Broken Glass and Bleeding Hearts

“Ellie!” Star’s ecstatic sounding voice almost made me jump that Monday morning as I grabbed my books from my locker.

“Holy crap, don’t do that! What is it?” I turned around and Star was almost jumping up and down.

“That is a new guy at the school! And he is so hot! I’m going to talk to him the next time I see him!”

“You scare the crap out of me for that?”

“I didn’t mean to, but it was big news for me! I had to tell you!”

Ellie had a plan for the night. Her mom and Matt’s parents were going out for dinner and they were hanging out at her house. It was the perfect time. They were after all vampires, and she didn’t see any reason not to act like them. “Okay Star, go find him.”

“I’ll see you later!”

“Later!” I closed my locker and went to talk to Matt.

“What is wrong with Star?” He asked. So even he noticed how she was extra-bubbly.

“She saw the new guy and thinks he is hot.”

“Figures.”

“You are still coming over tonight right?”

“Yeah, of course. Why?”

“Just making sure.”

“Ellie!” I heard Zacky about two seconds before I felt him jump on my back. I staggered a bit before I caught my balance. When we were human this would knock me down, but now that we were all changing it just took me a minute to steady myself. “What’s up?”

“Hey Zacky. I was just talking to Matt.”

“Zack, get off my girlfriend’s back.” Matt looked at Zacky and I knew that Zacky was hiding his smile. He thought it was funny how protective Matt had grown over me since his birthday.

“Fine, I’ll ruin the fun. I didn’t hurt her.”

“Yeah, I’m used to it by now.”

“Yeah after how many years of me doing that to you?”

“Very true Zacky. Very true.”

That evening my mom had just left when there was a knock at the door. I knew it was Matt and it was no surprise when I opened the door and there he stood, smiling at me. I gave him a quick kiss and he followed me inside. “So what do you wanna do tonight?” He asked as he sat down on the couch.

“I don’t know. Wanna start with ordering a pizza?” I grabbed the phone and sat down next to him.

“Sounds good to me.” We settled on watching some weird movie that made no sense. “That looks so fake to me. What do you think?” He asked as I wrapped my arms around him and his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

“It looks worse than fake. Besides, killer ducks? Lame.” I looked back at the screen just in time to see the stupid guy lock himself in a room. Little did he know that the killed duck was in there with him. I laughed when he got eaten. Then the door bell rang.

I grabbed the pizza money and opened the door. I took the pizza into the kitchen and Matt followed me. I grabbed us each a plate and handed him one. I then got two glasses of ice and grabbed a soda for each of us.

Once back in the living room, after I had taken a bite of my pizza, I grabbed the remote. We needed to watch something better than fake killer ducks. We finally settled on music videos and pretty much ate in silence.

It was around 30 minutes after we finished eating that I decided that it was time to put my plan into action. So I turned to look at Matt. “Do I still smell good to you?”

“What are you talking about Ellie?”

“My blood. Does it still smell really good to you? Like yours does to me?”

“Well yeah. Of course it does. Why are you asking?”

“Because I’ve been thinking-”
“Ellie no! I’ve told you this already! No!”

“Why?!”

“I don’t want to hurt you! I won’t be able to stop!”

“Yes you will. Be rational Matt, you couldn’t stand to hurt me.”

“I already said I wouldn’t do it and damn it Ellie I meant it! End of story! I’ll see you tomorrow.” I watched as he left my house very angry. Well that plan backfired and came back to bite me in the ass.

I went up to my room after I washed the dishes and just laid on my bed. I didn’t want him to be mad at me, but I did know what I was doing. Even if Matt didn’t trust himself I did trust him. He wouldn’t hurt me. I know he wouldn’t.

The next day at school he didn’t really even talk to me and I returned the silence. After all I had a reason to be mad at him. Star and the guys all asked and we both gave them the short version.

My mom was working late that afternoon so I was watching TV on the couch when the knock came. I looked out the window and saw it was Matt, so I opened the door. “What do you want Matt?”

“To talk to you.”

“Why? To tell me that I was wrong last night?”

“Can you listen to me for once?”

“I’m listening.”

“You know that I love you, right?”

“Of course I know that Matt. And you know that I love you too, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have tried that last night. You should probably come in.”

“Probably.” He came inside and I closed the door. “Ellie I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you.”

“But you won’t. I trust you. I know you’ll stop. This is going to be really cheesy but it sort of fits. Remember when we were five and I refused to get on the monkey bars?”

This drew a quick laugh from him. “Yeah. You were afraid you’d fall and as you put it, hit your head and die.”
“Shut up. I was little. And remember why I finally got on them?”

“Once again yeah. Because I lied to you.”

“You didn’t really lie. You told me that I wouldn’t fall off, and if I did I’d land on my knees and hands. Not my head. You also said that nothing bad could ever happen to me when you were around, because you needed me.”

“I lied about how you would land. I didn’t know that.” This time Matt looked down, obviously embarrassed about talking about this. I smiled and moved closer.

“And when we were 10 and I refused to get in the water at the beach because I thought there were sharks that would eat me.”

“Not the best example. I said that if you got eaten I’d get you roses for your funeral.”

“You also said that nothing bad would happen and it would be okay. And every other time I was afraid of something for some reason you would also find some way to comfort me and get me to do what I really wanted to.”

“Star helped a lot.”

“True. But that isn’t the point.” This time I walked up to him and hugged him. “It’s my turn. Nothing bad will happen. You won’t hurt me. I’ll live. And if I don’t then I want black and red roses on my grave please. Lilies are nice too.” Matt laughed as he wrapped his arms around me.

“It isn’t that easy anymore Ellie. It isn’t monkey bars and sharks. And you aren’t just my best friend anymore.” I felt his lips on the top of my head.

“You are right. It isn’t monkey bars and sharks, its blood and vampires. Big difference huh? But that doesn’t change what I was saying.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I trust you with my life.” I pulled back a bit and looked up at him. “And I want you to.”

“Ellie.”

“You won’t hurt me. Please? For me?”

“Fine.”

“Come on.” He followed me up to my room where I sat down on my bed.

“Ellie what are you doing?”

“I want to sit down. I’ll stand if you want me to.”

“Oh brother.” He sat down next to me and looked at me. “Can we just get this over with? Please?”

“Yup. I’m ready.”

“Then you are sinking your fangs into my throat. See how you like that idea.” Secretly that idea excited me. I was curious as to what Matt’s blood tasted like.

“If I have to.” Matt moved so his head was on one side of my neck and I knew he had enlarged his fangs. “Go ahead. Stop worrying.” I felt two gentle pokes on my skin and that was it. I’m not sure what happened, but something did.

It was like I could read his mind or something. He couldn’t hide anything from me at the moment. And he was enjoying this. My blood tasted even better than it smelt to him. Since I could find out anything I wanted to I decided to do some digging. “Ellie please don’t do that.” I could hear his voice inside my head.

“Do what?” I thought innocently.

“Try and look for what I think about the way you look.”

“But why not? What is the point in being able to do this if I can’t find out what you are thinking?”

“I will stop if you even try.”

“Fine. Ass. And I have three words for you. I told you.”

“Fine, I’ll go looking for what you think about the way I look.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Hum what is this? Gorgeous huh?”

“Matthew Charles Sanders.” So I went for it. I dove into his thoughts.

“Did you tell Zacky that I was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie.”
“And you didn’t want me seeing you in your pajamas. You felt ugly and insecure.”

“Stop right there.”

“Trust me you never look ugly.”

“So I see.”

“Stop it.”

“You first.” Then I saw something that I really wasn’t supposed to see. “You! That night you told me about vampires! You had a dream to! You were here!”

“I had to make sure you were okay. Please don’t look into that dream Ellie. Please. It isn’t pretty. So please. You can look at anything else. Even my most embarrassing memories just please don’t look into that dream.”

“You are protecting me.”

“Ellie I love you, I am going to protect you no matter what. No one and nothing is going to change that.” For the first time in a long time I reacted to a happy emotion with a lump in the back of my throat. He wasn’t joking.

“How long Matt?”

“How long what?”

“How long did you like me?”

“Just look for yourself.”

“I want you to tell me.”

“Two years. How long have you liked me?”

“Two years. Why?”

“Why does everything seem to fall into place at the same time for us? Why is your blood so tempting to me and mine so tempting to you? Why can’t we stay away from each other? I don’t know. Maybe it is just because we have been best friends since we were born and we know each other better than anyone else. Or maybe it is something that neither of us understand.”

“Thank you for listening to me.”

“Thank you for talking me into this. I have to stop now Elliebear.” I felt Matt pull away from my neck and I felt suddenly disconnected for a second. I then settled into his arms and sighed contently.

“That was fun and interesting.” I commented.

“Yeah it was. And looks like you are going to have to wait a while for those black and red roses on you grave.” We looked at each other and we couldn’t hold the laughter in any longer.