Chapter 15: Midnight’s Present

Jasmine was convinced that the fever Ryder had on Sunday had fried her brains. There was no other explanation. That girl has been pinching her lips since she and Remy came by for a visit after school to such extend, they looked swollen as if she had made out with…

"Did you kiss Midnight?”

Ryder, who had been staring at the TV "watching" the movie she opened for Jasmine and Remy, was so startled by Jasmine's accusations that she started choking on her saliva. Her face turned so red she looked like she would start dripping blood. This reaction didn't settle well with Jasmine who didn't know how to react to such situation. Be angry? Disappointed? Congratulate her? In the end she jumped on her like an angry kitten.

Ryder and Remy were both sitting on the sofa while Jasmine sat on the floor between them. When she jumped on Ryder, Remy very skillfully grabbed the bowl of popcorn that was on the sofa between him and Ryder and sat on the armchair, undisturbed without even taking his eyes off the TV.

Jasmine grabbed Ryder's shoulders and shook her brains out while frantically asking her. "Don't tell me you two kissed? When did this happen? Why did this happen? Are you still a virgin? Why are you growing up so fast? (Tot)” She has been so busy worrying about Aiden that she totally forgot about that sly fox Midnight. What was this sneak attack? It's so unfair!

"I DIDN'T." Ryder shouted. Her face felt so hot she was scared that it would knock her out. If the blushing wasn't enough, her heart was also beating fast and for some reason she felt like hiding her face behind the cushions of the sofa, but Jasmine wouldn't let go of her shoulders.

Ryder had been absent-minded the whole day. And she had only Midnight to blame for it. After yesterday's visit he was all, she could think of. Thinking about the fact that he actually came by… how his hand was soft and cold, but in her grasp, it slowly warmed up… his voice as he whispered… his breath tickling her lips as he spoke… The more she recalled these details the redder and hotter her face became; the more suspicious Jasmine was.

She had stayed home and didn't go to school due to still feeling unwell, but this only gave her more time to recall those moments that stirred her heart and awakened a strange feeling in her stomach. Her brain for some reason had stuck at that specific moment when Midnight pulled her closer, the sensation still fresh and Ryder could only unconsciously pinch her lips…

Despite Ryder denying it, Jasmine wasn't convinced. "Did you kiss Aiden then?”

Ryder's eyes widened. Her face cooled down and she pushed Jasmine away. "Why would I kiss Aiden? He's just my friend." Of course, Ryder was still unaware of the fact that her relationship with Aiden had been updated, the status changing from friends to lovers and that only Aiden was aware of this update. Aiden and half of the school…

The dude had to share it with the world. He bragged to his friends how Ryder was finally his. His friends told their other friends, rumors spread, for Aiden was actually well known in school because of being the basketball team captain. When these rumors reached Jasmine, she sneered at the stupidity of Aiden. If such rumors were true, Ryder would have told her first and she wouldn't find it out like this. However, Jasmine just couldn't understand why Aiden would lie about something like this. Was his pride hurt so badly by Ryder that he had to lie about his success? Damn it man, he sure does be very pitiful.

Jasmine didn't care about the rumors, but if these rumors hurt Ryder, she would go feral.

However now that her dear Ryde couldn't stop touching her lips and denied kissing Midnight… Jasmine was having second thoughts. She couldn't have kissed that dumbo right?

“Then why do you keep touching your lips like that?”

"Maybe they're itchy?” Remy offered an excuse for Ryder. After receiving her help countless times when he tried to deal with Jasmine, he felt that it was only right to return the favor. During that one week that the three started to hang out together, Remy and Ryder would often side together against Jasmine who usually lost all rationality.

Jasmine wasn't happy at all about such developments. "Why are you siding with her? You have to be on my side."

"Why?” Remy smirked and tried to hide it by filling his mouth with popcorn.

"Because I'm your mother!” Jasmine exclaimed.

Remy wasn't affected at all. "Said who?”

In this moment, betrayed by both her precious children, Jasmine felt as if dramatically crying one single tear while clutching her heart. "Betrayed… Stabbed in the back by my own kids… why is life so cruel? Where did I go wrong? Wasn't my love enough for you?”

Remy rolled his eyes and said to Ryder "She's talking nonsense again."

"Just give her five minutes, she will get tired of it."

Remy glanced at Jasmine who was still going on with her monologue going full Hamlet mode, and bit the corner of his lips to stop himself from smiling as he found it cute. To distract himself from Jasmine he decided to talk to Ryder. "Is Midnight that guy you meet every night?”

Remy was officially adopted, became son of Jasmine, brother of Ryder. Being it like this, he sorts of knew about Midnight as the two girls didn't try to keep it a secret at all, as if he had been their friend for years. Remy didn't know how to feel about this amount of trust thrown in his hands like this. It scared him but it also warmed his heart. He couldn't remember how long it has been since he wasn't seen like a freak by the others, when was the last time someone trusted him and cared about him…

Ryder just nodded, slightly blushing again.

"You like him?” He asked her again.

The blush darkened and Ryder avoided eye contact. Why was she feeling like this? What was she being shy for?

Meanwhile Ryder felt like the guys were truly being unfair to her heart. Midnight shamelessly asks her if she has a crush on him, Jasmine is almost convinced the two had kissed and Remy asks her if she likes Midnight. The hermit Ryder wanted to howl in frustration.

Even though Ryder didn't answer, Remy just nodded, understanding the situation but didn't say anything else. He kept eating his popcorn. Jasmine had told him to don't say anything anyway. Something about how Ryder should learn to understand how to deal with human interactions herself.

Right then, the doorbell rang and Jasmine finally stopped the monologue. The three of them looked at each other as if that way the door would be answered by itself. Michelle and Henry weren't home at the moment, but if it was them, they surely wouldn't ring the doorbell for they had their own keys. So, who could it be?

Just as Ryder was about to stand up to answer the door, Remy stood up with the bowl of popcorn still in his hands. "I will answer it. You're still sick."

Ryder smiled as she thanked him, while Jasmine sat by her side, threw her arms around Ryder's waist and rested her head on her shoulder. Ryder covered both of them with the blanket she had been wrapping herself for two days now and both girls watched Remy walking out of the living room.

"Isn't my son such a precious gentleman?” Jasmine smiled proudly.

Meanwhile, Remy opened the door and unfazed looked at the person behind it.

That person being Aiden.

This dedicated boyfriend had been secretly fuming with anger all day. He had been blinding everyone with his dazzling smiles all day, bragging to his friend about his date with Ryder, letting out all the unnecessary details such as the rain that gave Ryder a cold, the car breaking down and the awkward tension that had been present the whole time but it had gone unnoticed by him, yet he couldn't get over the fact that Ryder hadn't texted him once. Not a single message. Not a single call. WHAT WAS THIS BEHAVIOR? DOESN'T SHE MISS ME AT ALL?

He waited the whole day; Sunday came and went yet no message was sent to him. The next day, Ryder didn't come to school at all. Aiden, who couldn't control his frustration anymore, decided to sacrifice his pride as a man and text her first this once. Only for Ryder to leave him on deliver for half a day and respond only after noon and tell him she didn't go to school today.

I KNOW THAT ALREADY!

Ryder, of course, didn't want to tell him she was sick because she thought Aiden would feel guilty… because you know… it’s kind of was his fault that she got sick…

But this only fueled his flames. This was unacceptable to him. It's not like he didn't think of the possibility of Ryder being sick, but he was simply just too angry for being ignored like this. So, he decided to give Ryder a chance to make it up for it by dropping by her house. He was sporting one of his blinding smiles when he rang the doorbell, his friends waiting in his car, grinning while waiting for Ryder to answer the door. That was until Remy answered it. The smile on Aiden's face turned downwards and his friends' grins were replaced by confused expression, but still enjoying this new development of events nevertheless.

What in the name of fuck is this?

Remy looked at Aiden with a bored expression, one hand holding the bowl of popcorn, the other grabbing a handful of it and stuffed it in his mouth. "What do you want?”

Aiden almost snapped right then. With his face twitching and twisting, his usually calm expression finally cracking, he glared at Remy. What was this freak doing in Ryder's house?

He didn't want to believe the reality of him having to ask this freak about his girlfriend in his girlfriend's house. "Is Ryder home?” It took all of his self-control to don't shove Remy away and stomp his way into the house.

"Why do you need her?” Remy was just simply too bored. He had heard of the rumors of Aiden dating Ryder, but he also knew about Midnight. He had seen Ryder's eyes sparkling when talking about him to Jasmine, and he had just confirmed how Ryder felt about Midnight. Aiden was just causing troubles for no reason, so of course Remy didn't have a good impression of Aiden. Actually, he never had a good impression of him. It's not like he hadn't noticed how he glared at Jasmine all the time looking at her with disgust.

Remy looked at Aiden and didn't even try to hide the sneer on his face.

Aiden was already having a hard time trying to keep his nonexistent calm. He endured the way Remy looked at him, his tone, his words yet almost lost it at the sneer. However just as he was about to go all Hulk on poor precious Rem Rem, Jasmine popped out of nowhere behind him, smirking at Aiden.

No matter how much Aiden disliked this girl, he feared her more than disliked her. His twitching lips parted to say something, but Jasmine was faster.

"Oh. The boyfriend is here." Jasmine mocked and grabbed Remy's hand and pulled him to the living room, not even telling Aiden to come in. "Ryde! Aiden is here."

Not too long after that announcement, Ryder walked out of the living room. She was still wearing her pajamas, her hair was even messier than usually, and she was blowing her nose as she walked to Aiden. This…. What is this? Aiden almost blushed in embarrassment. Is this how you meet your boyfriend?

"Hi." Ryder smiled at Aiden. "Come in." She opened the door farther and made room for him to come in, but Aiden didn't move. What was the point of coming in anyway? Those two freaks were in there and Ryder was… looking like that…

"I just came by to ask how you are." With much difficulty he managed to cast one of his typical smiles. "You didn't come to school today…

Ryder noticed that he was being a bit weird, but didn't dwell too much in it. After all Aiden seemed to always look uncomfortable whenever Jasmine or Remy were around. Maybe this was the case again.

"I caught a cold." Ryder said guiltily, but what was she guilty for, even she didn't know.

"Is it because of…” Aiden started to day, but Ryder didn't let him finish.

"No, no, no. It's not because of that. I didn't change my clothes as soon as I came home and it turned out like this."

Aiden wasn't feeling in mood at all. His friends were still watching from his car, his girlfriend looked like a troll and another guy answered the door. At the moment, he just wanted to leave. "Are you coming to school tomorrow?”

"Yup." Ryder smiled at him.

"Good. See you tomorrow then."

Ryder watched Aiden as he walked to his car and didn't close the door until the car drove away. When she returned to the living room, Jasmine and Remy were both sitting on the sofa, eyes focused on the TV. Jasmine had learned her head against Remy's shoulder, while the poor guy was trying to act as if this didn't affect him at all. Suddenly Ryder felt like the third wheel.

She was pondering over the idea to give them some space, however before she could make up her mind, Jasmine noticed her and grinned like a fool, satisfied when she saw her alone. "Where is Aiden?”

Ryder sat on the armchair, wrapped herself in a burrito with her blanket and didn't even pay attention to the TV. "He left. I think he was going out with his friends. They were in his car."

Jasmine sneered, but didn't say anything about it. Then maybe because she didn't want to talk about Aiden anymore, or simply because she was curious, Jasmine changed the topic without the slightest hesitation. "You said that Midnight gave you a present. What was it?”

Hearing this, even Remy got curious, his eyes shifting from the TV to Ryder.

Last night, before he left, Midnight had given her the present he promised to make for her. He sounded rather shy and self-conscious when he handed an object, light and square. Midnight had very tactfully chosen exactly this moment, right before leaving, to give her this, in fear that if he gave it to her sooner and Ryder saw what it was, he wouldn't know how to react to whatever expression Ryder would make.

It was dark in the room and Ryder could only wait until Midnight left before turning on the lights and looked down at the object in her hand. Firstly, she thought it might have been a thin pocket book or something. The square was twice the size of Ryder's phone, and it turned out to be a small canvas. The painting on it, left Ryder dumbfounded, stunned to such extend she couldn't even make any noise as her cognac eyes stared at the image on the canvas.

The canvas was painted black as if dipped in darkness and right in the middle of it there was the face of a young woman… her own face to be more precise. The face was slightly titled, the left cheek wholly exposed as the Ryder in the painting seemed to be looking at something at the corner of the canvas. The left side of the face was hidden in that darkness and the other half was exposed to a soft yellowish light that came from below, falling on the chin, exposing a pair of rosy red lips. The light fell on the left eye, making the cognac eye reflect light and blend with darkness, the two twirling within the iris, giving a soul to the face in the painting. Messy hair tickled the face blown by an invisible wind that along with the hair carried small blue petals and tiny Forget-me-nots emitting a soft blue light that reflected on the face of the girl.

Ryder stared at the small painting for a long time, not knowing what to think. She recalled Midnight telling her that he would paint something from now then for his own amusement, but Ryder had thought that he painted easy landscapes of forests and mountains or just followed some Bob Ross tutorial. No way she expected such skills and talent from him. The more she looked at the painting, seeing every single detail, noticing every stroke of the brush, the redder her cheeks turned, the feelings filling her heart strange and unknown.

When Ryder fetched the small painting to show it to the curious Jasmine and Remy, holding it in her hands as if it was the most precious and delicate thing she possessed, her face brimmed with pride looking like a mother showing off her child's success. Jasmine widened her eyes and exclaimed.

"What the fuck! Is he Leonardo da Vinci's reincarnation or something? What is this?” That of course was Jasmine's way of praising Midnight's talent.

Remy looked at the painting carefully in silence than while chewing a mouthful of popcorn, asked. "Did he paint it himself?” Ryder nodded grinning even more proudly. Remy looked like he wanted to say something to her when he noticed that grin, but remembering Jasmine's words once again, changed his mind and said something else instead "He's very talented."

Jasmine threw her arms in the air groaning in defeat before sitting back on the sofa pouting. "Damn it, man. He's one secretive asshole but I'm starting to like him." How could she not favor him? The girl on the painting looked exactly like Ryder and it was painted so carefully and diligently… one didn't have to be an art expert to see all the effort Midnight had put into that small painting. Could someone be harboring ill intents towards her daughter paint her like this? The impression Jasmine had on Midnight improved by 80%, becoming a solid 90%. If only he wasn't such an asshole about his identity…

Receiving Jasmine's approval for Midnight, a big ass smile spread on Ryder's face, her cheeks turning slightly red with happiness as she looked down at painting lovingly. Her Midnight truly was very talented.