"You look nervous; let me do your hair."

I spun around quickly, only having stopped my nervous pacing. It was very cliché and I knew that but I couldn't help it. All my nervous energy was going to my nervous pacing and I was so very, very bad at waiting. I took a second to falter and then faced her. "I—you know what, I'll take you up on your offer. That sounds lovely." As I walked towards her I fingered my hair, touching each thin strand as Natalina seemed to survey me quickly and then grinned.

"Loose curls. That's it! You'll look gorgeous, Vienna." She put her hands on my shoulders as soon as I approached her, looking at my hair for a moment. "Did you bring a curling iron?"

I nodded and she motioned for me to sit down on the bed, which I did. Natalina went in and grabbed my spiral curling iron before returning and plugging it in. We waited in silence for a few moments while we both sat on the bed. Then, after the iron had heated up, she began to wrap my hair around it.

She had some type of stupid grin on her face. "Sooo… is this boy of yours handsome?"

"He's not mine! And… well, he's alright. I'm sure you'll get to meet him." I blushed. 'Yours' sounded like he was actually 'mine', which made me feel really awkward. I wasn't used to being with with anyone – just hanging out with them or going somewhere with them.

"He sounds mysterious. What's his name?" Natalina continued to curl my hair, spraying it with some product after each curl.

For a moment I fumbled, still red. "Oh, well, uh, his name is Alec."

"What's his last name?" She seemed to be more intent on filling silence than the actual conversation.

My brow furrowed. "It's—in fact, I don't know what it is. He's never told me. I didn't talk to him for long – I actually met his sister, Jane, first." I continued to think, hoping that I would remember a time when he had mentioned his last name – yet I couldn't think of it.

We continued to talk for about twenty minutes while I got ready and Natalina primped. We left around seven o'clock. Natalina's date kindly waited for us at the doors of the hotel. I could tell by looking at her the type of men she liked – the slicked back type, like those vacationers who only tried to score. I giggled when we began to walk to the square. Surprisingly her date wasn't a random vacationer, though he had asked her yesterday to go to this dance with him. Apparently they met in some gelato place or something… I wasn't paying much attention, so I hardly even heard his name. I think it was Donovan. I was far too busy trying to see if Alec was ahead, waiting for me.

"Do you know where you're meeting this boy?" Natalina asked. Apparently we had stopped walking and were at the square. I was too busy drifting off to realize what I was doing. Maybe she was trying to pry; maybe she was trying to act like the chaperone she was supposed to be. Or maybe she just wanted to see Alec.

"Er, uh, no. He just sorta kinda told me to be here. I don't know what his plan was for this whole thing, so yeah… Uhm, I'm really sorry. I have a phone though; I can just wait here, outside this restaurant… building thing. I'll be fine. You two go ahead." I waved them on, feeling that Donovan – or whatever his name was – wanted to get away from the teenage girl who was cutting into all their dancing time. For the next ten or fifteen minutes I sat on the bench in front of a restaurant, looking around and hoping that Alec would be here soon and that I could find him.

I was beginning to become a little nervous – he and his friends were probably hiding somewhere watching me as I anxiously searched the crowd. I looked so stupid. I looked so stupid. God! I looked so stu—

"Vienna?" A pale hand was stretched towards me.

I looked up. I followed that hand up to the arm, then to the face – the angelic face of a certain Alec. His dark hair was slightly disheveled, but I couldn't expect him to spend tons of time on himself just for me. Not that he needed to get ready for me or anything. Other than that he was wearing a clean, nicely pressed white shirt with some type of dark blue or black pants – I could tell that they were designer, but I couldn't tell just which one.

"Oh." I gulped, still a little shocked. I had been in a trance of my self-inflicted nervousness when he had come up on me. How the hell did he manage to sneak up on me? Sure, I wasn't the most observant person but normally I wasn't that blind. "Yeah, it's Vienna. Er, Vienna Bauer but you can call me Vienna." God damn my nervousness!

He was trying not to laugh, I could tell. That or the look on his face meant that he was about to throw up – it seemed like a mix of the two. Alec shook his head, laughing under his breath, but he didn't seem to breathe very much. You know, like he was holding his nose because I smelled bad or something. I had checked beforehand though. I smelled like peppermints and strawberries. "It wasn't a question, but that answer was good enough. Vienna Bauer, eh?" His mouth was smiling but his eyes looked grim and… hungry? I suppose that was it.

Now I had composed myself, now I was ready to talk. I mirrored his smile but with real enthusiasm. "But you can call me Vienna, remember?" And then it came out, the bad joke, the stupid punchline or comment that you couldn't keep in. What the hell was I talking about? I had just said that and he didn't seem amused the first time so why would he the second or third time?

But he laughed. Hallelujah and praise whatever had made him seem somewhat pleased. I couldn't be happy with the fact that maybe it was me who was the one who was making him smile. "You got me on that one, Vienna." His white sleeves were rolled a little bit up, not by much, but just enough to show an inch or two after his wrist. His skin was like dusty dead leaves and the first snow of winter, but far colder. He put his right hand on his hip and gestured with his left hand for me to let him escort me over to the colorful lights and dancing people.

Maybe he heard me sigh and whisper "Here we go," as I draped my hand over his bent arm. For a split second I caught him turning and staring at me as if he were confused but I didn't really catch much.

"'Here we go'?" He asked, his eyebrows shooting up and vanishing in his dark hair.

I was lost when I looked over and tried to walk at the same time. Lost in his eyes, that was. I couldn't help but stare and he seemed to do the same thing. I managed to keep my heels up high enough over the cobblestone so that I didn't trip but I was worried about walking into someone so I looked down for a moment. "Yeah… To the dance floor I meant." I was blushing thoroughly and he was staring at me. Why was I so uncomfortable?

Once again that nervous thing struck. Alec didn't seem to notice – instead he just kept on grinning and began to dance with me. I was left gaping as he spun me around. "I bet that you look good on the dance floor," was all that he said, keeping me moving during the warm summer night.

He had done it again! How did he do that? Alec had managed to pull up something I liked and made me so confused. He was acting far different than he did earlier today. "… You listen to the Arctic Monkeys?" I was still gaping but my voice had some suspicion in it. "What did you do? Drill my gramma on this or steal my iPod? Go through my computer?" Not that I expected him to say yes or anything. This was just a bit too weird for me. I was joking, though, and he could tell.

"That's what I do on the days I'm not working," Oh, I had forgotten that he worked at that place. That's what Jane said, at least. I didn't know if I could trust her. "I go through pretty girls' computers and figure out their personal lives and all the music they listen to and then bring it up in conversations. It works every time. You're the first one to figure that one out, though. Shh, don't tell." Wow, was he ever smiling. I didn't think it was possible for a mouth to go that wide and show that many white, white, white teeth. How many times were those teeth whitened?

I couldn't help it – I started to giggle then all out laugh. We kept on dancing and I wasn't nearly as bad as I thought I was going to be. We continued talking and dancing for a while but it was dark out and I felt like my knees were going to give way – from dancing and from who I was dancing with. Hell he was more charismatic than any of the guys I had ever dated before combined. I forgot about how colorless his skin was until we got to a table where we spotted Natalina and Donovan. The candles in the middle of the table seemed to illuminate his skin and make it seem translucent. I could pick out veins in it…

"For something so painful, Vienna, it seems like you're having fun."

I looked away from Alec's arm, positive that Natalina was kidding, hoping that she was joking about how I was having 'fun'. Of course, that was only because I had expected her not to be quite so watchful. She hit the nail on the head though. I was having a lot of fun – he hadn't tried to murder me yet or hook up with another girl or attack me. Overall Alec was cool and made me want to have him come home with him just for more of his jokes. I could tell that there was something off though.

Alec's brow furrowed, but somehow managed to stay charming. "This was painful?"

I immediately sought to remedy what Natalina had decided to mess with. "Oh, no it wasn't. I was just worried and, well, I get worried a lot and you weren't here and I couldn't find you and I was—"

"Worried." He finished, still smiling. That was probably a hint that I should stop using that word. "There really was no reason for you to be worried about anything – I was going to be here for sure. I suppose that with my behavior then you probably assumed that coming here could've just been a suggestion." His smile faded down to the simple curving of the corners of his lips.

I was staring. I was stari—oh, that was so impolite! It was like pointing in church… Oh, God, I felt so terrible. I couldn't help it, but it seemed like he didn't mind. In fact, as soon as my trance was broken I noticed that Natalina and that Donovan guy were both staring at Alec. Both looked somewhat distracted and quite taken with him. I doubled back – they both did. Donovan?! Once again it seemed like Alec was offering me an 'it happens a lot' look.

"Oh, er, Natalina?" I asked, nudging her with my elbow. He was sitting across the table from me and diagonal from Natalina. For a moment I was a little bit worried – she looked as if she were about to drool. I recoiled and then shook a little bit, my eyes rolling up in another impolite gesture. But she was better now, shaking her head a bit.

"Huh? Is it time to go already?" She asked, wiping a little bit of spit off of her lips. She wasn't necessarily 'drooling over' him, it was just that she went slack jawed and forgot herself. She yawned for a moment, delicately placing a hand over her mouth the last second before she stopped yawing. Then she looked down at her watch and stood up abruptly, which was a little shocking after her previous languid movement. After that display of sleepiness I was expecting her to practically pass out on the way home. Maybe Dominick, er, Donovan, drugged her. He looked surreptitious enough so I wouldn't put it past him. For a moment I simply stared at her – wondering if she was drunk or just had some severe mental problems. But she seemed fine after a few seconds of standing up.

"Ahem." I was so focused on Natalina that I forgot about Alec. You know, if that was possible to forget some dark haired, good smelling, well dressed, Italian boy sitting across the table from you. "I was hoping that I would be able to give Vienna the tour of the castle that I had not been able to give her earlier today. It would only be polite of me to repay her for a wonderful evening."

I did all I could not to scrunch up my face in agony. I suppose that must've worked on a few other girls but it wouldn't work on me. I wasn't going to let him go by so easily about looking so pissed off earlier and sending me running off in the other direction with that Margherite. Nope! I wouldn't go. I don't know what Natalina would think about it though – she seemed to like Alec a lot.

"Eh, I don't think so." Natalina shrugged, yawning again.

"What?" Well that was slightly odd. Alec and I were in sync with questioning her. His was surprised and slightly agitated. Mine was just questioning – I wondered if she truly liked Alec or if she thought he was a creep.

He did look little creepy right now. His chest was heaving and his fingers were gripping the edge of the table. I don't think that Natalina noticed this; she was a little too busy making out with Donovan. I didn't know what they were doing… But now I was scared. Alec looked even angrier than I was this morning when he kicked me out. The whole time he had only breathed through his nose a few times – I could tell. He looked like a mouth breather the whole time – just like those people who would suffocate if they didn't have their mouth stupidly hanging open. But now his few breaths were short and ragged and spaced out. Either he was pissed off or he was having a heart attack. Jesus! What was his problem?

"Look, uh…" I searched for the right words. I didn't want him to fly across the table and start choking me. It sure looked like he would. "I'd love to – tomorrow maybe? I'm really tired from everything today and I think I should go home and sleep."

"No." His tone was irritated and I immediately bit my lip, looking down. "I told you this morning that there were no openings for tours tomorrow – if you want one you'll need to come with me now. Now."

I was immediately surprised by the harshness of his voice. "I—uh…" I began to stutter again then glanced up at Natalina, hoping that she would help me with this. "I really don't think I should go. Natalina's kinda like my surrogate grandmother right now and she sorta has all the say." I began to use filler words, those annoying filler words – 'like', 'kinda', 'sorta'! Did he really make me that nervous? Jesus Christ!

Natalina broke away from making out with Donovan for a moment and then looked at the two of us, a little confused and a little concerned. Donovan said a few words in Italian – I caught something like goodbye – and she repeated them, still staring at us. "I'm responsible for Vienna and I get to decide. I'm sorry, but we have to leave." She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out of my seat (which wasn't such a good idea, seeing as I had pushed my chair close to the table and hurt myself on the way up). I was slightly shocked by her suddenly taking care of me. But I appreciated it.

Alec was left fuming at the table, a slight ashen color rising to his white cheeks. I didn't look back as we hurried forward and toward our hotel. No, it wouldn't be smart to look back – I was worried that he was going to pop up behind us. We got there in record time, mostly because we were practically running once we were out of his sight. I think that Natalina was just as worried as I was. The look on his face was terrifying…

Even though we were pretty far away from him we still hurried through the lobby and up to our floor where I slid my key in and then entered the hotel room. Natalina and I were out of breath and tired. She plopped down on the couch and lounged out on it, a weary look on her face. I stretched out on my bed and then looked over at my 'chaperone'. My loose curls might have slightly obscured my vision but it seemed like she was smiling. "Natalina?" I asked.

"Uh-huh."

"So what do you think of him?"

We both started to laugh, but she stopped after a second. "That whole thing he was doing at the end – yeah, that was creepy. I was a little scared for the both of us, to tell the truth."

"Yeah, me too."

"How about I sleep here tonight? I'll pull out the couch and make sure you're alright." She wasn't looking at me, but instead she was now pulling the pillows and cushions off of the couch. "Is that okay?"

I was already over by my suitcase, pulling out some pajamas when she asked – and holy God that sounded like one of the nicest things she had ever done. Maybe she was taking her chaperone responsibilities on in a whole new light. "Of course. That would be perfect."

"By the way – nice choice in guys."

I laughed again. "You too."