Thanks to you people who reviewed my last chapter. As a side note, I've started another story because the idea was stuck in my mind and wouldn't get out. It's called Vitality and is basically about the life of a vampire half-breed named Tali who killed her mother in childbirth. Read it. I would now like to give a random shout-out to Height! You rock!
P.s. Sorry for the long author's note. REVIEW!
Last time:
"Yes. Seth, I love you. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner." This time it was me who leaned over toward him to kiss him.
Well, Leah I said to myself. Seth and me, I guess we're not as opposite as we thought.
I heard someone clearing his or her throat, a common enough sound at a restaurant. I ignored it. I was fairly certain that Seth did too. The sound became a little louder. Someone must have a bad cold or something.
A voice came from near the table, "Come on, I have enough work to do without having to wait for two sexually frustrated teenagers to finish trying to swallow each other." I froze and looked in that direction. The waitress was back.
I blushed. I glanced at Seth but he seemed to be finding the situation more amusing than embarrassing. Boys.
"So're you ready to order or what?" the waitress demanded. I got the feeling that if Darla's was even one iota classier, the woman would've been fired.
The rest of the night was pure bliss. We talked, we made jokes, we stared at each other a lot, truth be told.
I had a small, albeit greasy, hamburger. I gave Seth the fries. He needed them more than I did.
"You sure?" he asked. "You're not still hungry? You didn't have any popcorn at the theater."
"I'm sure," I said. "Not everyone burns through their food as fast as you seem to."
He grinned apologetically before reaching over to my plate and dunking a fry in ketchup.
"What are vampires like?" I asked quietly. This question had been bugging me for some time. I was paranoid; I'd admit it. I supposed I wanted to know so that if I saw one I could run in the opposite direction, not that it would do me much good.
"Well, you heard the legends. They're pretty much like that: fast, strong, and deadly. Look like supermodels too. Some of 'em are nomadic. They travel around, drink human blood as they go." I shivered involuntarily.
"Some of them are good, though. I mean; the Cullen's live right in Forks. We go there a lot now that Jake's imprinted on Nessie. We fought together against some newborn vampire army and would've fought against that vampire royalty if Alice hadn't come in time."
"Who's she?" I asked. I was starting to feel like I was interrogating him. I pressed on, though. I felt like I needed to know more about this new world I'd been unwittingly thrust into.
"She's one of them. Really small, perky, and she's psychic."
"Psychic?" I asked incredulously.
"Some of them have extra powers," I nodded, no reason not to make vampires even more lethal. "Edward (Nessie's father) can read minds, Bella (her mother) can do this creepy force field thing that blocks mind powers, Jasper can read and change emotions, and Nessie can let you see what she's thinking if she puts her hand on your face."
I blinked. Well, this wasn't too weird at all. I was sitting in a tourist trap, polishing off a burger, talking to my werewolf boyfriend about his vampire friends. I suddenly had the bizarre desire to laugh.
"Do you think maybe I could meet them sometime?" I asked timidly. Way to invite myself along. Did I have no manners? Not to mention shame. I just had a type of morbid curiosity to see vampires in the flesh…if they even had flesh. It was sort of like the feeling I got when I wanted to see a movie that I knew was going to give me nightmares.
"Sure. We were probably going to stop by tomorrow. I could pick you up if you want."
Oh my goodness he was so sweet. Man had I lucked out. I felt a quick rush of pain and shame that I'd just tried to end things with him, never mind that I'd had good intentions. I had single-handedly tried to separate myself from the single best thing that had ever happened to me.
I shook the feeling off. I could berate myself later. Actually, maybe I shouldn't. Beating myself up was what had gotten me into the mess in the first place.
"Okay. I'm turning sixteen in two months, though. I'll be getting my license. Then you won't have to drive me everywhere." I smirked.
"I actually wasn't thinking of driving there. Ever been wolf-back riding?" he grinned like someone had told him Christmas was coming early.
Well. Didn't see that one coming. I slowly absorbed the idea, picturing in my head the gargantuan wolf that I had seen that day in the forest. I remembered how fast that wolf could run. I put on a brave smile. I'd probably go skydiving if Seth asked me. I wasn't afraid of speed, it would probably be kind of fun.
"Not that I can recall," I joked. "Well, there's a first time for everything." I rolled my eyes, making fun of myself.
Seth chuckled. The waitress came back up to the table. "Glad to see you've got your hormones back under control again. Ready for the check?"
"Sure," he said. The waitress left momentarily.
"I'll get it," I said. "You paid for the movie." I reached for my wallet.
"Don't," he insisted. "I want to do this."
I recalled that intense look of his, the one that occasionally made me weak at the knees. It couldn't hurt to try. My eyes met his. I knew my gaze wasn't nearly as penetrating as his was, people can profess that green eyes are pretty, but they just don't have the power of dark brown ones.
It worked anyway. He actually looked a bit stunned. Score! "Please let me." I said quietly, not breaking eye contact.
"If you really want to," he said, smirking. Jeez, he did it right back.
The grumpy waitress came back to the table and slammed the check down. I unfolded the scruffy wallet; I'd had it since about the sixth grade, and took out several bills. Seth glanced at what was on the table.
"I can cover the tip," he offered. Dang. The tip. I'd completely forgotten.
"Here's a tip for her, she should be politer to paying customers," I joked. It was pretty pathetic, but he cracked up. It gave me just enough time to calculate a fifteen percent tip and place it on the table before he could.
"No fair," he complained, but the tone in his voice and the look on his face contradicted his words. He didn't have anything that he wanted to complain about.
"Tough," I said cheekily. This was considered flirting, right? I wasn't sure, and quite frankly didn't care.
She came back a moment later, now looking more stressed than sarcastic. I glanced around. The place was twice as packed as it had been when we'd first arrived. I felt a pang of sympathy for her. She'd embarrassed me, sure, but it was just in front of Seth, who seemed to not care at all. Working at Darla's was far from anyone's dream job. She was actually kind of pretty, now that I looked at her, and probably in her mid-thirties. I handed her the menu with a smile, feeling a bit guilty about saying rude things behind her back.
Seth noticed, and smiled threefold at me when we got up from the table. I inconspicuously reached into my pocket and placed another five-dollar bill on the table. It was kind of pathetic, five bucks didn't buy anything anymore, but it was all I could really think of and it might help build my karma back up after almost dumping Seth. That had to be a karma lower-er if anything was.
I sat silently in the car, more appreciative of his presence than I had ever been before. I had almost lost it, purposefully. He didn't try to talk either; some things went too deep for words.
I alternated between looking at him and looking at the stars. I used to think nothing was more sparkling and ethereal than the stars. That was before I'd seen Seth's eyes.
He pulled up in front of my house. I didn't make any move to get out.
"Seth," I said quietly. He nodded slightly, he's turned toward me the second the car had stopped.
"I'm sorry. I can't even begin to say how sorry I am. I jumped to all sorts of conclusions and was just so insensitive. I…" but I didn't get to finish my sentence. Seth had cupped my face in his hand and was stroking it softly with his thumb.
"Stop, Haley. Please, don't blame yourself. I didn't do a good job of explaining things and you thought what anyone would think. You underestimated the freaky wolf ability thing. It's not a problem. The problem was that I almost lost you. I don't want that to happen again. I don't know what I'd do." He chuckled to himself. "Maybe we should consider typing up the specifics of imprinting. Would probably come in handy."
"I told you so," I whispered. I couldn't make my voice sound at any higher volume.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow?" Seth asked. I found it a bit funny. Could he possibly expect me to say no? He just had some common courtesy.
"I think I'll manage to clear my schedule," I squeaked out. Sarcasm again. I was in rare form tonight.
I wrapped my arms around him. Even sitting down, I only came up to his chest. He stroked my hair as if he knew that I'd almost made the biggest mistake of my life and wanted to just hold onto him for a moment longer before having to let go, if only for a few hours.
I got out of the car and onto my doorstep, and watched him drive off. I walked slowly up the stairs to my room. I glanced in the mirror. Typical. My hard-to-manage hair was completely wild and tangled. Presumably from the little make-out fest. Sophie eyed me from the other side of the room. She looked like she was about to laugh, and possibly pump me for details.
Maybe I was right earlier and I didn't deserve Seth. I wasn't going to dwell on that anymore, because he definitely deserved the happiness that being with me inexplicably brought him. I was going to (attempt to) let go of my insecurities and enjoy the blessing life had handed me. Him.