The Crystal 3 by Jones M (uplifting books for women .txt) 📕

accepting to spend some time with Ashley and Selena. They had woken me up very early in the morning when I thought we would be going out in the afternoon. Next time, I wouldn't be quick to agree to an outing.

A whole millennium later, I was dressed and ready to go.

"What took you so long?" Selena asked as she narrowed her eyebrows at me. She and Ashley were in the kitchen preparing breakfast.

Crap. I had to go grocery shopping too.

"You waking me up when I was sleeping. And it had only been an hour."

We took breakfast, and fifty minutes later, we were out of the house. 

The sky was filled with white clouds, and it was the last month of winter in Crystalia. Snow was everywhere, and we all had to wear cold weather gear to venture outside.

Selena had told me about the forest I could see from my house, otherwise known as the Joshalian forest. I thought it was Joshalia since Ashley mentioned it during one of her visits when I still lived with Rachel. I told her it was a weird name and that it should be changed, but she told me that everyone in Crystalia had gotten used to the name.

"Where should we go first?" Ashley asked as we began walking away from the house.

"I need to get groceries for my house," I informed her. Selena groaned.

"Just let Erick do it for you. He sometimes does the grocery shopping for me," she said.

"Okay?" I stretched out the word. I was surprised by what she said. I didn't expect a king to even have time to do house errands. But I guessed that was how Selena was with Erick.

Ashley never told me of Selena and Erick's wedding. It apparently happened as soon as Selena retired from her career as a musician and faked her death. I didn't ask for many details because I would have gotten more jealous for missing out on such a big thing.

"Emery, it's our girls' day," Ashley whined.

"Well, I could have done the grocery shopping myself before you all decided to wake me up so early in the morning."

"Emery, it was ten," Selena deadpanned. "And do you know the way to the city?" I shook my head in disagreement. On my first day back, Ashley had teleported us to the city. She told me something about the castle and something about miles, but I forgot the rest.

"Great! We'll take a walk there," my cousin replied.

"What?" Ashley asked, and Selena rolled her eyes.

"It's not that far. Just a 20-40 minute walk, depending on how fast we move."

"Selena!" Ashley and I yelled. I was not looking forward to walking on snow for forty minutes. As much as I loved it, I didn't want to get cold feet. Literally.

"Fine. We'll teleport there."

We grabbed each other's hands, and in a second, I found myself staring at surroundings that were similar to the ones I went to with Ashley.

"Ooh! I have an idea. What if we go clothes shopping?" Selena asked, making me widen my eyes in disbelief.

"No. Let's just finish with the groceries. We can send them when we're done and have the rest of the day to ourselves."

"You know, I agree with Selena," Ashley said. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Let's go shopping!"

She did a wriggly thing with her fingers as she and my cousin squealed in excitement. I sighed, having no option but to follow them.

We walked around the city, entering malls as we shopped for our clothing items. It took a while, and by a while, I mean six hours.

By four in the afternoon, we were all exhausted, and we had not even done the groceries.

"I'm beat," Selena said as we all walked into a food court. The place was mostly full, and I was glad people did not pay so much attention to Ashley, my cousin and me.

We found four unoccupied plastic chairs surrounding a white plastic table, quickly settling on them. We used the extra seat to place our shopping bags, but after a while, we gave up trying to fit all of them on one chair. We placed some on the ground, not worrying about anyone trying to steal stuff from us.

"Hey! What can I get you?" a waitress asked as she approached us. We all ordered French fries with burgers. Ten minutes later, we were all silently munching and groaning at the delicious fast food.

"It's been so long since I've had these," I said, taking a bite out of the burger.

"How long?"

"A week," I said, and Ashley rolled her eyes at me.

"Anyway, how do you like it here?" Selena asked.

"Are you kidding me? It's great! Almost makes me forget that earth still exists."

We all laughed before launching into a set of conversations. Selena then told us about her and Justin. It was also something that Ashley didn't know.

"That a-hole!" I commented, referring to how Justin broke up with her.

"I thought that too, but he was not in love with me. He wanted me to hate him so that I could get over him so quickly, and it worked."

"How do you know all this?" Ashley asked with a furrow of her eyebrows. "Are you even sure about what you're saying?"

"He told me some years back. We decided to be friends, especially since I was dating his brother."

Selena had told me of her relationship with Erick a few weeks ago. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. I was happy for Selena, but I was mostly happy for Erick. That dude had been pinning over my cousin for years.

"Really? Justin sacrificed his image so that you can get over him?" I inquired, earning a nod.

"I know, right? It was so weird. He said he read some romance books about unrequited love. He didn't want me to stay in love with him, so he did what he did."

"Wait, wait, wait," Ashley interjected. "Justin was reading romance novels?"

"He was. I was as surprised as you are, and don't tell anyone about this," my cousin warned, and Ashley and I imitated a zip on our lips.

I took a sip of my smoothie as I gained a concentrated look, trying to remember something.

"I think Erick fell for you the first time he saw you in Crystalia."

"Really?" Selena asked, and I nodded in agreement.

"Wow. I feel like an ass for not noticing."

"Oh, it's okay. I was hoping he would move on from you because you were dating Justin," Selena shot me a glare, and I backtracked quickly, "but things turned out great for you guys."

Selena hummed in agreement. 

"So, what about you?" she asked. I had been chewing a couple of French fries before I answered her.

"What about me?"

"Stop it!" Selena said with a curious smile. "Who have you dated?"

"Oh," I said before looking down at the table. "No one," I whispered, but she heard it.

"What? You're joking," Selena said, but with the silence that followed for three seconds, it dawned on her that I was telling her the truth.

"How come I never knew this?" Ashley asked as she looked at me in shock. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"It's no big deal," I replied.

"No big deal?" Selena questioned me with a raised voice.

"Ssh!" I motioned for her to be quiet as I noticed a couple of heads turn towards us.

"How could you not have dated? You are sexy, Emery. Were all the guys around you gay?"

"I turned down any guy that approached me. I just didn't feel anything for anyone."

"You sure you aren't gay?" Ashley asked seriously, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I'm not a lesbian," I deadpanned.

"Didn't you have a crush on Zane?" Selena asked with a raised eyebrow. I just cleared my throat.

"I had a thing for Zane, but stuff got in the way."

"But now that stuff is gone. You can date him."

I stared at Selena with wide eyes.

"I can't do that!" I replied.

"Why not? He's obviously still into you, or have you forgotten that he still loves you?" Ashley interjected.

"Ashley!" I yelled in mortification. I could not have that conversation then, and I was not planning to let it go any further. "Years have passed, guys. He must have gotten over the feelings he had for me."

"Oh, please. He has the hots for you, you have the hots for him. It's about time the two of you have wild monkey sex and getting freaking married," Ashley spoke. 
The image came into mind, including the sounds a monkey would make.

I shook my head no.

"I call bridesmaid!" Selena yelled, making me drop my mouth in shock at her.

"There will not be a wedding, and I don't like sex," I spoke, saying the last part with a low voice. There was a moment of silence as I ate my lunch. No one spoke, and I had to look at them. Selena and Ashley were looking at me with shocked faces, and I realized they had heard everything I had said.

"What?" they both asked.

"You don't like sex? It's the most natural, pleasurable thing humans can share with each other."

I rolled my eyes at Ashley's definition of sex.

"To you it is."

"Emery, haven't you lost your virginity?" Selena questioned.

"I did," I replied, earning shrieks from her and Ashley. I rolled my eyes at them as I blushed furiously in embarrassment.

"So, how was it?" Selena asked with an expectant look.

"Ew, no! Not at the table!" I said in hopes of changing the subject.

"You are not getting out of this one, Emery," Ashley spoke. "This is too juicy to drop."

I sighed.

"It was... eh?"

They both blinked their eyes at me.

"Eh? Seriously? That is all you have to say?" Selena asked in disbelief.

"We want details," Ashley deadpanned. I shook my head as I took another bite of my food. No one said anything, and it looked like I had to tell them the dreaded night of what I regret to call my 'first time'.

"I went with Rachel to a club. Some cute guy came to me and asked me if I wanted to dance. We did, and I was grinding against his...umm..."

"Dick. The word you were looking for is dick. Now, tell me more!" Ashley said as she and Selena both looked at me with grins. By then, we had finished our meals. A waitress came and took the empty dishes. As she was doing so, we ordered ice-cream. Once the waitress left, we continued with the conversation.

"Anyway, he asked if we wanted to get out of there. I knew what it meant, and I decided, what the heck? I had been a virgin for so long. I was twenty-eight years old, and I wanted that title stripped off of me. I wanted to know why everyone was fussing about sex. So we went to his house. It was a small apartment, and he hadn't even bothered cleaning up the place."

"Oh, why am I not liking where this is going?" Ashley asked with a wince. Oh, she wouldn't like where I was going with the story.

"He moved me to his bed and practically ordered me to strip. I thought it was something men told women to make them hot. I had read it once, accidentally, on a book. So I followed along. A minute later, we were both naked. We kissed and kissed and kissed."

"How good was it?" Selena asked.

"Eh," I said with a shrug, earning a sad look from her.

"He got out his dick--"

"How big was it?" Ashley asked.

"It was small," I replied, earning another wince from her. "Probably the size of my thumb. Or maybe it was the lighting, because I could barely see anything that was happening."

I was making up reasons to protect the guy, and Ashley and Selena saw right through it.

"What happened next?" Selena asked.

"He wore a condom and was--"

"Wait. That's it?" Ashley asked, confusing me. "No foreplay? No dirty words? No pinching, licking... anything?"

"What?" I asked her. "No. He just wore the condom and jammed it in."

Ashley and Selena stared at me in disbelief.

"It hurt."

"Of course it hurt. It was your first time," my cousin said.

"Hold up. He just jammed it in?"