Chapter 688: Charming Charm
Just what were the chances?
Out of everything there was available in the whole wide world, out of all gifts that have ever been gifted in the history of gifts, how the hell did I wound up being presented with the same exact thing twice in a row?
Well, I suppose they weren’t exactly identical...
Since magical fabrics of mystical origins were out of the table for her, Amanda had to make do with a nice, narrow chain coated in gold. I blinked, unable to take my eyes off its crispy sharp luster.
“That real gold?” I asked.
“You think I’d seriously just skimp out on you?” Amanda quietly said, still sounding a little bitter. “As if you’re worth any less to me...”
There it was again, that swelling, gushing sensation rippling inside me as it had with Irene before. I slowly slipped my other hand in, letting the chain drape loose over my fingers, and something fell along with it, hanging and swinging wildly in the air like a pendulum on a clock.
.....
“A ring?” I said, surprised.
A ring indeed, but it was not like any ring I’d ever seen. It had quite a distinct design, like someone had chipped chunks out of it and all that remained was an uneven, jagged chunk of silver vaguely resembling a circle. Didn’t seem like the kind of accessory anyone would wear to impress.
“I know, I know, it looks a little weird, and yes, that’s on purpose,” Amanda said, noticing the look in my eyes. “It isn’t a normal ring, obviously. It’s actually a first-place prize I won long ago during an official cosplay competition on Asteria held by the studio themself.”
Surely there were a good amount of questions I could derive from that, but what my caveman brain decided to immediately spring to was, “Who’d you cosplay as?”
“Your girlfriend,” She said without skipping a beat. “She won me that ring there. Lore significance, it’s just a ring that members of the Church of the First Divine wear. Only five have ever been made for advertising purposes... and yeah, you’re holding one of them.”
The more and more I listened, the more and more heavy the weight I felt dangling over my fingers. “And you’re giving this to me?”
“Kept it around as a sort of lucky charm for some time until it just started to hurt wearing it all day long. Fashioning it as a necklace seemed like the wiser choice than you putting it on and running the risk of having to amputate.”
Had to agree with her there. The hole didn’t look wide enough to fit my pinky even halfway. Wise choice, indeed.
“That didn’t answer the question,” I said, laying the necklace back onto my palm, feeling this strange sort of uneasiness seeing it just lay sprawled there. “This should be in a glass container, kept somewhere in a vault a thousand meters underground. I don’t know how I can even begin to accept something like this from you.”
“It’s just a small chunk of metal, Mr. Humble,” Amanda said aloofly. “I only picked it because I was... well, I was sorta amused by the notion, really... kinda funny.”
I blinked at her. “Funny?”
“Well, yeah,” She said, the corner of her lips meekly curving upwards. “I called you my luckiest charm once, remember? So if I got you to put that around your neck, then you’ll literally become my lucky charm. You see the humor?”
When I didn’t reply, she got rather defensive, shrugging and huffing, “Well, I thought it was kinda funny...”
Again, I was still stumped in silence, because how? How do these girls keep choosing the most perfect present possible? Was it a skill? A talent? Were these kinds of things just ingrained in their DNA or something?
And more importantly, it was just too much for me now. This was the tipping point, the final push over the edge for me. Amanda has officially done so much for me that I couldn’t even begin to reciprocate as much as I try.
She was the gift that kept on giving and giving... and in return, what have I done to give back? Right now, what did I have to give her?
“Hold on, hold up, wait...” Amanda leaned over with her gaze, and her brows grew more furrowed the more she studied me closer. “Oh, no, no, no, I know those eyes-no! Don’t even start with the pity party. I refuse to listen to a single word of it. Don’t go acting like you don’t deserve this, I’ll seriously hurl if you do.”
“I don’t even have your present from me ready just yet,” I said, sighing. “So yeah, the guilt is really settling in, alright...”
“Save it,” She said, shooting her hand up. “We’ve already been over this. This is the game we decided to play, isn’t it? Roll the dice, wait your turn... my turn is bound to come up sooner or later.”
“Then how about-?”
“Now?” She interjected, chuckling faintly at my reaction. “Half-drunk, an hour ’till sunrise, and I haven’t even had a shower yet? Yeah, I think I’ll settle with just waiting for a bit longer.”
The house a cyclone-stricken mess, my own head still pounding, mere hours away from my shift, girl’s got a point... still though...
“Aren’t you a little tired?” I asked her. “With the excuses, the interruptions, how it always seems you’re doing so much for me for nothing. I know I am.”
“Am I though?” She asked back. “Am I really doing this for nothing?”
“No, of course not,” I said. “But-”
“Let me ask you this, then,” Amanda said, then reached forward, laying her hand out over mine, folding my hand over her gift, and gently clamping down firmly. “Is it really so wrong for me to love you just simply for the sake of wanting to love you? Tell me, am I not allowed to?”
Whatever point I wanted to make, whatever issue I wanted to address, it all just immediately fell apart before her.
“And if you say no, then that’s you being a bonafide hypocrite,” She continued on. “I think Ash defined it best, what was it again? Ah-unconditional-yes, that’s the word she used to describe you. Well, I’m just the same way as you for you. That’s all it is, you see.”
“It’s not just for Ash, y’know” I immediately said. “To you, all of you. I care about you just the same way.”
“So quick to clarify, wow,” She giggled. “Don’t worry, I know. Sarcastic, crude, stupid as you are with me sometimes,” with a tender sigh, she gave a soft stare. “I know you have your shining moments too.”
Amanda stepped back, still retaining that look of admiration and fondness in her eyes, and I gazed back at her, the soft gleaming lights of the tree basking her figure in the ethereal rays of a prismatic rainbow.
“Compared to this though...” I said, opening my fist again to the jingle of gold chain. “I don’t feel like I’m even equal its worth.”
“Well, duh, you stupid, dumb, dense piece of...” She trailed away, eyes rolling brazenly at me. “You’re worth so much more.”
“How’d you figure that?”
“Well, for starters, unlike the ring, you see... having you around all the time as my one and only lucky charm,” Amanda said, huffing, walking, then affectionately pinching me on the cheek. “You will never ever hurt me.”
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m