Adolescent Foolishness (A Fearless Vampire Killers Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-One

[Drew's P.O.V.]

"He's a wreck." I mumble to myself as I turn off my phone's screen and slip it back into my pocket. "Even Kier's noticed."

"Huh?"Arys glances up from her dinner plate, which has been full for well over an hour now, to look at me.

"Oh. Nothing. Just, uh..." I shrug. "Shane's upset about something. I don't know what about." Well, that's true: Kier keeps texting me, telling me how Shane's doing, but he won't tell me what's wrong with him; neither will Luke. Laurence and Shane just won't speak to me at all. To be honest, it's hurting more to have Shane ignoring me than to have Laurence ignoring me, but I can't dwell on anything like that. I'm here to make sure Arys is okay, the least I can do is stick by her until the time comes that...well, you know.

"Are the others not sure what's wrong with him either, then?" She asks.

"Oh, no. They know what's wrong. Just they won't tell me."I sigh, before frowning down at her plate. "You need to eat some of that, it'll be cold by now."

"Who are you, my mother?" She smirks.

"No, I'm Woolsifer. Your mum is the woman that slaved away in the kitchen for hours to make you that, and I helped. So eat some of it." I pick up her fork, waving it around in front of her face. She goes cross-eyed for a moment as she looks at it, before she pushes it away with the back of her hand.

"I'm not hungry. Besides, all you did was grate some cheese, right?"

"And I bet it's the damn best grated cheese you've ever tasted, so eat it." I've never really been the best at cooking, so of course when I offered to make something for everyone, Arys's mum noticed something was up and came through to rescue me, sending me off to sit in the corner with a bowl, a block of cheddar and a cheese grater - and even then I couldn't do that right. Laurence and Kier have always been the best cooks out of all of us, really.

"I said I'm not hungry, Drew." She frowns apologetically up at me. "I can put it in the microwave and eat it later."

"I... Fine." I sigh. She picks up her plate, standing up and leaving the room quickly, and I sigh again as she disappears from my line of sight. I know what's happening here. She's refusing to eat, not because she's not hungry, but because she doesn't see the point. She's dying already, and the doctors have said there's nothing they can really do. Well, nothing Arys will consent to, anyway, by the looks of it. So she won't eat, she'll make it look like she has. Then, if she has to eat, she'll just heave it all back up her throat and into the toilet. It's only a matter of time. And how do I know all this? Because Laurence used to be exactly the same when we were younger, all because he thought he was fat.

Right enough, he wasn't dying.

"Are you alright? You've a face like thunder." Arys smiles as she slips back into the room. I shrug; am I?

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just worrying about Shane." She sits down in front of me as I speak. "And worrying about you."

"Why worry about me? I'm fine for now." Clearly not. "Don't waste your energy worrying about me, idiot."

"I can't help it." I sigh. "Are you going to tell anyone else?"

She frowns, before shaking her head. "I can't, I told you. I can't slip that into normal conversation, it's not fair on anyone else to burden them with that."

I nod in agreement. But wait... "Why did you tell me, then? If you don't think it's fair for anyone to know?" That's hardly fair for me, so why did she only bend that rule for me? Doesn't she think I'll have problems dealing with it? I've only known the girl less than two weeks!