“It’s Friday, Friday! Gotta get down on Friday!” Kai sang, appearing out of nowhere as Vincent and I headed for the school’s back exit.
“Kai,” I said in surprise, coming to a dead halt.
His eyes flickered to Vincent, who also came to a stop. “I see your guard dog is with you again.”
Vincent scowled. “Ha ha.”
“You know, that’s probably why you don’t have any friends,” Kai responded thoughtfully, tapping his chin with a slim, tanned finger. “Maybe if you were actually nice.”
“He is nice,” I protested.
“To you,” Kai corrected me. “You saw the other day when he totally cut me in line when you decided to go to a la carte.”
I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling. That was two days ago, when I tried to escape Vincent for at least a few seconds. He literally never left me alone. At first it was kind of heartwarming, but now it was getting kind of annoying. My friends (aside from Alli) were afraid to come near me whenever he was around. Every time they tried, he would glare at them. I never realized how anti-social he was. On top of that, he didn’t even try to be nice. Especially when it came to Kai.
“Go away, pup,” Vincent snapped, narrowing his eyes.
Kai laughed. “Clever one, Vivi.”
I sent Kai a warning look. It seemed like only those who annoyed Vincent the most called him Vivi.
“Where did you hear that?” Vincent demanded, taking a menacing step forward. “Was it from Joel?”
“Joel?” Kai repeated. “He calls you Vivi too? Huh. I always knew I liked that guy…”
“As does every other person in this school,” I muttered disdainfully. Joel and Fiona went from new kids, to god and goddess. The students here practically threw themselves at their feet. It didn’t help Joel flirted with everything that had a pair of legs. Including the teachers. Of both genders.
Kai cracked a grin. “Jealous? You want his attention? He seems to pay extra attention to you.”
I waved him off. “No he doesn’t.”
“Yes he does. So does Fiona. Were you guys best friends before she came here or something?”
Well, if you count living with her for about two weeks because I was kidnapped, then yes. I smiled at my thoughts. There was no way I could say that out loud. “Kind of,” I finally admitted. We were friends…
Kai frowned. “You three are awfully close. Even Vincent talks to them.”
“We, er… Well Fiona and Vincent are brother and sister,” I informed him, talking to slowly.
“Seriously?”
“Didn’t you know that?”
He shook his head. “No! Now that you mention it though, they do look a lot alike. Except Fiona’s actually good looking—”
“Do you want something or not?” Vincent said in an irritated tone. I bet that last comment was a hit to his ego.
“Not from you,” Kai retorted with a turn of his nose. “Emily, what are you doing tonight?”
I thought about it for a second. What was I doing tonight? “Nothing.” As the words came out of my mouth, I immediately felt like a loser. Kai was one of those people who always had something to do on weekend nights. Usually I was too, but under the circumstances…
“Perfect! Want to go see Fast Five?”
“She’s already seen it,” Vincent responded for me.
I frowned at him for a moment before turning back to Kai. “Yeah, sorry.”
“That’s fine!” he chirped. “We can see something else.”
“She’s not going out tonight.”
Kai raised an eyebrow while I whipped my head toward Vincent. “What?”
He gave me a flat look. “You need to stay home.”
“No I don’t?”
“Yes you do.”
I placed my hands on my hips. Now this whole protection thing was taking it too far. It’d been almost week and nothing had happened! What was wrong with going out to a movie with him? “I want to go out, Vincent.”
“No.”
“Why can’t she go out with her friends, guard dog?” Kai demanded.
“Because I said so,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.
Suddenly a playful smile crossed Kai’s face. “Ooh, I know. You don’t want her to go out with me because you’re jealous!”
“I’m not jealous,” Vincent denied, rolling his eyes.
“Yes you are.”
“Do you want to die?”
“Vincent,” I warned, giving him a shut-up look.
He crossed his arms. “Let’s go home.”
“Let’s?” Kai repeated. Realization crossed his face. “Wait, you two live together?”
“Where have you been, Kai?” I asked, feeling my lips turn up into a smile. He really was slow. “The whole school knows now.”
“Really? That’s why you two are so close! I thought he just had some creepy crush on you.”
I stifled a giggle with my hand. It was rare to see someone insult Vincent so casually. Kai really had no sense of fear. “Yeah, he got into trouble in California so he’s leaving with my family now.”
“How’s Jake taking it?”
“Er…”
Kai laughed. “Not so well then?”
“Vincent and Jake get along about as well as you and Vincent.”
Vincent gave me a hard look. Impatience was written all over his face. “Are you done chatting now?”
Once again I found myself frowning at him. “No, I’m not. If you’re in such a rush, go home by yourself.”
“I can’t,” he said in a duh voice.
“And why not?” Kai questioned, crossing his arms. “I can take Emily home. I’m taking Alli home anyway. They live close.”
Vincent shook his head. “It’s none of your business.”
I chewed up my lip. Vincent’s responsibility was really starting to irritate me now. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why he had to do it. Even I knew Solomon would have his ass if he didn’t keep an eye on me. But if I wasn’t even allowed out, it wasn’t going to work. There’d been no vampire attacks so far. What was one night?
“Look, if you really have to, you can come out with us,” Kai said reluctantly. “That way you aren’t separated from your precious crush.”
Vincent gave him an unamused look. “I’m not interested.”
“Well I am,” I piped up, ignoring Vincent’s cool gaze. “Maybe not a movie, but something like…”
“Bowling?” Kai suggested with a grin.
“Did I hear the word bowling?”
Kai turned and I looked over his shoulder to see Alli heading toward us, a grin on her face. “Yes you did,” Kai told her.
“Are we going bowling tonight? Hey Vincent,” she added, seeing him sulking in the background.
“I want to,” I told her, looking to Kai. “Do you?”
“Definitely! We’ll get Alli and Jake to go too. Oh! And Fiona and Joel if they want to too!”
I laughed at his excitement. “I’ll ask them.” If they went, even if Vincent didn’t want to go, I could go. Joel and Fiona could handle watching me.
Alli nodded. “Okay. So do you all want to meet up at like 10?”
“Sounds good,” Kai and I agreed. Late night bowling was always the best.
“Then I seriously need to get home so I can shower before my work shift,” she continued, giving Kai a pointed look. “Ready?”
He gave her an affirmative answer. “I’ll see you later, Em,” he said, giving me a quick wave. “And you too, Vincent, if you stop being a hermit for five seconds.”
Vincent didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed to the exit.
“Bye, Emily!” Alli called as her and Kai headed through them.
I waved once before the door shut, leaving us in silence. “Ready to go—”
“Are you really going bowling tonight?” Vincent inquired.
“Yes,” I said defiantly. “I am. Why?”
He scowled. “Because of Kai?”
“Maybe Kai is right. Maybe you do have a creepy crush,” I commented in a teasing tone.
“It’s not creepy,” he snapped.
“Of course it’s…” I trailed off, my throat catching. Why didn’t he deny the crush part? What was that supposed to mean?
“Let’s go,” he commanded, moving toward the doors. “I’m driving.”
“Wait! What do you mean by it’s not creepy?” I had to jog to keep up with the brisk pace he’d taken on.
“What do you think, stupid?”
I glowered at his back. “Stop calling me that! How come you didn’t deny the crush part?”
He paused, causing me to run into him. After steadying me, he smirked. “I told you I was interested in you.”
“But that’s different than a crush!”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes it is!”
He rolled his eyes. “Why are you getting all strung up about this?”
“I-I’m not!” I denied, feeling embarrassment flooding my body. How could I not? It wasn’t every day life worked out in your favor and had your crush have a crush on you back. If we liked each other didn’t that mean we could… I shook my head. No, we couldn’t date. He was a vampire; I was a human. A human with Blue Blood, or whatever. If anything happened between us it’d probably put us both in danger.
My feelings of elation dissipated. It would have been better for me to not know Vincent’s feelings… but it was only a crush. I’ve had a crush on a countless amount of guys that I would have probably never dated. It didn’t always mean something. I was just a source of entertainment… This wouldn’t make things awkward between us. Besides, he wasn’t acting like it was a big deal. I shouldn’t either.
“Are you coming or what?”
I snapped myself from my thoughts to see Vincent standing a good ten yards away, already at my car. “I’m coming!”
“I’m going bowling tonight,” he told me as soon as I was sitting in the passenger seat. “I don’t trust Joel and Fiona.”
“You don’t have to go. I’m sure nothing is going to happen.”
“You’re naïve.”
I set my jaw. “No, I’m not. But I don’t want you coming along if you’re going to be a stick in the mud.”
“I liked you better when you were afraid of me.”
“I like you better when you’re not a jerk to my friends… Oh wait, that’s never.”
He snorted. “Why should I be nice to them?”
“Give me a reason why you shouldn’t!”
“I’m not their friend.”
Unable to think of a clever response, I shut my lips and crossed my arms. “Whatever, Vincent. If you’re coming along tonight, you’re going to act at least a little bit civil.”
“Maybe.”
“That means no bashing on Kai.”
“I’m not making any promises.”
“He didn’t even do anything to you!”
“I just don’t like him.”
I rolled my eyes. “You just don’t like the fact I have guys friends.”
Vincent shot me a look of disbelief. “They’re humans. They can’t compare to me.”
“You’re jealous of a human?”
“I’m not jealous.”
I looked out the window so he couldn’t see my smirk. “I can see why you would be. I mean, you do have a crush on me…” The words felt foreign in my mouth. I’d only had five boyfriends in my life, and I’d never been able to say they had a crush on me because I never got the upper hand like that.
“I don’t see how that goes with jealousy.”
“Because…”
“It’s a crush. Not love. You’re a human.”
Surprisingly, his words hurt, even though I was saying the same thing in my mind. It couldn’t work between us and I knew that. But couldn’t Vincent at least have a little bit of hope? I winced. Wasn’t I being a hypocrite? For some reason I couldn’t see Vincent and I as a couple… I couldn’t see myself with a vampire… Could I? If Vincent was here in the human world, it would be like he was a human, not a vampire. But then there was the problem of his slow aging and my normal one. Someone would think it was weird if our crushes became something else and it looked like I was a forty year old dating a twenty year old.
I banished the thought from my head. I didn’t even want to think about it. When this whole Blue Blood thing was over, I’d probably never see the Rutherfords again. That thought almost made me laugh. Who was I kidding? Nothing could stop me from seeing them again.
“Maybe if you were a vampire I would—”
“Erg, don’t even say that,” I interjected, shuddering. “No offense, Vincent, but I just couldn’t see myself as one of you. I’m human. I’ve been human my whole life. I want to be human my whole life.”
He chuckled. “I said maybe. Not, ‘Emily, you should become a vampire so I can love you!’”
I laughed sarcastically. “Real funny, Vince.”
“I’m not capable of love,” he said in a serious tone.
I sobered up, my eyes widening. “Wait, what?”
After a moment of silence passed, a smirk appeared on Vincent’s face. Then he laughed. “You should have seen the expression on your face! Totally blank!”
“You’re a jerk,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “Haven’t you loved someone before?”
“No, have you?”
“No,” I admitted. “Close to it, but not it, you know?”
Vincent shrugged. “Not really. My longest relationship was four months.”
“Mine was a year,” I told him. “Freshman year… Yeah, not something I like to remember. It was more like a middle school relationship. And we all know how those work.”
“Except me, since I never went to a human middle school…”
“Right,” I replied, letting my headrest against the window. “I think I’m going to take a nap before we go bowling.” My mind was already starting to hurt. When Kai had mentioned it, it didn’t seem like a bad idea, but now that I was thinking about it, having him, Vincent, Joel, Jake, Alli, Leah, and Fiona all in the same place would be hectic. There would probably be a brawl going down.
I held in a groan. At least I could hope it turned out well…
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
“Shoe size?”
“Seven,” I told the worker, who stooped down and pulled out a size seven pair of bowling shoes and gave them to me. I passed the money in my hand over to him. “Thank you.”
The worker smiled briefly before turning to Vincent. “Shoe size?”
“Ten.”
I threw him a surprised look. “What? Giant feet!”
He rolled his eyes. “No, that’s average for someone my size, stupid.”
“My size is average for my size too and I’m not that big!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were a guy.”
I scowled at him. “I’m not!”
“There you go. Women sizes are different than men,” he appraised me; taking the shoes the bowling ally worker was holding out to him. “Pay for me.”
“What?”
“I paid for the movies.”
Heaving an irritated huff of air, I paid for Vincent’s bowling fee. Together we made our way down to the lane on the far left of the ally. From the distance, I could make out Kai, Fiona, Joel, and Alli. When Kai caught sight of me, he waved excitedly, jogging to meet me half way. “I thought you weren’t coming to come!”
“I wouldn’t ditch,” I protested, frowning.
“You might, but he might’ve made you stay home,” Kai insisted, nodding his head toward Vincent. He lowered his voice, coming closer to me. “There’s something weird about him… Almost inhuman,”
Vincent snorted as I jerked away from Kai, my eyes widening. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Kai said innocently, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Come on, let’s go set up your names in the box.”
Vincent and I followed him to where the others were. Fiona and Joel gave both of us an enthusiastic greeting which ended with Vincent punching Joel hard enough to make him stumble backwards a few steps. Alli threw them both an amused glance before turning to me, raising an eyebrow. “Where’s Leah?”
“Jake went to pick her up,” I informed her. “They’ll be here soon.”
“What a waste of gas. You all should have just driven together.”
I looked pointedly at Vincent. “That would have probably ended up in a crash.”
She smirked. “Brother doesn’t like the bad boy?”
“At all,” I told her, letting out a small sigh. “That and Vincent doesn’t let anyone but himself drive my car.”
“Not even you?”
“Nope.”
Her face wrinkled. “What a jerk.”
“Leah!” Kai suddenly shouted, waving his arms like a maniac again. “Jake! Over here!”
Vincent shot him an annoyed look, crossing his arms over his chest. I fought back the urge to smile. Kai was loud and obnoxious (in a good way): something Vincent despised. As Jake and Leah approached, Vincent tensed, keeping his back to them. Jake made the first move, slinging an arm over his shoulder. “Well, what do you know? The hermit Vivi is out to play? Who would have thought you had an announce of socialness inside you?”
“Get off me,” he demanded, shoving Jake’s arm away.
“In a bad mood already? I hate to think what you’re attitude will be like when we start playing and I beat you.”
“Actually,” Joel interjected, flashing my brother a handsome smile. “I do believe I will be the victor here.”
Jake waved him off. “Joel, you can’t even run a lap in gym class.”
“I can. I just choose not to.”
I raised an eyebrow at Joel. “You refuse to run in gym?”
“I’d have to run like a slug,” he told me, making a face.
“You don’t run fast?” Kai asked.
I blinked, realizing Joel’s mistake. For a vampire, fast running was really fast. So running at a human pace must feel like walking incredibly slowly for him. “Come to think of it, Joel is a really slow runner…”
He forced out a laugh. “Ah, yeah. Leg problems…”
Leah gave him a pitying look. “That must really suck. So I take it you’ve never done any sports?”
“Nope.”
“Your pretty toned for not doing sports,” Jake commented. His eyes slid to Vincent. “You too.”
“I guess I’m just lucky,” Joel responded with another awkward laugh. “Anyway, shall we start playing? I’m ready to kick some ass. What are the teams?”
“We’ll split in two for each lane,” Kai suggested. “Emily and me—”
“Kai and me,” Alli interjected, shooting me a surreptitious wink, “Leah and Jake, Fiona and Joel, and Emily and Vincent.”
Joel grinned at Fiona. “We are definitely going to win.”
“Definitely!” she chirped.
For a second I debated about telling them to slip up, but decided against it. Even if they were vampires, it didn’t mean they were awesome at bowling. Kai, Leah, Alli, and I went bowling a lot. Not trying to brag or anything, but we were pretty advanced now. “We’ve got this,” I said to Vincent as we headed to our lane with Kai and Alli.
“I’ve got this,” he told me. “It’s okay if you get a gutter every ball.”
“Ha,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “We’ll see…”
As it turns out, today was not my day for bowling. Each ball I sent down the lane either hit five pins, three pins, missed them all, or went into the gutter. Luckily for me, Vincent had got a strike every time, keeping us ahead of Alli and Kai, but not by far. Kai was getting really into the game, shouting in victory every time he got a strike or spare. Vincent, on the other hand, was completely expressionless when it was his turn. Not once was there a flicker of triumph on his face with every strike he got. It was making me increasingly frustrated. We were down to three more sets before the game was over now.
“Do you best!” Kai cheered as I reached for my bowl.
I glared at him over my shoulder. “Shut up.”
He smirked. “What? I’m only cheering you on.”
“Sure,” I said doubtfully. He was probably trying to use some Jedi mind trick that would cause me to mess up. Slowly, I made my way towards the lane, holding up my eight-pound bowling ball in front of me. Before I could swing, I felt a hand on my arm. Turning, I found Vincent standing beside me. “What?” I asked.
“Swing your arm back like this,” he ordered, taking a hold of my arm gently and bringing it back in a straight line. “The ball will go in the direction you want it to.”
“Straight back?” I repeated quietly. My arm where his hand was touching me started to tingle.
He did the motion for me a few times, his hand never gripping my arm any tighter. It was one of the first times he’d touched me where it actually didn’t hurt. “You got it now?”
I nodded. “I think so.”
“Do it swift and do it strong,” he said before taking a step away.
Swift and strong, I told myself. Swinging my arm back as far as I could, I brought it forward with as much force I could gather, letting it go at the second. Unfortunately, I lost my balance under the momentum, and fell over backwards, earning laughs from everyone around me. Blushing in embarrassment, I scrambled back to my feet, scowling at Alli, who was literally on the ground laughing at me.
“Shut up!”
“Look!” Kai cried and I heard pins being knocked over. “Strike!”
I whipped around, my eyes widening when I saw all ten pins lying on the ground. My jaw dropped and I faced Vincent, excitement bubbling up in me. “I did it!”
“Congratulations,” he responded, an amused smile slipping onto his lips.
“You finally smiled too!”
The smile dropped. “No I didn’t.”
I shook my head at him, moving over to take a seat next to him. “You could at least pretend to have a little more fun. I feel bad for making you come.”
“You didn’t force me to come.”
“But I knew you would if I went,” I admitted. “I thought you might have a little bit of fun.”
He shrugged. “I am.”
“You are?”
“It’s funny watching you make a fool out of yourself every time your ball goes into the gutter. It’s cute.”
His comment threw me off guard for a moment. Then I shot him a dirty look. I didn’t look like a fool. “You’re a jerk.”
“You say that to me every five seconds. When are you going to realize it has no effect?”
Huffing angrily, I pushed myself up from my seat. “Forget it. I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Don’t get lost,” he said teasingly.
I resisted the urge to hit him. The bathrooms were on the far right of the building, by the snack shack. They weren’t that hard to find. After telling Alli and Kai I would be right back, I headed toward them. I Like It started playing on the speakers above me, and I soon found myself humming along to it. Even if Vincent was being a lump, I was still having fun. It’d felt like forever since I’d been out with my friends doing something human. Though judging by Fiona, Vincent, and Joel’s scores, vampires played bowling too. They must have played often too: all three of them were like prodigies. How was it even possible to get such a perfect score like Vincent did? He didn’t even look like it was hard, either! It was crazy... and a little bit annoying. I felt inferior to him. It was embarrassing that I was doing so worse than him. Usually I could bowl better than I had been tonight.
Suddenly something hard hit me— or I ran into something hard. Letting out an “oof!”, I stumbled backwards, nearly falling over. A firm pair of hands landed on my shoulder, holding me up. I looked up to thank the person. My breath caught when my eyes landed on a pair of smoky grey ones.
“Are you okay?” the owner of the eyes questioned, sounding concerned.
“I’m, uh…” I trailed off, finally taking my eyes away from his, only to be drawn in by the stranger’s white hair. It wasn’t old man white; it was dyed white. I’d never met someone with dyed white hair other than Sam, but Sam was a vampire.
His eyebrows knitted together. “Your…?”
“I’m okay,” I blurted, feeling warmth rise to my cheeks. What was I doing? Checking out a stranger while he was watching to me?
“Okay, good. Sorry about that, by the way,” he added after a second. “I should have been paying more attention to where I was going.”
I shook my head. “No! It’s totally my fault. I was spacing out!”
Dimples appeared in his cheeks as he grinned. “Let’s just say it was both of our faults, okay?”
“Um, sure,” I responded, once again being captured by his smoky eyes.
“I’ve got to return to my friends,” he told me, nodding his head toward the lanes. “Sorry again.”
“Yeah, no problem, sorry to you too,” I rambled.
He smiled again before turning his back and heading toward the lanes. “Bye, Emily.”
“Yeah, bye…” I trailed off as his words registered in my head. Bye, Emily. How did he know my name? I hadn’t met him ever before in my life. I would have remembered those ashy eyes. Maybe he went to my school or something. A younger student… A wave of unease washed over me and I quickly twisted on my heel, heading back for my friends. The bathroom could wait.
When I got back to our lane, it was my turn again to go. Vincent caught my eye, his eyebrows furrowing. “What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
I stared back at him, surprised by his tone. “What do you mean?”
“You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“I do?” I raised a hand to my cheek.
“Did something happen?”
I shook my head. “No…”
He took a step closer to me, putting his hand to my head. “Are you feeling anemic?”
“No, I’m fine,” I insisted, taking a step back, and cupping my elbow with my hand. Did I really look like I was going to feint? I felt fine…
Vincent didn’t seem satisfied and he scowled. “Look—”
“Whoa, what’s with that look man?” Kai interjected, appraising Vincent with his eyes. “You look like you’re going to eat her.”
I grimaced. That was actually possible. “I’m going to take my turn now…”
“Don’t mess up our score,” Vincent responded, shooting a glare at Kai.
Ignoring him, I picked up my bowling ball and headed toward the lane. Before I rolled it, I looked toward the other side of the building. The ashy-eyed man was staring right back at me, a blonde woman by his side. I blinked at him. He grinned and waved. I twitched my fingers in a quick wave back before turning to bowl.
There was definitely something weird about that guy.
________________________________________
Woo! I only have two and a half weeks of school before finals start and then I'm freeee! Ew. Finals... That's going to be rough. That means I have to study which means less writing time. And I also applied for two jobs because I need money :L Oh well. At least it will be summer soon and then I'll have more writing time!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter :3 It's long... so a vote please? ;) Facebook fan page in external link, holmess