Apartment 102
Confusion
Vincent looked up at me from the couch when heard my phone ring. Suddenly, as soon as I reached for my purse, Vincent sat up and snatched my purse into his lap in one swift movement. He dug through its contents and pulled out my sparkly flip phone. He flipped it open, paused for a brief moment then spoke.
"Do not call her anymore." I didn't even try to stop my mouth from falling open. I heard Trace yelling on the other end from where I sat.
"Who is this!?"
"Vincent Valentine." He answered nonchalantly.
"Give Amaya the goddamn phone!" I heard Trace yell. Vincent held the phone away from his ear to prevent going deaf from all the screaming and threatening Trace was doing on the other end.
"Trace? She's not yours anymore. Do not ever call her again." He hung up giving Trace no more time to talk. He then began punching buttons that I could not see. I assumed he blocked Trace's number because as he put my phone back in my purse I heard him mutter. "That takes care of that."
I smiled and hopped off the recliner I was sitting in. I sat down in Vincent's lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. He responded by putting his hands on my waist and looking up at me.
"If I'm not Trace's anymore than whose property am I?" I grinned at him. He looked down and sighed quietly.
"Amaya you are no one's property." I frowned at that response. I was hoping he'd tell me now I was his, but I knew I was expecting too much. I tried again at getting the answer that I wanted to hear.
"I know that, but what I meant was if Trace doesn't have me anymore, then who does? I'm not the kind of girl that can run around single for long."
"Try it, its not that bad." He said easing me off of his lap and rising to walk into the kitchen for some more tea. Obviously I was not gonna get the kind of response I wanted out of him so I gave up. I crossed my arms and pouted while he was gone then quickly changed my expression as I saw him coming back into the living room with two mugs of hot green tea.
"You are amazing." I said to him as he handed me mine. I still felt like complete crap and Vincent still looked it.
"I try." He muttered before taking the first sip of his. We sat watching TV for the longest time until I fell asleep. When I woke up an hour later I found Vincent sitting Indian style on the floor flipping through a photo album of my baby pictures. He had a smirk on his face that kept growing with every page he looked at. I then remembered one picture in there he could definitely not see. I shot off the couch reached out for the photo album. Vincent stood and held it high above his head.
"I'm not finished." He said sending me a mock glare. The only way I could tell this was a mock glare instead of his real one was that his eyes didn't have that fire in them.
"Vincent please!" I reached out for the album but he wouldn't give it to me. Instead he turned his back to me and kept looking until he saw the picture I was afraid of. I was about three years old then. I had on a pair of my mother's white sunglasses that were slightly pulled down. I had bright red lipstick, and rosy red cheeks from the blush I was wearing. My back was to the camera, but I had my upper half turned slightly and my head looking over my shoulder. One of my little hands was on my hip and the other was on the sunglasses pulling them down so the camera could catch my eyes. My hair was pulled up into a side ponytail with no bangs or anything. The worst part of the photo was that I had on a feather boa…and nothing else. My pale backside was fully exposed.
Vincent turned to me with a smirk on his face. He cleared his throat a few times trying to hold back, but soon bursted into full out laughter. Although I was embarrassed I could only smile. Vincent Valentine was laughing! He gasped for air and then let out a whole other round of laughter. After about five minutes of appreciating that this dark stoic man was laughing so hard, I was fed up.
"It's not funny, jerk!" I gave him a push that sent him nowhere and ran off to my bedroom. Vincent followed me in there tackled me with a hug.
"That was cute." And now he's using words like cute!? "Come on, let's go over to my place." He said that as if his place was really that far from here.
"Why?" I asked as I was being dragged away by my arm. He didn't answer me, but quickly checked to see if Yume was fed, and had water, then took me into his apartment. I followed him into his bedroom and sat on his bed while he searched through a box he had underneath his bed. He finally pulled out a small envelope and tossed it into my lap. I opened it and found a small stack of photos. Being that Vincent was sixty something, they were old photos.
There was a little boy with a cute bowl cut wearing a suit, and a fierce frown sitting on a bench. I grinned. "Is that you?"
Vincent nodded. I moved onto the next photo which was of a gorgeous woman with long black hair holding a baby whose face was hidden by the blanket he was covered in. I assumed this was his mother. I flipped through the rest of them which were all school pictures of Vincent up until his senior year of high school. He was so handsome even then, but he wasn't smiling in any of his photos.
"Thanks for letting me see those, Vincent." I said handing him the stack of photos. I noticed he was holding something behind his back. I narrowed my eyes at him and reached for it. Vincent didn't try to keep it from me so I easily grabbed it.
I covered my mouth and gasped. Vincent looked as if he was about seven years old. He was sitting in what looked like could have been his childhood bedroom. He was turned to the side with his knees up to his chest wearing only a pair of briefs. Only he was wearing them on his head, the rest of him completely nude, although nothing personal was shown, unlike in mine. I busted out laughing and handed the picture back to him. So we both had embarrassing naked photos. I didn't feel so bad after that. "Do you still run around naked wearing briefs on your head?" I would probably die at the sight of that.
"It depends…do you still run around in only a scarf?" He retaliated. I frowned at him before grabbing one of his pillows and hitting him across the head with it.
"It was a boa, anyways, dummy! I was a diva child."
He ripped the pillow out of my hand and wacked me with it until I begged him to stop.
Later that night after many rounds Need for Speed I decided I should probably be heading back to my apartment. I needed to get some sleep because I had class the next day. I poked Vincent who was leaning against me half asleep. But first I wanted to ask him a very important question. I hoped it wouldn't piss him off and make him not speak to me.
"What are we?" I asked him.
He frowned and shrugged. "Amaya you know I don't like talking about that kind of stuff."
I sighed and nodded. I didn't want to push him any further than that so I spoke again.
"Vincent…I'm gonna go, ok?" He nodded then sat up and pulled me into a hug.
"Stay inside tonight." He whispered close to my ear. I didn't need to ask why. Vincent looked horrible he was gonna have to let Chaos out sooner or later. I nodded and pulled away from him. He gave me a quick half smile before looking down at his black coffee table as I stood and left.
∞∞∞
I woke up the next morning with an arm thrown around my waist and warm breath against my neck. I slowly turned my head, brushing noses with none other than Vincent Valentine in the process. He was still dead to the world and I knew pretty much nothing I did was going to wake him in this state so I slid his arm off my and got up. I then wondered how he even got in here I was sure I locked my door last night. Today was Monday and I had a class that started in one hour so I needed to start rushing around to get ready in time. I trusted that Vincent was fast asleep so I changed right there in front of his sleeping form. I wore some lazy grey capris and a tight fitted white T-shirt. I pulled my hair back in a loose, sloppy bun, grabbed my purse and book bag, then headed off.
This semester Rena and I actually made sure we had every class at the same time and in the same place. Our first class was a geography class. After that long, boring class let out we sat in the library together until our next class started. After the next class it was time for our lunch break where we met up with Lunaz.
"Amaya, you have to tell me what's going on with you and Vincent!" she demanded before she even planted herself in the seat next to me. We were all eating cheeseburgers and fries. Rena, and I were drinking mountain dews but the health conscious Lunaz was drinking vitamin water from the vending machines outside.
I smiled. "I'm not sure. He doesn't like talking about 'us'." Lunaz and Rena both let out a 'psh' and rolled their eyes.
"So what are you going to do?" Rena asked.
"I don't know. I'm content right now. He at least treats me like we're together. He even answered my phone when Trace called and told him to never call me again."
This caused another 'psh' from the both of them. "Girl you better lay down the law. He needs to realize that just cause he's not aging and has all the time in the world doesn't mean you do. You can't be waiting around for him. How long have you known each other now? More than a year?" Rena looked as if she were more frustrated by my situation than I was. "I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Valentine."
I almost choked on my cheeseburger. "No! Don't… He'll just get all pissed off and not talk to me for a week. Maybe he's just afraid of labels, you know? A lot of people are like that."
"That's dumb." Lunaz said. Both Rena and I just looked at her. "Isn't it?"
"It sure is! You just need to sit him down and tell him how things are." Rena said.
"I don't know, I'm not even sure he totally feels the same. He admitted to me that he doesn't remember what it feels like to love anyone. I don't want to rush him." I didn't want to tell them that I was thinking about drinking his blood to become immortal with him. They would probably both freak out and maybe even abandon me. I need my friends right now…
∞∞∞
"Vincent?" I called as I walked into my apartment. It was now around five in the afternoon. I tossed my bag on the floor next to the recliner and checked my apartment for him. He was still fast asleep in my bed, lying on his back. I ran, jumped, and landed right on him. He groaned and turned his head to the side. I squealed as I felt his hands creeping up my sides.
"You sleepy head." I whispered to him. He turned his head to face me and looked down at my lips. "Nope." I said quickly pressing my thumb against his lips. "Until you tell me exactly what we are,there can't be anymore of that." After talking to Rena and Lunaz I came up with a new plan to break Vincent down. Take away all some of the benefits of this new 'friendship'. I sat up, still on top of him and pulled his hands off of my sides. "Or that."
Vincent sat up and lifted me off of his lap. "Then I guess that means you can't sit there." He slid off my bed and walked out of the bedroom. I wanted to throw something at the back of his head. Well this plan had failed.
I walked into the living room and sat next to him on the couch. He ignored my presence and picked up one of the magazines that was lying on the coffee table. I knew he was just doing this to piss me off because since when did Vincent Valentine give a shit about celebrities or fashion.
I got up and grabbed my books. If he was going to ignore me I might as well do my homework. After about an hour of this game I was the one who broke down. "Vincent, I'm hungry take me out to dinner."
"Hmm…I don't know if it's appropriate for a friend to take just a friend out to dinner." He answered very quickly. I lifted my book like I was going to throw it at him. He didn't even flinch or blink.
Instead I threw the book down on the floor and stood up. "Is that really all you want, Vincent? Just a friendship?"
"I was content with the place we were at." He brought his eyes back down to the magazine.
"Where was that?" I asked.
He shrugged. I wanted to slap him so hard his head would spin. Does he enjoy confusing the hell out of me!? Is this game fun for him?! Because it's not fun for me anymore. In face it was never really fun to start with. I stared at him for the longest time while he continued to ignore me. He continued this up until I went to bed.
I woke up the next morning alone. Only with the scent of Vincent in my sheets. Today I only had one class and it didn't start until one o'clock in the afternoon. I called Rena at around eleven thirty. We talked for about fifteen minutes about how things were going with her and Reno. It seemed that she had finally met a person who partied harder than she did and she wasn't liking it. She claimed she could never get a sober moment with Reno, and it was starting to get annoying. We then started talking about my situation and she came up with what I thought was the perfect plan. Rena was going to set me up with a blind date. Let's see how Vincent deals with that…