Nona King | Spirit Driven Fiction

This scene dedicated to Valentine’s Day… in Vicki and Wil style.

For some background, they have been friends since August (when Vicki moved to the state from Oregon). Vicki wasn’t old enough to have a boyfriend until she turned 16 on Nov 2nd, but the two didn’t start dating until the later part of January due to troubles within both Vicki and Wil’s families (not necessarily at the same time). This scene, if it finds its way into the Changing Scenes series, will more than likely be inserted into Silent Soldier (book 5). I won’t know for certain until I’ve made it to that book in the revision process.

Thanks, Catmint, for the ideas from your life. ^-^ They’re awesome.

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CRASH

“What the-” Cora set aside her magazine and sat up from where she lay on her bed, slipping into her house-shoes before making her way from her room to the hall. “Wil?” She knew that her twin brother planned a surprise Valentine’s Day dinner for his girlfriend of 2 weeks, Vicki, but she hadn’t expected it to involve crashing and the breaking of dishes.

“Oh for the love of….” Wil grumbled, Cora entering the kitchen just as he swiped up the mop. He looked up as she came in, his ears flushing as he frowned at her. “Don’t say a word.”

Cora raised her hands in defense. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Wil scoffed and focused back on the duty of mopping up whatever liquid now covered a great portion of the floor. For all intents and purposes it looked like water. As for what had caused the crash, Cora didn’t see any remains of it on the floor, so she could only hazard a guess.

“So, what are you making?” Cora asked, leaning her elbows and arms against the kitchen counter.

“I don’t know yet.”

One eyebrow arched, but since Wil seemed to be grumpier than usual, Cora refrained from comment on that particular subject. “Then what happened? I heard a crash.”

“I dropped my water glass while I was reading the cookbook.”

The thought of Wil making a fancy dinner still made Cora want to chuckle, so the fact he dropped a glass of water before even attempting the duty of cooking had her laughing harder than she ever had in her life.

Wil glowered at her as he straightened. “I told you to shut up.”

“I’m sorry, Wil,” she laughed, shaking her head. “I really am.”

“Yeah. You really look and sound sorry, Cor.” He pointed roughly toward the hall. “Leave me alone.”

Instead, Cora came around the counter and gestured to the stove. “Let me help.”

“I want to do this myself. How hard can it be to follow a stupid recipe? You do it all the time.”

“Oh, nice.” Cora rested her hands on her hips. “Come on. What if I just make sure-”

“No,” Wil insisted, dropping the mop and brotherly-shoving Cora out of the kitchen and down the hall. “I’m going to do this myself, even if I have to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into the shape of a heart.”

Cora laughed louder. Especially when Wil proceeded to push her all the way into her room, even closing the door. “Wil, come on,” she insisted. When she tried to open the door, she found that he still gripped the doorknob. “Don’t be such a pig-headed guy about it. Vicki won’t care if I help you. She’ll be all about the fact that you planned a surprise.”

“You will not help,” he pressed, this time opening the door and pointing at her. “You won’t. I’m going to do this myself, and it doesn’t matter how crappy everything turns out. I said I was going to do this, and so I’m going to do this.”

Cora crossed her arms as she stared up at her brother with an amused expression. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that Morgan Roberts is making Vicki’s sister a fancy Italian dinner?”

Wil glared down at his sister for a long moment, neck and face red, before sounding a loud scoff and storming back toward the kitchen. “I’m going to do this myself!” he called as he went.

Rolling her eyes, Cora followed after him. “Wil, this competition you have with Morgan is just too juvenile. So what if he tried something with Vicki. He’s all about Andy now. Besides, Vicki never once thought of him as more than a friend, and you know that.”

Wil scrubbed a hand through his brown curls, a fist on his hip as he stared down at the cookbook. Then he let out a quick breath and focused on Cora, his green eyes dark. “I’m being stupid.”

Cora laughed. “Very, but that’s what guys do best.”

With a frown, Wil gave her a push to the shoulder. “Thanks for the sympathy.”

“Hey. I don’t give sympathy to people that do stupid things. Especially when they should know better. I mean, for heaven sake. You should do something different than Morgan. Not the same. That way it doesn’t matter how good or horrible his dinner is. Here.” She retrieved the yellow pages from under the phone on the counter and opened it. “Why don’t you look through here for some ideas of what to do? I’m sure there are lots of ideas just waiting. Just think about every sappy chick-flick you’ve ever seen-”

“Cor, you know that every restaurant in town won’t have reservations left,” Wil protested, grabbing the phone book from her to slam it closed.

“Willem Nathaniel. Will you stop being a pessimistic baby?” She opened the book again. “There are delis up the wazzo in Canby, Oregon City, as well as Westlake. Put together one of your master sandwiches or something. Who says you have to do some fancy dinner?”

“Everyone,” Wil mumbled. He crossed his arms and slouched back against the kitchen counter.

She rolled her eyes again. “Puh-lease.” Then she firmly tapped the pages of the phone book. “Look through here and see what you can come up with. It’s only 11 o’clock, and you sent those flowers to her this morning, right?”

Wil nodded.

“Okay. Well, you have plenty of time to come up with something for a late lunch or an early dinner. The flowers will put her off the scent of a surprise, so if you can’t come up with something, you win either way.”

Wil straightened sharply, immediately scowling again. “I am going to do a surprise,” he insisted.

“Okay, okay, so you’re going to do a surprise.” She gave the phone book another tap as she pointed at him. “Then stop pouting and get to it.” Then she made her way back to her room.

Scowling after her, Wil absently rubbed at the back of his neck. When she closed the door to her room, he sounded another scoff and turned back for the kitchen, swiping up the cookbook as he glared down at the recipe for pot roast. He grimaced and slammed it down again, jerking open the refrigerator to see what the Davis family had in stock. I’m going to do this by myself. Morgan can trip off the tallest building in Portland, for all I care.

For all his other–Well, for Renee he had only ever taken her out to eat. She hadn’t ever been interested in staying home for a dinner. With her it had been about the glamour and attention. Vicki was the complete opposite. Sure she liked going out to the movies or to the mall with friends, but she was just as happy then as when they hung out at the church after service, or played soccer or baseball at the park across from her house.

So he was going to do something different for him, even if it was stupid for a guy who didn’t cook anything but a cold sandwich. Or eggs. If he screwed up, he didn’t care. They’d have a laugh about it, and that was good enough for him as long as he tried.

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“Sody?”

Vicki looked up from her journal entry about the basket of white carnations Wil had sent and smiled at her father. “Yeah, Dad?”

“Romeo’s on the phone.”

Blushing five shades of red at least, Vicki stuck her tongue out at her father the same time she scrambled from her position on the bed and hurried toward him. “Very funny,” she whispered, snatching the phone from him.

Vicki’s father sent her a wink and then closed the door to her room.

Vicki didn’t want to risk her knees buckling on her way back to her bed, so she just sat on the floor. “Hi, Wil. Thank you so much for the carnations. They’re gorgeous. How did you know they’re my favorite?”

“You told me when we went to the Japanese Gardens. Remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Vicki nervously giggled. “I forgot.” That he had remembered sent her to cloud nine.

“So, what are you doing right now?”

“I was just writing in my journal about today. A lot of things happened because of it being Valentine’s Day. Mom and Dad went out to breakfast together. Max played football with the guys. Andy’s been running around like a drugged squirrel getting ready for her date with Morgan, and I’ve been hanging out with Hannah and Eli at the mall. What about you? How was work?”

Wil chuckled. “Sounds like a whirlwind around there. Are you up to getting out of the house and kicking back?”

On Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend? Vicki leaped to her feet, doing her best to keep from squealing in delight. Instead, she jumped up and down in a tiny circle until she had herself somewhat under control. “That would be wonderful,” she said breathlessly. The only reason they hadn’t been able to hang out today had been because of an emergency at his dad’s hobby shop. But Wil had made up for it in carnations and a sweet line from a Psalm in the Bible.

“Do you mind dressing up a little? Nothing much. Just because of it being Valentine’s and all.”

“Sure. I take requests.”

Wil chuckled. “All right. I’ll meet you out front in about 10 minutes. Enough time?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.” Then, after a moment’s pause, he hung up.

This time Vicki did squeal, which made her door open and her father peek his head around. “Say. What’s the drama in here?”

Vicki scurried over to her closet to pick an outfit. “Wil’s coming over.”

“Ah ha. Should have known that. After all, he asked me if it would be okay for you two to hang out across the street at the park.” When Vicki remained intent on her choice of outfit and didn’t seem to hear what he said, he directed her to “Have a good time, Sody,” and then closed the door again before waiting for a response. Which never would have come in the first place.

Vicki chose a black skirt, black tights, and black loafers, knowing that the dark colors would set off the purple top. Then she wrestled her waist-length hair up into a french twist, of sorts, with a portion of it falling out of the side and softening the effect on her face. After the necessary application of lip gloss and perfumed hand lotion (Wil had once commented that the hand lotion was one of his favorite scents), Vicki checked the clock and hissed, “Yes!” when she saw she was on time.

Then she hurried down the stairs, smiling wider when she heard the recognizable growl of Wil’s Chevelle coming down the street. Valentine’s Day with Wil. My boyfriend. She skidded to a stop by the coat rack near the front door and shrugged into his letterman jacket. Then, after a quick check in the mirror to the left of the coats, she sent herself a bright smile and turned to open the front door.

Wil was on his way up the brick walk looking absolutely fantastic in blue slacks, a white dress-shirt, and a suit-coat that matched the slacks. He also carried a single red rose and a spectacular smile. It was so spectacular, in fact, that Vicki felt her knees nearly buckle. But she girded them up and smiled her best, ignoring the fact that her cheeks more than likely matched the rose.

“Hey, Kiki,” Wil greeted, using the nickname that he reserved for her ears only. Then he presented her the rose while watching her reaction. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Vicki couldn’t keep herself from lowering her focus to the action of accepting the rose. More than likely so that she could preserve every facet of the moment into her memory, and a later entry into her journal. This was definitely one minute that she didn’t want to forget any part of.

Then she met his gorgeous emerald-green eyes again and whispered, “Thank you.”

“Sure.” Then Wil offered an arm, which Vicki accepted. “You look great.”

Nervously giggling, she focused on the ground at her feet and desperately tried not to trip as she stammered another, “Th-thank you.” This time tacking on a “So do you.”

“Thanks. Feel like walking around the park?” Wil asked, still watching her expressions with that adorable half-smile that always made Vicki have a hard time thinking.

“Okay.”

It was funny, how hard it seemed to talk to Wil when they were acting more like boyfriend/girlfriend than just friends. But when they stopped thinking about the whole situation, they could usually relax and start acting more like usual. Well, mostly. It was an interesting situation, being friends with a boyfriend. But Vicki couldn’t exactly explain how it was interesting. Maybe it’s just different than I thought it would be? Of course, everything would be different than she thought it would be because she hadn’t ever had a boyfriend before.

Smiling what she knew was a silly smile, Vicki tightened her hand on Wil’s arm and moved a little closer, twirling the rose in her other hand. I have a boyfriend, she mused to herself. She still couldn’t quite believe it.

“I have a surprise for you,” Wil informed, smiling when she looked up to meet his green gaze.

“A surprise? What kind of surprise?” Just being able to be with him when he’d thought he would have to work the whole day was surprise enough.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug and focused ahead, occasionally sending her impish sidelong glances. “Nothing much. Mostly.”

“What kind of answer is that?” Vicki complained. She gave his arm another squeeze. “Don’t make me guess. I’m a horrible guesser.”

“So don’t guess. Just wait. We’ll get there eventually.”

Blinking, eyes wide, Vicki watched his profile. “We’ll get there? You mean we’re walking there?”

Wil sent her yet another impish glance. “More or less.”

Vicki giggled while giving his arm another protesting squeeze. “Wil….”

He chuckled. “I know, I know, but I want to see the look on your face. We’re almost there.”

“Oh alright. But ‘almost’ better not mean five more minutes of walking.”

“It’s not. Trust me. Just around the corner…. There. Right there.”

Vicki shifted her smiling face from Wil’s expression to follow his pointing arm, the smile slowly fading to shock as she stared at a gazebo with a set up table complete with lit candles and covered silver trays. “Oh my goodness….” she whispered, unable to think anything else but that she must have accidentally fallen asleep while writing in her journal.

Taking her hand, Wil simply said, “Come on,” as he led her forward while still watching her expressions.

Vicki absently allowed him to pull her along, eyes focused on the candles and the other 11 roses, these white, in a crystal vase in the middle of the table. “Oh my goodness….” she whispered again.

Wil steadied her step up to the table, releasing her hand to pull out her chair and position it under her as she dazedly sat. Then, once she was settled and he had retrieved the red rose from her fingers to put it with the other white ones, he uncovered both trays. Vicki blinked down at it and then suddenly giggled, clapping her hands as she looked up at Wil. He grinned down at her.

For, on each tray was a massively monstrous sandwich, and each was cut into the shape of a heart.

“Will you be my Valentine?”

Laughing, Vicki stood quickly from her chair to wrap Wil up in a hug. Knowing that all other Valentine’s Days would never measure up to this first one.