CHAPTER 2
We were both silent the whole way to Keana's house. The only thing you could hear was the radio and the buzzing of the cars on the side of us. "Call her," Bryce said as he put the car on park.
"Will you cheer up? It's your double…" He stared at me hard in the face with no expression at all. "Will you just cheer up? I liked you better 143 years ago."
"Why, because I'm mad that your making me go to the worst place in the world on my birthday?" I nodded my head and smiled at him. He turned his head the other way. "Just call so we can go."
I took out my phone and dialed Keana's number. She answered on the third ring. "Hey, let me brush my hair ad I'll meet you out."
"Okay. See you in a few." She hung up the phone and I put mine in my pocket. I looked at Bryce. "Can't you be seventeen?" He started laughing.
"No. Can't you be seventeen?"
"No." Just then, Keana walked out her door with a big black bag around her shoulder.
"Hey guys," she said as she got into the car and closed the door. "I didn't know how long we were going to stay so I packed about everything."
"Less than a week," Bryce mumbled loud enough for Keana to hear. She looked at me confused.
"Bryce, will you shut up?" He didn't say anything. All he did was change the gears and drive away.
"Somebody's mad today," Keana mumbled.
"On his birthday, too." Bryce looked as if he could kill me all over again.
"Happy birthday, Bryce! How old are you now, like 19?"
"18. I can't do anything with Lexi anymore," he laughed as he put his hand on my knee and squeezed.
"It's not like we did anything, anyway." I laughed with him and put his hand on the arm rest and kept it there.
"Y'all are so weird." Bryce and I looked at each other and giggled.
"You have no idea," we mumbled in unison, Keana didn't hear us. It took the whole day to get to Mystic Falls. We stopped at a few places to eat and use the bathroom. We listened to music on the radio and on our phones. I watched four movies on my iPhone. Keana fell asleep in the back, and Bryce drove the whole way. Keana and I didn't know the way, or how to drive. Well, I knew how, I just didn't have my license. We finally stopped at a small hotel five minutes from Mystic Falls around nine o'clock. We got down with our stuff and walked in.
From the outside it looked old and rugged. On the inside, it was nice and clean. It looked as if it had just been redecorated. The furniture was a golden brown that looked fairly new and extremely old at the same time. It was very… unique. There were pictures all over the walls. One wall was filled with a bunch of employee pictures. There were so many pictures that you couldn't see the wall it was on. Each picture had a year under them.
Keana and I walked over to the wall to look at all the old employees. The oldest picture was from 1860, one hundred and fifty years ago. As I was looking through the pictures something caught my eye. I very short brunette in the front of an employee picture. He was very handsome. The picture was kind of blurry, even with my vampire eyes. I leaned in closer to take a better look. The face of the beautiful brunette boy was becoming clearer. He looked familiar. "Bryce Salvatore? I heard of a Salvatore, before. There's a whole legend about him here. He used to work here, until he died in 1865," the manager said. I looked at Bryce then at the picture again. He was the brunette in the old photo. I pulled Keana away from the wall towards Bryce. I looked at Bryce with sad eyes and put my arm around his back. He looked as if he was trying not to laugh. How was him dying funny?
"I thought your last name was Romero?" Keana looked completely confused.
"I was adopted. My birth name is Salvatore." He took out his wallet and looked at the man at the front desk. He was about to say something but Bryce cut him off. "Can I have my room key, now?" Bryce took out some money and placed it on the desk. The clerk was amazed that 150 dollars in cash had just been put on the desk by an eighteen year old. The clerk turned around, grabbed a key off the wall, and handed it to me.
"Hope you have a great stay," the clerk yelled in a cautious voice as we walked towards the elevator.
