The next morning, Brent had to leave early. He has gone to meet someone, alerting them to the cause they are fighting for. Lilia, on the other hand, lays on the bed till much later. She has nothing very urgent to attend to, and her head has been feeling too heavy with all the emotions she has been trying to process. Finally, she gets off the bed thinking that she couldn’t lay there all day and some action might make her feel better.After brushing her teeth and freshening up, she looks around her room. It had been some time since she had done a thorough cleaning. It might make her feel in control of stuff. She eats some breakfast and then comes back up to her room to get to the cleaning.She dusts off the windows, vacuums the floor, and rearranges her books on the table. Then, she gets to the big Almirah, rearranging her clothes, keeping them in neater piles, and putting them on hangers. She empties the drawers and arranges her jewelry, pens, papers, diaries, photos, and documents pro
Lilia is standing at the doorway to Esther’s room looking at her.“I -,” she starts to say, but then stops because she has no idea what she should say. What could she say anyway: That this was the first time or it won’t happen again or she didn’t mean it to happen? All these things sound so feeble because this did happen. This happened and it shouldn’t have happened because she knows that it is wrong. Esther is right, Brent doesn’t deserve this. He has been so nice to her. So loving, so caring.“You don’t have to keep it to yourself, Esther,” Lilia says, “and I will not ask you to lie. I will tell Brent myself.”Esther nods.Lilia walks out of Esther’s room and goes downstairs and out of the house. She doesn’t know where she is going, but she can’t bear to just sit in the house.*Damion is standing absolutely still in the middle of Lilia’s room. He is finding it difficult to wrap his head around what just happened. Lilia had left seconds after Esther without saying a word. He didn’t
Lilia enters the house. Brent walks over to her immediately and kisses her.“How’s your day been?” he asks her.“Fine. Yours?”“It was pretty great. I didn’t expect much from the meeting, but it went quite well.”“That’s great,” Lilia says, feeling miserable with every passing second. Brent is in such a good mood. She doesn’t want to ruin it. But she will have to. She has no choice. Even if Esther had not walked in on her and Damion, she would have told Brent. She would not have been able to live with the guilt.Brent takes her hand. He is still talking about his day. Telling her about the vampires he had met. They start walking toward the stairs, and Lilia notices Esther looking at them. Lilia looks at her for a brief moment and then walks upstairs with Brent.Brent turns towards his room, but Lilia pulls him towards hers, so they go there. As they enter the room and close the door behind them, Brent comes closer to Lilia. He places a strand of hair falling onto her face behind her e
Esther, Adeline, Tyrus, Lilia, and Damion are all sitting in the hall since Brent punched Damion and left. They had discussed the details of everything that had happened. Everyone had told Lilia and Damion that it was such a stupid and pointless mistake. They had not denied it. Then, all of them had had some dinner and now they were back to the topic of Brent, Damion, and Lilia because it had been six hours and Brent had not returned. Tyrus had called and so had Lilia and Damion but he hadn’t answered any of their calls.“Maybe,” says Adeline, “he is waiting for all of us to go to bed so that he doesn’t have to talk to anyone and that’s why he would probably come late in the night.”“Probably,” says Damion, “Brent often retreats into his cocoon when he is sad.”“Then, should we stop waiting and leave him be instead?” asks Adeline.“I don’t know,” says Lilia, “we should at least be sure that he is alright.”“He is over a hundred and eighty,” says Tyrus, “I’m sure he can handle heartbre
“I got you something,” says Esther and takes out a blood bag from a tiny bag she had put down beside her. “I figured you might enjoy some nourishment.”“I surely would, thanks,” says Brent, taking the blood bag from her and opening it to take a sip. “I am still amazed that you managed to find me.”Esther smiles at him and then looks up at the sky saying, “It really is a beautiful view.”“Yeah.”They sit there in silence for a few minutes and then Esther asks, “How are you feeling, Brent?”“I’m okay.”She looks at him but he doesn’t. He keeps looking straight ahead.“I don’t think so,” says Esther “but if you don’t want to tell me, I understand.”There is silence for a few seconds and then Brent says, “I can’t believe it, although to others it may seem an obvious thing to have happened. Two good-looking young people. Why not?”“No, it’s not obvious. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it either.”“You saw it?” Brent asks in a surprised tone.“I walked in on them.”“Do you think that’s why
When Damion wakes up the next morning, it takes him a few seconds to realize why he is feeling so tense. He presses the palm of his hands over his eyes and the images of Lilia and Brent flash through his mind. He did not know whether Brent had returned home last night. Even if he had, he did not know how to approach him, what to say, or how to start the conversation.Damion gets off the bed and walks into the washroom. He wants to think about Lilia and the kiss and feel her and her lips, but he knew that he would not be able to relish the memories until he cleared things up with Brent. After freshening up, he goes out into the kitchen for breakfast. He sees Esther, Tyrus, and Adeline sitting there.“Good morning,” says Damion, “Did Brent come home last night.”“He did,” replies Esther.There is a pause in which Damion walks to the fridge for some juice and all the others follow his movements with their eyes.“So,” Tyrus addresses Damion, “you gonna apologize to him?”“Of course, I am
Damion doesn’t say anything immediately. He is touched by the fact that Brent believes he would not have sabotaged his relationship with Lilia just for the sake of sexual drive. It is true, he wouldn’t have. But still, it felt good to see Brent acknowledging it even though he had hurt him.“That doesn’t make it right,” Damion says.“No, it doesn’t.”“I- I don’t know when or how it happened. I was there with her. We used to spend a lot of time together...”“I understand, it’s hard to get to know Lilia that well and not fall for her.”“I’m sorry.”“You cannot control your feelings. You can control your actions and you did, to a large extent.”Damion doesn’t say anything, he had controlled his actions for a long time, but he still wished he had not given in to his feelings yesterday. He wanted things to go forward with Lilia, but not like this.Brent gets up and walks over to Damion. He places his hand on Damion’s shoulder and says, “If Lilia has feelings for you too and you two decide t
The weekend had been weird in the house for Lilia. With all the mess between her, Brent and Damion, for the first time, she was glad that she would be leaving for University in the evening. But there is one thing that is still bothering her. Damion would accompany her like he always did, and she didn’t know how she felt about that. She had not had a one-on-one conversation with him since she had told him she needed time and it might feel weird to go with him. She wished someone else could accompany her, but as all of them were vampires or at least half-vampire, they couldn’t.In the evening, she bids everyone goodbye and sits in the car with Damion. They don’t talk for a while, but then Damion says, “We don’t have to make it weird necessarily, you know.”“But it is weird, isn’t it.”“Look Lia, I cherish the friendship I have with you. So, if there can’t be anything more, I want us to at least be good friends.”“What do you mean by ‘if there can’t be anything more? Do you want somethin