"Shut up and take the ring." Alec forced Alek to reopen the ring box and put it on her palm.
Alek gasped at what she saw. There were initials of the three of them: 'A•A•M'. Alexander, Alektrona, Melvin. She couldn't have seen it if she left the ring in the box.
"How did you do this?!" Alek asked as she looked at the marvelous thing in her palm.
"My uncle used to be a jeweller back then and, I got help from him. He was craving to make jewellery since he retired. The reason why he retired was, that he was too concentrated on jewellery and he hadn't pay attention to his family. So his wife, my aunt, took it away. He was forced to pay attention to his family and, he wasn't allowed to do any jewellery now. But when I visited him, last, last week, he asked me if I had anything for him. And I did. I asked him if he could make me a friendship for the three of us and, he said yes. I told him each of our likings, and he did the work while I stayed there. Two weeks was all he took and, he gave us this. Our rings look different from the outside but, it all has initials on the inside." Alec told her, smiling. "Ooh, and it didn't cost me. He said I was giving him the happiness by allowing him to make this."
Alek tried to speak but, she couldn't. Instead, she just opened and closed her mouth like a chick waiting for the mother to feed her.
"Wow. I'm surprised he did in a very short while." Alek read a book about a jewellery owner who made custom rings and, it took weeks to make one. But his uncle did three of them in two weeks. He must have been like a fish given water.
"I know," Alex told her proudly. "He is amazing. Before he retired, he used to work like twenty-four seven. He loves spending time with his family, but sometimes, he just wants to go back to his old days." Alec said with a sigh. "Now, we'll you take it?"
Alek hesitated to take the ring. It looked really appealing but, she just couldn't.
"Come on!" Alex groaned with frustration. "It's custom made and, I already have mine and Mel's. Are you going to reject my uncle's secret work?" Alec pleaded with his eyes.
Alek was weak to anyone looking sad and desperate. That's why her siblings were looking out for her.
"No." Alek spoke through her teeth when she couldn't bear to see his sadness. "I will take it." She then put on the ring on her left index finger. It fit her perfectly. "How does it fit perfectly?" She asked her best friend.
"I thought of making the three of us a ring for a while before actually making them. So I measured your and Mel's index fingers when we were at the park. I went home and looked for a pen that was your sizes, and I took my uncle that. Smart, eh?" Alec smirked.
"You are smart!" Alek sighed at the beauty of the ring and held his hands in hers. "Thank you, Alex. I honestly can't thank you enough for making my day sparkling, breath-taking,...kccashiming." Alek wanted to use better words and, Alex raised his eyebrow hearing the last word. "Don't say anything. I just made that up. It means... more than words can explain."
Alex chuckled, seeing her best to find a word.
"Oh yeah, where is your ring?" Alek remembered about it when she no rings on his fingers.
"I am planning to open it when we meet Mel." Alec blushed slightly and, this earned a smirk and raising of brows from Alek. "I actually haven't opened my ring or Mel's. I received them in the same bags as yours." Alec jawed at the black bag at Alek's side. "And I am excited to see mine and his. I've seen only yours, and it looks fantastic."
"You told your uncle the designs for each one of us, right? What's yours and Mel's?" Alek asked him.
"For Mel, he likes space so, I told him something space-related. And for mine, I like ocean and sea animals, so I think I told him that. I don't remember that much." Alec tried to recall his memories but his memories were short-term memories.
"That would be sweet!" Alek exclaimed. She couldn't wait to see their rings and their reactions. "When are we meeting Mel?"
"I texted him to come when you weren't home today but," Alec looked at Alek while pouting his mouth. "He said he was at his grandmother's place and would be back tomorrow." He sighed, not seeing his boyfriend for five days.
"You know I apologised to you about not being able to spend the day with you." Alek told him but, he was still giving her the b*itch-I-don't-care face to her with a pout. He removed his hands from Alek's and folded them in front of his chest.
They stared at each other with an attitude and, they burst out laughing after seeing how ridiculous it was. The staring was pointless and funny for some reason.
"Okay, okay." Alex gasped for air. "What are we laughing at?"
"I don't know." Alek told him with a shaky voice as she shook her head while trying to stop laughing.
When they finished laughing, they lay on his soft green bed. They were on the verge of laughing to death and, Alex had tears in his eyes. "Okay. That was enough laughing. Let's spill the tea." As he said that, Alek froze next to him but, he didn't notice. "I'll go first. Around two days from now, I was..."
Alex continued to tell his story, oblivious to Alek frozen like a deer in front of a car. She wasn't hearing him. Her mind was busy with the supernatural world she was introduced to yesterday. Should she tell him? He was her best friend since they were little and, they mostly didn't keep secrets from each other. But her family kept this important thing from her for years. Her family didn't tell her to not tell the secret to anyone. But seeing how they all were, she guessed they didn't want anyone to know apart from the supernatural beings who they already know.
She didn't want to cause any trouble to her family or her best friend. She already knew her being exposed to the supernatural world, is going to be a commotion. Her mother had told her that there is a chance that people would come for her position. Technically, her future position as a head of Minazuki. The ruler of reptile shifters.
But in the end, she concluded that she would not tell him or Melvin. It wasn't their problem and, she didn't want them to get into the other side where there might be used to draw Alek surrender and give up her position in the future. Alek didn't want her friends to get hurt because of her and, she absolutely didn't like surrendering. Surrendering was not an option, even when she was facing death. Surrender would never be on her list.
"...And then I walked away." Alec finished his story and, Alek snapped out of her mind. "How about your story? Huh, Alek?" Alex asked Alek while staring at the ceiling.
His ceiling was ocean blue with colours changing from the floor to the ceiling. The lower part of the walls are dark blue and, as it goes up, it changes to light blue, kind of like turquoise. And the ceiling was soft blue and white. The room looked like it was underwater, sinking.
"Umm,... Let's talk about my cousins." Alek thought of a story to tell about her cousins. "You know I have three cousins. The older ones are twin brothers. They are a year older than us. They don't look identical. The older twin's name is Castor and, the younger is Pollux, but we call them by their second name, Jin and Rin. It's easier. They have a younger sister called Iris and, she is nine years old. She is like a fairy, an angel, a personification of purity." Alek gaped at her memory. "But she is clever and quiet like Kai."
"Interesting." Alec replied. "You call the twins by their second names, yeah? Why don't you just do the same with the sister?"
"Her second name is Remia but, it's kind of long so, we just stick to Iris." Alek wondered the same thing a long time ago and asked her aunt and uncle why. And they gave her the same answer she said just now.
"Alright, Seika." Alex suddenly called Alek by her middle name and surprised her. She gave him the what-the-eff-did-you-just-call-me face and, he just smiled seeing that. "Come on, Alek. It's your name. Seika."
Alek was feeling clingy hearing somebody saying her middle name. Nobody called her by her middle name. Aether sometimes called her by that when she was little and, after that, her mother called her full name when she was mad at Alek. Other than that, the name, Seika, was like a ghost. Sometimes when she sees her full name on official test papers, she remembers she had a middle name.
Alec laughed at his best friends reaction. "Fine, I'll just stick to 'Alek', Alektrona. If you start being called Seika, we wouldn't be Alecs anymore." Alek laughed at this but, she then remembered he just called her Alektrona. It was weird.
Alek knitted her eyebrows and gave suspicious eyes towards Alex. The only time he called her Alektrona was when they first met until she told him to call her Alek. The same thing with Melvin. He knew her name was just a shortened form of Alektrona but, he just called her Alek because it was easier to fingerspell her name.