Scarlet Craving

Chapter 15: Stranger

I was definitely overdue for some girl time with Ava and just some normality in general, as much as I enjoyed being lured away to a house in the woods with a bunch of vampires I also appreciated the simple things. Such as just hanging out with my human friend and doing human things, no boys, no vampires, just me and my girlfriend.

We were meeting up at the mall to hang out and catch up. I felt bad for making her the third wheel a lot of the time so I wanted to do something she really enjoyed, which was shopping.

"Piper!" Ava waved to me as she rushed over to where I was waiting for her.

"Hey," I said, smiling at her. She hooked her arm around mine as she began to wheel me down the long hall of shops.

"There are loads of sales going on at the moment! I want to try everything on." She said excitedly. I rolled my eyes at her.

After a few hours of being dragged to every shop, it seemed and watching Ava perform a fashion show in each one we lugged our bags over to the food court. I was in dire need of some fuel after all that shopping. We sat down with our food and began eating.

Ava took a bite out of her burger before looking at me with curious eyes. "So..."

"So?"

"How are things with Taehyung?" She asked, full of curiosity.

"They're good, yeah," I said shyly as I took a sip of my drink.

"Piper," Ava said in a serious voice as she stared at me.

"What?"

"You hardly talk about your relationship at the moment when we're alone. Come on, tell me what's been going on." Ava said in a slightly worried tone as she offered me some of her french fries.

"It's nothing really..." I ate a couple of the fries offered to me before speaking again. "Well, I met his brothers last week," I admitted.

"And?" Ava egged on.

"They're okay.." I looked down at the table. What was I supposed to say? No, actually they decided to kidnap me with the intent of drinking my blood. Oh and also I'm dating a vampire!

"They don't like you?" Ava guessed, she was always good at reading my face.

"No! Well...one of them isn't particularly fond of me, shall we say." I mean I think Jungkook may like me? As for Jimin...I'd rather not think about it.

"Why's that?" Do you need me to beat them up?" Ava said while waving her fist in the air, her expression was disbelieving that anyone would dislike me. I had to suppress a smile at the idea of Ava trying to take on a vampire.

"No, no. I bumped into them before Taehyung had a chance to tell them we were going out so I think it shocked them a bit." Yeah shocked is the last word I would've used for Jimin, he was more disgusted by my presence. I wondered for a moment if there was something I could do to make him like me, to make him see I wouldn't betray Taehyung the way his former lover had.

"But surely Taehyung has had relationships before? I mean with a face like that." Ava said as she finished her food. I felt my cheeks flush as I timidly shook my head at her, not meeting her eyes. "Really!? Wow, Piper." Ava said in an impressed tone.

"Well are any of his brother's lookers?" Ava grinned devilishly.

"Ava!"

She laughed. "I'm kidding!" She waved her hand in the air as she took a sip of her drink. "Anyway, I'm sure they'll come to like you eventually."

"We'll see," I said as I finished my food.

We continued to chat for a bit longer, more about the upcoming assignments we had due for class. I sighed deeply at that thought. We then left and headed back outside onto the cool street, I shoved my nose into my scarf. "Are you sure you don't want a lift? Taehyung will be here soon." I asked Ava.

"No It's okay, I've got to do some food shopping anyway. I'll get the bus back." Ava said.

I hugged her as I said goodbye. "It was good to hang out like this today, outside of uni. Definitely need to do this more often." I said as I smiled.

"For sure!" Ava said excitedly.

I watched her walk away towards the supermarket before I headed down the road to the car park. As I turned the corner I collided with something hard. "Oh!" I exclaimed loudly as I stumbled, dropping my bag in the process as I regained my balance. I looked up to see that I had bumped into a person. "Sorry!" I said quickly.

I began to reach down for my bag when I noticed he was staring at me, his eyes looked as if they were black. A slightly pained and yet intrigued expression lay across his face. His features were smooth and perfect, his slightly parted lips plump. His hair was a dark shade of brown as it rested softly across his head. He almost looked frozen like a statue as he continued to look at me. "Um..are you okay?" I asked, maybe I had hurt him when we crashed into each other?

As if someone had pressed his on switch he began to move, his expression instantly changing to a warm one as he reached down to grab my bag. "My apologies about that." His voice was smooth. He caught my eye as he placed my bag back in my hand, a small smirk forming on his face. He then suddenly stepped to the side of me and grabbed my shoulder, making me jump. He leaned his face close to my ear as he squeezed his hand on my shoulder. "Be sure to be careful next time." He whispered into my ear before releasing his grip on me.

I turned, intending to tell him to get the hell away from me but he wasn't there. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air, the wind blew across my hair. I could've sworn I had heard a ghost of laughter with it. I felt a chill go down my spine. What the hell was that about? I shook off my weird feeling as I continued down the road.

I almost immediately spotted Taehyung as I entered the car park, he was leant up against the side of his car with his hands in his pockets. I hurried over to him, he smiled as he saw me. He pushed off his car as he came to walk over to me. I practically jumped into his arms once he was near enough, burying my head into his chest. Being with Taehyung always made me feel safe. "Piper? What's wro-" Taehyung began to ask me before I felt him become stiff in my arms.

"Taehyung?" I asked worriedly as I looked up to see his face.

His expression was hard as his eyebrows creased together, his top lip began to curl upwards revealing his teeth. He suddenly held me tightly to him, cradling my head back into his chest. "We need to go, now."