The next school day practically flew by. Having lived for
almost 600 years, I have lived through many of the greatest historical events,
which made the double history period at the start of the day quite irrelevant.
In the rest of the classes I at least tried listening with half an ear to keep
up my human act, but my mind was elsewhere. Having Seth sit next to me in most
of my classes really didn’t help either. He was wearing his shirt buttoned to
the top today, obviously hiding the puncture wounds.

I felt quite embarrassed about what happened, so tried
ignoring him, my thoughts dwelling on Zayden instead.

Where do we go from last night? The transition from friends
to more could be uncomfortable, but i found that a part of me was more than
willing to try.

During lunch, Cara seemed her bright and bubbly self, the
moments which lead to her slight breakdown the previous night seemingly
forgotten. I was quite surprised though that she recovered so fast. Judging by
the amount of blood she lost, she should still be pretty weak. Yes, when a
person loses up to 10% of their total blood volume, the body can still
compensate for it, but not at such a rapid pace.

Then again, I really didn’t know all that much about her,
did I? I was just following the orders that were issued.  I was only told to protect her. The one who
issued those orders was Delphine.

If anyone knew more about Cara, it would be her. I guess
it’s time for me to pay her a little visit.

Just then, Tammy came running back into the cafeteria. She
had left earlier after a small argument with her boyfriend, trying to clear her
head.

“Gosh, Cara, Aralynne, you HAVE to come outside today!”

I immediately shook my head. Even though it wouldn’t harm
me, I still disliked the sun’s rays. I am, after all, a creature of night.

“Oh, please! Aralynne, you of all people have to come. It’s
a surprise.”

Her last words tickled my interest. I am curious by nature,
so if whatever she wanted me to see had to do with me, I wanted to check it
out.

After a while, Cara and I agreed.

“Sure, Tammy, lead the way.”

To my surprise, Tammy and we had to shove and push our way
through quite a crowd to get to the football field, but in the end, it was
quite obvious why. Even in high school, things like this don’t normally occur.

On the grass, arranged in letters with tons and tons of
white and red roses, was a small message. Three simple words that stunned the
school. No, not because it was clearly addressed to me, but because of the
absolute scale of it all.

“’Be mine, Aralynne.’ Gosh, someone clearly likes you, my
dear!”

The voice next to me sent shivers up my spine.

“What are you doing here, Seth? “ I tried to keep my
response as cold as possible.

“Well, it’s my job to keep tabs on you and that little girl
of yours, so unfortunately, even the details of your love life have to be
documented. Sad, but true. So, aren’t you going to give the poor soul an
answer?”

“I don’t even know who the poor soul is, Seth.”

A sly smile slowly crawled up his lips.

“Sure you do, he’s waiting for you down there.”

And sure enough, between all the roses, a familiar face
stood- Zayden.

With purpose, I started making my way down the steps, trying
to ignore the mocking cheers from Seth as I walked away. My mind was made up. I
knew what I had to do.

Zayden’s smile spread with each step I took closer. When I
reached him, he greeted me with a big bear hug.

“I must say Zayden, this is quite an unexpected surprise.”

He merely shrugged.

“No, not really. After our conversation last night...I
realised how badly I want to be with you. I want to protect you from any
possible pain.  I just figured that you
of all people wouldn’t forgive me or say yes if I didn’t put some effort into
asking you out, otherwise, you would’ve been mine by now.”  His voice was open, honest, and his hands
didn’t let go of mine for even a second.

Oddly enough, I actually giggled when he said that.

“What makes you so sure that I needed all this fanfare
before I would say yes?”

H e laughed at my question.

“Seriously? Aralynne, lets face it, you have been around
longer than I have, and have probably been asked for your hand more than once.
I had to make sure that I can still impress you, despite all you’ve seen in the
past.”

Without hesitation, I kissed him. His warm lips were quite
welcome against my cold ones, and the rush of emotions as our lips and bodies
moulded together was quite impossible to describe. Behind us, the eager crowd
started to cheer and clap. For the first time in quite a while, I felt happy.

When we finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against
mine, his hands still on my lower back.

“mmmm, so, was that a yes?” he teased.

“It sure was!” I giggled.

So, this is what it felt like to love? I must say, it is more than just a wildly misunderstood
although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain,
causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to
pucker. It somehow gives you the courage to live.