Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters (27 page)

Baby steps little sister. Baby steps
, he responded lightly as he threw one of his arms around me and walked down the hallway with me in the middle of an all-male sandwich.

Ash

Thursday September 30, 2010

Another rainy day
, I thought as I landed Aspen in the backyard. “Retreat, my friend,” I said before bending over to pick up the wristlet from the ground.

I walked into the house and searched for something in the kitchen to wipe my face dry with, after finding a small towel, I took my shoes off then trudged through the kitchen and over to the fridge. Aliza walked into the kitchen and greeted me.

“Did you and Aspen have fun?”

I looked up from the fridge then shut the door. “It rained on our parade.”

She walked over and looked out of the kitchen window. “That it did. So much for that run I was gonna take Triton for.”

Reopening the refrigerator door, I took out a bowl of cut fruit then sat on the wooden stools; water leaked to the floor once I’d sat.

“You don’t want to get out of those wet clothes?” Aliza said while taking a seat across from me. I chewed on my fruit then shrugged. “I’m in no rush.”

Aspen and I chatted most of the night about this new life and I’d explained to him why I had to be so solid for Aliza when on the inside I was breaking down like any normal person would under these circumstances. I valued the opinions he would give and one thing I did learn was that life was only going to get harder before it got any easier.

Aliza dropped her head into her hands as we sat in silence.

“What’s bothering you?” I questioned softly.

She lifted her head and looked through me. “This isn’t bothering you? I mean, they’re not telling us anything, just bit and pieces without explaining themselves. It allows too much room for assumption, plus the fact that Corey is such a liar is eating away at me; I want her gone.”

“You’re right, no one likes to be lied too. But remember she has nowhere to go. We’re pretty much all she has, besides I don’t believe she intentionally lies to us, she’s stressed just like we are and maybe she just forgets.”
             

She got up from the stool and rolled her changing eyes; “You always make excuses for her, when truthfully you know she’s full of crap. She’s out of get us and you can sit there and pretend you don’t see it if you want too.” She marched out of the kitchen and headed upstairs.

The rain beat loudly against the windows as thunder rumbled through the house; the sound was deafening, especially for me.

Luckily I’ve been having a chance to train more with Centure on the weekends since I didn’t work and it was getting better. I finished the fruit then put the bowl in the dishwasher and headed upstairs. I walked past Corey’s room door then stopped and backed up and tapped on the door.

“Come in,” she said softly. I pushed the door open and stepped inside, “How are you?”

She sat on the bed looking out of the window, “I’m fine, just sitting here thinking about life. Why are you soaking wet?”

I stepped closer to the bed and looked down at her, “Aspen and I got caught in the rain. I think at this point we’re all trying to play catch up on this crazy world we live in.” she patted a spot next to her on the bed, “You can sit down if you’d like.”

I shook my head, “Nah that’s okay. I don’t want to get your bed wet, I should go get out of these clothes anyways.” I turned to leave out of the room but she got up and held my arm, I looked into her unusually pale blue eyes and found myself counting the small freckles sprinkled across her face. She went a moment without saying anything and when finally unable to take anymore I leaned across and kissed her passionately on her soft lips. When she didn’t push me off I caressed her tenderly. Stopping for a minute I pulled away, “I’m sorry.” I attempted to leave again but she stood in front of me.

“You don’t have to go,” she whispered into my ear as she traced her nimble fingers down my body and pulled the wet shirt over my head.

“Have you ever done this before?” I asked quietly. I knew my own intentions, I wanted sex but not with a price that high. She didn’t answer but slowly unbuttoned her shirt and exposed herself to me. I hungered for her now, anticipation built as I looked at her wanting to be inside and fill her body with pleasure.

After removing the rest of our clothes, I threw caution to the wind as I hoisted her onto my waist. Our bodies welded together as one, I could barely contain myself as she rocked up against me. How could something so wrong feel so right?

I laid her back on the bed; she moaned deeply beneath me as I lifted her legs and went deeper. Her nails dug into my back as she trembled under me and let out a loader moan; shortly after, I didn’t have the strength to pull out before not being able to hold it any longer. I leaned down and kissed her lips before falling over to the side. “I’m sorry, I came inside of you.”

“That’s okay,” she smiled while wrapping one of her arms around me.

“But it’s really not okay.” I pulled myself from under her then got up from the bed and searched for my soggy clothes. They were cold as ice as I put them back on but I suffered through it and made sure I wasn’t leaving anything.

“Where are you going?”

I looked at he as she lay on top of the covers naked and was tempted to crawl back into bed with her; but first things first. “I’ll be back, you need a pill.” I headed out of the door and walked slowly down to my room, I had to get to the drug store.

***

I wasn’t making any friends at school because I simply didn’t care enough to do so; and being Mr. Popular wasn’t a priority of mine anymore, not since I’d found out these people would eventually start to die off. I walked down the hallways of the senior sector thinking of the one person who’d been on my mind for the last few days; pressure began to build as Aliza tried looking into my mind.

“Why are you thinking about Corey so much?” she asked curiously. I turned around to find her blankly staring at me then turned away and rolled my eyes. “Answer me.” she demanded. I stopped in the middle of the hall and looked at her, “What are you even doing on this side of the school?”

“None of your
business now answer my question.”

I turned on her and continually walked down the hall, “None of your business.” I replied. Even though it didn’t have to be a secret, in a way it kind of did. Aliza still walked behind me trying to get into my thoughts. “Would you just stop?” I snapped. “Your suspension of everything is exhausting.” in actuality her doubts and paranoia was purely out of selfishness.

“Just tell me what the big secret is.” she whined like a small child.

I stopped once again in the hallway and turned to her, “You know I was thinking that we rely too much on each other for emotional support and frankly your problems are stressing me out. You think you’re the only person with them? News flash Aliza, the world doesn’t revolve around you!” I responded angrily. I watched her face for emotions as my words sank in; they shifted from sadness to anger then annoyance in the same second.

“I guess you’re right.” She turned around and headed off into the opposite direction and turned the corner, disappearing from view.

I walked through the crowd steadily, moving with the flow of traffic. Other girls came up and tried holding conversations with me but I didn’t want them anymore; especially since most of them I had already gotten what I wanted from them.

Maybe that was my problem, I was charming with ladies and they liked me; usually once I’d banged them I didn’t call or return any messages. I didn’t worry about the rumors other girls would spread because I’m good looking and girls always go for the tall, charming and charismatic guy no matter how much of a dog he is. But it was getting old really fast and I’d yet to find anyone worth calming down with, until I’d connected with Corey on that rainy day.

Even when it seemed that everything coming out of her mouth was a lie, I couldn’t figure out her great mystery and that’s what initially drew me to her although in the beginning I turned my nose up at her.

I tried to force the thoughts away as I dodged old lovers; my last class was a study hall so I was headed to no place in particular, just getting lost within the crowd and not caring where I ended up. The phone buzzed softly in my pocket and I took it out then opened the message from Corey asking me to meet her somewhere near. I hadn’t gotten the chance to see her this morning before I left the house because she was still sleeping when I had to leave the house early to get here and help a classmate with his project. I moved through the crowd with a new sense of purpose as I made my way to the gym downstairs.

At first sight of her my heart skipped a beat, even though she was in a gym workout uniform she was gorgeous. Letting my emotions get the best of me, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her, clearly not caring who saw.

“Whoa there,” she expressed surprised. People stopped moving around as she passionately kissed me back. “There’s a shower in the locker room, we should take advantage of that,” she flirted.

I looked around at the frozen students in the hallway. “You think you’ll be able to hold them off for that long?”

She let the students go on about their lives. “Your right. It’s okay though because we have forever.”

I laughed at her pun but on the inside it scared me, forever was a long commitment. Who know what could happen
year’s even months or days down the line? I took in a deep breath before replying; “You really see that kind of a future with me?”

She looked into my eyes and ran the back of her hand along my cheek. “Time will tell,” she smiled.

When the bell rang for class to begin I let her go, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before watching her walk into the gym. I walked away from the gym doors and wondered the hallways alone as I made my way to the parking lot; I just wanted to get home.

I thought little of Aliza’s feelings as I drove home; I’ve had enough of her melodrama. It wasn’t until I had thrown my keys on the bed I’d found a small gift box and a note sitting on the dresser. “Now I officially feel like crap,” I mumbled as I picked up the golden heart-shaped picture frame out of the box. It was picture of Aliza and
me on our tenth birthday at the old house, I’d thought our pictures had burned in the fire that resulted from a gas leak. Nothing was salvageable as a result.

I sat the frame down on my nightstand and got up from the bed as memories began playing in mind; I tried to not reflect on past memories as much as Aliza did because even though most of them were happy times, they provided no apparent help for the future.

I lay face-up on my bed looking at the ceiling and neglecting to breath for as long as I wanted too; sometimes it proved to be another useless form of a cover-up to pretend to be human when really the humans should pretend to be like us. Gradually I was accepting the fact that I was -in more ways than one- superior to any of the morons I was surround by daily at school. I got up from the bed and walked over to the desk and snatched up my keys, right now seemed like a good time to go and pay Centure a visit.

I left quickly and arrived at her cabin in record time then walked up the path to the front door; I didn’t even have to knock because one of the chubby twins opened the door before I actually could. “Were you expecting me?” I asked curiously.

“No I was just leaving out.” she replied. I could tell which of the two she was from appearance but her attitude suggested it was Zenaya.

I walked into the cabin and searched around for Centure before noticing her sitting in a chair beside the window. “What brings you by today?”

“Nothing in particular, whatever you can show me. It’d also be really nice to have some new information about who we are in general, but I don’t want to ask for too much.”

She got up from the chair and walked over to a file cabinet and pulled something out of it, “You have to promise not to tell you sister, she has not fully accepted this life yet, so she will not believe; but I feel that you have. Can I trust you?” she held a small vile of pink liquid close to her heart then handed it over to me, “I am trusting you, you can’t mention a word of it to your new lover either.”

I took it from her and screwed the cap off, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“It’s concentrated so it may be a little strong, drink it,” she said before sitting down in a nearby chair.

Without further hesitation I swallowed the liquid. After a moment of feeling it move through my veins, I was then thrown into a mirage like vision.  As the fog cleared a peaceful forest revealed itself. I looked toward the sky and noticed that there were three different moons of three different colors that adorned the sky. “What does this mean?” I whispered as my knees buckled beneath me and I fell to the soft earth.

Nikko

Friday October 1, 2010

“I’m not stupid, Wade,” I said, following him into the kitchen. “You only want her because I do.” The words were out of my mouth before I knew it and soon my mother was galloping down the stairs.

“Did I just hear what I think I just heard?” she breathed heavily, keeping her eyes focused on me. “I know I told you that it was ok, but Nikko, this is not ok. We’re family.”