by J. P.
They start the game and Jake cheers them on as Paul looks really bored.
“Shoot it! Shoot it Mason!” Jake screams.
If I didn’t miss him so much, I would be so angry at him for giving me a headache right now.
“Shit!” Mason shouts as he throws his controller down. “You’re too good at this, Sean.”
Sean starts doing a victory dance and Jake cracks up.
“I’m taking a break. Jake, keep my throne warm for me,” Sean says a he hands Jake his controller.
“Yes, your majesty,” Jake says as he bows to Sean.
“You two in the same room is too much,” Paul says with a laugh as he grabs the other controller. “Here, Luke. Beat Jake’s ass.”
“Ouch,” Jake shouts as he grabs his chest. “My own brother, betraying me.”
Luke sits on the couch next to Jake as they start playing against each other. I stand behind the couch and watch the TV, trying to keep up with what’s going on.
“So,” Sean says as he walks over to me. “I figured I would let you know that some guy named Danny came to pick Tyler up for some party. He asked if you were going and Tyler told him no. I wanted to tell you in case you forgot and actually wanted to go.”
“I definitely don’t want to go,” I say with laugh. The last thing I want is to be in a house with Kaylee and Tyler.
“I’ll go with you if you want,” he offers.
“That’s very kind of you, but I didn’t want to go in the first place.” I shrug my shoulders, actually feeling better now that I have a real excuse to avoid Danny’s get-together.
“Hey!” Jake snaps from the couch. “What are you two whispering about?” He points to Sean and me.
“We aren’t whispering. We’re talking at a normal volume. Something I don’t think you’re capable of,” I tell him.
“Are you calling me loud?” Jake shouts.
“Jacob!” my dad yells from upstairs. “Keep it down. There are people up here trying to sleep!”
“Sorry, Dad!” Jake calls back. “Look what you did, Nina,” Jake mumbles.
“Let’s go!” Luke cheers in celebration as he jumps to his feet.
“Damnit!” Jake curses at the same time. “I feel like now we have to do a championship round. Luke versus Sean.”
“I don’t know, dude. I’m pretty tired and some of us have school tomorrow,” Sean says with a yawn.
Before I know it, I yawn too.
.“You caught my yawn,” he tells me with a grin as he elbows me in the side.
I elbow him back as I roll my eyes.
“Sounds to me like you might be…” Jake trails off before he starts clucking like a chicken.
“Jake knock it off,” I tell him as I start laughing.
“Are you going to take that, Sean?” Mason asks, egging him on. “You have to defend yourself and our family name!”
“Give me that controller!” Sean shouts as he reaches out for the controller in Jake’s hands.
“Oh yeah, this is about to be good!” Jake claps his hands together before he turns back to the TV.
As they start to play, I find myself watching Luke instead of the game. A serious expression remains on his face as he focuses on the TV. He bites his lip as his fingers press the buttons on the controller. I smile to myself when a smile breaks out across his face as he scores. Jake goes crazy and starts bowing to Luke.
“You must teach me your ways,” Jake says to him.
“Good game, dude,” Sean says as he holds his hand out. Luke shakes his hand before Sean tries to talk him into learning some secret handshake.
“Can we start the tournament over? I barely got to play,” Paul complains.
“Yeah, let’s do another round,” Mason agrees.
“Cool. Nina, you in?” Jake asks me.
“No thanks,” I say with a laugh.
“C’mon, Nina, it’ll be fun!” Sean tells me.
“Nah, I’m really tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” I start to head for the stairs. “Goodnight everybody.”
“I’ll come with you,” Luke announces as he stands from the couch.
“No! C’mon, Luke. We need you down here!” Jake whines.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine without me,” Luke says with a laugh as he joins me on the stairs. “Come with me. I have to show you something.” Luke takes my hand and leads me up the stairs and down the hallway.
Luke steps into his room and shuts the door behind us. It looks the same as it always has, the queen-sized bed sitting off to the right, a sitting area on the left with two chairs and a couch. On the couch is a pile of pillows and folded blankets.
“That’s where Mason is going to sleep tonight. I offered him my bed, but he refused,” Luke explains once he sees me staring.
“That was nice of you,” I say as I look back at Luke, who’s sitting at the desk across from his bed.
“I’m a pretty nice guy, considering I’m the son of one of the most evil vampires in the world,” he teases with a humorless laugh.
“Hey, you’re not your dad,” I remind him as I walk over to him.
“I know.” He holds his hand out for me as I get closer to him. I place my hand in his before he brings my hand to his mouth and kisses it. “I have something for you.”
“What is it?”
Luke opens a desk drawer and takes something out. “When you were missing, I held onto this. It reminded me of you, and it gave me hope that I would find you. When I took you to the mansion, it helped me remember who I really am, and what we have.” He slowly opens his palm and I laugh when I recognize my golden necklace. “I can’t believe you found it,” he adds with a laugh. “And I felt awful for taking it from you, especially since I broke it. I got it fixed though, and I figured that I should finally return it to you.”
I grin as I take it from his hand. “Thank you,” I say as I clasp it around my neck.
“Of course, babe.” He winks at me, and my stomach flutters.
I step into him and lean down, placing my hands on his shoulders, before I kiss his cheek. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his lap. I sit sideways as I rest my head on his chest. He rubs his thumb in circles on my shoulder as he holds me tight.
“Can I tell you something?” Luke asks, interrupting the silence.
“Of course,” I reply as I pull away and look up at him.
“I think the one thing I’ve learned since meeting you, is that life is short and unexpected. Things can change so quickly. Living in the moment is so important because if you don’t, you might miss something. If I didn’t go on a mission for my father, I would’ve never met you.” He sighs. “Everything could change again, if not tomorrow then maybe in a week or in a month or in a year, but right now, in this moment, I know with certainty that I love you, Nina. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything. You are everything to me. There’s something about you…I just can’t get you out of my head. I would do anything and everything to make you happy.” He grins down at me as he softly presses his lips to mine. “I just needed to let you know.”
I wipe away a tear that escaped out of the corner of my eye. I reach up, taking his neck, and pulling his lips back down onto mine. After only a few seconds, I hear someone walking down the hallway, headed to Luke’s room. I pull away from Luke, who groans in protest and climb off of him before I sit on his bed. Mason walks in a second later.
“Hey guys,” he says with a friendly grin.
“Hey,” Luke and I say at the same time.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Mason asks as he points between us.
“No,” I say, before Luke can say yes. “We were just talking.” I stand up before I start to walk to the exit, Luke begging me with his eyes to stay. “I should actually go. Goodnight.”
“Night,” Mason calls after me as I shut the door.
The second I leave the room, my phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s a text from Luke.
Come back.
I smile to myself before I type out my reply.
I can’t. I have to get some sleep.
I really do. It’s almost one in the morning.
Fine. Goodnight, babe. I love you.
I type out the words, “I love you,” but then delete them. I haven’t told Luke that I love him yet, and I want to tell him in person first.
Goodnight :) I type back.
It’s strange, feeling this way about Luke. I told Tyler I loved him, and I did, but with Luke, it’s a different kind of love. It’s the kind of love that can drive you crazy. The kind of love that makes you understand all the love songs and love stories. He’s everything to me, and I truly can’t imagine my life without him. Now I just need to figure out a way to tell him how I feel.
28
The next morning, I pull on a pair of high-waisted jeans and a navy-blue pullover sweater with a pocket on the front right. I check myself in the mirror and sigh in relief. If I wasn’t a vampire, I’m sure I would look a lot worse. Between my talk with Luke and my breakup with Tyler, I barely got any sleep. I run my fingers through my hair as I slip my feet into my black leather boots.
“Nina?” Paul pokes his head in. “Hey, Mason is about to drive us to school. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, I’m coming.”
I follow Paul down the stairs and notice Tyler and Sean talking in the kitchen.
“Hey,” Olivia says as she walks up next to me. “So, how can I get out of this whole school thing?”
“Why would you want to do that?” Paul asks with a snort from my left.
“Um, because school is actual garbage?” Olivia says with a look of disgust on her face.
Paul scoffs. “You’ve been to school for one day, and you’re already writing it off?”
Olivia purses her lips as she looks Paul up and down. “I get it. You’re the nerdy type. You like school because you’re the smartest kid in the room.”
Paul looks down at himself as if he forgot to put on pants.
“Yes, you’re that easy to read,” Olivia says with a laugh before she turns back to me. “So, how can I ditch school?”
“You’re not allowed to,” Luke says as he descends the staircase. “As long as you’re living here, you have to go to school. That’s the deal.”
Olivia rolls her eyes. “Good morning to you too.” She drags her feet over to the front door, where Mason is about to go outside.
“I’m leaving in two minutes with or without everybody,” Mason announces.
“You run a tight ship,” Sean laughs as he walks out the door with Tyler following him.
Paul takes a pile of flashcards out of his back pocket and starts flipping through them as he heads for the door.
“It’s your first day back. What are you studying for?” I ask him as I slowly follow.
He looks up, startled. “It’s my first day of chemistry. I’m just reviewing some of my index cards that I made over the summer—”
“I regret asking,” I say as I hold my hand up for him to stop.
Paul rolls his eyes, grinning before he looks back down at his cards and heads for the door.
“Hey,” Luke says from behind me.
I spin around and find him still in his pajamas.
“Have fun at school,” he says as he steps into me, a smirk on his lips.
I go to swat him, but he pulls me into his arms, catching me off guard. I relax into him and press my head into his chest, my ear right next to his heart.
“If anyone gives you an issue, just text me, and I’ll come to beat them up,” he mumbles to me.
“Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“I know you will be.” He brushes his lips across my forehead before he pulls back slightly. He tips my chin up and kisses me softly.
The sound of a car horn honking startles both of us.
“Bye,” I say as I slip out of his grasp.
“Bye. See you later,” he says as I walk out the door.
“What took you so long?” Olivia asks with a groan as I slide into the seat next to her. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we get to go home.”
“That’s not how it works,” Paul says from her other side.
Olivia glances at him and then his cards. “Wait, you’re a sophomore too?”
Paul looks up at her. “Yeah.”
“Are we in any classes together?” she asks.
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Give me your schedule,” she demands.
Paul takes out his phone and shows her his list of classes.
“Amazing! We’re in the same chemistry and English class. We can do our homework together,” Olivia shrieks.
“Why do I get the feeling that means you want me to do all the work?” Paul asks.
“Because that’s exactly what she means,” Sean says from the trunk.
I jump, not realizing he was here.
“Boo,” he says to me with a smirk.
“Not funny,” I tell him.
“Alright. We’re here. Get out. I have a photo shoot to do,” Mason says as he pulls into a spot.
“Wow, what a hard life you lead,” Sean teases as he starts climbing out of the trunk.
We all get out, and Tyler practically runs for the building.
“You guys fighting?” Olivia asks as she elbows me in the side.
“I broke up with him, officially,” I tell her as we walk through the parking lot.
Sean and Paul walk ahead of us as they chat about something.
“I’m assuming he didn’t take it well,” Olivia says as she scrunches her nose.
“No. He didn’t.”
“That’s okay.” She looks around. “Between you and me, I’m hoping you and my brother end up together.”
“Really?” I ask her with a laugh. “What happened to me not being impressive?” I ask her, recalling the first time I met Olivia.
Olivia rolls her eyes. “Oh my God, I didn’t mean it like that. You have to think about it from my perspective. If you kept hearing about this Nina girl that’s starting all this trouble, wouldn’t you expect someone that was muscular and tall and looked like she could take you out with a single hit?”
I laugh at her ramblings when two girls block our path. My stomach sinks as Kaylee stands in front of us with Molly on her right.
“Hey, Nina,” she hisses. “It’s a shame you couldn’t make it last night.”
Olivia glances over at me, quizzically, as I keep my eyes on Kaylee.
“Tyler told us all about your breakup. Sad.” She laughs as she takes a step towards me. “You’ll be happy to know he’s already moved on. He was all over Molly.”
I glance at Molly, who looks smug.
Kaylee clears her throat as she takes another step towards me. “He—”
Olivia shoves Kaylee, hard, and she falls into Molly before they both hit the ground.
I stare at them in shock for two seconds before I grab Olivia’s arm and pull her away.
“What was that?” I ask Olivia.
“What was what?” She yanks her arm away from me as we continue to rush into school.
“You can’t just go around shoving people, Olivia. You’re going to get in trouble.”
“It was defense,” she says as she rolls her eyes.
I furrow my brow, confused by her reasoning. “You were the one to touch her first.”
“I was defending your honor,” Olivia argues.
“That’s not a thing.”
“Yes, it is. C’mon, Nina, I couldn’t stand there and watch her verbally assault you like that.”
“It wasn’t an assault. She was just trying to get to me.”
Olivia’s expression softens as we step through the front doors. “Are you okay?”
I sigh. “Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”
“Yes.” Her stare drops to her feet as if now it’s hitting her that she did something wrong.
“I appreciate you trying to save me, but I can handle it.” I lay my hand on h
er shoulder.
She glances up and gives me a smile. “Noted.”
“Good. I’ll see you at lunch?” I ask.
“Definitely,” she says with a grin before she walks in the opposite direction as me. “Then you can tell me the backstory to all that drama.” She raises her eyebrows up and down.
“I don’t think so,” I call back to her with a laugh. The bell rings, and I curse under my breath as I rush to Mr. Post’s class.
I push the classroom door open, and everyone’s head turns to see who the late student is.
“Two days in a row, Ms. Blair? I’m starting to think it’s personal,” Mr. Post teases.
“Sorry, Mr. Post,” I say as I hurry to my seat.
“No excuse?” he asks with an eyebrow raised.
I think about telling him that Kaylee provoked me in the parking lot, and how I had to stop my prior evil vampire fighter friend from killing her but decide against it. “No excuse.”
Mr. Post furrows his brow as if he can tell there’s more to the story. “Okay, Ms. Blair. Anyways, back to the homework.”
I slide into my seat next to Tyler, who’s as still as a statue.
“Ms. Blair, what did you get for the answer to number three?” Mr. Post asks as he sits on his desk, his textbook in his lap.
“Um…” I flip open my notebook and turn to my homework. I recite my answer, and Mr. Post nods.
“Okay. There’s one part that you’re missing.” Mr. Post’s eyes float around the room before they find the person next to me. “Mr. Lombardi, what did you get?”
Tyler clears his throat. “I have the same answer.”
“Did you and Ms. Blair do your homework together?” he asks with a friendly smile.
Tyler tenses before he gives a curt nod.
“I see,” Mr. Post says before he calls on another student.
I feel the awkward tension between Tyler and me, and I shift uncomfortably in my seat. I can’t pay attention at all during class. I try to keep my head down and write everything Mr. Post says in my notebook to occupy myself.
The second the bell rings, Tyler jumps out of his seat and runs out the door.
“Ms. Blair?” Mr. Post asks as I finish packing up.
“Yes?”
“While you are one of my favorite students, I can’t allow you to be late one more time without consequence.” He smooths down his gelled, red hair, as he gives me an over-exaggerated frown.