Hey! This is the story that I adopted from xoxsecret-romancexox and I hope none of you guys are hating on me because I have adopted this story...Anyhow! I will continue this and the rest of my stories sometime this week...:)..Enjoy and tell me if I get anything wrong!

Chapter 9

Explanations and...A Boyfriend?

Amber's Point of View:

"Maria, wait up!" I said as Hunter, Solange, Lucy, and I chased after her.

"NO!" She turned and yelled at us.

"Hey," Hunter said, "Is she always like this?"

"Um...Yeah." I replied.

"Should I leave? I am the one who's dating Quinn..." She looked sadly at me.

"No. She just needs time to cool down."

"Oh. Okay."

Awkward silences crept up on us.

"Look, it's no big deal. Maria likes a lot of guys. I don't think she's serious about Quinn. She's a huge believer in love, and I know for sure she saw that look in your eyes whenever you look at Quinn. So, don't stress."

Hunter blushed.

"I haven't actually told him that I loved him...at least...not yet."

"Well," I said, "Don't let Maria bring you down. She'll get over it."

She nodded. "But I still need to go and apologize."

I looked at her, confused. "For...?"

"For my idiot of a boyfriend who leaves a girl hanging. Could have at least called her and told her it was over."

I shrugged. "Depends." I said.

"Hmm..." Hunter said.

We kept on running after her, Hunter and Lucy slowly losing the pace of mine and Solange's vampire speed.

"Maria!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

She finally stopped.

"What the hell? You have a hell lot of explaining to do." I said.

She gave me a look...defiance.

"No."

"Maria..."

She looked toward the floor. "I don't wanna be rejected again."

I looked at her, astonished.

"Excuse me?" I said. "You have gone out on SO many more dates than I ever have or will. You are gorgeous!"

"Ambs, I got rejected by a player for a human!"

"Hey! That's offensive!" Hunter and Lucy came out of the woods, slightly panting.

"Sorry." Maria mumbled.

"Look. There will always be more fish in the sea of dating. Just...don't worry about it." Hunter said.

Maria looked at each one of us. "The truth is...I just couldn't deal with it anymore,...you know? I kind of got obsessed...I just got so used to getting everything my way. And I kinda became a stalker. But, seeing you guys together...kinda woke me up. I'm sorry if I ruined your relationship." Maria looked up at Hunter.

"No problem,...but Quinn's changed a lot. The new him is better...personality wise." Hunter said.

"Hey! He's still a jerk! He didn't let me out of the closet when Nicholas locked me in!" Lucy said.

"Your boyfriend locked you in a closet? Dude! That is so uncool." Maria said. I guess she was back to being herself

"Yeah! Jerk! But I love him, so I get used to it." Lucy replied.

"Yeah,..I gues-" Maria was interrupted when someone walked out of the woods.

It was one of the Drake brothers. "Marcus!" Solange said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm supposed to be looking for you guys. Wanna come back hom-"

He stopped mid-sentence to look at Maria.

"Maria?" He asked.

"Marcus? That was really you?" She asked.

"Okay, what the hell's going on?" Lucy asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Maria looked at me. "Remember when I was telling you about the guy that could have changed my mind about Quinn?"

I gave her a blank look. She sighed. "When I stole your red dress to go to that date."

I immediately understood why she did not want to bring back the memory. She had to give me 145 dollars to fix the custom made dress' side zipper.

Flashback

I was reading my copy of Wuthering Heights again when I saw Maria come out of her room.

"Maria, what are you doing?"

She was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a black tank top. She was also carrying a duffel bag that was stuffed with who know what.

She turned around, her eyes as large as a doe's when it was caught in a pair of headlights. Of course, I only pushed it away, not really caring.

"I'm going out."

"Lucky." I replied. I always thought of how fortunate she was to be able to leave the tower whenever she felt like it, unlike me. She wasn't trapped in here for who knows how long.

"Where?" I asked.

"I have a date." She said.

"With Quinn?" I didn't actually think that the stupid playboy would actually be able to stop his ways and go out with Maria.

"No...but...this guy...he seems better than Quinn."

"So, you gave up on Quinn." I knew my voice sounded to hopeful. I didn't want my cousin and best friend to go chasing after him.

"I don't know...I'll tell you later, okay? I'm running kind of late."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Have fun! Bring me something back, will you?" I asked. I never really left the tower, so I wanted a souvenir from her.

"No prob. Cat'cha later!" She said, still clutching the duffel bag and ran out the door.

...Later that day...

"And he was so sweet! He bought me roses! Roses! And he took me out to diner at La Village de La Vigne. That's French for The Village of Grapevines. How sweet is that? And they had the best wine and he made a toast to love...and he was looking at me!"

"That's great, Maria. But, when do you get to the part where you RUIN my FAVORITE dress and you owe me tons of money to fix the zipper!"

She looked defensive. "I didn't know that your dress was tailor-made! I just thought it was regular and would fit anybody. I'm your size in dresses, too, though!"

"Maria, tailor made means that it was made for one SPECIFIC person, and it can only be fixed by one specific person. Now I'm gonna need Jules to take this to the tailor shop to get it fixed. It's gonna cost a fortune! And you only damaged the zipper! Just imagine what would have happened if you tore the dress! And next time, if you want to borrow something of mine, at least ask!"

"Sorry, Ambs." She said. She looked so miserable. She came home from the best date ever and I just killed the after party. I smiled.

"All is forgiven." I said, "But you're paying for this!" I said. I grabbed my new romance book that Maria got me, Romeo and Juliet, and climbed the stairs to my room.

"Hey!" She said from downstairs, but I ignored her completely.

Flashback ended

"So this is the guy?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Explain why you like one guy and storm out in front of another?" I asked.

She looked sad, old even. It was as if all of her years were catching up to her.

"I knew, deep down, that Quinn had rejected me. He didn't return my calls or stuff. And I really didn't care. I mean, he was a player, and who in the world wants that?" She asked.

"Hey!" Hunter said.

"Sorry." She said. She continued. "Anyways, I met Marcus a little after wards...and I fell in love." She looked shyly over at Marcus. Marcus was staring at her intently. They seemed to be having a private moment of staring until she snapped out of it and spoke.

"When I saw him in the clearing, I kind of blanched and panicked. But believe me, I don't like Quinn." She looked at Marcus and then at Hunter.

"And then it hit me when he really did say that he didn't like me anymore. If I couldn't be liked by a player, who would like me?" She finally ended, tears threatening to spill.

I was about to walk over to her, until Marcus made it there first. He tilted her chin up.

"Shh...You've got me now, love. I love you, too."

She smiled a teary smile back up to him.

"Wait." I said.

Maria looked at me, confusing covering her face.

"Why didn't you keep contact with Marcus? If you loved Marcus, then we were you so hung up on Quinn?"

"I...kinda lost his number." She looked abashed. "And why was I still hung up on Quinn? Like I said, I thought that if Quinn didn't like me, no one would. I thought Marcus didn't like me."

"I love you. Didn't you hear me?" He asked.

She smiled. "I heard you, sweetheart."

I turned to Marcus. "Then why didn't you call her?" I asked.

"My brother's told me to wait until Maria called back. But apparently, she lost my number. They told me that if a girl didn't call back, she wasn't interested."

She smiled. "Aww...that's so sweet how they think that...but no. I so would've called you."

Marcus chuckled. "Of course."

He leaned in to kiss her, but Solange coughed rather loudly. "No. If you can kiss her in front of me, you have no right to break up me and Kieran's kissing time."

"More like make-out time." Lucy said. The tense atmosphere was gone.

"Nuh-huh!" Solange replied.

"Yeah-huh!" Lucy said.

"Don't act all innocent! You kiss Nicholas anytime you get!" Marcus said. I laughed aloud at that.

Lucy blushed. "Not always! Hunter, you have full blown make-out with Quinn all the time! I'm surprised you haven't had sex yet!"

Hunter smiled. "Yes, we kiss. And I refuse to give in, at least not yet. It drives him insane, but he loves me."

"Look, let's get back." I said.

"Wait. I need to talk to Maria." Marcus said.

Maria stayed behind. Lucy, Hunter, Solange, and I ran back to the Drake Compound. Solange and I made it there first, and Lucy and Hunter came in after wards,

"Wanna tour?" Solange asked.

I smiled. I really liked the Drakes...except maybe one.

"I'd like that."

…...

I had the grand tour of the luxurious farmhouse that the Drakes lived in. I was surprised to find it so open and spacey.

Kind of like the tower I missed. Homesickness was never good.

I was sleeping in one of the spare guestrooms with Maria in the room across from mine.

And I could hear her heartbeat thumping so out of control. Marcus must be in there.

I sighed. I kind of wished I had what Maria, Hunter, Solange, and Lucy had. A boyfriend.

No. I was not going to depress myself like this.

I walked out and opened my door...

And slammed into someone.

"Oh! I am so sorry." I said.

I held out a hand and helped him up.

It was Logan, one of the Drake brothers.

"Hey, can I help you?" I asked.

"Um...my family just want to say sorry for what Quinn did." He said.

"Oh. No big deal." I said, waving my hand for effect. Because, honestly, I was more sad over the fact that Sebastian hated me than Quinn insulting my best friend.

"Hey, do you know where Lucy is?" I asked.

"She's in her room." He said.

"Cool. Thanks."

"Wait." He said.

I turned around. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Um...Sebastian wants to talk to you in his room. Alone."

Crap. This was bad.

Why did someone who hated me want to talk to me? Alone. In his room.

This was bad.

Yet, I still had butterflies in my stomach.

I nodded stiffly. "Okay." I said.

"I'll walk you there." He said.

"Okay." I answered.

He stepped aside for me to walk through.

I asked him the question that had been bugging me for the past couple of hours.

"How many of the Drakes are dating?" In all honesty, my question was actually, "Does Sebastian have a girlfriend?", but I worded it differently.

He looked at me, but said, "Solange's with Kieran. Lucy and Nicholas are together. Me and my girlfriend, Isabeau. Hunter and Quinn, as you can tell. Quinn's twin, Connor, likes Lucy's cousin, Christabel, but won't admit it. Marcus is now officially with Maria. That leaves Duncan."

"And Sebastian." I said. Wow. I sounded like a stalker, but I hope he didn't notice. He didn't betray any emotion, but I couldn't completely trust his face.

"Here we are." He said.

I looked at the ivory door in front of me.

I looked towards Logan, to thank him, but he was gone. Great. How was I supposed to get back to my room?

I stood hesitantly at the door, nervous like cray. But then I shook my head. No. I would not get nervous in front of him. I had to show him that I was strong. I knocked on the door twice and stepped back.

The door opened and there stood Sebastian, in a black shirt and jeans. He looked like a god, even dressed casually.

I started feeling nervous around my stomach...

...or was that just my butterflies?