Beginnings (The Trifectus Series - Book One) (4 page)

“Ms. Taylor Revels and Mr. Ryan Brewer.”

“Ms. Juliet LaVoe and Mr. James Sullivan.”

I couldn’t believe it.  Somehow this miserable day just turned as bright as a sun.  I got matched with James, and I had to force myself to suppress my urge to scream out loud like a fan girl at a boy band concert.

After Mr. Johnson announced partners, we all scrambled to sit with our partners and start our assignment.  As we were waiting for the frogs to be passed around, James and I started talking.

“Did you hear about that vampire attack last night?”

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” I said.

I couldn’t believe he was asking me this.  Was he gauging me to see if I knew anything?  Was he trying to see if I knew what he was?

Just before he was about to speak, Mr. Johnson handed us our frog.  It was vile, slimy and lifeless.  It made me wonder if James was into these kinds of things.  Was he interested in feeding on me?  Did he feed on animals, or just hospital blood?  There had been dozens of thefts in the country over the past few years of blood from hospitals and blood banks. 

“Do you want to make the cut, or do you want me to?” he asked.

“You can, I can’t deal with cutting something open,” I said.

“Most people can’t,” he said, smiling.

Why was he doing this?  He knew I knew what he was, and it was almost like he was trying to make me uncomfortable.  He wanted to scare me, and it was working.  I was, however, still wanting more.  I wanted more of his strong arms wrapping across me.  My head nuzzled softly into his chest.  My soul dancing with his in perfect harmony.

“We have to find the liver,” he said.

“I’m not sure where that is,” I said shyly.

“Here,” he said while grabbing my hand.

He guided my hand into the lifeless frog.  His cold, pale hand was wrapped around my warm, girlish hand.

“Do you feel it?” he asked.

“Yeah.  It feels hard,” I said.

“See, it isn’t so bad,” he said, smiling.

His smile melted me inside and out.  I became weak and powerless whenever I would see his pearly white teeth shine.  His smile always had that effect on me.  It made me see him differently.  All the media ever said was that vampires were soulless and bland.  They didn’t show emotion, and they especially weren’t happy creatures.  Was this all a lie?  Propaganda spread by a tireless government to scare the uneducated citizens into compliance?  His smile whenever he saw me started to change my mind.  There was no way he was an emotionless zombie like everyone made them out to be.  He was a kind, caring person who was no different than everybody else.

I had to confront him.  I had to make sure he was what I thought he was.  What if he wasn’t a vampire?  What if he was just a normal guy and I was over-thinking things?  He couldn’t be a vampire, I thought.  Vampires are supposed to not show emotion, and he definitely does.  But, I thought, what if he is?  I could never bring him home to my parents.  If they found out that I was talking to or even seeing a vampire, they would have me shipped off far away from here.  I couldn’t tell anyone.  I had to try to keep my love for him a secret. 

“All right, class, start cleaning up,” Mr. Johnson said.

“Looks like our time together is over,” James said.

“I know. I can’t wait to feel your liver again.  I mean, the frog’s liver.  I mean, I hope we can be partners again,” I said while my face was beet red.

Did I really just say that?  Did I really just tell him I couldn’t wait to feel his liver again?  What was I thinking?  He probably thinks I’m an idiot now.

“I hope we can be partners again too,” he said, chuckling.

He was amazing.  Even when I made a total fool of myself, he didn’t laugh at me or think I was weird.  He played along and made me feel safe: safe being myself. 

As I walked out of the classroom, Ariel stopped me.

“So, I see you and James are getting pretty cozy,” she said, smiling.

“Yeah, I’m starting to really like him,” I said, smiling.

Just as I said this, I noticed something.  It was Cara; she was staring at me right as I said it.  Did she know something?  Did she know what he was?  No, I thought.  It is just a coincidence.  Maybe she was looking at something behind me and I am just overreacting again.

The end of the school day was an embarrassing one.  As other kids were walking home or taking the bus, I got a nice military convoy.  As if being the new kid isn’t hard enough, now I have to have everybody watching armed guards come and whisk me away as if I have an important world crisis situation to attend to.

When I got home, my father was standing there looking confused and angry.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It appears that someone at that attack last night saw a girl there,” he said.

“Oh really?” I said as my heart started beating faster.

“Yes,” he said.  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?”

“No,” I said.  “I didn’t hear anybody at school talking about it.”

“Well, you see, someone there did a composite sketch of the girl in question,” he said while flipping on the television.

It was me on the screen.  There it was, a picture, on the television.  The sketch looked a bit off, but I knew the picture was of me.  I started panicking.  While I knew it was of me, it didn’t look totally like me.  You know those composite sketches; they never look like the person.  They had weird shading that made me look like I had a mustache.

“The girl in the sketch somewhat resembles you, wouldn’t you say?” he said.

“I don’t really see it,” I said, trying to pull his attention away from the picture.

“Didn’t you come home last night a little later than you normally did?”

“Yeah,” I said, trying to stay calm.  “Mr. Quigley had me stay after to clean his classroom,” I said nonchalantly.

“What about on your way home?” he asked.  “Did you happen to do anything interesting?”

“Oh, no,” I said.  “Just left the school and came right home.”

As he looked at me, I knew he knew I was lying.  He had done dozens of interrogations in his career.  He knew what to look for and how to get the answers he wanted.

“All right then,” he said.  “Why don’t you go do some homework before your mother is done with dinner.”

“Yes sir,” I said as I quickly went up to my room.

How was it that easy?  How did I get out of that situation with no struggle?  Did he really believe me, or was he testing me?  As I pulled out my books, I couldn’t stop evaluating the situation.  Who turned me in?  Who gave the sketch?  Were there more people there that I didn’t see?  I knew those thugs wouldn’t be stupid enough to go this far.  After all, I thought, they were the ones trying to hurt me.  They wouldn’t be stupid enough to incriminate themselves like that. 

I knew I was going to get caught.  I wasn’t a great liar.  I couldn’t even tell my mother I didn’t take a cookie before dinner when I really did. 

“Honey, time for dinner,” my mother exclaimed from the bottom of the stairs.

“Coming!” I yelled back.

This was it.  I started getting knots and butterflies in my stomach.  How was I going to face them both now?  I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t prepared. 

As I went down the stairs, I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked.

“Chicken and mashed potatoes, your favorite,” my mother said smiling.

Were they trying to butter me up?  I could see it now.  They were going to fatten me up with my favorite foods so that I would feel so guilty I would spill the beans.  No, I thought.  I won’t tell them: I won’t risk James.

I sat down with a sense of pride.  They weren’t going to get anything out of me, not no way, nohow.

As dinner progressed, I noticed something: it was quiet.  Mother asked father about his day.  Father told mother about new procedures and plans he was working on.  It was a typical dinner.  There was no interrogation or questions.  They didn’t tie me up to a chair with a hot lamp over my head asking me questions.  It was just normal. 

Near the end of dinner, the phone rang.  As my father got up to answer it, I started feeling nervous.  Who would even be calling at this time? 

“Hello?” he said. “Are you sure the girl in the picture is her?”

As he said this, my heart stopped.  Did he know?  Was there some kind of camera footage placing me there?  I knew he knew and had to try to play it like I just didn’t know anything.  As he hung up the phone, he came and sat back down at the table and looked at my mother and me.

“Well, they found the girl from the sketch,” he said.

“Oh really, who was it?” my mother asked.

“Her name is Ashley Cornington.  Apparently she’s the daughter of John Cornington,” he said.

“Oh dear!” my mother exclaimed.

“I know.  You’d never think a girl like that would be mixed up with these kinds of people,” he said disappointedly.

What was going on, I thought.  How did Ashley get mixed up in this?  I wanted to just scream out loud that I did it.  I’m the one that was there.  I am the one that saw the vampire and was madly in love with him.  As much as I wanted to, I didn’t.  Ashley was a mean girl.  Her whole life up until now revolved around making other people miserable.  I bet she wouldn’t try to protect me in this situation, so I won’t protect her. 

At this point, my father seemed a little disappointed.  Not because Ashley had gotten caught, but because I think he wanted it to be me.  He and I have always had a little tension.  He was never around for my childhood, and he knows I resent him for that.  It isn’t even that he wasn’t around, though.  He had an important, grueling job, and I know that.  It was more the fact that he didn’t even try.  He didn’t try to be at my birthday parties.  He didn’t try to come to my soccer games.  He just didn’t try.  It is more like I am a burden to him and his life would be better with me gone.  Sure, he has never come out and said that, but we all know that it’s true.

After dinner, I went upstairs to get away.  I started doing homework, but couldn’t get James off my mind.  I loved everything about him.  I didn’t care what he was, because I knew I loved him.  I knew we could make a life together.  We could move away after school and be together forever.  It was the perfect plan.  I could tell my parents I was going off to college, and James and I could move to Paris and start a family.  I would never have to see my parents again and I could be with James every day for the rest of my life. 

I wouldn’t care what people thought.  I wouldn’t care if they didn’t approve, I thought as I wrote “Mrs. Juliet Sullivan” a hundred times on my notebook cover.  All I wanted was James, and I was going to get him, no matter what.

Chapter Three

Obsessed

A few days
went by before I saw James again.  It was torture.  All I could think about was him.  I dreamt about him, I thought about him, and I wanted him.  Why was he avoiding me?  Why wouldn’t he talk to me?  He wrapped me around his finger and then threw me away.  I needed to get to the bottom of it.

As I arrived to school, I saw him, standing there alone at his locker. 

“Haven’t forget about me, have you?” I asked playfully.

“Oh—hey—no, I haven’t.” he said.

“Are you sure?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’ve just been busy is all.”

He was lying.  He wasn’t busy.  We had a lot of the same classes together and we had barely had any work this week.  I knew he was avoiding me.  I knew he wasn’t telling the truth.

“Are you sure I didn’t do anything?” I asked.

“Yeah.  It’s not you, it’s me.  I’ve got to go,” he blurted.

What could I have done to push him away?  Why wouldn’t he want to get close to me?  All I ever thought about was him.  He was all that I wanted, all that I needed.  As he walked away, all I could do was feel helpless.  He was the man of my dreams, and I pushed him away.  I put my back to the locker and slid down crying.  I looked like a mess, and everybody was staring at me, whispering.  Staring at the new crazy girl sobbing in the middle of the hallway for no reason. 

“Are you okay?” asked Ariel.

“Yeah—yeah, I’m okay,” I said sniffling.

“Okay.  If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here,” she said.

School was hard that day.  It’s bad enough when a guy breaks up with you or kicks you to the curb, but to have to see him in your classes and daily life makes it ten times worse.  He was everywhere.  Biology, history, lunch, gym and in the hallways.  Every time I would turn a corner, he would be there.  Every time I started feeling a little better, he would be there. 

When school was over, I walked outside to see my chariot awaiting.  As I got in the car, I got a text.

“Hey, where u been?”

It was Marcus.  Anytime I felt bad he always contacted me.  It was weird.  How did he know I was having bad times?  Maybe it just was a coincidence.  I mean, it wouldn’t be crazy for it to be one: would it? 

“Oh you know, just busy with school n stuff,” I replied.