Emilee

I couldn’t hear anything going on yet. Mind you, it’d only been a few minutes. I was sat on the floor of Max’s bedroom with my ear pressed against his door. There were soft murmurs coming from somewhere distant, so perhaps they were still in the hallway. It was a good thing Max’s parents were both at work. This situation was too hard to explain. I wonder how they’d feel about me being a vampire now, too. A monster, as they’d called Max once. I stopped breathing as I heard something smash downstairs, followed by louder murmurs I assumed to be yelling. How could Max expect me to stay up here!? I stood and began to rush through the house, heading downstairs towards all the yelling.

“Get the fuck outta my house until you calm down jerk!” I heard Max yell.

“Fucking make me!” came Craig’s reply. As I turned the corner into the front hallway of Max’s house, I noticed the floor was covered in glass. Craig had Max by the collar of his t-shirt, and Max had his hands around Craig’s throat. Both of them were far too angry for reasoning.

“Guys, what the fuck!?” I screamed, startling them both. They backed off of one another.

“Last chance Max,” Craig spat. “And that’s not my decision, Robert made me.”

“Get out. I’ll never forgive you for that. Out. Now.” Max pointed towards the door, still left open for the chilly breeze to gush in through.

“What did he say?” I said. I wanted to know. Was it about me?

“Don’t you dare,” Max threatened, glaring across at Craig.

“You’re in Max’s life to destroy the only good thing he’s ever had going for him, his band. That’s right, it’s not you. You’re no good. You’re a good for nothing bitch, Emilee.” Craig smirked at my hurt expression, and the tears slowly making their way down my face. As he turned to leave, Max threw a swing into his side.

“Apologise,” Max said. Craig clutched his side and after a few moments of silence, Max went to hit him again. Craig managed to dodge his swing and hit Max in the face. I heard something crack and cringed.

“Guys! Stop it!” I cried. I doubt they’d heard me over their furious thoughts. They launched at each other and began to punch and cuss. I didn’t know what to do. Who had the upper hand of the fight? That became clear as after what seemed like way too long, Max collapsed to the ground and Craig disappeared in a blur out the open door. It slammed shut in the wind from his running.

“Max..? Max, can you hear me?” I said softly. “I’m gonna call an ambulance, okay?” More tears sprung to my eyes as more seconds passed and he hadn’t moved or said a word.

“Wait,” he said suddenly. His voice was so faint. I was so relieved to hear him speak. Forgetting about the glass, I ran straight to him. “I’ll be fine, trust me. I’ve had worse, and that was before I was a vampire.” He tried to get up a bit. I helped him, trying my best not to hurt him. I began to sob when I saw Max’s face more clearly. He was bruising badly already. The blood stripping his face and spattered on his t-shirt may have been appetising if I hadn’t remembered the situation that had caused it. I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

“Can you get up? We need to get you clean.” I took it as a yes when he slowly began to get up, using me as support. His weight on my shoulders was digging the glass further into my feet. I tried my best to forget about the pain. I helped him upstairs and into his bedroom where I sat him down on his bed.

“There’s handtowels in the left hand side of the bathroom cupboard,” he informed me. I rushed off to get a couple, dampening one of them. Once his face was clean of blood I got to work on removing his shirt. He winced in pain a bit when it got caught on him. I remembered my own pain as I was slipping off Max’s shoes. He must’ve put them on before he opened the door to Craig. Through Max’s pained expression I saw worry. “Please tell me you had shoes on honey,” he said softly. I showed him my slightly cut up feet. They didn’t look nearly half as bad as they felt. I tried not to scream in pain as Max removed all the glass for me and cleaned them up.

“Thank you Max,” I said. I would’ve kissed him, but it looked as if it’d hurt. He had a fat lip, as well as a black eye and a broken nose. Beneath it all he was still gorgeous. I chose to hug him very lightly instead.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t get him to apologise,” Max said sadly. “He had no right to say that. You are the best thing in my life, whether he likes that or not. You are first. I love you so much.”

“I know. I love you too,” I said. “It still hurt tho.”

“I’ll get him back for hurting you Emilee. I’ll find a way.” Max wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on my shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter.” I sighed. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters.”