How Not To Be A Vampire

Six

Elliot stops in her tracks as she spots both Michael and Ashton sitting at the table with me. Her eyes move between the two of them, slowly, and it's so quiet you could here a pin drop. I push myself up out of my seat and walk towards Elliot.

"I know you probably have a lot of questions." I start to say and she speaks without ever taking her eyes off of Michael and Ashton.

"Just one. Who the hell are they?" 

My eyes widen a bit at the hostility in her voice because Elliot has always been the nicest person to everyone she meets, even if they're not exactly nice to her. That's one of the things I loved about her.

"They're my cousins." I blurt out without thinking and I can hear Michael cough behind me to hide a laugh at my lie.

"Your.. cousins?" she repeats and I nod, swallowing the spit in my mouth.

"Yeah, they're from.. Kansas." I say a random state as I make up this story about my cousins. "I haven't seen them in a couple years and they came to visit me for a.. while."

She stares at me with a blank expression and I pray she believes this bullshit story. "This is Michael, and this is Ashton." I introduce them and Ashton is the first to stand up and shake Elliot's hand. "And there's also Calum and Luke who are.. somewhere else.. in the house." I say, and as if on cue both Luke and Calum walk into the kitchen.

"Who is she?" Luke says, sounding a bit on edge.

"This is my best friend, Elliot. Elliot, this is Luke and Calum, my other cousins." I emphasize the words cousins, hoping the two of them catch on to what I'm doing.

Thankfully they do, and they too shake hands with Elliot who still looks at everyone with suspicion.

"So, you're Ivy's cousins, huh?" she crosses her arms as she looks at each one of them. They all nod. "Really? Well, tell me a childhood story of hers." she states as she waltzes around the kitchen. "I mean, it shouldn't be that hard considering you're family and all."

I can feel a bead of sweat start to roll down my face. Elliot knows all of my childhood stories, if they make up anything she will know they're lying and I don't want to know what will happen after that.

To my surprise however, Luke lets out a very fake laugh and then tells a story.

"If you insist." he starts. "When Ivory was about ten or so, she was climbing a tree during a game of hide and seek. She ended up winning the game but by the time we found her she had climbed so high that she was too afraid to climb down. Once she eventually did start climbing back down, she lost her grip and fell out of the tree and broke her leg." he finishes, his eyes never breaking contact with Elliot's the entire time.

I try not to look scared at the fact that he was right. I had broken my leg climbing a tree during a game of hide and seek when I was ten. How he knew that, I had no idea. But one thing I did know was that Elliot was genuinely shocked that he knew this information as well, which means she believes they're my cousins.

"I guess you guys do know each other, I apologize for doubting." she says and Luke shrugs.

"It's not a problem. Not everyone believes it when they find out Ivory has cousins as hot as us."

I resist the urge to face palm right then and there and instead hold my hand up. "Okay well, I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick. You guys can just um.. get acquainted better." I rush out before turning and leaving the kitchen. I forgot that I didn't even go to the bathroom when I woke up this morning so it felt like my bladder was about to explode.

When I get to the bathroom I lock the door behind me and let out a heavy sigh. Who knew housing vampires would be this stressful?