NaNoWriMo, Day 23, Goal met!
Today is Day 23 of NaNoWriMo and I'm super stoked! My total for day 22 of NaNoWriMo was 3,897 words. This means.....I make it to 50k words! *party dance* Actually, I'm now over the 50k mark, and still have 8 days remaining. There is still a lot of this book that still needs to be written so I will continue to write for those 8 days and see what my ending count will be.
All passages were in order from yesterday's post, so here's what I wrote:
I could see his hopes dropping for a chance at a mount as easily as the other two had managed, so I had encouraged him to try doing reputation gains since they had guaranteed mount gains as long as he worked at it long enough. He agreed to do that in his down time, but I could tell he really wasn’t excited for the reputation mounts. I’d have to make extra time to help him with raid and dungeon drops. I didn’t like seeing him so sad at the idea of not having a cool looking mount.
“You’re starting to care a whole lot about him,” Rashta said.
“I’m starting to show signs of him being a friend to me,” I responded back. “Nothing more. Stop dreaming.”
“It’s no dream, Rinneth.”
I rolled my eyes and headed for my door. I didn’t have time to argue with her. A movie I had been waiting to come out in theaters was playing tonight and Ramos had agreed to sit through the movie with me. With a two hour drive, I needed to leave now if I wanted to beat the line. My movie wasn’t going to be hugely popular, but there was another movie, some low budget horror movie, showing tonight that was, and I didn’t want to miss my movie because people had poor taste. Not that mine is much better…
I opened my bedroom door only to be taken aback by Ramos standing just outside my room with his arm up and ready to knock. “Nice timing...I think?”
He didn’t smile or laugh, making me uneasy. “I have bad news.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I can’t go with you to the movies.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Sorry, Rinneth, you father needs me to do something an--”
“Ramos, you promised!” I whined. “I’ve been getting excited all month for this. I just wanted to see a movie in a theater for once. Like I used to with my mom.”
“Rinneth, you still can,” Ramos said. “Just not with me.”
I took a deep breath. “Who did my father assign in your place?”
He smiled weakly. “Sirath.”
My heart stopped. “No. No, no, no, no, no! I love him, glad he’s in the clan, but I will not watch anymore movies with him unless he personally asks me because it’s the only time he won’t talk during a movie. And because of his taste in movies, I’m sitting there wishing he would!”
“I’m sorry, Rinneth. I wish I could g--”
“Save it. Just go do what my father ordered you to do. It’s the only thing you’re good at anymore.”
I slammed my door shut and went to my bed to sit down.
“Was that reaction necessary?” Rashta asked. “Seeing a movie with Sirath isn’t the end of Lumaraeon.”
“It’s not that,” I replied. “I can live with the fact that my viewing will be obstructed by Sirath’s constant talking and criticism of the movie. It’s the fact that Ramos promised me. He promised nothing would get in the way of us going to see it together.” I touched the necklace I rarely ever took off. “But I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore. He’s proven to me he’s more loyal to my father than me.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“Then you really haven’t been paying attention.”
Rashta sighed. “Why don’t you ask your guildmates to show up too?”
I snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think any of them would be interested in seeing a romantic comedy.”
“You won’t know unless you try.”
I looked at my messenger and figured she was right. Couldn’t hurt to try. so I set up a group message and wrote something out.
Help! Need a huge favor from you guys. Are any of you in Lumas and free in two hours? Ramos and I had plans to see a movie but he can’t go now and my father assigned someone else to go with me and he’s a horrible movie partner. It’s a romantic comedy, so if it’s not your thing I’m sorry and I’ll try to make it up to you somehow. I just don’t want to see this movie with Sirath alone if I can avoid it.
Rinneth
No need to tell them the real story. They didn’t need to be dragged into my problems.
I have plans, sorry.
Rial
Big family get together. Would rather be at a movie though. Sorry.
Erin
Sorry, Rinneth, I’m back home. That’s a genre I’d be happy to watch with you, but there’s no way I could get to town in time. Sorry.
Vamir
That response surprised me. Vamir didn’t seem like a romantic comedy kind of guy.
Sorry, lass. I also cannot join ye.
Thuldren
I shrugged. Figured this would be the result.
I’m free. I’ll join you.
Vesser
That response surprised me. After seeing all the other guys decline, usually the last guy remaining also bails. Maybe he doesn’t want to look like a jerk.
“Maybe because he wants to see a movie with you,” Rashta said.
“I really doubt that.”
I typed out a message to reply to Vesser’s offer.
Thanks, but don’t worry about it. I can see my father going on a rampage the moment he finds out only one of you guys showed up. I’ll save you that headache.
Rinneth
“Really?” Rashta exasperated. “That’s really going to be your excuse?”
I slid off my bed and headed for the door. “You know as well as I do, it’s valid. He’ll blow a gasket if he found out I was meeting up with a guy for a movie. Doesn’t matter his race.”
“But Sirath will also be there.”
“Won’t matter to him. He’ll still see it as some sort of archaic, chaperoned date. And that’s the last thing that it needs to been seen as.”
I opened my door and headed down the hall. If I stalled anymore then I’d be stuck in a long line and miss my movie. My father and a tall, muscular man with black hair and blue eye were sitting in the kitchen at the island speaking, which immediately ended when I entered the room.
“Ready, Sirath?” I asked.
“Ready?” Sirath asked. “Ramos said you decided you didn’t want to go.”
My brow rose. “I never said that.”
“He said you were pretty pissed off.”
“Yeah, at him.”
“Why’d it take you so long to come down?”
“Because I was asking friends if they wanted to see the movie too. Ramos doesn’t like it when I try to invite others, so I figured since he was bailing on me, I’d see if I could actually have friends join me. But they were busy, not surprising since it was last minute.”
“Ramos didn’t bail,” my father tried to defend. “I needed him to do something with a few others.”
“Ramos gave me his word we’d definitely see this movie together tonight. He chose to follow your order instead. He bailed.”
Sirath stood up. “We should leave before we’re actually late.”
I nodded and turned to leave but my father spoke. “Who are these friends you asked?”
“Doesn’t matter. They couldn’t go.”
“Rinneth, who in the clan did you ask and they said they couldn’t go?”
I turned around and stared at him with amazement. “Are you kidding me? I know this is hard for you to believe, but I do have real friends. You may not approve of them, but at least they actually give a shit about me without being forced to.”
“Rinneth, don’t you start this with me,” my father warned.
I left instead of arguing. Was never worth it. Sirath followed me out and once we arrived in the garage, he tossed me the keys. I smiled my thanks and hopped in behind the wheel. The one good thing about Ramos not tagging along, I actually got the chance to drive.
“Rinneth,” Sirath said as I drove down the long stretch of road through our territory. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” The car was quiet for a few minutes and I sighed. “I’m sorry you were forced to come with me. I know you don’t like these movies.”
“Rinneth, I volunteered,” he said. “Fallon was going to tell Ramos to convince you to go another day since he didn’t want to listen to reason and let Ramos go with you. I knew how much you wanted to see this movie so I offered to go with you.”
“You didn’t have to do it. You don’t have to keep forcing yourself to do thing because of me.”
He sighed and pinched his nose. “I’m not forcing myself to do anything, Rinneth. I willingly choose to do things for you.”
“You gave up happiness for me. You shouldn’t be here with the clan. You should be with her. How was giving her up a good thing? How was that not forcing you to do something?”
“Rinneth, we’ve been over this. She didn’t like you based on what you are. She didn’t know the first thing about you but already determined she hated you and believe you didn’t deserve to live. I tried to make it work. I tried to get her to see she was wrong, but I failed, and I chose you over her because I was loyal to you first.”
“You were better off choosing her.”
“No, I definitely wasn’t.”
The air stilled as neither of us was willing to speak anymore. The most irritating trait of a Black Dragon was their stubbornness, and I had also inherited that trait. I knew I was right. He would have been better off not dealing with the crap that came with the territory of being Dragon-Phoenix.
I turned up the stereo to keep my distracted from the silence that would continue for the next two hours.
****
I took the popcorn from the counter girl while Sirath paid and then the two of us slipped into the proper auditorium to find a seat. The movie was a bit more popular than I had been expecting, so picking out seats was hard, but we managed to find two empty ones near the middle of the room.
Sirath dug into the popcorn before the opening credits started rolling and I shook my head. “Really? You couldn’t wait?”
“If we need more I can go buy more,” he said. “But I’m hungry. Besides, the credits are about to start rolling anyways and it could be worse. I could have already eaten half of this before we even sat down.”
I laughed, since it was true, and focused on the screen. The room darkened slowly and the opening credits began to play. My attention was ripped away when the bag of popcorn Sirath held broke open on the bottom and popcorn spilled everywhere.
“The hell?” I said. “Did you jam your hand in there too aggressively?”
“No,” he growled. “My eating hand wasn’t even near the bag. Cheap, overpriced bag. I’ll be back. I’m going to complain.”
Before I could stop him he was out of his seat and heading for the auditorium doors. Something wasn’t right here. I smelled foul play. Foul play with popcorn? Well, could be weirder.
“Rinneth, Vesser is here,” Rashta said.
“What?”
Before I had a chance to continue our conversation, someone swooped into the empty seat next to me and held up a bag of popcorn. “Popcorn? It’s extra buttery.”
I stared at Vesser with confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“You invited me,” he replied with a cocky grin.
“No, I told you not to show up because you were the only one free. You are so dead when Sirath finds you in his seat. And when my father finds out--”
Vesser laughed. “You sound like some scared teenager.”
I opened my mouth but immediately shut it when I realized he was right. “Yeah, well, I am treated like a kid a lot, so I guess it’s not surprising I act like one.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“No, but it’s still true.”
“How old are you anyways?”
I was taken aback by his question. “Didn’t your mother tell you it’s rude to ask someone their age.”
“No, she just said to make sure they know your age too. So, I’m five hundred.”
“Forty-five.”
His brow rose. “Seriously? You don’t look older than twenty-five.”
“Like you’re one to talk. You don’t look much older than me.”
“I’m full Dragon.”
I giggled. “And I’m half. Those genes have their perks. Rashta says I’ll live a few centuries if I don’t do anything stupid.”
“Not bad, for someone with Human blood.”
“Thanks for not thinking I’m seventeen or something. Lot of people think that because of how I wear my hair.”
“They don’t look at your face enough then. You’re far too mature looking to be younger than twenty.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
The two of us looked up when Sirath showed up with a new bag of popcorn.
“Hey,” Vesser said casually.
“What is going on here?” Sirath asked.
“Sirath, this is Vesser. Vesser, this is Sirath,” I introduced. “Vesser is one of my friends I mentioned earlier about inviting. He apparently cleared up his schedule.”
“Saw that this seat was empty when I showed up late and thought she came alone,” Vesser lied. “She didn’t get the chance to mention you were just out of your seat.” he looked at the popcorn on the floor. “Though I can see why you were. Do you want you seat back?”
Sirath shook his head. “No, I’ll go find another seat.”
We watched as he walked off to look for a seat in the dark and I found it suspicious.