Chapter 4

“What’s your name?” I asked him as I laid down on my bed.

My body was weak, and I was too tired to move. I no longer had the strength to send him away, so I just let him stay in my room. Now that I had longer conversations with him, I found him trustworthy. Because if he wasn’t there was no reason for him to save me. I just didn’t like that one thing he had said to me.

I didn’t hate relationships between the same sex. I just couldn’t imagine myself being in one.

He sat down on the chair and looked at me with his eyes glistening in the light coming from the lamp on the table.

“I don’t want to tell you,” he said without emotion. His tone didn’t rise or even go down.

I stared at him because of what he said. I felt like he’s playing with me that time. “Don’t worry, I would not tell a soul about your name if your worried everyone would know who you are,” I assured him so that he would tell me.

“It’s not that I am worried. I just want you to remember it as well.” His expression on his face didn’t change a bit.

“Are you freaking serious right now? Tell me. I don’t have to remember anything. Why don’t you believe me? I really don’t know you,” I said. I was sure of what came out of my mouth. There were no memories of him in my head, no matter how deep I dived in.

“Okay. I will tell you my name.” He smirked at me. “I forgot you also didn’t know it even before.”

“What are you waiting for, then? Say it.”

“My name is Gavin.”

His name suited him. It had a powerful sound to it that reflected his whole being. It was my first time hearing that name that made me think I wasn’t wrong about what I remember.

“It doesn’t suit you,” I lied to his face so that he would not get an idea that it pleased me.

“Why?”

“Don’t ask.”

“If it is like that, I will use your name and you can use mine,” he told me, that surprised me again. Every time he spoke, he would always say something I would never expect even the slightest.

“You’re toying with me,” I commented.

“Don’t think like that. I am pretty serious about everything I said to you,” he said to me sincerely. “To explain it to you, couple does that.” He paused after that and I glared at him. He ignored my anger and continued speaking. “I am sorry. I got carried away.”

I calmed myself down, taking deep breaths. I told myself I need to rest.

I wanted to sleep, but the way Gavin looked at me was stopping me. There were no doubts and pretentious in his face. I was planning to say something to him if it wasn’t because of my phone making a sound after receiving a message. He picked my phone since he was on the table. I wanted to stop him from reading the message. But I was too late. He already read it before he looked at me.

He put down the phone afterward without telling me anything.

“Give my phone. I will read it on my own.” I raised my hand so that he would pass it to me, but he didn’t.

“It was your friend. He said his girlfriend is awake now and doing fine,” he told me in the end.

“That’s good to hear. I would not know what I would do if something happened to her.”

He scowled at me defiantly because of what I had said. “Do you care for her?” he asked me in a very stern voice.

“Of course. Just a little, though. She’s my friend’s girlfriend, after all. I am just worried about the safety of people around me now that a werewolf found me,” I told him, while looking at the ceiling. It was then I remembered something I need to do. I quickly sat down and looked at him.

I wanted to move, but my body ached, so I remained sitting.

“Do you need anything? Are you thirsty?” he asked me.

“No. Can you pass my laptop to me? It’s in the drawer.”

“You’re supposed to rest,” he reminded me, but he still opened the drawer. He let out my old laptop and hesitated. After contemplating, he finally gave it to me. “What are you trying to do, anyway?”

I grabbed the laptop and put it down on my lap. After I turned it on, I entered the password. The light that it omitted reflected on my face.

“I have to finish my report,” I told him and opened a document. I began working on it, cracking my brain again and ignoring the fact I was sick. But after scrolling and proofreading some parts, my eyes became blurry, and dizziness hit me once more. I stopped from typing and pressed the side of my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked with worries written all over his face. He even moved and sat down on the side of the bed.

I straightened myself because of what he said. “Nothing. I am just thinking about what to write,” I told him and continued typing. But my body would not cooperate with me. I stopped again, glancing at Gavin.

“You’re obviously struggling. I am not blind, Levi. Do you want my help?” he said to me.

“No,” I answered. “Aren’t you going home?”

“I told you I will stay for a while and will guard you. I am afraid someone would come here.”

“For a while? You mean to say you will bother me for a couple of days?”

“How can you say it like that? I am practically your guardian here.” He grabbed the laptop from my lap as he sat down on the floor. “I will help you. Just to tell what to do.”

He laid the laptop on the bed afterward and I watched at him reading the first part of my report to familiarize himself with what I was tackling.

“I don’t know what to say. It is also my fault why we’re in this situation,” I told him.

He paused for a second and looked at me straight in the eye. “Well, it is not bad. Isn’t it? We’re both helping each other,” he said to me in a soothing tone.

“What?” I looked at him. “I already told you I will not help you.”

“I am talking about the happiness about myself, not the one I asked of you,” he corrected me. “You’re helping me to be happy.”

“How can you say that easily? If you think about it, we’re both strangers to each other. You need to feel uncomfortable even a little.”

“Well, I don’t feel that way. What can I do? And besides, you’re not a stranger to me.” He put his attention on the laptop in front of him.

His fingers moved fast, as if he knew what he was doing. “Hey! You can’t just changed anything without asking me. What are you putting in?” I scooted a little to check his work. It shocked me to see there was nothing wrong.

He looked at me with a smile on his lips. “Don’t worry. I will not ruin your report. It is easy to understand after reading it. I could even finish it without you guiding me.”

It would really be understandable since he belonged also to the other world. But it would not make me good.

“You can’t do that. How would I explain everything if the professor ask me?”

“It will not be that hard. You just have to read the report once I am done.” He tapped my legs. “Sleep now. You have a class early in the morning, right?”

“How do you even know that?” I asked him, since his remarks puzzled me.

He pointed a finger at the wall where my study table was. My schedule for the semester was hanging there together with the bunch of sticky notes. I put back my attention to him when he continued. As I gazed at his face, I wondered how old he was. Since he was a vampire, it was hard to guess his actual age.

“Can I ask you something?” I said to him carefully.

“Of course. What is it?” he answered without looking at me.

“Tell me how old you are.”

He stopped from working on my report and turned his head at me. “I told you I am not immortal because of a curse, right?” he asked, and I nodded my head to respond. “I am not like everyone else. It all happened because I was born. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He stayed quiet after that and he continued the report.

“Hey! You haven’t told me your age,” I reminded him.

“We’re both born on the same day.”

It did not surprise me this time since he’s been watching me an entire year. But it made me intrigue. “How much do you know about me?”

“Nothing much. I only knew what you told me before.”

“I am now curious about where I’ve met you. Why can’t you just tell me?”

"There’s no fun to it.” He even smirked at me.

I grabbed my pillow and hit him in the face. “You’re being obnoxious,” I said to him.

I planned on swaying the pillow once more, but he stopped it. He removed the pillow from my hand and pushed me in the chest that made me lie down on the bed. After that, he put the pillow on the back of my head as if I was a child.

“Go to sleep. It’s late. You need to remember you have a class in the morning.” He flicked his finger on my nose that sent a sensation unfamiliar to me to my whole body.

My tired body betrayed me. I involuntarily listened to him. Before I knew it, I had dived into a deep slumber. By the time I opened my eyes again, it was past already past seven. What woke me up was the smell of newly cook breakfast. It shot me in my nose, ringing my sense of smell.

I sat down, remembering what happened last night. Before I could think further, I found Gavin standing in the kitchen with his back to me. He was wearing my black shirt and pants. He was busy preparing breakfast, which confused me. I couldn’t help to think on how he could eat human food.

I had hoped it was all just a dream so that I wouldn’t have any problem in coming days. But as he turned around with a smile on his face, it was then I said to myself that everything was real.

After preparing breakfast, he carried the plate and pulled the low round table near the foot of my bed.

“Did I have a misconception about you?” I told him as I rubbed my right eye. “You can eat human food.”

Gavin glanced as he put down the plate on the round table. “You got it wrong. This breakfast is for you, Levi,” he said to me.

I took a deep breath because of my mistake.

“I just thought it is possible,” I told him.

“Probably.” He displayed a smile as if it was the simplest thing to do on earth.

“Can’t you stop smiling when you’re talking to me?”

“Why? Do I make you blush?”

“No. More of disgust.”

“You’re lying,” he said and picked up the clothes on the table. “Wear your clothes now so you can eat. Do you want to be late?”

I looked at the clothes that he prepared. “Can you stop doing this?” I said to him as I grabbed the clothes. I wore first the t-shirt. After that, when I went down from the bed, I wore the underwear and pants. He just looked at me with a blank expression on his eyes.

“Do you hate it? I can stop if you do,” he told me as sat down on the floor to eat the breakfast he prepared. He made a sandwich pared with bacon, eggs and hotdogs. “But I am telling you, it would be better for you if I am here. You can use me. I will not mind.”

He sat down in front of me. “So, you’re telling me you’re offering yourself?” I grabbed the sandwich and took a big bite.

“Yes. I am giving you all.”

“Stop being crazy. Go back to where you came from. I am sure you have things to do.” I talked even my mouth was full.

“I have. I also go to school like a regular student.” He put his chin on his leaning on the table. “But it doesn’t matter to me, you’re the most important to me.”

I almost choked to the food I was eating because of the last thing he said. I wonder why it was easy for him to speak like that. It seemed liked he didn’t feel awkwardness talking to me.

“We can’t bee seen together though,” I reminded him since he was forgetting that fact.

H e sat up straight. “You’re still thinking about that when you don’t even belong to any pack now.”

“It’s still wrong.”

He stood up to get me a glass of water from the small dispenser.

“How can it be wrong?” He sat back putting the glass next to the plate. “Our races should be in good terms with each other.”

“Not everything would agree with you. One person’s desire would not change anything.”

“I will made sure it would happen. And I would start with you.” He even point his finger at me and fired it like a gun.

“You want peace, but then you killed the rouge last night?”

“He was an excemption,” he said, cutting the hotdog into pieces using the fork.

His actions surprised me because I also do that. I just assumed it was a coincidence. I didn’t want to think he really knew a lot about me. Because it that was the case, it meant I was forgetting something important.

“Did you hear what the bald man said to me last night?” I asked him as I ate the pieces of hotdog.

“Yes. Everything.” He responded feeding me the bacon.

I involuntarily opened my mouth since my hands were occupied to hold the fork. “Aren’t you going to ask me why he wanted me dead?”

“No. You can tell me when you really felt like it. I will not force you.” He wiped the table with the white towel and lifted the glass of water closer to me.

I grabbed the glass and drank the water until to its last drop. Once I was done, he cleaned the table, picking up the empty plate. He went to the sink and washed the dirty dishes he had used. The way he moved told me he was used to it as if he was not a pure blood. It reminded me I really shouldn’t be associating with him.

“Gavin, after I leave, let’s not see each other again,” I told him as I stood. He stopped from washing the dishes and turned around.

“Is that what you really want?” he asked me. The water from the faucet kept on pouring.

We looked each other in the eye. “Yes,” I answered. I grabbed my bag that had my belongings on it that Gavin prepared for me.

I felt a lump on my throat after that. My chest was also hurting which I didn’t understand. As I thought about it, I only figured out I was sad. It was because it was the first time someone cared for me. But what we had in that short period of time that were together was just temporary. We belong from two different world and shouldn’t meet.

“But you’re in danger,” he said.

“I can handle myself.”

“Okay. If that’s what you wish. I will not force myself to you anymore,” he said as he finished washing the dishes. “But can you atleast think about it? It not be hard for you for liking me back. I will make sure of it.”

I took a deep breath as I looked at him. This time he wasn’t looking at me while he talked.

“Fine. But give me sometime to give you an answer. And that will be the only time we can see each other again,” I said to him since I was sure I would still say no to him. I already made a promise to someone so I could not be with him even if I started to like him.

“I uderstand,” he said to me as he stared at the sink.

“I will go now. Thank you for everything. Just close the door when yo leave,” I told him wand walked out of the door. The moment I stepped out, I shielded my eyes with my hands from the sunlight. I could still hear him moving inside the room.