The Challenge (6 page)

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I smiled, showing the fake fangs with the fake blood on them. I had put a bit of blood on my neck, making it look like fresh bite marks. Henry came up to me and smiled as well, showing off his fangs with blood. I had put a line of the blood from the corner of his mouth down to his chin.

"This isn't right," Henry remarked, frowning. "If we're supposed to be vampires, we shouldn't be able to see ourselves." I laughed.

Why on earth had Lauren dropped Henry for David? David was useless when it came to keeping people amused. Henry seemed to live for it.

There was a knock on the door.

"Will you guys stop doing....whatever you're doing...and come downstairs now? Practically everyone is here and Lena and James will be here soon!" Sam shouted.

"We're coming," I called out.

We went downstairs and said hello to a few people. Henry stayed close to me, his hand nearly always on my waist. I didn't complain though-I actually felt safe this way. David and Lauren were there too. As much as I didn't want him in my house, I knew there was no way he wasn't going to be there. Besides, it was another opportunity to rub it in.

"Oh, Kris, may I borrow your boots after this?" Amanda asked.

"I thought you already had boots like this," I responded.

"Yeah, but my brother let his girlfriend borrow them and apparently she 'lost' them," Amanda said bitterly.

I laughed, and told her she could borrow them whenever she wanted. That's when Darla yelled that James's car had just pulled in. Everyone went quiet. Henry wound his arms around me from behind. I instinctively leaned back against him. I was freaking myself out!

"Well now, it's obvious there's a..." James said, as Lena opened the door and they walked in.

"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES!" the group yelled. A few girls shouted, "I love you," and that made most people laugh.

Lena, always the possessive one, kissed James repeatedly before someone turned on the music and everyone was dancing.

"You lucky jerk!" I said, hitting James playfully. "First one to turn eighteen."

"Well, technically, no." James countered. I raised an eyebrow. "You're dating the first one to be eighteen."

"Oh, right." I spun around in Henry's arms to look at him. "Hey wait...if you're eighteen, why are you in the same grade as us?"

"Flunked seventh grade, love." Henry replied, cheekily.

"Oh...bad boy," I said. I laughed, and turned back around to face Lena coming down the stairs.

James stared at her. "Holy..."

"Your wish is my command," said Lena, crossing her arms genie-style and nodding.

"Well then, right now my wish is for you to get your genie ass out here and dance with me," James replied. Lena nodded again, smiling, and they went into the living room, where Curtis, Mark, Lukas and Nick had managed to clear away furniture. It was a good thing Uncle Ethan was going to be away for a while.

As the night progressed, more and more people were getting into the pool and hot tub in their underwear. It was funny watching them. One guy, who was obviously really drunk, attempted a running backflip into the pool while making Tarzan sounds-he only got half way through the backflip and wound up smacking his back on the water. Judging by the sound of it...it hurt.

Henry stayed with me most of the night. We danced a lot and I found out that Henry was a great dancer. The only thing is...we didn't kiss. The party had been going on for a few hours, and we hadn't even come close to it. There was a time when Henry was off somewhere and I was talking with a now slightly drunk Lukas and Amanda.

"You know what, Krissy," Amanda said. I was trying not to laugh. "You and Henry...you two should get married." She giggled as I raised an eyebrow.

When Amanda is slightly drunk, she acts very drunk, because she cannot hold her liquor.

"Because you two are...you two are just sooo.....cute!" she squealed.

"Ignore her," Lukas said. "She just wants to have a reason to hire a male stripper."

"I do not!" Amanda said, throwing her arms around Lukas, "Unless it's you...and only for me, because I love you sooo much."

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm gonna find Henry!" I said. He wasn't anywhere in sight, so I went outside and found him with a few girls. For his part, he looked uncomfortable and I was glad for that; if he actually looked like he was enjoying himself, then our plan wouldn't work. Then I thought up an idea.

"Kris!" Henry exclaimed when he saw me approach them. I had the whole sexy swagger thing going on, so I knew I had everyone's attention.

"Hey, baby," I purred, pushing my way through the girls grouped around him. I put my arms lazily over his shoulders and swayed slightly. "You got something on your face."

"What? Where?" Henry asked. It was kind of cute to see him look so worried. He touched different parts of his face, going nowhere near what I was talking about.

"I'll get it," I offered.

Henry dropped his hands to my waist as I leaned closer and licked up the fake blood. I got to the corner of his mouth and before I knew it, we were kissing. His tongue was in my mouth. I could tell that he had just been smoking, but that didn't disgust me like I thought it would. At that moment, it felt like the best taste in the world. Henry slid his hands onto my back and pulled me closer. I had no objections.

"Keep up the act," Henry whispered, as he moved from kissing my mouth to kissing down to my neck, where the fake blood was. I found that I could keep on acting like his girlfriend
very
easily. God...it was like I couldn't get enough of him. My hands had gone from behind his head to over his shoulder, and the next thing I knew, I had his shirt unbuttoned and my hands were running over his body. Dear God...the man had nice abs! I didn't even notice he was kissing my mouth again until I felt his fangs on my lip. That brought me back to earth. Realizing what I was doing, I pulled away from him, breathing heavily. Henry stared at me.

"It's my birthday and they're the ones having all the fun." I jumped at James' voice and looked over to see him and Lena standing not five feet from us. James was smirking and Lena was giving us a look that clearly said, 'Are you sure you're pretending?' I shrugged, not even sure what I was doing anymore.

"I should say sorry," Henry apologized.

"What for?" I asked.

"For making you bleed," Henry admitted. I touched my lip gently, and pulled my hand back. Sure enough, I was bleeding. Henry leaned in close, and said, "They're watching." I gave him a slight nod, before he kissed me again. This time it was soft and caressing. He sucked on my lower lip slightly, and I moaned.

I made a mental note to be careful in the future. I didn't want to become attached to Henry once all of this was over and he had Lauren back. But really, part of me felt sad at that thought. However, I turned my attention to what was going on now and decided not to worry about the future just yet.

THE PARTY ENDED around one in the morning. I found myself calling the cab company to send a few cabs, but made sure people could pay first. I was glad to find that David and Lauren were already gone.

Half asleep, sitting between Henry's legs on the floor of my living room, I wasn't sure if he was in the same state as me, but I didn't care. A few people were staying the night, Henry being one of them. He had, of course, been drinking. I spent a while thinking of where he was going to sleep.

"So where am I sleeping, love?" Henry whispered, making me jump slightly. I had thought he was asleep.

"I guess...my room," I whispered back. "Let's keep people thinking we're together." I yawned and let my head fall back on his shoulder. His arms went around me as they usually do, and his fingers moved slightly over my stomach.

After a few minutes, I gently urged him, "Come on...upstairs."

"Must I get up?" Henry asked.

"Yes." I reached down and took his hand, before pulling him up. "Night everyone."

"Night," a few groggy people replied. Henry and I walked up the stairs and when we got to my room Henry collapsed almost immediately on my bed. I went the bathroom and took my hair down and the fake fangs out before washing off the makeup. I went back into my room with a wet cloth, and sat on the bed next to Henry. I put the cloth on his face, and started cleaning the makeup off. When I finished, I grabbed my pajamas, and went into the bathroom to change.

"Oh for..." I muttered when I came back out. Henry had taken off the coat and shirt, but that's as far as he got, and he was now fast asleep on my bed. I walked over and shook him. "Henry...I don't mind you sleeping in here, but get off my bed. Henry!" He only muttered something unintelligible. "Henry, come on!" I gasped, as he pulled me down on top of him. One arm went around my waist...again...as he held onto my arm with his other hand. I tried to get away from him, but eventually I gave up, being too tired to fight. After a while, I fell asleep.

I woke up to people yelling downstairs, and music playing. Frowning, my eyes opened, only to see Henry's sleeping face through a curtain of dark red hair. Impatiently, I pushed my hair out of my own face. Henry looked like he was talking in his sleep. I tried not to laugh, but it was impossible. The shaking of my body probably woke him up, but when he tried rolling over, he fell off the bed, bringing me down with him. I screamed as we both fell to the floor.

"Umm...morning," Henry said. I burst out laughing again.

"You still have your vampire teeth in." I shook with laughter.

He just stared at me, then laughed as well. After a while, the door flew open. I jumped, and looked up to see the whole gang standing in my room.

"Umm...hi guys," I greeted them slyly. The boys all made noises and turned around. The girls put their hands over their eyes. "It's okay, we're not doing anything." I stood up, as the girls uncovered their eyes. "Henry woke up because I was laughing at him and he rolled off the bed. I screamed because he pulled me with him."

"Well, that explains the scream and thud we heard," Sam reasoned. "Come downstairs soon though, you two." I nodded, as everyone left.

I got up, took out some clothes and turned to see Henry now sitting on the bed, shaking his head. I went into the bathroom to change into a denim skirt and green tank top, with my bikini underneath, as I planned on swimming soon. When I came back out, I saw Henry standing near the door, his shirt back on, but unbuttoned.

"Okay...let's see how much they got done without us," I said.

We went downstairs to find everything cleaned up, and the furniture back in the living room. I had told Uncle Ethan that I'd get a few friends to help rearrange the furniture over the weekend, so he wouldn't be suspicious when he came home and everything was in a different spot.

"You guys could have woken us up to help," I said.

"What help?" Lukas asked. "You don't clean, remember. You make everyone breakfast, but none of us were hungry when we started, so we didn't bother."

"There's not much left to do, so start cooking, Kris," Darla said.

"Fine. Henry...you're helping," I said. Henry looked as if I had told him I was going to castrate him. "Oh come on, you big baby." I pulled him into the kitchen, told him what I always make, and he started cooking the bacon and sausages, while I jumped between doing the eggs and toast.

"You gave the impression that you couldn't cook," I said, watching him.

"Never said I couldn't, love. I just thought I'd look terrified for the audience." I smiled at his joke and shook my head. The more time I spent around the guy, the more I started liking him. Right now, though, I was in dangerous territory. I wasn't supposed to like him, but just barely tolerate him long enough for him to get Lauren back.

Not wanting to think about that, I focused on the eggs. Everyone but Sam and Curtis liked scrambled eggs, while they liked sunny side up. They really were meant to date each other-they liked almost all the same things. And things they disagreed on, they tolerated. It was cute, but almost nauseatingly so.

"Breakfast is ready! Come get your plates!" I yelled. Everyone came in, and Henry handed them plates with food. They got their own forks, and then all of us went outside.

"Nice party, guys," James said. "Now where are my presents?"

"The party was your present," I replied.

"Oh. Well...then...lame party guys!" James said. Everyone laughed then Sam and Darla went inside and came back with all of James's gifts.

When everyone had finished eating and we had sat around for a while, the girls and I went away. We watched the guys, and made it look like we were just talking amongst ourselves. All of us had our swimsuits on underneath our clothes. We waited until they were all by the side of the pool. While Lukas was checking the temperature, we sneaked behind them and pushed them all in.

"I'm gonna kill you!!" a few of the guys yelled at their girlfriends. Henry just glared at me. I looked at the other girls before we dove in, with me staying under the water longer than the rest, something I do a lot. However, I must have stayed down too long because someone panicked and dove down to get me. I was just about to go up by myself when I felt strong arms around me. To play the role of drama queen, I kept my eyes closed and didn't react when I was brought above the water. I could tell it was Henry who had me.