Authors Note: Hello all, sorry for the long wait but life has just got in the way of things recently and I really got into a new story that I wrote and completed in nearly two/three days, SOO...my apologies for the late update. But, I hope you like this chapter. I'm really proud of this one, so I hope you enjoy it. Well, I'm not going to have a really long note this time, so enjoy. Check out the website (brand new updates under the upcoming stories page), review and look out for my new story which will hopefully be posted by the end of the week :)
Love,
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PLAYLIST:
A Place In This World
- by -
Taylor Swift
Chapter Fifteen – A Place In This World
Amber POV
Before going into the first house, Matt used his power to change our eye color to violet like regular vegetarian vampires since we didn't have the power to change our eye color back to normal yet like Lester, Grace and Jeremy could. We were lucky that Matt had the power that he did. If he didn't, there was no way that we could get away still looking human. If we were to walk into our houses with glowing red eyes, our parents would flip out. It was sad though because none of our parents even noticed that our eye color had changed to purple. Granted, it wasn't really noticeable but you would still think that your parents of all people would notice a change like that. We had been prepared to feed them a story that Grace had some purple contacts lying around their house and we decided to try them on but since nobody noticed, we just decided not to bring it to their attention. The less that our parents knew or suspected—the better.
Instead of telling our parents the excuse that we had originally came up with, we just decided to each asked our parents if we could move in with the Harper's and then Shay would send them a wave of acceptance and joy to make them agree to it. I would check their thoughts for any loopholes but didn't find any. They didn't suspect a thing.
I couldn't help but laugh at all of our parent's thoughts about the Harper's about how beautiful they were. Of course our parents already knew Lester but they had never met Grace or Jeremy. The Harper's found it quite amusing to try and dazzle our parents. It was quite hilarious because one minute the parents would be thinking about one thing and then the Harper's would try and dazzle them and the next moment our parent's thoughts would scatter completely. It was hard not to laugh and Shay wasn't helping by sending waves of amusement over towards me as a small joke.
The only thing our parents were suspicious about was how young Lester and Grace were. They thought that there was no way that Lester and Grace could be married and have a kid that was less than ten years younger than them. There was also the fact that Grace was still in high school. Lester had previously told them that he was twenty-three but he had not given them any other information about his personal life previously so our parents were suspicious when he told them his family's story.
Lester quickly explained that Grace was nearing twenty years old and that they got married nearly two years ago because they didn't want to wait until after Grace graduated to get married. He told them that he had been so in love with Grace that he had thought, 'Why wait? As soon as Grace turns eighteen, we should get married'.
Lester also explained that Grace started school later than most people did and that was why she was almost twenty and still in highschool. He then went on to explain that Jeremy was Grace's younger cousin—not his and Grace's kid—and that Jeremy's parents had died in an accident about a year and a half ago. Not having any other family, Grace and Lester decided to take him in as a part of their own family. He wasn't their kid but Jeremy sometimes referred to them as his parents because they acted like it. After telling our parents all of this, they seemed to relax and agree to our idea. They fully believed everything that Lester had told them, much to our relief.
After we finished talking to each of our parents, we each grabbed our things from our own houses as quickly as possible. We tried to only bring things that were extremely important to us and to use since we would probably end up buying new things when shopping anyways. We packed up our things in Matt's Jeep, Lester's Bentley and Olivia's Lexus. When everything was packed up, we met up in my driveway, since my house was the last house that we had stopped at. We changed the plan a little bit since we had all decided to bring a little bit more stuff than what we probably should have. With the three cars packed full we split into three groups: me, Roxie and Matt in the SUV again, Lester and Grace in their Bentley and then Shay, Jeremy decided to ride Olivia her Lexus since the Bentley was literally stuffed full with our stuff.
We got back to our new house around seven o'clock that evening. We were able to unload the cars and take all of our belongings to our respective rooms in record time. I decided to keep the room that Grace had chosen to put me in when I was going through the transformation. For some reason I had an odd attachment to the room. We had to clean it up and get new sheets for the bed and everything but it was worth it. I thought it was ironic how Grace had chosen a room for me that fit me perfectly—green was one my favorite colors and the whole room was green, blue, white and beige. I was completely in love with my room.
It seemed everyone else was in love with their rooms as well. Olivia had a room that was a dark green and crimson on the third floor. Matt's room was right next to hers and was in a tan, brown and white colored scheme. Shay had a soft mint green room on the second floor that was next to Jeremy's grey one. Roxie's room was on the other side of mine, also on the second floor, and was a black and white color scheme. Mine and Roxie's rooms were across from Shay and Jeremy's rooms. Grace had defiantly out done herself with the rooms.
It hadn't taken me very long to put most of my stuff away thanks to my new found vampire speed so now I was sitting Indian style on my bed going through some boxes that I had just shoved random stuff in during my haste to get everything packed up. I had set up my huge stereo system from my old house in my new room and was currently blasting Brooke Hogan's 'Hey Yo!' while just loosing myself in the song. The familiar lyrics rang through the air and I couldn't stop the smile that crossed my features.
'Thank god Grace told us that the walls that were installed in each of the bedrooms were sound proof.' I thought happily. 'If they weren't, I would be hearing Roxie's screamo drifting threw the air at all hours of the night as well as day.' I loved screamo music, but I also liked listening to softer stuff as well. Roxie didn't, screamo was the only thing that she listened to. Bring Me The Horizon and The Devil Wears Prada were her all time heroes.
I began to sing along to 'Hey Yo!' because I loved the song. I got up and bounced around for a little while before I finally calmed down and sat back down on my bed and reached for another box of stuff. I sucked in a large gasp when I came across the picture frame and a plastic bag filled with photographs that were lying on top.
The picture frame was simple. It was silver with black glittery suns on it and had the words 'Friends' and 'Summer' written on it in black Calligraphy. The picture it held was one of my favorites. It was a picture of Roxie, Shay, Brie, Matt, Olivia and me. We were walking down the road with our hands intertwined together and large, identical grins on our faces. My mother had taken that photograph just a few days before school had started. It was our last picture of the summer. I smiled and placed the frame on my bedside table before I moved on to the bag of pictures. I already knew what they were from. They were pictures taken over the summer, my mother had obviously gotten them printed out while I was camping because I hadn't seen them yet.
The song changed once more but this time it Savage Garden's 'Truly Madly Deeply' that came through my stereo's big speakers. It fit the moment perfectly. My throat closed up as I saw the first one, Brie and I with our arms wrapped around each other's shoulders grinning at the camera. The next few that I looked at were almost identical to that only it featured a different friend each time. There were some pictures were we tried to get all six of us in but it turned out looking hilarious. Finally the pictures started to drift away from me and the 'Super Six' to pictures of my school friends. I gasped seeing Lola, Ethan and Xander's faces. I hesitated going on to the next set of pictures because I knew what awaited me.
My throat closed up and my dead heart dropped when I saw the pair of bright blue eyes that I was longing to see more than anything. But it also reminded me of one thing—he was still human. The first picture of the next ten or so photographs was a full body shot of none other than Bentley James Rivera wearing just a pair of swimming trunks, showing off his muscles while standing on the dock next to the creek that we often went swimming in during the summer. I oogled the picture for a while and thought about how I hadn't been able to keep my eyes from checking him out that day. No matter how hard I had tried I couldn't keep my traitorous eyes from wandering over to his form every five minutes or so.
The next picture was one body of the two of us. I had my arms wrapped tightly around his muscular waist while he had an arm wrapped tightly around my shoulder, his head leaning on mine slightly. Shay had taken it—teasing me with her eyes the entire time. The next was a picture that I had taken myself. It was another picture of Bentley and I except for this time it was just a profile shot of both of our faces pressed together with huge grins lighting up our faces. We were both wet from swimming in the creek but we didn't care.
I didn't get the chance to look through the rest of the pictures because with my extra sensitive hearing I heard light footsteps making their way towards my door.
Whoever it was stopped and was just about knock. I knew the footsteps were too light to be a man's footsteps, so I knew it was one of the girls in the house. I dug into their mind thought to find out who was at my door.
'Amber, I know that you are in my head so will you please open the door. I need to ask you about something. It's important. Can I come in?' Olivia asked in her head.
"Come on in Olivia." I said without getting up from my bed.
Half a second later I saw from the corner of my eye that the door was cracking open and an extremely hesitant looking Olivia was walking into my room. I sat up on my bed and patted down on a spot in front of me for Olivia to sit down on. Olivia quietly walked over to my bed and sat down where I had previously pointed at.
"What's up?" I asked her.
She sighed and didn't speak for a while. I was about to asked again when she spoke, "Read my thoughts because I don't want to say it out loud in case the others hear." Olivia said in a small whisper. It was so quiet I almost didn't catch it—even with my good hearing.
"Alright." I said.
The thought that rang through her head almost sent me into a state of shock and laughter at the same time, 'I think—I think that I might like Matt.'
I shrieked with surprise and happiness. Olivia looked taken aback at first but then looked embarrassed.
"Are you serious?!" I asked excitedly.
"I think so." Olivia replied.
"Thank god, finally you realized it. All of us have known for a long time. It's so obvious that you two liked each other for a long time. Just so you know, I know this more than ever now because I can read your thoughts—not just yours but his as well." I said.
'Seriously? I mean, you aren't just making that up to make me feel better?' she asked me with her thoughts.
"Of course I'm not." I said. "It's the truth." I promised.
"Okay." She said with a small smile.
I grinned back at her, "Are you going to ask him out?" I asked.
'I can't do that.' She thought sadly. Oh no, back to her thoughts again.
"And why not?" I asked her.
I watched as she bit her lips and then her thoughts rang in my head again, 'Because I can't do anything that will ruin our friendship. And besides what if he likes me but doesn't like me enough to be with me. I don't think I can handle that type of rejection. Especially from him.'
I tapped my temple, "I can read minds remember, I know how he likes you and trust me he likes you enough to be with you. Hell I knew that he liked you that way even before I could read minds, we all did!" I said. "You were the only ones that were oblivious to it."
"Are you sure?" she asked out loud.
"Just ask him—if you don't you will regret it." I told her truthfully. "And if you are that nervous use your power to check into your future to see how things will go." I told her.
She smiled, "That is a good idea…but well I have one more thing to say before I leave, and you need to listen to me for once."
"I do listen to you!" I shot back. She gave me a stern look before I asked, "What is it?"
Olivia gave me an evil grin but didn't speak out loud. Instead she thought whatever she was going to tell me instead and truthfully—I'm glad she did. 'I think you should tell Bentley that you like him.'
I shook my head, "Olivia, I can't do that." I told her.
"Why not—I'm doing it. If I can then you can." She reasoned.
"It's not the same." I argued.
'Yes it is, you two are friends—I would go so far as saying best friends—and you like him and by the way, I think he likes you too. But you won't tell him how you feel about him because you are afraid that your feelings will ruin your friendship with him. You are also afraid of rejection—like me. It is exactly the same.' She told me.
"You are forgetting one itsy bitsy tiny thing." I said bitterly.
"What?" she asked.
'He's human.' I hissed at her in her mind.
Her excited face that she had been wearing previously fell into a small scowl, "Shit, I forgot about that. Well, darn it. That screws things up majorly, doesn't it?" Olivia said.
"You think?" I retorted sarcastically.
"Look, I'm sorry about all this, Amber. I probably shouldn't have even said anything about it but I really did forget. I'm still getting used to the whole vampire thing." Olivia said.
"I know." I told her. "I didn't mean to take my anger and frustration about the situation out on you. It's just that is kind of bugging me right now." I said. "Especially after I found these," I handed her the photographs I had been looking at before she had walked into my room to talk to me. Olivia's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the pictures that I had taken over the summer.
"I understand how these pictures could upset you," Olivia said, sitting the pictures gently down on my bed. "But, what was it that was bothering you before you found the pictures?" she asked.
'It's bothering me that he is human while I'm a vampire.' I replied to her through my thoughts. 'I had known before that we couldn't be together because there was the possibility that he didn't feel the same but you know, I still sort of hoped that maybe someday we would somehow get together but now that idea has been blown out of the water.'
"I'm sorry Amber, I really, really am." Olivia said, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. I wrapped my arms around her body and sniffled softly for a few seconds before I pulled away.
"Don't be—it isn't your fault. I love being a vampire but sometimes, I don't know…it's just so different." I said with a heavy sigh. I decided to change the subject. 'Why don't you go talk to Matty.' I thought.
Olivia nodded, 'Are you sure you're okay?' she mentally asked me softly. I nodded. 'Well, alrighty then. Wish me luck.' She thought and then with a small wave she quietly out of the room.
As soon as she was gone I plopped back down on my bed with a thud and didn't even bother looking at the pictures anymore. In fact, I shoved them back into the box and hid it under my bed. Pictures of Bentley were the last thing I wanted to see at the moment. I went to go over to my stereo to turn it off when Taylor Swift's 'A Place In This World' started playing. The song was too fitting—I couldn't turn it off.
Things just had gotten a hell of a lot more complicated. Now not only did I have to watch Shay and Jeremy flirt, but I would have to watch Olivia and Matt be all over each other all the time now too. It wasn't that I wasn't happy for them, I was. I was really happy that they could finally be together. It was more of the fact I was jealous that they had each other, that their situation was so simple. They could have what I would never have. Now Roxie and I would be the only ones in the house without someone because it was only going to be a matter of time before Jeremy and Shay were together officially. I'm pretty sure that Roxie could care less about finding a mate.
I thought back to earlier today when I had heard Jeremy thinking about Bentley and I and how I liked him. I didn't even how Jeremy even knew about Bentley and I but I thought that it was probably Shay that had told Jeremy about us. Well he had been right about one thing—it was hard to be a vampire and love a human. I tried to ignore my thoughts about Bentley and tried to focus on my thoughts about school. We were returning the next day after all.
'I'll get to see Bentley tomorrow!' I thought happily. 'Wait, no thoughts about Bentley! Stop it Amber!' Instead, I focused on a safer topic. 'I wonder if any of the humans will notice that we look different? I wonder if they will notice that our eye color is violet now, different than our natural colors. God I wonder what they would do if we kept our red eyes?' I giggled slightly at that last thoughts 'Now with my mind reading powers I will be able to find out what the people at school really think about me and my family. This is defiantly going to be interesting.' I thought.
I spent the rest of the night thinking about school and how different it would be going back as a vampire. Before I knew it the sun was rising and I had to get ready for school. I knew that because of the sun I would have to cover up as much as possible. Luckily, a cold front had moved into the area and putting on a bunch of clothing wouldn't look strange.
I quickly pulled out a long sleeved black v-neck that still fit me and put a lacy white undershirt beneath it. I pulled on a pair of tight dark washed jeans and pulled on a pair of my black pointed toe high heeled boots that I normally would not wear for fear that I would trip over something. But now that I was a vampire, I had a new found sense of balance and grace. Heels were actually starting to appeal to me. I slipped them on and then went into the bathroom and straightened out my black colored hair to perfection.
Next was make-up: I decided to use the smoky-eye treatment by using blacks, grays and whites on my eyes. I put on blood red lip stick that stood out against my deathly pale vampire skin. I didn't bother with foundation since the transformation had changed my complexion. I was extremely happy about the fact that my face would never need foundation ever again thanks to my new found beauty.
Just moments after I had completed my look and grabbed the blood red purse that my parents had gotten me for Christmas the previous year, Shay and Roxie burst through my door with smiles on their faces. Shay was dressed similar to me but was wearing a plain sky blue long sleeved shirt with matching blue ballet flats and fitted dark washed jeans while Roxie was decked out in a layered concert t-shirt, black skinny jeans and her usual black ragged converse.
Shay grinned at me, "That looks really good on you Merce. And I am totally loving the heels that you are wearing right now." She complimented.
"I have to agree. I like them too and normally I hate girly things." Roxie admitted.
I smiled at them, "Thanks." I said. I checked the clock by my bedside table, "But we need to leave soon before we are late. We have a bit of a longer drive to school than usual."
"If Matt drives 120 again I doubt it we will ever be late." Roxie pointed out.
Shay laughed at Roxie's sarcasm while I rolled my eyes. Then, together we all walked out of my room and went downstairs to the living room where everyone was already gathered. On the way I asked a question, "So what cars are we taking to school today?" I asked.
"The SUV and the Bentley." Roxie answered. She turned to me. "Grace is taking me and you to school while Matt is taking Shay, Jeremy and Olivia. We decided this while you were taking your sweet time getting ready."
I scowled at her sarcasm, "Shut up."
When we got downstairs I saw Olivia and Matt standing by the front door with goofy smiles plastered on their faces and looking at each other. Jeremy and Grace were looking at them with smiles on their faces from the end of the staircase's banister. I dug into Olivia and Matt's thoughts to see if they were together or not.
'I can't believe Olivia really likes me! I can't believe we are actually together now. I never would have thought that she would like me as anything other than just a friend. Wow, I'm so freaking lucky.' Matt thought.
I smirked slightly and moved onto Olivia's thoughts.
'God, I'm so glad he said that he would go out with me. Amber, I know you are probably listening and I just want to say thanks for talking me into telling him that I liked him—he likes me too and we are together now. It's basically all because of you. So thanks, so much.' She thought and turned briefly to give me a wink before turning back to Matt where they resumed talking about the upcoming school day that they were both dreading.
By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs where Grace and Jeremy were waiting for us I was grinning from ear to ear. I was completely ecstatic about them Olivia and Matt together. I mean it was about time they got together. I almost didn't notice that Lester had entered the room until he spoke, "So are you ready to go to school?" he asked.
We all nodded.
"Of course!" Shay said.
Grace chuckled nervously, "You know I haven't been to school since I was human and that was over a hundred years ago." She said.
"Don't worry you will do fine dear." Lester said encouragingly while giving her a small kiss on the forehead.
Not long after that we all walked out towards to Bentley and the SUV and climbed inside. Roxie, Grace and I rode in the Bentley while Shay, Jeremy, Olivia and Matt rode to school in the SUV. As we left, Lester went out on the porch and waved to us before going back inside to get ready to go to work. Grace had told us that Lester worked at a small insurance agency. It had started off as a bet between Jeremy and Lester a few years back but Lester actually went on to enjoy his job. He was good what he did and loved going to work everyday.
The seven of us soon took off in the direction of the school. Grace decided to follow Matt since she wasn't exactly where the school was. We were going over one hundred miles per hour even though we were not running late.
A little worry peaked up inside of me. I had a feeling that something major was going to happen today. Whether or not that was a good or bad thing I wasn't quite sure. I sighed heavily before I looked out of the window of Grace's car.
"Relax dear," Grace said in a cheerful voice. "Everything will work out fine. If you guys feel like you can't handle it, we can always have you homeschooled." she teased. I couldn't stop the smile that graced my features. Hopefully it would stay there for the entire ride to the school.
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