Oh boy. If there’s one thing I despise, it’s shopping. Like, shopping is fun in general, don’t get me wrong, but, shopping for clothes makes my face explode. Tao and Aya said we should do some quick looking before Christmas, so we went to the mall to scope out some cool outfits. Aya was twirling around in a cute mini skirt that matched her hair and a white blouse.
“This is so cute! Ers, go throw this on,” Tao beamed, handing me a black dress.

“Uhm,” I paused. I’m not really one for dresses. And uh… I’m pretty sure this would barely cover my ass. “Tao, I can’t wear this.”

Aya and Tao turned and looked at me like I was crazy. I stood there, awkwardly holding the dress in my hand.
“Put it on or I will freeze your face,” Tao threatened.

“And if you don’t, I’ll make you wear lipstick.” Aya gave me a death stare.

I darted to the dressing room then stripped off my sweatshirt and jeans. Some people have told me that I look attractive in dresses, I just don’t wear them. Even Dallas asked to see me in a dress! I was brushing the dress down over my body when Aya slid a pair of 6 inch pumps under the curtain.
“Aya! I’m not putting those on. I’ll break my neck,” I called out.

“It’s either those or lipstick,” she said in a singsong voice.

Reluctantly, I stepped into the heels—or what I liked to call “Tall Neck-Breakers”—then glanced at myself. Well, the heels raised me up over six foot and I actually looked attractive. This morning, I didn’t straighten my hair so my teal locks were in its natural waves and draping down my back. Though I loved Tao and Aya, they always tried to doll me up; I didn’t really like being all dressy and stuff. Wearing a dress was so foreign to me, I was used to sitting however I wanted in jeans. Not crossing my legs and looking all prancy.

Anyway, I opened the curtain then glared at my friends. Their mouths wouldn’t close.
“Uhm,” I blurted, “is it o—okay?”

“Better than okay,” Tao gawked.

“Hot damn. We got a model on our hands,” Aya smiled.

They grasped both of my arms then stood me on the podium in front of the circled mirrors. Five mirrors gave a good view of every angle on my body. Aya started running her fingers through my wavy hair and draping it over my shoulders, ignoring every single one of my protests.
“Okay, can I change?” I sighed.

“No.” Tao shook a mean finger at me and I made a face.

Aya darted off to the other side of the boutique, obviously on a mission for something. While Tao continued turning my body and pointing out “attractive” assets on my figure, I heard my phone buzzing on the nearby table. I looked over and saw it was Dallas.
Dallas: Do u lke vanilla stuf?

I reached for my phone and caught it just before it fell.

Me: Y?
Dallas: answr the dam question.
Me: Uh, yeh. Y, Dallas, y?
Dallas: Bc vanilla.
Me: tell me, u poop.
Dallas: U cnt b mean tu the bday boi.
Me: but I can b mean to my boyfriend.
Dallas: tru. wryd?
Me: Trying not to die.
Dallas: Y?

I took a picture in the mirror then reluctantly sent it to Dallas. He sent back surprised emojis and heart eyes.
Me: SHUT UP! Its not cute!
Dallas: buy it.
Me: No.
Dallas: I’ll punch u.

I sent another picture of my heels and threatened to step on him. Dallas laughed but told me to buy it. I was getting annoyed so I just called him.
“Dallas, I don’t want to buy it,” I sighed.

“Why? You look beautiful,” Dallas cutely said.

“I always look beautiful, I don’t need a dress to tell me that.”

“Eris, are you really fighting with me? I’ll even buy it for you.”

I let out an irritated sigh. Two seconds later, Aya ran back up to me with teal-colored, feather earrings. Tao practically tackled me to put them in my earlobes.
“Honey, you’ve been so busy fighting with us that you don’t even know what color shoes you have on. Look,” Aya demanded.

She was right. I looked down and saw the pumps were a teal that matched my hair. The earrings, hair and shoes really made the dress pop, and I hadn’t even realized. Dallas liked my body, he wanted to see what I’d look like in a dress. And, the girls always pressured me to dress up. Fine, I’ll buy the damn dress.

“I’ll buy it, you poop,” I mumbled.

“THANK YOU,” Tao and Aya cheered.

I put my phone to my ear and Dallas was laughing.

“See?” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Buy it, beautiful. I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I replied.

He hung up, now, I had to deal with Tao and Aya. They were so happy that they were planning what I should wear the dress for. Damn, was I really being that difficult? Tao ran off for a bit and came back with a sparkly belt.

“Please, please, please put this on! You’ll look hella hot,” she begged, sticking the accessory out at me.

“Okay,” I groaned.

Aya and Tao wrapped the belt around my midriff then snapped it on my back. I looked at my multiple reflections, I looked good. Seriously. I looked mature, well-kept, all the while looking sexy. The thought of showing Dallas this outfit made me smile.

“Ooooh,” Aya sang.

“She’s thinking about boytoy,” Tao added, batting her eyelashes at me.

“Shush! He’s not boytoy, but yes. I am thinking about showing him.” I tried to hide my devious smile.

“Alright. Well, I think we all like our dresses.” Aya looked at us for approval.

To tell the truth, our dresses looked incredible! Aya had changed from the mini skirt to a white, sleeved mini dress that really showed off her butt—not to mention it was backless. Tao had on a gold dress, with an off-shoulder sleeve—Tao really made that thing look hot. Honestly, these outfits would make us look like hoes if we didn’t carry ourselves right. (Thank god we knew how to.)

Aya and Tao changed first, then I stripped off the blinding clothes they had put on my body. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve worn a dress since I was 14. Hell, I would’ve skipped on the dress but, it was dad’s birthday. Anyway, we bought our stuff then headed back to the dorms.

As we were walking, Tao was taking selfies on her phone like she’d die without them. I watched her take 4 and continue snapping pictures. When she checked her camera roll, there were over 50 selfies—just of her in different poses and different facial expressions. Tao deleted 49 and kept the one she thought was, “the sexiest selfie”.

We got upstairs then put our stuff in our closets. The good thing about winter break was that curfew got pushed all the way back to 12pm for every day. No getting in trouble for coming in at 9:05, no getting hammered with questions, nothing. Curfew was 12 and 12 only. By time we got back to the dorms, it was 10:45, so, we could still leave if we wanted.

And… who doesn’t love just being able to forget about school? Textbooks were left in classrooms, teachers got a break from us, we got a break from them, it was just so…. relieving. But, we still had to make sure we were practicing our affinities and not slacking with anything. (Oh wait, in my case, I don’t have a flipping affinity at the moment!)

It didn’t bother me as much, but it still made me pissed that I had no idea what happened to my affinity. Brice and dad had been doing everything they could, really. But, it was just nerveracking without my Elements. I tried my hardest to forget about it, just wait for all of the presents on Christmas!

That was another thing: Christmas. Christmas in Rianate may be thee coolest thing ever. There are no decorations put up, that’s the students’ job. We have to use our affinities and run around to decorate in any way we could. Mostly the cold affinities were used but there were so many different ways other affinities could be used. Tao and a girl named Quinn decorated the entire dorm with ice and snow, they froze everything they could and made everything…. Christmas-y. Quinn had the strength for snow, (she was like another Elsa) and she and Tao created thee best decorations ever.

And, did you know that Rian called Christmas, dervandeve? All of the holidays had some cool, hard-to-pronounce, Rianate nickname. Like Halloween was called samhain, though it was borrowed from different languages. (Most of the Rianate alphabet was borrowed from Greek, African languages and ancient languages. Pretty darn cool.) But, holidays in Rianate were always fun—or so I’ve heard.

By 12am, I was beat. The chatter around campus was low—since most students and professors went to visit human relatives through the portal. Dad and I decided to stay here since Nana and Papa would be here, soon (they were an old generation of Rian).

Tao and Aya turned out the lights then we laid down. I was excited to see Dallas tomorrow, since he’d been gone for quite some time. Plus, we planned on telling my dad about our relationship—we thought it was disrespectful to keep it a “secret”. I asked Dallas about telling his sisters, but he said they could give a rat’s ass about who he dated, they hadn’t talked to him in almost 5 years.

I went to sleep with thoughts of Dallas’s family. He said his mom was nice, his dad just didn’t care for him. And, Dayton and Dakota really just wanted their powers. (I thought it was cool how they all had city names.) Before I knew it, my mind was blank and I was out.
====
That next morning, I woke up around 10am (I really didn’t feel like getting up) and hopped out of bed to go see Dallas. He was getting back through the portal in about an hour but I was super happy to talk with him. Hell, Dallas wouldn’t even tell me why he went—I just figured it was for hunting and for him to leave Rianate (he liked beaches).

After a long shower, I threw on a hoodie, with my favorite pair of skinny jeans then stepped into some tennis shoes. Tao and Aya waved to me, making kissy sounds and emphasizing the word Dallas.
“Shush,” I scoffed. “We’re telling dad about our relationship.”

“Ohhhhh! Can’t do that in front of pops,” Aya giggled, waving off her kissy sounds.

“Have fun after you tell him.” Tao winked like an idiot.

I shook my head as I closed the door. They just really liked to bug me about having sex with Dallas, but, that’s what best friends do. It was nearing 11:15 so Dallas had to be back at his house, and if not, I was gonna tackle him when I saw him. Before I went to the apartments, I saw the Twins talking with their mom, Chryseis.

She snapped something at them then they hurried away. The Twins caught up with me and awkwardly waved.
“Hi,” I said.

“Hey,” Bear answered.

“Guess what?” Bull didn’t give me time to answer before saying, “Mom is pissed at us.”

“Ouch. I saw her, what’d you two do?” I darted my eyes at the both of them but they got real quiet.

“We…kinda…cussed at Lena,” they muttered.

“WHAT? Ahahahaha!”

Bear rolled his eyes but Bull joined in on my laughing. He tried to hide his smile, Bull poked him in the stomach and Bear really started laughing.
“Well, she just stormed into our Yard and chewed our ass out. I was about to cut the bitch,” Bear growled.

Bull shook his head. “She’s not even being mean to everyone now, it’s just us. And mom gets mad at us because we’re like, the devil in her fucked up mind. Has she been mean to you?”

“No,” I answered. “That’s because I’ve been staying outta her way. I don’t want a storm to knock me over.” I looked at both of them and they nodded.

“Whatever. At least Brice is nice to us,” Bear grumbled, rolling his dark eyes as he talked.

“Actually, we haven’t seen Brice in a while. Ya know, he’s been in Alaska, being all Brice-y,” Bull added.

“Brice-y,” I said.

They opened the big glass doors and I thanked them. Bull got super quiet, I felt one of them try to trip me so I quickly turned around and eyeballed the Twins.
“You’ll die,” I hissed.

“It was him,” Bear laughed.

“Okay, maybe it was.” Bull put his hands up and gave me a sweet smile.

Bull was just a sweet person. He was really gay, too, but no one judged him for that. Hell, he even told me that he barely liked girls, guys were just his thing. We got to Dallas’ door and crept in. (I wasn’t real sure why the Twins came but, I didn’t mind.)

Dallas was in the bow room and I could hear how Harley was annoying him. I stood in the doorway then waited for him to turn around.
“Oh,” Dallas laughed, “hey.”

I ran over to him and he picked me up. We shared a quick kiss, remembering the Twins were in the doorway and watching.
“You guys can make out, we’re leaving,” Bull smiled.

Bear made a face then said, “Wait—what? How don’t you know—”

“Leaving,” Bull said, cutting off his brother. He tugged his arm but Bear winked at us and mouthed, “Have fun.”

The front door opened then shut and Dallas kissed me again. I rested my hand in his hair as he carried me to the bedroom. Dallas sat me down then crouched in front of me.
“How was it?” I asked.

“Fun. I got to see a swimsuit model,” Dallas grinned like his boyish-self.

“Uh, and you didn’t kidnap her so we could have a threesome?”

Dallas threw his head back and started laughing, I tried to hide my smile but he was just so cute.

“No,” Dallas said, “I didn’t kidnap her because I only want you.”

He tried to kiss me but I pulled back. Dallas gave me a death stare as I crawled back on the bed. I really liked to tease him since he always was so playful. Dallas grabbed my ankle and pulled me back to him.
“Hey!” I giggled.

Dallas leaned over and stole his kiss. “Hah,” he smirked. “I got the kiss.”

“Okay, yeah. So, what else did you do there?”

“Uh, nothing much. There was actually this museum that had this bow from like, 200 years ago, it still works it’s just frail! I was so excited when I saw it.” He grinned like a kid on Christmas.

“Eh, sounds fun. So, you’re telling me you didn’t go to the beach?”

Dallas was in his closet but peeked his head out from the door. “You know I went to the beach.” I smiled at him. He came back out, looking for a different shirt to put on and I saw a big scratch on his back.
“Baby, what happened?” I softly asked.

“Wha—oh. This,” Dallas sighed. “Well, Harley came with me and I practically had to fight him for one of my quarrels. He got my back and I wanted to stab him.”

Harley flew into the room at the exact time he said that and made a loud screeching noise. I loved how Dallas got so aggravated by him, Harley just tried to do it on purpose. He flew over to the bed and sat with me.

“And,” Dallas pointed to his bag. “He hid a dead mouse in my clothes.”

I looked at Harley; he looked kinda amused. “Nice one, Harley.”

Dallas huffed air out of his nose and pulled his shirt on. I stuck my arms out to him, Dallas scooped me up in his arms.
“Hi, baby,” he whispered.

“Hi,” I smiled.

My legs were wrapped around his lean waist with my arms snaked around his neck. I snuck in a little kiss, Dallas reacted with his tongue, I knew what this meant. He gave me playful, big kisses while I tried to pull back.
“Dallas!” I giggled.

He kissed me again but I continued to laugh. Dallas laid me back on the bed and kept nuzzling my skin and lips. His playful make outs were always fun because one of us ended up naked—usually me. I put my hands flat on his chest then said, “You know we have to go.”

Dallas sighed then sat back on his haunches. “I know. Come on.” He pulled me up and we left the bedroom, though Harley was flying right behind us.

“We’ll be back, don’t miss us,” Dallas said.

We had to quickly run out of the door before he flew out with us. Dallas wrapped an arm around my waist as we headed out of the building and toward Ria. 200. Dad had been at home for the past two days, trying to figure out my powers and what the hell happened, so I knew he had to be at the house.

I thought it was super cool that Rianate was in our backyard, like, were we that special? When mom was alive, she told me this story about something surrounding our house, and now I know that she meant Rianate. I don’t exactly remember what she told me, I just know that she called it a “mysterious creature”, like Rianate was just one. Technically, Rianate is one, like it’s own small (very small) state, full of kids, adults, schools and all the resources we needed. (The shitty thing was that Lena was our governor—of course with Brice.)
“Eris.”

Dallas had asked me a question but I was too caught up in my thoughts, oops.

“Sorry, what?” I laughed.

“Wow,” he smiled. Oh, that smile. Thirty-two perfectly white, straight, full-grown teeth. “I said, do you know if your dad is home?”

“Oh, yeah, he is. I texted him.”

“Okay. Girl, why you always caught up in your own thoughts? Why don’t you just… hmm. What was it that you said? Sit down, eat a donut and take a nap?”

“Oh, that.” I laughed as I remembered what I said. “I said why can’t I just sit down, listen to music, eat a donut and watch the game. Dallas, it’s not really that—”

“I don’t care. One day—probably tomorrow—I’m gonna buy you some type of pastry and turn on the Browns game and make you sit on the couch for two hours. You really need a break from your own mind. I’m pretty sure if I got professor Nolan to perform that ritual on you, we’d be able to see your thoughts.”

I raised an eyebrow at what he said. “Ritual? See my thoughts?”

“Yeah,” Dallas nodded. “It—it’s a thought ritual. It’s when Nolan casts a circle, gives you some weird potion-shit, you drink it. And, after that, your thoughts come out of your head in three different colors: purple for happy thoughts, silver for bad thoughts and sapphire blue for unknown questions. It lasts for… 3 hours, I wanna say. It’s literally like being high.” Dallas gave me a serious look after the last sentence.

“And you’ve been—”

“Yes, I’ve been high before, and, I’ve taken the potion.”

I shook my head as we stepped over a loose branch. Dallas must’ve heard or saw something because he yanked me back against his body by my belt loop.
“Jesus Christ,” I gruffly whispered. The force of his solid chest really hurt my back.

“Sorry,” Dallas said. “There was a loose gargoyle—not like the ones you see on buildings. The fucking creepy ones.”

Dallas let me go and we continued walking. The portal was probably 100 yards away, so, we weren’t that far off. I felt something graze my lower back and jumped. Fucking Dallas.
“Stop! That’s not funny,” I giggled.

“That was hilarious,” Dallas snickered.

I hooked my finger in his belt loop and pulled him over. Dallas pushed me against the tree then looked down at my eyes, I stared directly back at him (I was really focused on his moss green eyes).
“Stop it,” I softly said.

“Make me,” Dallas smiled.

I kissed his lips but Dallas teased by pulling back, creating a big distance between us. This only worked on him so I made a cute pouty face.
“Oh, don’t. I’m trying to learn how to not give in,” Dallas sighed.

“Pwease,” I cutely said.

Dallas gave me a big kiss and I smiled against his lips. He gently bit my lower lip then released my body, continued his walk. Since I got my way, I started to hum 8 mile to piss him off. Dallas’ deep, sexy voice joined in on my humming and we started our traditional sing along when we were bored. We reached the portal right when the song ended, pretty good timing. Before Dallas said the Rate words, he looked down at me and said, “I’m the better singer.”

“You—”

“Ru si wer di opho nof.”

Once again, it felt like my eyes were adjusting to the dark and then, there we were. In the woods behind my house. Dallas hadn’t been back here so I had to show him the way to go. We got to the little cliff and I said, “Make a right.”

“We can just—” Dallas almost slipped and let out a loud curse. He looked down and saw how high up the cliff was. “Make a right,” he nervously said.

I tried to stifle my laughs as we walked the last few yards. We were out from the oaks and in the backyard, just how I remembered it.
“You lived here?” Dallas asked.

“Yeah. And it’s not all that cool,” I sighed. I knew exactly what he meant: my uncle designed the oil mansion that we lived in and uh, it was a bit over the top. Shit, from the back of the house, most people would die at how cool it looked but, it was just home to me. I heard our dogs Tugg and Jinx run out of the sliding door and down the stairs.

“Prepare to get licked to death,” I laughed.

They jumped over at us and started attacking our legs. Jinx and Tugg were probably thee sweetest pitbulls you’d ever meet, Tugg was a blue and Jink was white with a brown patch on her chest. They fell in love with Dallas, that was a good sign.
“Alright,” I said, “we should go find the other one.”

“Okay,” Dallas agreed.

We left the dogs outside and went up on the deck. I slipped into the sliding doors, followed by Dallas, then we saw dad coming into the house.
“Hey, Eris—”

“Hi dad,” I quickly interrupted.

“Dallas? Hi,” dad softly smiled. He and Dallas had seen each other but, this was probably the most awkward thing right now.

Dad narrowed his eyes at me and I smiled. “Okay, so, you know I’m a terrible liar, so I’m just gonna say it: Dallas and I are like, dating. BUT, we want your per—”

“Mr. Faye,” Dallas interjected, “Eris and I wanted your permission on our relationship. It’s very disrespectful to do something and, not get your consent or opinion.”

I smiled like a little girl and nodded. Dad had his hair back to normal, but I was just imagining him with the grassy green color. He took a deep breath then said, “First, did you two plan to come here and tell me, or are you just here because you want something? Second, how long has this been going on? Third, do you two know you have to change your hair? Do it.”

Dallas waved his hand over his head and his hair went to a soft brown, with blonde highlights. I changed my hair back to it’s dark blonde and looked at dad. He didn’t seem mad, just confused, but trying to set us straight.
“Okay,” I commenced. “Uhm, we did plan to tell you, we wanted to do it earlier but Dallas was gone.”

“And, it’s been…. a bit over a month,” Dallas smoothly added.

“Hmm.” Dad gave a single nod but didn’t say anything else. A thumb over his shoulder gave me the hint he wanted me upstairs for the moment.

I walked around the hallway and trotted upstairs to my bedroom. Hell no was I gonna let dad just chew Dallas’ ass out and not listen. So, I sat at the top of the banister with my ear turned to the kitchen.
“Dallas, I know you. And, I know what you’ve been through as a teenager. But, the thing is, Eris is only 17—” ahem, I am turning 18, soon—“and from what I’ve heard, I know that you’re turning 20 tomorrow.”

There was a quick silence before Dallas answered, “Yes, I am. We discussed the age difference, and, at first, it didn’t seem rational, but, it’s not like I’m a professor. So, it wouldn’t be that bad. But, your opinion is most important.”

“Solid answer. Dallas, what do you think Brice and Lena would think?”

Damn it! Why does he have to bring in hard questions?!

“Well, right now, Lena hates everything that crosses her way. And, I know that Brice wouldn’t think of it as—as an inappropriate relationship. But, both of them as a whole, not so sure.”

Dad took a long pause. Too long…. Oh shit. He knew I was there. I quickly retreated to my room and stopped listening. (I wasn’t that sneaky, either.) After about 30 minutes, I heard the front door open then shut. Uh… Two seconds later, there was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Yeah?”

Dallas peeked his head in and smiled. “He approves.”

“Really?! Then—then where did he go?” I asked.

“Back to Rianate. He said that you and I are allowed to date. And uh, he asked me about sex.”

My eyes burst out. “WHAT?!”

Dallas shrugged. “It’s not like I gave detail. I just said, something happened.” He looked around my room and made approving sounds.

“Okay, I guess its not that bad. Okay, I’ll say hi to him when we get back. Are you—”

I looked up and Dallas wasn’t there. He was snooping around my room like a creep. Well, not like a creep, just looking and touching. He glanced at the soccer posters I had on my wall, and at the pictures of my mom.
“Sorry, what?” Dallas said over his shoulder.

“If you wanna look, that’s fine,” I giggled.

“Har har, Eris.”

Dallas stopped looking and came over to the bed. He looked at the nightstand then pointed to the picture.
“Who’s that?”

“My favorite cousin, Grayson. She and her brother are in the army,” I smiled.

Dallas gave a single nod then grabbed my hand. We rose from the bed and marched down the staircase, and through the kitchen so we could leave back to Rianate. On the way back, Dallas kept tickling me just enough for my body to jump, and it was really pissing me off. I had to stay a few steps ahead, since Dallas was using his torture method on me. I was really ticklish, and Dallas always took advantage of that by making me jump and get scared.

We just reached the portal and Dallas recited the words. After the darkness thing, we were standing in front of the gates to the high school and Dallas typed in the code on the brick wall. The heavy doors opened then we strode in. As we neared the Girls’ Dorm, Dallas put his arm around my waist and said, “I have to go and help the Twins with some Tio (elementary kids) for tonight. Sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” I asked.

“Because. I’ve been gone for over a week and, I really wanted to hang out tonight.”

I stopped in front of the doors and cupped his neck. Dallas’ eyes were a light brown color at the moment, and they actually made him look really attractive.
“It’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow… and the rest of the week,” I smiled, though I wanted to hang out tonight.

“I’ll call you later… probably not tonight, I’m tired as hell.” Dallas leaned down and kissed me on my lips, he even slid his hands down to my rear.

The glass doors abruptly opened and Tao & Aya were smiling at us like creeps while we kissed. Dallas turned to them, but didn’t react; I let out an amused sigh.
“I love you,” I chuckled.

Dallas gave me another big kiss. “I love you, too.” He looked at the girls with a smug smile. “What? Do you two want a kiss?”

Aya took a step toward Dallas but Tao pulled her back. I let go and walked into the dorm with them.
“Are you serious?” I laughed. “I was in the middle of some serious tongue-work!”

“Hey, if he ever wants to spread that birthday-suga around…,” Aya bit her lip as she trailed off.

“Yeh, don’t be selfish,” Tao added, bumping her hip with mine.

I rolled my eyes as we stepped into the dorm. It was nearing 9pm, and for some reason, I was hella tired. Probably because dad almost caught me eavesdropping when he was talking with Dallas. Well, I stripped off my clothes and laid down, there was no way in hell I was still staying up.

And… of course, my mind took me into a bunch of different questions. I was thinking about Dallas, and what he said earlier, about our age difference. There are some people who date other that are, like, four years older than them, and two years could be trouble? And, some girls date older men like it’s nothing big!

Ever been in high school? Seen a sophomore dating a senior? Yeah.