Ash

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

One hour. I'm devoting one whole hour of my life to his cock and bull story.

"I never had any feelings for her."

"Yeah right." Lie number one. Lust is a feeling, even if there was no other emotion afterwards.

"One hour for me to do the talking. You just have to listen and not interrupt." He silences me. I glare at him. "Remember when she first moved to our street and we said she was weird because she came only with her cousin and she never spoke to anyone?"

I don't answer. He told me not to speak, right? Besides diving into memories of the Devil Bitch isn't something I enjoy spending my afternoon doing.

"Turns out we were wrong. She wasn't just weird. She was sinister as well. The first time we spoke was one day after practice. She was in the bleachers and I got the feeling she was staring at me even though I couldn't be sure with those dark shades she always wore. I'd actually been getting that feeling for a long time. Whenever we were in the same room together her head would always be slightly turned in my direction, either as if she was watching or listening. I before we actually spoke."

"And you never felt the need to tell me about that right? Because we tell each other everything." I can't help but blurt there.

"She only stared. She never said anything then. I didn't think of her as an issue or anything of importance to tell you about," he replies. "That day I was leaving after practice and she came up to me. She asked if I could walk her to her house. She said her cousin was sick and he was always the one who walked with her, that she was lousy with directions and scared of going alone because she didn't know the area well enough. I thought there was something odd about a senior asking a sophomore for help when there were so many other people around but I figured there was no harm in it so I helped her. She was grateful and we parted ways. That was after practice. You'd gone home already then. Next day she waved at me during lunch. You didn't see. I waved back. I wanted to tell you. You were absorbed in a conversation with Frankie. I forgot after then. I saw her everyday in the bleachers after that. I knew then that something was wrong, but I couldn't exactly shun her. She hadn't done anything wrong yet. I avoided her nonetheless. Until the day she showed up at my house. That was the night before your birthday. She came crying, saying she needed someone to talk to. I couldn't understand why she'd come to me out of all the people she knew by then, but I figured she was a loner and I couldn't shut the door in her face so I let her in."

Of course. I was expecting something along those lines. Isn't this the most popular verse second only to it was the alcohol? "She was crying." Please.

"I let her cry on my shoulder. My mistake. I couldn't really tell the difference after that between when she was crying and when she bit me. She was gentle. I didn't feel the blood being drawn from me up until I was faint. She drew too much. I passed out. When I woke up she was there, smiling at me. She said she fed me her blood to neutralize the venom in my system, that the venom had made me weak and numb, and she was sorry for taking so much, she didn't mean to drain me. She explained it all to me, what she was and how she'd chosen me for the object of her interest. She didn't dilute all the venom. I was heavy and slow, and my brain was cloudy. I didn't react the way I should've. I didn't run like I should've. By the next morning it had worn off, I didn't remember a thing. She stayed till then. I saw the bite mark. She said I had a little accident and put more of her venom in my system. I became her zombie again. It was later I realized she followed me to your party that day. We hid the bite marks so you wouldn't notice. When she asked me to go with her to the suite you booked somewhere in my head I knew she had something awful cooking but I couldn't help it. I couldn't argue. She did it on purpose, designed a set up to ruin us. She always hated you, and I couldn't tell if it was just because of you or because she was jealous because of me but I know she was always ready to hurt you. Which is why when she told me not to go after you I didn't. Even in my state I saw the threat in her eye. She would've had you dead in a second."