Of Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 15

"Do you have everything?" asked Gregor leaning against the door frame.

"Yeah, I think so." I patted down my pockets just to make sure I had my phone and keys for the third time.

"Okay," sighed Gregor and stood up straight to open the front door. He had been avoiding making eye contact with me for awhile, even since Gregor's father said the charm had been removed.

I wanted to ask him why he was acting distant but there was this strange vibe around him. The way his eyes looked at me but not at me, the way his body turned away from me and the apathetic way he spoke. It wasn't so much a red flag but tiny flashing warning lights in the distance which are pretty useless since I don't know what the signs warned. I only knew it wasn't anything good.

Gregor went through the door first and I followed, keeping a respectable distance between us. I fiddled with the straps of my bag because it felt awkward to have my arms hanging down. Gregor locked the door and sighed again. The front porch light flickered on, it sizzled as it bathed us in a orange glow.

He turned to me but I looking down on the ground, which was made of red bricks. I turned following the red brick path with my eyes as it lead from the door through a garden into a wood. The garden was obscured by the night but I could make out flower beds.

Gregor stepped up next to me and crossed his arms. "I'm sorry about my family being rude to you earlier. It wasn't fair to you."

I turned to him and flinched, he was closer to me than I expected. "Were they? I couldn't tell if that was just how demons acted."

Gregor both grimaced and smiled. "No they were being rude. We might be a bit warped by your standards but we aren't monsters. My family is usually a lot less antagonistic, usually they're nice people."

"So it's my fault?" I asked.

"No, no, no," repeated Gregor flustered. "It's not your fault. It's complicated... I don't have the best track record when it comes to romantic interests."

"Yeah, Percy mentioned the boyfriend ban and other things," I muttered grimly.

"What other things?" asked Gregor with a nervous smile.

"Just... other things." Like how Gregor has no taste and no standard which heavily suggested I was subpar.

Gregor shuffled a bit and took his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it. "Can you me your email address?"

"Email address?" I frowned. It sounded like such an outdated question, usually someone asked for someone's number or twitter handle or something.

"Yeah..." muttered Gregor looking down at his phone. "All other social media is location locked."

"Oh right," I said and took his phone and typed in my email address into his notepad app.

I gave Gregor back his phone. He smiled at the screen, "You have a gmail account," he said

before slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"Yeah? Doesn't everyone?" I chuckled.

"No, I use Ymail," said Gregor.

"Ymail? Like Yahoo mail?" I gasped sarcastically.

"Yeah. I know people off realm have a really bad opinion of Ymail but it's a lot better here," rebuked Gregor.

"I can't even fathom how that is possible," I laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll email you later. My parents will probably limit my internet access but I doubt they'll ban me from emails completely."