Chapter Ten

Harden.

If going to beverly hills was what it takes to be with Alessia every day then I'll go there for the rest of my life. Over the few days I've spent with her, I've learnt so much and realized a lot. I always felt this strong pull towards her when she's near and her scent always intoxicated me whenever she's near. Her smiles, her voice, her eyes, her breathes, they all significantly pushed me, got me going. I wanted more. But I wanted to take things slow with her. After all we talked about yesterday, I knew she was going through a tough time.

But there was something so different about her last night, it got my heart beating rapidly. She was the definition of beauty itself.

The fingers snapping right in front of my face sounded very loudly to my ears, cutting me off my thoughts. I blinked repeatedly to find Tephanie bending over me, her fingers still held up in front of my face in a snapping pose, her eyes staring right back at me.

"Fuck, you look so unreal" she said, her eyes pouring into mine.

I shifted back a bit, my eyes still holding hers.

"I've been staring at you from afar," she added "and I could swear you completely looked like a vampire from the movies"

I gulped hard, trying to make meaning of what she just said but she doesn't say anything any further and just rises up from my eye level and said "maybe you're just too handsome to be real. You're all the girls talk about around here ever since you came. There's a party down the beach tonight, you should come and get to know more people that goes to this school"

"A party?"

"Yeah. We're just gonna hang out. It's the fourth beach on Beverly street. You coming?"

The thought of Alessia crossed my mind. This would be perfect.

"Yeah" I nodded.

"Yeah? Cool" she replied, turning around to walk away but stopped abruptly. "Who the hell is that?"

I looked up, trying to see what she's referring to. 

Seth.

Seth walked in through the hallway, and I watched him, watched how the students stopped to look at him, watched how he made the girls he passed whisper to each other's ears. He has a smile on his lips, his one cheek dimple in full display, his hair well brushed across an eye. He's well dressed in an armless brown top and white pocketed shorts, a one handed backpack crossing his chest to the side.

He finally made up his mind to come to the school. The way the girls talked and stared at him, I could say he already got what he wanted. Attention.

I looked beside me to find Tephanie still staring dreamily at him before walking away towards Seth and grabbing him by the arm.

"Hey dude" he said cheerfully at me.

"You came, huh?" I asked him

"Flesh and blood, bro" he replied amidst laughter.

We continued to walk as I questioned him about how he found his way around the school. 

We took a turn to the next hallway where I saw Alessia shutting her locker close. I abruptly came to a stop, causing Seth to turn around to me.

"Yo, what's up?" He asked but I don't reply. I tried desperately to tear my eyes off her but couldn't. I felt my heart thudd against my ribcage as she looked up to see me.

Seth traces my gaze till he saw her and muttered "bloody hell"

Alessia waves towards me before she started to walk to me, a sweet smile on her lips.

"Hey Harden" she calls, glancing over to Seth who now stepped back to me "who's this?"

"Oh," I stammered, snapping out of it "he's my bother"

"I'm Seth," he said, putting out his palm for her to take. Alessia watched his hand with a growing smile then started to bring her hand towards his when I caught it on the way, placing mine just before Seth's and caught hold of her palm.

The feeling of her warm, delicate hand against mine nearly caused a vibration in my body. I watched her eyes, saw how she couldn't stop the smile even though she was surprised at my action. I held her hand, felt it like my life depended on it.

Blinking hard in realization that this was getting real creepy, I took my hand from hers just in time for Seth to put down his hand too and tried to look anywhere but her.

"Where are you headed?" I asked, trying to brush off the situation.

"I'm meeting with Ashley, we have gym" she replied.

"Okay, I'll see you later" I grabbed Seth's hand and pulled him with me.

"It's nice to meet you!" Seth yelled as we disappeared from the hallway.

Pushing him into the Janitor's closet, I shut the door behind us.

"What the hell was that, Harden" he said, throwing his arms apart to emphasize his question. "And who's that girl?"

"She's nobody, Seth"

He folds his arms and gives me a quizzical look before saying "she may be nobody to me but she's definitely something to you. You were all over her, I could hear your heart beating fast from miles away, Harden. Was she the girl you came here to look for? Why? Know her ancestor or something?"

Ancestor..... I stared back at him, his words seeping into me. What did he mean by that? Then the realization hit me hard.

 Shit......

"Wait, you like her?!" He exclaimed "oh my God, Rodger needs to hear this! You finally found a woman you truly like!"

"Shut up, Seth and go to your class" I reached for the door.

"I'm not taking no class, I'm just here for the fun of it"

"Good luck finding that" I told him before letting myself out of the closet.

I heard the closet door open and close behind me. I turned around but seth was nowhere in sight anymore. Hmmmm.... He better keeps his vampirism to himself.

I walked towards the gymnasium, anticipating seeing Alessia. The instant I saw her seated at the end of the spectators benches, pulling up her socks up her legs, my heart skipped a painful beat. I just stood there, watching her. She has her earpiece plugged into her hears , it's end connected to her phone in her hand.

She rises to her feet, the brown short she wore clinging to the curves of her lower body, the pink upper body hug she wore mesmerizing.

The rest of the girls stood scattered throughout the large room, a few talking and the others standing around.

My eyes caught sight of Ashley as she started walking towards her. She wasn't dressed on their gym dress, she was still wearing her outfit from earlier. They stood talking for a while before she turned, catching me staring at her. She looks confused at first to be seeing me at the door but soon smiled widely and waved at me. I waved back with a liplined smile. She started signaling with her hands for me to come.

I slowly made my way towards her, hands tucked inside my pockets.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" She asked me.

"I..... Came to watch you, if that's okay" I replied honestly.

"Sure, totally!" She smiled again, the same smile I could never get tired of.

"Hey, um...... I was wondering if you wanna go somewhere with me" I said to her.

"Oh, where?"

"The beverly beach party" I said.

"The beach? You're going?"

"Not if you don't wanna go. Tephanie invited me earlier so I thought maybe we could go together"

"Yeah, sure. I'd love to go with you" she smiles widely again. "I'll.....meet you?"

"Can I come pick you up then?"

"No, don't worry."

"Then that's not us going together, is it?"

"I just don't want my family getting the wrong impression. Maybe you could wait for me somewhere and I'd come meet you. Deal?"

"Okay, deal"

Alessia's POV.

I got home with an anticipation in my mind. A bigger part of me could'nt wait to go to the beach party with Harden. 

The beach party was a gathering we all did since sophomore year and this clearly wasn't the first time but something about this made me feel so nervous, made me wanna wait till it's right to leave the house but I also wanted to leave immediately. 

Ingrid was right, I didn't wake up to meet her earlier in the morning. She's always so busy.

I never really gave a thought about what they were talking about yesterday, about the vampire in town. I didn't know what to believe. Sure, I've seen many evidences of the existence of vampires around our house. Before I was born, my family always brought back things to show for it after a vampire's kill. In my grandfather's old office room, he had a lot of disgusting things stashed away. Arrows that had struck a particular vampire before, bullets made with Vervain, skulls of dead vampires which they had hunted down, their belongings and other things.

I grew up understanding why my family did all they did In hunting them down. They were dead souls which were already cursed from the start. They have no heart and lacked feelings, and thus they were merciless and killed human being and drinks their blood. The thought of it everytime makes my skin crawl.

But I couldn't jeopardize my life because of my family. I could and would some day take over the family's work but this was my time to live. I haven't killed a vampire before and I didn't know what it felt like. I've never seen any vampires either. I was gonna start getting my vampire killing training once I turned eighteen but I didn't know if it excited me or not.

I shook my head, shaking the thoughts away and instead thought of what I'm gonna wear to the beach. Harden was gonna pick me up in a matter of minutes now.

A mini gown always made a good impression on guys. I rummaged through my closet till I found the dress I liked. It was a pale yellow gown that stopped high above my knees. I decided to wear my hair down and put on my red flat shoes. 

I threw on my pale pink hoody jacket over it and slowly walked towards the door. I'd thought about leaving the house without getting caught but only now do I see how impossible that was without getting caught. Uncle Joxer would probably see me from his room and my mom would never let me leave. She has never approved my going out late in the nights, not even for parties. Not this one.

I stepped back from the door and walked to my window. I looked down to the far ground. My room was on the roof side, I'd get a broken knee if I jump from here. I knew exactly what to do. I ran down the end of the hall, took the sharp corner that led into our back garage. We never used this garage and it remained empty, only filled with things we didn't use anymore.

I slowly and forcefully pushed the window up before throwing my legs over it and letting myself out into the backyard. I threw myself over the fence and landed on the outside. Regaining my stance, I brushed back my hairs, just in time for me to hear the beeping sound of my phone inside my jacket's pocket. I retrieved my phone to see a text message from Allen.

I clicked it open and it read : Sneaking out? Off to do what?

I typed out with a sneer :Not your business, Allen.

Allen: fine. Get back early okay? And don't forget to use protection!

Angrily, I tucked my phone back into my pocket.

"Hey"

I heard the unmistakable voice of Harden in front of me and I slowly looked up to see him, a small smile on his lips.