The Shade: Shades of Change

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ten years later...

    Denver was a small town in Texas. Most people assumed when I said I had lived in Denver I meant Denver, Colorado. Ha! I wished. There had been nothing to do in Denver, Texas. There was one gas station, one school rather than three like normal places that had elementary, middle and high school.

No. I went to school with preschool kids when I was a senior. I mean I didn't have classes with them but they were roaming the halls. Not that I minded. I loved kids.

This also meant that the pool for choosing a prom date had been...limited. Not that I had the cream of the crop or anything. It wasn't that I wasn't pretty enough. I liked to think I was. I wasn't perfect but I wasn't flawed horribly on the outside.

The inside was a different story. Shortly after moving to Denver my dad had left to parts unknown. I'd been raised by my grandparents. But they weren't to blame for my personality. I was a little odd to some people. Actually I blamed Vex. When you're ten years old and a vampire comes into your life it leaves a lasting impression. So I was obsessed with all things vampires. That included the fashions. I'd gone through a goth faze, a punk faze and then finally rediscovered myself. I'd had millions of facts I'd found from books about vampires and Lugat's, but people found me weird.

Luckily I'd mostly grown out of that. I think it helped moving back home. Finding that my childhood home had burnt to the ground had been a little depressing, but I'd found an apartment on the outskirts of the city and a job as a waitress while I did online classes. I couldn't afford normal college and neither could my grandparents, if they were still alive. This is what happened when you waited until you were thirty-five to have kids. When you took off leaving your kid with your parents they tended to die from natural causes and old age.

I wasn't trying to be cold-hearted but I was bitter. My mom had died, my dad took off never to be heard from again, and my grandparents were left to raise me. They'd been nothing but disappointed in me from the first day. I'd been a burden to them. But in that I'd mademyself even stronger.

I hadn't dated and I'd been pretty much an introvert even after moving back.

I didn't know anyone around me. As a kid I'd had no friends. As a teenager only one. Now the only friends I had to speak of were my work colleagues at a diner.

I'd been given another late night shift and with it the people passing through. Traveling for the holidays as Thanksgiving was just a few days away.

"Here is your burger," I murmured laying a plate down for a man. "And here is your yummy pizza." I said giving his seven year old son his plate. "And chocolate milkshakes for the handsome gentlemen." I smiled at the little boy. "Let me know if you two need anything else."

"Thanks." The man murmured smiling up at me. He had light blue eyes. The little boy looked like him made over with brown hair, single dimple and and cupids bow lips.

I walked back to the counter to retrieve the plate an older gentlemen had left.

It was just me and a younger guy who was packing up the kitchen for the night to head home. I'd still be there another hour cleaning up and making sure the last of the customers were gone.

I looked out the window to see snow falling. It was the first official snow. It would stick and make my life harder since I didn't have a car.

As I collected the plate of the man and his son the little boy smiled up at me.

"You're really pretty. What's your name?" He asked charmingly.

"Andelious!" The dad laughed.

"Breanna but I go by Bree." I beamed pointing to my name tag. "You boys be careful out there." I told them as I took their plates away and they stood.