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Chapter 5

It was lunch time, and I hadn’t recognized one person, besides the teachers. Everyone was staring at me like I was an alien. Well, they’re pretty close. I had a couple of guys drooling at me during English, and many girls rolling their eyes at me and the droolers. Sigh. I never realized that I would be stared at this much. It reminded me of the incident in the front office. Reaching into my loaded messenger bag, my hand hit a hard cell phone like thing. I pulled it out along with an apple.
Hm, it was a cell phone. Wondering if it worked, I turned it on. The screen flashed and a bright neon blue winked at me, telling me that I had 498 missed calls and 13,897 unread text messages. My eyes popped at the news. I never considered that I would get this many updates over a single year. While I was remembering how to read the texts, someone came up from behind me and squashed me into a huge bear hug.
“What the—oh hello there!” I squeaked, dropping both my cell and half-eaten apple. “Aw, crap. Now my apple will taste funny.”
“Wow, don’t cry over a funny-tasting apple, hun,” Michael teased, bending down to pick up my cell phone and kicking the apple into a nearby bush. “Wow, I did send you a lot of texts, didn’t I? Seriously though, why haven’t you checked them? You’ve got a lot to read, besides homework stuff.” His eyes sparkled at me, and his face was joyful. He was obviously in a nice, playful mood because he reached out to put a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I shivered at his touch, forgetting how human skin felt on my skin: almost like a burning sensation, but mainly just really hot.
“Um, well I totally forgot that I had a cell phone,” I said quite truthfully, because the moment I got back to Midnite, it had stopped working altogether, along with all the other things I got in the Human world. I looked up at the sky, escaping Michael’s eyes. It looked quite stormy, and I could see snowflakes starting to form.
“Honestly, you forgot? By the way, what happened to you? One moment I saw you walk into the mall, writing something down in a black notebook, and then you disappeared. I looked everywhere for you, you know. My friends were worried because I seemed so…miserable… and lifeless,” he confessed, his voice scratchy.
“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t forgive myself for leaving, but I didn’t have any choice! Honest. You could think of it like I was imprisoned or something. I couldn’t reach you, even though I tried so hard, so many different ways. I was miserable, too, you should ask my sister,” I mumbled lamely. I normally didn’t show my true emotions to anyone, let alone Humans. But there’s something different about this boy. Almost like he’d believe anything.
“Oh, I see. So, how about some lunch?” he asked playfully, settling back into his earlier mood.
“Mood swing,” I muttered, then continued louder, “Sure. Just as long as there’s either coffee, apples, or chocolate available, I’ll be more than okay. Where do you have in mind?” I asked.
“Well, I hope you like Italian food, because I would like to take you to this great little place called Luigi’s. You’ll love it, and don’t worry, they’ve got coffee there. You sure do like coffee and apples, don’t you?” he informed me with glee on his face.
“Um, okay, sure. Plus, I’ve got some more apples left in my bag. But how are we supposed to get there?” I asked, suddenly worried. I didn’t feel like walking, and questions would arise if I suddenly sprouted wings and flew there.
“Ha, no worries. I, unlike some, have a car. And it’s a nice car, just so you know. Since I’m 17, I can take anyone I want off campus, too. Come on, let’s go hun,” he boasted. I raised my eyebrows and my breath stopped the moment he grabbed my hand to pull me along. My heart was beating like mad, and my lungs were bursting from lack of oxygen. What was happening to me? It’s like I’ve gotten some feelings for this boy. This wonderful, amazing boy that seemed to miss me and remember me from a few weeks that happened a year ago. Was I falling in love with him? Or was it falling away with him? This wasn’t supposed to happen to Shinigamis. Actually, it was almost restricted.
“Okay, close your eyes for a moment. My car is pretty new; I just got it a week ago. It’s my early Christmas present from my long-lost aunt,” he informed.
“Um, do I have to? How do I know I can trust you?” I asked warily. Serena had done too many things like this to me before, all of them ending negatively.
“I promise, and if I make you run into anything dangerous that could hurt you in any way, you can do the same to me, or something that would justify it for you, okay?” he promised, his eyes somewhat mocking and somewhat serious. I just nodded and put one of my hands over my eyes. He tugged me along, giving directions like, “Right” and “Stop” the whole way. My foot caught on a loose stone and I tripped, falling into invisible pavement. Hard, but gentle arms caught me before the fall proved fatal. I looked up into the eyes of my rescuer and smirked.
“Hmm, seems my clumsiness broke your promise. See, I have a stubbed toe,” I mocked, after examining my toe. It was starting to bleed, which was really bad. “Ugh, don’t look, my toe’s bleeding now.” The blood oozed out like black ink, expanding when it hit the ground. Holding my blood-dripping toe up, I looked for something sanitary to wipe it up with in my bag.
I looked up at Michael after I heard a gasp from him. His face was incredulous, his eyes fixed on my toe. He reached a hand out to touch it. I tried to put my blood covered foot out of his reach, but his finger swiped some up some of it. He stood there, fascinated with the little sphere of my blood on his finger.
“Your blood… it’s black. Why?” he asked, his voice low.
“Um, isn’t that the color of blood?” I said, bewildered.
“No, blood is red. At least that’s the color of normal blood,” he said. Then he asked, much more seriously, “What are you, Serenity? I know you’re not normal, so you could be some kind of Angel or mythical being or something? You can tell me, I promise that it won’t leak to anyone.”
I froze. Why had the thought of me being a mythical being enter his head? I guess I didn’t give him much credit. He observes things much too closely. Way beyond the normal human way of observing. I looked at him, gazing straight into his eyes. He gazed straight back, and I felt something connecting us. Something connecting his soul to mine.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you right now. Plus, what if I’m not the angel, what if I’m the bad one? Either way, I can’t tell you right now,” I whispered. His eyes grew understanding, almost like he could feel the reason why I couldn’t tell him.
“I understand, it’s okay,” he murmured, then continued smiling, “so, let’s get to Luigi’s before we run out of time to eat. He pulled me to my feet and held my hand as he guided me to his new car.
Michael stopped before a shiny, silver sporty-looking car. It was chic, and very hot.
“Wow. That is a nice car. What kind is it?” I asked, admiring it while opening the passenger door.
He chuckled, “BMW Z4. I can’t believe you don’t even remember the name of your favorite car.” I just frowned at him.
As we sped towards the restaurant, Michael adjusted the air conditioner and music. He grabbed a CD case and switched out CDs. Then after he got a somewhat familiar song playing, he turned up the heater. It was starting to snow outside, so I fascinated myself with watching people hurry through the streets, trying to escape the snow. I never saw snow, even though Midnite would go through the different seasons.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, breaking the silence. We were at a stop light, so Michael looked over at me and smiled.
“Yes, it is,” he said, looking at me. I got the feeling that he wasn’t only talking about the snow, though. “Well, we’re here. Come on,” he said.
“Um, are you paying?” I asked warily.
“Silly goose, of course. When I invite someone to lunch or dinner with me, I always pay. It’s called courtesy.”
“Ah, okay. Well then, shall we?” I smiled and raised one eyebrow, opening the door of the car.
He smiled mischievously at me and hopped out of his car, clearly excited. He pulled me to his side and we walked towards the wooden door that served as an entrance to the restaurant. I looked up as the sky again, gazing at the swirling snowflakes. One landed on my nose and I giggled. Michael looked down at me and blew the snowflake off my nose. I smirked at him and then watched where I was going. We were at the door, and I could hear clattering and music playing. I smelled pizza and spaghetti and cheese as Michael reached to open the door.