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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒

-ˋˏ 𝘚𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦  ˎˊ-

˚ 　 ✫ 　　　 ˚ . 　　　 ⋆

. · 　　 +

✧

╰┈˚ · ° .  THE DAY WAS WARM  for September's standards. The sun bright above sent its rays down showering the school's courtyard with light.

It had been a good day so far, and I knew it had been mostly because of the boy who sparked the embers of my soul.

"Remember the back to school party that I told you about yesterday?" I asked Zyran, who looked more focused on eating his weight in food than anything else. But at the sound of my voice breaking the comfortable silence that we had fallen into, his eyes snapped to mine, focus exchanged from his sandwich to me.

At his nod, I continued, leaning slightly forward on my elbows and across the table lowering my tone. "Apparently, Vicky Donovan got attacked by an animal yesterday night there. I don't know if it's more 'Friday the 13th' type of situation with a killer in the woods or something more like 'Twilight' with Mr. Edward Cullen I have been 17 for a while. She was hurt on the neck after all, and she said that it had been a vampire when she found her."

Zyran blinked once, twice, and then he started laughing. And it wasn't even a controlled one, no, his head was tilted back, his hair dancing with the movement. His arm was sprayed across his stomach holding it as if it hurted by laughing so hard. He almost lost his balance, nearly toppling backwards if it had been for his free arm, muscle flexing to keep him upright. "I'm sorry, what?"

"What?" I asked back, forehead furrowed and lips pursed.

A grin spread across his lips lightening his whole face up, "I swear I have no idea what you are talking about, Darlin'. Who the hell is even Edward Cullen and should I be jealous?" He added the last part with a teasing wiggle of his eyebrows. But it passed completely over me by the surprise that his words caused me.

"Twilight?" I asked, widening my eyes even more at his clueless look. "Blasphemy." I muttered, standing up and clutching my heart as he had wounded me personally. "You don't know who Edward Cullen is?"

"Nope." His grin morphed into a smirk as placed his face on the palm of his hands, elbows resting on the table, looking up at me with dazzling eyes.

"This can't happen." The level of dramaticness of my performance was top notch, if I can say it to myself. And seeing how it actually amused him was definitely a pro. "We need to remedy that as soon as possible." I sighed out a breath falling down back onto the bench of the picnic table.

"Wanna explain?" He asked, containing a snicker though his lips.

"It's a movie— a saga of five movies actually— and I'm going to make you watch each one of them."

"Is it a date? Are you asking me on a date?" He questioned, leaning closer and diminishing the space between us.

"Whatever you want," I started, aware of the deepening color of my cheeks, but acting nonchalant anyways "But I can't be seen with someone who doesn't even know what Twilight is."

"Today?" He asked, looking way eager at my answer.

"Sure, so I have an excuse to miss the Night of the Comet Night Festival." I shrugged my shoulders, once again faking my confidence and my nonchalantly.

His smile, the look in his eyes— one that had no idea what it meant— it made my heart flutter and soul dance in happiness.

Changing the subject back to the 'animal attack' was harder than I thought it would, only accomplished when I snapped my eyes away from him. "So, was Vicki Donovan attacked by an animal— which is boring, by the way— a killer in the woods like Jason Voorhees or, my favorite hypothesis, by a vampire, hopefully less boring than Edward Cullen?"

"You believe in vampires?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Challenging him with the same facial expression, I asked back, "Do you?"

"Oh Darlin'," he let out a soft melodic laugh, "I believe in a lot of things."

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  When I entered the house after coming back from school after a little detour into the woods, seeing the kitchen in a mess of flour was not what I had expected to find, even less, Elena huffing frustrated breath as she cleaned up the spilled power that had gone everywhere.

"What happened?" I asked as I took off my jeans oversized jacket, placing it with my bag on one of the chairs at the dining table.

"I tried to bake." Elena admitted, throwing her hands in the air as she let out a mix between a groan and a scoff.

"Why?" I was very aware that Elena Gilbert was not the girl to call if you needed help in the kitchen, even less so to bake.

"I invited Bonnie and Stefan tonight for dinner so she can try to get to know him." She revealed, now standing up from the floor revealing her sage green tank top almost completely covered in white from the flour.

I inwardly winched at her words. Had she even thought about me wanting to meet him too, to get to know the boy that stole my sister's heart?

"I want this dinner to go as smoothly as possible. Perfect if it can." She continued, "So I tried to bake a cake for dessert. You know, something homemade to distract him from the buyed dinner. But I cracked two eggs, both shells fell into the bowl, I opened the floor and then smacked it off the counter."

"You really like him, don't you?" I asked, lips softening to the beginning a smile. "His name is Stefan, right?"

"Yes, his name is Stefan." She didn't answer my first question but the spark in her eyes at the mention of his name was enough as a reply.

"I can help you, if you want?" I decided to say. "Maybe not to make a cake but we can bake cookies, if you want?"

Gone was the sombrer look and frowns. A smile graced her lips as she quickly nodded her head. "Yes, thank you."

"Chocolate chips or sugar cookies?" I asked as I swiftly washed my hands before wearing my apron. I didn't like cooking but baking, that I liked doing.

"Let's make some chocolate chips." She replied, taking from the fringe the butter and some eggs.

"Tell me something about him." I said after we had fallen into comfortable silence as we weighed the ingredients.

"Well he the nephew of Zach's Salvatore, he has italian roots-"

"Elena, I meant tell me something about him that you like, I don't care that he is from a founding family." I cutted her off with a breathy laugh.

"Oh." She muttered, "He is thoughtful and talking with him is easy. He is very intelligent and a gentleman. Stefan is very different from any of my ex-boyfriends, I guess..."

"And how does he make you feel?"

Elena hesitated for a second, but in the end, she answered with her heart. "Like I could stay up all night talking with him and not even being aware that the time passed. I want to wake up and meet him, and there is this kind of jitters that I have, that I'm anxious or something, but in a good way. I don't know how to explain it."

"It seems to me that you really like him." I hummend under my breath, turning my head to look at her.

"Yeah..." She shook her head as if coming out from whatever blissful bubble her feeling for the Savatore's boy had put her in, her eyes landing on me, an excited grin curling her lips. "What about the other new guy? The one that you are spending all your time with."

I couldn't help how the smile formed on my face. And even if I wasn't the greatest to open up, I tried my best deciding to go with the truth, much like she had done. "His name is Zyran." I said.

"And is he a friend or something or?"

"He is... I don't know." I bit my lips at my words. "I just know that he makes me laugh and talk. He is very charming, I don't even know if he flirts half of the time or he is just being himself. And I really like how when he smiles— and he does that a lot— his entire face lit up. Or how he listens to me when I speak, like he is hearing the best story ever, even when I'm talking about absolute bullshits. He makes me feel comfortable with him— which is something rare as we all know. And-" I cut myself off not knowing if I should continue, but the smile on Elena's face had never being so big directed at me in so long.

"And..." She said, eager for me to continue and finish what I was going to say.

"It doesn't bother me if he touches me. I don't know how it is possible but, I don't feel like scratching myself to the bone if his hand brushes against mine." I tried to speak the words in an up tune tone, maybe diminish slightly how astonished the feat was, but from the wonder that was written all over my face, ablaze in my eyes, I know that it had not helped much, if not at all.

"That- Wow, I don't even know what to say to that." Elena breathed out, eyes wide as coins. "But I'm happy. I'm really happy about it, Meda."

"Thank you." I whispered. "And I'm happy for you too." I said back.

Elena faltered in her stance, thinking twice about the words she was going to say. "Maybe you could call him and invite him here tonight too so we can all get to know each other." She finally said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it will be good for us two to spend some time together too." She nodded her head, hope shined through her words.

"Yes." I replied with a smile. "Give me the time to send him a text and then we can start these cookies." I said quickly, taking my phone from my bag, and then after an afterthought, I added. "And probably we need to double the dose because Zyran eats a lot."

"He does?" Elena asked with laughter.

"Oh yes. He ate three large burgers yesterday with fries and milkshakes. Half an hour later, he was eating ice cream." I smiled at my own words. It was something else that I really like about him.

"So he eats like a wolf." Elena joked.

Awareness spread to me, making me utter words that I forgot as soon as they fell from my tongue. "Like a dragon."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

I really like this chapter.

As you guys saw, little by little, Meda is opening up not only with Zy but with Elena too.

The interaction in the first part of this chapter, I find it so fun. I hope you guys agree with me.

And the bonding moment with Elena was very cute to write

Thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Wednesday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾