by E. L. Davis
“Alexia, I didn’t say anything,” Roman replied.
“I swear I heard you say something.”
“Honestly, Alexia, you’re hearing things.” She looked at him suspiciously and he turned to look at her. It was the first time she had been alone with Roman and now his eyes seemed to shine brighter then she had ever seen. They reminded her of the ocean, now that she was really looking at him, and she could almost see the colors moving like water.
“Your eyes calm me. There is something about them that’s very… comforting or familiar.” They stared at each other for a moment and then he looked away from her as he pulled into the parking lot of the ice cream shop. “Sorry, that was a weird thing to say.” Alexia tried to clear her thoughts, but found it hard. There was something bothering her about how familiar the way he looked at her was.
“It’s okay. I seem to have that effect on people.” He smiled at her before he hopped out of the car.
You have no idea, Alexia thought.
The shop they were going to had been around ever since Alexia could remember, and it never changed. It was a small building with brick walls and a bell that rang when you opened the green front door. Inside, it still had a 50s theme; the owner had never remodeled and everyone in the town liked it that way. The squishy red booths were worn and torn in some places, with cheap patch jobs done where needed. Pictures of famous actors from the 50s and 60s lined the walls of the shop.
Alexia used to come here with her mother every Monday after school, but once Alexia started Junior High School, she didn’t want to be seen hanging out with her mother. The owner, Mrs. Riley, always knew right away what Alexia would order. She had gotten the same thing every single time she came in here, which was three scoops of bubble gum ice cream on a waffle cone.
“Hello, Alexia!” Mrs. Riley recognized her right away, even though she hadn’t been in here for probably a year. “It’s been a long time. How have you been? How’s your mother?”
“She’s great, Mrs. Riley, working a lot but she seems to be enjoying herself.”
“That’s great, dear. The usual bubble gum, then?” She was already grabbing the waffle cone that she knew Alexia would be asking for.
“That would be great, thank you. What about you, Roman, what’s your flavor?” She did a cute little butt shake and he laughed.
“I’ll take the same, thanks.” Mrs. Riley smiled at him and grabbed another waffle cone. Roman turned to Alexia. “You must come here a lot if she knows exactly what you’re going to order.”
“This place has been here for as long as I can remember, and I used to come here every Monday with my mom. I always got the same thing so after a while they caught on that it would ever change.”
“You don’t really talk about your family too much…”
“There’s not much to say about them. My mom is always working, and my Dad lives in California. I don’t really have a relationship with either of them anymore…” Thinking about this made her a little upset. She had been close with her mother for a long time, but as she grew up they grew apart.
“What about your parents?”
Roman took his cone from Mrs. Riley and thanked her. He then led Alexia to a booth in the far back corner of the shop. They sat across from each other enjoying their cones for a moment before he answered her. “Not much to say about them. They both died.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, we don’t have to talk about this.” Alexia felt horrible for asking, and she had no idea how to handle the situation.
“It’s fine, it happened a long time ago. A really long time ago, so it doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“You must have been really young.”
He smiled when she said this, which was not the reaction she expected at all. “I guess you could say that.” Alexia gave him a confused look. “I have a brother too, you know,” he said quickly, trying to draw attention away from his last comment.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, we don’t talk though. After our parents died, we grew apart. Even before then we never really got along.”
The look on Roman’s face told Alexia that he was thinking about his past, about something deep and meaningful. She wasn’t sure if she should push the subject too much, as it looked like he was getting slightly sad, but she pressed on and asked, “What’s his name?”
When Alexia asked, she could see his body tense up, like he didn’t know what to say, which she found very odd.
“Dee. His name is Dee.” He forced a smile and looked away from her quickly. She could tell he was getting uncomfortable, so she moved away from the topic of family.
“Who are you living with then?”
“I rent a basement suite from an old couple five minutes out of town.”
“How do you do that? Isn’t living on your own super expensive?” Alexia had never met anyone her age that lived on their own, as it wasn’t a common thing in her town.
“I got quite a big inheritance when my parents passed, since they had worked hard their whole lives. They wanted my brother and I to have a good life when they were gone.” Getting off the topic of his family was not working so well.
“When my grandpa died, I inherited his vacation house in Kissamos. It’s on Crete… you know, the island just off Greece? It’s not officially mine until I turn eighteen, though. Nobody has a clue why he left it to me, but I’m happy he did. Everybody expected him to leave it to my grandma because she is still healthy. Maybe she told him she didn’t want it.”
“That’s very interesting,” Roman responded. Alexia didn’t think it was that interesting at all, but now Roman was acting a little strange and fidgety. “Have you been there before?” He had quickly regained his composure but was still appeared slightly anxious.
“Uh yeah, I have been there a couple of times. It’s beautiful there. The last time I was there I think I was twelve or thirteen. That was right after my Grandpa died, and it was kind of sad being there without him. After he died, my mom and I began to grow apart so we never made any plans to go back together. It gets rented out to different people, and my grandparents had many friends out there who look after it now.”
“So, once you turn eighteen are you planning to go back there?” They had both almost finished their ice creams now. Small puddles of melted ice cream had formed on the old table in front of them, dripping from the bottom of their cones.
“Yeah, Ellie, Cheri, and I all turn eighteen in the same month, so we have been saving as much as we can to all go together.”
“August is quite a long time away, so you have a lot of time to save.”
“Yeah, we’re all expecting a big chunk of money from our parents for graduating that we can put towards the trip. Wait a second… how did you know my birthday is in August?” Alexia felt a little freaked out. She knew she had never mentioned it to him, and was pretty sure that nobody he talked to about her would randomly bring up when her birthday was.
Roman was frozen, he had no words. He knew he had made a mistake that could make him lose everything. If he didn’t think of something quick, she would get up and leave, walk home and be too weirded out to give him another chance. This kind of thing had happened a few times before.
When he didn’t say anything, Alexia looked away from him and focused on the clock over the counter. “You know what, I have to get going. I told my mom I would be home to… clean up my room.”
Roman knew she was just making up a lie. He could always tell when she was lying to him, and it hurt so much. “Thanks very much for taking me here, though. It’s been too long since I’ve been to this place.”
Roman was trying to shrug off what had just happened. He didn’t want her to think he was a stalker freak or anything like that. The truth was that he knew a lot of things about her, more than she could ever imagine. “Yeah, no problem, I can take you home.” He was pleading inside that she would at least let him drive her home.
“That would be great, thank you.” She didn’t want to be rude
to him, and honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal to her that he knew what month her birthday was. It’s not like he had blurted out the exact date or anything. For some reason, Alexia couldn’t help but give him chance after chance. It was like when she was around him she wanted to pick out all the positives and ignore anything else.
Most of the drive back to her house was silent. It was only about a seven-minute drive and neither of them said a word until they were a block away from her home. Alexia was the type that hated awkward silences, so she was relieved when Roman finally said something.
“You seemed a little freaked out when I knew what month your birthday was on.” He had spent the last five minutes trying to think of the best way to recover from his blunder. “I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. When we were at the party, I overheard Cheri saying something to Stacy about a trip in August. When you told me, your friends were going with you, I just assumed that was what she was talking about. I’m sorry if I weirded you out.” He looked over at her to try to tell what she was thinking. She looked like she was buying it after all, since that very well could have happened.
“Oh well, I wasn’t freaked out or anything,” she said. He raised a brow at her and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, maybe I was a little, but it’s fine, I believe you.” She wasn’t lying; she did believe him. Maybe not because the story made sense but more because she wanted it to be true. She didn’t want to think that he was a weirdo who knew too much about her. She wanted him to be a normal guy because she was really starting to like him. “This is my house right up here.”
She turned to thank him for taking her out and getting her mind off all the drama at school, and when she did, his face was close to hers and he was looking straight into her eyes. Immediately she was drawn towards him, as if his eyes and her eyes had a string attached that was getting shorter and shorter, pulling them closer together.
“Your eyes are so beautiful, Alexia. I hope you don’t mind me saying that.” As he spoke she could feel his breath on her face, and it smelled sweet and oddly familiar. She was starting to get that déjà vu feeling again and then his arm was around her neck pulling her in closer, their lips almost touching. They were still looking dead into each other’s eyes and she watched as the shades of blue in his eyes began to churn together as Demetri’s had before she kissed him. When he spoke next, he was so quiet Alexia barely heard him. “Give in, Alexia, don’t fight it.”
It happened exactly how it had with Demetri. As soon as the words left Roman’s lips, they were kissing. When she had kissed Demetri, it was as if she had no choice and she had to give in to that look in his eyes. She had liked kissing him since it felt good. With Roman, she wanted to give into it; it was her choice to kiss him. Not only did it feel good, it felt right. All at the same time, she felt a sense of familiarity, comfort, and calm. When they finally pulled away from each other, she felt that insane burning all over her body, her face was instantly flushed, and she felt really embarrassed.
“I should go inside.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car without another word, leaving Roman with the same burning sensation pounding through his body.
The next few days, Alexia tried very hard to ignore both Roman and Demetri, which was hard because they were in most of her classes. After realizing how horrible it must look for her to hook up with two different guys in a matter of four days, she knew she needed some time to make up her mind. It was not like her at all to act this way. Yes, she had always enjoyed having guys’ attention, but she had never juggled two at a time. It was as if when these two boys arrived they turned her life upside down and shook it around, disturbing all the perfect pieces.
One of the worst parts was she really did like them both very much. Even though she had been mad at Demetri for the rumor that had been started about them she knew it really wasn’t his fault. He was trying extremely hard to shut the rumor down and it seemed to be working a bit. Although the day after she had gone out with Roman, somebody had started a rumor about Alexia and him also going back to his house. Before she had even arrived at school she was prepared for the worst. Cheri had once again not been able to trace it back to anyone, but Alexia had her suspicions. Stacy.
“You know, that girl really is a bitch.” Ellie had said after Alexia told her friends she suspected Stacy had started the second rumor. “She is just jealous that you’re hanging out with both.” Her friends were being so supportive to her and she was more than grateful.
“Well, I’m not going to hang out with either of them for a while.” They both looked at her so shocked.
“You’re giving up?” Cheri had said.
“Not giving up, just taking some time. I mean, if I had acted more like myself I wouldn’t be having this problem. When have I ever kissed two guys in less than a week? I don’t think I have ever even kissed two different guys in a month! It was just so hard not to…” She had decided not to tell her friends about the way their eyes had taken control of her. If she did, they would probably think she was going crazy.
Over the next week, her friends very gently mentioned on multiple occasions that the guys might give up on her completely and move in on some other girl. Alexia had considered this too, but she knew they would both wait for her. She had no idea how she knew, she just did. They had both dropped many hints that they would like to get together with her, but she kept making lame excuses. They probably knew she was lying, but at this point she had to think about herself and what she was going to do. She couldn’t be distracted or swayed by either of them.
∞ CHAPTER SIX ∞
When Roman arrived back at the house he was sharing with Demetri, he knew something was wrong. Demetri had lost control and rage had taken over. Anything breakable he broke. Anything of value was burned, all the pillows were ripped apart and feathers littered the entire house. A book lay unharmed on the living room table open to a page that had a picture stuck inside. It was a picture of Demetri and Alexia taken three lifetimes’ ago. It was the last time that he had won a round in this pathetic game that had been their lives for the past three hundred and fifty years.
Roman sighed and thought to himself that it would soon be over, and he would be with her forever. There was no doubt in his mind that she truly did love him more than she loved Demetri. It had always been him, from the very start. True, she did not choose to be with him in every life, but that was because the Union had control over everything. They were the ones who decided who she would be with. They were the ones who decided how long the winner could be with her for and they decided how to make her die when they got bored. It disgusted him how the Union did this to them over and over, just to be entertained.
Now they had run out of ways to torment him and Demetri. They had punished them enough for what had happened between them so many years ago, and they would finally let them know the truth. She would be the one to choose who she loved, not the Union. Whoever she chose was the person who she actually loved three hundred and fifty years ago when this all began.
“Looks like you had a good day,” Roman said as Demetri entered the living room and snatched the open book with the picture off the table. “I hope you’re going to be cleaning this up.” Roman was being very smug, trying to make Demetri madder.
“Well, we have to make a good impression on the Union, don’t we?”
“What do you mean?” Roman was instantly panicked.
“Ha, not so smug now, are you? They are coming here. They have to talk to us, together.” Demetri’s voice wavered slightly. It was never a good thing if the Union wanted to ‘talk’. “Something has gone wrong. That’s all they said.”
“The whole damn Union is coming here?”
“No, just Ahaz and Astropos.”
“Astropos is coming here? Do you know how bad this is? Do you realize she was related to the ancient Atropos, the sister of Lachesis?”
“Thank you very much, but I don’t need a history lesson. I know who she is.”
; “When are they coming?” He was afraid to ask, but he had to know.
“Tonight.”
∞
It was Friday night and Alexia was meeting Ellie and Cheri at the Java Café because a decent band was playing there. Once again, Cheri’s sister had pulled through for them and bought them a bottle of vodka to share. None of them had gotten drunk since Stacy’s party so they were all looking forward to having a good time.
The girls had decided to meet at Alexia’s house because it was closest to the café, and her mom was going to drive them there. They didn’t really get too dressed up or anything, since they were going out for a girl’s night and there was no need to impress anyone. It was half-past eight when the girls piled into Alexia’s mom’s SUV and headed to Java.
“What band did you say was playing, Alex?” Her mother was the only person who called her that. She hated it but put up with it simply because she was her mom.
“They are called ‘Walking Dead’, Mrs. Weiss,” Ellie piped up
“No, they changed their name to ‘Walking with the Dead’.” Cheri looked proud for knowing the band name had changed, but she always knew everything.
“Sounds a little hardcore, don’t you think, and don’t call me ‘Mrs. Weiss’. It makes me sound too old. Call me ‘Barb’.”
“Well, Barb, they aren’t very hardcore at all.” Alexia knew it would bug her mother to call her by her first name, but she couldn’t help herself. Barb’s blue eyes narrowed, and she glared at her daughter.
They looked a lot alike; they had the exact same hair color, and the exact same color of eyes. Barb was decently young, and if they didn’t live in such a small town, people would think they could be sisters. “Seriously, Mom, don’t worry, it’s going to be fine. Cheri’s sister is picking us up when the band is done playing and we’re staying over there for the night. You never worry like this, so why are you doing it now?”
“I just have a little bit of a bad feeling, that’s all.”
“Don’t worry, Barb, we will take care of your little girl for ya!” Ellie gave her a light pat on the shoulder and laughed. They pulled into the parking lot which was unusually full for the Java Café and said thank you to Alexia’s mom as they all jumped out of the car. Alexia gave her mom a reassuring smile.
