Blue Monday

Chapter 1 - Come With Me Now

***ALEX***

I wake up on Monday morning with a lot of cold sweat breaking out all over my skin. My T-shirt is stuck to my chest - which is funny, because I could have sworn just a second ago it wasn't even there. Then I remember that my dream is over.

To which I almost want to say thank God. Because I haven't had dreams about Fionna in a long time, and the last thing I need right now is for her to start making guest appearances again. Especially shirtless - and almost completely topless - guest appearances.

I don't know which would make me feel more guilty - expressing pleasure that Fionna isn't really here to get back together with me, or wishing that she were. Either way, I'm very much torn, because I'm feeling both of the above at once.

As usual, however, I decide to bury my conflicting thoughts as quickly as possible. I've learned to do that mostly out of necessity, living in a world populated by telepaths. I would have thought that I'd also learned it was bad for my health, because it would only make me suffer more nightmares.

But for now, I decide to stick to looking and sound normal. Or as normal as possible, anyway.

And the first step is to do as I promised Aron Smythe and help him get some attention for his work of art.

Each day this week, I plan to go into the school library to take a look at Aron's first installment of his graphic-novel project, The Venom Chronicles. It's nothing to do with the infamous comic-book villain, although I can easily see a lot of Spidey's influence in Aron's work. Especially since I helped him write a lot of the story.

Each day, I bring another person with me to see the ten pages on display at the library's front desk. On Monday, it's Paul, who was very touched by the dedication his little brother put in, not only for him, but for his other beta readers.

"To Paul, Alex, Juliet, Gideon, and Luca. Thanks for the tips - I promise I'll ask you for less as time goes on! -A.S." (It's mostly Aron's dedication, but it's not lost on us that our initials are the same.)

Luca takes his turn to smile fondly at the dedication for the first time on Tuesday.

He's followed on Wednesday by Gideon. I grin as I see him smile at the first page, introducing the main character, teenage vampire Jay Cross - I'd suggested to Aron that he name him after Gideon's ex. As he was the only thing that made Gideon's life on Earth remotely bearable, even if he was faking his way through the relationship, he greatly appreciated the little nostalgia trip.

After taking his first reading, Gideon falls into step beside me and Luca as we walk back to the lounge. He assures us that the real Jay Cross is not now, nor has he ever been, a vampire. "If he were," he says, "I'd probably not even have pretended to be interested in him."

"You've never seen the appeal of bad boys, have you?" Luca laughs.

Gideon ruffles his hair. "Aren't you gonna miss this bird's nest when it's gone?"

"I'm not. God, I wish I could get it over with already. You know, it always hurts when I have my hair cut, 'cause it's so thick the clippers keep pulling on it."

"But I love your curly hair," Gideon teases. "It's what makes us twins!"

"Alex is the only one of us with a twin," Luca says in his "that settles the matter" voice. "And speaking of which, you're gonna cut your hair for prom too, right?"

"Of course," I say, brushing my own overgrown mop out of my face - it's been in a ridiculous Carl Grimes style for months, but I've been too lazy to do anything about it. "Not today, though. I gotta finish up my French report."