Say Yes To Forever

Chapter Eleven

As the world turns, the Sun rises and sets, the night becomes longer with the changing season, the days – the weeks go by, and Valarie and I have fallen into a pleasant rhythm. I am certain now that I am not just in the process of împerechere with her, but have been întipărire, and soon enough, I will be irrevocably in love.

Maybe she is not the most intelligent in every subject, (though neither am I), but even still, sometimes I have a hard time following her thought processes that can jump from A to G in a matter of seconds. And when neither of us knows something, she is the first to look it up, either with the books she already owns, in the library, or using Google. There is such a spark in her eyes, a pure passion for learning. (I can only imagine what it might be like if she were to join me… all that she could learn when she has all the time in the world.)

Plus, there is something so contagiously bubbly about her. Whether we’re watching a movie, talking about literature, playing card games, or going for a hike. If I did not know any better, her being a Basic-human and all, I could have sworn she had magik about her. A sort of infectious aura that rubs off on you until you feel it too.

And God – every god and goddess and what have you, I don’t care – is she beautiful. A real Snow White – skin as pale as the oncoming snow, hair as dark as moonless nights, petite and soft, and as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside. Though it may not be proper in the changing times, and I am far from a traditionalist, but she has a sense of pride in how she looks and how she takes care of me. If she agrees to be my soție, I can only imagine the warmest and supportive home.

A warm and supportive home, unlike the one I currently reside. Not that I have been completely ostracized, but the family has split in half… Dad, Tori, and I in favor, Mom, Willow, and Alex against. As I stand in the kitchen stirring sugar into my tea, Willow comes in, grabs a soda, and leaves without a word. It’s not until Tori pops downstairs and sits across the table from me that the silence is broken.

“You guys get off Thanksgiving week, right?”

“Sort of. Why?”

She reaches across the table to the fruit basket and pulls out an apple. After a huge bite she says, “So, I’ve kind of been… uhh, eavesdropping on the parents. With the whole you and Valarie thing,” she wiggles her hand, “and I guess Mom is finally coming around. Long story short she wants to throw an American Thanksgiving and for you to invite Valarie to meet everyone.”

I look up from my book, completely dumbfounded. “And Dad’s all right with this?”

She takes another bite of the apple. After some chewing, she continues, “You’re întipărire and are împerechere…?” her voice is inquisitive but then she shrugs, “point is, like, she’s it, right?”

“… right.”

“Well, then, she’s going to be a part of our family.”

“But….”

She jumps on my train of thought before I can even get it out. “Everyone’s agreed to be on our best, Humanest behavior. Sure, we can’t hide our Vampireness forever, but maybe just long enough to give you guys a chance.”

She stands and chucks her apple core into the bin. “But remember to act surprised with the parents suggest it, okay?” and she practically skips out of the room.

---

After screaming down the hall, I slam my bedroom door behind me and lock it. “Argh!” I let out some of my frustration by slamming my fist against it. Then blast whatever CD is in my boombox, which perfectly happens to be Skillet, the particularly loud song ‘I Can’.

I can’t hear when Mama tries to open my door and I turn my music up louder when she starts pounding. She screams at the top of her lungs, “Valarie!”

Pushed up against my headboard I squish my pillow against my chest and rest my head on my lifted knees, trying to focus on the music and not her. When another song goes by and I figure she’s left for work. I turn the music down and try to relax. I just don’t know how many more of these fights I can take.

Suddenly my door opens, Mama holding the master key. “Valarie, I swear to God. Turn that music down, now.”

Arms crossed; I just stare at her.

She comes into my room, yanks the plug out from the wall, and crosses her arms over her chest. I jump up and storm away from her. “You won’t even meet him! You won’t even have lunch with him! Or coffee! Just one cup of stupid coffee!”

“Because!” she follows me down the hall. “I do not trust him! Him or his family!”

I yell over my shoulder, practically falling down the stairs, “How could you even know that? You won’t get to know him.”

“I do not have to know him to know I don’t trust him.”

On the main floor, I glare at her, “That’s pretty f*****g prejudice of you,” my tone poisonous.

Her smack across my face comes hard and fast. Instinctively, I call her a b***h.

Jaw locked, she’s ready to hit me again, “Valarie, I forbid you.”

Tugging on my boots now, I then grab my coat and my keys. Luckily my phone is in my jeans pocket. I slam the front door behind me. Not giving her a chance to catch up or corner me in the car I just start walking. Walking to…? Anywhere but here.

---

“Valarie!” Tori calls to the left.

“Valarie!” Dad calls to the right.

“Valarie!” I call ahead.

Her voice message had been static, in and out… she was crying. It took me three listens to even hear that she had gotten into another fight with her mom, and she’d left. Left to where, she didn’t say.

So… I called her, no answer. I texted Nikki, she wasn’t with her. I went by the diner, by the bookstore, across the town square, nothing. By the time I realized no one had seen her it was pitch-black out.

I dematerialized to her house and all the lights were off. I tried the door just in case and it was locked. I called Tori and Dad and they came as quickly as Vampirically possible and now we are searching the woods.

“We’ve walked the path before,” I guided them down the hill. “She’s got to be here somewhere!”

But we – Vampires, predators, hunters by nature – have been looking for fifteen minutes and there’s no sign of her. We regroup and I try to focus my thoughts, “Dad, why don’t you go back to cell service call her mom? Maybe… maybe she knows where she would have gone or maybe they’re together! Tori… Tori, go back to the house. There’s a spare key somewhere… under a rock or something, I think. Go get a sweater from her room, it might help us catch her scent.”

Alone now, I continue down what I think to be the path we had taken some weeks ago. The new Moon offers no light, forcing me to use my nocturnal vision, which leaves everything in greyscale. I try to focus my hearing, but it keeps jumping from the critters in the underbrush to the wind through the trees to the running water just down the way.

Stomach acid rising with my panic, I call out for her again, “Valarie!”

After a moment, there’s a whisper, “… Cyrus?”

Running towards the whisper I slow to Human speed just out of sight. But there she is, Valarie, standing near the river. “Valarie?”

She turns slowly, “Cyrus?”

I rush to pull her into a hug. Arms tight around her, I kiss the top of her head. “Valarie… God, Valarie….” I pull back to look into her eyes. “Valarie… I was terrified.”

Her puffy, watery eyes look up at me apologetically. She reaches up to wipe away some tears. “I’m sorry. I… I was just so angry, and I started walking….”

She looks behind her and I let her guide us to the river’s edge. Arms crossed tight around her torso; her little fingers flick forward. “I was walking and then I came here and… and I stopped. It was dark and I was alone and the river….” She sniffs. “I had a dream… before I met you. And then,” she looks back at me, “you called my name.”

Unable to make sense of her hysterics I just kiss her. I kiss her and hold her close. “I’m here… it’s all right, I’m here.”

Dad and Tori call from just up the hill, making Valarie jump. I keep her close to me and rub her arm while we walk towards them. When we meet up, Valarie starts crying again, “I’m s-so sorry I worried you guys. I can’t believe you c-came out here.”

Dad, in all his dad glory, squishes her between us. “Of course, Valarie…, of course we came.”

Tori jumps to hug her next. “Com’on, why don’t we get you back to the house?”

She nods slowly and I do the heavy lifting when it comes to guiding her back. Dad, Tori, and I share a wordless conversation and it ends in agreement. Dad and Tori wait by the swinging bench while I make sure to get Valarie safely inside. As she sits on the bottom step of the stairs to get her boots off, I crouch, “Are you sure you’re all right now?”

She bites her lower lip and nods. “I’m sorry I worried you so much.”

Looking in her eyes, she does seem back to herself, but just in case, “I can stay if you want.”

She tucks some hair behind her ear. “No, that’s okay…. We’re still on for tomorrow, though?”

Hands-on her knees I lean forward and kiss her cheek, “Of course. And…,” I smile softly.

“And?”

“Well, you said your mom is working for Thanksgiving, right?” She nods. “Well, my mom wants to give this whole American Thanksgiving a go and it would mean so much to me – to all of us, if you could come.”

---

Another Monday afternoon rolls around again and between school, spending time with Cyrus, and taking extra shifts at the bookstore, Mama and I have yet to even be ships in the night, completely on opposite schedules. The past two weeks of quiet have been nice, a relief, and I don’t even care to inform her I’m spending Thanksgiving at the Laveroi’s. Maybe it was getting lost in the forest or maybe it was reliving my dream, but some sort of switch flicked in my brain that night, and I really, really need to not care what my mama has to say.

Just as I’m walking from the kitchen to the stairs to head back up to my room, ready to dive into a new novel, I jump so hard I spill my apple cider when there’s a pounding on the front door.

Book and cup down on the entryway table, I’m surprised to find Nikki on the porch, “Hi?”

She pushes past me and shuts the door. “Oh. My. God,” she mimics Janice from Friends.

I raise my eyebrows.

She rushes left towards the kitchen, then right towards the living room, then grabs my arm, “Is your mom around?”

I shake my head.

She nods, her eyes a little crazy, then starts dragging me towards the stairs. I tug against her to pick up my book and cup but follow her just the same. In my room, she closes the door and closes the windows. On the edge of my bed, she waves her hands, “I think I just figured out something major! Absolutely major!”

Giving her a concerned look, I just offer, “Okay…?”

She nods, “So you know how I have Sub Anthro this semester, too, right? But with Professor Gilmore? Well, she’s been kind of jumping through the textbook all chaotic, right?”

“Right.”

“So! Today you will not believe what we started studying.”

“… what?”

She slams her hand down on the bed, “Vampires!

“You’ve read chapter five, haven’t you? Vampires? Well,” and she turns to get her textbook out from her backpack that she’d ditched on the floor. With it opened to a bookmarked page I recognize from weeks ago; she starts reading all these highlighted parts. When she looks up at me, she gives me an expression of, ‘don’t you get it?’

But when I purposefully stare blankly, she slams the textbook shut. “The Laverois! Cyrus! Vampires!”

Mind rapidly trying to figure out lies to dismiss her claims, to guide her down another path, to… to… to fix this, I don’t say anything. Nikki’s stare won’t let up though and when I’ve bluffed long enough, she hits me with a pillow. “You knew? You knew and you didn’t tell me?” She laughs and hops on the edge of the bed.

“Okay… we need junk food, we need sodas, we need music! What CD do you think? Something Gothic? I. Need. To. Know. Everything!”

And at this moment, I’m so thankful to have a friend like her.