animals and how she periodically volunteers at an animal shelter nearby. I tell her I'm allergic to cats and she tells me that's a deal breaker. She follows that with a gentle shove and her face lit up with a beautiful ear to ear smile.

She then tells me how her apartment doesn't allow for animals, but she sneaks them in from the shelter occasionally.

The more I get to talking with this girl the more I fall helplessly into this attraction for her. The idea of being alone, no longer seems appealing to me. I look back on all those lonely nights I spent by myself; all those nights and days spent keeping to myself, avoiding conversation and realize that I was missing out.

As we make it to the road we take a left and begin to walk more cautiously, alert. We make sure that when there is a traveler coming down the road, we are not in sight at all. We take no chances and we add about a half an hour dodging trucks and cars to our walk, diving into nearby bushes and dropping to the ground.

As we continue to walk we make a right onto another road. This road is not as wide as the other one making me assume that it is a less 'traveled' road. At least less than the other one. My theory proves to be right. We only have to dive and conceal ourselves a few more times before we feel that we have ventured into the other town far enough not to have to be so skittish. Besides diving to the ground every time there is a passerby may become more suspicious than if we just kept walking normally.

We finally make it to a small, quiet street where small apartment complexes line the sides. The small two story apartments are surrounded by grass and trees as well as other small greenery. We walk up to one of the apartments and Aubri begins to fiddle with her keys. I glance around at the few decorations that adorn the walls and ground outside of her apartment. A please wipe your paws mat is prominently displayed below the door. A small statue of a cat swatting at the sky stands next to the mat.

The door knob gives a slight grind sound as she inserts they key into the lock hole. She turns it and unlocks the door. Opening the door releases a sweet pheromone that nearly sweeps me off my feet. Take the sweet, flowery scent of Aubri and multiply it by ten and add a dose of heaven, that's what her place smelt like. Indescribable by any means, including words, my sense of smell reached the state of nirvana upon entering the room.

We talk for a little while all together in the dim lighting of the living room and decide that we need to get some rest before we even dare to follow through with our plan. If we tried it tonight, without any kind of sleep or rest, 'we might as well walk in there handcuffed and blindfolded' as Tristis puts it.

Aubri plays hostess as she pulls an arm full of blankets and sheets from a closet nearby. The blankets are scattered around the couch and floor of the room. She disappears again into the hallway and returns with another armload of plush fabric. This time its pillows. She deals the pillow out onto the laid out blankets like a deck of cards. Tristis and Cynthia quickly settle into their sleeping spots. Cynthia on the couch. Tristis on the floor next to her. It doesn't take long for them to fall asleep. Tristis has his hand raised in the air, leaning up against the bed firmly gripping Cynthia's hand which hangs slightly over the edge of the couch.

Aubri and I stay up talking again about our lives and how we got to where we are today. We talked and talked, and laughed and laughed until the bustle of the day finally grips us in its inevitable clutches, forcing us to start to think about sleep. Even then we stayed up a few more minutes just letting silence take the conversation. Feeling it was enough just to be in each others presence, no words needed. Neither of us wanting to separate; we push our sleep deprivation limits to the maximum.

When we finally just can't stay up another minute we say our good-nights reluctantly and I watch her leave the room into her bedroom.

"See you in the morning," I whisper wishing that just by saying morning it might be beckoned enough to appear instantly in this moment so we don't have to part.

"Goodnight, Alex," She returns in a hushed whisper draining my legs of any strength they had stored up in them.

"Goodnight."