Chapter 12
"You need to finish getting ready before you're late!" My mom shouts to Rachel and me from downstairs. We're in my room about to change into our dresses we bought from Oak Park for the ball in the town hall tonight. Usually, I'm not one for dances but for this one, I really am excited to go. I'll be with my best friend and my first boyfriend I genuinely care about. After what he told me a couple days ago after the whole incident at the gas station, my feelings for him grew stronger; as if that was even possible.
When Daniel told me about his mom, it made me feel so special and believe that he really trusts me with something like that. I was the first to know, besides his relatives, and the only one he has ever told about it, even his best friend didn't know. This made me feel even more honored to be the one he told because I know what that's like.
I'm standing near the left side of my wall with my arms out, leaning as Rachel tightly ties the laces on the back of my dress. "Okay mom!" I shout back to her, "Give us 30 minutes!"
"I don't think Daniel can wait 30 minutes! Or his friend, he looks as if he just wants to die out of boredom!" I laugh quietly to myself. When Rachel is finally done with tightening my laces, it's my turn to tighten hers.
"Okay, mom! We'll try our best!" I go through the laces quickly, and soon enough we both have our dresses on, "How do I look?" I pose for Rachel.
She laughs, "Sexy as always, what about me?" She poses for me.
I laugh at her pose, "Hot," and I make a sizzling sound, "Now all we need to do is the finishing touches." I go over to my vanity across the room and Rachel follows. I then hand her my curling iron, "Can you please finish curling my hair while I do my makeup?" I hardly wear makeup, Daniel says he prefers me without it, but, he hasn't seen me in my best work of art yet. Hopefully he approves.
I gather up the things I need, the fake eyelashes, mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, concealer, and my favorite French vanilla flavored lip gloss. The ingredients I need to make me actually attractive.
As I place the fake eyelashes in, Rachel starts finishing curling my hair into beautifully curled ringlets that weren't over the top and flattered me. I'm glad Rachel was training to become a cosmetologist; she's perfect for the job and she really enjoys it.
After all the curling and make up, Rachel and I were finally done. We didn't want to look at each yet until everything was together; all we needed now was our accessories. I first put my brand new silver heels on with the crystals embedded onto the straps and front. Once I finally finish putting on my heels, I retrieve my elbow length white satin gloves and my grandmother's sapphire and diamond drop necklace from the top drawer of my dresser. The necklace has been passed down generation to generation in our family; the price of it now would probably be worth hundreds of dollars, maybe more.
Once I finally get everything on, I ask Rachel, "Are you ready?" When she is, we count down together "1…2…3" We both turn around at the same time to evaluate each other. I gasp at the sight of Rachel, and she does the same seeing me.
She looked absolutely gorgeous. Especially with her dark forest green colored dress with a beautiful beading on the bodice and skirt. Her hair was curled like mine was except that it was up into a half up half down hairstyle while my hair was all on my right side of my face, a one shoulder curled type of hairstyle. She has an emerald necklace with matching drop earrings on with the same kind of pair of gloves as mine, except hers are black. Overall, she looked stunning.
I smile to her and say, "You look absolutely gorgeous."
She smiles back and replies, "So do you, no wait, scratch that, there really isn't any words that can describe the way you look right now. And in a good way." She walks over to me and we hug each other, "This is going to be one of the best nights of my life."
"Mine too; do you think Daniel will approve of me?" I ask her, worried that he won't think that I'm beautiful or anything. When it comes down to it, I'm always worried about my looks now because I always want to look my best for him.
She pulls back and just stares at me as if asking me if I was serious. "Of course he will! Worst case scenario, he would want to take that dress off himself, if you know what I mean." She winks and I laugh, taking that as a compliment of course.
"Thank you, I guess." We both laugh and I grab her hand, "Ready for this amazing night ahead of us?" She nods reluctantly and we start walking into the hallway and stop just before the hallway and stairs met. "We're ready!" I call down. Then I hear the rustling of feet coming towards the foot of the stairs and stopping just as quickly as they came.
"I'll go first," Rachel whispers and before I can respond, Rachel steps in front me and makes her way down the stairs so gracefully. I take a peek down to the bottom of the stairs and see Daniel and his friend standing on the left side of the stairs; my mom on the right side taking photos of Rachel descending the stairs and walking over to Daniel's friend's side. Then, all attention goes back to the head of the stairs, me.
I take a deep breath and take my first step, and try to look as graceful as Rachel did even though I'm probably failing at it. I look over at Daniel and never take my eyes off of him the whole time I come down the stairs. His jaw was dropped, stunned by the sight of me. I blush, wondering about what he's thinking of at this very moment and hoping that it was good.
Once I get to the last two steps, Daniel comes to the foot of the stairs and holds out his hand to help me down. I take it, and as I'm walking down the rest of the way, he mouths, 'You look phenomenal.' Daniel saying this makes me blush even deeper than I already am.
I then look over at my mom and see she's about to cry. Oh gosh, seeing her cry makes me want to cry. I'm not going to let that happen though. She comes over, hugs me and whispers, "You look so beautiful sweetie." I whisper back a thank you, then, she steps back and announces, "Time for some more pictures. Come on, everyone gather around and put each other's corsages and boutonnieres on."
We all gather around each other and let my mom take pictures and she takes separate pictures, Daniel and me, and then Rachel and Daniel's attractive friend. His friend has long shaggy blonde hair and has chocolate brown eyes and has a lean muscular build, just like Daniel. In ways, they did look alike but they didn't at the same time.
We finally get done with the pictures about 10 minutes later when I declared we were going to be late and that it was time to go. As Daniel's friend and Rachel walk out together and get into a Ferrari, my mom stops Daniel and me from walking out as well. "Slow down you two." Daniel and I turn around to face my mom and when we do, I'm blinded by the flash of the camera. "Okay," she smiles, "You're free to go." Daniel and I finally step out of the door until my mom calls out, "Oh, Daniel?"
Daniel turns around, "Yes, Miss. Jones?" He says with sincerity and respect in his voice.
"Remember," She points a finger at him with her serious face, "11 o'clock sharp." She then smiles and says to us, "Have a nice time!" And with those words, closes the door behind us, allowing Daniel and I to finally go.
Daniel and I have been inside his car making out for the past 10 minutes since we got here, the party started 20 minutes ago. Rachel is probably wondering where I was, and I really wanted to dance with Daniel now.
I pull away from Daniel and it took all of my strength not to go back to kissing him, I sigh and smile, "Don't you think it's time for us to go in by now?"
He smiles, and starts kissing my jawbone and heads down slowly to my neck. "I prefer to be here and have you all to myself and do this." He comes back to my mouth and we start kissing again. I moan against his lips and that makes him kiss me more. He starts kissing my neck again and it takes every ounce of me to pull away.
"Please?" I give him my best pouty face.
Daniel groans in defeat, "Fine," he gives me one of his sexy half smiles that he always does whenever he wants to seduce and it's worked all of the time. Except now of course. "You're lucky you're cute." He leans down to kiss my lips and I close the distance between us but only a split second, a peck on the lips. And Daniel gives me a look of disappointment.
I turn my torso towards the front of the car and pull down the visor from the ceiling of the Camaro, looking at the damage that has been done to my perfectly glossed lips. And sure enough, lip gloss is smeared; I pull out the lip gloss, get a Kleenex out of my clutch and wipe away the mess. I reapply my lip gloss with care and patience.
Once I'm done reapplying the French Vanilla lip gloss, I smile and turn to Daniel, who was watching me the whole time, "The damage that you caused is finally fixed, now we can go."
He smirks, "A shame, I was hoping to get another taste."
I roll my eyes, "Well, you're going to wait until the end of the night if you keep up trying to get me to kiss you again." I smile at him.
He gives out a small laugh, "You wish, I don't need to try to get you to kiss me. Plus, you're always the one to make the moves on me first." He winks
I open my mouth in false shock, "I do not! You always kiss me first."
He gives me his half smile and says, "How about we make a bet? Whoever kisses the other person first, loses."
"You're on. But what do I get when I win?"
"If you win, which you won't, I won't make fun of that artist you're always listening to anymore. What's his name again? Justin Beaver?"
"It's Justin Bieber. You've got yourself a done," we were about to shake on it till I stop myself, "Wait, what you get if you win?"
He smiles, "You have to spend one whole night with me at my place, no exceptions."
I open my mouth in protest but I shut it. I never liked his house really; there was something about it that made me feel weird. It felt like something in that house was holding a secret of some sorts and it felt like it wasn't exactly a harmless secret. I really wanted to win a bet with him once, out of all the other bets we've had, I've always lost. Not this time. "Deal," I say confidently, and we shake hands. "Now, let's please go to the ball."
"Yes ma'am," he says in a false southern accent that makes me giggle and gets out of the car. In a matter of seconds, he's on my side of the car and opens the door for me and offers me a hand. I take it, and lift myself out of the seat and onto the pavement. Once I'm standing on the pavement and make sure my dress isn't ruined in some way, Daniel and I start walking to the front entrance. Daniel offers me his arm and I accept it by putting my arm through his.
Once we enter the town hall, the mayor welcoming us in, I see that there is no special lighting or a D.J that I thought there was going to be. The huge chandelier in the grand ballroom is the only light source in the room and near the back of the room was a band full of classical instruments playing soft classical music.
The feeling of the room was so relaxing and beautiful that I was content with the different genre of music I would usually not listen to. There are nicely set up tables around the ballroom and I see Daniel's friend and Rachel on the other side of the huge room. We walk over to them arm in arm, I decided that this would be a good time to ask Daniel what his friend's name was, "I forgot to ask you before, but, what's your friends name?"
Daniel utters one name, "Henry."
I stiffen as a chill goes down my spine. For some odd reason, the name Henry brought a bad feeling to my stomach but I try to push away the feeling of anger and fear I felt with that name. Once we get to the table I eventually push the feeling away and put on a fake smile so no one suspected that something was wrong.
Daniel and I sit down next to each other at the finely placed all white tables and as we're sitting Rachel says, "There you two are, Henry and I were starting to wonder where you guys went." Again, another chill down my spine at the name Henry. She smiles at me then looks over to Daniel, "So, where were you?"
Daniel clears his throat and simply says, "Fixing a car problem we were having." He makes it so believable that even Rachel believes it, and it's hard to convince her of anything. I wish Henry would do the same, but he doesn't believe Daniel for one bit.
"With a brand new car like that," Henry says confidently, "I don't think you guys would have had any problems with it." He smiles and looks at me; I think he knows that it gets to me when he's pressing the little incident a little more than it should. That business is between Daniel and me only, not Henry's or even Rachel's.
"It was probably the dealer's fault." Daniel says casually, "Can't really trust anyone with a Camaro like mine."
"You can, if it cost you that much money, you could have people do anything for you." Henry smiles, being cocky about it, making me glare at him.
There's something about him that irritates me and just makes me plain out don't like him. I don't normally conclude anything about anyone I just met, but with Henry, I do. I conclude that he's someone I don't like and I need to get away from him.
I look over at the center of the ballroom, and I see that a lot of people are starting to dance; I get up and drag Daniel with me, "Excuse us, we're just going to dance for a few minutes. Be back in a bit Rachel." I take Daniel's arm and we walk over to the dance floor.
The way Daniel was looking at me right now, he could tell that something was wrong with me, but, he just didn't know what. He frowns in concern and asks, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I simply reply, "I just wanted to dance that's all."
We finally get to the dance area and once we get into the center, Daniel bows like a gentleman and places his right hand on my waist and places his left hand in my right hand. I casually place my left hand on his shoulder and Daniel leads us into a dance, almost like a waltz, but, slower. I smile, "I had no idea you knew how to dance like this."
"Oh, it's nothing; I had dance lessons when I was younger. I guess I've managed to remember a few moves," He says and sighs, "To be honest, I actually liked it." He suddenly spins me and pulls me back automatically, "And don't you dare tell anyone that."
I laugh which makes him smile, "Or what?" I ask jokingly, "You'll kiss me? The last time I checked if you do, you lose a bet. But either way, I'm fine with it, so, go ahead." I lick my lips slowly and seductively, "Mmm French Vanilla, your favorite."
Daniel looks over to the left of him and smiles to himself and looks back to me, "You're going to regret doing that."
I laugh, I loved teasing him. It made me feel like I had somewhat of a power over him, but, I never do this only if I'm joking with him. I have to admit, I should do this more often if this got me my way. I then feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn around to see who it was and I see that it's Henry, "Mind if I cut in?"
I just look at him, wondering what his motives were, "Actually, I do mind. And besides, you're on a date with Rachel, dance with her." He puts his hands up in innocence and walks away into the crowd surrounding us.
Daniel looks at me in disbelief, "Whoa, what was that about? Don't get me wrong, I find it extremely attractive when you get feisty, but, what was that?"
I sigh in frustration, "Nothing, I'll tell you after the party." He didn't argue, not wanting to put me in a worse mood than I already was in. Daniel and I keep dancing until a bell sounds, announcing that it was dinner time. Everyone stops dancing and they all head to this huge table covered with an abundance of food at the right side of the room.
Daniel and I return to our table with Henry and Rachel sitting there and laughing. I roll my eyes towards Henry. From the looks of him, he looks like a player; finds a girl and drops her like a glove when he's done with her. I'm not going to let that happen to Rachel, she deserved someone so much better.
Once Daniel and I sit down at the table, things got quiet and a little awkward; no one was talking. I certainly didn't want to talk especially if Henry was going to be here. I know that I shouldn't let him ruin my night, but, there's something about him that just makes me want to… punch him.
Just then, Henry stands up, "Rachel, do you want to get something to eat?" She stands up also and nods. With that they walk away, holding hands. When they are out of ear shot, I put my finger and make a false, quiet gagging noise.
Daniel smirks, "I have a feeling that someone doesn't like Henry." He places his hands on mine on the table. "So what's wrong?"
I just look at him for a minute, while he looked at me, taking in his beauty. I wanted to kiss his soft lips so much right now but I restrained myself; just for a few seconds. Finally, I lean in and softly kiss his lips and he kisses me back. I already knew that I was going to lose this bet, so I wanted to make the complete, regardless.
Daniel pulls away, and a cocky smile appears across his face. I know why he's smiling because he won the bet, congratulations to him. "You realize that I just won our bet right?"
"I know," I say gravely, "But you're too hard to resist."
He laughs quietly, "And was that kiss a way to avoid the question?" He eyes me with that eye thing he always does, making him look even hotter.
I groan, "Fine you caught me, happy now?"
He leaves that smile on his face and replies smoothly, "I'll respond to that question once you answer mine."
I groan again, deciding to tell him what I felt about Henry, "There's something about Henry that I don't like."
Daniel furrows his brow, "What do you mean there's something about Henry? Did he say or do something to you?"
I shake my head, "No, it's just that I get a bad vibe from him and it makes me feel uncomfortable." I look down at our hands that are intertwined, "You probably think I'm crazy, but, I just can't stand him being with Rachel right now."
He looks at me seriously, "I don't think you're crazy. Maybe all you need to do is talk to him and get to know him better."
I'm skeptical about that; I don't know what to say so I just don't say anything to his suggestion. I get up and hold my hand out to him, "Come on, let's go get something to eat." I try to say with some false cheer in my voice, but it's clear that Daniel knows it's fake. Daniel gets up from his seat and we hold hands on our way to the buffet table.
Once we get to the table, there is no one there, everyone is sitting at their tables enjoying the meal and talking with each other. Daniel doesn't eat anything so I go ahead and grab a plate and start with getting a salad, I go down the line to the perfectly roasted turkey. As I pick up the knife to start cutting the turkey, a sudden feeling comes over me. A voice in my head says 'Stab Daniel anywhere but the heart and make it look like an accident.' I have no control and I listen to the voice willingly, and I don't feel anything in me to stop from what I'm doing.
I take the knife and cut the turkey at an angle, an angle that's facing Daniel and I pretend the knife slipped off the turkey. Suddenly the knife plunges right into Daniel's stomach.
Daniel groans and winces in pain and falls onto the floor. I gasp, realizing what I have done and wondering why I would do something like that and not believing I did this. I break down and I start tearing up kneeing beside him, "Daniel! I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened!" On instinct, I pull out his cell phone from his suit pocket and dial 911. Daniel puts his hand over the phone and clicks end.
"I'll be fine Lauren." He manages to say, "There's not need to call 911."
"Yes there is, but don't worry, I know you'll be alright," I lean down and kiss his foreword and whisper, "You'll be okay, everything's okay." I dial 911 again from his cell phone. Before I could press talk, a hand comes over my hands and takes the phone away.
I whip my head around and notice that it was Henry who took the phone away from me. "Why the hell did you just do that? He could be dying right now!" I shout to him with tears in my eyes, finally, they start streaming down my cheek.
Henry shushes me, "Be quiet and lower your voice. You don't need to draw attention over here." Before I could say anything, he goes on the other side of Daniel and just yanks out the knife. Daniel groans in pain, I could tell that he was trying hard not to be loud to remain unnoticed. I take a glance and I swear I see that the wound is shrinking in size.
"Why don't you want me to get him to a hospital? You just made it worse by taking out the knife!" I whisper angrily at Henry. But he just ignores me and helps Daniel off of his feet, and looks around to make sure no one was looking, and I look too, no one was. Henry and Daniel walk off to the side exit right near the table, walking onto the porch and heading into the rose gardens; and I follow.
"What are you doing?" I frantically ask Henry. Daniel shouldn't be walking, especially being stabbed and bleeding; walking will only make his condition worse.
Henry finally looks at me and answers, "I'm helping him Lauren!" He points over to towards the town hall, "Go back to the party and stop you're worrying already!" I stop in my tracks, shocked that Henry actually yelled at and had the nerve to tell me what and what I shouldn't do.
I run after Henry and Daniel, "What do you mean you're helping him? How are you doing that by taking him to the woods?"
"Well," he says in an impatient tone, "I parked my car on the other side of the woods, and going through the woods is the quickest way to get to the other side."
"Okay," I give up the fight that I was never going to win. I don't like Henry, but, I know that he wouldn't let anything happen to Daniel. "Just let me see how bad the wound is."
I pull up his shirt to look at the wound. "Don't!" Henry shouts to me, but it's too late, I already see what he didn't want me to see. The gash that I saw just a minute ago was practically gone, just a little slither of the wound showed. It looked as if he had a mere paper cut or a scratch.
I furrow my brow in confusion, "What-what is that?" I stammer and point to the almost absent wound, "Why isn't there a gash there anymore?" Daniel looks at me and he doesn't say anything, he just sighs and looks as if there is something that he doesn't want to tell me.
"It's noth-" Henry is about to say but Daniel stops him with the flash of his hand.
"I think it's about time she knew, Henry." Daniel says gravely, "I mean there's no way of covering it up now."
I just look at Daniel in confusion; I glance to Henry hoping he would say something and I look back to Daniel, "What do I need to know Daniel?" I start to get nervous and I start to shiver. I'm afraid that what they're about to tell me is going to change everything, and I was right.
Daniel and Henry both look to me with serious expressions across their faces, and Daniel is the one to speak and utters something that I never thought he would say, "I'm a vampire."
