Sudden Bite

Chapter 5: Unexpected visit

“You totally cheated!” I complain, throwing a pillow in Sam’s direction. He only laughed and dodged the pillow successfully from where he sat on the ground leaning back against his bed. I toss the game controller I held to the side, declaring my final defeat. For a number of hours now, we have been spending our Saturday afternoon playing Mario cart and Sam has successfully beaten me every single time.

“How? I just have more experience than you,” he retorts grabbing my control and placing it on the table next to his TV.

“Ya, well some of us have to work for our grades,” I pout,flopping back on his bed to look up at the ceiling. It was covered in glow in the dark star stickers just like my ceiling was. I still clearly remember that day in the sixth grade when dad bought the packets of stickers and helped Sam and I (safely) stick them on the ceiling while mum was gone working. She was so mad when she came back and found over ceilings covered in the faintly green stars but dad insisted that it was sweet that Sam and I wanted to see the‘night sky’ while lying in bed. I still counted them when I couldn’t sleep some nights.

“Something on your mind?” Sam asked coming to sit on the edge of his bed next to me, having noticed the long sigh I let out.

“Alexander and I got into an argument yesterday. He was ignoring me for like a week. I don’t think we’re friends anymore,” I confess.

“I told you he was bad news Catalina. Do I need to beat him up?” Sam automatically asks making me c***k a smile.

“You’ll just get yourself hurt,” I tell him as my way of saying ‘no’.

“You guys weren’t close right? I mean it hasn’t been a month since he transferred right? You’ll get over it soon.” Even though Sam is trying assure and comfort me his words sting. He was right, I haven’t known Alexander that long, and yet I was a little disappointed that we weren’t going to be friends. I just needed to stop thinking about this, go back to living my life how I always do and then I’ll be fine.

“Anyways,” I speak up a moment later wanting to change the conversation topic, “What are you doing next weekend for our birthday?”

“Hang out with the guys? Nothing special. You can join if you want; you know the guys love you,” Sam replies.

“Ya, a little too much,” I mutter to myself remembering how Asher had touched me.

“What was that?” Sam asked, having thankfully missed my words.

“Nothing. I’ll probably just hang out at home, maybe go get ice cream with dad?” Sam nods in acknowledgment and falls back to lay next tome. It’s quiet for a long time; the two of us simply staring up at the star stickers… that is until dad calls us done for dinner.

Hours later the sun has set and the moon is high in the sky;it’s only eleven o’clock but I was sure that dad had gone to bed and that knew that Sam was in his room doing whatever he does in there. I on the other hand,sat at my desk working on my math homework. Fairy lights lit up my room and music softly played from my phone as I worked through the algebra questions swiftly. However, my work is interrupted by an odd knocking sound.

Whipping around in my chair I realize that someone is knocking my window and that that someone is Alexander Knight. I hesitated at first but eventually I went over and kneeled one knee on my window seat and unlocked the window to prop it open for him.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as soon as he’s in my room,closing the window right behind him to keep the cold night air out of my cozy bedroom.

“I want to talk.”

“And if I don’t?” I retort as I sit down on my bed, legs criss cross and long sweater sleeves covering my hands.

“Then listen.” I’m a little shocked by his reply to be honest but then again Alexander always did come off as a quick thinker, someone who would always have a reply without having to miss a beat. Not to mention the force that was in his tone. “You were right, you can make your own decisions, I don’t doubt that. But getting involved with me isn’t just dark – it’s dangerous.”

“You’re the one that started this, why should I have to deal with this because you regret your choice to approach me?”

“Again, you’re right,” it was oddly pleasing to hear Alexander repeatedly tell me that I was right, “it is my fault. And I’m probably always going to regret this but I’ve already walking in so I’m not walking out – if that’s alright with you.” I can’t help but let out a breathy laugh when he’s confident tone suddenly becomes unsure and rushed at the end.

“Ignoring people is mean,” I state and he nods in agreement,“Taking away someone’s freedom of choice is mean,” he nods yet again, “And keeping secrets from your friends is mean.”

“We’re friends?”

“Well if you’ve decided to stop ignoring me and being a jerk than yes,” I tell him with a small smile. “Now, how in the world did you get on my roof?”

“I guess I’m pretty strong.” He shrugs as if it was no big deal but I begged to differ.

“How come you just didn’t wait till Monday to talk to me?” I ask, genuinely curious about this.

“I didn’t want you to be mad.”

“That’s cute.”

“I don’t do cute, Kit.” He rolls his eyes in reply while I simply ignore that and pat the spot next to me on the bed.

“Let’s talk; I wanna know more stuff about you.” And that was the beginning of a long game of twenty one questions. We began with more surface level questions such as favorite color, animal, movie, song, etc. I was surprised when I learnt that is favorite animal is a black cat because I adored cats, I always thought they were fluffy and cute and definitely not what I would associate Alexander with. However, I wasn’t surprised when he said black cat because just two questions before that he revealed that black was his favorite color, a revelation that resulted in quite the debate about colors.

“Black isn’t even a color,” I insist.

“If I can see it, wear and name it I’m pretty sure it’s a color,” he protests.

“It’s a shade not a color. And even if it was a color why black? Do you know how many colors and variety of colors exist? Like thousands and yet you chose black?”

“Says the girl whose favorite color is yellow?”

“And what is wrong with yellow?” I demand sounding seriously offended.

“It’s too bright.”

“Says the one who likes black,” I mimic before going on to explain why yellow was amazing. Think of like sunflowers, they are massive beautiful flowers and they’re yellow, actually any flower that is yellow is beautiful. And not only bright yellow but pale yellow too. Just think of everything that is yellow, it’s so happy and soft and beautiful and like –” I suddenly stop when I realize that Alexander is just staring at me. “Whatever,clearly you’re insane.” I decide giving up on this color debate.

“It’s late,” I comment realizing that midnight had passed along time ago. Not only did the look read 12:47 but it was becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes open.

“You should get some sleep, I’ll head out now,” Alexander said, clearly noticing how I was getting tired even though I attempted to hide it from him. He stands up but can’t take more than a step before my hand suddenly shots out and grabs his wrist.

“You… you’re not going to ignore me Monday right?” I ask nervously. Last time when he started ignoring me it happened so suddenly, the day before we had been talking and even laughing, I was nervous that it would happen again.

“No, I won’t ignore you ever again,” he reassures gently removing my hand away from his wrist. “If I can’t stay out of your life that I’ll just have to protect you from the danger in mine.” Even though I didn’t really understand everything he was saying the sentiment was loud and clear,warming my heart in the process. I smile with a slight nod of my head and standup to ‘walk him out’. “Text me if you need anything okay?” He says before crawling back out the window and gracefully making his way back down to the ground. He was like a cat, the way he easily landed on his feet.

Feeling much more at peace now that confused storm no longer raged inside my head I found that falling asleep was easy.

The next day I had to finish my math homework since Alexander had interrupted me from doing so the previous night. Speaking of Alexander, he was occupying a picnic table up on the roof Monday during lunch before me,which never happened.

“Awn, did you miss me,” I tease as I slide onto the bench across from him, proceeding to take my lunch out. Alexander rolled his eyes but the action wasn’t cold.

“What’d you do yesterday?” He asked instead of acknowledging my joke.

“Homework,” I sigh in response, wishing that my weekend had been a little more exciting. Well… I suppose a boy sneaking in through your window was kind of exciting but that wasn’t yesterday technically.

“Speaking of homework, did you finish the discussion questions for English?” My jaw suddenly drops.

“What English homework? I wasn’t there Friday? Why didn’t you tell me, you were literally at my house Saturday and you’re the whole reason I missed,” I freak out. Most teachers used the school’s website to update homework to keep absent students up to date but McMillian hadn’t posted anything so I assumed we didn’t have any homework.

“I’ll go over it with you know so you’ll be ready for the seminar,” he assures me before he starts to shuffle through his bag for his work. “So you remember the short stories we ready Thursday right? These are the questions for them,” he explains, flipping his notebook open to the right page and turning it towards me so I could quickly read them. I also quickly jotted them down in my notebook so even if I didn’t have my answers written down at least I’d have the questions.

“The realization she made was that if she continued to hold onto her relationship, which she knew was basically over, she would end up like the old man right?” I ask referring to the second question we had been assigned.

“Basically ya, cause the old man was stuck in this fantasy world believing that his family would join him even though deep down he really knew that they were dead.”

“That’s so sad,” I comment with an evident frown.

“I mean kind of. But he was so old, the fantasy was the only thing keeping him happy so isn’t it a good thing that he didn’t acknowledge the truth. He’d spend his last years alive miserable is he didn’t convince himself that they would come one day,” Alexander said thoughtfully, getting the gears in my mind to turn.

For the rest of lunch we had our mini discussion in preparation for the seminar we’d be having in English last period and I was actually really happy with how we spent our time. Alexander clearly had some pretty dark secrets and kept a lot hidden but I didn’t care, we didn’t have to take about that, it was just about enjoying each other’s presence and talking about whatever.

-

For the entire week our lunches were filled with conversation instead of Alexander sleeping.

Tuesday we talked about traveling. I’ve never left this town but I told Alexander my long list of desired places to visit. He told me about the number of places he’s been to with his family – making me seriously jealous. Alexander promised me that one day he’d take me someone where that was on my list and the promise made me turn red and flustered. At that point it had only been a few days ago that he was insisting he couldn’t be a part of my life and now he was insinuating he’d be in it for a long time. I didn’t mind, I was just seriously confused.

Wednesday I helped him with his math homework, working him through each question step by step. While I grinned the whole time, happy to help him with my second favorite subject, he groaned, staring at the math textbook with serious hatred which amused me to no end. Thursday made random conversation, talking about movies and related topics; that was the day that I learnt that Alexander loved the Fast and Furious series while I revealed thatI’d never seen them before. His jaw had dropped when I told him so and I’m positive that that’s the biggest reaction I’ve ever gotten out of him which pleased me immensely.

Friday Alexander napped through lunch while I got some homework done. I didn’t mind that he was sleeping, I never did, and I definitely didn’t after the week we just had. We really felt like friends now and it was nice. There was still something that bothered me though, it wasn’t that I didn’t know about his past or family, it’s just that I still don’t know why he kissed me last Friday – the day of our argument. He very well could have done it thinking it would be a quick fix to the situation but the memory continued to nag at me. I wanted to forget about it because it meant nothing,but it was my first kiss so that was harder said than done.

“My birthday is tomorrow,” I suddenly state as Alexander and I leave English together that afternoon.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked. Although he remained mostly emotionless I knew that was just him and that in reality he was surprised. I was lucky that I was so good at reading people otherwise trying to figure out Alexander would be next to impossible.

“Kind of forgot to be honest,” I admit with a slight shrug.

“Any plans?”

“Nope,” I reply, popping the ‘p’ at the end.

“But it’s your eighteenth birthday,” Alexander commented obviously.

“You probably haven’t noticed but I’m not the most social person, it’s not like I’ve got some big event planned.”

“It doesn’t have to be big,” Alexander reasoned while I simply shrugged. A silent moment passes before Alexander suddenly speaks again,“I’ll pick you up tomorrow at six okay?”

“Why?” I dumbly asked.

“So we can celebrate your birthday,” he explains with as mall smile that flusters me.

“Oh,” I sheepishly reply, “Okay.”

“Cute,” he comments, patting my head gently twice before he heads over to his car leaving me there with increasing pink cheeks.