3

"I so did not miss working here."

I sighed in frustration as I walked back to the counter. Nope; I most certainly did not miss working as a waitress at a restaurant where the customers were only nice ten percent of the time, and the rest of the time they were either rude to you, or hit on you.

Today was my first day back at work since the attack; which was a week ago. For the last five days I had been staying at Godric's house, though to be honest I rarely saw the three vampires because when they were alseep, I was awake, and when they were awake, I would go to sleep shortly after.

"Then why do you work here?"

I glanced up at the young man leaning against the counter in front of me, sipping a cup of coffee. "Because, Adam, I need the money."

Adam was a brown-eyed boy with short, curly brown hair, and one of my closest friends. And before you ask, yes; we are only just friends, there is absolutely nothing romantic between us. Adam, while very sweet and very kind, was also the type of guy who was into comic books and action figures; which usually scared the girls away.

"You know, my mom's cafe is hiring," He pointed out.

"Really?" I looked up with interest.

"Yup," He took another sip of his coffee, "I'm sure she'll give you a job."

"That would be great," I sighed.

I had been to Anne's (Adam's mom) cafe, it was a small and cozy place with a friendly atmosphere; I would much rather be a waitress there.

"Hey, you're not thinking about quitting, are you?" Bridget cut into the conversation as she walked up to us.

Bridget was the type of girl that most other girls envied. She was tall and thin, with long, wavy blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes, and had the type of body that left most boys drooling.

"Actually, I am," I said, "I really can't stand the people here."

"Aw, you can't leave me!" She whined, "You're the only other waitress I get along with here."

My eyes landed on one of the customers, who was sitting down with his friends, but began wiggling his eyebrows suggestively when I met his gaze, and then began laughing. Yuck.

"Yeah," I began dryly, "I'm not staying here."

An hour later I was done and relieved to go home, but was surprised to find Isabel waiting outside the restaurant as soon as I stepped out. "Isabel, what are you doing here?"

She smiled kindly. "I thought you might need a ride," She said, nodding her head towards her car.

"Oh, you didn't need to do that," I frowned, "My friend Adam-."

"Okay," Adam suddenly stepped out of the restaurant, zipping up his coat, "Scooby-Doo is about to start in ten minutes, but if we hurry we can-Oh, hello."

Adam smiled awkwardly at Isabel, his brown eyes darting back and forth between her and me. "Uh, Adam this is Isabel, a family friend. Isabel this is my friend, Adam."

"Nice to meet you."

Adam was going to give me a ride home, but now that Isabel was here I guessed there was no need. "Adam, Isabel will give me a ride home. So, you can hurry home and watch your Scooby-Doo episode."

"Pff, Scooby-Doo? I don't watch Scooby-Doo," Adam laughed awkwardly, wanting to appear cool in front of Isabel.

I stood up my tip toes to place a kiss on his cheek, "I'll see you tomorrow? I'll probably pass by your mom's cafe."

"Alright," He nodded, "Call me when you get home safely."

"I will," I said, waving goodbye as he walked away.

I turned back to Isabel once he left, smiling as I followed her towards the car. "You know, you really didn't have to come and pick me up," I told her.

"We would have been too worried for you otherwise," She said.

I buckled my seatbelt. "Right, in case of another random attack on me, right?"

She shot me an amused look out of the corner of her eye. "Right."

When we arrived home, Godric was on the phone, apparently in the middle of a serious conversation. When his eyes landed on me, he murmured something quietly into the phone before making his way towards me.

"It's Nicholas."

Immediately, my eyes lit up and I took the phone from him. "Dad?"

"Hollie, how are you?"

"Good," I smiled, "How are you? Are you okay? Are you-."

"I'm fine, Hollie," He chuckled, "You know I can take care of myself."

I frowned, and snuck a quick glance at Godric. "So I've been told," I sighed, "Do you know when you're coming back?"

"Sometime next week," He told me, and I smiled. That's wasn't too bad. "But I'm going to have to leave again soon after."

"Aw," I pouted, "Why?"

"It's-."

"Vampire business," I cut him off with a sigh, "Right."

"I just wanted to hear your voice; make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," I told him honestly, "Godric and Isabel are really nice, and I'm enjoying my stay here; much more than when I had to stay with Ryan."

He chuckled. "I thought so. I have to leave now, but I'll see you next week."

"Kay, bye, I love you." I said before hanging up the phone.

When I turned to hand the phone back to Godric and Isabel, I found both of them staring at me with a thoughtful expression. "...What?" I asked worriedly. Was there something on my face?

"Nothing," Isabel smiled, "It's just, we've never seen this type of relationship between a human and vampire before."

"Ah," I nodded in understanding.

Sure, it wasn't exactly uncommon to see vampires and humans get together (fangbangers, some would call them). It was, however, incredibly rare to have a father-daughter relationship between the two.

"Yeah well, he met my mom when I was about seven-years-old and fell completely in love with her; obviously I came along with her," I explained, "I guess I grew on him because even after she died; he still kept me around. Thank God for that; otherwise I might have had to live with my biological dad."

I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the thought.

"I'm sorry about your mother," Isabel spoke, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, thanks," I smiled, "Soo, I'm going to the grocery store, anyone want anything?" Okay, that was a stupid question to ask. What would vampires want from a grocery store?

"I'll take you," Godric offered.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," I said quickly, "I can take the bus."

Honestly, these people were looking after me like I was a child;I felt like I was being babysat.

"I'll take you," Godric offered, leaving no room for argument.

The drive to the grocery store was quiet, obviously, Godric was not much of a talker. So that left me, sitting awkwardly in the passenger's seat, twirling my thumbs and mouthing the words to the songs playing on the radio.

"Alright, I'll try and make this quick," I told him as we entered the grocery store.

"There is no rush."

I began putting some stuff into the shopping cart when I heard giggling coming from behind us. I looked over my shoulder to find two girls, who looked no older than sixteen, pretending to look at the cereal boxes but constantly glancing up to stare at Godric.

I couldn't help but laugh. "This must happen to you often, huh?"

Godric, who had been so far lost in his thoughts, looked up in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Again, I laughed. "Those girls," I nodded my head towards the two teenagers, "They're totally checking you out. I'm just saying you must be used to having this kind of attention from women."

"I had not noticed," He replied honestly.

I raised an eyebrow. Usually, most men enjoyed getting attention from women, but I guess that Godric wasn't like most men.

"Man, Adam would kill to get that kind of attention from women," I laughed again.

Godric stared at me oddly."...Adam?"

"He's a friend of mine. He's what some would call a geek, and he's really awkward around women."

I grinned when I remembered this time that Adam tried to ask a woman for her number, but ended up knocking her drink all over her. Poor Adam.

"So, do you and Isabel have a...significant other?" I asked.

"I do not," He replied, "Isabel does have a human companion; Hugo."

"Wow, really?" I glanced at him just as we reached the cash, and began unloading the items.

"You will most likely meet him soon."

"Cool."

"That'll be fifty-five dollars and seventy-two cents," The cashier responded in a nasal voice.

I began searching through my purse for my wallet, but by the time I looked up, the cashier was already handing Godric his credit card back.

"Godric! I could have paid for that myself," I gave him a disapproving look.

He smiled faintly as he grabbed all the grocery bags. "Shall we leave?"

"Hey!" I followed after him, "At least let me carry one of the bags!"

"So, who was that woman from the other?"

Let me just say that I am very grateful that I am not working at my old job anymore. Instead, Adam's mom had offered me a job as a waitress in her cafe; where the people were much kinder. Unfortunately, this meant being around Adam and suffering his annoying questions.

"I told you," I sighed as I cleaned the counter, "A family friend. I'm staying with her while my dad is away on business."

I should tell you; none of my friends know that my father is a vampire.

"Oh...She was hot."

I shot him a warning look. "Forget it Adam, you can hardly get women your own age, you don't have a shot with her."

"Okay. Ouch."

I laughed and looked up as a new group of customers entered the cafe. I smiled as they made their way over in my direction. "Hey guys."

The group consisted of two guys and one girl. The girl, Gwen, a dark redhead whose sharp tongue and short temper often got her into trouble, was a very good friend of mine. The first young man, Marc, was tall and muscular, with short, light brown hair and blue eyes. He was quite attractive, but he was also quite arrogant. Last but not least was Matthew, he was tall, with brown hair and blue eyes; Matthew was kind and patient, and nowhere near as arrogant as Marc.

"Hey stranger," Gwen leaned forward, giving me a kiss on the cheek, "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Sorry I've been busy," I smiled at them as they took a seat on the counter, "What can I get you guys?"

"Can I have two coffees to go?" Matthew requested, "I have to meet someone soon...A date."

I smiled as I began pouring his coffee. "Oh yeah? Anyone I know?" I asked, putting the lid on the first cup, before pouring the second one. "Is it the same girl from last week?"

"No," He shook his head, "And no, you don't know her."

"Man," Adam whined, "I can't get even one girl; how come you have a new one each week?"

"I don't have a new one each week," Matthew muttered, sounding both embarassed and annoyed.

"Hey, I think it's good that you're finally dating," Marc clapped him on the shoulder, "I mean, why have just one girl when you can have two? Or three?"

Gwen and I both shot Marc an annoyed look. For some reason; I couldn't help but think of Godric; why couldn't more men be like him? Godric would never objectify women the way Marc did.

"You're a pig," Gwen told him bluntly before turning her attention to me, "Can I have a blueberry muffin?"

I handed Matthew his two cups of coffee. "Here you go. And yeah Gwen, just give me a sec."

"I'll see you guys later." Matthew said before leaving.

"Bye!"

"So," Gwen began after Matthew left, "How are you since...?"

They were talking about since that night that I was attacked, which wasn't too long ago when you really thought about it. Of course; they didn't have a chance to visit me because I was living with Godric; and I didn't want them to know that.

"I've been good," I smiled at her.

"God, I feel so horrible," Gwen sighed, "We were all there that night, celebrating Ed's birthday. One of us should have given you a ride home."

Ed Banerjee was another member of our group. I'll tell you more about him later.

I immediately noticed the guilty looks on each of their expressions.

"We thought Bridget was giving you a ride, that's why we didn't offer," Marc explained.

"Well, something came up, and Bridget couldn't. Guys, my house was like a five-minute walk away. No one knew what was going to happen that night, alright? So please stop blaming yourselves," I told them, "Besides, I left earlier than the rest of you; and I didn't want to force anyone else to leave early too. Can we just change the subject, please?"

"Fine," The redhead sighed, "Listen, I've made an appointment for us to get manicures tomorrow after you're done work. You know where the place is, right? We've been there before."

"Yeah, I'll just walk there after work."

Gwen shot me a look. "Oh no, no more walking for you after dark!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'll be fine; the place is like, right across the street. What are the chances of something happening?"

There was a brief moment of silence that took over, as I wiped the counter, but the silence was quickly broken by Adam.

"Sooo...What's it like to get a manicure?"