Empire of Vampires ✔️

Chapter Two

A/N: above pic is James:)

Andrew uncertainly watched him leave, but it didn't seem to bother anyone else as they all settled themselves around the table. Marie tugged on his arm, smiling up sweetly.

'Don't worry about him, he's just stressed out about... stuff,' she assured as Andrew sat down beside her.

'I didn't mean to disturb, I mean, I thought y'all were talking about something important,' Andrew blabbered, realizing this was the first full sentence he'd said since he arrived. There was something about the bubbly girl that made her easy to talk to, and Andrew relaxed in her presence.

'Oh, he's just in a tizzy. Whatever, I'll talk to him later,' she shrugged, unconcerned.

Andrew wondered what she meant by that but he didn't want to pry into whatever they were discussing. He quietly crunched on his chips while the others filled him in on what to expect from each of his classes and what the lecturers were like. 

Marie dipped her hand in his chip bag unabashedly and without invitation. Although she grabbed a handful, she seemed to just be waving them around in the air as she gesticulated.

'You should make a sandwich with these,' she said.

'With chips?'

'Yea, you put one chip between two pieces of chips, like so,' she demonstrated, 'and then you eat the three layers together.'

She pretended to take a bite and then gave the rest of the chip sandwich to a very confused looking Andrew. He cautiously bit into it under her expectant stare, but there was an immediate explosion of crumbs.

'You have to shove the whole thing into your mouth,' Marie explained, 'That's just common knowledge.'

'Hmrph,' Andrew mumbled, having no choice but to heed her advice.

'Isn't it better this way?'

'I guess... the texture is different.' He smiled good-humoredly after struggling to chew and swallow it.

'It's getting late,' Evan yawned. He stretched and dropped his head onto Jesse's shoulder. All the other students milling about had long since retired to their dorms.

'Don't fall asleep here,' Jesse grumbled, attempting to push his weight aside so that he could get up.

'You can stay as long as you like, there's no bedtime curfew as long as you don't leave campus,' Evan told Andrew sleepily before he allowed his roommate to assist him back to their dorm.

Marie finished up another hour of uninterrupted, one-sided chatter, forgetting in her excitement over a new acquaintance that he was most likely tired from traveling halfway across Ather.

'I'll walk you back to yours,' she finally offered.

'Oh, you don't have to; isn't your dorm on the other side of the school?'

'That's okay, you look like you could use some company.'

Andrew guessed that she just wanted to see James again, but he was glad that he didn't have to walk the alien hallways by himself, since Evan and Jesse were now long gone.

'I haven't seen the sea in years.' Marie sighed longingly as they traipsed down the corridor. 'You must miss it already.'

'I do actually,' Andrew admitted, 'And the weather- it's freezing here! How long has it been since you visited the islands?'

'Like over a hundred years!' Marie exclaimed, 'Not that it was really an island at the time.'

'Oh? You went there back when it was Pangea?' Andrew bantered, feeling completely at ease now.