Chapter 27

“Come on, drink up.” Sparks nudges the cup in my hands towards my mouth, and I look at her suspiciously as the steamy scent of lemon hits me right in the face.

“What’s it supposed to do?” I rest the mouth of the cup against my lips as I eye the contents inside.

“It’s tea. I put ginger and lemon and my secret ingredient, which will remain a secret, but it’ll help with the sore throat, I promise,” she explains, looking so pleased with herself before nudging the cup further against my lips. I slightly part my lips and let the hot drink flow into my mouth.

“Honey?” I cringe a little after tasting the bitter-sweet drink.

“Uh huh, it helps stop the coughing,” she’s fucking adorable. “Drink some more,” I nod and do as she says, figuring she has no reason to poison me… Yet.

Sparks sits comfortably next to me on the couch and dusts imaginary lint from her lap… Oh, so it’s one of those quiet, awkward moments. Great.

I decide to watch her every move. The way she picks at her fingernails and taps her lap impatiently, her eyes roaming the walls in the room as if it’s not her house.

After sitting behind the gym for an hour or so in silence, I started coughing a little with minor symptoms like a sore throat and chest pains when I coughed. So, Sparks, being the “doctor” she is, got me to come home with her. Said she had something that would make me feel better in an instant because she assumed I had a cold. So, me being me and not wanting to deal with pretending to be okay and strong today for Austin and Drew’s sake, I decided to follow her home.

“Sooo…” I blow on the steam coming from the cup before taking another small sip of the drink. I was actually starting to enjoy the taste… Still didn’t stop the cringe though.

I look around her living room, and my eyes land on the little colorful aquarium in the corner, before my lips stretch into a smile. I notice the white starfish with red stripes and the other plain purple one stuck to the glass. I didn’t pay much attention on the night I bought them, but now that I’m really seeing them, I think they’re as pretty as their owner.

“Mmh…” I turn to look at her when she hums, taking back my attention.

“The tea,” I lift the cup. “It’s nice.”

“Thanks,” she nods her head, then asks, “Can I see your hand?”

“Hmm?”

“Your hand,” she points at my hand, and I raise my eyebrows, but still place the cup on her glass coffee table before stretching my left hand to her. Sparks grabs it with both her hands and looks at it closely, studying my fingers and my palm.

Huh…

“What are you doing?” I mutter, then smile, “I mean if you want to-”

My perverted sentence is interrupted with a gasp as Sparks sinks her sharp teeth into my wrist, completely taking me by surprise. My eyes widen, and I almost punch her as her teeth dig further into my skin, but she pulls back.

“OW!! What the fuck?!” I pull my hand away from hers, glaring at her.

“I’m sorry,” she snorts adorably as if she hasn’t just violated my hand.

“What, are you a vampire now?” I study the bite marks on my wrist, then look back at her and hold back a smile. “How do you invite me over to your place and try to extract blood from me, you creep?”

“I said I was sorry,” she giggles, “I just had one of those impulsive thoughts and thought, why not?”

I finally crack a smile and shake my head. “And here I thought you couldn’t get any weirder.”

“I’m not weird,” She swats at me, and I move away to avoid contact.

“You’re scaring me here, Sparks.” I grin wider when she fakes a pout.

“But since we’re on a topic of impulsive thoughts, I also have one of my own.”

“Don’t you dare,” she points at me.

“What? I won’t bite… Not as hard as you,” I shrug. “Or do you need to be drunk to make such ‘mistakes?'” She swats at me again, this time actually slapping my arm. Ouch.

“Shut up,” she frowns. “Drink your tea,” I know she’s trying to change the topic, and I chuckle a little at her poor attempt.

“Yes ma’am,” I reach for the tea as I study my wrist again, the marks were still visible, and it still very much stung.

“So…” I sip my tea, “I just realized you know a little too much about me, and I know nothing about you…”

I turn fully to face her.

“What is this? Our first date?” she scoffs, and I’m smiling like a fool.

“It can be if you want it to be.” Okay, I admit it, I answered that without thinking. But it’s worth it to see the small smirk on her lips before she responds.

“No,” my heart drops for some stupid reason. “You have to ask nicely first,” she adds, and I chuckle, looking away.

“I just might,” I shrug. “But before that, you have to tell me about you.” Don’t worry, I realize how weird this sounds coming from me, but it’s only fair to learn about her; she already knows more than I let people know.

“What do you want to know?” she fully faces me after contemplating for a while.

“Anything, and it would be nice to know if you were a vampire this early,” I point at her, and she cracks a smile. “Or maybe a witch,” I shrug.

“I wish,” she chuckles.

“I’m Flame Sparks, nice to meet you.” Sparks stretches her hand out to me, and I decide to play along, reaching for a handshake. “Let’s play this out like the bad dating shows on TV, yeah?” I scoff a laugh but nod and get into character.

“The name’s Ca- Alison, Alison Forbes,” I introduce myself to her properly because it feels like I never did, and notice her small, genuine smile. “But no one calls me that, you can call me Cain, nice to meet you.” I nod, and she smiles wider.

“Well, Cainine Forbes, what are you looking for in a partner?” she asks, and I frown then burst into laughter.

How does one even answer that?

“Tits?” I shrug, and she covers her mouth to stifle her laughter.

“I don’t know if I can help you with that,” she goes back to character quickly, and I roll my eyes.

“Come on, Sparks, tell me about you for real.” For the first time, I don’t want games or silly flirting.

“Okay then,” she sighs, her voice quiet now, “Well, I honestly don’t know where to begin because I don’t know what you want to know.”

“I just told you, it would be amazing to know if you were supernatural or not.” It might seem like a stupid question, but I’m seriously curious.

“Okay, fine, I’m a vampire, and next time I’ll be sure to bite so hard I draw blood.”

“There won’t be a next time, woman,” I point at her, my voice loud unlike hers.

“We’ll see about that,” she waves her eyebrows at me and makes a gesture of biting hard on her teeth. “Okay, Forbes, I’m not from around here, if you can tell,” she says, and I bite hard on my lower lip at the use of that name.

What the fuck?

“What? I like that name,” she defends when she notices my clenched jaw.

“No… No, you don’t,” I take another sip of the good tea and avoid her eye contact.

Yes, the tea was growing on me.

“I have a twin-” I almost choke on my drink once she says that, and place the cup back on the table.

“I’m sorry, what?” I can feel how wide my eyes are.

This would explain a lot, but then again, bring a lot of confusion in my life. Why the fuck didn’t she tell me this earlier? Have they been playing around with me? Switching between making me chase and making out with me. Wait, are they identical, or am I just going crazy for no reason? And if so… Have I made out with both of them on different occasions? Is the other one even here?

“Are you identical?” I finally ask with a strain to my voice, and she sighs and rolls her beautiful eyes at me. Imagine two Sparks, though. Fuck.

“Yes, my twin brother and I are very identical,” she smiles, and I sink back into the couch and sigh, literally feeling the whole of me relax.

“Oh,” is all I can say before she chuckles a little.

“What? You thought it was a girl?” she asks, and I nod. “Damn, I wish. My brother is such a pain in the ass. His name’s Logan, and we moved here together before the start of this year. I moved here to go to this school since I really want to major in psychology, but Logan moved here to basically fuck around and ‘find fame'” she air quotes the last words, and I smile.

“Wow, complete opposites,” I mumble.

“Tell me about it. He has a job, though. And although he’s an asshole, he helps my mom out a lot with the bills and shit like that,” she explains, and I sit straight again to pay better attention.

Might as well take notes, Ali.

“Unlike you, I was raised by a single mom. My dad basically became an alcoholic and left us at a young age, but my mom has always been there, you know,” she sounds distant as she speaks. Not necessarily hurting, but remembering pain.

I, on the other hand, didn’t even know who my mother was or where she was, wasn’t curious enough, though. She probably had a good reason for leaving. Nik was a real piece of work.

“So… How was it like?” I’ve not understood why, but I love when Sparks speaks to me. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s so smart, unlike the people I’m usually surrounded with. Smart, interesting, beautiful face, beautiful voice…

“What? Being raised by a single mother or having a twin?” she asks.

“Make that, being raised by a sane parent, and yeah, having a twin brother,” I ignore the sympathetic look she gives me.

“It was all okay, it got pretty chaotic when my brother found out I had a girlfriend and ratted me out, though,” the cheeky smirk she has going on has me more interested.

“Tell me more.”

“My mother is one of those people raised with really strong cultural and religious beliefs. She’s not comfortable with me being bisexual until now, and I know she prays a man will sweep me off my feet before a woman does,” she explains, and I frown. That must be hard. “My brother is also kind of one of those people, but what can I do?” she shrugs.

“Sorry about that,” I whisper. I didn’t know much about having a religious parent, but I’ve heard enough stories to appreciate Nik for at least not being a religious snob.

“What about you?” she brushes it off quickly. “What was your dad’s reaction?”

“Oh, Nik is a different breed, trust me, he was happy we had more things in common, and when he came by the other day, he talked about finding me a woman, a ‘permanent one'” I chuckle. It was only funny now when he wasn’t around.

“Wow,” Flame cringes but laughs awkwardly.

“So… How many girlfriends have you had?” I ask, trying to sidetrack her and also for personal reasons. I’ll admit that this once.

“Just one” she shrugs, “Back in high school, before my family found out, and that’s how that ended… I’ve never been with a girl since,” she looks at me. “Well, except you… But that wasn’t even being with you… Nothing happened,” I can tell she’s freaked out, and that makes me grin wide.

We can change, Sparks. Right fucking now if you want.

“Lucky me then,” I spread my arms and smirk when she rolls her eyes. “Well, to be fair, since my first girlfriend, no girl has ever tried what you tried last time,” I admit and regret the words immediately until I notice her cheeks turning a bit red…

Is she blushing? Fuck…

“Sorry about that, by the way,” she looks away from me, clearly shy. Why? It was pretty bold and hot.

“So, you do remember that, huh?” I smile.

“Yes, and I wish I didn’t. Shit, it’s so embarrassing,” she covers her face with both her hands, and I laugh.

“Tell me about it,” I tease, and laugh harder when she groans.

“I’m just kidding, it wasn’t.” I still can’t wipe the smile off my face, especially when her hands remain right there covering her face. “Come on, don’t whine about it.” I lean closer to her to pull her hands off her face.

“Let me go,” she whines like a little kid and tries to pull away, but hey, I don’t only go to the gym, I own one. I grab both her hands and pull them off her face, and she looks up at me and gives me the most adorable pout. Seriously, it’s like she’s begging me to kiss her.

“It’s not, I swear,” I assure her, “I wouldn’t change shit about that night except for our interruption,” I mutter, my eyes trailing back to the pout on her pretty lips.

I hold both her hands in my left hand and stupidly reach out to cup her cheek with my right hand. When she doesn’t move away and, in fact, slightly leans in, I lean forward too, my eyes lost in hers. I tilt my head, lightly brushing her lips with mine. Huh, they still feel so good.

Pillowy, welcoming, and so fucking tasty just like the first time. I’m dying to close the little gap between us. I can feel my heart going crazy when her lips part in a quiet sigh, as if she’s dying for a taste too.

Let me fix this predicament for us, Sparks.

I’m about to close the gap and this time, not allow any interruption until we’re both delirious and on cloud fucking 199, but she speaks up.

“Wait… No,” she sounds almost as pained as I feel as she pulls away from me. “I can’t… I can’t do this,” I grit my teeth to prevent pathetic words from spilling between my lips. “I can’t be your little plaything, Cain.” She looks away, and I run a palm down my face. “I’m not strong enough to get used by you like that,” she adds, sounding defeated.

“I’m not using you, Sparks.” There are the pathetic words; it sucks that at the moment, I’m not above begging her for just one taste. But judging by history with women, even I don’t believe my own words.

“You’re not. But if I let this happen, you will be, and maybe I won’t have enough guts to stop it after it’s already started. I’ll get hurt in the end,” she concludes as if she’s seen our entire story. “Maybe you’ll be doing it for fun, but I… not so much”.

My mouth opens, ready to spew more excuses, but it closes again as I register her words.

“I’m not asking you to change or anything, I’m just asking you to understand me.” I meet her eyes, and feel a sting in my chest when I see a hint of pain there. That can’t be because of me. I can’t let it be because of me…

“I…” I don’t know what this is between us, but I’m not using you, Sparks. That I know. I feel desperate, as fuck as I try to speak, to be honest. But it’s bullshit. I’m only capable of causing that hurt that I can see a hint of.

I gulp down my excuses and nod instead, “Okay.”

Was she saying she had feelings for me or that she would if something happened between us? I want to ask her that, but my throat is already so tight. She shouldn’t… She can’t feel shit for me.

“Now come on, help me make dinner,” she jumps off the couch, clearly trying to digress.

“I’ll be right there,” I mutter, my eyes fixed on her carpet.

Why did I feel so pained suddenly? How could she get me to feel so safe and then so rejected and confused within a few hours? Why was I letting this happen?

Did I have any control or say over my emotions? If I did, then why the fuck was I letting all this happen… Again?

“Will I have to come back in there and bite that wrist again?” she yells from the other room.

I thought she was the one who could get hurt by me… I didn’t know it was possible the other way around.

“No,” I mutter, speaking more to myself, “Not again.” I shake my head.

**

Re-editing me here, and it feels good to actually read these chapters when my writing has evolved a bit, I appreciate them a lot… Umm, vote and do what you do guys. Read on.