Sterling Silver (Sterling Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 17

Tabitha stared at herself in the mirror, smoothing out her dress and rolled her eyes at herself. She felt petty for scrutinizing herself in the mirror for the last five minutes. Fixing and re-fixing her hair. Doing and redoing her makeup and trying to decide why she loved this dress so much. She wanted to look perfect while at the same time she didn't. Not for Sebastian. She was primping and prodding herself for Sebastian. A vampire. And yet every time she told herself she looked fine and that this wasn't a date and that it didn't matter how she looked she always ended up back in front of the mirror.

Tabitha rubbed her sweaty palms on her dress, her heart racing. She'd never been so panicked or scared in her life. Not even when she hunted down and staked her first vampire. Or when Devon first asked her out.

How was it possible that Sebastian could make her feel so... unhappy with herself? Tabitha had never second-guessed her makeup or fashion choices and yet now she'd never been so unsure about how she looked in her entire high school career. In middle school she'd been an insecure, scrawny, awkward little girl... But who hadn't in middle school?

Now she pulled her hair up again and turned her face this way and that and then let it fall back down her back. She'd decided to wear her favorite dress. Neon pink with a flaring skirt that went to her knees and knee-high heeled black boots. To finish it off she shrugged on a black leather jacket. He would be here any minute now. It was almost six o'clock. When she'd gotten home she had told her mom about the date. She hadn't been pleased but she did say Tabitha could go. Just that she should make sure to bring a few stakes in her purse. That was why Tabitha came downstairs with her black purse over a shoulder, three stakes inside next to her wallet and cellphone.

Tabitha was about to tell her mom she would wait outside and that she would see her later when there was a knock on the door. She stiffened, her whole body freezing in either fear or shock. Sebastian had actually shown up. Tabitha had been psyching herself out, telling herself he wouldn't actually come and that he'd been joking yesterday but now here he was... at her door... waiting to take her out for a whirlwind night.

"B–bye mom! I'll see you later," she shouted, flinching at the squeak in her voice.

"Be home by ten Tabitha," her mom shouted back from the kitchen.

"I will." Tabitha opened the door and allowed herself a moment to take in Sebastian. The day had been horrible without him. She'd been on edge and restless all day, unable to think of anything else except for him and what he had planned for her tonight. And now there he was, standing in front of her and looking like a freaken model from the 1900's.

He wore a crisp white shirt under a black plaid single breasted vest and a dark, almost black tie. Crisp black pants and shiny black shoes. His blond hair was slicked back and Tabitha's heart almost melted at the sight of him. How was she supposed to focus for a whole evening out with him looking like that? His mouth fell open slightly when he saw her and he quickly readjusted his features into a dashing, impressed smile.

"Very nice... and very bright. I expected nothing less," he commented.

Tabitha couldn't stop a blush from creeping onto her face and she smiled back, rolling her eyes to hide how flustered she was. "Thanks... So should we go or are you just going to stare at me all night?"

He laughed a velvety laugh and stepped aside. Tabitha shut the door behind her and managed to hold herself together when he touched the small of her back, leading her off the front porch and to an unfamiliar car parked on the curb of her street. A vintage black Mercedes.

"No way... You know every guy in our school would kill for wheels like that," she said, stopping in front of the passenger door as he opened it for her.