Rose Blossom - By Renee Travis Page 0,18

but truly that was the furthest thing from my mind.

Chapter 5

Friday morning came quickly, without another incident from Athol. I often saw him lurking just outside my peripheral vision, but he stayed away. I saw Julian every day and each day a new piece of the puzzle that was him fell into place. I had never smiled more in my life than when I was with him. No longer was I a quiet, shy, sick girl, but I belonged to someone, was loved by someone and with those new and wonderful feelings there was more enjoyment in my life than there ever had been before.

I shivered in the morning's cool air, hopping from foot to foot to keep the circulation going in my freezing feet. My parents had already gone off to work and left me, they thought, too tired to make my morning classes. Both had fussed over me and poked and prodded me until they were sure I was just exhausted and not suffering a new malady caused by my heart condition. They did however; stress the fact that if I did not attend my afternoon classes, I was going to the doctor's tomorrow.

Mel had sounded suspicious when I called her to say I wasn't going to school but she'd finally hung up, resigned that I wasn't going to tell her the truth.

I had on a long black skirt and black tights and was wearing what Mel called my "kick ass boots." They were calf high black leather boots. I wanted to look pretty so I had chosen a golden tank top, since it was just going into fall it would be hot a little later on. But for now I was stuck shivering inside my thin black jacket, even my neck was cold since I'd pulled my hair into a high pony tail.

I was wondering about how Julian's parents would react to me and getting even more nervous by the second when he pulled up. I walked over to the truck as he rolled the window down.

"Hey pretty girl, looking for a ride?" he asked, amusement in his crystal blue eyes. I hopped onto the running board and leaned into the open window and kissed him good morning. When I pulled back his eyes were a little wider.

"You feel well this morning." It wasn't a question, and he was right, I did, nervous, but health wise I felt really good.

I went around to the other side to get in, he had the heater on and my shakes from the cold began to lessen.

He pulled away from my parent's house and I stared out the window, quiet for the first bit of the drive. Julian looked rather pale that morning, almost as pale as I was and I was curious as to why the sudden change in his pallor.

"Julian, are you sick?" I asked turning my face to his, and like always my breath hitched when his eyes stared into my own. His eyes were like burning crystals in the sunlight, abnormal but so incredible you could overlook the weird factor.

"No, why?" he asked, looking back at the road, his pale lips spreading into a slight smile, he let go of the steering wheel with one hand and reached for me, finding my own hand in my lap he began to stroke his fingers over my skin. He was colder than normal, his skin like ice instead of the comfortable luke-warm that was normal.

"You're paler and colder than normal," I shrugged, mesmerized with the feel of his hand touching mine.

"I haven't.....eaten....yet today," he told me, I looked up at his word choice, he hadn't meant eaten, it was just in the tone and the pause, that knowledge that there should have been a different word.

Having pretty much no experience in life had crippled me in more ways than one, I had no information about the supernatural or religion or anything that fell in those categories except what I'd seen in the movies or the books I read. The night before, sleep had evaded me while I was trying to decide what Julian could be. If I had to pick something that he was most like it would have been a vampire. I had tossed and turned while thinking of the coincidences and I'd almost had myself convinced and freaked out that I was dating a vampire until the flaw in my plan had slapped me in the face.

I had seen Julian in the sunlight plenty of times and