Author's Note: Hey guys, my exams are finished and I took some time to get the plans for this story sorted before I wrote any more, I lost my way a little with planning ahead while my exams were on, but now everything's sorted. I'm gonna try and get this story wrapped up before the end of the summer, so keep an eye out because updates will be a lot more frequent than they have been. Thanks to everyone who was so patient during the school year with my crappy update record, not a single complaint have I heard and I really owe you guys for being so cool, and for leaving lovely reviews on every chapter :) it's been a year since I started this and I wanna thank everyone who has been reading it. Thanks for all new follows and favourites and to Eveline Wulf, Flowerchild23, TishaLiz, JaliceJelsa4eva, sadlyhuman1997, TheGoofyCat and Amber (response below) for their reviews. Enjoy and please review!

Amber: Hey! Thanks for your review :) here is the update I am sorry the story went so long without one and I hope you enjoy it :P

Disclaimer: I do not own The Lost Boys, just my OCs.

I jumped as a hand slapped down on my shoulder, relaxing only slightly as the person the hand belonged to appeared at my other shoulder with their arm now tight around me, "Where'd you get to? I was waiting at the diner." Paul said with a smile.

Mine dropped as I realised I hadn't went back to the diner, when I got back to the boardwalk I just made my way to the centre again, my mind too preoccupied with the information overload my mother had brought down on me to remember I was supposed to have been at the diner the whole time.

Quickly wrecking my brain for an excuse, I shrugged, "When I got there I wasn't really in the mood, I went for food somewhere else. Hope you weren't waiting long?"

He seemed to buy it, shaking his head, "Ain't like I'm getting any older, doesn't do me any harm waiting around. So what do you want to do now? Wanna keep looking for your mom?"

Too late, I had already found her. Her instructions had been clear though, don't act like anything was wrong, "Nah, she'll come find me if she really wants to. I on the other hand am not getting any younger so I shouldn't be spending my time running around Santa Carla, don't you think?"

My tone might have been a bit too casual, he raised an eyebrow and we slowed to a stop where we had been wandering along only a second before, not really going anywhere in particular anyway. But he ducked his head down to be at my eye-level, "You okay?"

I smiled, "Sure I am, why?"

He tilted his head to the side, "It's just you've been so hell-bent on finding her, I just wonder what's changed your mind all of a sudden. We can keep looking, if you want."

"I just have the feeling she's gone. You know? She would have given me some sign she was still around, even if she had thought I needed some time, she wouldn't have just not one anything since then. I think she bailed."

"You don't seem upset about it."

I narrowed my eyes, "Should I?"

He put his free hand on my other shoulder so I was now facing him, "Look I didn't mean to tell you what you should be doing. You just seem to be acting different, that's all."

My slight annoyance at his questions lessened at the concerned look on his face, "Look at you, getting all worried about me. I already have one new mom, am I getting another?" I teased with a grin, shrugging out of his grip and linking my arm through his instead.

He ran a hand through his hair, an action I still didn't understand how he could do given with the mess his hair was, and let me pull him along with a chuckle, "Alright, alright, last thing I wanna do is act like a mom." He said with a shudder, pulling an unfamiliar wallet from his pocket, "Say, how's about I take Shorty for a drink?" He suggested, pulling a bill from the brown leather pocket in the middle.

"Do I wanna know where you got that?" I asked, my answer was a cheeky wink, "Alright, but nothing alcoholic."

He scoffed, "Oh come on, don't you think with everything you've put up with these last few days you deserve a little alcohol?"

"You make a good point." I admitted, weighing the idea up in my mind. It wouldn't kill me, and whatever got my mind off everything I had learned tonight sounded like a good idea to me.

"What'll it be?" The bartender asked as he came over to us in the bar a while later, which was almost as busy as the last time I was in here with Dwayne.

I looked blankly at Paul, not knowing what to order, "Go for something fancy, like a cocktail." He suggested.

I thought for a second, "Anything with coke in it?"

Paul thought for a second, "Two Cuba Libres, thanks man." He told the bartender who walked off, I was assuming to mix the cocktails.

"What's in that?" I asked.

"Coke and rum, it's nice. Pretty simple to make." He said, handing the money to the bartender when he returned a couple of minutes later with the drinks, complete with bits of lime.

I raised an eyebrow, "Wouldn't peg you as a cocktail expert."

He smirked, "I was a bartender. In another life." He added the last part mysteriously, but I knew what he meant.

"You mean there was a time when Paul was not all about partying? You actually had a job?" I teased as we sat down in an empty booth.

He grinned, "Well a friend of mine owned the bar and gave me a job, I got some free drinks and I got to meet all the bands performing there. What wasn't to like?"

"Sounds perfect. So how was it you came to be...?" I trailed off, gesturing to him before cautiously picking up the drink. I prepared for the burn of the drink and was pleasantly surprised when it went down easy, I nodded in approval to Paul who seemed to be waiting for my reaction before he answered.

"Marko came in one night during a show, hung round the bar for a while and we got to talking. Can't really remember much about it, somehow I got on to meeting David and Dwayne and before you know it, I woke up a half vampire." He explained simply before downing almost half the glass in a single gulp.

I looked at him in surprise, "So you didn't have any idea beforehand?"

"Nah, don't think I would have believed them. I mean, would you? Y'know, if Dwayne hadn't have turned in front of you." He asked.

I squeezed the juice from the lime wedge into the drink before discarding it on the table, "Probably not. I mean, you see movies about vampires or hear scary stories, you don't expect to find out you're hanging out with a bunch of bloodsuckers."

Paul snickered, "You sure can pick your friends."

"Hey! You walked into the music store, I've been trying to get rid of you ever since." I replied, he leant back rested against the tall back on the booth.

"What can I say? I saw a music store and a pretty girl, call me impulsive but I took advantage of the opportunity for some fun."

My smile faded as I thought back to the music store, "I wonder how the store is."

"You mean you wonder how your parents are?" He guessed, a sympathetic smile pulling at his lips as I took another drink, "You can still go see them and hang out and stuff, you don't have to stay away just because of what you found out."

"Still don't think I can face them yet. They still lied to me, no matter why they did it, they still lied." I had been thinking about them, in all honesty they were the most normal people I could be around at the minute, even if they were two strangers I had never really been related to.

He set his empty glass down after he had finished, I was only halfway through mine, "You got lots of time, no need to rush. So how's your first cocktail?"

I stared down at the glass in approval, "Not bad. Think I found a good drink."

Paul shook his head, "There's lots better, plus you haven't even had beer but I figured a cocktail would be a little nicer. And that guy isn't the best at making them, you'd think he was afraid he'd run out of rum. I could make it far better."

"If you got to make it, it'd probably be like ninety percent rum and ten percent coke." I pointed out, to which he winked.

"Now that is a Cuba Libre."

I chuckled, the image of Paul mixing drinks behind a bar floating in my mind, it was hard to comprehend he was once human. That any of them were once human, actually.

"Where did you live when you were human?"

He blew out a puff of air, "Ohio. Long way from here."

"I'll say. What was it like living there?"

His nose wrinkled, "Not all that exciting, wish I'd have grown up somewhere like here. You must have had a blast as a kid."

I swiveled the ice around in my glass as I thought, "It was alright, I wasn't allowed out much at night, even when I was with my friends I always had to be home pretty early. Guess Julie and Peter had good reason to try and keep me inside, they don't call it the Murder Capital Of The World for nothing. Guess we have you guys to thank for that title."

Paul grinned, not looking at all sympathetic, "There are worst things the town could be known for, at least we made the place sound exciting. And I don't see the warning stopping all the tourists we get every year. People like a little danger."

"Yeah, but people can be pretty stupid. Not that I'm one to talk, I'm willingly hanging out with you guys, I'm in the most danger here."

"Nah, you're safe, no one kills Shorty while I'm around." He said confidently.

I smiled, "Good to know."

My mood dropped as the silence surrounded us again, some part of me wanted to tell him I knew everything now, about my mom and Max. But I couldn't, my mother was being careful and with good reason. Plus, if Paul had been told to take her to Max or even kill her, it sure didn't look like he was going to share that information with me.

"You okay?"

My head snapped up from where I had been staring at the table to meet Paul's eyes, I fixed a smile on my face, "Of course I am." I lied, grateful when he seemed to buy it. I was suddenly very glad it was him I was here with and not Dwayne, he'd definitely be able to tell I was lying and I'd probably crumble under the weight of his stare and wind up telling him everything. I had to keep what I had learned to myself, at least until Rachel found me again and could tell me what to do next.

Paul grabbed both our glasses, "Want another?"

More alcohol probably wasn't a good idea, the rum had already starting a tingling warm feeling in my stomach which distracted me from the numbness usually there, but I suddenly wasn't feeling too great, "Just coke, please?"

I was glad he didn't try to persuade me and instead went off to get more drinks. I leant my head on the table and sighed deeply, what the hell was gonna happen now?

"Come on. Where are you?" I asked the next night, standing at the railings separating the spectators from the carousel spinning behind me, the music managed to drown out my voice so no one thought I was talking to myself.

I was starting to get worried, she said she would find me. Here I was, in plain sight, like I had been for the past half hour. Paul told me he wouldn't tell the others I had found out about my mother, it'd be just between us until I talked to her.

"Hi."

I turned to see she had appeared beside me, leaning on the railings and facing the opposite way from me, she looked like a random person just watching the people on the carousel.

"Thank God. I was starting to worry." I said, not turning so it would look like we weren't talking to each other, I kept my eyes straight ahead.

"I can handle myself." She said with a smirk in her voice, "Did things go okay after you met up with the others last night? No questions about where you went to."

I shook my head, "Nah, they don't know anything."

"Good."

"So the last time we talked you said you needed to figure some things out." I pointed out, she nodded and moved closer as some kids came to stand on her other side, the fabric on our jackets almost touching.

"Yeah. I have a solution to everything."

I couldn't help it, I turned my head to stare at her, "You do?" Hope started fluttering in my chest, maybe she could help me somehow, fix this whole mess.

"Yeah, a way to keep us both safe and to make sure you don't suffer the same fate I spent eighteen years saving you from."

"What is it?" I asked eagerly, her eyes slid from watching the bright lights to meeting my gaze, she waited a few seconds before telling me.

"You and I leave Santa Carla. Tonight."

Author's Note: Okay, nobody kill me! Update will be here during the week, I hope you enjoyed the chapter :P