*Following Hawke
We were all finished with practice for the day, all the equipment was stowed away, and we were standing in the nearly empty parking lot just passing the time, talking about random things from gossip to our studies. Even Ben, who had been rather shy when we started seemed to be coming out of his shell which I was glad to see.
I heard a motorcycle enter the school parking lot and saw a slim petite female figure in a black leather bodysuit with a black helmet and tinted visor. She brought the bike to a stop about 30 feet from our group, and we were all looking at her. She put the bike on idle and took her helmet off.
My face lit up with a smile when I saw Sabrina's face smiling at me.
"Hello Hawke. Would you like a ride?" She asked over the sound of her idling bike. I turned to Jack who was standing there a little dumbfounded his jaw a little slack.
"Hawke... what the fuck man? You hold out on me or something?" He asked with an incredulous look.
"Can you take my stuff home? I'll talk to you when i get home," i asked and told him. He took a big breath and exaggerated a sigh.
"Yeah..." he trailed. Laying thick the sarcasm that he was annoyed.
"Thanks Jack," i told him and handed over my backpack and my long bag holding my archery equipment. Before turning to Sabrina and walking over to her.
"Nice to hear from you," I told her, low enough it would've been hard to make out what I had said for my team. Her smile faltered for just a second before nodding her head behind her, indicating me to get on. I did and my heart started beating quicker just being close to her and I put my hands on her waist, and we headed out of the school.
We rode for a while, taking the scenic route to her house, i figured because it was a nice day, and it was. The sun was covered by an overcast sky but it was still a bit warm for December and the world was well lit despite the cloud cover. We were both quiet and enjoyed the ride and our closeness. I could tell Sabrina was relaxed, it was in her posture and stiffness or lack of. When we had started our ride she was rather stiff but now close to the end that stiffness seemed to dissipate if not disappear entirely.
She opened the garage door with a button on her keyring, an automatic door, and she turned the bike off before walking the bike into the garage and closing the door. I got off when she did and took her helmet off and put it on her bike.
"Hawke... I-" she started but I cut her off by giving her a hug, and she stiffened at my sudden embrace for a moment before relaxing and returned the hug, leaning on me slightly. After a little longer than was necessary I let her go.
"I missed you," I told her with a smile. I was closer to her and her helmet was off so I noticed her skin wasn't colored like normal and her eyes were brighter, prettier than her normal ice blue, my breath caught when I was reminded of the Incident. She looked like this, at least, mostly like this, now, unlike then, she looked fully in control of herself.
"Is something wrong?" I asked. She frowned and was quiet for a moment.
"I've had a lot on my mind the last few days," she said.
"Does it have anything to do why I haven't seen you?" I asked.
"Not really..." she trailed, she seemed Deep in thought.
"Do you want to talk about what is going on?" I offered, stepping closer and her head snapped up and stared at me with a frightening intensity.
"I do... But give me a minute, please wait here," she asked and left the garage without further word. Leaving me puzzled and confused.
It was a two car garage, inside was a non descript car and Sabrina's motorcycle, strange, i wandered around, there were plenty of tools, powered and not and it looked like a normal garage. However something was out of place, then it struck him. All These tools were 'too' clean, like never used clean and some even had dust on them, and it wasn't just a couple things, nearly everything was like that. Why buy this stuff if you weren't going to use it? I briefly considered asking Sabrina about it but thought against it. She might not know or might not tell me for one reason or another.
I examined the car for a couple minutes but for some reason I had a hard time remembering any details, then I heard Sabrina's voice.
"Hey Hawke," she said and I turned to her. She was in a more normal outfit now, her hair down and straight, which still looked good on her. A dark green T-shirt and skinny jeans, she smiled at me and I noticed her skin was colored again and her eyes were back to their normal ice blue selves.
"I forgot to say before bu I've missed you too," she apologized.
"It's ok Sabrina," I told her and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Are you hungry Hawke?" She asked and I nodded, and she Beakon me to follow her and I did.
She led me to the kitchen again and started pulling out dry noodles and I could tell immediately she was going to make pegging and meatballs.
"Spaghetti and meatballs ok?" She asked hesitantly.
"That sounds good to me. Better than what I'm used to," I said remembering that we almost always had frozen meals of some sort at Jack's house. I didn't have a problem with it but it wasn't the most healthy thing. Luckily for me the school offered healthier lunches. Sabrina nodded to my response but said nothing.
"Do you need help?" I asked, offering.
"I do not," she responded. It was my turn to nod and I sat down at the island in the middle of the kitchen, Sabrina was on the far side of the island of counter top next to the oven.
We were silent for awhile. Sabrina seemed... not quite right. Maybe I hadn't know her for long enough to know for sure but I asked anyway.
"Sabrina... I know I said I wouldn't play 20 Questions..." I trailed with a sigh.
"But you have some, don't you? Go ahead and ask," she offered.
"Ok... well... for starters what was that look you gave me back in the garage? Right before you excused yourself?" I asked, she was looking into the noodles she was stirring and was quiet for a second.
"I was thirsty. I went inside and grabbed a blood bag before changing into normal clothes. Sorry for leaving you out in the garage but..." she trailed and i thought i saw a blush of embarrassment.
"I didn't want you to see me with the blood bag... it's not exactly the most flattering image, watching someone drink from a blood bag like you would drink from a water bottle..." she trailed and laughed a little.
"Why is that super embarrassing? I Never had a problem with it before..." she trailed thinking.
"Because it's me?" I offered, and she looked at me and I thought I saw the blush deepen.
"Maybe..." she whispered under her breath.
I look a moment to think before I asked my next question.
"What happened at the classroom? Before i got there?" I asked, and she went still for only a moment but it was unsettling. No movement, no fighting, no breathing, not a single muscle, absolute stillness, but the moment passed.
I expected silence, maybe never getting an answer or maybe she would get scary to shut me up or a simple 'I won't answer that'. I definitely did not expect her to turn around facing me and walked up to me and hug me. It caught me off guard terribly and I flinched for a moment before returning her embrace. I thought she would break the hug quickly as well, but she did not.
"Hawke..." she trailed and took a breath before releasing me.
"I do not normally open up or tell 100% of the truth all the time. I will do my best with you because I want this," she said indicating us.
"To work? To have a chance. But omitting the truth is a defense mechanism that has kept me 'alive' for the last six years. I say this so you know... while telling the whole truth and being honest might come easily to you, it is not the same for me," she explained. She was close, nearly touching me as she looked up and explained this to me. I had a hard time imagining a world where what she was describing was not only necessary but the norm and commonplace but I nodded in response.
"The short version is that I lost control of myself and then had to insure there were no witnesses," she said before. Taking a step back from me and went back over to her boiling noodles and drained them, she hesitated just a second after opening the oven but before taking out the meatballs, but she did retrieve them and started cutting the meatballs into quarters.
"The long version is more complicated and i do not fully understand it myself but i was in the middle of class when i overheard a group of girls saying how bummed you weren't in class. Since I'm a territorial predator and it concerned you... I eavesdropped on them... what i heard made my blood boil, I fell into a rage frenzy and I lost control of my body temporary to my beast, everything that happened after was kind of blur and difficult to remember but I remember standing in the middle of class and everyone around me was dead and I was covered in blood. That's when I heard the door open and I smelled a nee scent, yours. You know the rest," she finished.
"What did you hear that set you over the edge?" I asked but Sabrina shook her head.
"I can't tell you right now but I promise i will later ok?" She asked desperately. Why? Was she worried about my reaction?
"Ok Sabrina. Then what is your favorite food?" I asked out of the blue to change the subject and it occurred to me that I really didn't hardly know anything about Sabrina. But she seemed grateful for the change in subject.
She was nearly done and was mixing the sauce, meatballs and noodles in a big mixing bowl.
"This actually," she replied and I furrowed my brow.
"Spaghetti?" I asked surprised.
"Yep. It can be as expensive and gourmet as you want or cheap and mundane as you desire. It's easy to make a lot, perfect for when your on the move a lot. And you can make it taste however you want and it still tastes right," she explained and I found myself nodding.
"When you put it that way... i can definitely believe it," I responded.
"I've told you I travel a lot. At least I used to. Almost everywhere I went, spaghetti was made a little differently. I think I liked that the most, traveling all around the country and seeing all the different ways to make my favorite dish," she continued.
"Is this gourmet spaghetti?" I asked with a playful smile.
"No... simple, it's been a rough few days," she ansswered, and she actually seemed... tired?
"What was rough about it?" I asked, wanting to share the burden with her. Her pause made me feel like she was hesitant.
"I can't tell you exactly what I have been doing but I've been paying some favors back that I owe some powerful damned," she said.
"Do you think you will be gone for days at a time will be a regular occurrence?" I asked, trying to hide the trepidation in my voice.
"No. I don't think so. I've earned a reprieve for at least s little while," she said with a smile to me before she dished up the spaghetti into a pair of bowls, and we took them into the dinning room and sat together.
"Grace?" She asked still smiling, probably at the silliness but I just nodded and said a quick grace before digging in. Our meal was not silent though and I did most of the talking about what had been going on around school since she had been gone. It seemed weird, really weird to be talking about school to a Vampire that was a bit old for it, but she was excited and eager to hear what I had to say regardless so it was easy for that thought to fade away. I briefly considered telling her what had happened and about the weird vibe I had gotten from Lexi but I dismissed it not wanting to worry Sabrina or worse get her angry at someone else for what could've been a misunderstanding. Our dinner stretched from what would've been an hour long or so into 2 hours, it surprised me when I saw the time after we were done doing dishes. Time always seemed to fly when I was around Sabrina, I knew I didn't have a lot of times to draw that conclusion yet but ever time so far, that had been the case.
"Hey Hawke..." I heard Sabrina say thoughtfully and I turned to her, we had sat down on a couch in the living room not long before.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Would you like to go out? I"ve got word of a party going on at a warehouse and I thought it would be a good way to wind down for me, at least but would you go with?" She asked looking to me hopefully. I had never really been much of a party goer, I never drank, smoked or did anything else like that and I wasn't exactly brimming with freinds, so they didn't really appeal to me but I nodded none-the-less.
"Sure. Just to warn you though. Some might consider me a buzzkill," I warned her with a smile.
"Oh thank you!" She said and wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me close for a brief second.
"I don't mind that. Would you like to change?" She asked.
"Nah, I'm good," I told her. I wasn't exactly built but i was Some what thin and athletic looking enough to pull off the tight black fleece shirt and blue jeans I was wearing. She checked me out with a look that was somewhere between desire and hunger but said nothing and winked at me before standing up.
"I'm gonna go change. Thank you for coming along with me," she thanked me and I nodded.
"Of course."/pre