Obsession Starts with a V

Chapter 22

The firework show concluded with David and Harley (who was never seen again) being the first to leave, then Paul and Maria (who showed up to work with a few hickeys on her neck), and finally Marko and Dwayne (who really didn't want to leave Laddie behind, but his hunger was strong and he had to hunt). Laddie had gone home to spend another night with Max and Lucy.

The next afternoon, Sam went to hang out with his friend Tommy while Veronica stayed at Max's house. Growing so bored she decided to venture down to the basement, even though she knew Michael had not fed for a couple of days.

"H-hey Michael? Do you need anything?" She whispered. She was only brave enough to go down the first few steps. There was no response, so she took a few more.

"Michael?"

"Yes Miss V?" He finally moaned from the dark abyss. He was still curled in a ball with his face shoved into a pillow.

Veronica wrinkled her nose at the funky smell of rotten food. "I was just making sure you were still alive."

"Yeah, I am."

"Sorry about what David did. I'm not positive on what a whore is, but I know it's not a good thing and I know Star wasn't one." She managed to go down a few more steps, her confidence growing with his responses.

"She wasn't and don't apologize for him."

"Sorry."

Michael uncurled himself and sat up against the wall at the head of his bed. He moved like a depressed zombie and talked in a monotone voice that slightly scared Veronica. She was worried that his sanity was beginning to slip. They stared at each other for some time before she came down the rest of the steps. When she reached the bottom, he blinked.

"I think you know something you shouldn't know. My brother has a rather large mouth when it comes to secrets."

Veronica put her foot back on the bottom step, preparing herself to run up them if this went south.

"I'm not sure what you mean." She tried to play it off like she didn't understand.

"Tell me what you know, just so I don't accidentally tell you." Michael said.

"Know about what?"

"About us, this whole fucked up family."

Veronica was surprised and even more scared at his use of a vulgar word. "Um, I-I don't know."

He smirked. "You know."

Veronica gave in to her anxiety and began heading back up the stairs. Michael's dead expression turned to one of hurt.

"I'm not going to hurt you, just tell me. Max needs to know. He wants to mow the grass, but Sam won't let him do it because he's a little ass. He says that you'll get freaked out with Max mowing in the middle of the night, so Max hasn't done it. And truthfully, I don't think my mom can push the mower. So no ones been mowing it."

Veronica bit back a laugh. She had noticed the grass, but the thought never occurred to her that Max only mowed at night. She finally caved in and told Michael she knew. "Sam told me. Though I haven't seen any proof."

"You don't want to. It's not a very pleasant experience. Alright, that's all I wanted to know." He flopped face down into his pillow and resumed his previous position.

Veronica took this as a signal that she was dismissed, so she calmly went back upstairs. For some reason, it felt good to get that off of her chest. Sam would be mad, but everyone else didn't have to make up so many lies now.

She opened the fridge to grab a snack and noticed even more food was missing. She began to get her suspicions of who it was, but before she could go back down to the basement there was a knock on the door. Opening it, she saw a fidgeting Alan on Max's doorstep.

"I'm shocked." Veronica said.

"I'm uncomfortable, can you come outside? I need to ask you something." Alan looked very nervous and very twitchy.

"Are you about to have a seizure?" She grew concerned and quickly shut the door behind her. They walked to the sidewalk together and Alan suddenly seemed to relax.

"Sorry, I just don't like standing on a vampire's doorstep. It goes against everything I know."

"They're not even home, though. So, what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Well, Sam said he was at Tommy's today and Edgar's out with our dad, so I figured you were bored and since I was bored I decided to come over and see if maybe you wanted to be bored together?" Alan rushed his sentence and appeared nervous again.

"Sure," Veronica shrugged, completely oblivious to the boy's nervousness. "What did you want to do?"

"Anything but hang out here."

"The Boardwalk?"

"Yeah," Alan smiled and relaxed again.

"What's Edgar and your dad doing?"

"They're going to some bad parts of the city to buy some grass. Dad brings Edgar along, because he can kick ass while Dad's too stoned to even know what's going on."

"Makes sense," Veronica nodded. They started walking toward the Boardwalk. "So, I know that the Boys are vampires and everyone knows that I know now."

"Welcome to the club." Alan smiled.

"Thanks." She smiled back.

The day went by too quickly for either of them. They talked about everything from favorite music, which they discovered that they had a lot in common, to vampires. The vampire thing was the only debate that got a little heated, but they agreed to disagree...for now. Luckily for Veronica, Alan knew to stay away from the topic of her mom.

On the beach, the two watched the sun set and Alan walked her home, refusing to let her walk alone in the dark. The local vampires knew that she was one of Max's people, but Alan wasn't willing to take any chances. Plus, this just meant they were able to spend more time together.

They reached the corner of Max's street when Alan stopped.

"What's wrong?" Veronica asked.

"Nothing." He looked at the ground and seemed to get nervous, yet again. This time though, he was shaking.

"Look, if you don't want to go up to the door-"

"No it's not that." He interrupted.

"Then what is it?"

He looked up at her and within a second he closed the gap between them and lightly kissed her on the lips. He took a step back and braced himself, expecting a slap across the face. Instead, Veronica stared with giant eyes and her mouth hung open.

"I'll see you later, then?" He offered when she didn't respond.

Veronica nodded, turned bright red, and then booked it toward the house. When she slammed the door behind her, she noticed Max and Lucy were in the living room with Sam dialing the phone.

"Where were you?" Lucy fretted as she came up to her and gently embraced her. "What's the matter? What happened?" Lucy ran her hand over Veronica's face to feel for a fever.

"I've been calling everyone!" Sam hung up the phone with an irritated look on his face. "I had to talk to your sobbing mom for over ten minutes! All I heard was a bunch of blubbering and snotty sounds!"

"Veronica? I think we need to sit down and have a talk." Max said in a cool and calm voice.

"I-I-I-," Veronica tried to get a sentence out, but was still in shock.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sam's anger faded and was replaced with concern. "Did David or one of the others try to hurt you?"

"I...I need to go to my room!" Veronica stepped around Lucy and flew to the guest bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she slid under the covers and flung the comforter over her head.

☢ ♥‿♥ 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒇𝓸𝓻 𝓻𝒆𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰! 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝒇𝓸𝓻𝓰𝒆𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓿𝓸𝓽𝒆 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝒇𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝒇 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒆𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂𝒆𝓭 𝓲𝓽 ♥‿♥ ☢