I Hate Love Stories Because I'm Never in One.

I rushed into the one place I wanted to escape to. Obviously it wasn't home, my mum would no doubt have hassled me to no ends if I'd have turned up there with tears pouring down my face. She probably would have tied me to a chair and demanded what was wrong until I confessed all about my screwed up feelings.

No, I didn't go home. Instead, I went to the book store. I guess it was a home away from home, in a way.

Before I made my way through the door, I paused to scrub the tears from my face. I didn't want the shop keeper to ask if I was okay, he probably would think I'm insane enough to turn up in this state in the first place.

Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I shoved the door open and walked in. My fingers let go of the door handle, letting it swing shut by itself. That is, it should have. When I didn't hear the expected bang of the door, I had half a mind to turn around until a voice spoke out.

"Teri." he panted.

I spun around to glare at him. It was hard not to ogle at the same time though, Kieran was after all incredibly and frustratingly good looking. I should have realised he would follow me here.

“Teri?“Kieran said, striding toward me as he held out his arms. I turned away from him and flumped down onto the chair I usually sat in, not wanting to be near him.

As I let my arms drop against the arm rest, I saw dust fly up and float through the sunshine that streaked in through a nearby window. My hand dragged through the air, making them swirl around. They looked out of control...kind of like my emotions.

"Teri-" he started but I didn't let him finish.

“What, Kieran?” I snapped, taking out my rage on him. It was really my fault, I had no idea why I was being so pissed at Kieran for.

He looked hurt but continued towards me, slowly seating himself opposite me with his hands up as if in surrender. I felt a stab of guilt for shouting at him.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything like that to him...I, I just couldn’t help it.”

I threw an exasperated look at him. “Kieran, I know you could control yourself. You’re perfect!”

He sighed and stood up abruptly. I copied him, not wanting to feel intimidated by his height.

“Teri, you should get that ridiculous notion of me being perfect out of your head. I’m not. It’s the imperfections that make people real.” He told me, folding his arms as he stared disapprovingly at me.

I felt my mouth drop open. “Fine, what’re your imperfections then?”

He paused as he thought it over. I was just about to remark on how I was right, that he was perfect after all, when he sidled closer to me. We were close enough that the ends of his shoes nudged against my own and I felt my breathing spike up a notch.

I shook my head and glared at him. “Kieran, what are your imperfections?”

He gave me a slow, dark grin. I swear that I almost fainted as he leaned forward so that he could whisper into my ear.

“I’m a vampire.”

I jerked away from him and backed up a few steps. “What did you just say?”

He smirked at me again. “I said that I’m a vampire.”

Crap, he looked deadly serious. I mean, I’d read some of those vampire books and stuff but I never thought that vampires could actually exist. Just as I was about to start having a full blown panic attack, Kieran started laughing.

“What!” I demanded, flinching as he stepped closer to me.

“Teri, you are so absurd sometimes! There’s no such thing as vampires!” he snorted, rolling his eyes as he messed up my hair.

I glowered at him as my face heated up from embarrassment.

"Hey, did you know they've taken gullible out of the dictionary?" he asked me.

"What? Really?" I said, confused at the turn of conversation.

Kieran laughed harder and brushed his hair back from his face. "No, Teri. It was a joke...because, you know...you are quite gullible."

“You arsehole!” I cried, smacking him on the chest as he burst into irrepressible laughter.

"I'm sorry, Teri!" he sighed, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I guess that was taking it a bit too far. I sort of got distracted from the real reason why we're here...me, you and that Matt kid."

My face fell slightly. "What about us?"

Kieran squinted his eyes at me slightly. "I can tell you like him too, Teri. I'm not a Neanderthal. That's probably the reason why I lost my head back there...I was jealous, I guess."

"You? Jealous?" I gasped. That was so...normal. It was so...imperfect. Kieran had flaws after all, like anybody else. He’d shown me that he could be immature with that stupid vampire joke as well as envious...but it didn’t make me love him any less.

"Yes, I was insanely jealous." he informed me with a small smile.

"Why?"

"Because love is a strong thing, Teri." he said seriously.