Totally Inappropriate *UNDER EDITING*

Chapter 3

Dinner with Benjamin and my new guardians was... nice. I kept expecting to feel awkward, just as I had done with all the families I'd invaded over the years, save for my grandmother. After I had left her, I went to my mother's oldest sister at the age of nine. She'd been single but wealthy, and kicked me out shortly after my thirteenth birthday for starting 'yet another fight' at school. Then, I'd gone to my mother's brother. He'd actually been quite nice- it was his wife and daughter who had the problem with me, and when their attitudes towards me only got worse and worse, he chose to let me go, too. I could hardly blame him, as the concept of family slightly boggled my mind. I had no idea what it was like to have a family, so who was I to judge? Maybe it was so glorious that his actions of putting them first was completely normal. Anyway, after him, I'd gone to my mother's younger sister, Claire, at the age of sixteen. She'd been the worst of them all by far, and I hadn't even hit the two-year mark with that one.

But the Rendenvilles weren't like that. They didn't seem to view me as some kind of inconvenience. If anything, it actually seemed like they enjoyed my company. Well, not Benjamin, but I didn't take it personally because he could barely muster enough manners to be nice to his mom and dad.

"So, did you make any friends at school?" asked Lilith, somewhat awkwardly. The question was a little late because we'd already been eating for a good five minutes, so I assumed she'd been trying to come up with a suitable inquiry to ask up until now. She was obviously having a harder time adjusting than I was, which was only natural considering I'd already done it three times. (I didn't count my grandmother, Ekaterina, because I had actually felt like I was with family for those five, short years.)

"Um..." I said now, brow furrowed. I thought about lying for a moment, pure teenage embarrassment taking over, but then the notion had vanished just as quickly as it had come. "No, actually. I think most people found me weird because I'm not from around here. There was this one guy who was nice to me, but apparently he's a homophobe, so I can barely pursue that, y'know?"

Lilith gave a weak smile. Richard caught sight of it and let out an amused chuckle. It was funny, how different they seemed to be in terms of personality: while Lilith was gentle and kind, Richard wouldn't hesitate to say it like it was.

"I'm not surprised," he said now. "I think I could count the amount of people who haven't been in this town since birth on one hand."

"Prejudiced assholes." I saw Lilith's flinch at my swearing, and altered, "I mean... their ignorance is idiotic."

"Nicely put," remarked Benjamin, who I'd been trying to avoid looking at all dinner. As soon as we'd walked through the door after school, he'd stripped off his shirt and gone up to his room. I'd watched, transfixed, the solid, packed muscles of his back disappear, a heat settling between my thighs. It wasn't any easier to take my eyes off him now. The man was beautiful. "But they are assholes."

"What does that make you?"

"A black sheep in a seat of white ones."

"I thought I was the black sheep?"

"Okay... then I'm the brown sheep who's all mysterious and different."

I didn't answer. Mysterious and different, he was.

That night, I was pulled into a dream when I fell asleep. I hadn't had any recollections of a dream in the morning, but now I was totally consumed by one- it felt so real. I was lying in my bed, unable to sleep as I tossed and turned, when my bedroom door suddenly opened. Just as my covers hit the wooden floor, I met the silver eyes of Benjamin, who stood in nothing but a pair of pajama pants. I only got to rake my eyes over his broad, bare chest for a moment before he was walking towards me. The dream took a very... well, non-PG turn before I woke up again.