*Drum roll* After my little questions in last chapter, you have suggested me a lot of awesome shipnames, and now, it's time to choose between all of them! 😉

So for Dorothy and Blade, we got: Dlade, Blathy, Dlorothy, and Dorade. Now you choose your favorite!

And for Dorothy and Spencer, we got: Spenthy, Spothy, and Docer. Tell me your favorite!! (and no, 'No no no no ew ew' won't work @munisa90 😅)

I'll announce the results in next week's chapter, and in the meantime, let's enjoy our couples...

'It's strange to think the songs we used to sing

The smiles, the flowers, everything is gone

Yesterday I found out about you

Even now just looking at you

Feels wrong'

"Dorothy! Your date is here!"

My new lipstick skidded past the corner of my lips before crashing on the floor, adding another stain on my pale carpet. Though I didn't give it a second glance as I rushed out of my room, almost leaping through the stairs upon my mom's call.

If my mom and my 'date' were in the same room, the lipstick would be the last of my red-stained worries.

How had he even found my address? Weren't we supposed to meet at the little church, where he always dropped me? And wasn't it too early? Actually, these weren't the most important questions, but I didn't get to think about them as I was already running to the open door my mom was holding.

All my muscles froze on a not-so-elegant gliding movement, which certainly earned me a disapproving look from my mom, when I took in the figure in the doorway.

This was not my date, despite the beautiful bouquet of white tulips, daisies, and red roses and the familiarity of this picture, and I blinked several times, questioning my sanity.

Was I this marked that I was seeing him everywhere? No, when I turned to my mom, I knew I wasn't dreaming. She definitely wouldn't wear that smile in front of Blade.

"Spencer?!" I hesitated between letting out a sigh of relief because my mom hadn't met the criminal I was hanging with and taking in a shaky breath to prepare to face the one who had broken my heart, and it ended up in a sort of hiccup.

"Good night, and don't forget your curfew," my mom said as I watched her through wide eyes leaving the room with the same smile, apparently unaware that she was the only one smiling because the lift of Spencer's lips clearly looked nothing like his usual warm grin, and my mouth was still forming a perfect O before I clenched my jaw.

"Hi..." he tried, and for the first time, he seemed to search for the words to say, his lips opening and closing a few times only to let out empty breaths.

"Listen, I don't have time right now, and you should really stop coming every day." My voice was softer than all the emotions boiling inside, surely because of his drawn features I caught despite trying to focus on the white fence in the distance, and as my gaze was already trailing to the soft skin I loved to kiss under his eyes and that today, was shadowed, I pushed the door closed.

"Just let me explain." His hand stood in the way, preventing the door from closing, and he certainly knew I wouldn't risk to push harder.

Quickly, it was his shoulder that followed, and then, his teddy brown eyes, making me jump back and cross my arms over my chest to keep some distance.

"It isn't because you come up at another time that it'll change something."

"At least, you answered the door today."

No, it was my mom, and with this trick, they'd both got me trapped.

"I'll come at any time of the day and night for you to listen to me." He held out the bouquet, along with the tiniest hint of one of his irresistible smiles, and his puppy eyes weren't far away; I could guess it just by the way the corner of his nose was wrinkling up.

Yet I didn't move, neither uncrossing my arms – and I had to dig my nails into the skin of my arms for that – neither I stepped away, trying to hold my ground. I just averted my gaze down, catching on the way the bag overfilled with chocolates and sweets hanging from the bouquet and his light blue shirt and dark pants.

If it hadn't been for the front of his curls getting messier as he was running his fingers through them, it could have looked too much like he was about to take me on a date. Although I didn't remember having ever been crushed by such a heavy silence between us, and I wasn't the only one to notice the lack of giggles, fluid chatters, or even quiet complicity as he heaved out an empty sigh and took a step back.

Unfortunately, he didn't leave. He put the bouquet on the storage bench near the door, and he was back to me in less than a second, his eyes not leaving me as if afraid I would run again. I surely should have; I realized as he stood in front of me, ducking his head to meet my gaze, and this time, there was nothing between us.

"You wanted to talk yesterday. Please, just give me five minutes."

"I don't have time." I did another mistake, looking down at my watch and uncrossing my arms.

There was really nothing to protect me from the coziness of his body drawing me in.

"Please, one minute... for us, for Dorothy and Spencer... forever." His last word was so quiet that if I had been just one inch farther I wouldn't have heard it, yet it hit straight through my chest.

Sometimes, it wasn't about the size of the bullet but about the precision, and Spencer knew the way to my heart. What he hadn't realized though, was that the wound there was fatal.

"There's no more Spencer and Dorothy forever. There's no more Spencer and Dorothy at all." I had tried to come to terms with it in the last 24 hours, yet the echo of those words seemed to be even stronger than the simple 'over', as this saying didn't go back only to two years of relationship.

"You know I didn't cheat on you."

This made me take a step back, though not because of the rise of his voice.

"So what?! I'm crazy? I imagined it? I saw you with my own eyes."

"Yes, but no..." He threaded his hand through the front of his hair again, pulling on the roots on the way, sign that he was frustrated, or maybe he was lying.

Was it when he lightly rubbed the nape of his neck or completely messed his front curls? I wasn't sure anymore.

"It isn't what it looked like."

Here we were, did he really think I hadn't analyzed the situation from every micro angle?

"You're going to tell me she jumped on you and even tore your clothes off? I know Diane can be tricky, but you're the main quarterback, Spencer. You can get away from guys twice your weight tackling you down, but you couldn't with Diane who's barely taller than me?" The words had spun enough times in my head to come out without even a breath, yet the cracks still slipped through, and I knew what was coming if I stayed here.

Spencer was standing on my way to the door, so my room was the only option. I couldn't go out like that anyway, with a half-buttoned dress and a stain of lipstick, even if it might not have been really visible on my red cheeks.

"It was for your birthday surprise!" He rushed after me, although his shout had already stopped me before the first step.

"You and Diane were naked on each other for my birthday surprise?" I pursed my lips forwards, mostly to prevent them from trembling, though some people could have found this situation ridiculously ironic. I could almost hear a pure and wicked laugh.

"No, not Diane." He shook his head, his eyebrows going the opposite direction of my lifted ones. "I was changing for your surprise, and Diane appeared just at that moment–"

"You do realize I'm not stupid? You could just tell me the truth if you care so much like you say."

"It's the truth!"

I was focusing hard on the twists of my fingers, digging my nails in my skin with all my shaky strength as the tears were piling up behind my eyes, waiting for the slightest opening through my wound, and Spencer's voice was pulling at them. He sounded so convincing, but I'd believed his other lies too.

"Well, congratulations because it was really an unforgettable surprise! It was the worst birthday of my life!" I tried to muster all the sarcasm I could, but all that came out was a tear. It had broken through, and I was fighting to keep the overflow inside, even though it felt useless.

I had really wanted for today to be nice. I had spent extra time in front of the mirror because each time I'd seen Blade, I'd been a mess of tears, boiling emotions, sweat, or even the three combined. For once, I'd wanted to be beautiful, but here I was again, a mess.

"And you keep ruining every day since then to make sure I hate my adult life."

I kept my gaze down, yet I still caught sight of Spencer's hand approaching slowly, pausing when I jumped with a choked sob, and staying hovering a trembling inch away from my arm. The mere gesture, and the distance it emphasized between us, was too much. I closed my eyes, and I desperately tried to not let out more tears.

One still slipped though, I felt its warm trail down my cheek as much as his gaze following it, and his fingers hovering over before I heard him swallow whatever was surfacing.

In the silence, it echoed too loudly, and the next sound was the quiet click of the door between the strong thuds of my heart.

I risked an eye open, then the other when the entrance appeared empty. He was gone, only his gifts and the familiar scent of spice, citrus, and coziness to prove I wasn't crazy while I let out a croaky scream.

I just had time to wipe off my two tears before my mom rushed into the room with a knitting needle in her hand, and at any other moment, I would surely have laughed, even if there had been real attackers in the house.

"What is happening?!"

Okay, maybe, I wouldn't have dared to let out a snicker in any situation because her narrowed eyes looked more scary than comical, and I had no doubt she would have skewered anyone that would have dared to break into her home.

However, there was only me in the entrance, and I'd better have a good reason to have interrupted her in the middle of her row as her piercing gaze slid to me.

"There was... a spider."

Her eyes instantly widened, and she jumped with a squeal much more ladylike than mine.

"Um, but it's gone now, don't worry."

"And where is Spencer? Isn't he supposed to go out with you to the drive-in?" She sadly found back her composure too quickly, and I had to hold back another scream.

"Mom, I already told you I'm not going out with him. I'm going with friends."

Yes, I'd just blamed Spencer for his lies, and I was doing the same. Yet I'd figured out that when it came to Blade, lies were better, and my parents wouldn't have let me go out if they had known just a bit of the truth.

"Then what did Spencer wanted?"

To leave me as a mess.

"Nothing important." I proceeded to finally move from the spot he'd left me, turning back to the stairs, though I wasn't sure I could still climb them with my numb members.

"It seemed important enough for him to come every day," my mom called out, and I wondered if I would ever be able to walk up that first step as I turned back to her lifted eyebrow.

"I don't know what is going through that head of yours but–"

"Have you ever thought that maybe it's what got through his head?" I swallowed the rest of my words as her cocked eyebrow went from curious to displeased. It was a light nuance, yet I could see in her eyes that my night out was hanging on it.

Besides, could I be mad at her when I hadn't told her the reason behind Spencer and I's fight – breakup? I hadn't told anyone, except one person, and I wasn't sure if it was because no one could understand my pain or because I didn't have the strength to break the perfect image everyone had of Spencer.

"Whatever he has done, he is trying really hard." She picked up the abandoned bouquet as if it was the most convincing argument in the world, while I was staring at the door, replaying each of his words.

"Do you realize how lucky you are? You won't find another boy as great as Spencer who will accept you, your stubbornness, and eccentricity."

Of course, who would want the mess Dorothy? I swallowed hard again, though this time, it wasn't an insolent remark, but a bitter taste, along with the tears that weren't far.

"Excuse me, I have to get ready. I still have a lot to do to hide the mess I am."

What stung more than her words was the fact that she didn't catch the underlying hurt in mine, even if they came with a tight smile, and she just nodded, exiting the room, probably in search of a vase.

Meanwhile, I pulled myself to walk after one last longing glance at the closed door, and although her words were haunting me, there was also something else lingering as I slowly climbed up the stairs. A question I couldn't answer. 

What would have happened if Spencer hadn't left? That second where I'd closed my eyes, I didn't appear that stubborn, and if he had pulled me in his arms, would I have fought it?

I added it to the pile of unanswered questions, which I was too scared to face, like the memories I glimpsed in my wardrobe as I grabbed my large bag and turned back to my mirror to try to cover any hint of red on my face.

***

My cheeks were flushing again; I could feel the skin burning under the layer of make-up, and it was nothing like the elegant blush you could see in magazines.

Maybe taking the overfilled bus and walking too fast in the empty streets hadn't been the best idea. Though the heat was hitting me only at this instant, in the fresh air of the night, in front of that same wooden sign.

It became worse when I walked in the warm air of the empty and now familiar room, and I tried to take a breath. 

I would have surely turned around if the blood-curling creaking of the door hadn't announced my arrival more obviously than any bell, and the door on the right hadn't instantly opened.

"Dorothy, good evening."

"Hi, Pete."

Today, the bearded man didn't wear his glasses, and his eyes weren't bulging out at my appearance, yet I actually felt more self-conscious as my gaze trailed around the room, stopping on the shiny items still hung on the wall in front of me.

I wasn't here for the guns, and I didn't know how to formulate the reason behind my presence here. But from what I'd understood, he was the only one who would know what I was looking for.

Everything would have been so much easier if I'd been like any normal girl...

"Blade, your date is here!"

Well, it was easy in fact, almost normal, though the singing tone in Pete's call sounded everything but normal, rushing more blood to my cheeks.

At this point, I was probably as red as my hair in front of his large knowing smile, the same he'd had when I'd asked about Blade a few days before, but wider, and I wasn't sure why I was being so nervous when everything here resembled so much to the few times I'd already been there.

"You look–"

"Dazzling, Shooting star."

Oh, right, that was the reason why all my nerves were standing on edge and my cheeks turned another shade of red: beet red.

"Thank you... you too, look handsome."

It was true. Blade was wearing a simple black tee-shirt and cuffed jeans, and he was quickly slicking his hair back with a comb, his bike keys between his lips. He looked handsome, and dazzling in a dark kind of way as his clear eyes sparkled deviously at me, and I regretted feeding his ego.

It hadn't fallen on deaf ears, and he would use it against me; his dimple left me no doubt as he walked to me, stopping really close. There was probably the same distance between us as on our first encounter, a few rooms away down the hallway on the left, yet if that day, he'd appeared too close for good manners, today, my fingers were itching to reach out and bring him and his whole dangerous aura closer until I could feel the sparks all over my skin.

I wanted to kiss him on the cheek, on the lips. Yet I didn't move, my gaze traveling from my twiddling fingers to the audience still watching us too eagerly as I searched for the appropriate way to greet someone on a first date, and it wasn't the comic books and astronomy magazines I read every night that would give me the answer.

A stretched-out hand and a Cheshire cat's smile, it certainly wasn't the custom either, but as Blade offered me both, I knew it was the best greeting for us. Each time, I'd followed him, and I accepted it again as he leaned closer.

"I know I'm new to this, but isn't it the guy who's supposed to pick you up?"

"I'm not really a normal girl..." I shrugged, while in the back of my mind, my mom's voice was still resonating, 'me, my stubbornness, and my eccentricity', and it was this incessant echo that I'd tried to escape as I'd decided to come here and not wait home.

Here, it was silenced by Blade's chuckle. He was close enough for the raspy sound to engulf all my senses, vibrating on my skin in a trail of sparking goosebumps, and of course, creating fire on my cheeks.

However, even if I might have looked like a dotted tomato, a mess of red and freckles, and I was literally a mess of nerves, it didn't appear important to him as his eyes shamelessly scanned my silhouette one more time before focusing on my face.

He still wanted the mess I was – I wasn't sure in which way, because if his clear gaze could pierce easily through my appearance, the contrary wasn't as simple in the depth of blue and bad intentions. But it definitely pulled me in to find out as I was lifting on my tiptoes again.

"Goodnight, the lovebirds!"

I almost crashed on the ground as the jump I made on my tippiest toes made me lose my balance, so close to my destination..., and although my head was spinning, I caught too clearly Pete's grin, which was impossible to miss as it split his beard in two.

"Um... goodnight," I tried with the little dignity I had left.

Okay, I had none, but these two men had already seen the mess I was, and there was no judgment in Pete's laugh as he shook his head, and Blade flipped him off.

All of this looked surreal, yet my burning cheeks stretched in a smile as I watched Pete disappear behind the same side door, his rough laugh still remaining behind him, and my tears appeared so far in this instant.

When I'd first entered this place, I'd been pulled by an invisible force in the hope of stopping my tears with gunshots, but it was the people, who had helped the tears evaporate, quite literally as my face was boiling.

"Where were we?" Blade turned back to me with a smoldering and dark look.

"Um, we should go if we don't wanna be late."

We were early, yet I still rushed to open the door and get some fresh air. It was one thing to dry the tears, but I would risk to explode if more heat gathered in my cheeks.

"Shooting star." Blade pulled me back before I could take a breath of fresh air, his cocked eyebrow not letting me cool down either. "It's that way."

"But..." I could only blink as he tugged on my hand, leading me to the side of the courtyard from where I'd come in, and I'd looked enough to be sure there was no motorcycle there.

"You have a car?!" My protest finished in a gasp, which turned into a protest again as I narrowed my eyes at him. "You told me you didn't have a car!"

"I don't," he replied while spinning the key between his fingers. "It's Pete's. He lent his dear Marylin for tonight. I didn't even have to ask!" He shook his head, his smile turning genuine. It wasn't in the shape of his lips, not even about his dimples; it was something in his eyes that became more transparent, probably the affection he had for this man, and it was an emotion almost foreign on his sharp features.

"I swear he's too excited for this. The old fella really needs a life!"

"Yeah, I must admit he sounded a little too much like my mom when I went on my first date. He just lacked the apron!" I burst out laughing as Blade seemed to stop to picture the image and then shivered with one of his tapioca-disgusted grimaces.

"If he ever wears an apron, I move out!"

"So you're living here with him?" I realized I once more sounded like an inspector and I had interrupted the lightness of our laugher, yet I couldn't help picking up every piece of information I got about him.

He was a mystery, and curiosity was one of my many quirks.

"Yeah, he lives alone, and the house on the side is quite big, so he lets me crash there." His lips dipped down for a shrug, and when they came back into his eternal smirk, I knew I wouldn't find out more, even before he leaned down. "Now, I thought we were late?"

"Yes, let's go!" I went against the tickling of curiosity and maybe something else in my stomach as I sat down on the beaten-up seat with a squeaky protest from the springs.

Marylin clearly wasn't a youngster, and if the faded gray coachwork on the outside had left a doubt, inside, the only question remaining was: would this engine start?

It wasn't dirty; I could give that to Marylin, and there was enough space for me to spread my legs a little. Yet the seat wasn't more comfortable than on the motorbike, and there wouldn't be any wind in my hair as I didn't dare to touch the handle to roll down the window, which was in fact, replaced by a metal rod.

And to think I'd chosen an outfit especially to be practical for the motorcycle ride...

I was surely more bothered than I should have as I smoothed my navy gown. I told myself that it was because I'd spent too much time searching through my wardrobe for a dress not too long, not too flouncy, and not white, as I seemed to always ruin my clothes around Blade, though it didn't explain the restless sensations in my legs making me fidget on my seat.

"Don't worry, it can be practical for something else..." Blade made me jump out of my thoughts, or more exactly, he joined in, as apparently I'd spoken out loud.

He didn't need to add anything else for me to read his mind as he slid behind the steering wheel, his mischievous gaze traveling all along my silhouette until my exposed knees, where I tried in vain to pull the fabric down.

"Are you ready, Dorothea?"

It brought back some memories in the spark of his blue eyes that met mine again, and like on our first encounter, I replied with a 'yes', even if I still wasn't sure what he was talking about.

The breath I took in still ended up in ashes inside my chest as his hand brushed my knee to shift gear. Seeing the distance between my leg and the shifter, he clearly did it on purpose, and I wasn't the only one reminiscing the memories.

I wondered if these were the only things that would repeat, as tonight, I knew where we were going, yet I was as clueless about how the night would unfold.

I had no weapon, just a blind trust and shitty instincts, and although the car started incredibly smoothly, there was still an impact somewhere inside my chest as his hand rested on my thighs again. Well, it was above my restless fingers, but the warmth of his large hand was engulfing me whole, sending a trail all along my arms and thighs in a mix of nervousness, excitement, and unknown.

And you, are you ready? 😏 I'm sorry to leave you hanging again, but next chapter is a long one, and you'll need some time to get ready 🤫🤭😈 Do you have an idea about what will happen? 

And are you as excited as Pete? 😉😂 If so, vote ⭐ and comment!!!

Also, let me know what you think about Spencer and what he said. Do you think he's telling the truth, and what could his surprise have ever been? 🤔

Finally, don't forget to vote for your favorite shipnames!! 

I love you, my little shooting stars!! 🌠😘❤