Vampire Princess

Chapter Twenty: In The Coffee Shop

I walked down the stairs, yawning. When I stepped on my last step, a hand suddenly enveloped mine. I looked up and saw Jerome, who was smiling nervously at me. “Hey, Melanie.”

I frowned. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in work or something?”

“Yeah but I waited for you to wake up. I don’t want to disturb you so I just waited.”

I continued frowning confusedly at him. “Why did you do that?”

“I have to talk to you.” He pulled on my hand, telling me indirectly to follow him.

“Oka-ay,” I said slowly and followed him inside the dining hall. I didn’t know what this was all about. This was the first time that Jerome talked to me since our “fight.” He refused to talk to me and I did nothing about it. But when my eyes went to the dining table, I couldn’t help but gasp.

“Is it enough?” Jerome chuckled nervously.

“Oh Jerome, you shouldn’t have!”

The table was filled with my favorite kinds of food for breakfast (i.e. bacon, lasagna, orange juice etc.) plus a big bouquet of flowers. Sometimes Jerome could be sweet for me.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked as he helped me into my chair.

“It’s my way of apologizing to you,” he replied and sat across me. “I don’t like us fighting, Melanie. I don’t want to fight with you but really, sometimes you could be a handful.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Only me?”

He gave me a look. “Don’t start.”

“Okay, fine – but only because you have prepared me a very nice breakfast.”

After Jerome and I had said grace, we began to dug in our tasty breakfast. Jerome’s a really good cook – just like Garret.

“So what did you do last night with Heather?” Jerome asked conversationally. “Your mother told me earlier before they left that you were out with her for so long.”

I stuffed a mouthful of pancake inside my mouth. “We just went out.”

“Where?”

“It’s not really that important,” I told him with a smile.

Jerome frowned. “Okay, now I’m so curious. Where did you go?”

“I told you, it’s not really important.”

“If it’s not important, then why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“Really, are you making this a big of a deal?”

“You’re the one who’s making it a big deal. Just tell me!”

“We went to Ashley’s,” I replied shortly, stabbing my bacon harder than I was meant to. “We had dinner there.”

“Ashley? Why did you go there? I thought you don’t like her,” he pointed out.

“True,” I said, “but I just have a strange feeling… that she’s the traitor that Jensen told us about.”

Jerome paused thoughtfully and then shook his head. “No it couldn’t be her.”

“Why not?” I asked rather sharply. “You don’t know anything about her!”

“And so do you.”

“I really think she’s the traitor,” I said stubbornly. “I mean, wouldn’t that explain why she hates me so much?”