Blood Driven

Chapter 1: My Delicous Best Friend

Every time I had tried to erase his memories in the past, he had always remembered them. I tucked the blanket firmly around him and laid back, my hands stretching out above my head. The sun cast shadows into (the majority) of the room and I smiled a little. I knew my green eyes had become tinted red around the edges, but not enough to be terribly noticeable. The cool autumn air filled my lungs as I breathed deeply and closed my eyes to fall asleep.

I woke when Ary stirred beside me. I checked my watch. It had been two hours since I had fallen asleep and we needed to get back now. I looked over to Ary, who was now rubbing his eyes.

    I stood up and stretched, several of my bones popping. I helped him up and we unlatched the trapdoor that allowed us to leave of the hide out. I hopped down first and landed nimbly on my feet. I turned just as Ary landed on me. He always did that. I laughed and we got up and brushed ourselves off. We fell in step with each other as we walked back through the thin woods. His house was barely visible in the distance. I sighed. We almost never got to hang out. He was a grade higher than me and he had all his junior buddies surrounding him, so we never got to talk. We both knew we were best friends, even more than that. There was a deep feeling of belonging with him that resounded in my chest. 

    I was home schooled (it wasn’t my fault the, uh, super safe smoke bomb went off early!) after an, um, accident in 2nd grade, so I didn’t know many people, except Ary.  Ary was the light in the darkness of my lonely world.  My cousin Marissa went to regular school and was one of those way-too-happy/perky kinds of girls. I was one of those kinds of girls who thought about the end of the world, my-type boys with swooshy hair, and dresses in a lot of black and dark clothes.  We crunched over the dry leaves in Ary’s driveway; his mom came out and offered us a glass of water. I took a small sip and handed the glass to Ary. He downed it and handed it back to his mom.

                Ary’s mother was small and petite, with wavy black hair that fell to her shoulders. She was wearing faded blue jeans and a green t-shirt.  Her bright blue eyes were surrounded by thick eyelashes, and she had a strong nose. Her small mouth smiled at us and urged us inside. I could smell pie.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”  Mrs. Garret towed me into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mrs. Garret, can I stay over here for a little while?” I swayed nervously, fidgeting with the hem of my dark purple shirt. She smiled.

“Why, of course, Alex! You are welcome to stay as long as you like.” She smiled again. “Do you want to stay for dinner? We are having apple pie for dessert later.” She gestured to the cooling pie that was sitting on the window sill.

“Yes, thank you.” Ary’s face had brightened at the mention of pie. I paused. “Will you come get us when it is ready? We just have some stuff that needs to be done.” I smiled.

“Oh, sure! Go ahead, do whatever you want, honey.” Man, did I mention how much I loved Ary’s mom? Well, I love her a lot, like she was my own mother.

Ary and I walked back to his room, in the back of the house on the second story. I opened his door and walked in to his clean and tidy room.

Ary was sitting down on his bed with his face in his hands. I sat next to him and laid my head against his shoulder. He sighed and put his arm around me. He was being awfully silent tonight. I grabbed his other hand and just held it, rubbing small circles on the back with my thumb.

He smiled. It was a few minutes before we heard his mom yelling about dinner time. We stood up and, still holding hands, we walked down the stairs. We stopped holding hands when we walked into the kitchen but still stood close. I could smell tomato sauce and Italian seasonings. I sat down across from Ary at the table and his mom brought over two heaping plates of spaghetti.