Chapter 10

When I woke up my face was pressed against his chest. I remembered last night, After I awoke from shock, broke down some more and cried until my eyes hurt. Aries was still sleeping; his t-shirt was blue, with black tear marks.

I looked up at his face and smiled; his mouth was closed in a smile, now almost level with my forehead. Then as I was looking at him I felt the cold of his arms and a wave of nauseating sadness came over me. I was the slayer and he was a vampire, though I couldn't kill him, (for whatever reason) I couldn't be anything more than, the thought killed me a little, Friends. Anything more was a fantasy and would have to stay that way.

The really sad thing about it is that he's probably even good for me, but I was the slayer. I was fifteen and he was (well pretty much) twenty. He would protect me from anything that threatened me, or made me cry. There's was just so many pros and cons, I didn't know what to do, but being in his arms made the pros clearly the right answer.

A few hours later I had still been drifting in and out of sleep. I didn't want to get up so that I didn't disturb his sleep. But then, of course, my cell phone rang. (Damn)

I shifted to dig my cell phone out of my pocket. When I finally got it out, it had already stopped ringing. I looked under resent calls and found: Dave, as the last call.

I sighed because I'd have to call him back. That meant a taking the risk of waking up the peacefully sleeping vampire to my right. Sadly I got up, slowly and cautiously though.

When I was finally free from my happy prison, I walked to a different part of the basement to call Dave.

When it finally rang, I wondered what time it was, but I was sure that Dave would answer that.

"Hey Dru, are you awake yet?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes, I hoped it would show up in my voice. "No."

"Well its 1:45," Do I know him or what? "You've got to get up."

"Why, I told you that I wanted to sleep in."

He laughed. "Don't you think it's a little over kill?"

"No." I scuffed.

"Well, so now that you're up what do you want to do today?"

I pulled out my favorites of lies I had made up. (For when he asked me this) "Actually, I wanted to take it easy to day and read."

"What." He seamed offended.

"Sorry," that was another lie. "It's just I haven't read anything in awhile, I like to take advantage of the daylight. You know when I don't have to work a job." The truth was I would never have to work a day in my life as long as I was the slayer. Another thing the counsel took care of. I would never have a house with out at least two bathrooms.

I just barely heard him sigh over the phone.

"Oh please." I begged. I really didn't want to go through this. "What do you want to come over and watch me read?"

He sighed. I really hoped for the last time, it was really getting to me. I almost laughed; he was my own best friend and driving me insane. He spoke. "You really don't want to talk or anything?"

I did, especially to him, but I lied. "Nope." I was going to end it like that but I thought about it and it just sounded so cold. "I'm good on talking right now, but if I find myself craving the urge to talk, you'll be my first call."

"Alright then, I guess, umm…bye."

"Bye, Dave."

When I hung up the phone I got this feeling that I would get caught. So I closed my eyes so tight that I saw dark purple and blue shapes in front of my eyes. Somehow this assured me that I was 'safe.'

When I gained back my confidence I walked back to where I left Aries sleeping.

He was no longer sleeping. He was sitting up and looking down at his shirt I had accidentally ruined with the watery eyeliner.

"Sorry," I said as I entered the room. I took a seat on the arm of the lazy boy across from him.

He looked up almost startled. Then brushed down his shirt like he could clean it and everything would be better. "Don't worry about it. It's just a bunch of cotton."

I frowned, how could he be so good? How could he be so off limits? How long could I sit here before I explode? I let a frustrating breath out. "Don't be nice, you like that shirt and I totally ruined it on you."

He sighed. "Must you?"

"Must I, what?"

"Must you make me say it first? Are you blind to the idea that's been screaming in the air in between us ever since we first met?"

I looked down to my lap; I wasn't sure what I would do when I looked up. I ended up choosing a simile. "I did notice, I wanted to say something but I couldn't."

"Well, it is the elephant in the room, and I don't know how much longer I can't take being here until we know what's happening here." he looked up like he was guilty and did something almost terrible.

I sighed and put on my forgiving simile. "Yeah, but how can it work? I mean slayer," I gestured to my self. "Vampire," my gesture switched to him. "It can't work out that well, you know, what I mean?"

"Yeah, but where does this leave us, I mean friends, enemies, hey how are you acquaintances?"

"Well, we've got to figure it out, and we're stuck here all day and we're going to see each other all the time, its not like we can avoid each other."

He let a sigh out. "Well, I just spent the night watching you sleep in my arms, I don't know if friends will be easy enough, if that helps anything in this."

"Not really, I spent the night in your arms; I don't think I can be anything short of friends."

He laughed, I followed the action. I put my elbow on my knee and my hand slapped over my eyes and the bridge of my nose. My hand whipped down to my mouth. "What should we do then?" he brook into the happy moment.

I stood. "I don't know." And I began to walk away. I reached the door way and leaned on the arch. "What can we do?"

He stood and came behind me. "I don't know," his hand lied on my shoulder; I turned to it and face him. I was inches from his face and it happened, he kissed me. I kissed back, my heart almost jumped out of my chest. It was wrong, everything about it was, but my arms went around the back of his neck anyway.

Against my better judgment the kiss ended. I looked him in the eye, an inch form his face, and then I picked my hand up and pressed on his chest to separate us. I didn't know what would happened if I was as close as I was for another second, but I didn't know if I could handle what would happen. If I had to separate from the second kiss, it would hurt me, pierce my heart and cut me from the inside out, I couldn't.

Our eyes were still locked, the same way they always did, and I looked at his face, it was so, so cold, so unloved. "I'm sorry," I put an end to the negative space. I fell forward and grabbed him my ear rested on his chest. I felt like I was desperate to find a heart beat, tears filled my eyes again I was so confused.