Picture Perfect: A CaptainSparklez Story {COMPLETE}

Chapter 6: Complications and Confrontations

"No," she grumbled. "I don't...I don't want to talk about it."

I sighed and sat across the table from Ruby. A tear dripped from her eye and landed on her biscuit. She sniffed and dabbed her eyes with a napkin.

"I don't know why you're so upset," I said, grabbing a biscuit from another plate.

"I thought we were past this," said Ruby hotly. "I thought you said She wasn't coming back."

"You know I can't control it, Ruby," I said, burying my face in my hands. "She comes and goes as She pleases."

"You were supposed to let go!" Ruby cried, bringing her fist down hard on the table and upsetting her glass of milk. "This was NEVER supposed to happen again! You can't just let Her back in like that! Why do you have to be so weak?"

The tone in her voice stung.  I stared at her, shock and anger overflowing my mind.  Who was she to call me weak?  She may be my sister but she has no idea what it's like being me!

"Shut up!" I screamed angrily. "Just shut up! Don't you dare sit there and tell me I'm weak! You know damn well you were just as weak as I was!"

"That was two years ago, Carrie!" Ruby yelled, jumping up from her seat. "You've got to let go!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" I shouted. In the heat of the moment, I felt the muscles in my arm tighten and twitch.

Before I knew it, before I could stop myself, I was on my feet and the palm of my hand came down on Ruby's face with a hard and loud slap.

Ruby staggered backward, catching herself on the kitchen counter. She pressed her hand to her blistering cheek. Her eyes were frightful, casting a shadow of fear and worry around her trembling form. Tears of anger and pain trailed from her eyes.

I stared down at my trembling, stinging red hand, taking in what I had just done. I had never struck anyone before, especially not my sister.

My sister; the only one that took really good care of me. The only one that was there to love me during our time of horror, and I had struck her.

I felt like a monster.

I quickly slung my camera bag over my shoulder and said to my still-shocked-sister, "Something tells me you still haven't let go."

Angrily, I wrenched open the door and stomped off down the hallway to the elevator.

"Carrie, come back!" I heard Ruby cry from the room.  "Carrie, please!"

I did not turn around. I refused to turn around.

I could hear Ruby sobbing as I stepped into the elevator. Part of me wanted her to step outside the room and watch the elevator doors close on me, but she didn't.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to crumple on the elevator floor and sob. This wasn't supposed to be my new life. My past wasn't supposed to come back to me. I was supposed to escape it all.  I felt the tears attempting to fall, but I was able to hold them back, raising the level of the pain still stinging my eyes.

My phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and felt a heavy weight of sadness lift itself off my shoulders as I read the words "JORDAN MARON incoming call..."

I put on a smile and answered the call.

"Hey!" I said as happily as I could.

"Hey," said Jordan with a chuckle. "Were you like just waiting anxiously by the phone for my call?"

"It was in my pocket," I said with a soft laugh. "I'm just really quick with answering calls."

"Cute," he said sarcastically with a joking laugh. "I'm waiting just outside the apartments. Where are you?"

"I appreciate your concern," I said as the elevator ding cued the opening of the doors, "but don't you worry about me. I'm pretty close."

I stepped into the lobby and glanced out the clear glass window of the front door.  Jordan was standing with his back to me; the tip of his short dark brown hair blowed slightly against the cool Santa Barbara morning air. The face of a Creeper was staring at me from the back of Jordan's green hoodie.

"How close?" he asked playfully.

"I dunno," I said with a smirk. "Try looking behind you. Tell me what you see."

Almost immediately, Jordan turned around and was instantly hit with a big smile.

"Well," he said, locking eyes with me through the window, "I see a young woman with a camera bag on her shoulder. She seems oddly happy and she actually looks, dare I say it..."

He hesitated. I could hear him take a deep breath through my phone.

"...very pretty," he finished with a nervous smile.

I felt my cheeks redden, and I hoped and prayed he could not see them through the glass window that separated us.

I put my phone back into my pocket and opened the door.  I was hoping the red in my cheeks had died down a bit as I stepped out into the morning light and looked at Jordan, his deep brown eyes sparkling in the Santa Barbara sun.

"Is it weird to say I kinda missed you?" he asked with an awkward and bashful smile.

For a moment, I wanted to kick him.

It was as if he was purposely trying to make my face turn red!

"No, that's not weird," I said shyly. "I'll be honest. I kinda...missed you, too."

Jordan smiled and looked down at the sidewalk, nervously shuffling his feet along the concrete. "So...you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said with a small smile. "Lead the way, Captain." Jordan snickered and slowly shook his head.

"Ready to admit you're in love?" She asked. I could sense Her playful smile.

"Give it time," I whispered almost completely inaudibly. "I'm almost certain that will change."

I felt her smile broaden and flow through my body. I sighed, feeling the smile on my face glow with good feeling.

"That's my girl," She whispered.

From the corner of my eye, I was certain I saw Jordan smiling at me, at that only made my smile grow.

Maybe things were going to get better.

But everybody knows things always get worse before they get better.