Chapter Thirteen

Chapter 14

The next school day practically flew by. Having lived for almost 600 years, I have lived through many of the greatest historical events, which made the double history period at the start of the day quite irrelevant. In the rest of the classes I at least tried listening with half an ear to keep up my human act, but my mind was elsewhere. Having Seth sit next to me in most of my classes really didn’t help either. He was wearing his shirt buttoned to the top today, obviously hiding the puncture wounds.

I felt quite embarrassed about what happened, so tried ignoring him, my thoughts dwelling on Zayden instead.

Where do we go from last night? The transition from friends to more could be uncomfortable, but i found that a part of me was more than willing to try.

During lunch, Cara seemed her bright and bubbly self, the moments which lead to her slight breakdown the previous night seemingly forgotten. I was quite surprised though that she recovered so fast. Judging by the amount of blood she lost, she should still be pretty weak. Yes, when a person loses up to 10% of their total blood volume, the body can still compensate for it, but not at such a rapid pace.

Then again, I really didn’t know all that much about her, did I? I was just following the orders that were issued.  I was only told to protect her. The one who issued those orders was Delphine.

If anyone knew more about Cara, it would be her. I guess it’s time for me to pay her a little visit.

Just then, Tammy came running back into the cafeteria. She had left earlier after a small argument with her boyfriend, trying to clear her head.

“Gosh, Cara, Aralynne, you HAVE to come outside today!”

I immediately shook my head. Even though it wouldn’t harm me, I still disliked the sun’s rays. I am, after all, a creature of night.

“Oh, please! Aralynne, you of all people have to come. It’s a surprise.”

Her last words tickled my interest. I am curious by nature, so if whatever she wanted me to see had to do with me, I wanted to check it out.

After a while, Cara and I agreed.

“Sure, Tammy, lead the way.”

To my surprise, Tammy and we had to shove and push our way through quite a crowd to get to the football field, but in the end, it was quite obvious why. Even in high school, things like this don’t normally occur.

On the grass, arranged in letters with tons and tons of white and red roses, was a small message. Three simple words that stunned the school. No, not because it was clearly addressed to me, but because of the absolute scale of it all.

“’Be mine, Aralynne.’ Gosh, someone clearly likes you, my dear!”

The voice next to me sent shivers up my spine.

“What are you doing here, Seth? “ I tried to keep my response as cold as possible.

“Well, it’s my job to keep tabs on you and that little girl of yours, so unfortunately, even the details of your love life have to be documented. Sad, but true. So, aren’t you going to give the poor soul an answer?”

“I don’t even know who the poor soul is, Seth.”

A sly smile slowly crawled up his lips.

“Sure you do, he’s waiting for you down there.”

And sure enough, between all the roses, a familiar face stood- Zayden.

With purpose, I started making my way down the steps, trying to ignore the mocking cheers from Seth as I walked away. My mind was made up. I knew what I had to do.

Zayden’s smile spread with each step I took closer. When I reached him, he greeted me with a big bear hug.

“I must say Zayden, this is quite an unexpected surprise.”

He merely shrugged.

“No, not really. After our conversation last night...I realised how badly I want to be with you. I want to protect you from any possible pain.  I just figured that you of all people wouldn’t forgive me or say yes if I didn’t put some effort into asking you out, otherwise, you would’ve been mine by now.”  His voice was open, honest, and his hands didn’t let go of mine for even a second.

Oddly enough, I actually giggled when he said that.

“What makes you so sure that I needed all this fanfare before I would say yes?”

H e laughed at my question.

“Seriously? Aralynne, lets face it, you have been around longer than I have, and have probably been asked for your hand more than once. I had to make sure that I can still impress you, despite all you’ve seen in the past.”

Without hesitation, I kissed him. His warm lips were quite welcome against my cold ones, and the rush of emotions as our lips and bodies moulded together was quite impossible to describe. Behind us, the eager crowd started to cheer and clap. For the first time in quite a while, I felt happy.

When we finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine, his hands still on my lower back.

“mmmm, so, was that a yes?” he teased.

“It sure was!” I giggled.

So, this is what it felt like to love? I must say, it is more than just a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker. It somehow gives you the courage to live.