Bleeding Love (8 page)

“Babe,” Ethan
stopped her. “Why are you even entertaining these nerds?”

“Because.”

On the inside,
Adrienne could feel her heart rate speeding up, but she didn't show it. She
couldn't. She looked calm and collected on the outside, and no one suspected
the fear she felt.

“Just get us the
Hawaiian pizza,” Ethan commanded, and the tone of voice the quarterback used
angered Xavier.

He wasn't used to
being pushed around and treated lowly. He was a prince after all, and no jock
was going to order him around.

“After calling us
nerds, you actually think we're going to do that?”

“He's delusional,”
one of them, probably Valerie, said.

Adrienne could no
longer handle the heated looks the vampires were giving Ethan and her. She
couldn't stand them seeing her so helpless. She'd tried pushing Ethan off her
over and over again, but he was just too strong. Most of all, she didn't want
them to think that she was actually liking the position she and Ethan were in.

“Just leave.” She
locked eyes with Xavier. “Please. Now.”

Ethan smirked. “Yeah
because unlike you bums, we were actually in the middle of something until you
guys intruded.”

That struck
Xavier's last nerve—he was officially pissed, and so, before he could unleash
his vampire abilities, he slammed the door shut behind him, leaving with his
group of friends trailing behind him. They went down the stairs and into the
kitchen.

“I've been
holding strong to my belief that vampires and humans can live perfectly and
safely together.” He pounded his fist on the wall, and it cracked. “But the
longer he stays here, the more I'm going to lose it.”

“Not every human
is like that,” said Aidan. “Trust me.”

Xavier grinned.
He knew what, or whom, his friend was talking about. “If only every human could
be like Brianna, man,”

“She's not
exactly an angel, you know.” That was the ever-conceited Yvonne. “You're just
infatuated with her. It will die out soon enough.”

Aidan shook his
head before saying,” When you live forever, you know what's real and what
isn't.”

“That's mush.”
Xavier couldn't help but chuckle. Who knew that it would only take a human girl
to tame the heart of a bloodsucker?

“No, it's not,” spat
Yvonne. “It's bull.”

And before Aidan
could come to his own defense, there was a loud noise coming from the second
floor. The five vampires could only look at each other. Adrienne and Ethan.

“I hear groaning.”

Xavier's eyed
turned a darker claret.

“Lots of
groaning, I must add.”

“What the hell,
Ethan?” Adrienne shouted at her boyfriend. “You can't break up with me!”

The moment Xavier
and his group of nerds left, Ethan tried to push Adrienne into continuing what
they had been doing, but the female, without her vampire abilities, was able to
push Ethan off her by kicking him in his sack. With that, she had angered her
boyfriend and because of her refusal to have sex with him, he decided that they
needed to break-up. It angered her because no guy had ever broken up with her.

“And tell me why
I can't?”

“Because I was
going to break up with you, you imbecile!”

He had been
trying to corner her against the wall, but she had been too quick for him. He
wanted her, as in wanted himself in her now, but she didn't. He just couldn't
understand why she was saying no this time. Sex had never been a problem for
the two of them in the past. Never ever.

“I have an ego to
feed.” His eyes shone with mischief. “So I'm the one ending it.”

Stomping her foot
onto the carpeted floor, she groaned. She was so tempted to use her non-human
gifts and hit him and throw him out the window, but no. She couldn't let anyone
know about the existence of vampires, so she just had to settle with shouting
at him.

“Asshole!”

“Bitch!”

“You! You
nincompoop!”

“I see you've
been studying for the SATs, whore.”

Because of that,
her vocabulary had gone back to normal. “Fucker!”

“Skank!”

“Skank has always
been your taste,” Adrienne said, nodding her head in agreement to herself.

“No, girl is my
taste.”

“Oh—leave.” She
wanted to call him 'oaf', but she decided to stop their fight right then and
there. Adrienne just wanted him to leave, and she realized that he wouldn't as
long as she kept hurling back insults at him. The childishness needed to stop,
and soon.

“What did you
just tell me to do?”

Adrienne groaned
again. “You're really stupid, aren't you? I told you to leave.”

“I don't follow
orders from anyone.”

Not using her
vampire talents, she tried pushing him out of her room, which she succeeded in
accomplishing, but the getting him down the stairs was harder and more
challenging. They tripped and tumbled over each other a few times, and before
either of them knew it, they were on the ground floor of the house, both their
heads throbbing from the fall.

“How the hell do
you expect me to play the game tomorrow with all these bruises?”

She saw the dark
purple spots on his face, on the back of his head, and on his arms. The marble
flooring of the living room, Adrienne realized, was a bitch. Speaking of the
discolored-marks, Adrienne had a few of them too. On her face, arms, back, but
that wouldn't stop her from getting him out of the house. “Don't be such a
baby. I have them, too.” She rolled her eyes and saw him raising his arms as if
he were stretching them.

“I took the
harder fall,” he answered her in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “I'm the
quarterback. How do you expect our team to win if I’m hurt?”

“Cocky much?” She
raised an eyebrow up at him. “If your skills were as great as your ego, then
our team would have won the cup last year. And besides, your uniform will hide
all the wounds. So get over yourself and get out of here.”

“What the fuck
are you talking about?” No one had 
ever
 degraded the football
team he captained except for the coaches, and especially not a cheerleader. “We
were our conference's champions last year! We were finalists. Just stay with
your pompoms and out of football.”

“Just let 
us
 win
the school trophies.” And no one had 
ever 
debased the squad
she'd been on since freshman year. “We won UCA last year after all.”

“I'm not having
this screaming-match with you anymore.” He went to open the door. “I'm out.”

Leaving in the
middle of an argument was so typical Ethan Lawrence. “Yeah, because you just
lost.” She smirked. “To a girl.”

“I might have
lost an argument with you, but I can win 
other
 and
 better
 things.”

She froze in her
place. “Since when was sex a competition?” Adrienne may not be a virgin, but
she still treated the act with greater sanctity than he did. Truth be told,
she'd only done it a few times, and during those moments, she treasured their
closeness and took it seriously. It angered her that Ethan didn’t really care.
Being able to read his mind was a revelation. She had been in love when she
gave herself to him, while he, he was just in lust.

“Ever since we
entered High School.”

“Seriously?” Her
temper was building up. “What kind of girl would let herself be your rebound?”

Ethan's smirk
widened, and with that, she realized why she had fallen for him. He was
undeniably gorgeous, and he had always held a certain air that attracted her to
him and turned her on. She was so, so stupid despite all her academic success
to believe that love happened in real life like it did in the fiction novels.

“The kind with
bigger breasts and asses than yours.”

That did it.
Adrienne socked him in the balls, and she saw how he fell and held on to his
family jewels ever so tightly. He was groaning in pain and cursing her with expletives,
some of which were alien to her.

“I hope that keeps
you from having babies,” she seethed.

“Good, then I
don't have to worry about using a condom and impregnating someone.”

Adrienne screamed
as she pulled at a few strands of her hair. She couldn't believe it, really.
Even after hurting him where it pained him the most, he still had the audacity
to mock her and stroke his ego. How could she have loved someone like 
him
?
Screw high school. “Screw you.”

“I thought you
didn't want to fuck.”

“Get out! Now!”
she bellowed.

Inside her head,
Adrienne could hear voices talking. She realized the vampires were getting
closer. Then it dawned on her that every single vampire in the house could hear
the fight between Ethan and her. Her eyes stopped blinking for a second. Her
father could hear her too, even more clearly than the others could. Great.

“I can't stand
up!”

“Out! Now!”

“I said I can't
fucking stand up!” He screamed, lashing out on her. “You had to sock me in the
boys, didn't you?”

Adrienne couldn't
take it anymore. She wanted to cry, and she was going to the moment he left the
house. The feelings she had for him had been genuine. She had really loved him,
and they had been together for about a year and a half. She couldn't believe
that just by saying no to sex, it would mean the end of their relationship.
They had been through a lot together, and he had been there for her all year.
Even if he was the epitome of the word bastard, she was still going to miss
him. She was still going to cry over him.

“Just leave,” she
said, her voice mellowing.

He was in the
process of opening his mouth and telling her for the umpteenth time that he
couldn't stand up properly, but she beat him to it. She went closer to him and
helped him up as she pushed him forcefully out of the house. Once he stood in
front of the mansion, she closed the door behind her. She felt a few tears
leave her eyes and heard the sound of gushing winds. In her disheveled state,
she turned around and came face-to-face with Xavier, Aidan, Yvonne, Tatiana, and
Valerie.

Her fiancé was
the first one to talk, and what he said caused more tears to well in her eyes. “Are
you seriously crying over 
him
?” he asked incredulously. “I've
always pegged you as an intellectual being, but I guess I was mistaken.”

Her eyes turned
sharply towards his face.

“You seriously
didn't see through all the steroids?” he asked.

When would
Xavier ever stop making her feel stupid and inferior?
 

”The guy's no
good. Period.” He grinned.

Adrienne tried
putting on a small smile. “Congratulations.” She just needed to escape from the
bloodsuckers, and then she could go on and lock herself up in her room. She
just wanted to cry, but she couldn't let anybody see her. “Congratulations for
telling me how much of a fool I am.”

“Humans are so
emotional,” interjected Yvonne. “You've been living with them for too long.”

“You shouldn't
have decided to stay with the Day Class, you should stick with your own kind.”
That was Valerie.

“They're right,”
Xavier said.

Adrienne rolled
her eyes. “And I'm wrong?” She feigned a look of shock and amusement despite
her tear-stained face. “According to you I'm always wrong. I'm always the
stupid and inferior one. I know.”

Xavier didn't
understand Adrienne. “What are you going on about?”

“Congratulations 
again
 for
embarrassing me. Every time you are around me you make me feel horrible about
myself. Just stay away,” she said. For the third time since they met, she
drained some of his negative energy. It made her feel worse, increasing the negativity
inside.

Adrienne was
finally done crying. Her nose was sore and her throat was hurting like hell
from all the loud sobbing. Her tear-stricken face was sticky. In short, she was
a complete and utter mess, and she couldn't end her night feeling sorry for
herself for having been extremely stupid to fall for Ethan. She needed to get
out of the house, but before that, she was going to retouch her make-up. The
concealer could probably cover up the bruises caused by her fall down the
stairs just a while ago, and a few dashes of her eye shadow could provide the
illusion that she had bright, shining eyes, but in reality, her caramel-colored
eyes were sulking and sore. She should not have cried so, so much.

“Can I come in?”
a voice called out from the other side of her bedroom door.

She would never
mistake that voice—Xavier's low, mysterious and sexy tone. It was captivating,
and all the more hypnotizing. Whether it was a vampire quality of hypnosis or
not, he could probably make anyone believe whatever he wanted them to believe.
But Adrienne was smarter than that. She sighed. Obviously, she hadn't been
smart enough to realize that Ethan had been playing her the whole time until
she was able to literally get into his thoughts.