On Hallowed Ground

Chapter Seven: Fifty Shades of Messed Up

I close the front door to my flat, smiling as I traipse up the hallway and into the front room.

"Well hello, Elliot!" I grin, waving over at my white-haired flatmate. He glances up from his laptop, smiling slightly at me.

"Why are you so cheerful?" He asks me, his reading glasses slipping down his nose as he awaits my reply. "Something to do with being in so late?"

"Could be." I cross the room and enter the small kitchenette, raiding the cupboard above the sink and tugging out a box of doughnuts I forgot about.

"What, hooking up with a guy? You little slut, Dickinson." Elliot grins. I drop down onto the sofa beside him, glancing at the illuminated screen to see that he's doing his writing thing again. He calls it 'freelance writing'; I call it 'lazy and won't get a job'.

"Well." I tap the side of my nose knowingly, smiling. "I don't tend to kiss and tell, dearest."

"You don't tend to kiss, straight up." He smirks. I simply roll my eyes at him; if it wasn't for the fact that Elliot has been my best (and only) friend since I was a little kid then I would have to kill him. "So tell me, who is it?"

"No one you'd know." I open the box of doughnuts, scoffing one quickly, as I usually do when I come home after a lot of walking. Well, I don't want to lose too much weight, and eating a lot puts it all back on. Masterplan! "He's from school."

"I thought you hated all the guys in school?" He looks slightly confused.

"He's new." I mumble through a mouthful of doughnut. "And he has a nice-"

"Don't want to know." Elliot rolls his eyes at me. "When do I get to meet this 'new guy'?"

"You don't; you'd scare him off." I grin. Elliot has scared off enough girls that he didn't like, it wouldn't surprise me if he sent Austin running too. It'd be understandable if he were a really flirtatious guy that would fuck a rock if it meant getting his leg over...but he's the total opposite, really: all he loves is coffee, his laptop, and his bass guitar.

"Then how will I judge if he's the right fit for my poor Dicky-bird?" He coos, ruffling my damp hair. "And get a towel for that mop."

"I'm not letting you judge him, Ell, so don't think about it." I give him a pointed look, and he only smiles.

"Fine. Not judging. Just..."

"Just what? Sizing up?" I grimace at the thought.

"Yep. Sizing up."

I pull a face at that, and then pass him the box of doughnuts, standing up and pulling a hand through my damp hair. "I'm off to bed."

"Off to jerk off?" Elliot suggests. I screw up my face in disgust.

"That's your thing. Goodnight."

"I'll be on patrol, making sure this boy isn't climbing in yo' windows."

"Goodnight." I turn quickly, ignoring Elliot's assumptions as I traipse into the bedroom, dropping down onto the bed and yawning. As soon as I've kicked off my tattered Converse, I close my eyes, sprawling out and sighing contentedly. My thoughts instantly settle on tonight's events, and more importantly on Austin. What is it about that guy that makes me so curious? I mean, if it weren't for him being so odd, would I really have agreed to try being in a relationship with him? Who knows...

And then there's the vampire thing. He really hunts monsters? Do I really want to date someone that does such a dangerous thing? That could put me in as much danger as him, right?

But do I even want to worry about all of that? I've always known my dad used to hunt those things, but nothing ever happened to me when he hunted them. Shouldn't I be okay with Austin hunting them? Eugh, I hate thinking sometimes.