“They are for us.” Evan said as he got out and handed the valet the keys to his Tesla. As Evan opened the door for me he held his hand out as he helped me out of the car. Before we reached the entrance Evan gently pulled on my hand to stop me before we went inside “I wanted this night to be special.” I looked at him with question in my eyes and then Evan opened the door and we entered the restaurant.
The restaurant was beautiful inside. It was filled with fresh flowers, the light was dim, candlelight mostly lit the room. Evan walked up to the hosts and gave her his name and she seated us immediately to our table. She couldn’t seem to stop staring at him. As she walked us to our table she almost walked into another co-worker as kept turning to stare at Evan. As she showed us our table she turned looking at Evan with a flirty smile as she said “Is this table okay?” The restaurant was completely empty. No one but Evan and I and the staff of course was there.
“Yes, thank you.” Evan said, not taking his eyes off me as he pulled out my seat and helped me to my seat. The hosts stood at our table longer than necessary as though she was waiting for some sort of attention from Evan. Her short dark hair showed off a small heart tattoo on her neck, I imagined she got as a way to rebel against her parents when she turned of age. I let out a little smirk thinking this woman that had to be at least in her thirty’s and was trying to flirt with Evan, who looked to be only seventeen, maybe eighteen. Sure, in all reality he was really ninety five years old in Vampire years, but he didn’t look it. When Evan never turned to acknowledge her, the host let out a loud scarf sound and walked away. I laughed and Evan who shook his head at me “Does that amuse you?” I nodded my head as I turned to see where the hosts ran off too. “She liked you.” I said in amusement. Evan smiled as he handed me a menu “Just order your food.” He said jokingly. As I took the menu from Evan’s hand I noticed the table. It was just as beautiful as everything else in the restaurant, the table settings consisted of white table cloths with a beautiful candle center piece with pink flowered orchids that surrounded the candles. Evan continued to stare at me as I looked at the menu, I could feel his blue eyes as they bore into me. “What?” I asked self consciously. Evan still looked at me shaking his head as he said “Nothing. You look beautiful.” Smiling, I stayed focused on looking at the menu and Evan stayed focused on looking at me.
As I looked around still noticing no other customers but Evan and I were dinning and I asked Evan about it. “Where are all the other people?” I asked. Evan didn’t even look around before he answered me.
“Tonight is just for you Emma.” Evan stated.
“You mean, you planned this?” I asked as I looked around the empty restaurant. Evan nodded and smiled a brilliant smile at me. I smiled back at him just as our waitress came to take our order.
Dinner was amazing, I ordered the lasagna and side salad with homemade French dressing. I could barely finish even half, so of course Evan finished it off for me. Evan ordered a dish I hadn’t even heard of, and I still can’t pronounce it, or remember what it was called. It did smell delicious and he even got me to try a bite, it wasn’t as good as it smelled, but it sufficed. After we finished our dinner, Evan got up from the table and reached for my hand. I looked at him for a moment wondering what he was doing when he asked “Would you dance with me?” I took his hand as he led me to the dance floor. The band instantly starting playing a slow tune as we began to sway, I wasn’t that great of a dancer, but with Evan at my side I looked somewhat graceful. After the song finished playing I started back towards our table when Evan pulled me back again for another dance. As we danced I could tell something was bothering Evan. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I looked up at Evan. Evan shook his head slightly as he began to speak. “Would it bother you if we didn’t go to Prom?” I was shocked he suggested not going after he had already asked me.
“Why?” I asked before I gave him my answer. When Evan didn’t answer me right away I quickly realized it must have something to do with the dream he had the other night. “We don’t have to go. As long as I am with you it doesn’t matter.” I said, trying to not make him feel any guiltier than he had already. Evan and I had been through enough this past week and I wasn’t going to make a big deal over a silly dance.
“Thank you.” Was all Evan replied as we continued our dance out on the floor.
After dinner Evan and I decided to go see a movie called ‘Darker Days’ but once we got to the theater it was sold out. And as we were leaving and walking back towards Evan’s car I could see two figures walking out of the front doors of the theater that looked familiar and before I could make out who it was it was too late for me to hide. “Emma!” It was Levi yelling my name and he was with Bobby. As him and Bobby came walking out of the theater towards me and Evan, I tried to turn and run but Evan grabbed my hand before I could “He’s already seen us.” Evan spat as Levi closed the gap between us. I took a deep breath as Levi was now face to face with us.
“Hey.” I said as my mouth went dry and my hands began to shake.
“Hey.’’ Levi said, only his tone now wasn’t as friendly after he saw who I was with. “So, what’s this?” he said as he pointed to Evan. I stood frozen for a moment not knowing what to say.
“Um” was all I could say before Levi interrupted.
“Is this why you kept breaking our plans?” His voice was now getting louder. “Does Ruth know you are with...HIM?” he asked angrily as he pointed to Evan, who was now staring at Levi as though he could kill him. I also swore I heard a low hissing noise coming from Evan’s lips.
“Levi, just let me explain...” I pleaded with him. As he stormed pass me and Evan. As he passed Evan and me he muttered “Don’t bother.” As he knocked into Evan’s shoulder. Evan stepped forward as though he was going to go after him as Levi walked away with Bobby flanked at his side. I grabbed his arm to keep him from going after Levi, I couldn’t let Evan hurt or kill Levi, even though he was most likely going to tell Gran I was with Evan tonight. Even if it meant I would get grounded, and possibly never be allowed to see Evan again. As I watched Levi walk out of sight Evan softly put his hand on my back “We should probably go home.” He said as he guided me gently with his hand. I nodded in agreement as we headed to Evan’s car. I couldn’t help it but I kept looking over my shoulder to see if I could still see Levi, even though I knew he was already long gone. The car ride home was quite, Evan didn’t pressure me to talk, nor did he bring up what had happen tonight with Levi. I could only hope that Levi could just keep his silence and not tell Gran or Marie what he saw tonight, but I was sure that any minute my phone would be ringing with Gran telling me to get my behind home A.S.A.P! When that phone call never came that night or by the rest of the week I began to think Levi was a truer friend than I gave him credit for, but then I wondered if Gran was just waiting for me to get home to ground me? I didn’t know, but I was about to find out!
As I pulled into the driveway at Grans with my suitcase in the backseat from my week long adventure at The Blake house I sat in my car longer than necessary. My drive home I thought of different conversations or lies I could tell incase Levi did in fact tell Gran about seeing me with Evan. I thought I could say that Sami and I went out for a movie and we just ran into each other? I sat there for a few more minutes trying to get my story straight when I saw Marie’s truck pulling in behind my car. “Great!” I said as I hit the steering wheel with my head. I just wanted to leave and go back to Evan’s and never come back. At least there it was easy, stress free and I could be with Evan. As I sat there a knock on my window startled me. “Emma.” The voice said. It was Marie. I rolled down my window “hi.” I said as I looked at the leathered faced woman.
“Are you okay honey.” Marie asked.
“Yeah.” I said as I nodded. “I’m just coming in.”I added as I took a deep breath as I rolled the window up and thought to myself ‘put your big girl panties on Emma’. I opened the car door and got out, grabbing my suitcase from the backseat and follo
wed suit behind Marie. Gran was looking out the door as we walked up the front porch stairs. As we walked up she opened the door and came out to greet us. “Emma I am so glad you are home.” As she nearly knocked me over hugging me, I couldn’t return the hug but with one hand since I had hold of my suitcase in the other. “Are you hungry? I can fix you some lunch?” She said as I walked in the door. I just nodded my head no as my heart seemed to speed up even though she still seemed to be clueless to me being with Evan. Maybe that is why Marie was here. Did Levi tell Marie and Marie is here to rat me out to Gran? I didn’t know, but I thought I had better stick around to find out.
I took my suitcase to my room in a hurry, thinking if Marie was here to tell Gran that Levi had seen me with Evan then I didn’t need to leave them alone for too long. As I rushed back downstairs I turned the corner to the kitchen with ease, trying to listen to ease drop on Marie’s and Grans conversation. “So where’s Levi?” I heard Gran ask Marie.
“I asked him if he wanted to come with me today and he said he had other things to do today.” Marie replied back.
“I didn’t figure he would ever pass a chance up to see Emma.” Gran said.
“I said the same thing. But you know teenage boys Ruth.” Marie said. So Levi hadn’t mentioned anything to Marie about seeing me the other night. And if he hadn’t so far, I had to make sure he wasn’t going to. I decided to go over and visit Levi and try to work things out with him and try to get him to keep what he saw between just me and him. As I walked in kitchen I causally asked Marie where Levi was. “How come Levi didn’t come with you?” Now Marie was looking at me with a grin as if I had a crush on him. Right now she could think what she wanted to, I needed to play this off and find a reason to go visit Levi and try to talk him into keeping my secret about Evan and me. “You know Levi, busy working on his truck most likely.”
“Do you mind if I go over and keep him company?” I asked as I looked at both Gran and Marie. Both looked at me with huge smiles on their faces as they both spoke “Sure.” at the same time.
As I pulled up in front of Marie’s house I could see the door to the garage was open. So my guess was Levi was out there working on his truck. As I got out of my car I shut the door easy so I didn’t warn him of my approach. My goal was to not give him enough warning to run from me. I walked in the dingy garage slowly. Levi was under the hood of his old Chevy Truck. He had made a lot of progress on it, now the motor was back in, and he had most of the body work finished and it looked as though the only thing it needed now was the tires put back on and a few of the smaller parts put back together. He was busy working and still hadn’t noticed I was standing in the doorway when I knocked on the side of the garage door. Knock Knock. Levi turned to see who was knocking when I spoke. “Hey, can we talk?” I asked as I walked towards him with caution. Levi just turned back to his truck and began to work again. I made my way closer towards him, still with caution “Please?” I asked. Levi froze, not speaking or moving as I tried to gage his reaction to my plea. “Levi, please talk to me.” I finally said after a few moments.
“Speak.” He barked at me as he threw his hands in the air. His reaction caught me off guard and I suddenly forgot what I wanted to say. I stumbled on my words.
“I-I don’t-” Is all I got out before he interrupted.
“Is he why you cancelled our date?” he asked. Now I felt uncomfortable. Our plans was never a date, we were only going as friends. But I didn’t know how to tell him that without him getting anymore angry at me.
“Levi, please-” was all I managed to get out before he cut me off.
“Save it Emma! Go tell it to your boyfriend!” he said angrily, as he turned back to his work under the hood of his truck.
“So you aren’t mad because I with Evan, but because he is my boyfriend?”
“No, I am mad because of what he-” his sentenced trailed off as he threw a wrench across the garage. I jumped as the wrench went flying past me. “I am mad because of who he is.” He said in a softer tone than he did before as he walked towards me as though he was sorry. I put as much distance between us as I could before speaking to him.
“What do you mean, because of who he is?” I asked standing a foot away from him with my arms crossed. Levi let out a sigh and walked over to where some old stools were and grabbed one and brought it to where I was standing and sat it down in front of me, motioning his hand in front of it and offered me a sit. I was reluctant at first to sit, still angry with him for yelling at me and throwing the tool across the room, but I finally gave in and took a seat. Levi gave a small apologetic smile and began to talk. “Do you remember when you first moved here, the story I told you about them?”
“About The Blake’s?” I asked. Levi nodded his head as he continued with his story. “Our people, here on the reservation, believe The Blake’s are Vampires.” As Levi said the word Vampire I tried to not let it show that he was right and that I already knew the truth that they were indeed Vampires. “And I told you the story of our people, here on the Reservation believe many years ago we were great Shape shifters” Levi looked at me as though it was a question.
“Werewolves, right?” I asked. Levi shook his head to tell me I answered correctly before he continued on with his story.
“Many years ago, before our parents were even born, it is believed that one of The Blake’s fell in love with one of our Werewolves, as you called them. The Chief’s daughter of all Werewolves, Holly was her name, I think. One day they were together and Holly’s brother found the two of them together.” As Levi told the story I thought of Cameron, he told me this story when I first meet him. I remember seeing the pain in Cameron’s eyes, the love he felt for Holly as she was ripped apart in front of him before Neville had found him and saved him from certain death from Holly’s brother. Levi continued his story “Holly’s brother tried to save Holly but one of The Blake’s, whichever one it was, had drained her dry.”
“That’s a lie!” I screamed at him as I stood from my seat. The words were out of my mouth before I had realized. Levi looked at me as though I had lost my mind.
“It’s just a legend of our tribe Emma. Calm down.” As I sat back down, I quickly tried to regain my self control before I gave away my knowledge of what Evan and his family really was. “I’m just trying to explain why no one here on the Reservation likes the Blake’s, that, and they think The Blake’s killed my parents.” He added.
“Do you think they did?” I asked cautiously.
“No.” he said. “I don’t know, it’s a silly legend.” He added as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh.” I said as I tried to smile. Acting like I felt foolish. When really I felt relieved that Levi only thought of it as a legend “Are you going to tell my Grandmother I was with him?” I asked. Levi looked at me for a moment before he answered.
“No. I won’t tell her.” He said as he playfully punched my leg lightly. “We have a law here on the Reservation.” He said as he got up and went back to his truck. “We don’t throw each other under the bus here.” He said laughing. “Seriously, our most absolute law is, we don’t fight one another, ever!” he said with all seriousness in his voice.
“So were cool?” I asked as I gave him two thumbs up. Levi nodded and gave me two thumbs up back.
I sat there the rest of the day with Levi watching him put the finishing touches on his truck. I listen to him talk about what the truck still needed, even though I didn’t understand most of what he was talking about, I nodded my head a lot and occasionally would say “cool” or “awesome”. Once it started to get dark outside I told Levi I had better head home. As he walked me out to my car Levi paused by my car and I could tell he wanted to say something. “Emma?” as he said my name, I could tell something was bothering him. As I got in my car Levi grabbed the door before I could shut it. “Just be careful around him, okay?” he said and then shut the door and walked back in to the garage. I sat there for a moment wondering just how much of the legend that
Levi actually believed and how much he didn’t. As I pulled out of the driveway I watched Levi turn and wave at me from inside of the garage. Something in his wave told me he was concerned for me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Levi knew the truth about Evan and his family.
*****
Monday morning back after Spring Break was usual. Evan met me at outside the Reservation, as I pulled over onto the side of the road and he got in my car. “Good morning.” He said perky as he kissed me leaning over into the driver’s seat. “Good morning.” I replied back as I kissed him in return before pulling back on to the main road and we made our way to the school. Ever since Destiny’s attempt to kill me Evan decided it would make him feel better to ride with me to and from school, or to and from anywhere I was going outside the Reservation from now on. I didn’t mind, it meant I would get to spend more time with him. Once we got to school we had a few minutes to spend outside with Sami, she told us about her trip to Hawaii and all the fun things she had done “And I went to the beach every day.” as she went on with her story I tried to keep up but she rambled on and on, and then she noticed I wasn’t listening “Emma! Did you hear me? So what did you guys do? I’m sure you were so bored here.” she said, rumbling. Evan and I looked at one another and smiled. Boring was far from it, what would I say? I had Evan’s crazy ex girlfriend trying to kill me? Oh and I forgot, she is a Vampire? Yeah right, like she would believe me.
“Yeah, it was boring.” I said as I tried not to look at Evan since I was sure the look on my face would totally give me away.
“Have you gotten your Prom dress yet?” Sami asked. My face fell as I looked down to the ground away from Evan’s gaze. I didn’t want to make him feel anymore guilty about me missing prom than he already did. I shook my head no. “Then we should go today!” Sami demanded. Before I could answer Payton jumped to my rescue as she walked up behind us. “She is going with me later this week.” Payton chirped as she bounced perkily around. I gave Evan a look as if to ask him hadn’t he mentioned anything to Payton that we weren’t going to Prom. Evan gave a nod and I looked to Payton and she gave me a wink, and I played along “Yea, we are going this week. I already promised Payton I would go with her.” I said, hoping Sami couldn’t hear the deceit in my voice. And then prayed she didn’t ask to tag along with us.
Astoria: Secrets, Lies and Vampires Page 18
