I’m watching you…
I was sick of Trevor bothering me, and his game was about to end. I pressed the redial button, prepared to chew him out.
I heard a ringing coming from behind me but saw no one. I rose and followed the ringing until I made my way up toward the Sterling monument.
Out from the darkness emerged Alexander, a cell phone ringing in his hand.
My heart stopped. It couldn’t be. Alexander had a cell phone—and had been texting me?
“It goes against everything you believe in.”
He smiled a broad smile.
“It was you—all along?” I asked, still shocked.
He continued to beam.
“But you sent me messages during the day,” I said, “when you were sleeping in your coffin.”
“You’re not the only one who gets insomnia.”
The image of Alexander lying in his coffin, thinking of me and texting, melted me.
“But what made you do this?”
“I’ve always wanted to sit next to you in class. Buy your lunch. Watch you study. You should have all the things a normal girl gets from her boyfriend. And by going out with me…”
“I’m not normal, though, no matter who I go out with,” I said with a laugh. “At least these Dullsvillians don’t think so.”
He put his arm around me. “You aren’t normal to me, either. You are extraordinary.”
I wrapped my arms around him.
“You should have all the good things coming to you,” he continued. “All the gifts. I don’t want you to ever doubt how much I care for you.”
I took his free hand in mine. “But this isn’t your thing. Technology. Modern conveniences.”
“It’s not about what’s my thing,” he said with a smile. “It’s about yours.”
I hugged Alexander with all my might.
“But I don’t want you to change.”
“It’s not about changing—it’s about growing, together,” he said, like the wise soul that he was. “I wanted to let you know—that I am with you. Always. Forever. We don’t have to be separated by the sun, school, or even the night. Now I’m just a click away.”
I was deeply moved by Alexander’s present to me and rewarded my vampire boyfriend with mortal kisses.
15
Party at the Mansion
I spent the following day alone, toiling around in the Mansion’s backyard while Alexander and Sebastian slept in their respective tombs. No one would be able to help me set up for the party. That’s what I got for wanting to date a vampire.
I hung the skeleton lights from the wrought-iron fence and put place mats on a coffin-lid table. I lined the crumbling walkway with votives and floor-length candelabras. The fake tombstones poked out from the dead grass. Sebastian had hooked up his sound system in the gazebo, and I decorated it with plastic bats and blinking skulls.
By the time Alexander and Sebastian awoke, I was beat. The pair was wide-eyed and freshly groomed when they found me crashed out on a sofa in the parlor room.
Alexander gently petted my hair and awakened me from my catnap.
The best sight in the world was Alexander. Even blurry, he was smoldering. His deep, dark hair melted over his ears, and his smile was heavenly.
“You’ve really outdone yourself,” he said. “The backyard looks great!”
“What time is it?” I perked up in a hurry.
“They should be here soon,” he said.
“I’m not even dressed!” I exclaimed. “And I feel like I just got out of gym class.”
I leaped up from the sofa and dashed to the upstairs bathroom.
I only had twenty minutes to clean up. I washed, dried, primped, powdered. It was something I was used to, as I normally overslept and had to get ready for school in record time.
Also, I was extra speedy because I was anxious for our party to begin, eager to see Onyx and Scarlet, and for
Sebastian to fall in love with one of them so my relationship with Becky would return to normal.
When I finished my fifteen-minute makeover, I descended the outside backstairs as if I were a contestant in a beauty pageant. Only, instead of stilettos, hose, and a white ball gown, I was in rubber lace-up boots, fishnets, and a black slip dress. I spun around in my outfit.
“Boy—you look hot!” Alexander said. He was setting up the fire pit.
“Make that double hot!” Sebastian concurred.
Sebastian was tinkering with the sound system, making sure his favorite hits were loaded onto his iPod. The three of us talked for a while, but our monsterfest wasn’t going as planned. There was no sign of Onyx and
Scarlet.
Alexander stoked the fire. Sebastian fixed some of the skeleton lights, and I adjusted my suffocating boots.
“It’s been nightfall for over an hour,” I finally commented, glancing at my watch. “Where are they?”
“Maybe they got lost,” Alexander said. “Did you give them directions?”
“Several times.”
“Then I bet something else came up,” Sebastian lamented.