12 p.m. October 4, 2009
I am at the beach. First Beach. It is high tide. The water is calm and dark grey under the night sky. I look around and see someone sitting on the rock. Their hair is pulled underneath of a dark blue cabbie's hat. They sit facing away from me. I notice a tiny lock of copper hair sticking out from under the hat when the wind blows my way. Dew and raspberries. I smile and walk over to Nyx. I sit next to her, wrap my arm around her waist, and pull her close to me. Her hat falls off and her waves fall out around her face. She shakes her head and runs a hand through it. She leans back against me and nestles her head in the crook of my neck. She gives me a light kiss. Then I feel her smile. "What?" I ask her. She only laughs. I do not notice the wind picking up or the storm clouds coming in. "What?" I ask her again not paying attention to the lightning that strikes out at sea. I feel the wind continue to pick up but do not pay it any mind. Finally, she lifts her head and looks me in the eye. Her eyes are blood-red. I hear the thunder. I feel the wind. I see the lightning. She smiles maliciously at me. "Don't you know anything, my love? You are all going to die." Then she digs her teeth into my jugular.
I wake up sweating. I sit straight up and my bed and remember that it was just a dream. I fall back onto my pillow and groan. You are all going to die. Her voice still rings in my ears. NO! I think forcefully. Screw what Alice said. Nyx is good. I know she is. My stomach growls and I get out of bed. I stumble down stairs in a pair of ancient sweat pants. Mom is down stairs sitting at the table with the newspaper when I walk into the kitchen. Leah is in the kitchen making eggs and bacon. I slide some bread into the toaster before I greet them.
"Morning, Mom. Leah."
"Good morning, honey." Mom says.
"Morning, Seth." Leah says before cracking three more eggs into a separate frying pan. "I was just filling Mom in on all the events of last night. What's you're girlfriends name again?" she asks playfully. "Nellie or Mildred or Ginger, something like that, right?"
I flick her on the back of the head after I set the bread back on top of the microwave. "Nyx. Nyx." I say. "What was your's name? Lysander right?" I pick a piece of bacon out of the pan and duck before she can hit me with the spatula. I burn my mouth while I eat it but it taste great. Fried to a crisp. I walk into the dining room and sit down next to Mom. She puts her crossword puzzle down and stares at me. Hard.
"What?" I ask her curiously. "What?" I get a quick flash back of my dream and it sends a shiver up my spine. I try to push the image of Nyx with red eyes to the back of my mind.
"Hmm," she says and twists her mouth around to the side, her thinking face. "You don't have it yet."
"Have what?"
"The Look. It's this dazed completely absent-minded totally in love look most of you get after you imprint. Your sister did though when she walked downstairs this morning." she says and looks at Leah. She has a faint smile on her face. Mom looks back at me and smiles. "I'm happy for you two. That, I believe, is certainly one of the rewards of being what you are. An almost guaranteed perfect love life." she says and rubs my hair around. I have let my hair get kind of shaggy, but I don't want to cut it. I smile. These are the moments I love the most with my mom.
"Nyx and Lorcan then. How old are they, Leah? You didn't say."
"Lorcan is twenty-five." Leah says and scrapes the eggs onto three different plates. "He said Nyx was sixteen but that her birthday is this month on the twenty-sixth."
"Dating an older man, L?" I ask her jokingly. She waves the spatula at me and metaphorically waves the question away.
"I'd worry less about me and start thinking about presents if I were you. The twenty-sixth is just twenty-two days away."
I consider it. What do you get the love of your life that you barely know? Leah brings our plates into the living room and we start to eat. If I want to know what to get her, I'll have to get to know her better. I'll have to - get to spend time with her. I smile. I finish eating in a hurry, run back upstairs, and get dressed.
"Hey Leah can I borrow your car?" I ask. She shakes her head no.
"I have to go into Port Angeles for some new supplies. I can drop you off if you want." she offers. I shake my head.
"No, I'll just walk." I say.
"Okay."
Mom pokes her head up and says, "Just be at Charlie's by seven, we're having dinner at his house."
"Got it. Seven at Charlie's house." I reply and begin to walk out of the house when the phone rings. It sits on a small table next to the door with a note pad beside it. Being the closest one, I pick it up off the hook.
"Clearwater residence, Seth speaking."
"Wow, if everyone I knew answered that way my contact list would be a lot longer." Nyx says in a sarcastic tone. I smile.
"Oh, Hey." I say surprised that she called.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today." she states nonchalantly, "If you are too busy though"
"No that's cool. I'm actually very free today." I say trying to hide my excitement. I hear her laugh at the other end of the line.
"That's music to my ears. I'll meet you at your place then?" she asks.
"Yeah. See you soon." I say.
"Bye."
I hang up the phone and look up. Leah looks at me and laughs. I roll my eyes and decide to wait on the couch.
Ten minutes later, I sit with my head laid back against the couch when I hear the noise of a motorcycle gliding across the pavement. It runs far too smoothly to be one of Jacobs's bikes (even if he won't admit it).
Another three minutes later, it pulls onto gravel and into our driveway; I walk outside and see something that stuns me.
Standing in the driveway is Nyx with a motorcycle helmet under her arm. Behind her is a shiny black Ducati 848. I feel my mouth drop and eyes widen. She runs a hand through wavy hair and shakes it around. She has a pair of black pants tucked into a pair of brown boots. Above that is dark red top and the same dark green jacket from the previous night. When she meets my eye, she smiles. I quickly snap my mouth closed and walk over to her. "Hey, Nyx."
"Seth," she says. She puts her helmet on the handle and starts to walk up to me. She opens her mouth to say something when she looks behind me and sees Leah walk out of the house.
"Hello," Leah says and waves.
"Hey," she says and nods her head. "You're Leah right?" she asks.
"Yeah, I guess your brother told you about me." Leah half asks half says. Either way I see a small blush begin to grow on her face.
"Yeah. He mentioned you. Don't you two have a date tonight?" Nyx asks her.
"What?" Leah asks clearly the first time she had heard about it.
"Oh! Guess I was not supposed to tell you about that. It was supposed to be a surprise." Nyx says regretfully. "Pretend you did not hear that. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Leah says before hoping into her car. "I'll call him. Anyway I have to go but, I hope you and Seth have a nice day." With that, she pulls out and drives away.
I look back at her after Leah is out of sight. "What did your brother say?" I ask her. The question catches her off guard. It takes her a moment to answer.
"Oh, not much. As much as I asked him only told me that he had met her once and now he loved her. He was being stubborn but I trust him and his judgment," she says before looking back at me mischievously. "Besides if she's anything like you she can't be too bad."
She punches me lightly in the arm and laughs. However, I see her shake her hand slightly before it returns to her pocket. I hope she didn't hurt herself. I start to reach out my hand. "You here alone." she asks before I can address the problem.
"Oh, no. My mom is here. Do you want to meet her?" I ask timidly.
"Sure." she says and a small smile forms on her face. She walks ahead of me on the way up to the door. She has a full look of certainty on her face and poise in her steps. I open up the door and watch her look around the living room. I look around at my familiar home with her and wonder how she sees it. We have hardwood floors; the couch is a light green with a dark red chair next to it. It was dad's favorite but of course, she won't know that. A large burgundy rug sits underneath the lacquered oak table. Leah picked it out at the store one day when she was little. The walls are beige and in one corner are flat screen TV that had been a Christmas gift from the Charlie. The room is has a comfortable homey feel to it. I know that anyone could tell that.
"It's nice. She says looking around. She must hear my mom washing dishes because she begins to glide her way into the kitchen.
"Mom," I say. She hastily turns around while drying a glass plate. She looks over Nyx with wide eyes.
"Who is this?" she asks. I can tell that she knows the answer. She keeps up the façade though by asking the question, thus carrying out a formal introduction.
"I'm Nyx." she says and sticks out her hand. "Nyx Venator. You must be Seth's mother, Sue."
"Yes. I see you are well-informed." Mom says. She glances at me out of the corner of her eye with a slight look of restfulness in her tone. Nyx must believe that it is directed at her because she returns it with the same discreet force.
"I am a very good listener." Her accent starts to seep through. I put my hand on her shoulder and she looks me in the eye. She inconspicuously bats her eyelashes at me for a moment.
"Come on I'll give you the grand tour. " I say and turn her back around to the living room. "This is the family room." She turns back into the kitchen and says "Kitchen."
"Right." I walk her into the small dining room and do the same thing. I point down the small hallway behind the stairs and tell her where the restroom is before guiding her up the stairs. I tell her where rooms are and she pauses in front of my door. She quietly twists the doorknob to the left and pushes the door open. I thank God that I picked up my room yesterday. She is obviously is shocks at its smallness. The full bed takes up most of the room the dresser takes up another proportion. What she says about though takes me by surprise.
"No posters."
"What?" I ask curiously. It was true I had taken down the few band posters I had had up back in ninth grade.
"You don't have any posters. It's like in my room, I doubt for the same reason, but none the less it is like mine," she says.
"Yeah, I took them down a while ago."
"Why?" she asks.
"Well," I start. "I thought it might help me sleep better. I have a problem with that."
"Insomnia?"
"Yeah I took pills but they didn't work to well." I say. It's a half-truth. I had taken pills for it. Billy's pills. And they didn't work werewolf warmth burns them out of my system.
"Me too," she says. Her voice is just above a whisper. I move a step closer to her.
I take my turn asking, "Why?"
She pauses and a painfully melancholy look begins to consume her face. It is a look containing sorrow, grief, and agony.
"Dark things. Stupid things" she says more certain of herself regaining control and repressing the emotions that had arisen to her face. "Things I would prefer not to speak of." With that, she steps onto my bed and pulls open my blinds. "Come on." She says.
"What are you doing?" I ask inquiring about her actions. She lifts up my screen less window and sticks a leg out on to my roof.
"I am doing nothing. We however are going to the beach." she says and dashes out of my window.