Chapter 19
I met you

That week was one of the best. It was the best because Blaize and I weren't the object of gossip. People instead talked about homecoming and other things. They talked about the upcoming football game against the rivalry school whose name I can never remember. The teacher didn't assign very much homework which allowed me more time with Blaize.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked on the way home Friday.

I turned down the radio so I could hear him better. "Nothing, I think." I replied, shifting my bag to the floor.

"Well then I have a surprise for you tomorrow." He smiled.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You've been there, but you haven't seen it during the day. IT's much more beautiful." He loosened his grip on the steering wheel.

"Alright, I'll have to check with my parents before, but I think I'm free." I answered, going through my head, trying to figure out if I had anything.

We pulled into my driveway and got out of the car. I had told Blaize a few days ago that he didn't need to always open my door for me. He looked displeased with the thought, but finally saw it my way.

We walked up to my house and went inside. He wandered into the living room and sprawled out on the large, black leather sofa. I made my way into the kitchen for something to drink. I grabbed a bottle of juice. "I'd offer you something to drink…but I don't think we have bottled blood." I laughed.

His musical laugh came through the other room. "That's quite alright."

I took another swig from the juice and placed it back in the fridge. I went back into the living room and curled up next to Blaize. We watched TV, neither of us truly paying attention.

"So," he started, twisting a strand of my hair. "Clarice and everyone else really want you to come back to the house soon."

"I'm not so sure that's such a good idea." I muttered, getting up from the couch and grabbing my bag off the floor.

I trudge up the stairs and into my room. He followed close behind me, keeping up easily. I put my books away and hung up my bag and sweatshirt. He stood in the doorway, leaning up against its frame.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyebrows pulling together.

"I don't think I'm completely welcome there." I shrugged.

He stiffened his posture and changed his expression. "What do you mean?"

I sighed and started down the stairs. I plumped down on the couch and rested my head on the back. He stood behind the couch and rubbed my shoulders.

"You are absolutely welcome there." He whispered.

"You're wrong. Not everyone likes me."

"Who doesn't like you?" he asked, leaning down to look into my eyes.

"Nathaniel," I whispered, remembering the cold stare he'd given me.

Blaize sighed and rubbed his face. He leaned down, his arms out in front of him and his hands gripping the couch. "Andrea," he started, shifting so that his forearms were holding him up. "Look, you can't be on guard for him. He's just worried."

"Why though? I mean doesn't he believe me?" I slapped my legs.

"I can't exactly explain it as he does, but he's very paranoid about how this could end up." He twisted another strand of my hair.

"Okay, but I don't want to go over there until he's comfortable with me." I whispered. `

He held my face in his hand. I rested against it. "Andrea, he's stubborn. He's not going to come around right away and let's face it, if you don't come over there," he shrugged and sat down next to me. "If you don't come over, Clarice, Annabel, and Ellyn are going to come over here." He smiled. "And I'm pretty sure your parents would like some privacy eventually."

My mother burst through the door as he finished his sentence, carrying two grocery bags in her hands. Blaize stood up and went to her.

"Let me help you with those Mrs. Genea'." He smiled.

"Oh, thank you Blaize." She breathed.

He helped her set them down on the counter. "Are there anymore?"

"There's a few in the trunk of the car," she breathed.

Blaize glided out the door and to the car. My mother shot me a smile and walked over to me.

"He's so…"

"Perfect?" I finished her sentence.

"I was going to say sweet, but he seems pretty perfect."

"He is," I smiled.

Blaize came back in with two grocery bags in each hand. He set them on the counter easily and turned to my mother. "I believe that is all."

"Thank you so much." She smiled back.

"My pleasure,"

"Andrea, your father is going to be home in a few minutes and he's going to want some dinner. It's time for him to go home." She whispered in my ear.

I nodded for Blaize to come with me to the door. He followed me and kissed me.

"See you tonight?" I asked.

"No, not tonight. I'm going hunting with Clarice and Ivan." He answered.

I frowned. "Alright." I sighed.

He hugged me again and kissed my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too." I smiled.

He opened the door and left.

"Blaize has a surprise for me tomorrow." I stated as we ate dinner.

"Oh does he?" my mother asked.

"Yes, so is it alright that I go?"

"I don't see why not." She smiled.

The rest of my night was uneventful. I chatted on IM with Anneliese, Kyle, and Abby frequently throughout the night. Anneliese and Abby had a video chat with me, constantly trying to guess what Blaize's surprise was.

"So you are you excited?" she asked.

"I am, I got to go though. I'm sure I'll have an early start."

They smiled and waved. "Goodnight!" they said in unison.

I waved back and shut off the camera. I closed my laptop and crawled into bed. I lied there wondering what the next day would bring.

The sun was what woke me up that morning. It was shining directly in my face, causing my eyelids to barely shade my eyes. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. I sat up and looked at the clock, it was already ten. I jumped out of bed and went downstairs.

I started preparing myself some eggs and toast. I made scrambled eggs with cheese melted in. As I sat down to start eating, the phone rang. I got up and picked up.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Andrea," a beautiful voice sang into the phone.

"Blaize," I breathed.

"Are you ready for your surprise?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have overslept, did you give me a time?" I was worried now.

"No, I didn't. I'm just curious."

"What time did you want to pick me up?" I asked.

"How does eleven sound? Is that too soon? I can come later."

"No, eleven is absolutely perfect. Do I need anything specific?"

"A bathing suit,"

"Alright, see you in a little while."

"Can't wait."

We both hung up. I ran back to my plate and scarfed down the eggs and toast. When I was finished, I bolted up the stairs. I grabbed my dark blue bikini with white polka dots. I put it on quickly and grabbed a denim skirt to wear over it, along with a white tank. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I decided I should shave my legs so I slipped off the skirt and quickly ran some water and shaved.

My hair didn't need to be perfect; after all we're going swimming. So I just threw it up in a messy ponytail. I applied a thin coat of sunscreen to assure that I wouldn't burn. I didn't burn easily, but today would be the day that I would be unlucky enough to. By the time all this was finished, I heard a knock on the door downstairs. My heart skipped a beat.

I bounded down the stairs and to the door. When I opened it, my smile turned into a frown.

"What?" he asked.

"You made the sun disappear again." I punched him playfully in the shoulder.

He laughed. "You can't have that surprise yet."

We went to the car and got in. As we sped down the highway, I was searching for any familiarity to where we were going. As the trees passed, I began to have a faint picture in my mind of where we were headed. I looked out the window absentmindedly.

Finally he pulled onto the side of the road that had a small trail on the side. I knew exactly where we were going now. We stepped out of the car and headed to the trail.

"Get on my back." He instructed.

"What—"

"Just do it, this is the other surprise." He smiled and crouched down a bit.

I hopped on his back and wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.

"Hold on tight," he murmured. "Close your eyes if you get scared."

"Why would I—"

I didn't have time to finish before we were flying through the woods. We were going so fast, it felt like my face was going to rip right off my face. I looked down at his feet, they were just a blur. I couldn't even see the ground below us; it was just a massive, green and brown blur as well. I couldn't close my eyes, I was too excited.

He came to an abrupt halt seconds later. He set me down gently on the ground and sat next to me.

"Wow," I breathed.

"Did you like that?" he asked.

"I…I…" I had no idea what to say.

He just chuckled.

"How did you go so fast?"

He shrugged. "Natural vampire ability."

"Wow,"

"Ready for the rest of your surprise?" he asked, moving his eyebrows up and down and biting his lower lip.

I nodded.

"Be right back," he ran into the woods. I stood up and took off my skirt and tank.

I waited for the heat of the sun to come over me, but the sun didn't come back, like I'd hoped. As I waited, I heard the sound that I remembered. IT was a loud, unidentifiable sound. I watched the blue river flow; I watched the tree house and remembered our conversation. Suddenly I heard something behind me.

Blaize stepped out from the woods, wearing nothing but his swim trunks. Seeing his perfectly sculpted body made me feel like I was going to pass out. As I took in his muscles, he started to move towards me, but stopped about twenty feet away and closed his eyes.

"Wha—"I started, but he put his finger up, signaling for me to wait.

He concentrated, keeping his head up to the sky. Suddenly the clouds moved away from the sun, allowing the yellow light to pour onto us. I looked away from the sky and back to him and what I saw was completely remarkable.

It was as though billions of diamonds were twinkling on his skin. My mouth dropped. I stood up and started to slowly walk toward him. He opened his golden eyes immediately to look at me. I stopped dead in my tracks, not sure what to do. He nodded, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. I continued to him, slightly faster now.

When I reached him, I stopped to stare. I know it is impolite to stare at someone, but this was different. He knew why I was staring and he didn't seem to mind. I looked down at his sparkling hand, fighting the urge to take it, not knowing what he'd do if I did. I slowly reached out to touch a finger to his arm. I touched a sparkle, but nothing happened to me. I ran my finger down his arm and to his hand. His hand opened and took mine.

"Beautiful," I whispered.

He looked down at his body and shrugged. "Ehh,"

I looked up in disbelief. "This is extraordinary." I whispered.

He placed his hand under my chin. "You, my love, are extraordinary."

I smiled and blushed. He smiled slyly, showing that there was more to the surprise. He suddenly swept me up into his arms and started walking to the river.

"Blaize no!" I screamed but I was unconvincing as I was laughing like crazy. I looked down at his legs to find that he was getting ready to jump.

"No-" I began to scream, but we were under water within seconds.

"Open your eyes," a voice instructed.

I slowly opened my eyes and then shut them again, the water burning my eyes. Slowly his finger tips gently pulled the lids of my eyes open, allowing the water to hit them slowly. When my eyes finally opened all the way, he smiled his beautiful grin at me. I felt breathless and tried to breath in, not thinking about the fact that I was under water. I immediately started gasping and panicking as the water filled my lungs. His eyes widened and he swam me up to the shore right away.

I started coughing and gasping for air as soon as we were up. He held me until my coughing fits were over. When I opened my eyes to look at him, his expression was terrified. I couldn't help but burst out laughing. His eyes widened even more.

"You almost just drown and you're laughing?" he asked, totally bewildered.

"You're face was priceless," I laughed even harder.

He rolled his eyes and set me in the water. "Come, I want to show you something else." He said, the sun dancing on his face, making beautiful diamonds.

I nodded and swam after him. He swam down the river, further into the trees. As I followed, we began to get closer to the mysterious sound that I'd been hearing. It kept getting louder and louder with each stroke. I couldn't see anything but trees and river in front of me. Suddenly the small river broke into a large body of water, revealing a spectacular sight.

"Oh my god," I whispered, my arms failing to paddle any further.

He turned to smile at me. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful," I breathed.

"I spent a lot of time here…before I met you. Now I'm just glad I have someone to share it with. "

"Why don't you share this with your family?" I asked, still gazing at the waterfall.

He shrugged. "To them, I'm just the hopeless romantic who stalks off to his room to paint depressing pictures and read novels."

"It didn't seem like that when I was there," I observed.

"Annabel, Clarice, and Ellyn are all overjoyed that I have found you. They don't care that you're human." He paused to look down at the water. "Ivan, Lawrence, and Nathaniel are…skeptical of this relationship."

"What do you mean?"

"Nathaniel is very…he doesn't believe in….us," Blaize looked up into my eyes, searching for my reaction to this.

"Is he…mad at me?"

"No, he's not mad at you specifically. He's against this completely because he thinks that my kind and your kind should have absolutely no interaction what-so-ever….other than of course hunter and pray."

I stiffened my posture, a little nervous. I pushed away my thought, this was stupid. I shouldn't worry that I'm his pray.

"Lawrence is on both sides. He doesn't believe this is right, but he believes in me."He stiffened his posture as well. "Ivan on the other hand…he couldn't care less, just as long as he still gets to go along with his normal, rude and obnoxious lifestyle."

"You don't sound so fond of him…" I whispered.

"I'm not; I personally don't understand why he is here. Something tells me that the only reason is because of Clarice. But I love Clarice to death, she's one of the best sisters you could ask for, so I won't tell her to leave. I couldn't tell her to leave." I pinched the bridge of his nose and then turned to me.

"But I don't want you to worry about this." He took my hand and kissed it. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"

I nodded and smiled.

We splashed around for hours. He took me behind the waterfall and we watched the sunlight bounce off the water, creating marvelous flashes of rainbows.

"Come here, this is really fun." He said, taking my hand and brought me out of the waterfall. There were stepping stones leading up to the top of the fall. We walked up them, stopping every so often to look at the scenery. When we reached the top, he stopped and smiled. I stood a little ways back, watching the sun dance off his skin. The sparkling would continue to dazzle me. There was no way it would ever not dazzle me.

"Watch this," he instructed.

I watched as he walked closer to the edge of the fall. Suddenly he leaped off the edge and in a flash, was gone.

"Blaize!" I screamed, running to the edge. I didn't see anything but the water below me.

Suddenly his head popped up from the water. He threw his arms up and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled and got ready to jump off myself.

"No!" he shouted.

I backed off and stared at him. He was gone before I could blink. I searched for his head, but it was gone. Suddenly someone threw their arms around my waist.

"Oh!" I said in surprise.

"You want to jump?" he asked.

"I do,"

"Alright, but I'm jumping with you." He answered.

"Okay,"

"Take my hand." He instructed. I did as I was told and grasped his cold hand.

"Run when I say go." He whispered.

I nodded and waited.

"One, two," he paused to look at me. "Three!"

We ran off the top of the fall and jumped. As we spiraled toward the water, my hand stayed in his. It was as if there was a magnetic attraction between us. The electric high that was flowing through my body was causing my heart to race. A second passed and we were in the water. I opened my eyes this time to see his smiling face. I smiled back at him and placed my hand on his cheek. He pulled me closer to him and kissed my lips. I've heard that this was supposed to be romantic, but I didn't ever believe that….until now.

Being with Blaize made me feel like I was soaring. I never wanted to be with anyone else. I've never loved someone so much in my life and it kind of scared me.

We swam up to the surface. We floated around for a while and talked. "I want to show you something else," he whispered in my ear.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You'll see," he answered, pulling me along the river again.

We swam along, faster this time because he was pulling me on his back. When we reached the end, we got out of the water. We started toward the tree house that we spent most of the night last Friday in.

"I never told you why I was so drawn to you in the first place. I think that deserves an answer." He said, climbing up the ladder.

I followed him up. He took my hand and pulled me up quickly. "So what do you have to show me?"

I followed him into the house. Now that I could see everything, it was even better than it was before. I couldn't believe at how cozy it was. There was a door in the far corner that I didn't notice before. He towed me toward it, keeping a firm grip on my hand.

"This is the reason." He whispered. He opened the door slowly and brought me into a dark room.

"The darkness is the reason you were drawn to me?" I asked skeptically.

"No, silly," he started, reaching to do something. He flipped on a switch, lighting up the entire room. "This is the reason."

The room was filled with drawings of me. Most of them were of just me, but there were several of the two of us together. I was in complete shock, I didn't know if I should find this creepy, or really, really, really sweet. I decided it was sweet.

"I know this seems…really creepy but before I met you….I met you." He was talking with his hands now.

I walked to one of the drawings and lightly touched it with my index finger. I turned to him, my face remaining completely expressionless. "I don't understand." I whispered.

"I don't sleep…ever…at all. Therefore, I can't dream…ever…at all."

I nodded.

"But all summer, I'd been…well I guess I was having dreams." His eyebrows pulled together.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess what I was experiencing was the closest thing to sleep I could have." He shrugged, moving further to the other side of the room. "During the summer nights, I'd…dream. I'd fall into this unconsciousness and my mind would be filled with images of you." He started pacing back and forth. "I thought you were extraordinarily beautiful that I didn't want to lose the images of you. But when I would wake up…well you would disappear. So I moved out into this tree house that I'd built when we moved here." He stopped to see if I was still following this.

I didn't change my expression.

"I moved out here and set up my tools. I began to train my body to get up as soon as I started to drift into my…sleep, if you will." He rubbed his chin. "I'd get up and come into this room and draw your face while I slept." He put air quotes around slept. "In the morning, I'd wake," he put air quotes around wake as well. "And I would go see what I'd drawn the night before. Every morning, your face started to become clearer and clearer, but I couldn't match a name to your face. I started to remember what you looked like and within a month, I was drawing you during the day as well." He stopped pacing and was now nervously running his fingers through his sandy blond hair.

I couldn't move or speak.

"I didn't know who you were or where you were, but I had to meet you. I asked Lawrence everyday about you, seeing if he saw you anywhere in his visions. He hadn't seen you at all, but that's normal. Lawrence's power only works once he has made eye contact with you." He smiled a bit. "You probably don't remember, but on the first day of school you stared him strait in the eyes."

I shook my head.

"He drove me to school that day, and well you looked at me and then him, and you won't remember that because it was hard to see." He shrugged. "But anyway, I didn't believe it was you when I saw you in the parking lot, and I didn't believe it was you when I passed you in the hall." He shook his head and smiled lightly. "But when you danced your way into that art class…" he smiled even wider. "I knew it was you and I knew that all the dangers of me being with you…well they didn't matter. I knew that we were going to make it work somehow, some way. It was meant to be…" he trailed off.

I was feeling breathless; I was at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry, you probably find this extremely creepy and stalkerish…but," he shrugged. "I needed you to know."

My legs finally remembered how to work. I ran over to him and jumped. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his icy lips. "That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard." I whispered into his ear.

He pulled away to see my face. His lips pulled into a wide grin, flashing me those perfect white teeth. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," I whispered back.

*Hey everyone, I know I haven't updated in a while and I'm sorry! It's just school's going and busy with homework and such. I'm home sick so I decided that I could catch up now. Thanks for reading and please review btw, if any of you have an account on .com, add me! My user is pita62 so hey add me and we can play games together. Even if u don't, u should make one lol because it's fun and it's like an online game where you can come talk to me!

Thanks again for reading, you have no idea how much it means to me