Chapter Nine:
I had another fucked up dream that night. Only in this one, right after the sex… Alfred pops up out of nowhere and starts yelling at me to run away. I tell him to go away and turn back to Francis, who is trying to bite my neck. I realize that Alfred had a point, turn back to him and somehow, he's turned into a wolf. I'm never eating hamburgers cooked by teenage boys ever again.
But it got me thinking. What if Alfred's stupid 'scary stories' were actually real? I highly doubted some of it, but the vampire part…
Could it actually be true? That Francis and his brothers were vampires? As strange as it sounded, I was ready to believe that idea. I mean, Michelle is solid proof that pixies exist. So if pixies can exist… why can't vampires [or unicorns for that matter]?
The thought practically devoured my mind. I was submerged in thought, only answering in grunts to Albert's questions and walking around to places in a daze.
The next day I managed to get to school earlier than expected and ended up sitting in the cafeteria alone, still wondering whether or not Francis could be a vampire.
I know it sounds silly in print, but believe me, the thought that this person I interacted with – somebody I knew… drinking blood?
At least it made sense now. Why Francis told me it wasn't best for us to be friends. Imagine, just hanging out with him and then WHAM, you get a paper cut and its game over for you. I was ready to avoid the boy at all costs. It wouldn't be hard either – considering what a piss-off he was.
But for some reason, I couldn't. Something in me didn't want to stop being friends with him. It was probably the same fucking thing that kept conjuring up those dreams.
"Arthur!" a voice said, cutting through my thoughts. I looked up and realized that the school had become more populated from when I first arrived.
"Hullo Michelle," I said as she sat down across from me, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight.
"Hey your hair has streaks of brown in it," Michelle said suddenly, pointing at my head. "That's hot."
I looked away, feeling intensely uncomfortable. "Great day isn't it?" I said, trying to change the subject. Michelle nodded enthusiastically.
"Hey what did you do yesterday?" she asked a little too casually. I shrugged.
"Homework." And thinking about a certain boy…
"What subject?"
"Math."
"What math homework?"
"That calculus shit we were given on Friday."
"I guess I'll have to do that soon," Michelle said quietly. "But I was going to ask you out."
"Excuse me?" I said harshly. Was it impossible to have a decent conversation with Michelle without her flirting with me?
"You know nothing big. Like, to the movies or something," she said hopefully. I sighed.
"Michelle that's not a good idea," I said slowly. I really did not know how to talk to girls.
"Why not?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Think about how Peter might feel," I decided that talking subtly to Michelle was not going to work.
"Peter?" Obviously I was too subtle.
"My God Michelle I know you're blonde but really?" I asked in slightly horror.
"Oh," she said quietly, the realization showing in her eyes. I used this silence as my opportunity to escape.
"It's time for class and I don't want to be late," I said walking away, leaving the pixie at the table, still deep in thought. I sincerely thought whatever the hell she was thinking would steer her in the right direction. As irritating and child-like Peter could be, I didn't want to lose any friends.
When I saw Peter in science, he was going on about how he, Kiku, and Laurent were planning to buy presents for their dates (in an attempt to be romantic) and invited me to join.
"Why are Kiku and Laurent going with?" I asked, surprised.
"Michelle forced me to get him to ask that Asian chick in his English class and Laurent's going with Taylor."
Although I really felt that Kiku would've preferred going with Ben, I was amused to find out my suspicious about Laurent were correct. Even though I wasn't going to the dance myself, and as much as I found buying presents for their dates ridiculous, I decided to go. There was no point in being antisocial. I knew my father wouldn't like that.
Peter wouldn't shut up about the dance. I couldn't concentrate on compounds and the like when I had 'and then I'll put my arms around her waist and pull her close and kiss her really sweetly and she'll swoon and fall madly in love with me and we'll get married in a castle and have our honeymoon in Italy!' in my head.
Thankfully, as we parted for our separate classes I managed to distract myself from her conversation with my own worries. A part of me really wanted to see… him but another part didn't want to see him, to confirm all my suspicions. Actually, I kind of wanted to see the Paye boys in general – look and compare them all to what Alfred had told me.
My stomach felt like it was in knots as Peter, Michelle and I entered the cafeteria. We had arrived late because Michelle's and my math teacher had held the class back to finish his lesson and Peter was unwilling to go without Michelle. Majority of the cafeteria was full already. I turned to casually glance at the Paye table.
It was completely empty.
I spent the rest of lunch moping.
History had been insanely boring. Mr. Provence decided to give our class a lesson on World War I, something I had learned very thoroughly at my old school. A part of me had hoped that maybe – just maybe Francis would be here for history. Not that I wanted him to be there. Not at all.
After going home I noticed that on my computer I had several emails from my mother, inquiring on how I was. I typed up a short yet detailed email about how my past few weeks had been before shutting the computer down and walking to my bookshelf.
I had many stories that I could've read, all read many times and very well loved, but I decided to read the first Harry Potter book instead.
It was a surprisingly beautiful day outside and in an attempt to get some vitamin D I decided to take my reading outside. I ended up reading some random line about vampires and couldn't bring myself to read the rest, now far too distracted to be able to read anything else. I tried taking a nap under the warm sun but started feeling overheated and decided to retreat back inside.
My father found me lazily flicking through channels attempting to find something to distract me from certain topics involving French boys and sucking blood.
"What, no smell of burning food to greet me as I come home?" Albert joked as he through his gun onto the dining table. I paused in my channel surfing to give him a glare.
"I didn't feel like cooking," I replied and Albert laughed.
"Good for me I guess," he replied and I chose to ignore that jab at my cooking skills. "Oh well, I don't mind. I wanted to watch the game before it ended," he added, grabbing the remote from me and changing the channel to some cricket-centric sports channel. Even though he knew I hated cricket [bloody couldn't understand the damned game], he still made me watch, not really wanting to sacrifice the game for my amusement. I ended up walking upstairs to find something to do but falling asleep in the process.
The morning was just as sunny as it had been before. I took this to be a good sign and dressed more casually than usual. Instead of wearing my regular long sleeved sweater vest, I decided to be plucky and wear a short sleeved one instead, even though I wasn't one to flaunt my pale skin around.
I had cleverly planned to arrive at school just as the bell rang, forced to circle the parking lot for a free space and hopefully finding a bright red Ferrari parked in one of the sports. I found none and pretended as though that didn't disappoint me. It's not like I cared if the stupid frog was at school. I was better off without him annoying me and saying stupid cryptic things.
School was just like any normal boring day. My classes were insanely boring, we learned nothing new, Peter wouldn't shut the fuck up, and there was no Francis to make my day interesting. Of course, instead of driving home during my spare period Kiku and I were forced to wait for Peter so we could go on our 'gift-buying' trip. I became significantly more excited with the thought of going out of the dreary town when I found out Laurent couldn't come because of other obligations.
Peter followed me home in his rather nice silver car [I wasn't sure what make it was and frankly didn't really care] and waited for me to drop my backpack at home and leave my truck there too. As much as I hated to admit it, Francis had a point when he said my truck wouldn't be able to make a long distance trip.
I left a note for Albert telling him to buy something for dinner and threatened in the note that if I came back and found a little sarcastic message from him under mine about being relieved from my cooking skills that I would personally make his lunch for the next month before locking the house shut and getting into Peter's car to pick up Kiku. Despite the fact we were going out of town for the lame excuse for buying presents, my excitement about leaving St. Helens rose as we drove out of town limits.
A/N: Yes, this chapter is shorter than the others and I apologize for that. Sorry for taking so long to post btw - I try to keep myself at least 3-5 chapters ahead of how far I am in posting so in case something happens, I still have chapters to post and school's prevented me from writing and yeah. Damn high school T_T"
And yeah, this chapter's pretty boring - not gonna lie. The exciting shit happens next chapter. I think. *checks Twilight* Yup... that's the chapter where Bella meets some interesting men... heh.
Review, please? And heh, 69 reviews -isveryimmature- xD Let's see if we can get the reviews to 100, yeah? Reviews make me write faster ;D