Decisions Ch. 04

"Close the door, you're letting all the hot air out." Stasi shivered, rubbing her forearms. The game was especially chilly and Stasi had forgotten to really bundle up. Her sweater probably did little to hold out the chill.

"Sorry." I said, closing the door. "Do you want to borrow my hoodie?"

Stasi wafted her hand. "No, I'm fine. Good game, Chris." She said brightly. "You and Viktor did really great." I brought my hand up to her cheek, stroking it softly. "Only because I knew you were watching me." Call me cliche or unoriginal for saying that, but it was true. Whenever Stasi was there, it was like I went from Tony Stark and turned into the Hulk.

Stasi giggled cheerfully. "You're so cheesy, Chris." She said, turning down the radio where 'Fresh Eyes' by Andy Grammer playing. She reached up, pulling off her beanie, letting her raven hair tumble out like a wave of black.

"I'm serious!" I insisted. "When I know you go to the game, it's like you're motivating me to do so much better. It's just comforting to know that you're there with me, even though we're not actually next to each other."

She leaned back in her seat, before staring at me, her crystal blue eyes clouded in thought.

"Was there something wrong with what I said?" I questioned. I did have a bad habit of speaking out of turn.

"No." She said, happily. "Even though we've been dating for almost two months and been best friends all our lives, I'm still just coming to terms with how lucky I am to have you here in my life, despite what I am. I just wanted to say I love you, Christopher Williams."

"I love you too, Anastasia Sokolov. There's nothing wrong with what you are, Stasi. Besides, I'm the lucky one in this relationship." I replied gazing warmly at her. "After all, you were the one who decided to sit down with lonely old me on the first day of kindergarten."

"Yeah but... you were the one that let me play with you. Not many people did that day." She said softly.

"I guess we're both just lucky, then." I responded tenderly. "It's their loss."

"Now that, I'll agree with." Stasi gently placed her hand on the side of my face, tilting it towards her and leaning forward. Even in the warm interior of the car, her soft hand was still pleasantly cold against my face. She closed the distance, giving me a soft passionate kiss. Soon, something wet and squishy slid between my lips and Stasi's hand cupped the back of my head, pressing her mouth against mine.

I brought both of my hands up, cupping her face. Her tongue was so soft and smooth, such a delicate part of her body.

"Do you want to wait or go into traffic?" Stasi asked as she pulled her panting mouth away.

My eyes scanned out the windshield. The parking lot was still packed. It'd take at least 15 minutes for us to get out, pass the checkpoint, and go home. "I'd rather we stay and do more productive things." I replied. As time went on, we became more confident in what we did in the bedroom. No more of that shy and timidness.

"Good answer."

Reaching down with her hand, she wrapped her long fingers around my cock through the fabric of my royal blue basketball shorts. I was already semi-erect from the make out session so I was hard as a rock now. Using her dextrous right hand, she peeled back the waistband of my shorts and boxers.

She raised an eyebrow at my erection. "You would've thought i'd have killed it off before the game." She wrapped her cold left hand around my cock, giving me a whirlwind of sensations. I groaned as she slowly jerked me off at an excruciatingly slow pace.

"Stasi.." I groaned out, absolutely dying at the merciless teasing that she was putting me under. I shuddered, my hands desperately clinging onto the center console and door handle. The slow movement of her hand was driving me absolutely bonkers. Stasi knew how to make me squirm.

"Did you say my name?" She asked innocently with a mischievous smile.

"Stasi!" I gasped out with more force.

"Fine, I'll stop. Only because we're strapped for time." She pouted. "And... because I'm hungry... for food, I mean." She said quickly. "I mean, i'm hungry for you too! But that sounds wei-... forget it." Stasi leaned over the center console to play off her embarrassing talk session and hide her adorably blushing face, a bit too quickly it seemed, as she was caught by the seat belt she was wearing. Stasi is quite possibly the only person I know that wears her seatbelt when the car isn't even on.

"Oh, damn... child lock. Well, that's what happens when you try to be sexy." She muttered, unclicking her seatbelt. I laughed, making her glare at me and squeeze my cock in mock indignance, cutting off my laughter and turning it into a gasp. "You're always sexy, Stasi. Unbelievably sexy." I groaned out. Stasi grinned maliciously, her fangs ridiculously large.

"Aw... thanks. You always know what to say and do to make me feel better." She cooed, squeezing my cock again. "Now it's my turn to make you feel better." She scooted as far to the left as she could go and leaned down over the console, her face becoming precariously close to my erection. Holding onto her long raven hair behind her head with her free hand, she opened her mouth wide, wrapped her soft lips around the tip of my cock, and immediately went to town on it, sucking and gobbling away with ludicrously loud slurping noises.

Chapter 2.5:

I didn't even last long after she went down on me, erupting into her mouth within five minutes of her careful and loving attention. I wasn't even embarrassed. She was that good. She was just so undeniably beautiful, amazing, and confident that it blew my mind that I ended up with her, my vampire best friend. When she came up, her cheeks were covered in spit and her pale face had a rosy hue to it. She swallowed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Whew, that was a load. Ready to go home?" She asked.

"I love you." I breathed out, basking in the warm afterglow of an orgasm.

"I love you too, lyubov." She said.

A prideful smile, accentuated by her fangs, adorned her face. She once told me how much she loved making me feel good and I felt the same about making her feel good. She put on her seatbelt, turned on the ignition to the car and pulled out of the parking lot, joining the dwindling line of cars leaving. Within minutes, she pulled up to the security checkpoint, rolling down her window.

"Good evening." She said smoothly to the police officer. The police officer was young and looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here out in the cold, providing security for a high school football game.

"Good evening to you too, miss." The office's teeth chattered. He held out a gloved hand. "License and mon' papers, please."

Stasi nodded. "One moment, officer. 'Scuse me, Chris." She said, leaning forward and straining towards the glove department to get her purse, which held her license and Other Species Identification Card, affectionately nicknamed "monster papers" or "mon' papers" for short. They were electronically scanned cards that allowed police to "quickly" identify your name, species, age, all that important information. The penalties for not having your card on you at all times was either A) hefty fine, B) jail time, or C) hefty fines and jail time.

Coincidently, humans didn't need to apply for a card.

"Wait... Chris? As in the Quarterback Christopher Williams?" The officer asked. He bent down, shining his flashlight into the car, making the both of us recoil our heads back away from the bright LED light.

"Holy hell, it is Christopher Williams!" He exclaimed, before turning his attentions to Stasi. "You must be Anna Sokolov, then. Yeah! I recognize you from the paper." He flashed me a thumbs up. "Good game tonight, Chris. You played well. Where are you two headed?"

"Home." I said, still holding up my hand to prevent getting my retinas burned off by the LED light. "Well, we're going to her home. We're having dinner together with our families and friends. We're already a bit late."

The officer nodded, standing back up. He looked around the checkpoint, making sure that his colleagues were all either gone or occupied. Satisfied that no one was watching, he leaned back down to Stasi. "You don't have to show me your card then, Ms. Sokolov. I know how much time that takes and I don't want to take that away from your family."

Stasi smiled widely, showing her fangs. The officer's minute flinch wasn't lost on the both of us. Despite how nice he seemed, he appeared to not be as sympathetic to monsters as he first appeared. "Thank you so much, officer. You have a safe night."

The officer smiled warily back and waved us through with his flashlight. Stasi shifted gears into drive and drove through the checkpoint, rolling up the window to keep the cold air out and warm air in. "Jeez, I should just keep you there in my passenger seat forever if you can get me through those checkpoints." Stasi chortled.

"So what? I'm like a passport to you now?" I chuckled. We'd probably gone through countless number of checkpoints, checkpoints that recently began springing up after the DTOSA got into full swing. This was the first time we were allowed to simply pass through without waiting the outrageously long time it took to get Stasi's ID scanned and checked.

"No, you're the love of my life." Stasi laughed. "The passport thing we have going on is just one of the many countless benefits."

"While we're on the topic of benefit, when is the next time you need to feed?" I asked, changing the subject.

Stasi grew silent, her happy demeanor fading away. This was still a tense topic for us. I knew Stasi was proud of her vampiric heritage, but at the same time, she was still ashamed of the deadly stigma her species had. She was always trying to balance between what she was and what she was trying to be, and the balance usually favored the latter.

Earlier this month, she had insisted that she stop feeding on me and take the synthetic blood packs instead, not wanting to accidently hurt me since she had no real idea of what she was doing. When I saw her sucking on the one I had stashed in my refrigerator with a huge grimace on her face, I asked her to change her mind. It seemed as if feeding on actual blood had spoiled her. I decided that as long as we were careful, I knew she would never deliberately harm me.

We were a team. A team wasn't just a group of people working together. It was a group of people who trusted each other completely.

Stasi gripped the steering wheel tightly. "I don't know, Chris..." She said embarrassed... and ashamed. "Maybe we should lay off live feedings unt-..."

"No."

Stasi sighed. "Chris, listen to me. I know you don't think I can, but I can live off the synthetics full time. They're actually good and even if they were terrible, i'd rather be eating something unpleasant than hurting the person I love by accident."

"No."

"Chris, seriously." She pleaded. "They're coming out with better synthetics and everything."

"No."

"Are you going to say something other than no?" She asked, exasperated.

"No." I replied, laughing, which in turn, made her crack a smile despite the severity of the situation. "Stasi, I trust you with my life. I know that you won't ever hurt me. Your parents trust you that you'll be careful. I know you'll be careful. You're not going back to those SBPs. I know that you absolutely despise those."

"I just don't want you to get hurt. I love you. I don't know what I'd do without you in my life." She mumbled guiltily.

I opened my hand, palm up on the center console. Stasi swiftly peeked down, before taking the right hand off of the steering wheel and interlocking her fingers with mine.

"Nothing's going to happen to me. All this time we grew up together, you never bit me once, even though you did say you thought about it more than once. I'm pretty darn sure you can control yourself when it comes to it."

Stasi sighed and pulled into her neighborhood. "Alright, fine. You win." She said, resigned. "I don't need to feed on anything for a while. I already had an SBP this morning... I know, i'm sorry! Don't be mad at me." She said hastily when she saw my eyes boring into her. I wasn't even mad. I was connecting the dots. That would explain her foul mood this morning and her lost appetite.

"I don't need to feed again until... two more weeks... which is right around Halloween... and that's when the Coven Ball is." Her tone of voice took a turn when she said 'Ball'.

"Not excited about that, huh?" I questioned as Stasi parked her car in front of the sidewalk to her house. The driveway was crammed with the cars of our friends and family. She parked her car, turning her key and killing her engine. Part of me just wanted to tell her that I was coming seeing that I told her everything that was going on in my life, but I remembered what Elena said about imagining what her reaction would be when she saw me waiting for her in the lobby. I try my best to be romantic and just the thought of that sounded pretty freaking romantic.

"Not really, no." She admitted. "I've complained about this to you this countless times, but just once, I want to spend Halloween with you and go trick or treating, or watch a scary movie, or something! I've gone to the Coven Ball all my life and I love my parents and all, but I just want to spend this holiday at least once with you."

I squeezed her hand. "It won't be that bad. It's just Halloween. I'll be with you at the Ball in spirit." I said, comforting her with the phrase I always said whenever Stasi complained about going to the Ball every year. 'I'll be there in spirit.'

"I guess you're right." She sighed. "It's just that I want to spend Halloween doing regular stuff before I get too old, like eating myself sick with candy or scaring those little trick or treaters with you and Ricky in front of the house we always decorate."

Every year, me, Stasi, Lucy, Jazz, and Elena decorated my house. No idea why they picked my house, they just did. Me and Stasi have done it since we were in the third grade and everyone else joined along the way. The decorations went from simple jack o' lanterns we played on the yard the first year, to the elaborate haunted house we planned and implemented last year.

I smiled softly at the memories, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. "Cheer up. I'm sure the Ball will be all kinds of fun this year around. You'll even get to meet the royal family."

"If you say so." Stasi mumbled, unconvinced.

"I know so." I claimed confidently. "Now let's get inside, I'm hungry." I said, squeezing her hand and letting go to exit her car. Stasi nodded and opened her garage door using the remote and climbed out of the driver's seat, shutting the door behind her and locking it. We interlocked our fingers once again as we walked into her garage, kicking off our shoes.

Stasi closed the garage door, walking into the house with me in tow. As soon as we came into the house, we were ambushed by Yulia, who was wearing her apron and waiting for us in the hallway. "You two are a bit tardy." She observed over the sounds of talk and laughter echoing from the dining room just down the street.

"We were caught in traffic, Mama." Stasi replied nervously. Yulia could sniff out a lie like a bloodhound. She raised her eyebrow, staring at the two of us, the corners of her lip upturned in a smile. "Of course you were." She said. "You both must be extremely hungry. Anna, i'm afraid i'm going to have to borrow Christopher for just one moment."

Stasi looked at me nervously. "You go ahead and say hi to everyone." I reassured her. "It's not like i'm going to be executed or something."

Stasi turned back to Yulia, then back at me, giving me a quick peck on the lips and heading off to the dining room. I looked back at Yulia, finding her staring at me with a smile. Even though Stasi got most of her features from Anton, she got most of her expressions and mannerisms from Yulia. The resulting look I was getting from Yulia was so similar it was uncanny.

Yulia looked behind her to make sure that no one was eavesdropping. "Did you free your schedule for tomorrow, Christopher?"

I nodded. "Yes, i'm just going to spend the morning with Ricky since he's staying the night and i'll go with my parents to the tailor. I really appreciate this, Yulia." I said gratefully. Yulia and Anton were graciously paying for my suit, seeing as I was their guest. Even if I wasn't going to accept their money for tutoring Elena, they always found a different way to make sure that I was rewarded.

"Good. Now... i've heard something peculiar, Christopher. A little pitisa told me that someone invited her to go help pick out an outfit tomorrow for a certain event." She mused, rubbing her chin. "I wonder who that could've been."

"No idea, but it certainly has nothing to do with me." I remarked playfully. "But if that was me, hypothetically, I would've only invited her to go had the 'pitisa' scored an A on her world history exam."

Yulia grinned. "As it turns out, the little pitisa did score an A on her exam, the only A in the class. Must've had a good teacher, and i'm afraid that a deal's a deal. The pitisa will be joining us on our trip, is that quite alright with you?"

I raised my hands innocently. "It's alright with me. I'd hate to turn her away after she studied her heart out for the exam." I was proud of Elena, she was already improving in the subject by miles.

"I would've thought so. Have you prepared for the Ball yet, Christopher?"

I shook my head, confused. "Prepared for what?"

"The opening dance, of course. Now, i'm sure that the song will be modern, so you can assume some kind of 21st century artist. That means you won't have to put up with the orchestra."

I was still registering "dancing", much less "21st century artist".

"What dancing?!" I sputtered out, a bit too loudly. I hastily craned my neck to look down the hall at the dining room, checking to make sure no one heard me. I turned back to Yulia, who was looking a bit amused at my predicament. "The dancing involved at the Ball. It is tradition that a couple is picked by the Coven to open up the dancing for everybody. I have no doubt that you and Anna will be picked by the Elders. What? You didn't think a Ball would have ballroom dancing?"

"But I can't dance." I stammered, blushing.

"Sure you can, Christopher. We always see you dance on the sidelines when you celebrate." She replied.

"That's different." I mumbled. It truly was. Ballroom dancing was an entirely different breed than the whips and dabs you do on the sideline when you do something cool and want to hype up your friends.

"Well..." Yulia said, suddenly unsure. "You don't have to be too extravagant with your routine. It's just to open up the dance floor. No longer than one or two minutes. My husband and I will relieve you. You just don't want to shame yourself in front of countless of high ranking vampire politicians. That'd be a big nyet. You are representing your own species after all. It only takes an individual to cause the reputation of the entire establishment to crumble."

Way to put the pressure on me.

She looked back into the hallway. "If you ask me, I suggest you make haste and get practice. You wouldn't want to disappoint Anna. Now, if that's all you need to know, let's go and eat. You are much too skinny. You must be starving."

Chapter 3:

Disappoint Anna. Those two words were enough motivation to swallow my pride and find someone to teach me to dance. In fact, it's what motivated me to invite Lucy to come over to my house early in the morning with the intent to give me a quick crash course. Since she and Jazz were staying over at Anna's house, Jazz tagged along with her, under the guise of going home early.