Give My Heart To Him

"W-What?" I said. "My last name is Stark," I told him. Why would he call me anything different? He knew the teachers all referred to me as 'Miss Stark.' "And I'm not a Lady...."

"Technically, its your stepfather's last name. Your father was Lord Ealhdun, not that you would know who that is. Anyways, I can't permit you to have this knowledge," Lucian answered.

"What? No! I don't have a stepfather!" I yelled. I could feel tears starting to form in my eyes.

"Yes you do," Lucian replied, his voice certain.

"You're wrong," I whispered. It couldn't be true, could it? My mother had always been a bit...flirtatious around other men, but I couldn't be another man's daughter. Could I? Suddenly it all came crashing down on me. I didn't look like my father at all. My mother always tried to avoid me. Was she trying to forget me, her mistake?

"I'm sorry, Ava, but you can't remember any of this," Lucian said. Then he put his hands on either side of my face and looked straight into my eyes. Then everything went black.

***

I woke in my bed. I was at home. There was sunlight on my face. After a minute, it occurred to me that the only time sunlight came in through the window in my room was the evening. Why am I in bed in the evening? I never go to bed before sundown. I stood up and suddenly my head hurt like hell. It felt like my brain was throbbing. I made my bed, then I walked to the kitchen and got myself some headache meds. I swallowed them dry. Then I looked around. I needed something to distract myself, and what better than to draw something in my sketchbook? I looked for my messenger bag, and I found it in my bedroom.

I flipped through my bag. Quickly I realized my sketchbook wasn't in it. I checked again. And once again. This wasn't making any sense. I always had my sketchbook in my backpack. Why wouldn't it be there?

Maybe it was in my locker. I thought back to see if I had put it in my backpack...and I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember anything after the start of lunch today.

That was really weird…. Normally my memory was perfect. But after lunch was just a giant blank in my memory. “Shit, what happened after lunch?” I asked myself.

I decided to check the school’s website to see my attendance record. I logged in with my student ID and scrolled down to the attendance record. I was shocked to see my last three classes, the ones after lunch, have me marked as absent. I was straight edge, I never skipped school. Why would I skip, anyways? I only had a couple months of school left before I could leave school forever, and pursue my dreams of being an artist and writer.

All of the sudden, my cell rang. I checked the caller ID. It said “unknown number.” I flipped it open anyways and said, “Hello, Ava here.”

I heard someone on the other end laugh. It was a menacing laugh. “I know who you are. I’m watching you. Do you always sleep until the evening?” the man said, still chuckling.

My breath caught. I looked around me wildly, trying to find out where the man could be watching me from. “Who are you?” I asked.

“A friend, I hope. You’ll find out tomorrow. And I’m certain you will never see me if you look for me with your eyes open.” Then he hung up the phone.

I shivered. That was weird. I either had a stalker, or a prankster calling me. A prankster, I decided, was more likely. I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Nothing appealed to me, so I decided to cook something. I took a package of hot dogs and got a package of mac n’ cheese from the pantry.

I started the water boiling so I could cook the mac n’ cheese. Then I put some hot dogs on a cooking sheet and heated up the fridge. As I waited for it to heat up, I started playing some music.

I love Black Veil Brides…they write the most inspiring songs. Especially for an outcast like me. I started blasting “Never Give In,” an amazing song about not letting yourself down.

I started randomly dancing to the music and I closed my eyes. I moved by listening to the echoes off the walls, a trick I had perfected years ago. I swayed by hips and danced into the living room.

“Any reason why you’re dancing randomly?” I heard a voice ask.

My eyes flew open and I immediately stopped dancing. I spotted Lucian sitting on the couch, an amused smile on his face. “W-what are you doing here?” I asked, shocked.

“Don’t you remember?” he asked. “We ditched school after lunch and got drunk. I asked you if we could go back to your place, and you said yes. So I brought us back here. You went to your room and told me I could watch TV. What’s for dinner?” he asked.

“That did not happen. I don’t drink. I’m straight edge,” I said, certain.

Lucian turned his head and muttered something. Then he looked back at me and said, “No, Ava. I promise you that’s what happened.” His voice was pleading, and his golden eyes were boring into mine.

Something made me think back and remember. I remembered leaving the school, and leaving with Lucian. Then I remembered the beer Lucian had taken out of the trunk of his car. I remembered the bitter taste, and drinking it anyways. Then I remembered feeling really dizzy. Lucian drove us to my house, and I remember going back to bed. And that’s as far as my mind went.

“I remember…but I don’t know why I did what I did. I don’t want you to think I’m normally like that,” I said, still a little confused as to why I hadn’t remembered it sooner.

“What’s for dinner?” he asked.

“Mac n’ cheese and hot dogs,” I answered.

“Sounds good. Can I help you cook? Or should we continue dancing?” he asked, a smile on his face. I knew he was joking, but I decided to play along.

“Who says we can’t do both?” I said. Then I led him to the kitchen. “Stir the mac n’ cheese, I’ll get the music and hot dogs going.”

“Pick something catchy,” he requested as he started stirring.

“I’ll pick what I want,” I said, ignoring his request. But I did pick something catchy, anyways. I put “Funhouse” by P!nk on.

“I said catchy, not get stuck in my head for days,” he whined. Then I started dancing, well, more moshing, to the music. He turned around and watched me. He smiled that sexy smile of his.

“Come on, you have to dance too,” I whined back. I took his arm and pulled him into the middle of the kitchen.

“No, no, no, I don’t dance anything more complicated than the hokey pokey or the cha cha slide,” he protested.

“Okay,” I said, a flirty smile on my face. I switched the song to “The Cha Cha Slide” by Mr. C.

“I was just joking!” Lucian yelled as I smiled in victory.

“Come on, slide to the left! Slide to the right!” I said, singing along with the song.

Lucian reluctantly started dancing to the music. Easiest song ever, he should be able to dance with it.

We were dancing to the song, and I had the extended version on my iPod, so neither of us noticed the oven until the smoke alarm went off.

“Shit!” we yelled simultaneously, just now noticing the smoke. I opened the oven to see the hot dogs on fire.

“Move!” Lucian yelled. He had the fire extinguisher, so I moved out of the way. Then he started spraying the fire extinguisher, putting out the fire.

Once the fire was out, I turned off the oven and moved the mac n’ cheese off the burner. Then we both looked at the mess in the oven. Then we looked at each other. All of the sudden, we both burst out in laughter. I couldn’t breathe, I was laughing so hard. Then all of the sudden, a flash of déjà vu hit me. It was like I had been there, laughing with Lucian before. And it made me suddenly stop laughing.

“What’s wrong?” Lucian said, noticing that I had stopped laughing.

“Nothing, its just…,” I paused, trying to think of a lie so I wouldn’t freak him out with déjà vu. “I haven’t laughed like this in so long. My laugh muscles hurt.”

“Oh,” Lucian said, frowning. Then a devious smile slipped onto his face. He walked closer to me, then suddenly started tickling my side mercilessly.

I burst out in laughter. It tickled a lot. How did he know I was only ticklish on my sides? “That tickles, stop!” I squeaked through my laughter. He shook his head and continued to tickle me. I tried running away, but he followed me.

I ran from the kitchen to my room, but he was always behind me, still tickling my sides. I ran into my room and somehow managed to trip over my old combat boots, sending me flying onto my bed. I landed face down on my pillow. Lucian jumped onto the bed next to me and continued to tickle my sides.

I pulled my face out of the pillow, rolled over, and looked at him. I started crying a little from the laughing. “Lucian, stop!” I begged.

He only smiled more. “Make me,” he teased.

“I’ll do anything to make you stop,” I said, not thinking before I spoke. Crap. He could take that the wrong way, after all, he is a guy.

He raised his eyebrows. “Anything?” he asked.

“Not that. Almost anything,” I corrected, still laughing.

Suddenly he stopped tickling me. Then he leaned in really close to me and wiped the tears off my face. “What do you want?” I asked, trying to think about what he could possibly want from me.

“This,” he said simply. Then he leaned down and crushed his lips to mine.

Eep! My first kiss! With an amazingly hot guy! In my bedroom! While I’m home alone! Crap! This could end badly! All of my thoughts were like they were being shouted in my mind.

The room started spinning around me, and then I realized I had forgotten to breathe. I tried to pull away to take a breath, but Lucian had his hand on the back of my head, keeping me from pulling away. So instead I took a few shallow breaths through my nose. That’s when I felt his tongue run across my bottom lip. I knew what that meant, but it was our first kiss. Not going to let him make out with me for our first kiss. So pried his hand off the back of my head and pulled away.

I thought I heard him growl in frustration, but I was probably hearing things. “What?” he asked.

“That was my first kiss,” I said.

“Oh. I wouldn’t expect that from a girl as beautiful as you,” he said, obviously trying to flatter me.

“Mhm. So…I don’t want to make out the same day as my first kiss. Let’s save some firsts for another day,” I said.

“Okay. Oh, and I have something to ask you,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“Be my girlfriend?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said, smiling.

“First time not being single, too, isn’t it?” he said, an arrogant smile slipping onto his face.

“Is it that obvious?” I asked.

“Yes, it is. But it’s actually kind of cute,” he said.

I blushed.

“Well, I better head home, it’s getting late,” he said.

I looked at the clock. “It’s only eight. Stay for dinner. I’ll order some food, since we sort of set the hot dogs on fire.”

“Okay. I’ll clean the mess in the oven up. You can call for the food. Order whatever for me,” he said.

I picked up the phone, but then a vision hit me. I’ve had visions on and off throughout my life, and they always foretold events that would come to pass. That’s why this one freaked me out so much. How could it ever happen?