Arranged? More Like Deranged!

Chapter 9

I woke up the next morning with a cute looking Luke asleep beside me, arms around my waist.

Why is it that guys always look so cute and young and peaceful when they sleep?

I wiggled out of his arms and stood up, stretching.

When I looked down at Luke his arms were still in a small circle, sort of, even if they were limp. It reminded me of pictures where you removed people from existance in movies and things...

Was that what was happening to me? Was I fading from existance?

I shook my head slowly. There was no need for me to be like this so early in the morning.

I hopped into the shower for a few minutes and started whistling. I felt cheery all of a sudden.

When I got out of the shower with my wet hair, I grabbed my jeans and baby blue shirt and pulled it on. When I walked out of the bathroom door, though, I found out what mood Luke was in.

He spun me around in his arms as if we were dancing for a moment before bending close to my face. It frightened me a bit when he did this. I don't know why.

"Who, exactly, told you that you could move this morning?" He asked. Luke was in one of his clingy little affectionate moods this morning. I wondered how long it would last... I wondered how long my mood would last.

"A magical little tiny dust bunny." I told him.

He laughed lightheartedly. "Whoever dusts my room needs to be fired immidietly."

He bent down and kissed my neck and immidietly I froze. I'd never thought of this as a threat to my life before, but after last night's story, I had suddenly become painfully aware of my fiance's race and his needs. 

Luke either didn't recognize my edginess or just decided to ignore it. I had never thought of this before, but maybe his kissing my neck was a bit more than just a sign of affection. Could he be teasing himself with the smell of my blood or something? He had said that the blood of the opposite gender smelt espeically sweet for vampires... maybe it was like a favorite perfume.

"What's my blood smell like?" I asked abruptly.

Luke didn't even seem fazed by the question. He traced his lips up the side of my neck and kissed the spot in front of my ear. "Mmm... it kind of smells like raspberries." He said in a thoughtful voice. "Or maybe it's... um... no. Definitly raspberries." He confirmed.

When he pulled back to examine my face, I was bitng my lip.

He shrugged. "I like raspberries..." He said.

I laughed. Hard.

Luke smiled. "You haven't really laughed in a while. It's good to hear." There was a note of uncertainty in his voice and I suddenly knew exactly what was going through his head.

Is she going insane?

Ah, well. Who cares if I was. It wouldn't change much anyways.

I grabbed Luke's hand and dragged him through the door of his room and down the stairs. "Come on, I smell breakfast and I'm hungry." I told him. He didn't object, but when I glanced back at his face it was very confused. I slung him into a chair and grabbed my breakfast.

"Pancakes, yumm." I said, mostly to myself. When I was finished my breakfast I bounced up out of my chair.

"Let's go outside. C'mon!" I said, grabbing Luke's hand again. I didn't even think to see if he'd finished eating his breakfast.

I let him sit down on the edge of the fountain while I sat down, leaned back, and fell in. WhenI surfaced I grinned. "That felt great!"

The look on his face was a cross between horror and those kind of "What the hell?" expressions. I burst out laughing.

"WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU?" He roared. My laughter was cut short. "Whaddya mean?" I asked him.

His eyes were fierce with fear and anger. "Katrina, you've changed so much in the past week! You went home from your parents' house and then you were an angry wreck. Then you were really sad. Now you're psychotically happy! I don't get it, Katrina! How does someone go from an emotion so low to one so high?"

I blinked. 

"Maybe... maybe I've got a mental illness."

"A mental illness!" Luke scoffed. "Look, Katrina, if you want this to end, just say so! I want you to stay with me, but I'd rather you be happy without me than miserable with me. You don't have to pretend like you have a mental illness to end this, you know."

"Luke..." I began breathlessly. "That's not it at all!"

"Then what is it, Katrina?" Luke asked quietly. "Do you want to go home for a while? Should we go looking for Tori?...is this all about loosing Tori? I know it must be hard to lose another sibling, Katrina, but I thought you knew you could talk to me about everything. Now all of a sudden you're keeping everything from me. Don't you love me anymore?"

I stood um, brushing my wet hair out of my face. "Luke, you know I love you more than anything in the world. I just... I don't know. Everything seems so... so... I don't really know how to say this without being overdramatic."

Luke sighed. "Why can't you tell me what's wrong?" He asked quietly.

He offered me his hand to help me out of the fountain and I just stared at it.

Why couldn't I accept his help any more?

It's all I wanted to do right now.

But I couldn't. My hand just wouldn't listen to me.

The last memory I have is Luke's face as I stared at his outstretched hand and tried my best to make my hand move towards it and grasp it and never let go again.