I'm not super happy with this epilogue. But, you know, I've rewritten it a couple times already, so I decided to post it. Thank you to RiseAgainstItAll for the suggestion for the epilogue, and to all of you who read and/or reviewed! I had a lot of fun writing this.
Epilogue
Mass text intercepted at 02:18 am
From: Rose Hathaway
To: Dimitri Belikov, Adrian Ivashkov, Sydney Sage, Eddie Castile, Jill Mastrano-Dragomir, Lissa Dragomir, Christian Ozera, Mia Rinaldi, Ambrose, Nikolai, Viktoria Belikova, Janine Hathaway, Abe Mazur, Mikhail Tanner, Sonya Karp
Movie party my & Dimitri's place this Fri 6:30! Bring 1 movie each and we'll vote. Or we'll have a marathon. Depends on how much alcohol Adrian brings. RSVP ASAP and bring FOOOOOOD! Or else you're automatically disinvited. And if someone dares to bring in anything remotely healthy, I will kick you in the balls. Or the vagina. Whichever one you have. Love you guys!
Intercepted at 02:20 am
From: Dimitri Belikov
To: Rose Hathaway
Roza, why do I not remember agreeing to a party?
Please?
And Adrian's bringing alcohol since when?
He's ADRIAN, Comrade.
I don't know about this...
I love you!
I think I'll regret this later.
I'll pay you back...;) and you'll definitely enjoy it.
Don't tempt me.
If you agree, I'll be in the shower when your shift is over.
Roza...
EVERY DAY! ;)
Okay, time to plan the party!
Intercepted at 02:25 pm
From: Abe Mazur
To: Rose Hathaway
Your mother decided that we probably shouldn't go, kiz. Sorry. I think the mention of alcohol was more than enough for her to stop, but also, I really don't want to witness PDA. It makes me feel old.
You ARE old, old man.
Hey!
Intercepted at 02:45 pm
From: Sonya Karp
To: Rose Hathaway
Sorry, Rose, but Mikhail's on duty Friday night and I'd feel bad going to a party without him.
That's okay! Friday night shifts suck.
Intercepted at 03:00 pm
From: Lissa Dragomir
To: Rose Hathaway
Christian, Jill, Eddie, Adrian, Sydney, Mia, Ambrose, Viktoria, and Nikolai can come! And me. Duh.
Lol none of the older peeps can come so it looks like the oldest person there is going to be my lovely Russian. Looks like I have something to tease him about!
Aww you guys are so cute!
Lissa. Calm down.
Kk see you on Fri!
Love you, bye.
Friday, 06:30 pm
The doorbell rings, and Rose and Dimitri freeze from their streamer war. There's a mess of the papery ribbons hanging from the kitchen light.
"I'll get it," Rose says, and disappears before he can say, Wait, I have to clean up the decorations now?
She doesn't miss the soft chuckle as she hurries to the door, and she can't help the soft smile that crosses her face.
Yanking open the door, she's greeted by the faces of the whole gang.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa...did you all carpool?"
Lissa smirks. "One of the few benefits of being queen: many awesome cars at your disposal."
Rose rolls her eyes. "Okay, food check. Single file line, people!"
"You're seriously making us do this?" Eddie groans. Rose glares.
"Get in line, Castile!"
Lissa holds up a plate of cookies as she walks in, and Christian, rolling his eyes, follows with a large pack of Coke. Jill's carrying a large bowl of spaghetti, and Eddie's holding the meatballs.
"Seriously, Eddie? This is behavior I expect from Christian, not you!" Rose groans. Eddie smirks.
She impatiently waves him in, and Sydney steps up with a salad.
Rose gives her a look.
Sydney gives one back.
"Really, Syd? Take a fat day today!"
Sydney shakes her head. "I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes salad here. I even brought dressing for your benefit." She usually eats her salad without anything (ew).
"Fine, fine," says the Dhamphir. "I won't kick you, since you brought dressing."
Adrian steps up, a bottle or ranch dressing in one hand and a bottle of what looks to be wine, but is actually—
"Sparkling grape juice?"
Adrian shrugs, and that's when Rose notices for the first time how clean he looks. He's been sober for months.
"Syd doesn't like my drinking, so I stopped."
Rose grins. "I'm proud of you, Mr. Ivashkov."
Viktoria and Nikolai both offer, in unison, a box of chocolate glazed donuts and pizza.
Rose almost salivates. "You guys," she says a bit breathlessly, "are my new best friends."
"So, did everyone bring a movie?" she asks.
Everyone but Viktoria and Nikolai holds up a movie in answer. When Rose shoots her boyfriend's sister a questioning look, Viktoria shrugs and mouths the word Russian.
"Okay, put them on that table."
Everyone does. It's like they're sheep. Not even Christian says anything.
Rose puts her own movie on the table and backs away. The silence in the room is almost palpable, and it's actually creeping her out.
"Okay, what is this?"
Silence.
"Why are you all so damn quiet?"
Silence. Eddie smirks slightly, but everyone is still watching Rose, wide-eyed.
She explodes.
"Are you all sheep or cows or some other barnyard animal? What are you up to?"
Silence again. Then...
Jill giggles, and then Viktoria begins to snicker, and suddenly, everyone's laughing as Rose stands there, red-faced and exasperated. Lissa shakes her head. "I can't believe you fell for that, Rose."
Eddie smirks. "Little Rosie has her panties in a twist?"
Rose scowls. "I swear to God, have you and Sparky switched bodies or something?"
Eddie and Christian slyly look at each other and, in unison, slide off silver rings and instantly switch bodies. Rose groans.
"I should've known."
Adrian smiles. "I knew it would work!"
"So whose idea was it to freak me out by pretending to be cows?" Rose asks, exasperated.
Mia smiles. "That was mine, for making me nervous before setting me up."
"But I set you up with Ambrose, and it worked out!"
The blonde waves it away. "You still made me nervous."
The brunette scowls. "You guys suck."
"That's what she said," snickers Christian.
Rose's hand twitches as she fights the urge to punch him and cut off certain...appendages.
"Guys, seriously, let's watch a movie," says Sydney.
Rose jumps up. "Okay, people, let's take a vote. You get one vote, and yes, I will know if you cheat."
"How?" interjects Christian.
Rose shoots him a look. "Guardian secrets."
He looks like he's about to protest, but she gives him a death glare and he shuts up.
"Here are the movies: Pokémon, The Matrix, The Exorcist, Sweeney Todd, True Grit, Titanic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail , The Hangover The Dark Knight,and...The Dark Knight again. Dammit, I should've brought out my Inception DVD instead so we wouldn't have duplicates. And who the hell brought Pokémon?"
No one responds, but she can see Jill and Eddie fighting smirks and she glares at them.
"Who votes Pokémon?"
No one does anything for a moment, and then Eddie, smirking, shoots his hand up in the air. Jill rolls her eyes at her boyfriend and they laugh.
Rose smirks to herself. "The Matrix?"
Eddie and Jill both raise their hands, but Rose grins. "Sorry, Castile, but you already voted for Pokémon."
Eddie gapes. "But that was a joke!"
She smiles innocently. "Was it? I thought you were serious. Who votes for The Exorcist?"
Sydney raises her hand.
"Sweeney Todd?"
Adrian smiles at Sydney and votes.
"Titanic?"
Lissa, of course, votes for it. Christian closes his eyes and covers his ears while Lissa turns to him with puppy eyes, and Eddie snickers. "You are—"
"So whipped," everyone else finishes for him. Well, everyone but Christian and Lissa, who looks confused.
"Monty Python?"
Mia approves.
"The Hangover?"
Ambrose raises his hand.
"The Dark Knight that is rented?"
Christian raises his hand proudly. When no one else votes, he scowls.
"The Dark Knight that is owned and comes from me?"
Rose, Viktoria, and Nikolai all vote for it and his scowl becomes even more pronounced.
"Seriously?"
Rose smirks. "Sorry, Pyro, we all have standards."
Dimitri frowns. "Roza, you forgot True Grit."
Viktoria spazzes. "No! No! We are not watching that!"
"Comrade, face it, the only person who wants to watch it is you," says Rose. "Also, if you somehow manage to force us into watching it, I will shove your duster out the window."
Dimitri visibly pales, and his sister snickers. Nikolai grins unashamedly and tries to suppress it when Dimitri looks up at Viktoria, glaring, as Nikolai is sitting right next to her.
Rose smiles. "It's okay. I still love you, even with your weird cowboy obsession."
He smiles softly at her, and she pulls him in for a kiss.
Of course, Christian ruins the moment. "And you say we do a lot of PDA?"
Rose glares at him. "Shut it, Fire Crotch."
"I don't think it's fair to vote for your own movie," says Jill a few minutes later.
Rose sighs. "Fine, fine, we'll do another vote. No voting for your own movie, guys."
"Pokémon?"
Lissa and Dimitri both vote for it.
"Seriously, guys?" says Rose. Both shrug.
"This is just to annoy you for threatening my duster," says Dimitri. Rose sighs and moves on.
"The Matrix?"
Rose and Christian both vote for it. Both frown at one another, and Lissa tries to hide her laughter in the palm of her hand.
"The Exorcist?"
Adrian votes for it.
"Sweeney Todd?"
Sydney raises her hand.
"Titanic?"
Lissa pouts at the lack of reaction.
"True Grit?"
Dimitri winces when no one votes for it, and everyone adopts a look of horror.
"Monty Python?"
Ambrose votes.
"The Hangover?"
Mia votes.
"The Dark Knight, Christian version?"
No one votes for it. Christian glares.
"You know I paid to rent it, right?"
Mia shrugs. "Oh, we know. But...we have standards."
Rose high fives her and concludes.
"The Dark Knight, Rose version?"
Viktoria and Nikolai vote.
"Guys, we have a tie between Pokémon, The Matrix, and my version of The Dark Knight," Rose groans. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Okay, last vote, people. I swear, if we tie again, I will kill you all."
Everyone adopts a look of horror, not unlike when True Grit was mentioned.
"Pokémon."
Thank God, no one votes for it.
"The Matrix."
Eddie and Jill vote for it.
"The Dark Knight."
Rose, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian, Sydney, Adrian, Viktoria, and Nikolai all vote for it.
"Thank you, people, for not voting for Pokémon. Seriously, how the hell did that even make finals?"
Sydney snorts. "You make it sound like the Olympics."
Adrian puts his arms around her. "You win gold for beauty, Sage," he says.
Of course, in a room full of females, it probably isn't the smartest thing he's ever said. Jill, Mia, Lissa, Rose, and Viktoria all glare at him in unison.
The guys all hasten to act manly and negate what he said. "He's lying," they all blurt out at the same time.
Jill giggles and Adrian smirks. "Jinx, you owe me a soda."
"Dude, you didn't even say anything," says Eddie, confused.
"What are you, five?" teases Sydney.
"No, he's gotta be younger. At five years old, I was throwing books and cursing at teachers, and I was never remotely close to the top of my class. At least, not the useless ones," replies Rose.
Dimitri gives Rose a look. "Really, Roza? At five, I was the teacher's favorite already," he groans.
"Remind me, how did you two end up together again?" Christian says.
They look at each other and shrug. "I guess it happens," says Rose.
"And anyway, it's not as bad as your story," she continues. "You became a stalker. Like...Edward Cullen, minus the sleep-watching."
"Hey! At least she was my age!"
"At least I wasn't a creeper about it," she retorts.
Two hours later, they still haven't watched the movie. Rose and Christian are, of course, still bickering.
"At least it was legal for us to go out!"
"At least the male party in my relationship is even remotely good-looking!"
"At least we only had sex after we started going out!"
"At least both of us are sexy naked!"
"How would you know what I look like naked?"
"When I'm sleeping, you're sleeping together, and you know I get sucked into her head a lot!"
"Oh, so you stayed to watch?"
"No, because I'm not a sicko like that!"
"I think it's because you're jealous."
"Of what?!"
"Of my awesomeness, since yours is really small."
"Actually, you're the one who's really small."
Silence.
Eddie snickers. "I think she wins this one, Ozera."
Even Lissa is trying not to laugh.
"Can we please just watch the movie now?" asks Sydney.
"I'd like to," says Rose, glancing at Eddie and Christian, arguing over who won the argument, "once Sir Sparks-a-lot stops picking fights he'll lose anyway."
"Hey!" exclaims Christian, but Rose just rolls her eyes and ignores him.
"We're watching the movie now, guys!" she yells. Everyone falls silent and obediently makes their way to the theater (yes, Lissa had a theater added to their house).
She quickly inserts the DVD and the projector lights up.
"Finally, I can relax," she mutters, and Dimitri chuckles next to her.
When The Dark Knight is over, everyone sits in silence for a minute.
"That was actually pretty good," says Lissa.
"It wasn't scary enough" says Sydney. "But the themes were complex enough that it was at least somewhat enjoyable."
Eddie shrugs. "We should do this again."
"No! Not at our house!" Rose exclaims. "I've had enough stress!"
"With what? The voting?" snorts Christian.
Rose shrugs. "Not at my house again," she repeats.
"Fine, fine," says Viktoria. "We can go to my house."
Dimitri blanches. "But what about mama—?"
"She'll survive. I'm sure Babushka will know we're coming."
Epilogueception (epilogue within an epilogue?)
"Hi, mama!"
"Hi, Vika, did you have a nice trip?"
"Yeah! But I just wanted to let you know that I invited some of my friends back here to visit. And Dimka's here."
"Oh, like Rose and Nikolai? And Dimka's here?"
"Yeah, Dimka's here. And Rose. And Nikolai. And, um..."
Pause. The door opens.
"Hey, Viktoria! Thanks for letting us stay with you! And paying for our tickets!"
"Yeah, that was great!"
"Russia is so pretty!"
"Not as cold as I expected."
"I love your house!"
"This is awesome!"
"I've missed this place."
"We should come here for a vacation sometime!"
Pause.
"Vika...Did you just invite eight friends to stay in our house? Not including Roza, Dimka, and Nikolai."
"Um...yeah."
"And you paid for their airline tickets?"
"Um...yeah."
"Without asking first?"
"Um...yeah."
"And you do realize that Sonya and Karolina and Yeva are still here."
"Um...yeah."
Silence.
"Young lady, you are so grounded when your friends' visit is over."
The End.