In the kitchen of Nate's apartment, Ariana was pouring cereal into a bowl of milk for herself. Last night, she and Nate had decided to watch "Dusk Till Dawn". Ten minutes into the movie, they had stopped watching and had begun talking amongst themselves about the most loved or the most hated talking point of theirs. Their mates.
Only during Salma Hayek's scene did their eyes shift back to the screen. As soon as her character was killed, they returned to where they had left their conversation.
For months, they hadn't included their mate's names in their recurrent midnight talks but Persephone's arrival had disturbed the equilibrium.
The more they talked, the more Saoirse and Caius were starting to resent them for bringing up the topic when the wolves were trying so hard to suppress themselves for the sake of their humans.
Eventually, they had stopped and gone to sleep.
Ariana had woken up first and had proceeded to the kitchen to fix herself breakfast.
"Café noir. Strong. Sugar one teaspoon." said Nate as he entered, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "Sean's coming by the way."
"I don't know how to use any of your fancy coffee-making machines." replied Ariana as she started munching.
"As if. Just admit you're lazy -"
"- Yup" answered Ariana before Nate could finish. He smiled and shook his head, which he always did at the end of their repartees.
If there was one thing Nate noticed in people he talked to, it was whether they could match his quips. If they couldn't, he would get bored quickly. Ariana had been surpassing him these days. When he had complimented her on that accomplishment, her reply had been, "It would have flattered me if you were as good with words as you have convinced yourself you are."
"Was it me or someone else who has made you tear up with just their words several times?" He had asked cockily.
"Touché." Ariana had admitted. "Not something to boast about tho."
"Why is Sean coming this early in the morning? He had a pretty late birthday dinner with his parents yesterday. He must be tired."
Ariana had just asked when a subdued voice came from the apartment's intercom system. "Nate, it's me."
"You haven't given him pin code?"
"I didn't want him bringing girls to my place. You don't know Saoirse but he was a player before you." said Nate as he granted access.
The door opened and Sean came in slowly. His head hung low and he looked ashamed of himself.
Nate glanced at Ariana in confusion and Ariana shared the same look. Inspecting him, she called, "Sean."
When Sean heard her voice, he turned into an emotional wreck. Immediately, he rushed to where Ariana was sitting and collapsed in a sobbing heap at her feet, his head buried in her hands.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry..." He began apologizing over and over again.
Ariana had never seen him like this. What could he have done to make him apologize to her? He had always been more than what she had asked for. Whatever he had done, she was certain that it couldn't entail him begging for her forgiveness.
With her mind full of questions, she gently lifted his head and wiped away his tears. "Sean, what happened?" She asked tenderly.
"Promise me. Promise me you'll hear me out first. Promise me, Ari." He requested while taking her hands in his.
"I will. What happened? Tell me." She promised.
Sean went quiet. Unable to meet her eyes and say the thing he was about to say, he lowered his gaze. The heat of his guilt was oppressive to the point where his head had started to hurt. In a barely audible voice, he confessed.
"I might- I might have... I might have..."
"You might have what?" an impatient Nate interrupted.
Sean looked up at Ariana and saw her curious face. She was blinking softly with her clueless eyes. His heart broke at how soft and innocent she looked. He was afraid to admit that he was yet another man in her life who had let her down.
But it had to done. He knew he had to say it. Similar to ripping off a band-aid, he closed his eyes and blurted out. "I might have cheated on you!"
Instantly, Ariana flinched and was about to pull her hands back from his when he tightened his hold. "Ari, listen to me! I'm sure not okay? I couldn't even think of cheating on you! But... but I think I might have. I'm not sure. I don't know anything. I don't what happened. How it happened... If it even happened. I don't think I've done anything. Please trust me!"
He pleaded hysterically with the pitch of his voice gone higher. His heart was beating like crazy while his body swelled up in stress. Before Ariana assumed the worst, he wanted to explain as much as he could from his perspective.
"Let me guess! Samantha Anderson, right?!" Nate bellowed. "Your childhood best friend?" He made quotes in the air with each hand. He wanted to believe that his friend hadn't done anything like that but he also knew that the humans were capable of not taking their romantic relationships earnestly, evident by the increasing documented unfaithfulness in their world.
Sean didn't answer. He just swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. It confirmed Nate's accusation.
"Just get the fuck out of here." Nate ordered. Both of his hands balled up into tight fists.
"Nate, I don't know what happened man! I had few glasses of wines with mom and dad and I seriously don't know what happened after that."
"Yeah right! You had some wine, you fell and your dick slipped inside her. And I'm supposed to believe that when I've seen you gulp down a huge fucking bottle of vodka and still walk straight."
"Nate... Ariana. Please believe me. I love you and only you. I wouldn't dream of hurting you. After that dinner, I don't even remember Sam coming to my house or my room. I just woke up today and found her in my bed beside me. My body doesn't feel like it's had sex. Sam said we did. But I don't remember anything."
"Sam? Really? It's Samantha, asshole!" Nate's wolf was surfacing in his anger. Caius was ready to eat Sean alive today if he had to. "Or do you still want to call her by nickname, you shameless -"
Ariana shocked both the guys when she suddenly slid down from her chair, knelt beside Sean and enveloped him into a big hug. He was shaking like a leaf in her arms.
Nate couldn't believe what Ariana was doing in front of him. She wasn't beating the crap out of Sean or even crying and confronting him. Instead, she was coddling him. He saw red.
"What the fuck, Ariana! Just because that Xavier bastard hurt you doesn't mean you drop your standards so low that you accept just anything."
Ariana ignored his scolding and helped Sean stand up and sit on the sofa. "Ari, I'm sorry." He repeated. "Please don't leave me.."
"It's not your fault, Sean." Ariana gently caressed his jaw. Unlike Nate, she had actually listened to Sean's words.
When Xavier had broken her heart, she had been inconsolable. Pain had assaulted her senses and there was nothing but Xavier's betrayal in her mind. This time, after her initial shock, her senses were intact enough to notice that Sean hadn't admitted to cheating on her.
"Whose fault is it then? His mom?!" Nate asked, clearly annoyed with Ariana.
"Maybe. Or maybe it was Samantha's. He had few glasses of wine and next thing he knew he was in bed with her. I know a thing or two about having dinner with your loved ones and waking up to a completely new environment with no memory of between. It's called being drugged."
Nate's expression changed from anger to realization.
"Of course Sean doesn't get intoxicated by wine. We all know that. So what other explanation is there? That he cheated on me? How can I convince my heart of that when my mind shouts that he didn't?"
Ariana held Sean's face in her hands. "We have to file a report against her. If something did happen, she took advantage of you in a state you couldn't have given consent."
Any doubt Nate had in his mind against Sean cleared up when he nodded his head without any reluctance. He wouldn't agree to go to police if he were guilty.
Cursing himself internally, Nate ran his hand through his hair.
Amidst this mess, Sean's phone started ringing. Rubbing his blurry eyes, Sean fished out his phone from pocket with his shaky hands. It was his mom's call.
"Hello." He picked up and answered.
"Sean! Oh thank god you picked up. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Oh thank god!" Mrs. Windsor, like any concerned mother, sighed in relief.
"Mom, I'm fine. I am at Nate's. I told everything that happened this morning to Ari."
"Oh poor girl! You may be my son but I hate you right now for what you did to her. How could you." Vanity Windsor never yelled. She was reprimanding Sean but in a disappointed voice, not angry.
"If you were unhappy, you could've just left. There's no excuse to cheating."
"Mom-"
"No excuses, Sean. You stole the girl from her soulmate just to treat her like this! That's just foul. What do you think? You think you and Sam are main characters of some grand love story and can carelessly use people along the way just to end up together at the end. Huh? Answer me."
"I'm going to file a police report against Samantha for assaulting me, mom." Sean said quietly.
There was a silence at the other end.
"Mom?"
Vanity cleared her throat. "Sean, sexual assault is a serious charge. You may think this is the solution to prevent Ariana from leaving you but you cannot throw Sam under the bus for something you both did. You'll ruin Sam's life." Her voice sounded faintly worried.
"Mrs. Windsor, do you not believe your own son?" Ariana answered on Sean's behalf when she saw the disbelief on his face upon hearing his mother.
"Ariana?" came a surprised reply. "You're there?"
"Yes. And we won't waste a single second now. We're going to the police station. Join us if you believe him. Goodbye."
"Stop!" A loud shriek came from the other end.
It wasn't Vanity Windsor's voice.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It was Samantha Anderson's.
"Give the phone back to me." A struggle and a fight could be heard. "What! No! They're going to the fucking police station! They'll send me to jail." "Shhh! Shut up!" "I won't go to jail for your plan!" "Sam, shut the fuck up!" Vanity yelled.
Sam yelled louder. "Sean! Nothing happened last night! I didn't fucking assault you! This was all your mom's plan. Don't go to the police- "
The phone cut off.
**~~~**
Sean had been sitting comfortably on a big light-blue sofa armchair inside the living room of Nate's apartment in complete darkness. It was almost midnight but sleep eluded him. He had been watching the rain drizzling outside through the tempered glass door. Alas, it failed to calm him down enough to let his body slip into a slumber.
Throughout the day, Ariana and Nate had given him company. They had talked, watched a movie, played board games... anything that would take off his mind from what had happened to him today. His phone had been bombarded with calls from his mom and dad. Eventually, he had switched it off.
It had been the strangest day for him. Stranger than finding out about werewolves or going to the werewolf world. Because during all this, he had always had his mom and dad by his side. For the first time, he was navigating a difficult situation without them. Sure, he has had many arguments and fights with them but a child never thinks their parents would purposefully wound them. How should one react in such situation?
Sean was not a religious person but today he thanked god for sending him Ariana. What would he have done if it weren't for her?
Normally, any girl in Ariana's presence would have thrown him out of their life by now and he wouldn't blame their reaction. But Ariana? She had vouched for his innocence when he himself couldn't.
"Unable to sleep?" came a voice and the room lit up. Literally.
Sean stood up turned back to see Ariana walking closer to him.
When he did, it was like he was seeing her for the first time. Everything was happening in slow motion, just like in the movies. She was in a sleeveless white cotton nightgown. A gentle wind untucked a strand of her hair and made it flutter across her face. She wiped it from her face and placed it behind her ear.
"I'm sure every girl feels like Debby Ryan while doing this." She chuckled delicately.
Meanwhile, Sean's heart stirred in a way that hadn't ever. He recognized the feeling developing inside him for her which was more deeper and more tender.
He saw Ariana as a woman, in the best and purest meaning of the word.
When she stood near him and hugged him with a smile on her face while her head only reached up to his chest, he couldn't help himself. He wanted to give himself to her.
He lowered his chin to her bare right shoulder, the loose strip hanging along her arm.
Giving a gentle kiss there, he brought his lips closer to her ear and then waited, his manly breaths near it.
Gulping once, he whispered, "Marry me, please."