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Chapter 205

Funny Week


Jake


We waved after Dad's Jaguar as it pulled out of the underground garage.

My parents had it really good. A few days of vacation, although so far no one knew where they would spend the next few days. Nobody except Alice.

"I wonder if Alice will tell us where she's sending them," I pondered as the big gate closed again.

"Now that we can't accidentally tell Dad, definitely," Leah opined.

Funnily speculating where our parents were now headed, we walked back to the hall.

At least that was the plan. Ced wanted to go himself. He tried to climb one step at a time between Leah and Marcus, but he needed a moment on the stairs. A moment when Becky stood one step above me. Her side neck at just the right height for me to bite. That is, if I were a vampire and wanted to bite. Being a wolf, I limited myself to an almost biting kiss on her skin, while gently running my fingertips up her spine.

"I want you!", I whispered right by her ear, still nibbling lightly.

Her body shook a little and she let herself fall back against me a bit.

It was the weekend – to be more precise, it was practically over again – and yet we had hardly had anything of each other.

Becky turned to me, looked me in the eyes with her sparkling sapphires for a moment, and kissed me in response.

Ced and his companions had not yet reached the end of the stairs. That took us too long.

I took my star by the hand, pulled her back downstairs and we took another staircase. Already in the hallway I somehow lost my jacket and tie and Becky her shoes. I had her zipper down too, as well as her fumbling with the buttons on my shirt.

We both needed it so badly that it went by much too quickly. We kissed all the longer for it.

"Hopefully Edward and Bella will have a more enduring wedding night," Becky reflected.

With that, my mood was gone, and I let my head fall on her shoulder below me.

"Change the subject!" I demanded, gave her a quick kiss and stood up. I had to dispose of the condom anyway.

Becky chuckled, though.

"What's your problem?" she dug deeper, amused.

"In my mind, my parents are playing Monopoly or something tonight!" I clarified from the bathroom. A harmless unerotic little game. For sure!

"How can you have such a problem with them having sex?"

"Can't we please just change the subject!"

"How do you think you came to be?" she persisted.

I was finished in the bathroom and scowling threw the towel aside. Pathetically, I leaned against the door frame.

"I was brought by the stork," I clarified.

Becky laughed adorably.

Although she laughed at me, but I did not care right now. She looked so beautiful when her sapphires shone when she laughed. At the same time, she was still lolling naked in my bed. All alone. A condition that needed to be changed.

So I lay back down with her, caressing my twinkling star, but we had to get back so slowly before we would be missed.

Only moderately enthusiastic, we got dressed and went down to the banquet hall. On the way we collected our lost clothes.

Kissing, we staggered back into the ballroom, and everyone stared at us.

Smirking. They had already been looking for us, because there was still a game planned.

Thirteen couples and each of them was given a chair in the middle of the dance floor. In each round, the couples had to get things and a chair was removed. So whoever took too long had lost.

Becky and I hung in there almost to the end.

Leah and Marcus were eliminated when we all had to get condoms. They weren't really a couple, but they had teamed up for this game. Becky and I hadn't even had to get up for the condom. I had one in my vest pocket.

For emergencies. I might need another one later.

They had a week's worth of shopping to do for our family. Completely. Including licorice candy canes, which were only available in Portland, and also including Ced's favorite muffins. If Dad didn't bake them, there was only one bakery in Sanford that had them.

We brothers had very strict conditions there.

But in the next round we were out.

Bras were requested, but most of the ladies didn't have any on. Orenda was not ready to give hers away. We didn't seriously expect her to.

We flew out and in the spring would get the garden ready for summer. Mowing the lawn, removing weeds, the fence had to be painted, some new flowers had to be planted ...

Around eleven o'clock, the party broke up.

"Carlisle is taking me back to town," Marcus tried to slip away as Carlisle was about to take Granny home.

Marcus had been drinking, as had just about every human here. He could therefore no longer drive himself, even if he wasn't really drunk.

"Why don't you stay here," I said, though. "It'll be half an hour before you get home. By then you could be delightfully asleep in my attic."

"We'll run over tomorrow after breakfast but before showers. So early enough to pick up Jules and head to Portland. And a hearty breakfast is an important way to start the day," Leah made the suggestion a little more palatable to him.

"Besides, the Audi is parked in front of their house anyway, right? How are you going to get there if Carlisle takes you home?" interjected Becky.

"Marcus!", Ced also made all his arguments conclusively, holding up a very stern index finger to him.

Marcus only addressed the multitude of Ced's justifications.

"When I'm so graciously invited," he opined.

Rosie just drove us down to our house so we didn't have to walk through the cold anymore.

I thought that was really sweet of her, but I think she was thinking more about Ced than about us poor teenagers.

Marcus and I wrapped Ced again while the girls went ahead to my loft.

In the meantime, I was very practiced in dealing with babies. It was pretty gross, but good practice for my own kids. Later!

We arrived with Ced just at the others when Rosie came again.

"I bet someone else is thirsty," she warbled blandly, and Ced was already reaching out for the bottle Rosie was waving praisingly.

For us she had brought cocoa.

"Rosie. You're the best!", Becky declared enthusiastically and accepted her cup.

Leah said nothing. She looked in my direction, chewing on her lower lip.

But not because of me.

Marcus and I were standing at the stairs and were taking off our suits to go to bed. In doing so, Marcus stood between Leah and me.

My little sis was a real mystery to me at the moment as far as Marcus was concerned. I felt with her when we were on the road as wolves, and she shared her thoughts with me. She also didn't keep anything to herself because she might be embarrassed or something. Still, I didn't understand. She saw him as part of our family. No more, but also no less. And yet there was always something that didn't fit in. Like her look right now.

I unobtrusively interposed myself to throw my vest over the banister of the stairs and gave Leah a questioning look now that I was in her way.

She barely noticeably shook her head and took a cup from Rosie as well. Stripped down to our boxer shorts, we sat down with them and pulled the blankets rightly a bit.

Ced lay between all of us.

We drank the cocoa, recapitulating the day.

It was the fourth wedding we twins had been to. Although it was different from the previous ones, we felt it was the most beautiful one we had been to so far.

Maybe that was just because it was our parents.


The next morning - they hadn't forgotten to wake us up after all - I wasn't sure what had gone wrong that night.

I had Marcus in my arms. So really. And although Becky was also lying next to me. Legs entangled with each other, my arms around him, his around me.

We woke up seemingly at the same time as Esmé came up the spiral staircase with coffee. And we startled apart before chuckling.

"We spent the night together," I stated.

"Does that mean we're together now?" he dug deeper.

"Um ... we can just stay friends," I said.

"Why do I always have to fall for these guys! They tow you away and that's all you're good for!" he complained.

"Hey, you're welcome to stay for coffee, though," I offered graciously. Because ...

"Good morning," Esmé arrived to us.

With coffee, of course.

Marcus got ready in our guest bathroom while we quietly drank our first coffee.

And the bottle of blood.

He had clothes and toothbrush and what he needed with him, because I had already told him from Alice on Friday, he should set up for the whole weekend.

Leah had offered him her bathroom, where he would have had a little more freedom of movement, in which he knew his way around, but he had refused.

We were still sitting together when he came out of the bathroom showered and dressed.

Guys were just quite brisk on their own, if they had to be.

The little walk up to the other house made us very hungry.

Charlie and Billy were already sitting at the breakfast table. Apparently they wanted to go fishing here at the river.

I didn't understand what was so great about fishing.

Otherwise, the day was quite unspectacular, except that Ced demanded for his parents in the evening.

He even cried after we explained to him that they were not coming. Jasper had not expressed himself clearly enough to him. The fact that Mom and Dad would be away for a few days without us did not include nights for Ced. After all, when our parents didn't have time for him because of Leah, they had put him to bed and woken him up in the morning. Ced thought it would be like that again now. And he would have been okay with that. But this way, Ced was convinced they didn't love him anymore and wouldn't come back.

But I had an idea and requested with Dad very carefully whether we could skype.

I hoped I wasn't keeping them from anything or interfering. Monopoly, for example.

To my surprise, we didn't disturb them, and they made a suggestion on their own to skype again tomorrow.

We said goodbye and the laptop in Chicago was seemingly just carelessly set aside. One saw again the beautiful skyline, which left us still sitting in front of my computer.

That looked really impressive.

"Honestly. I don't think they've seen much of the city today," Leah whispered.

"I don't think so either. Otherwise they would have said something about it," I agreed. But I didn't want to imagine that exactly.

"Would you rather go home?" we suddenly heard Dad say softly through the speakers.

"Yes. I mean no," Mom muttered.

I put my finger in front of my mouth to signify to Ced not to say anything.

One listened actually not, but perhaps Ced still got an answer to his lack of understanding to the parentless situation.

"I really like to be alone with you for a few days. Switch off from everyday life. Not having to share you with anyone. Discover the world with you," Mom explained.

"But our children are not here," Dad added wistfully.

'You see. They miss us and would like to have us always with them, but they also need time just for themselves,' I explained to Ced through my thoughts.

He smiled at that.

'Now he understood that. Somehow. Becky and I also withdrew from time to time,' he stated mentally.

I nodded.

"Do you think they realized we haven't set foot outside this room yet?" Mom suddenly chuckled.

"Certainly not," Dad sounded very convinced.

Leah and I looked at each other.

"Yes, we did!" we said at the same time.

"Didn't we just send you to bed?" they chimed in a mock sternness.

"Good night!" the three of us said, and I disconnected.

"So let's go to bed now!", I clarified.

Ced nodded, but still had a question in his head that neither Leah nor I wanted to answer.

'What did Mommy and Daddy do all day if they didn't leave the room?'

"Monopoly?", I offered in response.

Ced nodded.

'That would be quite possible. He had seen us play said game once and it had dragged on.'

Leah retired with Ced - he would sleep in bed with her tonight.

Leah, however, would certainly chat and read at length with Nanuk before she would sleep. Esmé had offered us several times that she would take care of the short one at night, but we were his siblings and here was our common home. Ced would be with Esmé all day, so we didn't want him to feel shunted out when our parents weren't around.

But I was still waiting for my star.

Becky had gone out to dinner with her family, Billy, Emily, Sam, and Orenda.

I took a soda from the fridge, next to it a piece of yesterday's wedding cake smiled at me and planted myself on the sofa. I zapped through the TV program and got stuck on a documentary about werewolves.

It was about time that I learned what I actually was.

It was just explained to me that I would have to change only at full moon, when Becky came home at shortly after eleven o'clock.

She was still quite exhilarated, while I had become more and more tired. I tried hard to be able to follow all her many words.

The food itself had been very good, but the spectacle around it even better. Orenda had obviously been in top form. First she had asked Granny some awkward questions about the non-Native-American father of the illegitimate son. Questions that Granny could not answer to her mother's satisfaction. Then Orenda's ubiquitous bitchiness paused, and she chatted with Bryan and Becky during appetizers. When the waiter accidentally dropped a spoon while trying to collect the plates, Orenda had probably had enough of a break. She folded the waiter up. During the main course, Orenda noted that Eliza was a very nice woman after all, but for dessert it was Becky's father's turn. He wondered if it had ever occurred to him to come to La Push. He was a Quileute after all! Had he never felt the urge to learn about his origins? To show his children the beautiful untouched forests? To learn about his family? At that, Orenda was really getting into it.

I was probably much more tired than I thought.

Becky had said something about Billy getting up to tell Orenda to tone it down.

When I turned off the TV, I just realized that I had apparently made a deal with the devil to be a werewolf.

We went upstairs, but I stopped in to see Leah for a bit.

Ced was asleep - with his Kraken in his hands. Leah still had her bedside lamp on and was lying with her face on her book. I carefully pulled it out from under her and placed it in front of Nanuk's picture.

I smiled.

Just like Nanuk in the photo. Leah no longer mourned him, although she would never forget him. The fact that Leah shared her experiences and thoughts with him every evening helped her in every way, although I didn't necessarily understand why it was a help to her. Didn't it have to finish her off when she realized every evening that he wasn't there anymore? And that he would never come back?

Dad had tried to explain it to me. Leah shared her life with Nanuk to prove to him that she could enjoy it. Even if he was no longer with her. After all, that was what Akai had said. 'Enjoy every day as if it were your last.' A wisdom that Akai had from Nanuk. A wisdom that Leah was very conscious of holding onto. And that's what would help her.

As I said, it was beyond me. However, I had to admit that I was different from my sister in such matters. What she had gone through in terms of love, I had actually been spared everything. I had parted amicably with pretty much all my girlfriends. Or they from me. And with Becky, I felt complete. She was never afraid of me and accepted me with all my fur, fangs, and vampiric family.

But Leah had experienced all the ups and downs. Her friendships usually ended on rather unpleasant words. She had been cheated on. Had been insulted by Ben. She had been very happy with Marcus, which the wolf had ruined for her. Had one day of imprinted perfect love happiness and then Nanuk died in such a tragic way. I doubted that in her place I would still have any desire to go on living. But Leah was even stronger than me. She always had been. My big strong sister.

"I love you, little sis," I whispered and gave her a kiss on the temple.

"... you ... too," she mumbled and turned.


The next evening we spent almost exclusively on our paws.

To five wolves we ran through the woods. A small farewell tour for Seth, on which Akai and Tom also ran.

It was wonderful. The great outdoors, just our wolf instincts, races, wolfish scuffles, a packed extensive picnic by Esmé. Well, it looked ridiculous - with the bags in our muzzles - but it was delicious and the right portions for wolves.

We walked up into the White Mountain National Park.

Forested mountains where no one lived for miles.

We all noticed the sweet stench. The park was between Boston and Montreal. Jasper had once expressed the assumption that most nomadic vampires from the so-called 'String of Pearls' on the East Coast - Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston - would head straight for Canada, i.e. Montreal or the Great Lakes, and generally avoid the less populated areas like Maine. Apparently he was right about that. We even encountered a couple that was just spying out their dinner at a secluded cabin.

Five wolves, two vampires. That threatened to become boring already in the beginning.

A thought that ran through pretty much everyone present.

'Don't be so arrogant! You don't know what they might be able to do,' Seth warned sternly.

He was definitely right. It simply could not be denied that Leah and I were alpha animals, just like Akai, but Seth was vastly superior to us with his experience. The fact that he was over fifteen years older than we one saw the sand-colored wolf now also not necessarily that one could have said, he would be too old to play along.

He let us work out a highly strategic plan, which we should also follow. Admittedly, under other circumstances we would not have time for such things, but the opportunity was just so favorable. So we thought about it, taking into account that they might have very strong gifts. It was a complicated endeavor because we couldn't hear Tom, and the two couldn't hear Seth. Fortunately, in a dangerous emergency, it would only depend on us lead animals and the rest had to follow. That this worked, we knew from the last time.

'Maybe one of them can influence the weather,' Seth reasoned.

'Shouldn't we maybe keep them then?' Akai relayed Tom's question.

'Do you want to train them for sunshine then?' I asked.

'He's more likely to get hit in the ass by a well-aimed bolt of lightning,' Seth commented.

The Quileute and Akai grinned.

'What?' asked Tom.

Our epic plan was in place, and we spread out so they wouldn't see us or smell us early on.

The vampires were so friendly and had not moved significantly until we were done.

Akai and Tom had the least practice of all of us, so we let them go first.

They crept closer, we came from the other side so that the 'Cold Ones' could not simply escape.

We caught in our thoughts how they breathed calmly, avoided any sound and did not let the vampires out of their sight.

'STOP!' it suddenly boomed in my head that it almost hurt.

Puzzled, I turned my head to Leah, who was standing next to me but a step behind.

She had used the booming command tone. It arrived with me and Akai only very much weaklier than as with Seth, who stopped immediately, but Akai and I had not been able to overhear it nevertheless. She took three steps forward herself and lay down in the undergrowth.

'Listen,' she urged us all. In a normal tone of voice.

"... It's no use, darling ... We must drink. To keep our strength up," the man said gently.

"But look, dearest ..." the woman replied sadly.

The hut was still a good distance away and I had only spotted people per se so far.

Seth, who had a little distance to us, walked a few steps further and looked at the people more closely. We shared it with Akai and he in turn with Tom.

Four people. A pair of parents, it looked like. A little older than Mom. Sitting with them were two youngsters, maybe the same age as us. These were kissing each other. Was probably one of the children of the parent couple and his partner. In whatever constellation. The young girl then hurriedly went back into the hut.

"We don't have a choice. If we don't take those, others will. But we can't wait any longer," the vampire tried to clarify, but didn't seem to be very enthusiastic about it.

His companion nodded sullenly. She wiped her face with her hands, combed back her dark hair with her fingers and took a step.

My muscles tensed.

"No!" the vampiress then suddenly determined and paused. "We are looking for others!"

I saw the reason seemingly through Seth, who continued to watch the shack.

The young girl came back to the others with an infant.

The vampire couple watched this with a gentle gaze for a moment. The man nodded, a gentle kiss on the marble lips and they turned away.

For a moment I was surprised.

The two did not want to kill. I had never seen that before.

'Yes, you have, with our family!' Leah interfered in my thoughts.

We let the couple pass us wolves unnoticed, but pursued them until we surrounded them in the middle of the forest.

The man held his companion protectively in his arms to protect her from us predators.

Leah and I turned back, which the ice-cold couple noted with jaws dropping. Soothingly, we raised our arms.

Well. One arm. With the other hand I covered myself a little. Leah stood behind me.

"Hello, don't be afraid. We won't hurt you," Leah opined.

"We're Jake and Leah. Those are friends of ours," I pointed to the other three wolves.

The vampires merely nodded in irritation and fear.

"We know what you are, but we were just watching you. How you spared that family," I said.

"Why didn't you just suck them dry?" asked Leah.

"A hut in the middle of the forest. Far and wide no witness. It would have been so easy," I mused.

The woman swallowed and grabbed her throat.

She was thirsty, which I did not question at all. The eyes of the two were so so black, as I had seen only rarely.

"We ... can't kill a baby," the pretty woman mumbled.

Well. Pretty. Just like all Vampires. She could not be otherwise.

"If we had a choice, we would rather not kill people just to quench our thirst," her husband explained.

"We are monsters!" the woman said, guiltily hiding her face in her hands.

"Are you, by any chance, related to an Edward Masen?", I echoed. I just had to ask.

Leah smacked my arm and all around me there were smirks.

The lady shook her head in confusion.

"Who is that?" the man asked.

"Not that important," I chuckled some more.

"More importantly, after all, you do have a choice!", Leah interrupted the general amusement.

She probably looked more serious about it than she wanted to.

"And what do you want it to look like?" the lady asked, seemingly a bit frightened by Leah's face.

"We are hanging on to our lives. Therefore, killing us would not be an acceptable option for us," the man echoed.

"We wouldn't suggest that; we would just put it into practice," I said with a smile.

The vampires swallowed dryly and squinted intently at the three wolves.

"Your kind can feed on animal blood," Leah made clear.

"Animals?" the man pondered.

"We ... never thought about that before," the woman said, looking hopefully at her mate.

"If you feel like learning about a way of life where you don't have to kill people anymore, we can introduce you to someone who can tell you all kinds of things about it," I explained.

They both nodded.

They were not necessarily talkative, but how often did you meet someone who actually only existed in legends and horror stories. After our picnic in the wilderness, of which of course nothing remained, we had packed all the bags together. Tom had been chosen to carry them. He had had no real choice. Three of us were leaders and he had too much respect for Seth.

To those pockets, I was on my way to dig out my cell phone. I called Carlisle.

"Jake? Is there a problem in the woods?" he anxiously took up the conversation.

"Not exactly," I said. "We met a couple you might want to tell a little bit about your food philosophy."

"What makes you think they might be interested? Most of our peers mock us for it."

"They have eyes blacker than night. According to that, they must be damn thirsty. But they didn't attack a family in the middle of the forest, far from any witnesses," I explained.

I heard a strange noise through the phone.

Sounded like fascinated curiosity.

We discussed where we were and approximately where we would meet.

He didn't want to show strange vampires where we lived. With wolves, humans and half-beings.

In amazement, the couple watched as Leah and I changed back, and then we ran together through the nighttime forest.

According to Akai's thoughts, Tom was offended that we didn't just turn them to dust.

'Even if they are vampires, they certainly did not become vampires voluntarily. They only want to live and if we can contribute to the fact that humans are permanently spared from them, so why not,' I said to what Akai so passed on.

We met the vampires of our family in the middle of the forest.

The two we brought along so called the air in between their teeth sharply as we faced the group, but Carlisle was as meek as ever.

"Good evening. I'm Carlisle. And these are Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie," he pointed behind him.

The four waved politely and murmured a friendly hello.

"I'm Rick. My wife Betty," the guy said. Restrained and cautious.

"You must be a very powerful coven!" marveled Betty.

"We call ourselves a family rather than a coven, although there is no blood relationship between us. In fact, there are two people missing. My wife Esmé and my son Edward."

Leah and I stood quite close to our family, so Carlisle lifted his hands to our ears and casually ruffled us.

"However, our family history is a bit more complicated," Carlisle smiled, making it clear that he did not want to go into it in detail. "You have left people alone, although you obviously must be very thirsty...", Carlisle began with the essential topic.

Emmett held his wristwatch in front of me.

Oops ... We had to get home slowly, or we'd miss Skyping with Mom and Dad. I guess our epic strategy had dragged on a bit.

Seth would still stay with our family, but we four other wolves retreated to our respective homes.


Becky and Ced were already sitting in our house playing together when we arrived.

While Leah set up a laptop, I greeted my star extensively and persistently until the connection was made.

Mom and Dad shared a lot about Chicago today. They sent us a picture together in front of the Cloud Gate in the family chat. As it were, as proof that they had really been outside. They talked about the big park, the 'Buckingham' fountain, an escaping penguin named Skittles, the planetarium. They had apparently seen a lot today and had a lot of fun. Except for Mom's feet, as Dad informed us in whispers of amusement.


Wednesday afternoon we went to Portland right after school. Almost our whole group together. Finally, again. Only Lisa had a dentist appointment. Leah and I had to go to the bistro across from the school first.

Snacks and so on.

"So you've copied that from Akai, too!" stated Becky with amused rebuke.

"What?", I dug deeper.

I was really in the dark.

"That 'and so on' when you want to sum something up in just a few words because the rest is self-explanatory," she opined.

"You're my girlfriend and all!" I replied, grinning mischievously. Girlfriend was such an inadequate term for her!

"That's exactly what I mean!" she grinned back, kissing me affirmatively.

We ate cake and then seven of us went over to the school grounds.

We met Nate, one of Marcus' best friends, outside the gym at Marcus' school. He was also on the basketball team and had already moved.

"Well, did you come to check out your toughest competition?" he asked, teasing us.

"You guys aren't competition!" scoffed Brandon.

The teasing dragged on until we were sitting in the bleachers.

Took a while to get there.

Leo and Annie, also good friends of Marcus, ran into us. The fact that we belonged to the rivals was loudly announced, which is why we were already being teased in the hall for this reason. The players' bench basically couldn't hold back any stupid sayings.

Marcus greeted us, of course. Jules was also there for a change. With her boyfriend Ted.

But at some point we sat.

The game was really exciting, and we cheered loudly for the visiting team.

Marcus was totally enthusiastic about it. Really! He constantly threw us sparking looks and grumbled to himself.

But his team won the game, even if it had been quite close.

"My ass, you guys handle every game with ease!", I teased Marcus after the game.

"We wanted to give you an interesting game when you're all already here!" rebuffed Marcus.

"But for cheering on our opponents, you're in for a treat!" threatened Nate.

"Oh yeah?" asked Leah meekly.

"Oh yes ...!", Marcus was standing right in front of her.

"And what did you think it would be like?" asked Becky.

"Those two ..." he pointed at me and Brandon, "... I'm going to flatten them in the finals soon. Claire has family protection. So in a way, Jason does, too. If I kill you ...", to Becky, "I'll have a problem with this one", - Me! - "... But YOU!" he looked Leah in the eye.

Threatening. He would probably growl if he could.

"Me?", Leah pugnaciously echoed, standing in front of him with her arms folded in front of her chest.

She actually growled a tiny bit, which made Marcus' eyes twitch.

"You!", Marcus took another step closer.

Suddenly he hugged her tightly with one arm so that her arms were stuck between them and he tickled her with his free hand. Leah squealed, wriggled out of his grasp and they had a chase down the hall. The 'Portland Bulldogs' gym was larger than ours, so there were still mats from the gymnastics team in the back. On these, a relentless battle was fought between the two, which was unfortunately interrupted by Marcus' coach sending Marcus to the showers with the others.

That was better for him. He lost mercilessly.

Part of the team wanted to celebrate the victory a bit in the usual diner, and we gladly accompanied them.

But we were home early and still sitting with our grandparents.

All five.

I hadn't been too tired yesterday after all when Becky had told me about her dinner.

Billy could actually walk. Not particularly long, but still. Depending on the day, he brought it up to an hour, but usually not in one piece.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about this?", I inquired, eye-to-eye with him. It was a completely new experience. He was almost as tall as Leah or me.

"I didn't think it was particularly noteworthy ... with the few steps."

"If it's any consolation: We've only known this since Christmas, too," Charlie grumbled.

"What does Carlisle have to say about that?" asked Leah.

Carlisle also wanted to say something immediately, but Billy was faster.

"He put the idea out of my head right away that I was ever going to be completely without a wheelchair."

My gaze went back to Carlisle, hoping he would have a different answer. But he shook his head.

"Billy has been in a wheelchair for over thirty years. This long period of time cannot be completely reversed. Not even with targeted training. You can gradually rebuild the muscles, but the ability to walk unrestricted depends on so much more. The nerves, the tissue, the motor function. All of that has adjusted over time to sitting and not being used ... It will get better, but the wheelchair remains your constant companion," Carlisle explained.

"But it doesn't matter, Jake. I'm so used to this thing already; I'd sure miss it. I'm enjoying being able to take a few steps and that every day there are a few more," Billy said.

After this realization, we went down to our house and slept together in Leah's attic.

But they just did not forget to wake us up in the morning. What a bummer!


On Thursday we waited after school just skyping with our parents and then we were gone. And dinner of course! Becky and Leah had a team meeting. Or so they said. In truth, the team had gone out together.

I just had a few things to do.

Picking up our wedding present for mom and dad. A new CD from 'The Three Investigators' had come out yesterday. I had to pass a flower store. After all, tomorrow was Valentine's Day.

Coincidentally, I ran into Abigail in town when I wanted to replenish my condom supply.

"You've got your work cut out for you!" she teased as I placed the five bulk packs on the drugstore conveyor belt.

That was so typical. Every time I bought condoms, I met someone. Today Abi, recently my sports coach, once it had been David, another time Brandon's big brother. Everybody had a stupid joke. Everyone!

I chatted with Abi at Starbucks and drove her home. I ended up staying there for a while.

Was a fun evening with Abi and Jessie. Her girlfriend since New Year's Eve. Less funny with Abi's cat, which apparently still knew me. She scratched me as a greeting. Just like the old days!

As I was leaving for home, I texted Becky.

Maybe the 'team meeting' was already over and I could take the two directly. I had offered myself as a chauffeur, since I didn't really have anything planned. I was surprised that I could already collect them at just after nine o'clock.

I also texted Alice that we would be home soon, and she could bring Ced to us.

Becky and Leah were in a good mood, although they were sober. Therefore, I was received very stormily by both of them when I showed up at the store.

I ordered a Coke and chatted a bit with the guys from the volleyball team who had arrived in the course of the evening. One of them was Piet from my team, whom I told about Marcus' game yesterday.

But then we drove home quickly so Alice wouldn't have to wait forever for us.

I sent the girls ahead into the house to take the various bags out of the trunk.

And what was this little Something of Alice doing? Treating us like infants instead of discreetly disappearing. In the dutiful care of a babysitter, she had put out some hot cocoa and cookies for us, and a bottle of blood for Ced - so far that was okay - but then loudly and imperiously ordered us to bed. It was already ten o'clock! So right with supervision and control when brushing our teeth, she determined our night wardrobe, she wanted to put them on us too. At ten o'clock! When she was busy with Ced, I went downstairs once again, and she shouted after me that I should kindly go back to bed. At ten o'clock! Okay, by now it was about ten past ten, but did that make a difference?!

I put the flowers in the water that I had hidden in my bags and went back upstairs.

Leah and Becky were both leaning in the doorway of our two rooms.

We just exchanged the same annoyed and conspiratorial look and nodded.

Leah requested company as she went to sleep, she had been afraid of the dark for a few weeks. I wanted a 'good night' story if I had to go to bed so early. Ced I had instructed when Alice went to Leah, and he was thirsty then now. But I had to go to bed and was not allowed to get my little brother anything. Becky then became strangely sick. As a distraction, she also wanted to hear a story. Ced was screaming because his Kraken had fallen out of his crib. Leah and Becky then had something very urgent to discuss about their game tomorrow. I got myself something to drink in the meantime. When we were all in our own beds, my cell phone rang. Brandon had forgotten Valentine's Day. Ced was crying because he was going to his parents. Becky was hungry ...

The game went on for a long time, with the three of us having a great time.

Alice rather less so. It was eleven o'clock through when we heard Alice on the phone with Jasper. She sounded distressed, and if she weren't a vampire, I'm sure she'd be crying. That's how she sounded. Maybe she was just fooling us, but slowly we wanted to go to bed voluntarily. After all, tomorrow was Valentine's Day and our birthday, our parents would be back tomorrow, and we had games. Anything else we forgot? ... Oh yes, school.

We slipped into our parents' bedroom, took Ced, who was grinning mischievously at us, out of his crib and made ourselves comfortable together in the big bed.


And when we opened our eyes again afterwards, our parents were there again.

They looked happy, which I had not expected otherwise. It was nice to have them back.

I had just quickly put on a pair of boxer shorts and my jeans after showering, while Becky sat on the floor in front of my mirror. She was discussing a hairstyle with her long hair. Her hair sometimes had a different opinion than her.

I wanted to sneak downstairs for a moment, but Dad was already meeting me at the bottom of the stairs. With what I had actually wanted to get.

The valentine flower for my star.

"It's pretty. I'm sure Becky will be very pleased," Dad held it out to me.

With the hand on which he wore his wedding ring.

Somehow my gaze remained on the ring, whereby I grinned more and more and looked at my own hand.

"Are you excited about tonight?" he asked in a whisper.

"Oh, yes ...", I admitted. Smiling. I wasn't really dreading tonight, but this day that I had been preparing for so meticulously for the past few weeks was suddenly already today. I felt as if I had forgotten something important for my marriage proposal. Something crucial that I would not be able to change before tonight.

"You haven't forgotten anything, Jake. You may have just lost sight a tiny bit of why you want to ask Becky this question, because you got so caught up in the meticulous planning."

I looked at him in confusion.

"Because she is the most important thing to you, and you love her more than anything!" he reminded me.

"That's right, there was something!", I admitted. I had been so focused on this date, which was making me more and more nervous about Becky's father, that the original reason had slipped my mind. Of course, I knew Becky was everything to me, but the fact that this had led me to ask her to marry me today, I had actually kind of forgotten. Crazy!

I hugged my dad and went back to my room. And chuckled.

Becky hid her face in her hands in frustration.

I guess her hair really didn't want to go the way she wanted it to today.

I sat down on the floor behind her.

"Happy Valentine's Day, my star!", I whispered.

She looked up and immediately smiled when she saw the flower.

A big red rose that had fallen into a little glitter powder. Like thousands of little stars.

"Will you be my Valentine?", I asked, purely for form's sake.

She nodded, turned to me and kissed me stunningly that I rolled onto my back. She crawled over me, which I didn't really understand just then, so I looked after her indecisively. She reached into the pocket of a jacket that was hanging over the chair.

"And you my Valentino?" she then asked, holding out a heart-shaped lollipop.

I thanked well-behaved and buried her under me on the floor. Until there was a knock on the ajar door.

"Breakfast is ready," Mom peeked through the crack. "Or do you prefer to eat each other?" she echoed with a smile.

"We'll be there," Becky said, scrambling out from under me.

Too bad.

She already went down before me, because I had to get dressed even further. By the way, she left her hair open in the end.

Leah picked me up when she was done, and I was still tying my shoes. My sister literally fell around my neck.

"Happy birthday, brother dear!" she fluted cheerfully.

Oh yes. Completely forgotten that today was not only Valentine's Day. But no one else in the house seemed to have thought of that either!

"Happy birthday, little sis!", I congratulated her warmly.

I took her gift from a drawer.

A CD from a still quite unknown rock group. But they were really good.

She had already heard of the band, from Marcus - as she said - and was very happy about it.

She gave me a book about the phenomenon 'The Three Investigators'. History of origin, mistakes that had crept in over time, curiosities, various maps of how Rocky Beach could look like, background information, interviews with the three speakers, the development and aging of the fan community and so on. Cool stuff!

But our family had apparently not forgotten us after all.

We were loudly sung about when we got to the bottom.

It was a nice family breakfast, even if it looked plenty silly with the party hats.

The first breakfast with a very officially complete family. Mother, father, and children. The first together after a week.

Dad had also conjured up a few delicacies that were usually only available on Sundays.

The filled pancake rolls, for example. I also thought it was somehow fitting that Marcus came by at this time of day. Unfortunately, they did not forget to send us to school on time.


The Valentine hype had broken out there.

Many girls wore red clothes today, many guys behaved really ingratiating today and tried to conquer their valentines.

And in the middle of it all was Leah, who, as we all know, was single.

At first, she showed herself still pleased and flattered by the cards or sweets.

Especially from Case's chocolate chip cookies. We had been friends with him since kindergarten. Why wasn't he part of our group? Hmm ...? He was gay and had known it for a long time, but who cared? We greeted each other when we saw each other, every now and then we ran into each other at various celebrations and chatted - for example at Ryan's New Year's Eve party or something - but otherwise we had somehow gone different ways since kindergarten. But he thought of Leah every Valentine's Day. And he always brought her something homemade. Not just to her, but to a few other very select girls. Lisa was one of them, too.

By lunchtime, however, Leah had a headache and was complaining about all the cards, candy, and whatever else she got.

Not quite the reaction the various guys intended.

Even I was slipped a lot of cards, wondering if the ladies were all blind.

Didn't they see me with Becky every day? Weren't we clear enough together? However, they also gave me a few for Edward.

Training after school was cancelled today.

Both for me and for my girls. We all had to leave immediately for the away games. Luckily I only had to go to Cape Elizabeth, but Leah and Becky had to go to Falmouth behind Portland.

We completed the games just in between. None of our opponents had even had any serious chance. Neither on the basketball court nor with our volleyball players. In our case, the game stoppages and 'time outs' had not been worth mentioning either, which is why we were home much earlier than we had anticipated.


That gave us a little time to sit together as a family after all.

They had even made us sandwiches, which were waiting for us on the living room table. Ced balanced three small bottles of soda with them. Mom and Dad watched this still very touched. We had already gotten used to Ced not crawling.

"Wow ...!" both Leah and Becky simultaneously remembered to say when they saw a bouquet of flowers sitting on the dining room table.

A huge bouquet of red roses. Really huge. I wonder how many there were?

"Fifty," I was answered directly by Dad.

"Does the number have any particular meaning? I mean, Sonya would have said something about it once," Leah pondered.

"Unconditional love and devotion," Mom said, looking at Dad in love and receiving a very tender kiss from my father.

"And do I ever get one of those?" asked Becky me ingratiatingly.

"That is an entitlement for you only as a wife!", Dad saved me from an answer.

"Entitlement?", Becky dug deeper more specifically then.

"Of course. In a marriage you have rights and, above all, you have duties!" Mom explained quite seriously.

More or less. I had heard some of this last weekend, what the various husbands had said. Fidelity, respect for the partner, help in all situations, be a friend, and so on. But somehow I had the impression that my parents were just thinking about completely different rights or duties. They were chuckling subliminally.

"So I guess you'll have to be patient for a little while longer!" I interjected.

We sat down, ate, drank, and talked.

In the meantime, we youngsters ran upstairs to get something.

Our wedding gift for our parents. A thick book. We three siblings had made it together on Monday evening. With just a little help from Esmé. A book about the wedding of our parents. Starting on the first page with a wedding invitation that my parents had never seen, but all the guests had received in advance. We hadn't seen those until that craft night either. Various cameras had been in use the whole last weekend.

The funniest moments had all been captured. For example, when Marcus tripped over Ced in the hallway. Or Emma, who had more of her piece of cake hanging on her face than she had eaten. Ced, who had sat in front of Dad in amazement. Or later had crawled up the aisle to see Mom. Or when Ced had wanted to be adopted, too.

But there were also very beautiful pictures. Mom and Dad standing in front of each other and just looking at each other. Their first dance as a married couple. How they held the cake knife in their hands.

Pictures of the games that had taken place. But also lots of photos of the guests and the celebration in general. Someone had taken a very nice picture of Becky and me, for example. Or when Leah danced with Dad. Me with Mom. Ced with Emma. We had commented on all the pictures. Funny or moving sayings. A lot of things we had added on or pasted in as mementos. Alice had contributed something of each color of the lace pattern. Some red and blue sand stuck as a frame around the picture of the filled vase from the marriage quiz. Small feathers hung between photos of our various Native American guests.

It had become a very thick book and Esmé had brought it to town for us to have it bound. Yesterday I had picked it up.

Mom wasn't done with her touched tears when Ced's current babysitters showed up, too.

All four of them. After all, such a little half-vampire needed enough entertainment. Oh well. In truth, Dad's siblings would not only take care of my little brother, but also David and Sonya's four children.

For us, it was definitely the cue to shower since we were still in our gym clothes.

The girls were sent up together since they took longer than me.

And I suddenly became nervous. I got hot and leaned back against the sofa with my eyes closed.

Was I sure I really wanted to go through with this right away? Was I even ready for this? I was only eighteen years old!

Cool hands rested against my temples.

"Think of your star," Dad whispered to me.

I did. I saw Becky in my mind's eye. How she smiled and her eyes lit up at the same time. How cute she looked when she woke up. Yes, I wanted to see that sight every morning for the rest of my life. To feel her in my arms every night. Her sweet lips on mine that blew my mind. A feeling of inner peace flowed through me, and I knew it wasn't Jasper's doing. The calm came from myself. Because I knew what I wanted. Because I knew that I would share the rest of my life with my star, even if she said no today.

"She certainly won't," Dad opined.

I opened my eyes and smiled.

No, she wouldn't.

I went upstairs, but had to chuckle again on the stairs.

Alice had gotten matching dresses for Leah and Becky, but not for Mom.

"What are you wearing, anyway?" so Alice asked, a little horrified.

"I was shopping with my husband," Mom replied.

"You. With Edward ... And something clever is supposed to have come out of that? The guy hasn't been shopping in over half a century!"

"I promise you'll be satisfied!" was all Dad said.

I was curious about that, while I heard Alice snort contemptuously.

The girls were done in the bathroom and Becky was just standing in my room wrapped in two towels. She was putting on her cream.

Dad attached importance that one behaved like a gentleman. So I gave her a hand. Completely selflessly, of course.

It wasn't long, however, before Becky was taken away from me and ordered to Leah's room.

"Any requests?", Rosie asked me.

"You do it already," was all I said. No matter what Rosie and Alice did to my star, she always looked beautiful.

I quickly went to take a shower. When I returned to my room, Dad was standing in there getting dressed.

"They kicked me out of my bedroom. Because they'd have more room there," Dad grumbled playfully.

I smirked.

"At least they're not kicking us out of the house today," I said, remembering the last time.

When we were on our way to Peter and Stan's wedding. Why did Alice and Rosie always have to make such a secretive fuss about it whenever we went out and they helped the ladies get gussied up?

"But I'm happy to offer my dad asylum," I smiled. Not entirely altruistically. My room, my rules!

"And what do I have to do to get that?" Dad prodded.

I had just taken my suit out of the closet, Alice had already brought it for me yesterday, and I now held out the tie to him.

Because I still could not.

My suit was black and made of solid fabric. Here and there red accents, which Alice had probably chosen because of Valentine's Day. It seemed old-fashioned to me, but when I looked at Dad, mine was probably very modern.

He explained to me on his tie how to tie a perfect knot. Step by step.

I stood next to him with mine and it didn't work.

"Mine seems to be broken," I commented.

It took me three more tries to get it to look halfway like a tie, and Dad readjusted it to make it look neat.

Then we went down already.

Ced clapped his hands enthusiastically, but I went to the drawer where the ring was. I looked inside the small case.

There it was. The perfect ring for the perfect girl.

"Are you excited?" asked Dad.

"No," I said, and wondered about it myself as I put the case in my pocket.

Edward also handed me a tissue to have ready for Becky.

We were then called to the stairs so that our ladies could make a memorable entrance.

Mom came first. Aside from the fact that my mom looked beautiful, it reinforced the impression that the 'Jezebel' was not a contemporary place. She was greeted lovingly by Edward at the bottom of the stairs.

Then Leah came and my sister looked great. But also like she was from a bygone era. The dress was black and fringed and trimmed with bright purple sequins. The waist sat pretty low and up to there the fabric hung virtually straight down. For that, quite a bit of the fringed fabric swirled around her legs, which looked crookedly cut. Her hair, on the other hand, was styled quite well-behaved, with a sequined headband, but this hairstyle looked deceptive - with the rest of her outfit.

When Becky appeared at the top of the stairs, I forgot to breathe.

She looked like my personal Valentine's gift. Like a single temptation.

Completely in red. A dress that had been brought from the past as much as Leah's or Mom's. From her shoulders to above her knees, it was just made of those fringy threads that bobbed along a little with every movement. To match, her upswept hair was partially covered with a big red feather that used to be worn by showgirls in high-profile theaters. Only a few strands fell along her enchanting face as if by chance.

I went to meet her, spellbound by the sight of her.

I didn't know anything to say that would have even come close.

That's why I only kissed her very gently.

We said goodbye to Ced and especially wished Alice a lot of fun babysitting.

She gritted her teeth.

The vampires walked over to our neighbors, who would then presumably leave as well.


We drove with Dad's Jaguar.

As with the order then, I could also confirm today that one sat even in the back excellent.

We were not the first, but also not the last.

Becky's parents and her granny were already there, waiting for us under a spacious canopy, or rather for anyone they might know. They probably didn't dare enter the club alone.

I could understand that. It already looked pretty gloomy. The whole front of the house was dark gray, and all the windows were closed with old-fashioned shutters. Only above the door the name of the premise shone discreetly - 'Jezebel'. At the front door, two men stood guard. Tall as wide and therefore really intimidating.

When we reached the canopy with the various umbrellas, Leah and I were first wished a happy birthday.

But we went inside, as it was getting too cold for the ladies in their evening dresses.

A spacious reception room with a checkroom run by a man in tails, gold signs to the washrooms, old movie and concert posters hung in opulent frames on the walls, a gramophone stood under a glass case.

A fat African American lady came down a flight of stairs with a sign above her that said 'Private'. With a cheerful grin and a very flashy silver dress.

She looked like she could never not laugh. She seemed to be the owner or something.

She murmured instructions to the staff, greeted some guests who crossed her path and immediately came to us.

"Good evening and welcome to my living room. I don't think I've had the pleasure of having you as my guest? I am Jezebel," she introduced herself to us.

Her voice had a lively undertone that seemed to fully fit her disposition. Twirly and never boring.

"Good evening. No, we haven't been to your house yet, but my parents come here regularly. Carlisle and Esmé Stone," Dad said charmingly.

"Why, yes. They really look like your parents," Jezebel probably noticed the vampiric resemblance.

Dad introduced us in turn. His wife, the birthday twins - who were extensively hugged and showered with congratulations by Jezebel - my girlfriend, their parents and grandmother.

David and Sonya also just came through the door.

"My parents will certainly also arrive at any moment with the rest of the guests. In addition, we are expecting another young man, which only came up this morning. I had communicated it by phone at noon today. Surely it won't be a problem?" asked Dad.

"Of course not. We have reserved one of the separees for you," Jezebel replied confidently. "Would you like to wait, or shall I take you to your tables?"

Dad said we should go to our seats already, so that we didn't disturb the other guests by our number.

I did not necessarily understand what he meant by that.

We walked forward in rows of two and everyone stopped first in the doorway and gazed around in amazement after the heavy curtain in front of the wide doorway was moved aside.

Now I understood. In fact, everything. Our old-fashioned clothes, where the bad reputation came from, why new guests disturbed the previous ones. I felt like I was in a bar during Prohibition. Or just before. Like I had seen in old movies. 'Singing in the Rain', 'The Blue Angel' or 'Three little Words'.

Magnificent chandeliers hung from the ceiling; heavy curtains covered the walls. Many small round tables were scattered throughout the large hall. Some with simple chairs, some with comfortable armchairs. A spacious dance floor and behind it a live band. On the walls all around were the separees Jezebel had mentioned. Some small ones, with only two or three tables at the most. Some larger ones that had room for a good ten tables. With partitions from the neighbors somewhat shielded. Our group headed for the largest niche of these.

For this we had to cross the hall and the well-filled dance floor.

In the process, of course, we interfered, as we not only bumped into the dancers even as we walked along the edge of the area, but we also obstructed the clear view of the singer in her contemporary costume.

So, contemporary for in here.

Jezebel led us to our tables, greeting and waving constantly along the way until we arrived at our alcove.

Like the whole premise, it had been richly decorated for Valentine's Day. Balloons and streamers, everything in white, red and pink as far as the eye could see. Eight of the round little tables were arranged in a loose semicircle.

The birthday children were placed in the center.

Carlisle, Esmé, and our grandparents arrived just a few minutes later.

They were greeted very warmly by Jezebel. With Billy she seemed to flirt at first.

Or wharever it was called at that age.

Granny pointed out that this was quite a no-go.

Our stragglers came over to us, which seemingly silently prompted a waiter to bring us all cocktails.

We toasted to an enjoyable evening.

"Marcus!", Leah happily stated as we were about to be served a first course.

He greeted everyone in turn, gave Becky a peck on the cheek, punched me on the shoulder, and then arrived - obviously eagerly awaited - at Leah's next to me.

"You look fancy," she commented.

"Alice picked me up from work," Marcus admitted, tugging at his collar.

The collar of his sporty white suit with black shirt. The fact that it was a plain but modern suit was not necessarily noticeable because of the color.

Could possibly be due to the 'Al Capone' hat he had on his head.

He sat down and was promptly handed his welcome cocktail and 'first course' plate.

Dad had ordered a 'six course' meal for us, which came very leisurely throughout the evening. Since the three vampires didn't eat anything, Leah and I got our fill without any problems.

Between the courses there was enough time to venture onto the dance floor, to get some air in the backyard, to follow the various performances.

There were three different singers who took turns. Jezebel herself also stood at the microphone once and had an impressive voice.

A group of four people who performed various dances and encouraged the guests to dance along.

Sonya looked a little awkward with her pregnancy belly as she tried her hand at a contemporary Charleston. My dad, on the other hand, cut a very skillful figure tap dancing. Our jaws dropped in unison when we saw that.

There were also a lot of other interesting things in the hall, and we always discovered something new.

Outside in the hallway there had been a gramophone under glass. Here I found an antique telephone, an original vaudeville costume, a photo of Fred Astaire with a lady who looked very much like Jezebel.

Ladies in period costumes with vendor's trays walked through the guests. They sold cigarettes, cigars, flowers, pins or today rather common souvenirs from this premise, such as lighters, key chains or shopping cart chips.

A lady was walking around with an old camera, but only as a storage space for her modern digital camera. She really had her work cut out for her in our niche.

Not all guests were dressed according to the time period in the room here, but in a corner you could be photographed in such old clothes.

Billy and Granny dared to dress up in costume and looked very real.

As the penultimate course we got a cake. The lights in the hall were turned off and with sparklers it was brought to us by Jezebel herself.

The whole hall, including all the guests and staff, belted out 'Happy Birthday' and applauded afterwards.

Leah & Jake

was written on it in buttercream.

Damn tasty piece!

I had yet to make sense of everything else that was discussed while eating cake, and I passed over that with a smile for the time being.

Not that I had any problems with what I heard, rather the opposite, but it had been a bit of a doozy.

Then the time had come.

The empty cake plate was cleared, and it was very leisurely approaching midnight. A slow song started, I fumbled controllably for the jewelry box in my jacket pocket and asked my star for a dance.

Not the first today I had tried my hand at.

'Dad!' I thought clearly, and he immediately looked at me.

I nodded as I gentlemanly pulled Becky's chair back. And he nodded back.

I gallantly led my star to the middle of the dance floor and assumed a casual dancing posture. I slid one arm around her waist, with the other hand I held hers.

As expected, after a few moments Becky snuggled up to me with her eyes closed as we slowly moved to the tune.

Unlike Becky, I was paying attention to what was going on around us.

I had planned this moment and I controlled, so to speak, if everything went as I had thought it would. Dad took over the piano in the middle of the song without being heard. Gradually, the other instruments opted out and the melody changed very gently. The lights had been leisurely dimmed down until finally Becky and I were dancing on the dance floor in the entirely dark hall only in the conical glow of two spotlights and completely alone on the dance floor. Carlisle left our sitting area and had Jezebel give him something. She had been initiated by him, had provided the lighting and had stashed something away for that moment.

Dad played our song. Becky noticed it delayed by the slow change of melody and turned from my arms to the band in surprise when she recognized our song. A band Becky couldn't see because of the darkness around us. She saw virtually nothing. Except me. Everything was quiet as a mouse. Only our song accentuated the devout silence.

Quickly and unnoticed, as Becky had her back to me, Carlisle handed me the massive bouquet of red roses. Indecisive, Becky turned back to me, and I took her hand. Her glowing sapphires looked at me questioningly.

The melody of our song became slower, as if the notes did not want to impose themselves.

"Becky Eliza Young ... Will you allow me to ask you a question?", I began.

"Oh my God," she mumbled to herself and put a hand over her mouth.

I noticed how her heart skipped a beat and smiled at that.

"You can call me Jake," I genuinely couldn't help myself, even though it was actually inappropriate.

But Becky chuckled and smacked my arm in amused rebuke.

"You are impossible," she said.

"That's what you love about me," I stated.

"Not only," she clarified.

Time to put my question forward seriously now.

With a kiss on the back of my hand, I handed her the gigantic bouquet, which she looked at incredulously, but thoroughly delighted.

That gave me a few seconds to take a deep breath and collect myself. To find the words that I had never had to search for, but only had to put into a logical order.

"Becky. We've been together for five months. In that time, you've become a part of my life. A part that I can no longer imagine going without. A part of me that I can never let go. You accept me, with all my ... quirks and flaws." Actually fur, fangs and vampiric kinship, but I couldn't say it like that here. "You enrich my life in every way and every day with you is more beautiful than the previous one. I love you, with all my soul and I don't want to spend a day without you ..." I pulled the ring out of my pocket and knelt in front of Becky, flipping open the lid of the case. "... That is why I want to ask you here today, my star, if you will do me the honor of marrying me?"

Becky said nothing.

She could not. My star cried. Instead, she nodded quite vigorously.

With the handkerchief Dad had reminded me of, I gently dabbed her tears aside.

She looked so sweet. Her eyes sparkled. Of course they glistened from tears, but also from a glow that came from within. She smiled enchantingly. And I didn't know where to put my enthusiasm.

With shaky fingers, I took the ring out of the case and slipped it over my star's finger. Dad was still playing our song and he now sped up his playing again to the rhythm we knew. The romantic melody that sounded playful and happy.

For a moment, Becky looked at the ring on her finger, overwhelmed, with three new tears running down her cheek.

"I love you, Jake," she mumbled, putting her hand on my jacket collar.

I pushed my hands devoutly to her cheeks. A bit difficult with the handkerchief in one hand and the ring case in the other.

"And I love you, my star!", I vowed and kissed her. I don't know how long we kissed, but it was definitely too short.

However, in the meantime the music had changed, there had been applause throughout the hall, and it had become brighter around us again.

"Thank you, Jake," she looked up at me. "For your love and your friendship. You are the most important person in my life. Thank you for the pretty ring. It's perfect. And damn, what a huge, beautiful bouquet!"

"One hundred and eight red roses," I said.

"Why exactly a hundred and eight? Does that have any particular meaning?"

"Yes. Marry me!", I explained what Dad had revealed to me.

"Yes, I do!" nodded Becky decisively.

"I thought you were going to come up with a different answer because 'Yes, I do' is what everyone says," I now dug deeper.

"I couldn't think of one. Besides, a 'Yes, I do' pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?"

I kissed her in reply and beaming we went back to our families.

However, Jezebel stood in our way.

"Since you got engaged in my living room, I guess I get to be the first to congratulate you!" she stated, giving us a congratulatory hug.

Behind her, our family was already waiting for us. They were all standing together, smiling happily and/or touched, almost all the ladies were holding handkerchiefs, and all had champagne glasses in their hands.

"You don't look surprised at all," Becky noted in her parents' direction as we arrived at their house and were handed champagne glasses as well.

"Because we knew about it," Becky's mom smiled.

"Jake asked for our blessing and he got it," added Henry Young.

"So you've had this planned for a long time?", Becky looked at me.

I nodded.

"And who ... else knew about it?"

"All of them!", I replied and kissed her before she would get upset that no one had told her anything.

We toasted and our family congratulated us on our engagement.

I was now officially engaged to a star.

"And when are we getting married?" it soon occurred to Becky to ask.

Uh ... I hadn't really thought about that. Except soon.

"May we perhaps make a suggestion about that?" interjected Henry, before I could jump to a response.

We nodded tensely.

"In June. Right after you graduate from high school ... Then Becky will be eighteen and we won't have to deal with Child Protective Services. It's nice and warm in June and with any luck the weather will be kind to you. It's also just enough time to prepare a beautiful wedding celebration. More importantly, though, you're leaving a personal chapter behind with high school graduation and you'll be starting the next phase of your lives together," Eliza Young explained.

"Right after graduation, I'm sure your friends will all still be there, too, and won't have fled on vacation if they know early," Mom agreed.

"Alice will certainly get the planning done by then," Dad opined.

Becky looked at me, enthusiasm for this proposal written all over her eyes.

"So June!", I confirmed.


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