Dedicated to them for sticking around and giving all the love.
Hi! Sorry for late upload, my broadband wasn't working. There was once a time when I had been absolutely fascinatedby volleyball and when I tried it, I ended up bruising my hand. I'm not the least bit sporty but somethings just fascinate me even if I'm not good at it. So here's to all the sporty girls out there! And please do tell me what you think by commenting and do vote&share. See ya real soon!
_____________________________________________________
Chapter 7
I learned several things about Daniel when we came out of the house; one- the house was massive so it was probably a mansion, two- he had a Lamborghini and both of these this obviously stated that he was a rich dude. Also the mansion was located at the outskirts of the town and had a huge area of land around it, which meant that it would take a while reaching our destination, there was still some time so I wasn’t worried about being late. But just calling it a ‘huge area of land’ didn’t do it justice because it wasn’t abandoned. The grass was evergreen and looked as if it had been freshly mowed, the from almost the middle there were roses planted in rows, ruby red to bright pink to off-white, all in all it was beautiful. I wondered if they had a special gardener or something, or maybe either of the brothers was into gardening, Nah!
I was told that Victoria had gone to work and I believed it because she was the editor in one of the news firms and news agencies rarely take holidays. There was complete silence in the car except the quite humming of the air conditioning; I guess none of us wanted to talk so I kept looking outside the window, admiring the view of the beautiful scene around me. I jumped when a really loud music started playing on the sound system of the car. I recognised the song. I looked at Daniel; he was tapping the sides of the steering wheel and singing along softly, though the song wasn’t soft in the least sense of the word.
“Linkin Park, really?” I exclaimed.
“You don’t like them?” he asked.
“It’s not that. It’s… Oh hell, the music is too loud and I thought vampires liked classic!”
“Well, we evolve along with the rest of the world. Would you prefer I play Lady Gaga?”
I actually laughed, “You must have a really interesting list of music favourites.”
He grinned, “I guess I do. Want to choose the song?”
“Nah! Just put something that is less loud.”
“Then let me play a song that relates to us.” He smiled and changed the song. If you thought I was surprised before then you were wrong. I blinked at him sort of astounded as Bad Romance played along. “If you think this relates to us then you’re wrong,” I commented which made him burst in to laughter and I couldn’t help but join in with him.
***
We arrived at the Practice Court just in time but I was still nervous and it wasn’t because of the volleyball practice; no that is something I had done a million times. What I hadn’t done before was dress up pretty and had a handsome guy escort me, yup that was truly new. The Practice Court was actually like a big community club for sports which meant that along with the volleyball court there were other courts such as basketball, football, tennis and of course a swimming pool, the gym was in the indoor facility. And because it wasn’t just a volleyball court it meant that kids from other sport departments would be there too and if I was lucky enough I could just slip in the locker room and change into my volleyball uniform. How the hell did I end up in such a mess?!
I showed my club ID and went inside. How the hell did I have my ID right now? Yes, we just happened to stop at my apartment to get a few things. There is a long passageway sort leading to different courts and locker rooms on the ground but unfortunately my luck wasn’t in the good direction today. Just under the nearby tree stood my best friends, Jenny and Maryam. They started coming towards me and I realised I was holding Daniel’s hand without realising it. Shit! I immediately let go and hoped that they hadn’t noticed.
They came trotting towards us, Jenny in her usual cornrows and white volleyball uniform with a white cap on her head; she was African American with perfect chocolate-brown skin and brunette hair. Maryam on the other hand was a red head with Egyptian background and you might be surprised to hear that it wasn’t an unusual combination. She wore the same uniform but without the cap, she didn’t really tan any ways, just turned pink. Both of them fit like a puzzle piece, one dark and one light.
Truthfully it was Maryam I was more worried about. Unnerving thing about her was that she seemed to notice everything, Jenny might miss it but Maryam had probably seen me and Daniel holding hands but there was always a little hope but then Maryam talked rarely so she wouldn’t have pointed it out loud. The phrase ‘The most silent ones are the most observant’ is correct on a lot of basis.
Jenney started talking even before she reached us, “Where the hell where you?! I came by your house this morning and you weren’t there.”
“Err, I was out that’s all,” I said and even to me it seemed a lame excuse.
“Yeah right! You early in the morning. You can’t even get up at 9 AM,” she pointed out.
“Who’s he?” Maryam asked looking at Daniel. I must admit I had almost forgotten that he was there, almost.
“Umm… Jenny, Maryam this is Daniel my …”
“Boyfriend,” Daniel interrupted. I gave him a look from the corner of my eyes saying what-the-hell-are-you-up-to and he grinned back at me.
Maryam was smiling, yup! She had seen the handholding but Jenny’s mouth was hanging open. “What?! When…” She seemed speechless and then she cleared her throat and tried again, “The last time we knew you didn’t have a boyfriend. Were you hiding this from us?”
“Maybe she didn’t tell us was because she wanted to surprise us,” Maryam suggested.
“It is a surprise alright,” I mumbled.
Jenny actually put her hand forward, “Hi, I’m Jenny and this is Maryam.” Maryam just waved at the mention of her name (she didn’t like shaking hands much) while Jenny and Daniel shook hands.
“Why the hell are you dressed up in black from head to toe on such a hot day?” Jenny asked abruptly then she turned to me, “And when did you start wearing dresses?!”
I just stared at them thinking what to say but unfortunately Daniel just saved me from saying anything, “I’m allergic to access sunlight, so I have to dress up as such whenever I’m out in the sun and” he looked at me and smiled, “she wore the dress for me.” I just stared at him and didn’t know what to say.
“Oh my God!” Jenny yelled, “You were this serious about a relationship and you didn’t tell us.” Maryam just nodded beside her.
I just had to get away somehow and the only thing I knew how was to change the topic, “Well, it’s getting late so I have to go and change in the locker rooms. Err, see you real quick.” I started running away even before finishing the sentence; Daniel kept an even pace beside me.
The last thing I heard Jenny yelling as we went away was, “You can’t walk away from us without explaining!”
I was in my usual uniform and it felt way better to face the other team players but it seemed they weren’t going to let go. Apparently Jenny had already told them about me wearing a dress and having a boyfriend. Welcome to my world.
Huan-yue was jumping up and down as soon as I and Daniel entered the tennis court. Her black ponytails were bouncing on her sides which gave the illusion as if they were alive. She was Chinese, a typical Asian and according to me was the cutest in our team. Others were pretty or beautiful but Huan-yue was cute, you felt like cuddling her or pinching her cheek. Oh, and did I forget to mention she was hyperactive. She kept repeating, “Eliza has a boyfriend!” as if it was some kind of poetry or something.
I hushed at her, “Will you please tone it down already.”
She stopped jumping but her eyes were sparkling with delight, “I’m sorry, but it’s awesome to know that you’re dating again and none of us thought that you would, not after Scott anyways!”
“Did someone mention my name?”
And there he was Kyle Scott was a big super cocky idiot that had been my first. I had dated him briefly and even at that amount of time he had given me enough grief that I promised myself never to date again and I myself was surprised at the fact that our relationship had lasted for two months, I mean what kind of an idiot I had been then. Worse part was that he was a werewolf. Being a necromancer has its own upsides and one of them was that I could sense otherworldly abilities. I hadn’t told Kyle that I knew what he was because in doing so I would have to tell my secret. Necromancers had no connection to werewolves, so he couldn’t sense me but I wondered if he could sense that Daniel was a vampire.
“What the hell are you doing here?!” It came out more hostile than I wanted but at least it proved the point. I was not happy to see him. I had been ignoring him ever since we broke up about a year ago and suddenly he comes and interference between a private conversation.
“I skipped my football practice as soon as I heard that you brought your new boyfriend here. I just had to see it myself,” Kyle replied.
I realised that I was no longer attracted to him, it might have something to do with him breaking my heart but I doubted that, I looked at Daniel at my right and thought I have a whole new meaning of attraction. Daniel had already introduced himself as my boyfriend and had expressed desires to date me, so unfortunately he was on the list of possible boyfriend (not that anyone else was on it). I smiled at him and he smiled back, somehow I felt that he would never break my heart. Hmm, maybe that was just me being naïve….
“Hello. Will you stop gazing at him like a lovesick puppy and talk to me?!” Kyle demanded and I felt Daniel tense behind me, I guess he didn’t like his tone either beside Kyle didn’t have a right to do so. Why the hell did he want to interfere in my life all the time? I gave him the look that said I was not at all happy to see him.
I crossed my arms and asked, “What the hell do you want?”
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” he tried to sound social, God knew how bad he was at it. He seemed jealous and I didn’t really understand that. He might have not been a big flirt like Ted but he flirted enough and had been dating at least two different girls after we broke up, so why the hell did me dating someone bothered him so much. I ignored the fact and just introduced them. When they shook hands, Kyle actually squeezed Daniel’s hand and from the looks of it seemed that it might hurt but Daniel just innocently smiled and let go. I guess he wasn’t up for a power showdown.
“So how long have you been dating?” Kyle asked.
“Not long,” Daniel replied.
“And what does not long mean here?”
“We just had our first date yesterday.” Daniel said.
Kyle started laughing though I think it was forced. He looked at me then and there was something in his eyes that I couldn’t quite decipher. “Don’t get serious this soon babe. You’ll regret it.” He turned and walked away with that piece of advice. I wasn’t stupid I knew when to and when not to get serious about a relationship and looking in to Daniel’s eyes something in my heart clicked and said he would never hurt me but then never was such a long time.
And the worse thing was that everybody now were just convinced that I skipped the volleyball practice yesterday was because I had a date with Daniel and the headache was just a lie, that meant that they weren’t going to leave without their questions answered.