Chapter 35

Don't freak out.  I cut this chapter in half.  I will upload part two either tonight or tom.

Also, on this chapter I will put a slideshow of *almost every cover I have used for this story.  (I couldn't find some, but if you can just tell me the chapter they are on)  Some covers are never before seen lol.  Let me know your favs and I will use the one with the most votes as the permanent cover from here on out.  :)

As always tell me what you think.  Feedback is much appreciated.

Also, I will try to add a song to the side which I think perfectly fits the mood/theme of the story.  I lurve it.

-Nikki

Chapter 35

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It had started snowing again by the time Miriam crawled out of bed.

Light flurries drifted against her window, falling to dust the lawn like a scene from a winter landscape.  The sight was beautiful—at least until she remembered the shocking cold of being tossed around in the stuff like a rag doll.

Wincing, she got up, pulled on a pair of clothes, dragged a brush through her hair and was out of the door a whole ten minutes earlier than usual.

Too early, she scolded herself as she rounded the bend in a pair of fur-trimmed winter books.  You’ll look like an idiot when you end up having to wait.

But, as she turned onto the main road all of the worry vanished...

He was already there; that sleek black car idled patiently on the side of the road.  Waiting.  Heart pounding, she walked over and climbed inside.

“Good morning,” Eliot greeted, as she slid onto the leather passenger’s seat.

He looked straight ahead, eyes on the road like always, but there was a grim tilt to his mouth that hadn’t been there before.   Something that could have been pain flashed in those eyes as they brushed her over.

Just like that, everything she'd been prepared to say slipped from her mind like smoke.  She had it all planned; demand he give her answers to the same dark questions that had kept her tossing and turning all night.

Just who were those people from last night?

And what about the werewolf?--he was hiding something.

But, at the sight of that look, all she could do was mutter a soft, "Hey," and shove her bag into the back.

Fingers on the steering wheel, he eased the car into a smooth, slow pace that wound through the back streets of the town; a short detour that conveniently ate up ten extra minutes.

They didn’t talk much; the fact that she had shown up early enough to wait for him—and that he had already been there waiting—said more than Miriam figured any words could.

Still...something was bothering him.  She could sense it, even though he appeared perfectly in control as she watched him from the corner of her eye.

It was all in those strangely colored eyes.

Strange, she realized, watching the pale daylight play over the planes of his face.  After only a few days she was already starting to pick up on his odd habit of reading people.

A part of her couldn’t help wondering if his strange mood had anything to do with the two strange visitors from last night.  Thinking of those strange vampires, with their creepy black eyes, made her stomach twist into knots.

“Is everything okay?”

“Fine,” he said quickly.  “It’s nothing.”

He turned to face her and the corner of his mouth twitched into an expression that could have been a smile.

But not quite.

They rode the rest of the way in suffocating silence.  If something really was wrong, he didn't tell her, and she didn’t ask again.  Something told her that it wouldn't do any good, anyway.

He was all closed up, eyes dark and guarded.

Still, when she slipped out of the car in front of the school she couldn't shake that feeling that something was...off.

“Same place after school?” She turned around to find him fishing her backpack from the backseat.

He didn’t answer, but that semi-smile faded.  A faint shimmer appeared in those red eyes instead, and made butterflies burst to life in her stomach.  When she reached for her backpack, he startled her by grabbing her hand instead.

The touch was brief; just a swipe of his cool finger across the width of her palm.  Barely a caress.

To Miriam it was everything.  Wherever the pad of that finger touched, sparks burst to life, crackling beneath her skin.   She stared, watching the ivory of his thumb in contrast against the light pink.

But when she glanced up, into those amber eyes the look in them made her shiver.

“Eliot?”

He pulled his hand away and slid her backpack across the seat instead.

“Have a good day,” he said, as politely as before.  “Try…”  His false smile slipped a little, revealing the emotion lying underneath; sadness.

“Try to let someone else in,” he urged softly.  “Someone other than me—life is too short to—”

He broke off abruptly and turned to face the road instead.  “Goodbye."

Then, before she could even step back onto the curb, he reached over, yanked the passenger-side door closed and took off.  Standing alone, Miriam watched as that sleek car looped around the crowded parking lot and zipped back onto the main road, feeling alone in the middle of a sea of rushing students.

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Eliot’s words haunted her all through first period.  By second, all she could think about was the feel of his fingers as he’d held her hand.  Third period was dominated by the memory of their kiss, unexpected in the dim glow of the shed.

Fourth too…

But, by lunch his plea before he left was back in the forefront of her mind.  Let someone else in.

Easy for him to say.   He didn’t seem to lack for mysterious, shadowy friends.

But…

He’s right, she realized as she entered into the Cafeteria and wandered into the lunch line.

Glancing around, she could see that everyone else had someone—someone to eat with.  To talk with.  To sit with.

A friend.

An acquaintance—someone.

Now that she thought about it, she was probably the only one in the entire school who didn’t have anyone.  It wasn't always that way, she realized as a grouchy lunch-lady plopped a steaming pile of mash potatoes onto her tray.

She used to have friends.

A life.

Once…

She used to be happy.

Back when they lived in the city, and she had been plain old Miri Spriller—the girl who loved pink and cracked silly jokes at inappropriate times.  She hadn’t been necessarily popular, but she had a core group of friends. And, most Friday nights she wouldn’t have been caught dead moping inside her room.

Alone.

She barely spoke to anyone from the city now.  Some days, it almost seemed as if she couldn’t remember how to socialize with normal kids her age—Eliot, of course, didn’t count.

How do you even make friends?  She wondered as she swiped an apple from a basket near the end of the line and headed in search of a table.

Was there a formula?

Some secret password?

Biting her lip, she sighed.  No time like the present to find out…

She settled on the first person she saw. A girl who just so happened to have long, gleaming red hair and sat at a table, laughing at a joke a blond-haired boy was telling from the other end.

Squaring her shoulders, Miriam headed over, trying to herself that it was a good idea to at least attempt to fix whatever bridge she had already burned.  If she turned tail and ran away now—like she wanted—she only had to picture Eliot with a red eyebrow raised.

Chicken?  He’d taunt.

“H-hey,” Miriam blurted coming to a stop behind the red head.

Sidney stopped mid-giggle and glanced at her from over her shoulder.  “Hey,” she said, but those green eyes were wary.

Here goes.  Miriam thought, taking a deep breath.  “I…I wanted to apologize for the other day."

Crickets.   At the sound of her voice, the rest of the conversation at the table went silent as five pairs of eyes focused solely on her.  One kid had even paused with a roll held halfway between his plate and his mouth, as if the sight of her actually speaking had shocked him senseless.

“I was rude,” she went on nervously, conscious that the kids at some of the nearby tables had begun to stare as well.

Her cheeks flamed and she felt her fingers dig tighter onto the edge of her tray.    “I’m sorry,” she finished weakly.

Sidney just stared.

It was a long awkward moment.  Miriam just stood there, balancing her tray in her hands while Sidney watched her with an unreadable expression.  In the end she was afraid that the boy across from her had gone into a permanent state of catatonia.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled again.  She turned on her heel, eager to disappear back into her familiar corner of the cafeteria and disappear once again.

Who needed friends, anyway?

She’d barely gone a step before someone called out after her.

“Wait!”

She turned to find Sidney scooting over, leaving a sliver of space available on the bench beside her.  That pink mouth flashed a tentative smile.

“Wanna sit?”

Miriam bit her bottom lip.

The big plunge…are you ready?

“Sure,” she said, forcing a smile.  She slipped in between Sidney and another girl with auburn hair, trying to ignore the way her heart pounded in her chest.

What if, what if, what if played frantically through her mind in an anxious song; a cramped bench wasn’t a very good place to be if a seizure happened to strike.

“Everyone, this Miriam,” Sidney said, gesturing in her direction.  “Miriam, this is everyone; Anna, Brett, Sebastian…”

Miriam listened as Sidney rattled off a few more names and tried to place them all to faces.  Some of them she recognized from other classes.  Some of them she didn’t.

But they all smiled friendly when she gave a half-hearted wave.

Nervously, she fiddled with a fork and tried to relax while the conversation slowly began to pick up again.

“So Miriam,” Brett, the blond boy, began, propping his hand beneath his chin.  “Is it true?”

“W-what?”  Miriam stammered, stabbing a green bean with her fork.

“Are you really from the city?”

“Yeah.”  She nodded.

“Like in a high rise?”  Another girl pitched in with a green schrunchie tying back her curly brown hair.

Miriam shrugged.  “It was more on the outskirts…”

In an area twice as big as anything around here, she held back.

“It really wasn’t as great as you might think,” she added.  “You know…besides the excitement.”

She froze.  The joke had just slipped out—she had no idea how well it would go over.  After all, these kids had spent their whole lives in a town like Wafter’s Point. Anxiously she glanced around the table, afraid she had offended someone.

Sidney broke the silence with a laugh.  “You’re right,” she said.   “This place sucks—and can only imagine how dull a boring small town like this seems to you.”

“It’s not all bad,” Miriam muttered, thinking of a certain someone with glowing red eyes who most definitely wasn’t boring. “I think Wafter’s Point might be growing on me after all...”

“Well not me,” a pretty blond remarked, pouting.  “I’ve only been to the city once in my life, and let me tell you it’s where I belong—”

“Not me,” Brett said, laughing.  “Wafter’s Point is just fine for me.”

From that point the entire table launched into a heated debate over city life verse the small town.

All in all, the whole experience was…

Strange.  It had been so long since she’d been around so many people talking all at once.   Anxious, she hung back, at first, but when Sidney asked for her opinion she reluctantly gave it.

Then,, after a while, her body fell back into the old rhythm of following a conversation.  Knowing when to be quiet.  Waiting her turn to speak.

By the time the bell had rung, she’d barely eaten her food at all, but as she followed Sidney to turn in her tray she felt better than ever.

The feeling had lasted for the rest of the day.  Brett waved to her in the hallways.  She realized that she and another one of the teens, Anna, shared seventh period English.  By the end of the day she had Sidney had traded numbers—the only one beside her father and uncle’s programmed into her pink cell.

She didn’t know how long it would last.  If tomorrow, she would walk into the school and things would still be the same.

But for now…

Everything was perfect.

At least until she headed out of the front doors to find her Uncle arguing with none other than coach Carl.  They stood on the sidewalk, barely out of range of the wave of students streaming out into the parking lot.  Her uncle scowled, while Carl jabbed something small and pink beneath his nose.

Uh-oh.

Miriam almost considered bolting for it—but before she had even finished descending the front steps, her uncle spotted her.

“You,” he said, jabbing a finger at the space in front of him.  “Over here, now.”

Miriam hiked her backpack and made her way toward him, heart in her throat.  She didn’t like Carl’s smugly satisfied glare as he watched her approach with crossed arms.

“What the hell is this about another detention?”

Miriam blinked at her Uncle’s harsh tone—the same one he only reserved for referees when they made a lousy call that cost his team during a close game.

“What is going on with you, Miriam?”

“I…” She swallowed.

“I found the shed a mess this morning,” Carl injected.  “The hockey equipment wasn’t even cleaned—”

He sounded a little too confident about that—especially when Miriam was sure that she had at least put back the equipment as clean as it was going to get with a cheap rag and cleaner.

“I thought I did,” she muttered weakly.

Carl’s face flushed a deep shade of crimson.  “Apparently not.  I don’t even think the door was locked—”

“Hey,” her uncle snapped.  “I don’t like the fact that you even had her out there by herself that time of night.  What the hell is wrong with you?” His tone was harsh enough that Carl’s mouth snapped shut.  “Still,” her uncle added on a heavy sigh.  “Rules are rules, kid.”

“Here,” Carl said, holding out the pink object.  It was a slip of paper she realized; a detention slip. “To be served tomorrow.”

“But with me, instead,” her uncle grumbled, glaring when Carl tried to interrupt.  “That okay with you?”

Carl didn’t answer, but when her Uncle’s gaze narrowed he nodded and turned stiffly on his heel.  As he passed, he shot her one last look that made her hair stand on end.

Next time.

“Thanks,” she mumbled to her uncle, shoving the crumpled slip into her pocket.

“Don’t,” he grumbled, turning that stern glare on her.  “Just what is going on with you kid?  I barely see you these days, and when I do you seem jumpier than a whore in church.”

“Uncle Sal, I—”

“I don’t like you being in that house alone,” he bellowed over her.  “I don’t like you being alone—period.”

With another sigh, he crossed his arms.

“Why don’t you come home with me today?  You can have a sleepover with Sheena.  I’ll even order pizza.”

It was tempting.  Really tempting, especially when she thought about the empty, cavernous house with its stacks of dusty boxes.

But the thought of a seizure made her shake her head.

“I’m fine—honest,” she insisted, attempting to meet those sharp brown eyes.  “I’ll be fine.”

“Hmph.”  Her Uncle seemed disappointed, but he didn’t argue.  “I’ll see you tomorrow at least,” he grumbled, turning back to the school.  “Sleep tight kiddo.”

She waited until he disappeared through the front doors.  Then, she fingered the straps of her backpack and scanned the busy parking lot.

There, zooming up the hill was a black car.  It came to a stop right in front of her and she climbed inside.  Her fingers shook as she settled her back pack on her lap, too lost in her thoughts greet Eliot.

She didn’t like the way Carl had looked at her.  Not a bit. His hostility to her…it didn’t make sense.  Not to mention that now, as she thought about it, she was damn sure that she had left the shed in order as well as locked the door.

“Are you alright?”

She blinked and glanced at Eliot for the first time.  His jaw was set.  Those eyes smoldered.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly as he turned onto the main road.  Too late, she realized that he could easily sense the lie.  So, she blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“What is it like, being a vampire?”

The subject threw him off.  His hands jerked over the steering wheel and in a spray of gravel the car went careening to the side of the road.