Disclaimer: All characters are property of Meg Cabot. Not mine. Don't sue.
A/N: Please note that this story has been entirely redone. If you read it before, things have changed. The writing has matured as well, thankfully.
ALSO, For the sake of this story Twilight did NOT happen. This is post-Haunted.
A/n: Sorry for the delay folks. Ended up having some hospital visits. But I am back with not one but two chapters!
Enjoy and Thanks for reading.
I didn't exactly end up spending the night chumming it up with my biological parents. Yeah, don't expect any overnight miracles.
I had dinner with them and my brother. That was a quick and quiet dinner. Not to mention, extremely awkward.
But shortly after dinner, I walked across the street and find myself a spot on the beach. God, I had missed the cold sand and the smell of the salt-water. And so I soaked up Mother Nature in my t-shirt and shorts. For once, I just relaxed and just let the wind wash over me. It was something that always calmed me and funnily enough brought me down to earth and yet let forget all my worries.
The salsa ringtone on my flip-phone suddenly broke this serene moment.
I flipped it open—yes I still had a flip phone; my parents weren't about to get a klutz like me a cool phone—to see it was Dawson calling.
I answered and we began to catch up. He filled me in on everybody back home and I told him about ghostly encounters.
"Zohra, how'd you see the guy with your astral block up?"
"Uh…" Oops.
"How long since you took it down?"
I took a deep and long breath, "when I found out my parents were dead."
"You don't know if they're going to be back. Or if you're going to see them for sure; you remember that, right?"
"Yeah," I whispered with my eyes brimmed with tears. "I was hoping I might."
I dug my toes further into the sand.
"I know you must miss them," Dawson stated as he began to approach the subject. But I knew if I started talking about them to Dawson, I would just crumble.
"I do, Dawson. But I cant' talk about it. I will break. Like I will start bawling on the beach. That's something I can't do when I still have to worry about my brother," I pleaded.
"You're on the beach? Right now?" he genuinely sounded shocked.
"Yeah, they live quite literally across from the Pacific. It's really gorgeous. You should come see it for yourself sometime."
"How sunny is it?" he said with careful consideration.
Right. Vampire and sun doesn't really mix. Now I feel bad.
"The fall isn't that bad. But in all honesty it's much cooler than Texas any day," I exclaimed with a smile on my face.
I heard him chuckle on the other end, "I'm sure of it."
I don't think I realized until I spoke with Dawson last week, how much I had been able to suppress solely because of the distractions I had available to me; the main distractor being Dawson, of course. I was glad to have him as a distraction though.
I looked in the mirror. I saw my reflection smiling back at me at 7 in the morning. It was crazy that I was up this early, dressed and able to comprehend whatever might happen. My mother would have been impressed since I wouldn't wake up until 8.30am when school started at 9 back in Texas.
So, I went ahead and made myself some breakfast and watched some tv while I waited for my brother to come down. Needless to say he was shocked when he came downstairs for breakfast to find me finishing up. He looked at me incredulously.
"Good Morning," I smiled. "This is a rare moment in life. Enjoy it, Ali."
Finally, he smiled. It's nice seeing him smile after everything.
The whole waking up early thing though didn't ensure that I would stay energized long enough. Which is why I got chalk hurled at my slumped form by Mr. Walden during history.
"Ow! What the fuck?" I said rubbing my head. It took a minute to realize what had come out of my mouth and where. I felt the eyes of my classmates and the angry eyes of Mr. Walden on me. I gasped as I took my hand to cover my mouth. I wanted to just slide down my chair and simply disappear.
"Office. Now, Ms. Samnani."
"Yes, Mr. Walden," I said as I turned to grab my back only to see Paul smirking at me in pure amusement while CeeCee and Suze were giving me the same look my brother gave me this morning at breakfast.
As I grabbed my pass to the office and got out into the hallway, all I could do was admonish myself quietly. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. So frigging stupid."
I gave my pass to the secretary with this dejected look and she returned my look with sympathy as she directed me to Father Dom's office. I knocked on his closed door.
A distracted "Come in," came from inside. Interesting. I entered to see Father Dominic on his ancient computer. Or well, attempting to use it.
"Hi Father Dominic, you need help with that?" I asked. "My dad was in computers, I did pick up a few things over the years."
That got his attention. "Oh well then, by all means," he said moving aside and switching to the other side of the desk with me. As I typed away on the computer thinking I might have gotten away with my little outburst, but Jesse decided to pop in. Why would Jesse burst this bubble? Cause he burst out in laughter.
"I cannot believe you fell asleep in class and then swore at the teacher," he said before launching into another bout of laughter. All while I am signaling "cut it out." And it's not like me throwing that eraser at him would have even done anything.
"Zohra, what is Jesse talking about?"
"Absolutely nothing, Father Dom." I am so going to hell for lying to a priest. "I'm almost done with your computer and I'll be out of your hair."
"Zohra, why did you come to visit me?"
"Errr, here" I said handing him my pass.
"You said what?!" exclaimed Father Dominic.
"What the…"I began like an idiot.
"Stop," Father Dominic said raising his hand up. "Please, don't finish that." He held his temple in his hand with a migraine that I'm sure matched mine.
Jesse is in stitches, right now. "Even Susannah wouldn't have done that."
"Not the time," I said kind of piqued that Jesse is having way too much fun at my expense.
"Well, Zohra, I cannot let this pass," stated Father D. "You're going to have to go to detention."
"Whoa, whoa, say what? I have a perfect record. And a younger brother who I have to take home, by the way. Can't I do something else? Like I don't know, come in every Saturday and help with the library, or something? Please?" I begged. "I'm a good kid, I promise. Just give me a second chance; this won't happened again."
"Fine. We'll figure something out," he said exasperated.
I had no shame.
My walk back was definitely not boring. Seemed Paul wanted to talk to me too. Let's all get in line, shall we?
"Look, I do not want to talk to you of all people. Just not right now, " I told him as I tried to walk past him.
He grabbed my wrist a little harder than I expected. My eyes bugged. What the hell was this?
"Let me go," trying to conceal my fear while twisting my wrist from his ironclad grasp.
He pulled me to him and up against the wall. "No."
That's it? No?! This day was turning shitty fast and I didn't appreciate this whole situation.
"Don't know what it is about you shifter women; you guys always go for the dead ones," as he glazed his finger across my jaw and neck.
"Stop. This is not cool. I have a boyfriend. Let me go." I pleaded. Where was Sister Ernestine when you needed her?
"Oh, I know," he grinned devilishly. "She's not coming anytime soon," he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Seems there was some incident in the bathrooms."
"Look, I'm sure we can talk about whatever is bugging you, but there is a better way than having me up against a wall," even though I could feel his very built chest against me. Sorry, boyfriend. Right. But this was just distracting. Dawson was not the guy who would get this close to someone, even if that someone was me, his girlfriend. The whole blood lust might be cause for that, but whatever. Back to Paul being all up in my business.
"Oh, I'm not here to talk."
Now, I was annoyed. "Well then what the h—"
Yeah I didn't finish on account of his tongue entering my mouth.
Don't kiss back. Don't kiss back. This is not Dawson. It's just Paul. But God, I miss Dawson so much.
And then I kissed back.
It seemed like there was never going to be a dull moment here in Carmel.