𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐦 | 𝐜.𝐝 𝐟𝐟

𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪.

He could drive well, when he kept the speed reasonable, I had to admit. Like so many things, it seemed to be effortless to him. He barely looked at the road, yet the tires never deviated so much as a centimeter from the center of the lane. He drove one-handed, holding my hand on the seat. Sometimes he gazed into the setting sun, sometimes he glanced at me — my face, my hair blowing out the open window, our hands twined together.

He had turned the radio to an oldies station, and he sang along with a song I'd never heard. He knew every line.

"You like fifties music?" I asked.

"Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh!" He shuddered. "The eighties were bearable."

"You know, for a seventeen-year-old, your opinions go way beyond your age."

"I'm not seventeen." He argued.

"Yea but don't you, like, stop ageing or something? So technically, we're the same age now," I beamed. I never would have thought I could say that. Especially to my parents who disapproved the 3-year age gap at that time.

Cedric was quiet before he spoke again. "How old were we when we were together?" He asked quietly, as if Madam Pince was in the very Audi with us. 

"Why are we whispering? Anyways, I was 12, you were reaching 15. We never really did anything at all actually. Just snuck out and spent loads of time with each other." I was genuinely so surprised at this. He didn't seem to doubt me when I said we had knew each other before. He didn't even questioned me when I mentioned my witchy behaviours. 

"How come you don't question me about this? I could be a serial liar for all you know," I called out. Despite my joking tone, he became sombre.

"I don't remember it well — it was a very long time ago, and human memories fade."

He was lost in his thoughts for a short time before he went on. "I do remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could forget."

"Your friends?"

"I can't really remember them. As far as I know, they think I'm dead." He pointedly looked at me.

"How did he... save you?"

A few seconds passed before he answered. He seemed to choose his words carefully.

"It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us... I don't think you could find his equal throughout all of history." He paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful."

I could tell from the set of his lips, he would say no more on this subject. I suppressed my curiosity, though it was far from idle. I won't betray his privacy anymore and look into his mind. No doubt his quick mind had already comprehended every aspect that eluded me.

His soft voice interrupted my thoughts. "He acted from loneliness. That's usually the reason behind the choice. I was the first in Carlisle's family, though he found Esme soon after. She fell from a cliff. They brought her straight to the hospital morgue, though, somehow, her heart was still beating."

"So you must be dying, then, to become..." We never said the word, and I couldn't frame it now.

"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice."

The respect in his voice was profound whenever he spoke of his father figure. "It is easier he says, though," he continued, "if the blood is weak." He looked at the now-dark road, and I could feel the subject closing again.