Bittersweet: The Doppelganger

~*~Sensations~*~

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Sensations
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Throughout the school day, Cole's thoughts were on the new boy, Cristian Vladimire, or Count Cristian Vladimirescu, vampire extraordinaire. Why is he here? How can he be here? Shouldn't he be somewhere, killing innocent girls? A shiver ran down her spine as the images of what happened six days ago swirled through her mind.

She recently was going to be one of those innocent girls if it wasn't for that miracle. She wondered what that miracle was. The doctors and nurses who ran tests on her were entirely clueless, but she thought she knew where the miracle has come from. Cristian Vladimire. Suddenly, she was brought out of her musings by the bell ringing, signaling the end of class.

She blinked, stunned. Had I completely blacked out on the lesson?

"Cole?"

Cole turned to find Kat and Red standing beside her desk, gazing down at her with concerned expressions on their faces.

"Are you all right?" Kat asked the other girl worriedly.

Cole nodded her head in answer to her question, gathered her things, and stood up. The girls all walked out of the empty classroom and into the hallway. The others met them in the hallway and the friends all walked towards the cafeteria for lunch. As their group headed towards one of the service lines, Cole could see Cristian just ahead of them, walking with that witch, Alina. He stopped walking suddenly and turned around, looking straight at Cole.

She stopped walking also, staring into his pale blue eyes. He looked just as beautiful as he did that morning with his golden hair shining in the fluorescent lighting of the cafeteria. He grinned suddenly, inclining his head in her direction. Cole could feel her cheeks heating up with a blush as her heartbeat escalated inside her chest. A strange sense of longing coursed through her body as she continued to stare at him.

Cristian's grin widened as Alina turn around, wondering what is keeping him. Her gaze fell on Cole and a glint of bitterness flashed in her blue eyes. She stepped up to him and linked her arm through his, her eyes holding Cole's, a confident smirk forming on her glossy pink lips.

"Come, Cris, you can sit with us." Alina purred loud enough for the other girl to hear.

Annoyance flashed briefly across his angular face before Cristian smiled charmingly at her.

"It's Cristian," he said, allowing her to steer him into the service line.

Cole fell back behind her friends as they all joined the service line behind them, wanting to get as much distance between herself and Cristian as possible. The line moved quickly and soon Cristian and Alina both received their lunch trays. Alina led Octavian across the cafeteria to the table she usually sat with her coven of witches, Corina, Eveline, Marilena, and Joana, and their boyfriends, Jean, Serban, Remus, and Anatolie.

As they walked across the cafeteria, students turned to watch their progress, the boys ogling Alina like slobbering mutts in heat and the girls staring, starry-eyed, at Cristian as if he was a famous teen actor walking the red carpet at a movie premiere. They sat down at the very middle of the table as Bendeikte, Stefania, Horatiu, Red, Anton, Cat, Lucian, Dorina, Fane, Ileana, Cristian, and Cole all received their lunches. The friends made their way over to their usual table and sat down to eat their lunch.