Obsession Starts with a V

Chapter 34

"I'd really rather not talk about my classes."

"What's the matter? Didn't you get any good ones?"

Sam glared at Michael, who had been sitting silently next to him. Michael bit his lip and kept his focus on the TV.

"Nah, not really." Sam replied. "What did you want to tell me?"

"Actually, it's more like I want to ask you something. Like I said, my friends are in my last hour and we talked a lot about what we did over the summer today."

Sam looked worried. "You didn't say anything about the vampire thing, did you?"

"No! I'm not stupid. But, I did tell them about you. And they came to a conclusion."

"What's that?"

"You like me!" Veronica gloated.

"Wow, they must be geniuses," Michael whispered to himself.

"They wanted me to ask you out, because it would make them look good if their best friend had a semi-popular boyfriend. Plus, they want to date a football player and you're their way into accomplishing that. Since me and Alan are over and I don't think David and I would work out, I've decided to take their advice and ask you to be my boyfriend. What do you think? We already spend a lot of time together, anyway."

Sam's mouth dropped open. "Semi-popular? How do they figure I'm only semi-popular? I've got to be one of the most popular kids in school! I'm even on the football team now that I'm in seventh grade!"

"It's probably that Home-Ec class, it's bringing you down a level."

"Shut up Michael, that has nothing to do with my popularity."

"Sam? Popular?" David let out a laugh from behind the three. He walked in from the garage and roughly patted Veronica on the head. "I thought I heard your voice. I found something out and I thought you might want to know it."

"Ooh! Is Kirby dead?" She turned away from the brothers, forgetting about her question that went unanswered.

"No, we lost track of him. I'm thinking he left Santa Carla. I have a good feeling you won't ever have to worry about him again, though. What I found out has to do with your dad. When you were talking about him at the cemetery, something was bothering me. A young guy like that wouldn't be the head of a club, plus his name sounded familiar. I finally remembered when I was younger that Max used to talk about the Decaying Angels. So, I went on a little hunt. Turns out your dad knew Max since before he was married to your mom."

"Did they grow up together?" Sam inquired, feeling slightly interested in David's story.

"Shut up pipsqueak, let me tell my story. I asked Max about him, and he got real quiet and depressed. I went to where he stores all of his old stuff and found a super old grade school yearbook and sure as shit, they were in it. I confronted Max and finally got him to spill his guts. Turns out Little V, you're more related to vampires than you think."

Veronica gasped. "Am I part vampire? That explains why I'm so obsessed with them!"

"No, not quite. But, your dad was. In fact, all of the Decaying Angels were vampires." David smiled in triumph at his findings. "So technically, I guess you are part vampire, but not really. Vampires can't bare vampiric children. If your dad wasn't killed by a hunter, though, then you might have ended up being one when you got older. Same goes for your mom."

She shook her head. "But my dad wasn't killed by a hunter. He was in a motorcycle accident."

"That was Max's coverup story. Your dad was on his motorcycle when a hunter got him. He was off his guard, so it was an easy and cheap shot. Leave it to a hunter to do something dirty like that. You mom didn't know what he was, though, so to keep her in that dark Max set it up to seem as if he was in a really bad accident instead. He put a random John Doe in place of your dad and kept it as a closed casket service, so no one was the wiser."

Veronica looked confused. "But where's my dad's body, then?"

"Ah well, vampires tend to just sort of poof into dust when they get staked." David made a small explosion visual with his hands.

"So I was talking to a hobo when we went to his grave?"

"Basically. But to be fair, I didn't know! I thought he was just a normal human who died a normal death."

"So he doesn't know I went to visit him?" Veronica's eyes began to grow shiny with tears.

David looked uncomfortably at Sam, a signal that someone more empathetic needed to take over.

Sam sighed and helped him out. "He knew you did, Veronica. He's always been watching over you. No matter where you are in the world, he's always going to hear you when you talk to him."

"I guess you're right," she sniffed and gave him a half-smile. "Thanks for letting me know, David. Do you think Max will ever let my mom know about you guys? What if she ends up with Marko!"

"I highly doubt that would happen. Max wants to keep her in the dark because he feels like she wouldn't be able to handle it. He would miss you if you guys moved away. We kind of like having you around."

"Aw, I'd miss you guys, too." Veronica hugged him quickly and let him escape back to the safety of his garage.

"Now I know why Max accepted me so easily. I was his friend's daughter!"

"Yeah, if you were born earlier you could have grown up with David." Sam's face twisted with shock once the realization hit him. "How weird would that be?"

"Then maybe we would have eventually ended up together?" Veronica swooned dramatically.

"I thought you said you were over him?"

"Why are you jealous?"

"Yes he is." Michael said.

"Dude shut up, don't you have somewhere to be? Like maybe terrorizing people on the Boardwalk or kicking puppies or something?" Sam snapped.

"Nope."

"Michael, can you please excuse us so we can talk?" Veronica looked at him with an angelic face.

"Sure, anything for you Miss V," he remarked and ruffled up her hair as he headed down to the basement. Sam rolled his eyes.

"So?" Veronica asked after she sat down on the couch. "What do you think about us dating?"

"Do you just want to go out so your friends can hook up with football players or do you actually like me?"

Veronica blushed and lightly kicked the coffee table with her foot. "Do you like me?"

"Kind of, yeah."

Veronica's head snapped up and she glared at him. "Kind of?"

He sighed in defeat. "Alright fine, your friends may be onto something. I've liked you ever since I found out you weren't a loser. Are you happy, you loser?"

"Yeah, because I like you, too!" She reached over and hugged him. He hugged her back with a small laugh and the biggest smile he had ever had.

☢ ♥‿♥ 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒇𝓸𝓻 𝓻𝒆𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰! 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝒇𝓸𝓻𝓰𝒆𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓿𝓸𝓽𝒆 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝒇𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝒇 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒆𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂𝒆𝓭 𝓲𝓽 ♥‿♥ ☢