Vincent's POV
I open the fridge and take out the carton of apple juice, ready to waterfall it until Mom slides a glass cup across the kitchen counter-top.
"Vincent, please pour the juice out," she sighs, turning her attention back to boiling pasta.
"Sorry," I grin sheepishly, pouring the juice into the glass instead of directly into my mouth.
"I want juice too!" Veronica swings her legs from under the table with a mouthful of meatball.
Without replying I get another cup from the cupboard and Veronica stops kicking, satisfied.
"Say please," Mom corrects.
"Please."
"Here you go," I set down Veronica's juice in front of her and take the seat beside, stealing a meatball from her plate. She debates yelling at me, but seeing the glass of juice I offered her, she decides not to.
"Vincent," Dad coughs, not turning to look at me. I don't reply, but he continues, "Since you're back from the mountains early, make good use of your time and do an internship."
"What internship?" Mom asks, setting down a plate of spaghetti in front of me. She turns around again to get a fork.
"I asked one of my business partners to let Vincent intern there. It's a really big company and it'll be a good opportunity-"
"I'm not going," I grumble.
Dad slams his fork onto the table, sending vibrations to all of our plates.
"Do you know how hard it was to get you this internship? They had a hundred of applicants who wrote essays, and did interviews for it. Some were willing to fly out of state. I did all of the work for you, so you just have to show up. Is it that hard for you?" he huffs.
"I don't want to go to your stupid internship."
"Vincent, don't be rude," Mom scolds. "And you too, honey. You should've asked Vincent if he was interested first before signing him up."
"I knew he wouldn't want to go because he's stubborn."
"I'm not stubborn. I just hate business. I hate it!"
"What? What did you say?"
"I hate business. It's boring just like you. I don't want to become like you."
"Why do you keep embarrassing me? All you ever do is disappoint me," he slams the table, storming upstairs.
A long silence follows, with only the echos of his footsteps coming through.
"Daddy's mad, Mommy," Veronica frowns.
"He's just throwing a temper tantrum," she sighs, setting my fork onto the table gently.
"I'm not hungry anymore," I get up, ready to leave the kitchen.
"Vincent," Mom calls gently after me. "I think you actually hurt your dad's feelings this time."
"Feelings?" I scoff. "I didn't know he had any."
"I know you feel upset that your father doesn't understand how you feel, but he feels that same way about you. He really does only have the best intentions for you. He might not be right, but he only did it because he want what's best for you."
To angry to process any of her words, I continue my way upstairs and sit grudgingly on my bed. I whip a pillow over my head and yell with all might into him. Rolling over, I punched my bed repeatedly while continuing to scream into my pillow. I hear my door open and stop yelling, not lifting my head up however.
"I want to be alone."
"Okay then. Guess I'll just find myself another boyfriend."
I scramble out of my bed and pull Wendy back inside. When I see her playful smile, I'm relieved I didn't actually hurt her feelings. She sits on the edge of my bed and I plop back onto it, laying on my back and spreading my arms. My right arm lands in Wendy's lap and she begins playing with my fingers.
"Did something upset you?" she asks, wriggling my pinkie.
"Just my asshole of a dad. He wants me to go to this dumb internship even though I want to be a biologist."
"I get you're mad, but he probably was trying to help you."
"Why are you and my mom so alike?"
"Huh?"
"She said the same thing."
"Well, she's right."
"Well, unlike you two, I'm not infectiously nice."
"Did you try telling him you want to be a biologist?"
"He probably won't listen."
"You'll never know until you try."
"What are you doing here?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Can't I visit my precious boyfriend without a reason?"
For a moment, I'm overly touched until Wendy breaks the real reason to me.
"Actually, I'm here to carve pumpkins with Veronica and take her treat-or-treating later."
I retract my hand and roll over, showing my back to Wendy. I feel the bed move under me as Wendy scoots herself closer to the center of the bed. She grabs my bicep and starts to shake it.
"But-but that's only because I was going to see you anyways," she tries to appease me. However, she didn't need to since I was never upset in the first place. But her act was so cute I kept my pretend-upset act as well.
"I have something for you."
My head perks up and I excitedly wait as Wendy reaches to the ground. She pulls up an already opened tube of ointment. I get upset for real this time and ready myself to pout again. Wendy is faster this time, immediately reaching out to hold my arm.
"This is for the bug bites," she explains.
"Why is it already opened?"
"I had to test it out just in case it irritates your skin," Wendy flashes me her sweet, innocent smile and I stop resisting.
She stretches her legs across my bed and pats her lap. I look at her, confused as what she wants me to do.
"Put your head here. I need to apply the ointment," she instructs.
I'm taken back by Wendy's boldness. Usually I'm the one to suggest doing something so intimate. Strangely, I become shy and Wendy grows impatient, grabbing my shoulders and bringing my head down onto her lap herself.
Wendy starts to scan my face, leaning her face down so close I could almost hear every inhale and exhale she took. Her hand gently touches my jaw and turns my face, examining every area.
"You even have some on your neck," she frowns, running her finger over the red spots on my neck, sending tingles throughout and numbing me.
As she's apply the cream to the bug bites, she starts to scold me.
"You should've put the jacket over your face too! Now you have a bunch of bug bites all over your face. You're so stupid," she insults, but rather in a gentle and loving way.
"It was too small," I defend.
"It wasn't. All you had to do was push your head in closer-" Wendy halts, embarrassed.
She catches my eyes gazing directly into her's and becomes even more flustered. She starts to draw back her hands, but I clutch onto her wrist. I bring her hand up to my lips and kiss her knuckles before squeezing her hand.
"I'm so lucky," I grin.
"Yeah, lucky enough to get bug bites everywhere," Wendy deflects my compliment, already too embarrassed.
"Well, if you apply my ointment every time, it'll be worth it. Maybe I should break a leg next time or something."
"You're crazy," she sighs.
"Crazy about you."
"Vincent stop it, I can't focus."
"Sorry, am I distracting you with my handsome face?"
"Go away."
"You're the one who put me on your lap."
"Be quiet then."
"As long as I can keep staring at you."
"I'm starting to wish the bugs bit that witty mouth of yours too."
"Oh you mean these lips? They're only for you."
"Oh my gosh, Vincent. Someone could've heard that," she slaps my arm.
"Too late," Mom pops her head through the door.
Wendy starts failing and pushes my head off her lap, causing it to drop onto the bed. She scrambles the the far edge of the bed and sits there with her legs hanging off. She hangs her head, unable to look my mom in the eyes.
"A knock would've been nice, Mom," I complain.
"Sorry, was I interrupting something?" she pretend to be oblivious.
Of course, Wendy buys it and takes the opportunity to confirm that nothing was happening.
"Well, Veronica is waiting downstairs. She's really excited to start carving the pumpkins."
"We'll be right down," Wendy nods with a face so red, I didn't know that the shade existed.
Mom grins, amused by our shame, before leaving and closing the door behind her.
I get up and make my way towards the door until I realize Wendy was still sitting on the bed.
"Wendy, let's go," I call to her.
"Huh? What?" she breaks free from grips of embarrassment. "Oh, right. Let's go." She gets up and follows me downstairs.
When we get down, Veronica is bouncing wildly around the couch.
"Hurry up!" she yells as we come into her view. "You're taking forever!"
"Calm down, Veronica," I sigh.
Wendy goes to the couch and retrieves a bag of pumpkin carving kits and I help her carry two pumpkins out. Through Veronica's persistence, we let her roll the third one out since it's too heavy for her to carry. Once outside, we lay out some newspapers and I begin to hack the top of the pumpkin off. Once I finish, I pass it to Wendy and Veronica so they can gut it. While Wendy goes it with a scraping tool, Veronica sticks her hands in and pulls out the insides like she's in some horror movie.
After Wendy carves out the basic face Veronica asks for, we give her creative freedom to decorate however she wants. She disappears inside for a bit and comes back out with a permanent marker, a tiara, a white cloth, and some flowers.
She starts assembling the three pumpkins. For one she doodles a crooked diamond and connects it with a circle around the pumpkin. The second, she places a tiara and the white cloth on top. For the final and smallest pumpkin, she props the bundle of flowers against it.
"Where did you get these flower?" I ask suspiciously, seeing how they were so familiar.
"I got them from Mommy's garden."
Crap.
"Is that her table cloth too?" I panic, pointing tot he poorly-cut white sheet.
"Yep, I cut it out myself," Veronica beams proudly.
"Maybe you should ask your mommy before getting her things next time," Wendy kindly suggests, afraid to upset Veronica when she was so proud of her masterpiece.
"Okay," Veronica nods. "Do you like it?" she asks us.
"Yeah... what is it?" I ask.
"Guess!" Veronica excitedly giggles.
"Is that a ghost...princess?" I ask, pointing to the one with the table cloth piece and tiara.
"No, it's a wedding!" Veronica reveals, impatient after just one guess.
"Oh," Wendy and I say in unison, trying to hold in our amusement of how ambiguous the arrangement is.
"Is it your wedding?" Wendy asks Veronica.
"Nope! It's yours!"
Wendy and I stare at each other with heated faces, awkwardly laughing.
"We're not getting married," Wendy dismisses.
"You're not?" Veronica asks.
"We're not?" I ask as well.
Veronica thinks for a moment and then she jumps up as if she hit a sudden epiphany.
"You're marrying that prince, right?" she asks Wendy.
"What prince?" Wendy replies, confused.
"Vincent showed me a picture of him. He's really handsome with curly hair. I told him that you should marry that prince, but he got mad. Then I said I'll marry him instead, and he still got mad."
"Shush, Veronica," I hush her, but Veronica's excitement is only further fueled.
"Vincent was sad because you didn't like him anymore," Veronica continues exposing me.
"She's lying!" I desperately try to cover up.
"I'm not lying. He was about to cry and-"
"Veronica, you know what would look really good on the pumpkins? Glitter!" I distract her.
"Ooh! I have glitter!" she squeals, rushing back into the house.
I let out a sigh of relief once I no longer see Veronica. However, Wendy is still curious and look at me with a mischievous smirk.
"Was she talking about Greg?"
"No," I scoff nervously, playing with the pile of pumpkin guts.
"I didn't know it was possible for you to get jealous."
"I wasn't jealous."
"Whether you're jealous or not," Wendy picks up my hand and encases it her two hands, "you're the only prince in my book."
"In that case, you're going to marry me," I begin my own interrogation.
"What? why are you bringing that up?"
"You wouldn't drop the Grayson thing, so I'm not dropping this."
"Ha, so it was Greg!"
"That's besides the point Are you seriously not considering marrying me?"
"We haven't even graduated yet..." Wendy blushes, releasing my hand from her hold. I grip her hand instead so she can't avoid my question.
"Are you going to marry me?" I ask again.
"What is this? An interrogation or proposal?"
"Neither. It's more of a pledge."
"Well..."
I anxiously wait for her answer.
"I'm never-"
"What?" I protest.
"You didn't let me finish!" Wendy interrupts my freak-out. "I'm never not going to marry you."
Before I can confirm what Wendy meant by her reply, Veronica comes galloping outside with her black swan costume (with a tutu of course) and a bottle of white glitter in hand. She stops once she reaches the pumpkins, unscrews the cap, and dumps all of its contents onto the pumpkins so a big sparkly cloud formed all around.
"Let's go treat-or-treating!" she announces, bounding down the driveway and walking down the sidewalk without waiting for us.
Mom rushes outside to hand us a jacket for Veronica and bringing the pumpkin gut mess with her.
"I don't think we can light the pumpkins. That glitter is a fire hazard," Wendy laughs.
"Yeah, let's just tell Veronica the wind blew it out," I agree.
By the time we catch up the Veronica, she had already rang the door of three houses. Wendy and I follow behind her, keeping our distance so Veronica can have a sense of independence but still being able to see her.
Wendy rubs her hands together and slides them along her side. She forgets that she's wearing a knitted sweater instead of a hoodie, so her hands don't have a pocket to hide inside. I chuckle and she awkwardly plays it off. As coolly as possible, I reach for Wendy's hand and interlock my fingers with her's, placing our fists into the pocket of my jacket.
"Wendy, guess what?"
"What?"
"I'm never not going to love you."
"I'm never not going to love you too."
*****
I'm so proud of myself. I outlined all of the chapter already up to the end. Now, I just have to write them (the hard part lol). At least I can say the next chapter will be an exciting one. Sorry this chapter was a bit chill and short. I had to set some stuff up for future chapters, so I might as well dish out some Vincent-Wendy cuteness. Hopefully, it was still enjoyable.