Chapter Thirteen: Bella

My ears were ringing and my head was spinning as I listened to Caius's angry tirade. I wanted to open my mouth- defend myself, but nothing would come. I hated to admit it, but it was true. Everything he said was true. I said nothing in my defense, because I was already defeated. Was that really who I was? Someone who cowered behind others?

I wanted almost nothing more than to deny all his words and pretend he was making it all up, but it was true. I was a pathetic human, trying to keep up with immortals.

I wanted to break down and cry- get up and scream- I didn't know. I wish I'd never heard the words- that he'd left me to die. And yet…..

I was glad.

I was glad that he had told the truth- harsh as it was. I was glad I knew my mistakes and what was thought of me. I was angry because I didn't know how to fix it.

That left me stunned.

~~~(O.o)~~~

Needless to say, the next few days were not pleasant. Caius was still in a towering rage- the encounter with the Romanian- as Marcus informed me- had brought up subjects from his 'his very tragic' past.

What was it with vampires and their mysterious pasts?

At least I had discovered who 'Athena' was. I knew that she was the writer of the little Italian notebook- and her full name was Athenadora. She was Caius's wife, and killed by werewolves who were on the Romanian's side.

I had so many questions- but I felt that it would be rude to go around asking without Caius's permission- and heck, I was not going to be asking him.

I had tried to thank Caius for him saving my life- and apologize for my 'pitifulness' but he had merely glared at me, like he was waiting for me to shrivel up and die, then stalked off.

Aro had given Caius hell for leaving me alone- but it had no effect on Caius whatsoever. My cheeks still burned with embarrassment when I realized that Caius must have hear my desperate 'goodbyes' when he referred to them in his angry tirade- sprouting meaningless goodbyes- then anger when I realized he was that close but hadn't done anything.

The guy was a complete and total nut-job. If he was human, he would have been locked up in a padded cell in a straitjacket for life.

But… Underneath all my annoyance- anger- humiliation and how I couldn't bloody stand the guy, I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him.

Great going Bella.

It was Friday- yet again, and seeing as Jane was otherwise occupied, and I couldn't find Felix and Demetri, I was sitting in the throne room with the three vampire kings, listening to them 'pass judgment'.

It was boring.

Most of the vampires who entered the hall had to be put under by Alec, as soon as they saw me- but Aro wouldn't let me leave the room. Was the guy trying to get me killed or what? If it was Caius, I knew he would be, but Aro- I would never understand that guy.

The vampires with more control just talked to Aro about all these weird problems which in my opinion were all stupid and timewasting.

The leader of a vampire coven somewhere in Australia was complaining because another coven was feeding in the same town. I mean how idiotic was that? Solution 1: Kill the other guys. Solution 2: Move. Solution 3: Share.

For hundreds or thousands of year old vampires- they weren't very smart.

In an interval between the stupid Australian coven, and one lone newborn who wanted to rip my throat out- I was bored, and began playing Temple run. I had bought a charger for my iPod- which I had charged by the receptionist's desk the day before. There weren't exactly power sockets in every room in the medieval style castle- and was trying to beat my high score.

Aro was fascinated by the 'little box with flashing lights' while Caius was scowling for me having distracted Aro with his duties. Marcus only looked on with a disinterested air.

I whooped as I beat my previous score- 6, 892, 029 points, causing Caius to growl at me. "Would you please do something else on that infernal contraption?"

I glared back, and when he looked away, I pulled a face and stuck my tongue out.

Alec saw me, and gave a silent laugh. I winked back.

Not really wanted to push his temper, I decided to go on YouTube for a bit, watching season 9 episode 2 of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

I was almost dying of suppressed laughter as I watched the scene where Ross was trying to punch Joey, when Aro suddenly appeared over my shoulder.

"Gah!" I yelled, jumping a foot into the air. Freaking vampires needed to stop skulking around.

"And what, pray tell is that? It seems deliciously amusing to you."

I tried not to let his disturbing language get to me, and replied still laughing- "I'm up to the bit where Ross- he's at the café and mad at Joey- is trying to punch him, but his reflexes really suck and he just ends up hurting himself instead- and it's just so….."

I was all but rolling on the ground at this point.

Aro was staring at my iPod with a bemused expression. "Why is the screen so small?" He asked.

I gave a final giggle, and explained. "They're not all that small. It's just because I'm on YouTube with my iPod- great reception by the way because it was wireless- if you got a big-screen TV you could watch it in two leather barker loungers."

Aro was still looking at me confused. I decided to give him a lesson in the world of American sitcoms.

I pulled out the earplugs, and set it to max volume, and started from the beginning of the show.

Aro gazed with fascination as the whole script played out. Ross getting mad at Joey for accidentally proposing to Rachel- Ross being mad at Rachel for accepting the false proposal- the 'welcoming home' party- the crack up scene where Ross tries to punch Joey…. The way Emma wouldn't stop crying.

Aro didn't seem to get it, and just alternated between looking at me- laughing, back to the screen, blinking confusedly, at a loss to understand what was so entertaining.

I took pity on him, and grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the throne room. I was a bit surprised that he let me, but I brushed it aside. After my two weeks or so being here, I had actually managed to get a fairly good mental map of the whole castle. It was way bigger than I had imagined it to be- some of it above ground, but most of it below.

I led Aro to my newly refurbished room, which Jane and I had just finished renovating yesterday. If it had been humans working on it, it could have taken four months. Vampires did have their good points.

My 'new' room, had a deep purple and gold color scheme, with shaded lights, low roman-style couches, a bed without a mattress- me Felix, Demetri, Jane, Alec and Afton had used if for roof-sledding, and still hadn't gotten it back- and two closets. One for clothes- and the other one for me to sleep in.

But my goal was the huge flat screen T.V that Jane had gotten me that sat in the corner.

I knew Demetri had liked ten in his room- hooked up with tons of video games and neon lights, but I liked using my own TV. If a room didn't have a TV, then what would all the furniture point to?

Felix had high-fived me on that one.

I told Aro to sit, then began pulling out cords and connecting my iPod to the TV. Until I bought the DVD version of Friends, I'd have to connect them… Pity the TV wasn't a Smart TV. It did have 3D though.

Aro had an inane interest in anything new or mildly entertaining. He was like a little kid who latched on to the newest things and quickly became obsessed with them. Jane still cursed the day she had introduced Aro to hairspray.

Don't ask me the story. She wouldn't tell me.

I was secretly wondering whether it would be a good idea to get Aro hooked to Friends, but I shook the thought off. Maybe it would be cool to have a fellow Friend's worshiper.

Finally I had set it up, and I scrolled through YouTube pages until I found Season One, Episode One, Pilot.

I settled down on one of the sofas, while Aro reclined on a one-armed roman sofa. I could almost imagine Aro as one of those ancient style paintings of guys dressed in togas eating grapes. I shook the image out of my mind.

I grabbed the remote, and hit play.

The events played out and after a few minutes of awkwardness when I laughed and Aro didn't, he finally got the drift of events, and began chuckling along with me.

I put up Episode 2- The one with the sonogram at the end- and that made it official. Aro was hooked. My eyes were half glazed from watching the TV for so long, but Aro didn't seem to tire of it at all. He even seemed to forget that he had left Marcus and Caius in the Throne room alone to deal with all the issues.

Oops.

Marcus, I was pretty sure would let it slide, but Caius who was the goodie-goodie two shoes, would probably be mad at me distracting Aro. *Cue evil smirk*

I decided to ignore the problem for the moment. We watched episode after episode of Friends- until even I became bored, and I was the biggest fan of Friends you would ever be likely to meet…. Except Aro.

Finally when we reached Episode 10- The one with the monkey, I realized we had been in front of the television for over five hours. We had started watching at around eight o'clock, and now it was one in the afternoon.

It was sort of awkward watching a TV show like Friends with the vampire king, especially seeing as there were some… Themes which were REALLY awkward, but Aro's attention was fixed so much on the television, I doubted he even knew I was there.

I tried to drag Aro's attention away from the television, but failed miserably. Somehow when I was in the middle of trying to tell Aro how irritated Caius would be, Aro managed to change the subject to a heated debate about how Chandler was obviously a much better character than Joey.

I wondered- offhandedly, why Aro- a guy who so obviously was fascinated by human inventions and incredibly mundane activities, killed humans daily.

Eventually, I just upped and left, leaving a vampire king sitting in my room, fixated on Ross's monkey- Marcel yanking on Monica's hair.

I wandered back to the throne room, which was once again empty except for a bored Marcus, and an irritated Caius.

Caius…

After the night when I almost got killed, Caius, although he still hated me, seemed to behave a tiny bit better after he had vented and blown off some steam.

Okay fine- a lot of steam.

He had taken to- instead of ignoring me- doing everything in his possible power to make annoy me, and/or make me miserable, just for his entertainment.

I didn't really understand the switch, and I couldn't decide whether or not the change was for better or for worse.

Marcus's hazy eyes seemed to clear a tiny bit as they fell on me. We'd grown a lot closer, and we had talks almost every night. He was just as easy to talk to as any of my other friends- even Jake… Before he left. Before my shape-shifter best friend left me just because my boyfriend was a vampire.

Marcus seemed to have knowledge about every single subject I could bring up- which made me envious of the two thousand year old vampire. Mostly I just asked him questions and he would answer, never seeming to tire of my endless babbling.

I walked over to the two vampire lords, and wondered what to say. "Sorry- I just distracted your co-king, vampire leader, oh-so-powerful brother, buy playing an American sitcom for five hours straight."

I decided that was a bit too obvious. Perhaps I'd better scout the battlefield first, to see how much trouble I was in. "So… What's up?" I asked cautiously.

To my utter disbelief and surprise, Caius spoke first, and his voice was almost- impressed? "How in hell's name did you manage to stand five hours locked up in a room with my brother?"

Marcus was staring at Caius in disbelief too.

"Um… I, well, we weren't really talking… We just watched TV…."

Caius's eyebrows rose.

I didn't really know how to respond, so I just gave a weird nod thing.

"So… You're not mad?"

Caius shrugged a movement that seemed very out of place with him. Was he being… Nice? Were those five hours actually five years? Was the world going crazy? What had happened?

"I'll go talk to him."

Caius winked, and hopped off his throne, blurring past me.

What the hell just happened?

Thank you to everyone who followed my story. So for this month, Chapter 13!

It is monday, (blah!) and we are almost done with April. Yay!