Bleeding Love (20 page)

“Did you really
just try to kiss me?” Adrienne asked, confused. She held a finger against her
tingling lips.

Abashed, Xavier
turned around, away from Adrienne, and started walking. Looking straight ahead,
he left his fiancé with an, “I'm your fiancé. I think I can do that.”

“But that doesn't
mean you like me!” she called out to him.

Unbeknownst to
the female vampire, her mate already had intimate feelings for her even before
she first met him at her debut. He had, after all, taken care of her for many
of the last few centuries when she’d been a toddler. He just felt especially
brave tonight to have enough courage to try and kiss her. He should have paid
for it at the kissing booth, it would have been easier.

“Happy Halloween,
Adrienne,” he said, ignoring her last statement.

* * * * *

Thanks to the
Student Council's exemplary talent in planning a party, the gym at Constance
was looked both glamorous and spooky. Black textiles draped from each end of
the ceiling to another while eerie audio effects blasted from the school's
state-of-the art sound system. Everything was going smoothly and as planned.
The only thing that seemed off was that Adrienne's table was situated right
next to Xavier's. The female vampire pursed her lips. Whoever planned the
seating arrangements and hadn’t passed them on to her was obviously oblivious
to the drama this kind of conflict would elicit.

“Adrienne!” Ethan
shouted in a loud voice even though they were quite near each other. “Do you
think we deserve to be seated right beside these nerds?”

Ethan threw a
hateful look at Xavier's table, and in return, he received death glares from
the alpha women of the Night Class. Yvonne, Tatiana, and Valerie were equally
frightening. Their eyes held a very suspicious glint. If looks could kill, they’d
all be dead

“Whatever, E,” Adrienne
answered, not wanting to start the dramatics. “Get over yourself already. I’ll
bet they don’t even notice you.”

He groaned in
irritation
.

“Screw Brianna.”
He was eyeing the room for Bree now. “She probably paid someone to place her
beside her boyfriend a.k.a. the virgin.”

With that, Yvonne
stood up from her seat only to be pulled back down by Xavier. Eyes trailing
down, Adrienne noticed the tight grip her fiancé had on the blonde vampire, and
she couldn't help but clench her fists. After realizing what she had been
doing, feeling jealous, she relaxed and glared at Ethan.

“Drop it, Ethan.”
She was certainly not in the mood to joke. “If you don't want to sit at the
table beside them, then go sit somewhere else. Or better yet, go find Charlotte
and ask her to distract you.”

“And not stay at
the center table?” He scoffed. “Hell no, and Charlotte's coming to the party
late. She's still with her posse.”

“Then if you want
to sit with us, don't act like a bastard,” Tristan inserted.

With a sour look
on his face, Ethan let out an irritated growl before he sat down on his seat.
The rest of Adrienne's group of friends, Brianna excluded, took their places a
short while after. Brianna, on the other hand, decided to infuriate Ethan
further by going over to Aidan's table to greet her boyfriend.

“Seriously, what
does she see in him?” Ethan couldn't help but ask acidly. “He's a dweeb!”

“Are you
seriously asking that question?” Sabrina smirked. “Aidan's hot, and he's
certainly not dweeb if he was able to land Bree.”

“You think he's
hot?” Max asked, pulling her to sit on his lap. They were looking at each other
mischievously and lustfully, as if they were the only two people in the gym.

“And you're
hotter.”Sabrina certainly knew the way to get around the male ego, especially when
it came to her boyfriend. Before anyone could guess Max's reply to that, he had
crushed his lips against her, inviting her informally to engage in a game
called tonsil hockey. No one was surprised to see the two make-out like there
was no tomorrow. They were high school students. That kind of thing was just
normal.

“Looks like the
party just started,” Tristan said smiling, and looking around, he caught a
glimpse of a few of their teachers. “Stupid adult supervision.”

Adrienne laughed
in return.

“Chill, Tryst.”
She was also eyeing her surroundings. “They know that whatever they tell us,
we're not going to listen to, so it's useless for them to even bother trying.”

“So how about we
offer them some spiked punch?” Ethan and Adrienne's eyes glimmered at Tristan's
idea. “Just too really get the party started, hmm?”

The two guys
high-fived each other, while Adrienne shook her head. She was the main
organizer of this Halloween dance, the President of the Student Council, and
whatever might happen, good or bad, would be blamed on her for sure. She just
couldn't agree to the plan even if she wanted to do it with the guys.

“I'm going to get
blamed, guys, sorry,” she said, rubbing her arms with both hands.

As expected,
Ethan jeered at her, even telling her, “You're no fun 
anymore
.”

Adrienne knew
anymore meant,
since they broke up
. Tristan, on the other hand, had enough
humility and understanding to say, “No problem. There's still the senior prank.”

The three of them
looked at each other suspiciously, but before they could plan for that one, a
familiar figure made her presence known to her friends.

“Senior prank, huh?”
a voice interjected itself into the conversation. “So what evil plan have you
people brewed up?”

All heads turned,
and standing before Max, Sabrina, Tristan, Ethan, and Adrienne was Brianna. She
was sandwiched between Aidan and Xavier. Everyone around the table exchanged
greetings with the new arrivals, except for Ethan. The guy was still infuriated
with having to deal with the fact that his table was right beside the geeks.

“I'm glad you
weren't clingy when we were still together, Adie,” Ethan said smugly, poking
fun at the people who just entered the scene. “Some people just get too
attached, and they that think the first guy they date will be the last and the
only one for them.”

Brianna winced at
Ethan's offensive jibe.

Adrienne took the
second-long silence as her opportunity to strike at her ex. “I can't say the
same thing for you, E,” Adrienne said, stepping up to her best friend's
defense. “You were trying to rape me the day we broke up.”

“Now, that's
clingy,” Tristan couldn't help but remark.

“Shut your trap,
asshole.” Ethan's temper was certainly rising, and no one was brave enough or
willing to tone him down. “At least I'm not the one who's pining for someone
who'll never return your feelings.”

That shut
everyone up. Everyone knew Ethan was referring to Tristan. It was embarrassing
enough that Ethan was telling the truth that said girl would never like him the
way he liked her. What was worse though and more embarrassing was when Tristan
locked eyes with Adrienne, who wanted so badly to defend Tristan but couldn't
because it was the truth.

“That's a low
blow, dude,” Tristan answered, his voice muted.

“It's the truth,
and really Adrienne, it's hard to take you seriously when you're a monkey,”
Ethan snarled.

Adrienne couldn't
help it now. Ethan had already crossed his boundaries when he humiliated
Tristan in front of his friends, Xavier and Aidan included. She didn't know
what to say to her ex though, so she did the only thing she could think of that
would hurt as much as Ethan's words did.

Slowly and very
carefully Adrienne released the hold on her vampire instincts and brought her
psychic powers to the fore. After a few seconds, Ethan shut up, and slumped in
his seat. He complained that his head had started to hurt.

“Pride can really
get you into trouble, E.” She was smirking. “And I like myself as a monkey.”

Only Brianna,
Aidan, and Xavier understood the true meaning of Adrienne's words. The rest
were busy eyeing Ethan who was desperately hanging on to a chair and trying to
support himself. After a while, Ethan grew tired of the attention he was
getting from his group of friends, so he left the table and headed to the back
of the room to greet the newcomers, Charlotte and the other cheerleaders. Just
as Adrienne guessed, these girls were wearing next-to-nothing.

“Have we told you
that that monkey costume doesn't compliment your curves 
at all
? And
Ethan was right,” That was Brianna, laughing and giggling at Aidan's side. “I
also wouldn't take you seriously when you’re wearing that costume.”

“You guys told me
a while ago it made me look funny,” she returned, holding and playing with her
brown tail. “Xavier said I look eccentric.”

“And you're
listening to a guy who put no effort at all into his costume?”

Sabrina pulled
away from Max for a second before she came to Xavier's defense and said, “There's
effort there,” Sabrina looked up at Xavier’s mouth. “Those fangs look so, so
real.”

Adrienne,
Brianna, and Aidan all snickered at Sabrina.

Adrienne eyed her
fiancé, and he looked back at her. “What can I say?” That was Xavier, pointing
his fingers to himself. “There's no room for mediocrity in this body.”

Adrienne feigned
a gagging face before she punched him lightly. “What he meant to say was always
expect the worse from him.”

“Ha-ha, Adrienne,
seriously,” interjected her fiancé, looking at her quite intently. “Can anybody
expect the worst from
this
?”

He pointed at
himself again, and Adrienne could only snicker. Xavier was acting slightly
unusual tonight, she realized. He was more talkative, probably because Ethan
was nowhere near, and he was joking with her,
playing with
her. The
point was he was teasing around, so growing even more curious, she asked, “You're
awfully hyper today, Xavier.” Adrienne stared back at him. “Any special reason
for that?”

He pursed his
lips, probably contemplating what his answer was going to be, and after a
while, he crossed his arms over his chest and broke their staring match. He
looked around and frowned when Ethan crossed his line of view. Adrienne assumed
he wasn't going to answer.

“Well?” She
started the toe-tapping. “I'm waiting,”

“You know,” he
started.

Of course
Adrienne didn't know. She was still anxiously waiting for a reply from him.

“I'm flattered
you've been studying my every action. Any special reason for that?” The vampire
even had the audacity to wink in front Brianna, Aidan, Sabrina, Max, and
Tristan for that matter.

The guys, in
turn, hollered to give support to their fellow male while Sabrina and Brianna
eyed him suspiciously, assuming a few things Adrienne was sure she didn't want
to hear about.

“You live in my
house,” answered the one in a monkey suit. “I'd be a snob if I didn't notice
you or the things you do. Besides,” She was playing with him, turning on her
sarcasm button. “I really think that being a snob is much worse than being
attentive and on the lookout for someone, don't you think?”

Xavier smirked
and nodded. He had no choice but to agree, but still, it made him very uneasy
that they were playing the
run-and-hide
game. They were almost drowning
in all the veiled messages. Each wanted the other to say something, do
something, and make some sort of a revelation. But both were proud, so they
didn't give in. Xavier had a reason for being exceptionally talkative and
enthusiastic tonight. He felt brave, Adrienne, on the other hand, really to
skip over and ignore the more significant things in life. She wanted to keep
her feelings buried. But he was getting tired of the game that he and Adrienne participated
in. Xavier swallowed the lump of air in his throat and put his courage to good
use.

“Dance with me,” he
said smirking.

Sabrina, Max, and
Tristan excused themselves to go to one of the tables lined with food and
drinks.

“We're feeling
aggressive tonight, aren't we?” Brianna teased, rising up her eyebrows suggestively.

“It's about time
Xavier grew some balls,” added Aidan, and with that, Adrienne and Xavier
couldn't help but guffaw at the other vampire.

“Dude, you're
telling me that I 
finally
 grew some confidence?” Xavier was
hanging on to Adrienne's shoulder to steady himself. “Look who's talking.”

It was Adrienne's
turn to embarrass the cute but shy couple whose faces were both beet red. “No
offense, Aidan.” Xavier and Adrienne, unbeknownst to both of them, looked like
they were whispering sweet nothings to one another with the way they hung on to
each other. “But Xavier here always had bigger balls than you, and still has.”

“Eww, Adie,
gross!” That was Brianna, even shivering in disgust to prove her point.

“I'm not even
going to comment on that,” said Aidan, abashed.

“How would you
even know?” Xavier asked, trying to unnerve his fiancé with the awkwardness of
the topic. “Or would you like to know?”