To Love A Vampire [Chapter 1]

"Hey Ashe. You still awake?" a voice asked, breaking me from my reviere. I opened my eyes into the dark room. The clock on the bed side table said it was 11:23. Then, I remembered I was at my best friend Amalia's house.

"Yes, Amalia. I'm awake. What's up?" I asked. Amalia never spoke first. Her starting a conversation was definately weird. Ever since her mother's death six months ago, she's always been quiet, a mute. Unless something's bothering her, she'll never speak.

"It's about my brother. About...D-Damian." she stammered.

"Oh. What about him?" I aksed. Her brother is a tough subject for her, since, after all, he was the one who killed her mom.

"Well, even though he's back now, I'm still afraid of him." she said slowly, stuggling for the right words.

"Where did he go anyway?" I asked. Damian was sent away after his homocide. I didn't know where they sent him, but when he came back, he was different. He showed respect to everyone, and, to him, it was as if nothing ever happened.

"Well," she hesitated. I thought I heard her take a deep breath. "You see, when that happened, the police didn't think he would actually have done that conciously. He's always been nice and well behaved. He never even got anything below an A on his report card. No one ever had problems with Damian. He was 'perfect,'" she laughed once without humor. "Untill just recently he started listening to loud music, he swore, he didn't listen to mom. But he never got in trouble with the law. So, the police thought he was possessed. They hired a priest to talk to him in the juvinial jail. That didn't seem to help much, and within the first week there he was sent to a Christain Therapy Center. Six months passed, while he stayed there day and night, always under someone's watch. Then, he was released, only six months after they put him there. The high priest of the center said he was cured of all the evil that possessed him. And he showed it, too. He no longer listened to heavy metal; he threw all the CDs away. He no longer watched horror films with blood and gore, he didn't cuss, he didn't ignore people when they spoke to him, and he listened to everything Aunt Lelah had to say. It was like he was reborn." she said with awe at the end.

"So, what's there to worry about?" I asked when she didn't go on.

"I hear him at night, Ashe. He goes down in the basement every night for...something." she sounded confused.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Ames." I always used her nickname when I tried to comfort her.

"Maybe so. But there's just something about him that's not right." she said, her voice full of mystery.

"Amalia," I glanced at the clock, "it's 11:46. I'm tired, and I'm sure you are, too. Let's get some sleep, okay? We'll talk in the morning." I said with a yawn.

"Yeah. Okay." she replied.

"Goodnight, Ames." I said, yawning again.

"Goodnight, Ashe." she said.

"Sure sure, Amalia Khritstain Kirkman." I pronounced her full name carefully.

"Yep, Ashelein Keira Livingston." she replied with a slight laugh.

I opened my eyes with a gasp. I hadn't realized I stopped breathing, even in my sleep. The clock said it was 3:30, again. Ever since that night, I've been waking up every night at 3:30. I sighed, yawned, and went downstairs to get a glass of milk. Since Maria was still in bed, I figured I'd leave the lights off so I wouldn't bother her. I slowly krept down the stairs. "Ow!" I half whispered. I stubbed my toe on the railing at the end of the stairs. I stumbled into the kitchen, holding onto everything in my reach for support. I opened the refridgerator and took out the gallon of milk. There was a glass on the counter, so I rinsed it out and used it. Then, I heard a klank and a thud outside the kitchen window while I was pouring the milk. I stared out the window in cautious wonder. "What was that?" I whispered to myself. Then, a dark shadow flew by just oustide the window. Much too big for a bird, or even a cat for that matter. There was something wet on my feet. "Oh, crap!" I half whispered, realizing I accidently spilled the milk over on the floor. My glass was overflowing with milk now. I put the gallon back in the fridge, got a towel, cleaned the mess up, and chugged my glass of milk. I put the glass in the sink and wandered back upstairs, gripping onto the rail. When I got back to bed, I tried to think about what that noise could've been outside the window. Before too long, I drifted back to sleep; this time, thankfully, without dreams.

I dragged my feet down the stairs. Aunt Maria noticed my solemn mood. She must've asked about it, but I was too much in a daze to figure out what she said. I was hardly aware of when she left for work, let alone what I was eating. I dressed in a haze. It didn't really matter what I wore here. Forks is such a small town that anything with a designer brand name would make anyone stand out.

Only when I stepped outside did I really notice my surroundings. First off, it was raining. Again. Second, the plant pot that was hanging above the kitchen window was broken on the ground. That must've been the noise I heard last night. But, what about that shadow? It looked like a person out there. Too disoriented from my dream last night to think, I quickly got in my car and turned the heater on. That's when I noticed the time. School was going to start in thirty minutes, and I was late. "Oh, crap!" I said and pulled out of the driveway. I raced down the streets to get to school on time. Luckly, I got the last parking space. Also, I got there fifteen minutes earlier than I would have hoped. As I put my hand on the door, I paused to look in my rearview mirror. Jason and Brittany were walking up behind me. "Day two," I muttered.

I stepped out into the light drizzle as Brittany ran up to meet me. "Good morning, Ashe. Doing okay?" she asked in a bright, enthusiastic voice. "Yeah, I guess," I said, sounding bored. "Hey, Ashe. Have a good day yesterday?" Jason asked. It would never end, would it? "Sure," I replied, still sounding like a dead man walking. He noticed my tone. "Aw, don't worry. It'll get better. I'm new here, too. Moved here 'bout a year ago," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Really? And when did it get better?" I asked with honest curiosity. He hesitated and frowned. "Last Wednesday," he answered quietly. "Great," I muttered. Jason broke into a huge grin and bellowed a laugh. "That was a joke," he said with another laugh. Then the bell rang, and I was running to homeroom with Brittany and Jason right behind me like dogs following their master.

"Hey, Britt, get a look at this," I said, holding out the note I recieved last night.

"Wow. What is it?" she asked, taking the note. She read it quickly.

"Wow," she repeated. "Oh my God, is this for real?"

"Yeah. I found it on my doorstep last night."

"Who do you think wrote it?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think it could have been..." she didn't finish.

"Oh, great." I said, staring at the front of the room.

"What is it?" Brittany asked, following my gaze. Talking to the teacher in front of the room was Matthew Hamilton. Who else? He handed Mr. Keen a slip of paper. Mr. Keen nodded, and gestered to the seat beside me.

"This cannot be happening," I said and dropped my head in my hands. Matthew walked down the aisle to the desk to my left.

"Oh my God. Matthew's going to sit beside you!" Britt gushed. I didn't like how she said "beside you" though. It was like there was something wrong with me.

"Good morning, Ashelein. And to what do I owe your company?" Matthew asked while looking up under his lashes. Oh my freakin God how did he do that? I tried to look away from his beautiful light grey eyes to reassemble my thoughts. After a moment, I think I was ready to speak. "Er...what?" Okay, maybe not.

"I'm sorry for being so rude yesterday. I hope you will come to forgive my rash behavior," he said like a gentleman.

I gasped. "It was you!" I whispered. He seemed to hear it.

"I'm sorry but I do not know what you're talking about," he said with a smile and a wink.

Mr. Keen called class to order then. I tried to pay attention. After about fifteen minutes, I gave up. Matthew was staring at me the entire time Mr. Keen was talking. He was talking about infinate numbers, something I already studied a year ago. So, I started thinking of the past. I was thinking about Amalia and me when we were little kids. When we used to play on the trampoline; how I fell off and sprain my ankle. We used to have waterballoon fights, prank wars, and even snowball fights when we brought her to my grandma's house in Vermont. We played hide-n-seek, tag, baskteball, even though I wasn't any good at it, or running for that matter. She always won every game we played. I always spent the night at her house. We had a lot of fun there. Untill, her brother, Damian, went out of control.......and that incident.......Amalia couldn't believe it........why did it have to happen? I was suprised where my thoughts have turned. But what suprised me more was that Matthew stiffened beside me. It broke me from my day-nightmare and I turned to look at him. I only saw his face for a second, but his expression looked pained. Then he turned away from me. He wouldn't look at me for the rest of the period.

When the bell rang, Matthew turned to me again. "Look, I'm sorry for yesterday. Really. I had no right to act like that. Can we just start over?" he asked while looking up from under his lashes again. Holy crap he needs to stop doing that. "Yeah," was all I could mannage. "Great," he smiled. "I'm Matthew Hamilton. Pleasure to have met you, Miss Ashe." He talked like a gentleman, but he didn't show any sign of trying to shake my hand or touch me. Actually, now that I thought about it, he never came more within a two foot radius of me. I wonder why...