This could go in a lot of different ways. This could either have a happy, Disney like ending, or a disappointing, more of a "dang it!" ending. I don't want to even anticipate the latter.

When I exit the room, Sophia's standing in a nearby room, with her arms crossed. She's obviously still insanely mad right now, which I can't blame her for.

That fight was probably one of the worst fights that I've ever witnessed break out between family members and friends. And to think that it happened with my own girlfriend. That's kind of interesting. My hand lifts itself and places it on her shoulder.

"Belle, look at me," I tell her. She doesn't move a bit, and she just continues to stare in a corner.

"Belle, come on. Look at me. I'm sorry for her insults," I say, and Sophia turns around. Pure anger is interwoven throughout her eyes.

"Those insults were so low, Ray. I'm usually resilient when it comes to insults, but she's just plain out brutal. Especially when it came to Anthony," she says, and I sigh.

"Well, I did kinda tell you that she's really brutal when it comes to those things. So in a way, I kinda warned you," I say, in a weird state of defense. Sophia takes a slight form of offense to my comment.

"Are you defending her, Ray?" she asks, and I raise my hands up in defense.

"No, of course not. I'm just saying that I did warn you when it came to my aunt," I say. Sophia frowns.

"Ray, she took it too far. Anthony had nothing to do with this, and she's dragging him into this for no reason. And she insulted him when she never even met him. That's so low," she says. I shrug.

"Fine. That's low. I admit it. Again, I told you, you have to be careful around her. She's really brutal that way," I say, in an even more defensive way. Sophia raises her eyebrow.

"See? Ray, you're basically defending her! How can you defend her like this? She's so mean and rude!" Sophia squeals. For the first time in a while, irritation starts to boil in my blood. Drops are trickling in slowly, and intoxicating the blood that flows through my body.

"Sophia, she's family! I can't go completely against her! You know that, right? I love my family so much, and you know that! Even my aunt, despite the fact that she can be really mean sometimes," I tell her. Sophia scoffs.

"I thought you were going to be a little bit more supportive of my side of the argument, Ray. Come on," she says, while I sigh.

"Sophia, I've been so supportive of you! I've been there for so long, cheering you on for as long as I can remember! I defend my family member once, and you get mad at me! Come on!" I say out of annoyance.

"I've been supportive of you too! I've grit my teeth, and I stood by this whole thing without complaining! Don't make me look like the bad guy over here!" she defends, while looking angrier and angrier by the second. I sigh.

"I'm not making you look like the bad guy, Sophia. I'm just saying my own opinion over here. You shouldn't get mad at me for something like this!" I say, with the irritation level in my blood not wavering at all. It's like there's a little bottle, with a dropper above my bloodstream, with irritation droplets slowly dripping as this conversation gets more heated. The fire in Sophia's eyes intensifies a little bit more.

"Ray, I'm not mad at you! I'm mad at your aunt! Get your facts straight! Did you not hear what I just said? She said those horrible things about Anthony! Do I have to drill it in your brain?" she yells at me. The speed of the irritation drops starts to steadily accelerate. I'm at the point where I'm not sure if I can control what I say at this point. My irritation level hasn't been this high since the car accident, and it's not suiting me.

"No! You don't have to drill it in my brain. I think I've heard it enough from the many times that you've said it over and over in order to get your point across. Why don't you do it a few more times? I don't think you've gotten it to the point where it's starting to stick out of the other side of my head because of the constant drilling," I spit at her, while Sophia's face grows even angrier.

My irritation is about to get to its breaking point anytime soon. It's like an angry bull that's waiting to charge at someone, under any circumstances. One more snap, and I'm going to completely lose it.

"Oh, now you're being sarcastic, aren't you? I love how you think that this is the perfect time to be sarcastic when I'm being dead serious, Ray. Real nice of you. Thanks a lot," she snarls at me, while I try my best to calm myself down before I say something I regret. So far, it's not going well at all. It takes a lot for me to calm down while being irritated.

"Okay, I've already apologized on my behalf for her behavior. I'm trying to work this out with you. Why are you still mad? I did everything that you wanted!" I try to reason. I'm trying to reason out of the fight, so that this doesn't escalate into anything further than this. Nothing has gotten any better at this point. Sophia chuckles out of sarcasm.

"No no no. You did everything that you thought would solve the problem. Ray, we both know that I wasn't mad at you. I was mad at your aunt. You just apologized so that I would forgive you and all would be well. Not happening," she says, and before I can snap back, I hear my aunt giving her own feedback. It just happens to be at the actual worst possible time ever.

"I'm NOT apologizing to her, Danicka! I have every right to be entitled to my own opinion! Why should I apologize to someone for voicing my opinion, especially to someone like her?" Aunt Basia screeches like a witch. Next thing you know, she's going to fly on her broom to Kansas to kidnap Dorothy.

Might as well throw a bucket of water on her right now.

Sophia's eyes direct themselves back to me. "Well, that's the answer I got. I wanted her to apologize, not you, but I guess that's not happening," she says, with no shred of disappointment in her voice. Just pure neutrality. It's almost like she expected this, in a weird sense. This time, it's like the whole bottle of irritation is poured into my bloodstream. All restraints on my anger are cut, and I unleash the savage beasts onto the helpless prey.

"Dammit, Sophia! Can't you for once accept the fact that things won't go your bloody way?! Or are you too much of a spoiled brat to do so? She's not going to apologize, and you should know that! Get your mind out of the gutter, and face up to it! Stop being such a whiny piece of work, and deal with it! Because I'm getting sick of you constantly complaining about things like this!" I snarl, before I have any chance of preventing what I said.

The words make their way out of my mouth before I realize that I've said some of the worst things to Sophia. The angry look on Sophia's look morphs into one that is a large mixture of hurt, surprise, shock, and offense. When I see that look form on her face, my jaw drops open in the realization of my actions.

What have I done? Gosh, I wish I had a time machine to go back and slap myself before those words had any chance of flying out. I feel like a total idiot, and I probably am one for saying those things to her. My lips move in an attempt to try and talk this out.

"Belle, I-," I start to explain, but Sophia raises her hand.

"Leave," she says, with her sparkling eyes shining with fresh tears. She's biting her lip in order to prevent herself from breaking down in front of me. Plea starts to paint my face.

"Please, belle-," I plead, but she shakes her head.

"I don't want to fight with you any more on this, Ray. Give me some space. Just leave," she commands. Another realization hits me. The best thing to do is to give her some space. The bruise in our relationship caused by the beating of my words needs to be healed with the ice of some space.

I can't make this any worse with any more reasoning. that's the last thing we both need or want at this point. With regret infecting me inside, I exit the room and go back into the family room. When I set foot in the room, almost everyone is gone.

The only people remaining are Aunt Danicka, Anna, and Natalie. When they see me come into the room, with a morose look on my face, they all look a little bit suspicious. Anna and Natalie look confused, while Danicka reads me like a book written in Estonian.

"You fought with her, didn't you?" she asks. I nod. Aunt Danicka comes up to me, and places a hand on my shoulder. "You said things that you regret?" she asks. I bite my lip and I nod again.

Without saying another word, Aunt Danicka just wraps her arms around me. I wrap my arms around her, as the comfort is what I need right now. Anna and Natalie also join in on the hug. "We're here for advice," they all say, as the guilt continues to eat me alive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh man... things didn't end well at Natalie's house. Do you think Ray should've defended his family, or he should've sided with Sophia? Let me know.

Hey everyone! How are you all? Side note, thank you all so much for 4000 reads! This is insane! I never imagined that we'd reach that milestone! Thank you thank you!

Also, thank you to everyone that voted for I Never Imagined for the Hot Chocolate Awards! It was able to make it to the final round, which was narrowed down to 9 books, out of over 200 entries! So thank you all so much!

That's pretty much it. Hope you all liked this chapter! (my friends are probably plotting my murder)

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all on Sunday with a new chapter of I Never Imagined! Have a great week!

Love you guys,

Shree