The Wretched

Chapter 13

Octavia wobbled around the kitchen, searching for something she was craving for, not even sure what exactly that was, while Theodore snickered watching her from the island stool.

“Do we have any milk left?” the black-haired woman pouted, rummaging through the fridge, her back turned to her fiancé.

Theo chuckled amusedly. “Nope. You drank it all this morning”

“Oh, so all this is my fault!” the woman angrily shut the fridge door and turned to the light brown haired man.

His expression was frozen into place. Octavia immediately regretted what she said and curled up into a ball at the base of the fridge, tears streaming down her face.

“Sorry, Theo…” she sobbed. “I’m being hormonal and mom is nagging me about the wedding and the kid started kicking and…”

Theo rushed to her side and cupped her cheeks with his warm hands, wiping the tears away. “Shh, don’t worry about it. It’s normal for that to happen. You are supposed to be snappy, that’s how we know that everything is going according to plan” he said soothingly, staring into her deep blue eyes.

“How can you be so calm? Isn’t someone supposed to have some witty comeback line and start a fight? Aren’t you mad at me for snapping at you?” she whispered sadly, sniffling her now red nose.

Theo smiled slightly, looking down at the six-month-old baby bump that so evidently protruded through Octavia’s light colored shirt. “I am a very forgiving person. I’m also very pacifist. I hate conflict; that is why I will try to avoid it as much as I can”

“Why did you start to like me in the first place? I was always mean to you” she said sorrowfully.

Theo took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I think I found you intriguing. How you were only twenty-two when you started working at the hospital…and maybe I was a bit shallow, but you were simply beautiful”

Octavia smiled a bit and snuggled up into Theo’s side. “I love you, Theodore” she whispered, closing her eyes and smiling wider.

Theo circled her shoulders with his arm and brought her closer to himself, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “I love you too, Octi”

“Mom, did you really have to invite Aunt Augusta and her obnoxious offspring?” Octavia whined, having found Hepta through the small crowd that gathered in the back yard of the Igneel residence in the eve of Theo and Octavia’s wedding after catching a glimpse of her fiancé chatting with her relatives.

Hepta rolled her eyes. “Octavia, they are still your relatives. Behave, and tomorrow night it’ll all be over, okay?” the older woman scolded.

Octavia scoffed, but left to find Theo. All she could think of now was how to keep Theodore away from her aunt Augusta and her cousin Missy. She was afraid that her obnoxious aunt would fill his head with every embarrassing detail of her childhood and that her cousin would hit on him. Missy was known for such acts, even among her own relatives.

Finally finding who she was looking for, Octavia headed towards them, her anxiousness mixed with her hormones making her twice as agitated as a normal person would have been.

“Ah, Octavia” the voice resembled the sound nails would make on a blackboard. “We were just talking about you”

‘Just as I thought’ Octavia thought.

Theo sensed her uneasiness and wrapped his arm around her shoulders protectively, while Octavia shrunk under her cousin’s death glare, who was obviously eye-raping Theo.