Decisions Ch. 04

Chapter 1:

I drummed my fingers on the table, staring at the pencil that was scratching away at the paper. The pencil was moving so fast that I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the sheet of binder paper burst into flames right before my eyes. Utterly bored out of my mind, I pressed the home button on my Samsung S6, staring at the clock.

7:28... my eyes darted to the paper in front of me. Making good time.

I looked out the window, staring at the darkening skies outside. Not even a month ago, it still would've been bright out at 8:00 flat. The warm days of August and September never lasted forever. The bright afternoons of summer buckled under the strains of time, giving way to the chilled days of October. I wasn't even complaining. Sure, Summer was nice enough, but I just didn't like it as much as the latter half of the year; fall and winter. I liked the cold much better.

I pressed the home button on my phone again, turning on the darkened screen once more.

7:29. I peeked at the paper again. Nearly...

"Done!" Elena said triumphantly. I smiled at her, turning off my phone.

"19 minutes." I declared. "Good speed. Let's see if that can translate to good accuracy with your answers."

"I'm pretty sure I... well, not pretty sure... I'm 'sorta kinda' sure that I got more than 75 percent right." Elena chewed on the end of her pencil nervously, nearly decapitating the pink eraser with her pointy fangs.

If anyone ever asked me what I liked to do after football practice ended, I would've told them I liked to go home and do my homework. Not a complete lie, but not a complete truth either. In truth, I went to my second 'home', the Sokolov household, to tutor Elena in World History and do my own homework at the same time. As I already finished my own homework for today, I was solely focused on Elena.

When Yulia and Anton told Stasi that Elena was struggling with the subject, Stasi recommended that I tutor her, being quite good in history myself. When Yulia and Anton approached me and asked for my help, I happily agreed to help Elena for free, despite their insistence that I be financially compensated. For one, it'd give me an excuse to go to Stasi's house every other day after practice without looking like a clingy stalker, and two, Elena was family to me. You never shake down your own family for money when they're in need.

I looked down at Elena's handiwork, examining her multiple choice answers with a critical eye. I compared her answers to the answer key. She certainly had studied and improved. I was twirling my pen in my fingers, utterly enraptured with the paper as if it were a videogame.

"How are you and Anna doing?" Elena asked, breaking my concentration and sending my red pen clattering to the floor.

"Damnit..." I mumbled to myself, bending down and picking up the pen once more. I was on a roll with the pen twirl, too!

"Oh. We're doing great, perfect actually. Things couldn't be better. I love her alot." I confessed happily, my heart beating faster in anticipation at seeing her at the end of this tutoring session.

It was true; Stasi and I were doing better than ever. It was like our relationship became stronger every single day that passed. We never really disagreed with each other on anything, and even if we did bicker, we quickly resolved it, realizing there were better things to do than fight. Everything was perfect. The person, the love, the moments, they were all equally mind blowing... especially the sex. Of course, I couldn't tell Elena that part. I had to keep it PG-13.

"That's good." Elena said, going back to chewing on her poor pencil nervously, peering at her paper in the corner of her eye, a fact that wasn't lost on me. Something that I learned while tutoring her; I had to be cautious about correcting her mistakes. Despite Elena's 'never let anything hold me down' attitude on life, she took school very seriously and was a perfectionist. Too many mistakes on a simple practice quiz had to potential to seriously discourage her and make her question her own intelligence and capacity to learn.

I went back to my inspection of Elena's practice test, before finding a flaw in what was a perfect streak. I uncapped my pen, circling the number in bright red ink so she knew what to study. I double checked the questions, making sure I hadn't simply missed any. Satisfied that I didn't, I wrote down 14/15 on the top of the paper, making her whoop.

"Good job." I said, impressed. "You've improved on the multiple choice. Better than I ever did, I can tell you that."

"Thanks, Chris. Only because of you." Elena gushed gratefully. She heaved a sigh of relief at the minimal amount of red ink I marked on her multiple choice.

I simply nodded in return, traveling further down to read her free response. Her handwriting was neat and orderly, making the process so much easier. Some people's handwriting is so abysmal, it's like reading Egyptian hieroglyphs. I was underlining Elena's key points on the Song Dynasty Art and Literature when Elena spoke once more.

"She's mad, you know." Elena said quietly.

My head snapped up. "Who?" I asked.

"Anna."

"What? Why?" I asked, alarmed, Elena's paper completely forgotten.

"She's disappointed that our parents are pretty much forcing her to go to the Coven Ball this year. Even though she doesn't outright tell our parents she doesn't want to go, we all just know that she'd rather be spending Halloween with you and your guys' friends. Heck, we'd all rather because spending time with you than anything else. The dance is so... so boring! All the teenagers are stuck up rich kids and the last time we went, there was this creepy old lady hitting on Vik." Elena shuddered. "But of course, if we don't go, we just know our parents will be heartbroken."

"Hey, don't be so negative... maybe this year it won't be so bad." I said, more relaxed now that the situation wasn't as serious as it could have been.

"Well, that's true, I guess." Elena relented. "It's at the Fairmont Hotel, so that's pretty cool. All we have to do is get introduced and stuff ourselves with good food. Then, all three of us are probably going to just sneak back to our suites and go buy those sweetened synthetic blood packs at the shops. Well, at least me and Vik are going to eat the SBPs. Stasi gets spoiled by you with the real stuff." Elena made a face.

I, of course, knew where the venue was and I was raring to go. The Fairmont Hotel was an extremely high class hotel in upstate San Francisco. It was antique, built in 1907, but that was all part of the charm. Vampires liked their historic sites and so did I. I never stayed there, but I heard it was like walking through a time traveling machine to the early 1900s when you walked into the lobby. It was also known for being one of the ten hotels in San Francisco that accepted monsters as guests, albeit with some fees involved.

"Anyways, our parents already asked Anna if she'd be willing to be brave and stay for the whole Ball with them since she's the oldest. She's going to be so bored that even I feel bad." Elena giggled.

"I don't think she'll be that bored this time." I said, looking back to Elena's free response. I was nearly done grading it. She was doing really well. Exceptionally well. I was proud of her improvement.

"Why not? She's like me and Viktor. She never fits in at the Ball and she always just sits off to the side hiding from everyone. Then she goes back to the room and hides there all the next day while our parents are doing business."

I glanced back up from paper to Elena. I debated whether to tell her about my invitation to the ball. Anton asked me not to tell Stasi since he wanted it to be a surprise but he never said anything about Elena. I thought on it for a second, before making up my mind. If there's anyone who could ever take a secret to the grave, it was Elena.

"Elena..." I began, taking a deep breath. "I'm going to tell you a secret. Can you promise me not to tell anyone, especially Stasi, the secret?" I asked, a mischievous smile on my face.

"What secret are yo-..." She began, before her eyes widened in realization. She gasped, slapping the palm of her hand over her mouth. "You got a silver envelope, didn't you?"

She's more perceptive than I thought.

The silver envelope was the Coven's way of delivering invitations to individuals. It was kind of ironic and humorous that the color of the invitation to an event mostly populated by vampires was the same color as the metal they were all allergic too.

Like I mean... come on. That couldn't have been an accident.

"I won't tell you anything unless you promise." I replied, sticking up my left pinkie. The pinky promise goes way back. The both of us have done it since she was six. She always asked me if I would play with her the next time I came to Stasi's house, just as when I was leaving for the day. I always pinky promised her that i'd play with her when I came back and to this day, I have never broken any promise we made with each other, and neither has she.

The pinky promise was sacred. It was life bonding. It was our own special little thing we had going on.

Elena interlocked her pinky with mine, sealing the deal. "Ok, pinky promise! Now spill." She demanded. I raised my eyebrow at her. "Please?" She continued, pouting and staring at me with her green eyes.

I relented under her faux politeness. "Yes. I got a silver envelope a few weeks ago. I'm going as a guest of your family."

Elena squealed. "Oh my god, screw going back to the room than. I'm staying for the whole thing. This is going to be so much fun with you there! Anna is going to be so happy that you're coming. Can you imagine the look on her face when we pull up into the hotel lobby and you're standing there waiting for her?"

I finished grading her free response, giving her a five out of six. A great score. "Remember what I said, you cannot tell Stasi anything!" I said sharply. "You made a pinky promise."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I know how sacred the pinky promise is. My lips are sealed. But what are you going to wear? I don't think you'd look good in those old fashioned suits the Coven people wear."

I shrugged. "Me, your parents, and my parents are going to go to this special tailor in the city to find a tuxedo this weekend. The same one that apparently does your dad's suits."

Elena gasped once more. "Kirby's Clothiers?! Oh my god, you have to let me go! I want to come! Please? You need me there to make sure your tuxedo matches with Anna's dress and everything. My parents don't know how to dress and impress Anna. Please, please, please, please, pretty please?" She begged.

I thought on that for a moment. She did have a point. What did my parents and her parents know about young people fashion? "I'll have to ask Anton." I relented. "But! If he does say you can go, you can only come if you get an A on the World History exam this Friday." I said, gesturing to the paper on the table. "Don't get too overconfident because you did good on the practice. Olsen's tests are super hard."

"Done and done." Elena said vigorously, excited at the prospect of being able to spend a weekend helping me pick out a tuxedo. Despite her tomboyish attitude, she was very much into fashion. As a matter of fact, Elena's fashion insight made up the majority of my wardrobe. If it were up to me, I'd be wearing a mismatched t-shirt, jeans, and hoodie 365 days a year.

I handed the paper off to her. "Alright, you're done for tonight. Good job and make sure you keep on studying." Before she could take the paper and take off, I leaned forward. "And make sure you don't let Stasi in on a single thing, got it?"

She nodded. "Got it!" She leaned it, hugging me. "Thanks for tutoring me, big bro." She said, gratefully. "I really, really appreciate it. You helped me improve my grade by a ton."

I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her back. "No problem, squirt." I said. "I'm going to go say hi to Stasi, then i'm gonna head home."

"Alright. Don't forget to say goodbye to me before you leave. " She chirped, picking up the paper and looking at it proudly. She turned around, heading to the stairs. "Good luck with your game tomorrow." She said, over her shoulder.

"Thanks. Have a good night. Remember our deal! " I called after her, packing up my notebook. I had forgotten that I had a game tomorrow. We were doing exceptionally well this season with one game away from having an above .500 record. After a few tough losses early on, we had gotten our chemistry going and were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.

"I will!" She hollered back. I heard her stomp up the stairs before hearing the familiar 'thump' of her door closing. I zipped up my backpack and tossed it over my shoulder. I walked over to the stairs, taking two steps at a time to quickly get upstairs and go to Stasi's room. As you can see, I was excited to see my vampire best friend and only love. When I came towards her door, I saw that it was ajar. Light and music leaked into the hallway through the crack.

I knocked on the door, pushing it open and walking in. Stasi was perched on her bed criss crossed, her laptop in front of her. She looked so cute, wearing her mismatched black sweatpants and gray hoodie. It didn't exactly accentuate her womanly curves, but let's be honest, she could make anything look sexy. She was also wearing her thick framed glasses. Even though she normally wore contacts during the day, when those came out, her glasses came on. Even though she disliked them, I couldn't say the same. In my opinion, they looked cute on her. In fact, everything looked cute on her.

She looked up at me as I walked in, grinning a fanged smile widely. "Hi, lyubov." She said happily. "Elena done with tutoring already?"

"Hola, mi amor." I replied in Spanish. "And yes. Elena's done. She's doing great."

Stasi laughed. She reached over to her nightstand, pressing the pause button on her phone, cutting off Adele's voice to her Bluetooth speaker. She scooted to the left on her bed, freeing up a space for me to sit down. She patted the spot next to her.

"Sientese, por favor." Stasi said.

Boy, those three years of Spanish were really paying off.

I walked over to the bed, navigating through the volleyball equipment strewn about. I sat down on the bed and placed my backpack on the floor next to me. I rotated my head towards Stasi, giving her a long and passionate kiss which she happily returned. I swear, I couldn't get enough of this girl. It was like I was dying of thirst, and the only thing I could drink was the sight of her and her presence.

She broke the kiss first, coming up for air. "You're happy to see me." She breathed.

"Yeah, well, when you love someone that much, being away from them hurts like hell." I replied, a smile on my face.

Stasi blushed at my words, giving me another peck on the lips. "I could say the same, Chris. Every time you're away it feels like I'm getting stabbed right in the heart."

"Don't worry. I'm here now." I scooted close to her, so we were hip to hip. Call me a physical person, but sitting next to her wasn't quite enough. I had to be touching her to be satisfied.

"Sorry I couldn't go to your game yesterday." I looked at her guiltily.

"Don't be. You had practice." She said dismissing my apology.

"Yeah... well... I'm still sorry. You go to every single one of my games and I hardly can ever make it to any of yours."

Stasi laughed. She cupped my cheeks in her hands, squeezing my face. "Chris, the amount of support you give me when you do attend makes up for all the times you can't attend at all. Besides, I have Elena, Jazz, and Lucy there and Elena and Jazz are just as loud as you."

I smiled widely. Elena, Jazz, and I were one of Stasi's staunchest supporters whenever she took to the court. The two of them went to every single one of her games they could get a ride to in order to cheer Stasi on. I went to the ones that were late enough in the evening to begin after football practice ended. The three of us together could create enough disruption and noise to get the other team off their game.

"That's true, but I still wish I could come to more games." I peered down at the screen of her laptop where a Google Doc was open. "What are you working on?"

Stasi crinkled her nose, annoyed. "Hamlet essay." She said in her Russian accent, signifying she was extremely irritated and frustrated. "I've been working on it for so long that I just want to hurl my laptop at the wall. I can't seem to get the fourth paragraph to flow correctly. Can you help me? You're way better at this subject than I am."

I cracked a smile at her irritation. It was, quite frankly, adorable seeing her in a fit of frustration. Watching her get frustrated was cute and funny, but if you laughed at her, she'd just get more frustrated, and then it wouldn't so be so cute and funny anymore once the fangs and sharp Russian came out. "You couldn't ask Jazz or Ricky for help?" I asked.

"No. Jazz didn't even start yet and you know how Ricky is. I'm pretty sure he's borderline illiterate." Stasi said jokingly.

Of course, we all knew that Ricky wasn't that bad at Literature. He was actually fairly good at school. He just liked to be left alone in his studies. One time, he secretly told me that he was just on cruise mode. He set everybody's expectations of him in the classroom so low that nobody would ever ask him for help ever, letting him cruise through the class under the radar.

"I'll tell Ricky you said that."

"No you won't, Chris." Stasi retorted.

"Why not?" I challenged playfully. "The essay isn't even due until next week."

"Because you love me, that's why. Besides, why wouldn't I ask you when you already typed the essay up and had Ms. Palmer revise it?" She asked.

Guilty.

I sighed in mock exasperation. "Fine, I'll help you. Only if you promise to help me study for the Bio exam next week."

"What kind of offer is that? Of course that's a deal." She replied, handing over her laptop. I settled down on the bed, bracing my back against the soft pillows of her bed. Stasi laid her head on my shoulder, sighing contently as I scrolled all the way up to start her essay from the beginning. "Thanks, Chris. Means a lot to me. Especially since I get to go over my favorite subject with you."

"Don't mention it." I said, kissing her on the forehead. "Ok... let's see what we're working with." I began, scanning the introductory paragraph. "Well, you have a couple of problems in your thesis that might make it hard to tie everything back down in your body paragraphs..." I began. "I gotta finish reading to make sure... hang on..."

By the time we were done with everything it was already 8:30. We'd turned her essay into a glittering gem, ready to give William Shakespeare a run for his money. I'd wanted to stay until 9:00 to study for biology. However, Stasi and Yulia were adamant that I go home to avoid missing my curfew and get rest for my game tomorrow. To placate me, Stasi ended promising that she'd 'study' with me over the tomorrow before my game. Seeing her wink as she said that behind Yulia made me shudder in excitement.

I didn't blame their insistence. There was a recent attack on a man who owned a bar over in the Midwest. He refused to turn away a lamia from his establishment and when the bartender ended up serving him, the other patrons beat the man to an inch of his life and ransacked the establishment. I overheard Anton and Yulia talking about it when I was tutoring Elena one night. The last I heard, the lamia was recovering in the hospital, the bar was burned to the ground, and the patrons were currently in jail for assault. The bartender got away unscathed. The story hadn't been reported on in the mainstream news as much as it should've been.