Promise of dawn

Chapter 8: Clara (Part 1)

I wake up, opening my eyes quickly. I see another pillow beside me and wonder whose it is. I stand up and stretch. Then put my hands to my head and groaned, my head hurt for some reason.  I feel someone approaching me from behind, it’s just Percy wrapping me in one of his hugs. I can't help but notice that something's up, either with me or him. I think he senses that I'm thinking about something because he is holding me tighter, I feel so secure. Almost as if nothing can go wrong.
        “Good morning my dear.” Percy says in a very sweet voice. My heart flutters just a bit and I just have to smile. “There's that smile that I love to see.” Percy says also putting a smile on his face and putting his chin on my shoulder.
        “Good morning my love.” I reply. I see Percy look down and I realize that I'm blushing. I think he is too, but I can't tell for sure. “So, breakfast?” I ask turning to look at him.
        “Wonderful.” Percy replies. I know that we didn't wake Bethany up because she is a very heavy sleeper. Once I dropped my cast iron pan on the floor and she was still sleeping like a baby.
        “Pancakes, waffles, french toast or eggs”  I ask leaning up against the fridge door.
        “Pancakes please.” Percy says taking his place on the bench. He lays down on the bench, putting his feet up on a cupboard that is sitting next to it. I get my pan out as well as the milk, eggs, butter, flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. I put the pan on the stove while I get out a bowl to mix the ingredients in. Soon enough all of the ingredients were mixed together forming a thick batter. I take a stick of butter out of the refrigerator and lightly rub the butter onto the pan. Then I pour the batter into small formations that spread out into almost perfect ovals.
        “Wow. That was fast.” Percy says looking at me, as I flip the pancakes for their second cooking.
        “Let's just say I had a lot of practice.” I say looking at him. I started to tear up so I looked away and began to pant lightly.
        “Hey, whats wrong? I know that what you told me in the park wan't everything.” Percy stands up and comes to hug me again. This time I turn around and hug him as he is reaching out to engulf me from behind. I find myself crying to a point where I can't hold the tears in much longer. It's a silent cry, almost as if something died inside, a burning death that's eating me from the inside. Percy is holding me tighter and I can't help wanting to sink into his arms and stay there forever.
        “I'll tell you in a sec. The pancakes need to be taken off the pan before they burn.” He releases me, quite reluctantly and I get a plate from the cupboard above the sink. I quickly pick up the pancakes one by one and put them down softly to cool. “Tea?” I add walking over to another cupboard.
        “Sure.” Percy adds standing up to help me.
        “Hold on... We never had our tea from last night. I can just heat that back up.” I go to the table and grab the pot from the platter. I walk back over to my original place and put the tea pot on a burner and turn it on high. Percy went to the cupboard that I got the plate that the pancakes are on from and got 3 more. He set them on the counter top and made the table. He then put the plates on place mats and cups on each one. I took the platter off the table and put it in it's original place. Percy decided to open the curtains and light flooded into the small kitchen. He smiled and closed his eyes, almost as if he was embracing the warmth of the sun on his face. Today was one of the very few that were still around 60 degrees out, so I don't blame him.
                I finally decide to wake up Bethany. Is all she did was groan, so I left her alone for a little while longer.
        “Time for breakfast.” I say getting out the maple syrup that I almost always get from my old neighbor Alice's house. She used to be my best friend, until she moved to the next town over. That's one of the things Bethany and I bonded over. The loss of our best friends.
        “Yum! These are the best pancakes I have ever had in my entire life!” Percy says taking a bite out of one that I served him just a second ago. I blush and look down at the plate in front of me.
        “Thanks.” I say, oddly enough I still teared up. I 'yawned' and tried to rub the tears away, just as I always do, but Percy noticed and the smile washed off his face as he started to chew slower. “Help yourself to more when you are ready by the way.” I say smiling, trying to act as if nothing happened.
        “Why do you always try to hide your emotions?” Percy asks putting down his fork to come sit on my side of the bench. “You know that I am here for you, and you still hide. Why?” Percy says.
        “I guess I'm just scared. When I was young I always showed my emotions and it always hurt me in the end. Now, when I show emotion I feel vulnerable, as if I'm a chicken that was caged up, going to slaughter. Showing my emotion hurt me physically as well, so I refrain from showing my emotions. The only people who actually know how I feel are you and Beth.” I pull down the neckline of my tee-shirt to reveal another scar on my chest. Percy just looks down in shock.
        “Jaslynn's going to get a very nice talk next time I see her.” Percy says looking up with seriousness. “Now, What keeps making you cry? I know that it's about your parents but what else?” He adds reaching out to hold my hand and I take it.
        “It is my parents! Lately, I've been getting into fights with them. These fights would go on for 3 to 6 hours. I think the longest one was about 9 hours though. We fight and fight and fight! I've lost about 3 pounds already, just from stress and not wanting to eat.” Percy looks down at my waist and then looks right back up at my face.
        “It doesn't look like you've lost anything” Percy says smiling. I pull up my shirt and he looks back down. I exhale and relax my stomach. His smile diminishes slowly.
        “See. My tee-shirts are tighter fit so my ribs pull the shirt out and I also keep air in my stomach so it looks fuller.” I explain, Percy reaches out and touches my prominent ribs. I feel the soft, carefulness that he attempted, almost as if I were a frail butterfly. His rough fingers were still soft and steady. He started to tear up. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you.” I say putting my shirt back in its original place.
        “No, it's ok. Whoever is doing this to you is going to get some trouble.” Percy says, he lifts his chin. “So, anything else?” He adds with a smile.
        “Well, we fight about the dumbest things. Once we fought over the fact that my mom bought me perfume and I didn't want to give a bottle to my sister, but most of the time we fight about the internet and how I'm 'irresponsible' and that I ''should be spending more time with the family'' even though I am doing my homework! I haven't played MC in like 2 weeks! That is 4-5 hours of homework everyday! Now, they took away my entire internet access as well as my Skype, phone and Kindle. I can't do my homework, I can't talk to anyone and most of all, I can't keep my viewers up to date! My subs have already gone down 5%.” I say as I start panting and tearing up. “I'm sorry for ranting. I'm just really upset.”
        “It's okay. Your life really is bad. I just wish I could do more to help.” Percy says. I start to tear up. Just as he did in the park, he wipes the tears away, but this time he leans holding my chin and a puts a soft kiss on my cheek. I just look up at him with even more tears in my eyes and try to smile, just as I always do. He just looks deep in my eyes. His breath sweet with the maple syrup he ate on the pancakes. We both look at the plates and realize that we were starved.
        “You wanna eat? I can heat up the pancakes again.” I say pointing to the oven.
        “Sure.” Percy says laughing but he was quite obviously still shaken with what he saw and heard. I took the plate and put the pancakes on a pan then put them in the oven for 5 minutes.  Ring! The oven went off and I quickly got the pancakes out. I put them back on the plate just as Bethany walked in.
        “Good morning noon waker.” Percy and I bow jokingly. It was seriously 12:27 in the afternoon. I get another plate and put it on the table just as Bethany takes her spot. Her eyes are still
drowsy and she is still slouching because of sleeping so long.
        “'mornin.” Bethany said looking at the pancake I just put on her plate. I sit down and smile, just as I normally do, but this time a tear slid down my lash and fell onto Bethany’s shoulder while I was pouring maple syrup on her pancakes. I serve myself in silence. I was extremely happy to have my friends here, just because I don't like being alone.
        “So, how long are you guys going to be staying?” I ask smiling as I put a slice of pancake in my mouth.
        “I'm staying until later this afternoon, but I can stay longer if you want.” Bethany said also cutting a slice from her pancake.
        “I can stay as long as you want.” Percy said smiling and putting another bite of pancake in his mouth.
        “Whaddia say if we stayed here all week. Until my parents get home?” I respond pouring more maple syrup on my pancakes.
        “Gladly.” Percy's voice is muffled because he just stuffed his mouth with pancakes.
        “Anytime.” Bethany says grabbing for the bottle of syrup that was being handed around. Soon we finished eating and went to my living room.
        I turned on the xbox and turned to my favorite fitness game. Percy and Bethany decided to hop in after a while. We all collapsed after a while, mostly of exhaustion. We just lay there on the rug, panting like never before. I guess it was my fault for turning it up to hard without asking because Bethany challenged me to a dance battle on Just Dance 4. I walked over to the console.
        “Perc, do you mind quitting out of the game?” I ask turning around, still panting quite hard.
        “As you wish, ma' lady.” Percy says with a bow. I curtsy in response and we both smile. Percy grabs the controller and turns it back to the home menu. I turn around and in one swift movement the game was in the CD tray. As I walked away the tray closed, almost as if I never touched the close button. The nice thing about this xbox is that I can barely touch it and it will turn on, off, or open and close the CD tray. They just sit on the sofa in shock with how fast I did it. Soon I hear the theme song come on and I pull Bethany off her rear end and up onto her feet.
        “Ready?” I ask.
        “As ready as I'll ever be.” Bethany says looking at me and getting into the start position. She chooses the song 'Umbrella' by Rihanna. I get into my position as well. Percy decides to sit down right below the Kinect sensor to watch the full view. We dance perfectly to the rhythm almost becoming hypnotized by the strength of the song. We are neck and neck for the first minute, then Bethany starts pushing ahead. I concentrate just a little bit more and end up passing her at the last minute. I was just 50 points ahead of her!
        “It's still a win!” I say sticking my tongue out at her.
        “Yeah a 50 point win.” Bethany says crossing her arms. “I dare you and Percy to do 'Time of My Life'.” She adds snickering.
        “I'm tired already!” I say sitting next to Percy.
        “C'm on.” Percy says standing up and putting his hands out to me. I gladly take them and he lifts me up to my feet.
        “Alright, It's a slower song anyway.” I say as Percy scrolls through the songs to find the one that was dared to us. “Ready?”
        “Yup.” I respond, going to my blocking and getting into my starting position. Bethany couldn't stop smirking through the entire thing. Most of the dance involved sweet movements in between us. We didn't mind and oddly enough, I found out that Percy was a great dancer.
        “You were really good.” I say handing him a bottle of ice water.
        “Yeah, I guess I just had a lot of practice.” Percy said unscrewing the cap.
        “Hey, I've been thinking of taking a ball dancing class. I don't have a partner, so it'll be really awkward dancing with someone I don't know. You wanna be my partner?” I ask. I don't know if that was the right thing to say yet. I really want him to say yes, but I think he might be a little to shy. I really shouldn't have asked.
        “Sure! That would be tons of fun.” Percy says putting a hand on my shoulder, gesturing me to sit down.  I finally do and Percy pulls me into a hug. “You know what? I'm gonna take you to dinner.” He adds looking me in the eyes “I nice dinner at the On The Marsh Bistro.”
        “Wow. Our first official date. Do I have to buy a new dress?” I ask putting my hands on my hips.
        “You can make one too.” He says putting his hands on mine. We both laugh.
        “Well, what color dress do you want me to wear?” I ask taunting him.
        “Blue.” He responds simply. I like blue. I look good in it but, I don't have any shoes to match.
        “Okay, what length?” I say again tilting my head playfully.
        “Full length with a beading.” He replies confidently.
        “Hand beaded or purchased appliqué?” I say, feeling like I finally stumped him.
        “Dinner is this week.” Percy says in a tone that makes you feel as if you should have known.
        “Purchased it is!” I say conclusively. We both laugh, “It's lunch time. What do you want for lunch?”
        “Pizza works for me.” He replies smiling.
        “So, what ya' guys talkin' about?” Bethany walks in with a duffle bag.
        “Food, You?” Percy says. We all laugh unbearably.
        “My parents left me their credit card.” I say holding up the thin green piece of plastic with a TD bank logo on it. “I'll order the pizza. What do you guys want on it?” I ask reaching for the phone.
        “Cheese is fine.” Percy answers.
        “You know mine.” Bethany says.
        “I'm going to order an 18'' okay?” I ask dialing in the number.
        “Sure.” Bethany and Percy say at the same time.
        “Hello, I'd like to order a pizza for pick up.” I say into the phone.
        “Okay, what size?” The lady on the other end says.
        “18 inch.” I reply.
        “Yup. Okay so what toppings and what crust?” The lady asks.
        “Just pepperoni on half please, and a hand tossed crust.” I say.
        “Alright that'll be $24.94 when you come to pick it up in half an hour.” The lady simply explains.
        “Okay, thanks.” I reply.
        “Have a nice day.” The lady hangs up.        
        “We can go pick up the pizza in half an hour.” I say putting the phone on the wall.
        “So, who wants to go walk Jewel!” I say holding my Great Dane, Jewel's, leash in my hand.
        “Sure!” Percy jumps up and to get Jewel from her crate.
        “Wow. Your boy has a lot of love for you if he wants to take that one out for a walk.” Bethany says nudging me with her shoulder.
        “Uggg. Jewel isn't that bad.” I say just before I hear a very heavy laugh. “Maybe she is that bad. Bad at keeping her tongue to herself!” I say as we both laugh.
        “Clara!” Percy shouts from the pantry where Jewel’s crate is. I run in and find Percy pinned to the floor with Onyx on top of him.
        “Jewel! Go bed!” I shout pointing at her thick blanket that lay in her crate. She walked in and settled down. I hold out a hand and Percy takes it. His hands were slippery from Jewel’s slobber. We walk to the bathroom. I get one of the cotton towels from the linen closet behind the black trimmed, mirror.
        “Here,” I say wetting it and wiping slobber from Percy’s face. “Wash up and I’ll have Jewel tied up.” I say smiling and handing him the towel.
        “Thanks.” He says looking at the towel. I go to Jewel and hook the soft leather leash to her pink nylon collar. We walk into the kitchen and I hook her to a clip that was attached to an eye hook.
        “Hey, how do I look?” Percy asks, his face red from rubbing it with the towel.
        “Red, but not slobbery.” I say crossing my arms.
        “Well, not much I can do about that.” He reaches down to pet Jewel and she attempts to lunge at him. Instead she is snapped around with the head collar I put on her.
        “That's exactly what's going to happened if she tries pulling you around.” I say crouching down to pet Jewel as well. “Wanna go on the trail or go into town?” I ask looking at him.
        “If we go into town we can pick up the pizza.” Percy says unhooking Jewel's leash.
        “Beth! We're going into town, get dressed!” I shout up the stairs to her. She was in her pajamas when she came back from her house.
        “Okay, okay. Just give me a minute!” Bethany shouts back.
        “Hold it. We are going into town. Let me get some mascara and lip gloss on.” I say walking to a small round table that stands in the corner. I unscrew the silver mirror like cap to a forest green container of mascara and apply it to only my top lashes. Percy looks at my reflection in the mirror then turns me around. He looks confused as he looks me strait in the eyes.
        “What's wrong with your eyes?” he asks putting his hands on my shoulders.
        “Nothing. I just put mascara on.” I say confused.
        “Hmm, they changed color then? Wait, wait, wait, no. Eyes don't change color. Take off the mascara for a sec.” He says walking to the bathroom.
        “Alright.” I say shrugging. I walk right behind him, into the small powder room. I take a cotton pad and get it wet with water. I rub my eyes and I end up making black stains under my eyes and black streaks on the white cotton. He looks at me again and takes a step back.
        “Your eyes changed color. They were greener with the mascara on and now they are more blue-gray!” He says smiling. “That's really cool.”
        “Hmm. Never noticed that. Now, I'm going to put on my mascara.” I use the dry side of the cotton and dry my eyes and clean up the smudges under my eyes. I go back to my mirror and apply the mascara with the same precision and accuracy as I had just 5 minutes ago. I reattached the cap and opened the lip gloss just as Bethany walks down the stairs. I look at her and she had a grey tee-shirt on with a simple pair of jeans. Her curly brown hair tied up in a pony tail. I quickly spread the soft pink goo on my lips and close the stick. “Ready to go?”
        “Yup! Let's head out.” Bethany says getting her sneakers and putting them on. Percy puts on his sneakers and I grab my boots that were sitting in the corner. We walk out and Jewel automatically runs for the lawn. Percy runs behind, almost tripping over the strength that he was being pulled by. Jewel does her business and comes to Percy obediently.
        “Dog, you must stay!” Percy says shaming Jewel. Jewel bows her black and white head and whimpers a little. We all laugh.
        “Let's go into town, we can go strait to the Corner Store and I can pick up the pizza.” I say gesturing the movements that we would make. We start off on our walk and make it to the Corner Store in about 10 minutes. I get the pizza and a bottle of Root Beer and we head home.
        “Finally home!” Percy says panting because of the run that Jewel took him on. He is in amazing shape but he is still exhausted. We all laugh and I unlock the door with the key that I took from a hook by the entry way. I set down the pizza on the kitchen counter and get plates from the cupboard, Percy gets plastic cups and fills the pitcher with Root Beer and Bethany gets the living room ready for our James Bond marathon. I have the entire collection, even Skyfall. I have always been a fan of James Bond and thats another reason why Bethany and I are great friends. We both love James Bond.
                “Soda up!” Percy says walking into the living room with the pitcher and a stack of cups.
        “Come for pizza!” I shout pulling pieces of pizza apart for everyone to grab. The pieces were big, so I only pulled apart 3 of the 8 pieces. I took plates in to the room and another platter with the pizza. Bethany was searching through the 23 movies that I have. We watch movies for about 7 hours. I finally get up to go put cups, plates and the platter into the kitchen. Percy follows behind me.
        “So, What did you think of the first one, ''Dr.No''? It was one of my favorites.” I ask turning my head slightly while I dump extra crusts into Jewel's food dish. “Go eat!” I command her. She obediently goes to the dish and scarfs down the crusts.
        “Not bad, but I have to say that I liked either ''Goldfinger'' or ''From Russia With Love''.” Percy says helping me put things in the trash.
        “My number one favorites have to be the ones in between “Skyfall and Goldeneye”. Those are the ones that I just can't help thinking about. There are 7 of them in that group.” I say totally sounding like a fan girl. “I think it's ''Quantum of Solace'' that has a couple scenes in Lithuania though.”
        “Well, I can't wait to see it then.” he says giving me another hug from behind.
        “Alright, well it's about time for bed. I am going to go change.” I say walking up the stairs to my room. I grab a pair of pink pajama pants with sunglasses on them and quickly slip them on. They are much more comfortable then the pair of shorts that I was wearing. I also grab a pink tank top from my shelf and take off the blue, cotton tee-shirt that I was wearing.  Sadly, I don't finish in time because Percy and Bethany are running up the stairs, just as I put the very tight tank top over my head. The duo tackle me from aside and Percy pins me down as Bethany put a blindfold on me. Percy finally releases me from his grip and pulls me to my feet.
                                                                “Guess who has a surprise for you!” Percy says holding my hand.
                                                                “I'm going to take a huge guess and say that you both have a surprise for me and I think one of them was tackling me when I'm half dressed.” I say pulling down my top to the length it was supposed to be.
        “Close, but no.” Percy says leading me to the stairs. He picks me up and carries me down the bumpy terrain then lets me down to walk again. They take me into what I think is the living room and turn me to face the supposed dining room. Percy gives me a hug from behind and lifts the blindfold from my eyes.
        “Ta da!” Percy and Bethany shout getting in my field of view and making jazz hands in front of a mannequin. A beautiful blue, satin evening gown is draped gracefully over the bodice of the mannequin. A very sheer tulle layer was draped over the whole thing and created an asymmetrical neckline that features a cross strap in the front.  The beading was hand done and the dress was exactly what Percy described when I asked him about what he wanted the dress to look like. I have no words to describe how happy I am. I walk up to it and find a price tag.
        “$199! Why would you give this to me!” I say holding up the price tag. Percy looks at it wide eyed and snatches it from my hand.
        “It wan't $199. I got it for $50 at a consignment shop. When I saw it and realized it was perfect for a dinner date so, I bought it.” Percy says ripping up the price tag and going to the trash. “I gave Bethany the earlier dress so she could get it in the house unnoticeably. Just letting you know, I bought the dress a month ago, which means you can't return it.”
        “Yeah, that's what was in the duffle bag that I was carrying earlier, I had a couple sets of clothes, but it was mostly the dress.” Bethany says shrugging.
        “Here's $50.” I say opening my wallet that's on the table, counting out 2 $20s and a $10.
        “No payment is necessary. It's a gift from me to you, the dress needed to have a purpose.” Bethany explained taking my wallet and closing it.
        “Again, you are the only person that would be this generous. You are the really the best boyfriend I could ever ask for.” I say giving Percy a hug.
        “Go try on the dress. Dinner is tomorrow and I can do the alterations for you tonight.” Bethany says slipping the dress off the mannequin and onto her forearm. “Percy, this time, you no follow! You see her in it tomorrow.” Bethany adds pushing Percy to the sofa.
        “You can play on the xbox, or do whatever. Controllers are there and the games are right next to the controllers.” I say pointing to the controllers that stood on the television stand. I gave him one last hug, “Again, I could never thank you enough.
        “Thanks.” Percy says grabbing his usual 'lucky' controller. It was a red and black one that I painted the words ''Ultra gamer, do not mess with me'' on the side of. He looks at my games and chooses one of my favorites 'Hydro Thunder: Hurricane'.
        “Good luck beating my high score.” I say walking up the stairs. Bethany ushers me to my room and I take my pajamas off. Bethany takes the bottom of the dress and slips it over my head. It was a bit loose, but it wasn't closed in the back.
        “The thing I like most about the dress is the corset back.” Bethany says stringing the satin string through the loops and finally tying them off at the top.

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GO TO PART 2
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