A/N: Here's the cast I imagine for this story.

Lucy – Selena Gomez

Solange - Lyndsy Fonseca

Nicholas – Gaspard Ulliel

Logan - Taylor Lautner

Josh - Jared Padalecki

Chapter 4

+Lucy+

After my serious talk with Josh I went back to Solange's. I told her everything that happened to me, my mum's big news and Josh's even bigger and more surprising request.

"Yeah, and just like that he asked me to go live with him."I concluded to the bewildered Solange.

"Well, one thing's certain. You can't give in. It would be the biggest mistake you could ever do if you accept and go live with him. I phoned mum and dad and told them. They said you can move in with us anytime you want. All you have to do is accept." Solange muttered softly. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The urge to accept and thank them with all my heart almost knocked my will down. Almost.

"Sol, you know you guys are like a family to me but I can't accept. You've already got a big family and other than that do you think your brothers and parents... and even you when you turn into a vampire will enjoy my presence at your house. It would be like being hungry and opening the fridge, only to find it empty, but then a mouth-watering piece of apple pie comes down the stairs to make some coffee. Would you be able to resist the apple pie, Sol? Would you?"

Sol chuckled at me. "Would you stop referring yourself as an apple pie? I'm imagining you in an apple pie costume and I can't keep a straight face." I laughed too, that would be a pretty hilarious sight. Huh, maybe for this year's Halloween I should go as a piece of apple pie. I imagined me and Solange, both in pie suits going to the Halloween mascaraed ball. It would be so legendary! We'd be like, "Out of the way, hot stuff coming through straight from the oven."

"Sol, do you know where we can rent pie shaped costumes?" Solange shook her head at me. "Really, Lucy? Pie shaped costumes? Focus! I swear you must have the attention span of a squirrel."she said, her smile contrasting her back-to-business look."I do not!" I said even though it was a total lie. I get distracted really easily.

"Lucy, sober up for one moment. It honestly won't be a problem. I had a little talk with my brothers and they said that it's perfectly okay for them. I know you so I know you'll be stubborn and I swear that big pride of yours gets on my last nerve sometimes but promise me you'll think about it." she said. Her eyes were locked with mine, making me automatically unable to say no.

"Fine, I'll think about it. Happy?" I asked her.

"Can't you see I'm bursting with joy."she asked me as she hugged me. I hugged her back. Solange was a really good friend, she deserved someone better than me. I swear the idea was tempting at first but if you see it through you'd see that it wouldn't be so comfortable for either of us. I already felt a little bit awkward when I showered here, knowing that everybody could hear each and every single thing you do. And don't get me started with the levels of insanity I'd reach if I had to live with Nicky twenty-four/ seven. We'd be at each other's throats by the first week.

"So, are you going to your mother's wedding?" Sol asked me doubtfully, biting her lower lip. To be honest I hadn't really decided yet. I was quite unsure. On one hand I was happy that she had finally settled and on the other I wanted to slap her and call her the worst of names for getting over my dad so fast. I knew it was unfair and that maybe five years were inough and that I was being selfish, but I was just a girl who missed her daddy. I wanted him to be there during the though times, I wanted him to squeeze my hand and tell me that he'd always be there. I wanted him to stop Josh from his path of vices and senseless sex, but after all that's all he knew from his only figurehead, my mum.

"I don't know. I think I should but at the same time I feel guilty. What do you think I should do and before you start, if you say 'follow your heart' I'm going to jump out of that window." I answered.

"Ah, Luce you have such a way with words. Well honestly if I was in your situation, I'd try to start accepting my mother and her decision, after all it's been five years since... you know what..." That was another thing about So. She was very sensible to people around her. Josh and I aren't idiots, we know the rumors people spread and to be honest, I act tough about it but I'm not. It hurts to think that you were abandoned by the closest parent. Solange never had any of it and she kept giving me hope that he'd return, as thin as the chances looked.

"So should I go to the wedding?" I asked doubtfully. She clicked her tongue, "Well, only you can answer that question."

"I... I think I should go, after all she is my mother and I can't abandon her. But I won't go unless you come with me. I don't want to be stuck with just my brother for company amongst Phil's snobby friends."

"You know I got your back, but we don't have any dresses. We have to go dress shopping." Sol said sounding quite skeptic about it.

"Yeah, I doubt Nick will even let us step outside within five metres away from the door, let alone going to a crowded mall star."

"Did someone say my name?" Nick said, suddenly appearing in he doorway.

"Is it just me who thinks you're acting like a freaky stalker? For crying out loud we were just talking? Don't tell me we're not even allowed to talk in private!"

He snorted. "Knowing you, Lucky you're probably already devising some plan to sneak her out. It would probably be smart to keep you in particular under tight surveillance. Sol wouldn't get herself in half the trouble she gets in if it wasn't for you."

I stood up to be at eye level with him but I would have to climb on a stool to look at him in the eyes, I put my hand on the left side of my chest in mock guilt. "Ah, yes, Nicky. You caught me red handed. I was just putting the finishing touches on our escape plan since I've already completed the ultimate plans for world domination."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you." He said and smiled a sarcastic smile at me.

"But seriously, Sol, please don't let her influence you into doing crazy stuff. God forbids what we'll have to do to keep you out of trouble once she moves in?" Okay now, he was starting to get on my last damn nerve.

"Who said anything about moving in? I'd rather move in a minuscule apartment with my douche of a brother than being stuck with an even bigger douche like you in the same house twenty-four/ seven." I felt my blood boil in my veins and I noticed how his gaze lingered more than it should have on my neck, probably noticing the pulsing of my veins. I didn't miss the way he licked his lips and looked as if he was finding it difficult to look away. I snapped my fingers to get him out of his hungry daydreaming. Once he snapped out of it he shook his head and rubbed his eyes.

"I'm sorry Lucy, I didn't mean to, I forgot to feed this morning. But you can't possibly be serious about moving in with your brother. He literally used you as his personal punching bag." the tone of his voice confused me. It sounded caring, even pleading me not to do it. Very un-Nicky-ish.

"I don't know what I'll do, I have to think about it?" He laughed at my statement though his laugh was stale and held no humour in it. "Think about it? Can you even hear yourself talking? There's nothing to think about. Just accept, and let somebody help you, for a change. You're one person, you can't fight the world on your own, nor can you fight a sixteen year old gangster on your own." by now his voice was shaking with anger, and he was gripping my arm so tightly that it was starting to hurt.

Looking at him dead in the eyes I said, "If you don't want me to punch you in the face get your hand off me." Only then he seemed to realise that he was exerting too much force in his grip and stepped away from me.

"Just promise that you won't let yourself be fooled like that." he asked me in a much softer voice, his eyes pleading.

"Oh, look, Nicky's gone all soft on us!" I said as I broke out laughing. Solange, who by now had learned our routines of fighting, burst out laughing too. Nick looked at her with narrowed eyes and then turned to me. "You're impossible. I wonder why I still try to help you!"he said, right before he stormed out of the room.

"You know, I was thinking the same thing since you randomly decided to help me today of all days."I shouted after him.

He turned around on his heals to look at me straight in the eyes. "Well, excuse me Princess for trying to save you ass from getting beaten everyday by that pathetic excuse of a brother of yours." he said, sarcasm dripping down his every word.

"Since when do you care?" I shouted, putting all my anger and hurt into my words.

"I've always cared! Do you think I can stand here with my hands on my laps after seeing those bruises on you and not rip his head off?" he asked me. The fury in his words made me cringe. Just as I was opening my mouth to let out another smart ass comeback his words registered in my head.

"I-I didn't know you felt this way." I said, my gaze glued to the dirty white tops of my converse.

"Just accept. Please." I started stuttering. It all stopped once I felt his finger under my chin, pushing up my face to so that we could make eye contact. I felt my cheeks heat up as I realised that there were only a few inches between our lips. I saw him lick his lips and step away from me, our little moment vanishing as bloodlust started making itself noticed within him.

"So what do you say?"

"I'll think about it, 'kay?" with one last look he turned around and headed down the stairs.

"Wow. Just wow." I heard Solange mutter under her breath. "What wow?" I asked her, mindlessly touching my chin where Nick's cool finger had once been a few minutes ago.

"I'm not sure if I should be happy or creeped out that my best friend and my brother bicker like an old married couple." she said. I was going to deny it as usual but she gripped my hand before I could open my mouth and led me downstairs into the living room where a bored Logan was probably checking out his emails or something.

"Logan we need a favour." Sol cut it short. Logan looked up at her with a knowing grin. "Don't you always? So what do you need, sis and sis' BFF?"

"We need you to take us dress shopping. Lucy's mother is getting married today and we're dress-less."

"Well, that was sudden." He stated simply. "It's not really safe for you to go outside, you know that, right?" he said.

"Come on, Logan! Please just this once. If it reassures you, you can come shopping with us and to the wedding. Plus I'm pretty sure that you owe me a favour. You know, the last time you went clubbing till five in the morning I covered for you with mum and dad."

He grimaced."I thought you had forgotten about that." Sol smirked at him. "Yeah, right."

"Sol, he's right. It's too risky. It's just a stupid wedding. I don't want to risk your safety. The Helios Ra are hot on your trails and I just couldn't bare seeing you get hurt."

"But-"

I interrupted her. "No buts. It was a stupid idea. It pains me to say it but he-who-must-not-be-named may be a little right. I do sometimes have crazy ideas." I said, feeling as if I wanted to bleach my mouth after I said those words.

"Wait!When hasLordVoldemortever said that you have stupid and crazy ideas? Cause he's dead right!" Logan said. I raised an eyebrow at him and he returned my gesture with a wink. I was obviously referring to Nick not Lord Voldemort.

"Well, okay... but if I can't come you have to take one of my brothers with you." she said. Logan grinned noncommittally, and just then, Logan entered, draining dry a bottle of thick red blood. I was thankful that I had quite a strong stomach, as I was used to dealing wih nose bleeds caused by my brother, but Sol on the other hand wasn't, which was a little ironic considering that in a few weeks she's want nothing more than to suck down gallons of that stuff.

"Nick, please, I told you either drink from the opaque bottles or at lease if you have to drink from the transparent ones do it where I can't see you." she said holding her hand over her mouth.

"Sorry, Sol." he answered dismissively. His phone chimed, signaling that he got a text, he pulled out his phone to answer. Not more than five seconds after he sent the text, he received another one! Someone spell clingy girlfriend with a capital C. Whoa, wait! Where did that come from? It almost sounded as if I was... jealous! I saw the way he smiled every time he opened a new text and it only made me angrier. I bit my bottom lip and forced myself to look away from him. But an annoying throb on the left side of my chest wouldn't allow me to feel forget about it. Could this mean that I had a cr- nah it was impossible, illogical, not after the way we fought constantly.

"Well, as I was saying, one of you guys will go with Luce o the wedding. Logan? " she asked him.

He looked at me guiltily. "I've already made plans to go on a date with Morgan, but if need be I guess I can cancel."

"Oh, no. By all means go on your date I don't really need an escort. I'll be fine, really." I said. he nodded and thanked me.

"How 'bout you Nick?" she asked. I let out a short laugh. "Him? Of all people. I'm not a fan of my mum's wedding but I don't want it to end in utter havoc. You're slacking off, Sol, if you think we'd be able to stand withing a five metre distance without fighting."

"Oh, come on, Luce it's not that bad of an idea."

"Um... if I may interrupt your useless argument. I've already made plans." Nick's voice interrupted.

"Nick, watching The Fast and the Furious again alone on a Saturday evening is a sad case, not plans." Sol served him right up with a witty comment.

"What if I told you that I had plans tonight, to go out with somebody?" He retorted. Why my heart felt as if someone had squeezed it to a pulp I didn't want to ponder about. I just looked at Sol, anywhere would be okay except directly in the eyes.

"It's okay, really I don't mind going alone." I said. By the the time I uttered he last word I felt as if my voice was on the verge of breaking. I knew it was unreasonable but my heart just kept tightening in my chest.

"But what if your brother tries to beat you up again." Sol asked me in a small voice. I stood up, balling my fists tightly. "I can handle my brother easily." I said with false determination.

"No, obviously you can't. I'll come with you." He said. Was that pity I sensed in his tone of voice?

"No, I don't want to go with you. My brother is not a problem anymore, we sorted everything out." I insisted stubbornly. Nick snorted. "If he's not a problem anymore then explain to me why you're still pelted in bruises?" He asked, lifting up my shirt so that my hip was exposed.

"They don't just heal instantly. He promised me he won't do it anymore just today." I relied, obviously putting far more faith in my brother than he really deserved.

"And you're actually naive enough to fall for that. I'm coming, like it or not. End of conversation." he said, diverting his attention back to his phone.

"Ugh! I hate you! Just go out with your girlfriend and leave me the hell alone. I don't need you." I said, and with that I stormed off to Sol's room feeling like some bratty child. Sol was right we were acting like an old married couple. I didn't know why but thinking of him dating some girl, somebeautiful,vampire girl, everything that I'm not made me feel emotional and insecure, something that I definitely wasn't.

A few minutes later, Sol entered the room with a cup of hot chocolate with little marshmallows in it and a grilled cheese toast in her hands. She gave them to me and watched me as I ate hungrily. When I was ready I looked at her, and she gave me the one thing I needed the most, a reassuring hug.

"This is the worst day ever since my dad disappeared." I mumbled. She patted my back and insisted that I pour out my feelings, but that's not how I work. I'm unable to express feelings, I just have unusual emotional outbursts every once in a while.

"Luce, do you want to skip the wedding, hang out her and watch a movie or something?" she asked me softly. As tempting as that sounded I shook my head. "I can' abandon my brother and my mother." I said. She nodded and smiled proudly at me. She went over to her closed and after a couple of minutes of havoc, she came out with a red dress in her hands."

"I've already told Nick to get ready. Come on, we need to work on you now, I hope this dress fits you. Try it on." She said. I nodded and as she went downstairs to put the dirty mug and plate in the sink, I trued the dress on. It was just perfect on me. It came a few inches above my knees in a cascade of soft dark red chiffon. It was flowy enough that it allowed me to breath without looking baggy. It had spaghetti straps and and a beaded line just below the bust.

"Oh my gosh, Lucy you look beautiful!" After that she started working with my hair. She split my hair into two and left the bottom half straight and braided the sides of the top half. As I looked in the mirror I saw myself changing completely from this plain tomboy to this elegant young woman. I rocked the outfit with Sol's black peep toe high heeled pumps. As I was never a fan of make up, Sol and I ended up arguing as she insisted that she wanted to put on smoky eyeshadow, while I insisted that I'd rather put on a some eyeliner and mascara.

As usual she got her way.

And well,I ha to admit that it did look pretty good. Next we covered up some bruises on my legs and I was good to go. Just as I was about to exit the room to go join my Prince Charming - yeah, not likely – Sol whispered in my ear, "Nick will sure have a hard time trying to keep his eyes off of you."

I bit my lip. That's just what I needed to sent my nerves rocketing to the skies. I felt my palms getting sweaty and my heart was beating frantically. Just as we exited exited the door and made our way downstairs, we found a sullen Nickolas complaining about how long we were taking just to get me ready to Logan. The latter was the first one to set eyes on me as I made my way down the stairs thinking about each end every step I was making carefully in fear of falling flat on my face. He wolf whistled at me which caught Nick's attention. he turned his gaze on me and he wouldn't look away. When I finally stepped on the last step and onto the floor I silently thanked the high heels for being so comfortable. It was like floating on two soft pads. High heels were never my best friends but these seemed to be perfect for my clumsy self.

Nick flicked his black hair out of his eyes and I saw him fidgeting with his red tie, which happened to be the same colour as my dress. If that was a coincidence or not I wasn't sure, but we ertainly seemed like a perfect match.

"Damn! Do you by any chance have an army of stylists locked up in your room?" Logan asked. I raised my eyebrows at him. He smiled at me and winked. "Kidding. You always look lovely but tonight you make the shiniest of stars look dim compared to you." Ah, Logan, the sweet, shameless flirt.

"Thanks." I responded.

"Anytime. Now go to go; be good and stay safe Sol. You know that the others will be looking after you. And as for you two, stay protected. You don't want to end up pregnant with a half-vampire baby. The rubbers are-"

"Get lost, Logan."Nick said to both our embarrassment. Logan just winked at us and left. I noticed that Nick hadn't even uttered a single word about how I look and to be honest, it bothered me that he acted this way. Truth be told, part of why I let Sol get carried away with my makeup and hair was to impress him. Perhaps he'd forget for a moment who he was texting. We bid our adieus to Sol, who instantly went back to her paintings and silently walked outside towards his black sports car. He opened my door and I couldn't help but say, "Oh, so chivalrous." I tried many failed attempts to sit down. It's not that east getting into a sports car while wearing a dress. They're uncomfortable as hell. It felt as if my but would never make contact with the seat.

"Of, course. I'm a gentleman after all." He said in a fake British accent. He went to his seat and sat with much more agility than me as he was used to the car. "Oh, and Lucy." my heart skipped a beat when he called me by the nickname I actually liked. "You look truly, beautiful. You'll probably break some hearts tonight." he said, eying me from head to toe.

"Thanks." I muttered softly. He had managed to turn one of the worst days of my live into one of the most memorable ones in my life.

Nicholas Drake said that I looked beautiful, how could I not feel ecstatic?

XXX

Hope you liked it! Review and tell me what you think :D