29. Over

My chest was on fire. Or I wish it was. I wished I had burned in Shadow's place. I wish I had never become a vampire. Then I wouldn't of had to feel this pain. It was nothing like changing, not like the venom coursing through your veins. It was different. I had never felt this kind of hurt before. It hurt with Shadow, it hurt with Syd, and I know it hurt with Cody.

But not like this.

Skylar was a mess too. Everyone to say the least. Trevor just sat there, afraid I was going to kill him or something. I must of have been really scary for him to finally grasp what danger he was in from being here. Everyone stayed silent, at least from Trevor's soft breathing.

Jason fell asleep about five hours ago. The sun had already came up and it was about six am. Trevor dozed off as well, but not even he could chase the nightmares away.

I heard Jason shift in his bed. There was a moan.

He was awake.

I was about to go talk to him when Skylar put his hand up. He got up slowly and smiled at me.

"I'll talk to him." then Skylar was gone. He ran upstairs and he creaked open the door.

"Jason?" Skylar's voice echoed gently off the walls.

"Hey."

Skylar sat on the bed from the sound of the springs.

"Man my head hurts. What happened?" did Jason really not remember? Well he was drunk. Maybe Jason forgot. Maybe I was dreaming.

"What do you remember?" Skylar asked. I heard his breathing.

Jason hesitated. "Well, Trevor wanted to have a party. He asked me, but I didn't say yes…and I didn't say no. I hid in my room for a little while, while everyone was having fun. I went downstairs to get some Tylenol or something for the pain-"

"What pain?" Skylar stopped him.

"Mostly my nose really. Something smelled way too sweet. It made my nose burn."

I sighed. My fears were correct. Jason's a werewolf. He's turning into it closer everyday. I knew this was coming. What was I to do about it? Kill him? I could never.

"Yeah. So anyway, Trevor gave me some alcohol and it ease the throbbing pain. I drank more and before I knew it I couldn't think straight, but the pain was gone. Then I met this girl. Her name was Rebecca and we started talking. Then talking led to kissing and we went up to the bedroom." he stopped.

"Skylar, tell me, I didn't…did I?"

"No." Skylar took two more breaths. "Don't you remember seeing Claire there?"

"Not really, wait she was there?" he sat up quickly. He got up and paced the room, but slowly.

"Yeah. She ripped that girl off of you. Then she left."

"I must have broke her heart." he said more quietly after a minute of silence.

"Well remember how bad she looked when Shadow died?" I winced at the memory.

Jason must have nodded because he went on. "Imagine her one hundred times worse."

"I'm such an idiot." he screamed, pounding on the wall. He punch it and I heard a snap, but there was no sound of pain. There was a crash of glass and some shuffling feet.

I walked quickly upstairs to see what happened, but I stopped at the door.

"Just kill me now, Skylar. Just end it."

"Jason, put the piece of glass down. Is this really how you want to end it. Think of Claire."

"I am."

There was a thud and I saw through the crack that Skylar was holding Jason down by his arms.

"Go help clean up." He ordered. I slid behind the shadows, not wanting to be seen. Jason came out with the most pained face I had ever seen him in.

After two hours of cleaning, Angel finally gave the ok to be done. Jason took a shower, but Trevor came to me.

"Claire, I'm sorry. I should have never done that. Don't be so hard on Jason it was all my fault. I should have never offered him a drink…" he continued to babble on until I held my hand up.

I smiled, showing he was already forgiven and began to walk up stairs. I heard Jason mumble under his breath about death and how stupid he was as he was getting dressed.

I knocked on the door. He paused and said "Come in."

I opened the door and walked in quietly. He was shocked at first from seeing my face and then his face flickered misery.

"Hey." I said casually, sitting on the bed. His eyes followed me, but he didn't dare move.

"I'd say I'm sorry, but it would be just a waste of breath. You don't want apologies from me." he picked up a large bag and set it in front of the closet.

"Sit with me."

He froze again and debated whether he should or not. He gave up and slid over my way. He was still a foot away from me, but I guess that was the best I was going to get.

He held his head, his eyes clinched with pain and his nose was wrinkled. He probably had a head ache and my smell hurt his nose.

"You know why your nose burns don't you?" he twisted his head towards me.

He nodded and looked down again.

"So let's see the list. You were way over the drinking limit, you're hung-over…what are you not over?" there was no easy way to say it and not saying it would hurt him worse.

"You." his voice was stronger this time, but he didn't look at me. I was surprised to hear that from him.

"But I'm guessing you hate me and want me to leave so I'm packing. I'm guessing we're over." he climbed off the bed and went to shove clothes in the bag. So that's what it was for.

I put my hands in my pocket, my mind wanting to say yes. Wanting to say forget about packing just leave. My heart screamed no, let him stay, but my head was pounding so loud I couldn't hear it. But then I felt something in my pants. I put my hands around the small object and brought it out.

It was my engagement ring.

Inscribed on it was forever just like the day I got it. I smiled.

"Forever." I said. He turned around

"What?"

"My ring." I told him. "The ring you gave me says forever."

"What does that have to do with anything?" he said in a grave voice turning back around. I could hear it in his voice. He had already given up. He thought he'd finally blew it, he thought this was the last straw. Too bad he didn't know of my screw ups.

But that was just it. No matter how perfect he thought I was, I knew that I would have done the same thing if I was in his shoes. He was drunk and he didn't know what he was doing.

But I'm drunk too.

I couldn't even begin to tell Jason how much I love him. Every fiber of my being belongs to this one human boy who caught my heart. From the moment he fell in the hallway he was mine and I was his. The way his blonde curled hair bounced when he ran, the way his muscles flexed, the way he stuck his tongue in his cheek when he tried to run faster. The way he smiled that made me forget how to breathe, even though I didn't need to. But I need him. And in a way I don't know what I'm doing either. I'm just winging it as I go. I don't know how to love a human who is so fragile, no matter how strong he already is.

If only he could read my mind, then he would know.

I walked over to him and whispered in his ear. "It means everything." I turned him around and leaned in to kiss him. I even gave him more than enough time to stop me, but he pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I molded into his body. This felt right. This felt safe, this felt like home.

"Forever." I said again. "And I mean it, Jason Greenfield. You can't get rid of my that easy."

"I never wanted to." he breathed. He put my head into his chest and leaned his cheek on the top of my head.

"Then let's put these away, shall we?" I said, twisting out of his arms, grabbing the bag. I started taking out clothes and putting it back on hangers.

"By the way…we're not over." I said lightly, watching him change his shirt again. What was the point of doing that? Humans.

"Thanks for the update." he laughed.

"I hear laughing." Angel came in with a smile on her face. She danced over to Jason and she had the weirdest expression on her face; the smile gone.

She slapped him. His face jerked to the right as she put some power behind it, but I was hoping not too much.

"That's for cheating on her." she smiled again. She was such a strange creature.

Jason grinned and he turned to wink at me. "I deserved that." Angel seemed satisfied so she gave him a hug. She was giggling as she beamed at me.

"Isn't slapping him supposed to be my job?" I asked, cutting in on the hug. A hug was always better as a group.

Angel stepped aside, heading into the doorway. "Oh by all means, go ahead." she ran down the hallway and jumped downstairs with a barely audible thud.

"Go ahead, give it your best shot." Jason leaned down, already closing his eyes, waiting for the pain. Angel even left a hand mark on his face. I rolled my eyes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Wimp." he muttered. I wheeled around to face him. He looked so different than he did just a moment ago. He had hope. He had love.

"Watch it." I smiled crookedly, taking his hand. "Hungry?"

He laughed. He slid down the stairs on the rail, landing lightly on his feet. "I'm always hungry. Fact 101 about boys."

"Yeah, Claire, get with the program." Nick lounged across the couch. Angel was playing with his hair. Which I had to say was the softest hair I have ever touched.

"Shut up." I followed Jason into the kitchen. He was already grabbing different kinds of packages of food.

In the end he had chips at the bottom on the plate. Then he stacked cheese and crackers. Next came chocolate and whipped cream. He put sprinkles on top with a couple cherries and BBQ sauce. Jason put peaches in his Strawberry Gatorade and then put some different kinds of soda in it. It smelled and looked completely unappetizing.

"What is that?" Angel screeched when he walked in with his plate full of junk.

"Awesome, give me some of that." Trevor said running down the stairs with Cody. Trevor tried to grab some, but he was rejected.

"Go make your own. There's plenty in there." Jason sat down on the other love seat where I joined him.

"We had to eat it as a dare Freshman year. The Seniors were pretty upset when we actually like it. We made it almost every day Sophomore year." Cody laughed. I knew by the way he looked at he was wondering how he ever liked it to begin with.

"It's so good." Jason's face made him look like he just found heaven. I shook my head. He put his arm around my shoulders and smiled, food was in his teeth. This would have been a perfect moment if I had something to drink in my mouth because it would have gone everywhere I was laughing so hard.

"Just make sure to brush your teeth because I'm not kissing you with that kind of smell." Skylar said, perfectly mocking my voice. The sad part is that I was just about to say that. Nick made several kissy faces before I threw a pillow at him, making him topple over the couch.

Jason about choked, but he swallowed. He stuffed more food in his mouth that made me wonder how he was breathing. Trevor came out with a similar looking stack. Angel looked like she was going to hurl.

All three best friends exchanged some glances. It wasn't happy glances either. It was the they're-up-to-something-that-is-no-good look.

"Jason…" I said uneasily. He smiled, picked up a handful of food and yelled one of the things teachers flinched at.

"Food fight!"

After throwing large amounts of food, the laughing and launching particles of who know's what ceased. We all cleaned up. Well it was more of us because Trevor and Jason weren't fast enough to pick up stuff. We always got there before they had time to move. Finally they just gave up and sat on the couch.

"Now that were done…" I leaned around Jason to see the others. "What do yalls want to do?"

"I don't know about the rest of you-" Trevor yawned. "But I'm beat. Goodnight." he sat up and began to make his way to his room.

Jason began to cough. It wasn't a little couch either. It was like someone shoved something down his throat. He stopped wheezing before I could do anything.

"Swine Flu." Trevor called from the second floor.

I groaned throwing myself into the back on the couch.

Boys.