2: A Sleepover

Jarren POV

I sat in gym, my last period, ready for the bell to ring. I'd just stepped out of the shower. I had my pants and shoes on and was about to pull on my shirt when the bell rang. I walked out of the boy's locker room, pulling my shirt over my head.

"OMG. Look at his body." I heard a girl whisper to her friend across the gym. Thanks to my supernatural hearing.

I stopped by my locker, grabbed my coat, and headed out the door. I saw a group of girls talking to Aaden. I walked over to Jillie and Mallory, standing beside my car.

"Hey."

"Hey," they replied in unison.

"What's going on over there?"

"His groupies are saying bye to him," Mallory informed me. I faintly heard jealousy in her voice.

"Yours should be here in a second," Jillie told me, smiling, causing my breath to catch in my chest.

"Guess that means it's time for me to go," I told them.

"We're all going to Jillie's house to talk to her parents about the Christmas party," Mallory informed me.

"I'll meet you there," I told them, watching Jillie get into her car.

I got in my car and pulled off, heading toward her house. I pulled up to her house twenty minutes later with her and Mallory behind me. Aaden was probably still with his entourage. We got out of our cars and headed up to the front door. Jillie unlocked it, and we followed her inside.

"Mom!"

"In the kitchen." Her mother replied. We headed towards the kitchen. "Hey, kids."

"Hey, Teya." Mallory and I responded in unison.

"Where's Aaden?" she asked.

"Being flocked by groupies," Mallory answered. Teya poured four glasses of hot chocolate. She passed us each one and took a sip of hers.

"So, what's up?" Teya asked. She always knew when we wanted something, what mother didn't.

"Well, we were wondering-"

"Mom, my watch just broke," Elise said, coming from around the corner and cutting Jillie off. "Oh. Hey Mallory. Hey Jarren."

"Cougar." I heard Jillie whisper under her breath though no one else did. "What are you doing here?" she then asked.

"Christmas break, little sister," Elise answered with a smirk.

"Oh, joy," Jillie stated sarcastically.

"What was it you were about to say, Jillie?" Teya asked, stopping any potential argument.

"We wanted to know if we could use the charity room to have a Christmas party."

"No. I'm using it for my friends and me to have a gathering," Elise answered, smirking. Then the arguing began.

"Girls…Girls!" Teya stated. "You can both use it. What days do you need it?"

"Friday." They answered in unison. They looked at each other, and the arguing recommenced.

"Mom!" Elise finally yelled.

"Annelise, stop yelling," Teya told her.

"Well, tell Jillie I'm the oldest; therefore, I get to use the room."

"Daddy," Jillie said to Ean, who had just walked into the kitchen. Probably because of all the noise. "Elise is trying to take the charity room from my friends and me. We wanted to throw a Christmas party," Jillie informed him pouting.

I had to hide my smirk. Jillie was the baby, and her dad always gave her everything she wanted.

"Elise, just move your gathering to another day or another place, sweetheart," Ean suggested.

“But…but…Daddy!" Elise squealed.

"Thank you, Daddy," Jillie said, smiling.

"You're welcome, princess."

"Oh no. This isn't happening! Quiz!" Elise exclaimed.

"Elise honey, just-"

"Quiz," she repeated, cutting her dad off. "And I want mom to ask the questions."

In the Monroe household, when both girls wanted something, they would call for a quiz. This usually only consisted of one or two questions. Whoever answered the question correctly got whatever they were arguing over. Elise must have wanted this pretty severely because, in a way, she was cheating. Teya is a Mythology/Folk Professor at the university. Those types of Professors were rare but were paid exceptionally well. Elise was going to school to be the same thing. So she's got the advantage here because Teya only asked those types of questions.

"Okay," Teya started. "Elise, you get to answer first. We'll do best two out of three. The first two questions are: How do you kill a vampire? What are their weaknesses?"

This caught my attention. I was anxious to see how they would kill…well, how they would kill…me.

"Garlic, sunlight, and silver. You weaken them with wolf bane and cast iron."

My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. Was she for real? Granted that what most people knew about my kind was false, what she had just said was plain ridiculous. I heard Jillie laughing hysterically. I looked over at her, and she was bent over in laughter, holding her side. Ean was even chuckling.

"Are you stupid?" Jillie asked Elise. "Garlic, Silver, Wolf bane, Cast Iron, Sunlight? You need a new major," she said, still laughing. I wanted to laugh with her, but I wasn't sure she would do much better.

"Jillie, if you can explain why Elise's answer is wrong and give the right answers, you guys get to have the charity room, and I'll let you have one of your little sleepovers tonight. Even though I said you couldn't have any more until the New Year." Teya said, letting Elise know her answers were wrong.

"First of all, cast iron is a leprechaun myth. Second, wolf bane weakens werewolves, not vampires. Garlic does not affect vampires, and neither does sunlight, though that's what novelists and movie producers believe and want others to believe as well. Silver is another one that applies to werewolves. There are only three ways to kill a Vampire without weakening them: decapitate them, burn them, or stake them through the heart with thorn wood. Holy water and dead man's blood are their only known weaknesses."

"What is thorn wood and dead man's blood?" Teya asked. Though I was sure, she already knew.

"Thorn wood is wood from a certain type of tree. Blackthorn, Hawthorn, and Whitethorn trees. Dead man's blood is the blood of a dead person, also known as cold blood. Vampires can't drink blood from a person that's already dead. It's like poison to them."

I sat looking at her in shock. Everything she'd just said was true. How the hell did she know all that? Damn, this girl was amazing. I mean, she was amazing before, but now it was just unbelievable. I expected Teya to know those answers. That was her job, but I didn't expect Jillie to know so much and to hit the nail right on the head.

"That's right, Jillie," Teya informed her. Jillie smirked at Elise, who then stormed out of the kitchen. "Now, the three of you go away," Teya told us playfully. "I have stuff to do."

"And by stuff, you mean Daddy," Jillie stated while walking out of the kitchen.

"Jilliannah!" Teya exclaimed while Ean laughed.

We followed Jillie up the stairs that led to the attic, which was also her room. She lay on the bed propped against her pillows. Mallory was seated at her desk. I picked her feet up and sat on the bed, placing her feet gently in my lap.

"Jillie, how did you know all that stuff?" Mallory asked the question that had been on the tip of my tongue.

"Besides the fact that I like Mythology and Fantasy and that my mother teaches it, I love vampires. They're enchanting."

"But they're not real. How could you be enchanted by something that's not real?" I rolled my eyes at her. If only she knew.

"I don't believe that. There's too much information on them for them to be made up."

"All that could be made up to Jillie. Besides, why would you believe in something so sinister? Why would something that was portrayed that way "enchant" you?" Mallory asked her, putting air quotes around enchant. I had to keep myself from flinching at her words.

"Because I don't think they are. I don't think they're sinister. I mean, some of them may be that way, but not all of them."

"What are you basing this on? Movies?"

"No, just simple thought. I'm not a pessimist. I see the glass half full, not half empty. Therefore I like to find the good in people."

"Yes, but if they exist, they aren't people, Jillie. They're monsters." I couldn't help it that time. I flinched slightly.

"Whatever, Mallory. I think they exist along with other mythical and fantasy creatures. Whether it's among us or in a land, we don't know about, and they are not monsters."

The conversation died off, and it was quiet. I looked at Jillie, and she was playing with the bracelet I'd gotten her for her birthday. I looked at Mallory, and she was messing with her ring. I took a deep breath. Not that I needed one, but the silence was going to drive me crazy.

"Where's Aaden?" I asked.

"He said he was coming," Mallory answered. There was a pregnant pause. "Well, I'm going to go get some clothes and movies. See you guys later." Mallory said before leaving.

"You're too strong-willed, Jillie," I said after a few minutes.

"I need you to make up your mind, Jarren. Am I to strong willed, or extremely naïve?”

I thought about it for a moment. "Both. You don't know when to let something go. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion."

"I know that, but she wanted to argue her non-belief, so I argued my belief."

"But why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you believe so fiercely?" Not that I didn't want her to. I just felt the need to know why she did.

"It's just something I feel. Something I dream about…a lot. My grandmother told me never to ignore my dreams and I don't. That's why I believe."

I opened my mouth to ask her another question, but her phone rang, cutting me off.

I'd catch a grenade for you

Throw my hand on a blade for you

Jump in front of a train for you

You know I'd do anything for you

I would go through all this pain

Take a bullet straight through my brain

Yes, I would die for you, baby

But you won't do the same.

"Hello."

"Hey, sexy." I heard the caller say courtesy of my supernatural hearing.

"Um…hi Carson." I rolled my eyes in disgust. I hated Carson. "What's up?"

"Just wondering if you have plans tonight."

"Yeah, I do. Sorry."

"How about tomorrow night? I have something I would love to show you."

I growled under my breath, and Jillie's eyes snapped to me. I've got to stop doing that. I heard Carson chuckle on the other end of the phone and knew the mutt could hear me.

"Carson, let me take a rain check. I'm pretty busy all weekend."

"Of course. Catch you later, sexy." I rolled my eyes as Jillie hung up the phone.

She stared at me, her beautiful crystal hazel eyes boring into mine. As if she was trying to see through me. Trying to see into my soul.

"Why don't you like Carson?"

I knew she'd wanted to ask me this question for a while. What I didn't know was how to answer it. What was I supposed to say? That I was in love with her, and he kept getting in the way? He kept making passes at her to get under my skin, and I hated him for it? Or that we had this grudge that neither of us was going to get over? No, I don't think so.

"Why do you like him?" I countered instead.

"Who said I liked him?"

"Who said I hated him?"

"So you don't hate him?" she asked, not believing me.

"No…I despise him."

She just shook her head, sinking into her pillow. I pulled her boots off her small feet one at a time. I took her right foot into my hand and began massaging it gently. This wasn't unusual. I used to always do it when she'd come from dance practice.

*If only I could find a boyfriend like you.*

I casually looked over to Jillie, but her eyes were still closed. It took me a second to realize she wasn't speaking. She was thinking. I loved listening to her thoughts; they always seemed so relaxed. I thought about her mind statement. She didn't need to find one like me. She could have me, but I don't think that's exactly what she wanted.

I thought back to the first time I'd ever seen Jillie. She was two and was playing on one of the slides at the park with Elise, who was seven at the time, back when they actually got along. Her caramel skin and deep brown hair in curls. Her hazel eyes sparkled. I wasn't attracted to her. She was two, for Christ's sake, and I, well, let's just say I wasn't two. Yet there was something that pulled me to her. Something that made me always want to be there for her and protect her.

So from afar, I watched her grow up. I know it sounded weird, and I'm a stalker; it wasn't like that. It was something I couldn't control. It scared me at first, but I soon just accepted it and let the strange pull take over.

When she turned fourteen, I couldn't take not being in her life anymore, so I went to a family friend of ours. Adisa was a gifted witch, and I asked her to put memories of me in Jillie's head. After reading my intentions and coming to a conclusion, it wasn't to hurt Jillie, she did what I asked, and we'd been friends since then. Of course, Jillie thinks we've been friends since our diaper days. As does everyone else around us, except for my parents, Carson, who found out simply by common sense, the little bit he possesses, and Mason and Alyx, Mason's girlfriend.

Carson…

It was two years ago when I saw Carson for the first time in fifty years. Two years ago when I first truly realized and accepted the fact that I was in love with Jillie. I saw Carson flirting with her, and rage built up inside of me. I almost lost it. Almost. At first, I tried to rationalize it with the fact that I simply couldn't stand Carson, but I found myself getting jealous, yes, I can admit I was jealous when any guy talked to her, and I knew I was in love. Too bad for me, she didn't feel the same way.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts and looked over at Jillie. She was staring at me with those beautiful eyes of hers. Her bangs falling into her face.

"What were you thinking about?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

She took her feet out of my lap and tucked them beneath her. She shook her bangs out of her face. I lay back on her bed.

"You know, this is such a big bed for such a small girl," I teased.

She jumped on me, hitting me playfully, but I wasn't focusing on that much. I was focusing on the position we were in. She was sitting on top of me, straddling my stomach. She stopped hitting me. I guess she could tell I was distracted. Before she could say anything, I rolled us over and began tickling her, with me on my knees still in between her legs. She laughed uncontrollably, trying to push my hands away.

"Okay…okay," she said between laughs.

I stopped tickling her but didn't move. She lay there catching her breath. Once she caught her breath, she tried to hit me again, but I caught her hand.

"I can't stand you."

I knew she was playing. I smiled at her and heard her heartbeat quicken. She looked into my eyes and then down at our position. I got off the bed completely, walking over to her desk. I couldn't face her and what she'd just done to my dick by simply looking at me with those gorgeous eyes.

"I'm going to post the party on my F******k and Twitter," I told her.

"Okay, do you remember the password?"

I nodded. How could I forget? I remember the first time she told me what it was. I couldn't help but smile at her. I thought it was cute.

After posting the party information Jillie and I came up with on my F******k and Twitter, she did the same. She said it was because if she didn't, then there would be nothing but girls at this party. I knew she was joking, but I didn't find it funny. I didn't want flocks of girls running after me and watching my every move. I mean, yeah, it sort of comes with the automatic vampire charm, but that's not what I wanted. I hadn't wanted any girl other than her for two years. I didn't know how to tell her, and I wasn't one that was used to rejection.

"Well, I'm going to get going."

"What? Why?"

I smiled to myself. I loved it when she got like this. Like she never wanted me to leave. I never understood it, though, because she wasn't that way with Aaden, but I didn't need to understand it. I was just happy she did react that way.

"I'll be back. I'm just going to go get some clothes."

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Can you bring me back some-"

"Ice cream," I said, cutting her off. "Yeah, I will."

She smiled at me, and if my heart could beat, it would be going triple time by now. I kissed her on the forehead. However, that wasn't where I wanted to kiss her, and I smiled before leaving. Though that was the last thing that I wanted to do.