Trophy Eyes

Chapter 17

Dedicated to RandomFruitLoop for the amazing cover! Thank you so much!

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I was the first one out of class at lunch. Zayden had done another no-show at all of his other classes, and I seriously needed to ask him about this morning. I knew there was something strange about him, but I never suspected...

He was in the library last time, so I went there. Nothing. I gave up searching after a while. It was a little pointless. Despite that, I still couldn't help feeling disappointed when I arrived at my last class of the day, Art, and didn't see him sitting where he usually was, his seat empty.

Well, he couldn't hide forever, I thought whilst tapping my pencil on the edge of the desk, waiting for the minute hand on the clock to hit the three. It was moving agonizingly slow today, seemingly deliberately. It was so frustrating. I sighed, and propped my chin up on my fist. Finally, the shrill bell rang, and I nearly cheered. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the door.

As soon as I got outside, something wet and cold hit my nose. I looked up, and suddenly it started pouring down with rain again. I groaned along with the other students outside. Taking a deep breath and pulling my hood up over my head, I sprinted towards my car. I was about to get in when I noticed a strange thing.

Zayden's car was still here, parked a few spaces down from mine. That means he's still here. I peered into the tinted windows, and saw his dark profile seated in the driver's seat. He was leaning back into the seat, and his eyes were closed. He looked so peaceful. In a split second decision I knew I would probably regret, I made my way over to his car. The doors were unlocked, so I opened one quietly and slid into the passenger seat.

He didn't appear to have heard me or seen me. His eyes were still closed, and I realised he was listening to his IPod. It was so loud that I could hear it. He was listening to It Never Ends by Bring Me The Horizon. I watched as his lips moved slightly, singing quietly along.

"Every second, Every minute, Every hour, Every day. It never ends."

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he looked at me. He wasn't glaring for once either, just looking at me a little curiously, probably wondering why I was in his car. He switched off his IPod and arched one eyebrow. He then glared at me.

Ah, the Zayden I knew and loved was back. Note the sarcasm?

"Why are you in my car?" He asked.

I swallowed. "I have questions. A lot."

He sighed, as though he knew this was coming. "Care to enlighten me?"

I tried to think of a way to phrase it that didn't sound really weird. "Um..."

He began to drum his fingers impatiently on the wheel.

I decided to just say it. "Are you a vampire?" I blurted.

Well, it wasn't supposed to come out quite like that. Oops.

For a moment, I thought I saw his posture stiffen, and his eyes turned slightly panicked. But that was probably my overactive imagination, right? It must've been, because he laughed and looked at me like I was crazy.

"Vampires, Adira? You do know that there's no such thing?"

I shook my head. "No, I know they're real."

"You're joking, right?"

"No. My boyfriend was killed by one."

He raised his eyebrows. "Right. Sorry for your loss." The last part was sarcastic. I resisted the urge to slap him.