Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DD Chapter 19 - Nights At Sunny Side

Chapter 19

ON FRIDAY, Vivienne met Blake prior to entering the diner. He was waiting for her in the parking lot. He was really dedicated to this role of the high school jock. He was wearing a Remin jacket in black and green. On his feet were a pair of worn and beaten sneakers.

Vivienne wondered if he expected her to believe he had ever worn a sneaker in his life before starting this charade. His dark denim jeans were worn at the knees. His nails had a short, uneven appearance, which made her wonder if he actually had a nail-biting problem or if that, too, was a facade to appear human.

"I was almost afraid you weren't coming," Blake teased. Vivienne wished he didn't look so handsome in the moonlight. The green in the jacket brought out the color of his eyes. On his lips, he was wearing his perpetual smirk. Yet, there was an innocence to his face that made those who met him want to believe the best about him.

Vivienne had a feeling that the facade of vulnerability was not the effect of vampirism, but rather something he was born with.

"I thought about it," Vivienne said, as she tugged at her hem. She wasn't used to wearing skirts anymore after having lived in jeans for so long. "Are you trying to make things here so uncomfortable for me that I quit school?"

"Quit Remin High, yes," he whispered back. "This isn't the only school in the world. If you agree to leave, I have the means to send you to any school or any college you desire."

Vivienne chuckled bitterly.

"Thank you, Mr. Oslen of Tercel. But like yourself, I will also have to turn that scholarship down." Vivienne said mockingly. He didn't laugh.

"Vivienne, I'm serious."

"I'm starting to think you don't care about Satan's Hollow at all. You're just here to keep me from digging too deep."

"There are things down there that you don't understand. You are not prepared for any of this."

Vivienne reacted in shock when Blake suddenly grabbed her by the arm. He gestured to her backpack.

"I know about those Segais toys that you have been working on. I also know they will be completely useless down in Satan's Hollow. If you go down there, you'll die down there."

Vivienne shook herself free of him. Here she was arguing with Blake Thorne in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. It felt surreal. He was angry, but with every word he spoke, it seemed there were a million that he couldn't say to her. He would rather dress up as a teenager and run through this charade than tell her the truth.

Vivienne parted her lips, but no words came out. There was so much she wanted to say as well, but none of it sounded appropriate. She wanted to scream at him that she loved him, had always loved him, but she hated that he was here with her. He was going to place himself here in her life, like the piece of a puzzle that she had always been missing, and then he was going to disappear as suddenly as he came.

She wasn't his to control. She belonged to herself, as herself alone. Loneliness was all that she had ever known.

"It's my choice."

He couldn't argue with that. Blake sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. It was finally starting to grow out again and recover from the buzz cut he gave himself back in Manna City. He backed away from her. Vivienne saw that he was breathing hard, and his hands were clenched into fists by his side. Was she was worth so much anger? She had questioned whether he was human again and again, but right then, she believed that he wasn't undead.