Watch and Whisper

Chapter 9

    For the rest of the ride, we ate the rest of the cotton candy and finished the drink while we looked around at the city lights in silence. Every now and then he would squeeze me closer to him, and I would snuggle into him. When we got off the ride, I wanted a funnel cake, so we got one and sat at the same picnic table as before.

"It's my turn." I said. Julian smiled at me. He knew I was referring to the question game.

"Ask me anything."

"Have you ever been in love?"

"Many years ago. I was young, and foolish."

"What was she like?"

"That's two questions." He teased.

I shoved his arm. "C'mon, I wanna know."

"If I tell you my story of failed love, will you tell me yours?"

"Deal." I agreed, but my heart tried to flutter in fear.

"Okay. Her name was Lucille. Lucy for short. We were both seventeen, and by the time I was nineteen, I had wanted to marry her. But there was one problem."

"What?"

"She was human." Julian looked at me and smiled.

"So what did you do?"

"I begged my father to speak to the council. To ask a Nephana to turn her. He warned me in turn, that if I did this, and later on found my soul mate, that I would be in a world of trouble. I told him I didn't care, I loved Lucy. We would cross that bridge when we came to it. At that time, I never thought I would find a soul mate. So he did speak to the council, and for him, they agreed. When I told her about it, that we had found a way, she said she wanted to wait a few years. I reluctantly agreed, but when I brought it up a few years later, she admitted that she did not want to become a vampire. I was heartbroken, but I couldn't force it on her. So we stayed together for a while after that."

"How long?" I asked.

"Until she noticed she was too old for me She was 34, and I looked 25. She became embarrassed."

"Wow, you stayed with a human that long?"

"Yes, but shortly after that, she left, and I never heard from her again. I did however, hear from a mutual friend that she eventually met and married someone. She even had two children. So it was for the best."

"You must have really loved her."

"I did, but that was nothing compared to the love that happens between soul mates." He said, starting at me intently. My heart beat wildly. Did he mean he felt something already?

I decided to tell him my story before my heart gave out.

"I promised to tell you my story too."

"Please do. I have to say I'm so curious."

I laughed. "Of course you are."

He laughed, then waited to me to begin. Where to start?

At the beginning, I guess.

"His name is Erik. We met in high school. We had the last class of the day together senior year. I'd had a crush on him ever since I saw him at the beginning of the school year. My friend Melanie stopped him after class one Friday in March and gave him my phone number and told him I had a crush on him. Of course, I had no idea, and when she told me what she did I was mortified. But he texted that night and asked could he take me out. I said yes... and the rest was history. I fell for him hard. He seemed happy too, and always told me wonderful things like he was gonna marry me and all that... but then right before my twentieth birthday he started acting distant. I figured he was just getting comfortable in our relationship. But a few weeks after we celebrated my birthday, he told me he'd met someone else. That was that."