Chapter 8

Three days of dodging phone calls pass. Claire, Shane, Eve and Michal are all in the living room, eating Chilli. Claire's phone goes off and she rejects it without even bothering to check the caller ID.

'Why don't you just answer it?' Eve asks.

'It's not that simple,' Claire sighs.

'How do you know? What's going on with you, Claire?' She demands.

'Nothing. just drop it.'

There's a knock at the front door.

'I'll get that,' Michael says, standing up. Shane's watching Claire from the couch, she's kneeling in front of the coffee table along with Eve. She's been keeping her distance from Shane, which is obviously leaving him completely confused, but she knows that she isn't able to deal with fighting her feelings AS WELL as avoiding her fate. It's just too much for one girl. She forces herself to focus back on the TV.

'Claire, it's for you!' Michael calls from the hallway.

She stands up and walks out to the hall, but she stops dead in her tracks when she sees who it is that's standing in the doorway. Michael turns around to look at Claire, judging her reaction. Obviously deciding whether or not to just slam the door shut again.

'Hello, Claire. Wow, you've changed.'

'You haven't,' Claire replies flatly.

'I see that your personality's still in check.'

Michael's still standing there, one hand on the door, waiting for Claire's 'okay' signal. She doesn't give him one. Instead, she tells him to go back to the others. There's obviously something in her voice or expression that tells him not to argue.

'What do you want, Drake?' Claire asks once Michael's disappeared.

'It's almost your seventeenth,' Drake replies. 'Can I come in?'

'No. Can I really stop you?'

'Of course! I'm not going to walk into your home without your permission, Claire.'

'Didn't stop you last time, did it?'

'Your aunt invited me in last time,' he replies.

'Why are you here?' She demands, deciding to go for Amelie's icy coldness.

'I'm here because you've been dodging my calls.'

'Ahh,' Eve says. 'So YOU'RE the mysterious caller.' Claire turns around to find all three of her roommates standing there watching.

'What the hell happened to privacy assured?' she asks. The guys shrug.

'Expired,' Eve replies, shrugging.

'Look, most people take that as a hint,' Claire says, turning back around to face Drake.

'Yeah, well, I'm not 'most people'. Anyway, I only need to give you this.' He hands her an envelope.

'Oh God!' Claire moans, taking the envelope off him before slamming the door in his face.

'Now THAT I can take as a hint. Obviously subtlety is a very strong point of yours!' he calls sarcastically through the door.

'Yeah, I'm taking a degree in it at TPU! Now piss off, Drake,' Claire calls back. She looks down at the envelope.

'Great,' she breathes. 'Hey, I'll be back down later, guys,' she sighs as she walks up the stairs.

When she gets up to her room she leans against the back of her door and rips open the envelope. As usual, there are only four lines written on the paper.

'And so it begins,' she sighs to herself. She roughly stuffs the paper back into the envelope before hiding it under her pillow.

Okay, it's no big deal. She doesn't have to think about it tonight.

She takes a couple of deep, calming breaths before opening her door and walking back downstairs. When she reaches the living room, however, she receives a nasty shock.

'Hello, Claire,' Amelie says, smiling. Eve, Shane and Michael are all sat on one couch, watching Claire in a mixture of disbelief and confusion. And Amelie, Oliver and Drake are all sat on the couch opposite.

'You've told them?' Claire asks in disbelief.

'We've only told them that you're not human and that your main purpose in life is to keep the rest of your species alive,' Drake sighs. Claire winces at that. 'We've left the rest of the explaining to you.'

'Why? WHY would you do that, Drake? Have you decided to control EVERY part of my life?'

'I told him to,' Amelie explains.

'Yeah,' Oliver adds in, looking like he's enjoying this WAY too much. 'Now, how about that explaining?'