Bad News

Because Nate was too lazy to go back to school, he chose to go home. Fortunately, without Alex. It seems the younger vampire had his own work to do. When he was ready to go in his room, his father came out of the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow, curious at what Nate would say this time.

“I have other things on my mind, dad.” The old man nodded, understanding.

“Tomorrow we’ll have guests, Nate.” The vampire turned fully to his father. “Your cousins.” Nate’s eyes widened and flashed in his room. There, he took the phone and called Stella.

On the other side, Stella was back to her normal self. Of course her friends were a little skeptical as to why she didn’t show her remorse more visibly. The truth was that she didn’t feel it.

“I feel bad in a way. One of my friends was killed by my brother and I don’t care.” Eric shrugged. We chose to skip the next class, which was history.

“That’s part of you. Vampires usually invent their own sentiments and after a while they get accustomed to them and actually believe in them. For example: you and Nate. You’ve been used and taught to believe you have the same feelings as a human.”

“But what if the feelings are really deep? Then they exist?” Eric shrugged again.

“I never tried.” I nodded and sighed. While both of us started spacing out, thinking, I felt my phone vibrate.

“Yes, Nate.” I heard him shift and move. It was a sign he was on his feet, walking through his room.

“Tomorrow we have guests. Honor guests.” I had my eyebrow raised and glanced at a curios Eric. ”Dad’s sister and her two daughters. That means cousin Ash too.”

“Cousin Ash?” I could actually see him nodding, disgusted.

“Yes. The one with 100 kids and a bitchy younger sister. That one.” Finally getting it, I awed. I flinched too. Eric raised an eyebrow, curious. I bet he had some questions.

“Is she coming with her entire family? Like, her entire family?” I heard Nate growling.

”Yes.” I sighed and hung up. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. Eric chuckled but came and took me in a one sided hug.

“If you want, I can help you. Just call me. Or even Alex.” I glanced up at him skeptically. He stopped and looked back at me. “Actually, scratch that. Don’t call Alex.” I chuckled and snuggled in his chest.

After school, and of course after I told the girls why I skipped half of the school day, a lie they seemed to have bought, I hopped in Eric’s car and went home. When I opened the door to get out, the car being parked in front of my house, Eric stopped me by grabbing my hand.

“Don’t forget. I’m a phone call away.” I smiled and nodded. I took my bag and flashed into the house. On the way upstairs I threw my bag somewhere, don’t know where it landed, and went in my room.

“So tomorrow…” I rolled my eyes and closed the door. I turned around to face Alex, the hot young vampire with amazing blue eyes. I looked closer at them. So entrancing. Much different than Eric’s. Alex’s are a gray/blue color, clear like water. Also they never express anything, they are cold and sometimes they have a playful twinkle. Eric’s are sincere, also cold but not expressionless. Also his eyes are a deep blue like the sky.

“Earth to Stella, Earth to Stella. Do you hear me?” I rolled my eyes and shook his hand off my face. “You spaced out. And you were staring visibly.” He said, smirking teasingly. I pushed him away and went and threw myself on the bed. I sighed happily and closed my eyes. “Huston, we have a problem.” He said playfully. I could already imagine the smirk he had.

“If you want to know, we do have a problem.” He raised his eyebrow, curious. I took this as a sign to continue. “My…um…cousin, Ashley, is coming to visit.” When I finished the last word, Nate trotted into my room, his eyes changing from green to red, fast.

“I hate her! And she has 200 kids who don’t know how to contain their hormones! She has three girls! Three! And one actually had the guts to flirt with me! The oldest of the three is a whore and flirts with any guy she finds hot and the youngest is a freaking 9 years old kid! She also has a much younger boyfriend and she comes with her bitchy sister who’s a few years younger than her and even she flirted with me!” Believe it or not, he said all of this in one breath. Both me and Alex were watching the still fuming Nate, as he jumped on my bed, next to me, and rolled on his back. “If it means I will go to Hell if I kill them all, then I’m taking the risk.” Alex looked at me perplexed. He hadn’t seen this part of Nate before. I did and I was happy to see him going back to normal.

“Ok…I certainly didn’t expect this.” Alex finally broke the silence. Nate rolled his eyes. “It can’t be that bad, right?” Both I and Nate stared at him blankly.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” I finally said.

The next hours we just walked around, dragged ourselves out of the bed to eat and then come back, that’s how Nate ended sleeping in my bed. I woke up the next morning to my brother’s slight snoring. His head was also under the pillow while his legs were tangled with mine. I chuckled seeing him sleeping like a small kid. I got up and went directly into the shower. Next, I walked downstairs, in the kitchen and straight to the fridge. I need nothing but a good sip of that sweet blood.

“Up already?” I raised my eyes to dad who just entered, looking quite amused. I knew already why he was in such a mood. Every time his step-sister and her family came to visit, he got amused and made a joke out of it. I usually got out of the house when she would come with her whole family but Nate had to stay. He is the oldest sibling and there always had to be one of us home. Fortunately, I spent just one time with them, but it was enough to scare me for life.

“Nate won’t be too happy.” He chuckled.

“You won’t either when you’ll hear me out.” I raised an eyebrow, kind of embracing myself for the worst. “This time you can’t save yourself.” My eyebrow started twitching. “I’m sorry but after school you’ll come straight home. They will most likely be here already.” I sighed and let my head fall on the table.

“Nate’s going to kill them.” Dad rolled his eyes.

“He won’t. I trust him. But, Stella…” I raised my head and looked at dad’s parental expression. “No Alex and no Eric this week.”

“Fine.” I stopped, finally realizing what he said. “Wait, what?”

“You can meet them anywhere but here. Alex is dangerous and I know they would both get annoyed and kill them, eventually.” I couldn’t stop imagining that and laughing. It was a good image. Dad scolded me for my thoughts while I simply rolled my eyes. I was getting annoyed when Nate entered, looking as cold as ever. He didn’t even look at us, he just went and took his cereals out from the cabinet and the milk from the fridge. I watched as he put the milk and cereals in the bowl and started eating like a robot. I rolled my eyes at his childish behavior. I already knew he wouldn’t talk with any of us soon, he needed to get it through his head that Ashley was coming. I got back in my room and guess what I found there.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Alex rolled his eyes.

“Do I look like I care?” He got off the bed and went in my bathroom. He looked into the mirror and smirked. “It doesn’t seem so.” He flashed back on the bed and turned the TV on. I just went into the bathroom and changed in dry clothes. When I got back out he wasn’t there anymore. I sighed, hopefully he wouldn’t come back until I came back from school. I took my bag and went downstairs to see dad on the couch, watching TV. Nate came downstairs soon enough and I went to school. Who knows where my brother went. School for sure not.

“Why do you look so…” I raised my eyebrow and looked at Tracy. It was lunch and the whole day I didn’t catch a glimpse of Eric. After half of the breaks I looked after him, I gave up and hung around with Tracy and Sami.

“So…?” She shrugged. Sami rolled her eyes. Since yesterday, she didn’t really talk with me anymore. Just the usual greets and when she needed to interact in classes.

“Like this is the last day of your life.” I groaned. Sami looked a little weird at me, I guess it sounded more like a growl than groan.

“Because this is the last day of my life. My father’s step-sister comes in town and she has two daughters. The worse is Ashley. She has many kids and they’re all girls and very bitchy ones. Her sister is two years younger than her and she even flirted with Nate.” Tracy gasped dramatically while Sami rolled her eyes again.

“Where is your brother anyway? I haven’t seen him in three days.” I looked down, thoughtful. I need to think fast about something.

“Um…He went to visit mom. Yeah, she lives in…New York.” They nodded, buying it.