Note: this story has been published through Self Publishing. Keep in mind that the Wattpad version is only the first draft! For the polished version without the many mistakes, buy a copy!
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“We still need to do some serious Christmas shopping,” I told Simon when we were eating pancakes in the local pancake house.
We’d decided to get off the school grounds and spend the day in the nearby village. Simon had gone to Eros to explain everything that had happened, as I couldn’t bring myself to face him. It wasn’t really my story to tell either. Simon said Eros had been his usual cocky self, but he hadn’t said one mean word to Simon, which was a huge improvement considering how rude he could be. I had wanted to get away from everything – not just from Eros, but from Antwan and Will too, from everyone except Simon really. Simon had taken me out immediately and he’d insisted on paying for our lunch. He’d ordered something with a lot of meat and I was eating a pancake with sugar, cinnamon, apple and honey. It tasted amazing. Strangely, Simon’s meat looked delicious to me as well. The smell of it was mouth-watering. But I was a vegetarian, had been for several years now, so I didn’t wanted a bite of his food, although he offered it several times when he saw me eyeing his food curiously.
“Christmas shopping?” Simon repeated, surprised. “Why?”
“Because that’s what you do when it’s Christmas,” I said, shaking my head at him. “We need to get your roommates something, and I want something for mine as well. Oh, and I need to send my old friends something… My mom will come see me soon and I need to get her something. Oh, and your parents. You definitely need to get them something.”
He snorted. “All my parents want is for me to get a boyfriend. I can’t get them to understand I’m not gay.”
“Well, you could try to tell them…” I said, laughing. “Or put a gun to their heads until they admit you’re not homosexual.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a great plan.” He grinned, putting some bacon in his mouth. “The only thing that would convince them is me getting a girlfriend, but I don’t see that happening.”
When he said the word girlfriend, an idea formed in my head. Okay, maybe Simon wouldn’t get an actual girlfriend before his parents came to see him this vacation, but he didn’t need a real girlfriend to make his parents see the truth. He just needed someone who acted as his girlfriend. I looked up at him, a smirk on my face. I was sure this was a great idea – Simon wouldn’t be set up with guys anymore once I’d put my plan into action.
He caught my eye, saw my expression and choked on his food. “Oh, no,” he said quickly. “If you are thinking what I think you are thinking, my answer is no.”
“I’ll just pretend to be your girlfriend for one day,” I protested. “Just introduce me to your parents and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“No,” he refused again. “No way.”
“Why not?” I asked. “Come on, I’d love to meet your parents.”
He laughed mockingly. “You can meet them as my friend, not as my fake girlfriend. It’s insane.”
“What’s wrong with insane? I’m insane and you seem to like me all right.” I looked at him pleadingly and batted my eyelashes. “I am doing it for you. You do so much for me all the time, I just want to return the favor.”
Simon closed his eyes and seemed to consider it for a minute. “Well…” he sighed. “It would be nice to have them off my back. And I really hate them setting me up with guys – it is embarrassing. Okay. Fine.”
“Yes!” I smiled wickedly. “Okay, so now I need to know everything about you parents. Tell me all there is to know. I am going to be the best fake girlfriend ever. Oh, and I need to get them a present too, obviously. God, this is exciting. Are you going to tell them you have a girlfriend before they come to visit or will you just spring it on them? Oh, I…”
Simon rolled his eyes and let me babble for a little while. Although he seemed to think the idea was insane, he did look pretty excited at the prospect of getting his parents to see he wasn’t attracted to guys. We were going to have fun with this, I was sure.
That day, I did all of my Christmas shopping. I found everyone a very nice present, even though the village was pretty small. Second-hand stores were everywhere, and I loved those kind of cozy places where you could find something amazing under a pile of dust wherever you looked. The only person I hadn’t been able to buy a present for was Simon, as he’d been right by my side all of the time and I could hardly tell him to step outside for a minute. But I did want to buy him something today, preferably without him noticing. I pretended to go to the bathroom when we were in the pancake house again at the end of our day – we were going to have dinner there: one can never eat too many pancakes, after all… I snuck out through the window and entered the shop to the left. It was a tiny little bookshop where they had all kinds of old yellowing books.
The owner looked at me strangely when I came up to him, a huge smile on my face. This shop was obviously not often visited by young teen girls. I knew the owner was a witch the moment I laid eyes on him, so I strolled up to him and looked him in the eye. The man was tall and slightly muscular. He had a lean build and his hair was long and curly, pulled into a messy bun in the nape of his neck. There was a feel of magic in the air around him, and a scent of unknown herbs made the air thick around him.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any books on supernaturals?” I asked him nicely.
“You mean vampire romance novels?” he asked, bored. “Yeah, they are really popular…” He had already started to walk to one of the bookcases, pulling out a battered copy of Vampire Academy. I almost started to laugh when I thought of giving Simon that book for Christmas.
“No…” I corrected him. “I mean books on actual supes.” I opened my mouth and showed him my slightly extended fangs. He probably would only sell the books I was looking for to actual supernaturals, so I might as well show him I was one of them in the easiest way possible: just expose my fangs. “I figured you might, since you’re a witch.”
The man’s eyes widened, but he didn’t give voice to his astonishment. “You must be Demona Hollow. You’re quite a legend already in the supernatural world…”
“Well, thanks, I guess,” I replied hesitantly. Were supernaturals I didn’t even know talking about me behind my back? Discussing how it was possible a girl had become a vampire? “So, do you have anything for me?”
“Of course.” He opened the door behind the counter and held it open for me. “It’s a bit dusty, as rarely anyone comes in who I would allow to buy any of these. What are you looking for?”
“Well, I am looking for something for my friend: a Christmas present. He is really interested in fairy history, that kind of thing… Vampires, also something he would like to know more about, and really just supernaturals in general.” I hesitated, wondering if I should ask the man if he had something on special bonds, but I decided it was too risky.
The room behind the counter was small and contained one stuffed bookcase and a few boxes full of pocket books. I coughed when a whole bunch of dust bunnies flew into my face, moved by the drift. Did this man ever clean his shop?
“I have a spell book with minor incantations any supe could do…” the man said, rummaging through one of the boxes. “Maybe that would be of interest for him? On the lowest shelf are all the books I have on fairies. Not much there, I fear…”
I bent down and pulled out six battered books. They all had names like Fairy history and More than just wish granting. I decided to take them all – it wasn’t too expensive and I knew Simon would like them. I took the spell book too, wondering if really all supes could do minor incantations, even me… The man gave me a few advanced books on vampire powers and those kind of things. My arms were so full I had no idea how to take them back to school without Simon seeing.
“Could you, maybe, send them to my dorm?” I asked the man when I’d paid for everything. “My friend is in the pancake house, thinking I went to the bathroom to attend to some lady business… I can hardly come out of there with like, fifteen books.”
The man grinned. “No, that would be strange. Of course I can deliver them. I will bring them to you myself later this night. Anything else I could do for you? Maybe something else your friend likes that I might have here…” He gestured around him. “You would be surprised how much stuff I have in here besides just dusty old books.”
I laughed. “Unless you have any band posters or some band shirts, I don’t think you can help me. But thanks so much for the effort.”
“Who says I don’t have anything like that?” He pulled out yet another dusty box from behind the counter. “You know what, pick out anything you want from this box. You spent more money here than I normally make in a week, so I might as well keep my only customer today satisfied.” He winked at me. “It really is a pleasure meeting another supernatural. Most of you high school kids don’t come in here, and no one ever asks for old books. It’s the age of the internet and high tech games.”
I grinned at the shop owner and bent over to heave the box onto the counter so I could see what was inside. I pulled out a few band shirts, seeing a lot of posters and CDs underneath. The CDs were of no use, since Simon either had the album already, or he wouldn’t want to be caught dead with it. But there were a few band shirts and two autographed posters from The Killers and The All-American Rejects. The man assured me he would be happy to deliver them along with the books at my dorm later today, and waved at me when I left the store.
When I crawled back into the bathroom through the window, I was smiling. I couldn’t wait to see Sime’s face when I gave him his presents. I was sure he’d love them. When I saw Simon, who looked slightly worried, I hugged him.
“Where were you, I couldn’t feel your presence anymore!” he said accusingly, pulling away.
Crap. I had forgotten that stupid, inconvenient bond… “You’re just worn out from yesterday,” I told him. “I can’t tell what you are feeling all of the time either. It’s no big deal.” I hated lying to him, but I really wanted his presents to be a surprise. “I’m sorry it took me so long – you should be glad you’re a guy. Having your period isn’t nice at all.” That wasn’t a lie – I was having my period and being a guy actually didn’t sound so bad to me right now.
He smiled sweetly at me. “Let’s go get something to eat," he told me, putting his arm around me. “I’ll even take something without meat.”
“What do they do for Christmas around here?” I asked Simon on Christmas Eve. We were making our way towards the cafeteria, where a ‘special program’ would take place for those who’d stayed at the school during vacations.
“No idea,” Simon replied, shrugging. “I haven’t been here long enough to celebrate Christmas here.”
“It’s karaoke night,” I heard someone say behind me. When I turned, Antwan was smiling at us, his arm around a pretty blond witch. “This is Minnie,” he introduced her to us. “My date.”
“We need dates for karaoke night?” I asked, my eyebrows raised. “Seriously?”
“You need dates for everything at this school,” Minnie confirmed. She had a very sweet, soft voice. I could tell by the way she looked at Antwan that she was more than happy he was her date tonight.
“Well, in that case…” I turned to Simon. “Will you be my date tonight?”
“Sure,” he agreed lightly.
Minnie looked surprised, obviously not getting why anyone would be so indifferent about getting a date. I wondered if Antwan really liked her, since she obviously liked him a lot.
We walked to the cafeteria together, and Antwan invited us to come join his friends. So we pulled up a few chairs and sat down at a table in the far back. Will was there too, of course, with a pretty brunette that looked bored out of her mind. He grinned broadly when we joined him. Aside from Simon’s roommates and their dates, there was a guy I didn’t know and next to him was a girl that was in my English class. They introduced themselves as Pete and Ginny. They were obviously not just each other’s dates but way more than that. They looked very sweet together.
The cafeteria didn’t look fabulous or anything. It was just the cafeteria, but the usual robust tables were replaced by round black ones. The chairs were the same old rusty ones that squeaked when you sat on them. The walls were covered with silver ornaments and in every corner stood a huge Christmas tree.
“Welcome, everyone.” Miss Canda had gotten up on stage, smiling down on all of us. “For those of you who are spending their very first Christmas here, I will explain how it works. Tonight is karaoke night. If you’d like to sing a song, you come up here and write your name and your song down on the paper hanging on the wall right there…” She pointed to her left. “Your name will be called and the band will play your song. If everyone has been able to sing their song, you can just come up without writing your name on the paper and tell the band what you’d like to sing. You can also borrow an instrument if you want to, or use your own guitar or whatever you’d like to play. Have fun!”
As soon as she got off stage, people got up and walked up front to subscribe. I wished Anne had been here – we loved to do karaoke. We always did horrible Shakira songs or cheesy Taylor Swift country songs. I’d love to get up there and sing, but there was no way I was going alone. One look at Simon told me I would never get him up there. I sighed and made myself comfortable in my chair. Looked like all I’d be doing was watching and listening.
“Kristin Stanford!” Miss Canda said through the microphone, calling the first name on her list. “Singing Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.”
While the familiar tunes of the song sounded and the girl started singing just a bit off-tune, Minnie bent toward me. I leaned forward, as I wouldn’t be able to hear her otherwise.
“So, is it true that you and Simon are together?” she asked me. “If you don’t mind me asking, I am just curious – I don’t want to be rude…”
“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “And no, we’re not. It’s just a rumor.”
She nodded, and we both listened to the song for a moment. It seemed Minnie wanted to say more, as she kept opening hr mouth, but she apparently decided against it. When the girl on stage had finished her song and a guy with a guitar had taken her place, Minnie eventually spoke to me again.
“I… I have a friend who wants to ask Simon out, so…”
Simon’s head snapped up. He’d obviously been listening. “Please tell me it’s not Amy Manners,” he groaned. “Please.”
“Well… it is Amy…” Minnie said, scratching her neck. “Is that bad?”
“I already told her no three times this week,” Simon said, irritated. “Does she enjoy rejection?”
“You didn’t tell me that,” I yammered, hurt. I thought he’d tell me something like that. We were supposed to be best friends. “When did that happen?”
He didn’t answer, staring hard at the guy on stage, pretending to listen very closely to his soft voice. I huffed, irritated. “Don’t you dare ignore me, Simon Summers!” I hissed forcefully. “You’d better explain yourself!”
“It’s no big deal,” he soothed me, realizing his mistake. “She asked me Monday and twice the day after. I don’t get why she’s so obsessed.”
“She really likes you,” explained Minnie with a little smile. “And I can’t really blame her, you’re a really nice guy.”
Simon looked surprised. “Oh. Uh – thanks, I guess.” He flushed red, looking at the stage again. “But no thanks, I don’t really like Amy.”
For a while, we all pretended to watch the show, but none of us was really paying attention, all caught up in our own thoughts. Finally, Minnie opened her mouth to say something, but her voice was drowned out by a new song starting. I immediately recognized it – Popular by The Veronicas. Sheila walked on stage, wearing a really slutty red dress. She left barely anything to the imagination. I almost wished this school would have a dress code. She was shaking her butt, singing the first few lines of the song on her own. When the chorus started, three more girls joined her. They all wore the same dress but in black.
“Boys and girls pretend to know me, they try so hard. And I get what I want, my name is my credit card. Don’t try to hate me because I am so popular.” The lyrics sounded less great coming from the mouths of such horrible girls. They all belonged to Eros’ crowd and the boys were all drooling, watching the girls shake their breasts practically in their faces.
Will was looking at the whole scene with a sour face. He was watching one girl in particular – a really tall werewolf with long black hair falling down her back. The way he was taking in her every move made me wonder what the story was there. Antwan wasn’t even looking at the stage, he was gazing into Minnie’s eyes, making the girl blush. Pete and Ginny were watching with disgusted expressions, obviously not enjoying the show at all. When I looked at Simon, I saw he was looking at me instead of the stage, smiling. He gestured toward the stage and pretended to vomit. I grinned, pretending to suffocate myself. I was glad I was sitting at a table with people who were so nice and not impressed by popular girls at all. Well – Will’s date was looking on in fascination, obviously wishing to be up there too. There was a rawness around her; it was a kind of beastly feeling I got when I looked at her, a brown kind of shimmer around her profile. She was most definitely a werewolf.
When the song finally ended, a huge applause sounded all around.
“God, they can’t even sing!” Pete was really irritated.
“The only positive thing about all of this is that it only took three minutes,” I acceded.
“I hate them,” Will joined in fiercely, still following the black-haired girl with his eyes. “All of them.”
Antwan laughed. “You only say that because Tatiana rejected you. Twice.”
Will’s date didn’t even seem fazed by that. She didn’t even seem to listen to our conversation.
We commented on the next few songs as well, all of us liking and hating the same people and performances. The only times we disagreed was when we discussed the songs – we had very different tastes. Will and Antwan were into techno, Minnie liked country, Pete and Ginny both liked pretty much anything and Simon and I were more into indie and pop rock.
“That was all,” Miss Canda announced after almost an hour. “But feel free to come up and take the stage.”
The moment she said that, a tall guy rose from one of the front seats. I immediately recognized him. Eros. His dark hair was messy, falling in front of his dark, mysterious eyes. He climbed up the stage and had one of the band members hand him a guitar. It was the first time I'd seen him tonight and I must admit he looked amazing. He was wearing black jeans, a tight black shirt and a red leather jacket that fit him perfectly. He walked up the stage and smiled at all of the students in the cafeteria.
“I didn’t know Eros could sing,” I mused out loud, breaking the silence at our table.
All of the girls were watching him with unconcealed awe. Even Ginny, although she recovered after a moment, snuggling against Pete.
“I would like to dedicate the song I am going to sing to a very special girl,” Eros revealed with a husky voice. “I haven’t known her long enough to know her hopefully awful middle names, but I do know her well enough to be sure she’s something else entirely. And as I picked a duet, I would like for her to join me up here.”
I saw Sheila already getting up, smiling broadly. A few other girls all around the room were looking hopefully and expectantly up at him as well. I felt Simon’s arm around me and I could feel he was afraid of something. I leaned into him, trying to find out what was bothering him.
Eros scraped his throat, looking straight at me. “Demona – would you care to join me?”
I heard several people gasp – mostly girls. Sheila’s eyes were shooting fire at me; thank God looks couldn’t kill. Now I understood Simon’s anxiety. He had foreseen this. But I hadn’t.
“Come on, Dem, don’t be shy,” Eros said, a smile in his voice. “Come on up here.”
Will and Antwan were looking at me with their eyebrows raised, obviously enjoying this. I scowled at them and got up. The truth was I’d really like to get up there and just sing whatever song Eros had picked out for us. So I made my way up front and allowed Eros to pull me up onto the stage. He grinned and pulled just a bit too hard, making me stumble into him. He bent down and kissed the top of my head. He then let me go and sat down on a chair someone had put there. He put the guitar on his knee and picked a few strings.
“You will know when to start,” he assured me, winking.
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