The Lovely Predator

" Serenity, wake up. School is in thirty minutes and you're not even out of bed!" Madison's annoying voice rang in my ears.

I groaned, " Ugh.. Five more minutes," I say, rolling over on my stomach and sliding my arms under my warm pillow.

" You've been saying that over an hour! You didn't brush your teeth, you didn't shower, you didn't even change into your pajamas last night!"

" Then all I have to do is brush my teeth then," I say, my voice muffled by my pillow. I feel her weight at the end of my bed and she pats my legs gently like my mom always did.

" Well, you're gonna need a good shower to get rid of that muck in your hair. What's wrong with you? You were crying yesterday and now you don't want to wake up? You're usually the first one to wake up," she says in a calm tone.

" I don't feel well today, I just want to stay home."

" Did you come up with something?"

" Fever, I guess."

She gets up and walks over to me, then she forces my face up and touches my forehead with a cool palm. " Huh. You're burning up, I guess you can stay home today. But if Mason and I come home and you dancing to Bob Seger in your underwear, we're forcing you to go to summer school."

I just groaned and slammed my head back on my pillow. " Don't worry."

" And if we come home and see you dancing on a guy in your underwear, I'll murder both of you. Love you, Sis," then she kisses my head and walks out my room. What a lovely psychotic sister I have.

Speaking about psychos, I guess I should give that voice-mail a listen. I sit up and look around my bed for my phone. Nope, nowhere in sight. I check the floor. There you are! I look at it and see I just have the voice-mail. Yeah, I need more friends.

Ren! I have big news to tell you! It's about Hayden! Please please pleeaase call me back. No, I'll tell you at school tomorrow!

Too bad, my friend. I'm not going.

Well, since I have nothing better to do at this time, I guess I'll just dress into my pajamas, brush my teeth and go back to sleep. Once I walk into my bathroom I look in the mirror and see that my make-up is smudged and my hair is a monster containing little flakes from my hairspray and mousse. Yep, a shower would be great.

After I accomplished everything I planned on doing before I went back to bed, I check my phone and see that I got a text from Mabel. Yes, Mabel, shocking right?

Mabel: Madison sed u hav a fever :[ I hope u get well soon enough tgt prom :D

I hope not. I connect my charger to my phone and place it on the nightstand. Then I lay back in bed and get in my warm covers and drift off to sleep once again.

I wake up and lift my head off the table. I look around and observe my surroundings. Sertino's? It's completely empty, and nobody's behind the cash register. I look out the window and the sky is grey. No sign of sunlight and no pedestrians in the streets. It's not even raining. I don't feel a presence. Everything is just... dead and silent. I get up and walk over to the cash register.

" Hello?" I shout, leaning over the counter to search the little kitchen. Nope, nobody back there.

My heart starts beating fast and gets audible. I suddenly hear the doors bell ring and turn around. Hayden is walking in with his car-keys and wallet in hand.

" Hayden? What are you doing here?" I ask, turning to him. I felt glad when my eyes landed upon him. It's as if he was glowing.

He stops a few feet into the cafè and stares at me with a shocked expression, which turns into a friendly smile, as if he was glad to see me too. " Same goes for you."

" I- I think I fell asleep here."

" Well, I wanted to get something to eat, but I guess it's closed. I don't see anyone around."

" Yeah," great, I didn't have anything else to say.

" Well, I'll catch ya later then," he says as he turns to walk out the door.

" Hayden wait!" I exclaim. He turns back around. His beautiful hazel-grey making me melt whenever they look into mine. " I don't want to be here alone."

He chuckles and says " Then I'll stay here with you," he then walks over to the booth where I woke up from and makes a gesture towards the seat in front of him. I walk over and slide into the booth. I can feel the warmth of his body radiating off of him. It was really comforting

" So. . . What do you want to talk about?" He asks, crossing his arms on the table and placing his head on them, causing a few strands of his black hair to cover some of his face. The way he looked up at me made him look completely innocent. I just wanted to go over, hug him and never let him go.

" I dunno. Life? Prom?"

" How about on why you didn't come to school?"

" Huh?"

" Why didn't you come?" He asks, the volume of his voice lowered and he moved his gaze to the window.

" I'm not sure. I don't have a fever, I just. . . I felt sick, but I don't know what it was. Every time I thought about you, I guess. My stomach would feel queasy and I just wanted to crawl in a hole whenever you crossed my mind."

" Why's that?" He asks, not removing his gaze from the window.

I also look out the window as I think about the reasons why. Luckily, he was patient. We just sat there silently as I processed my thoughts. " I guess. . . I have feelings for you, or something," once that came out my mouth, I felt cold. I was trying to stop the shivers that embarked from my belly. I forced myself to look anywhere but in front of me.

He turns to me. " Look at me."

I do. His stunning eyes were full of content and he wore a lighthearted smile. Then he uncrosses his arms and stretches them towards me with palms up. I take it as a sign of putting mine on his and so I do. His warm, soft hands bring waves of warmth through my body. " Maybe even love you."

" You think so?" He asks as his thumbs make little circles on the top of my hands.

" What do you mean?"

" What if it's lust? My looks, my presence. You hardly know who or what I am. You don't know what I'm capable of doing, you don't know anything about me," his soft voice get louder and aggressive. His hands are now squeezing mine, sending shocks of pain.

" Hayden you're hurting me," I say, trying to pull my hands away.

" You're only hurting yourself," he says, leaning over the table making our faces come closer.

" Well, what if I want to?" I shout back with almost as much force as his voice.

He lets go of my hands and sits back, crossing his arms over his chest. " Can you at least build the strength to hate me?"

" Why would I want to do that?"

He doesn't answer. He just sighs, slides out the booth and walks out the cafè. Leaving me all alone in here with so many questions. I just sit there in the silence of the cafè, looking at my hands. Then I hear the doorbell ring as he exits. I watch him walking to his car. I start to breathe faster since I was suffocating. My eyes begin to moisten and burn.

" No, please, Hayden, no. Please! Hayden, don't leave me! Hayden!!" My screech was piercing through the silence of the cafè. I couldn't move from the booth. I kept slamming my fists into the glass window, but it didn't make a sound.

I wake up with my chest heaving up and down. My breath is coming in short and my face is running with sweat. Both of my hands were numb, since I fell asleep on them. I guess I really was hurting myself.

I glance at my clock and see it's 10 in the morning. My mind want's to sleep more, but I think it's best if I don't.

No matter how hard I tried to stay awake, I still fell asleep. Luckily, it wasn't a deep sleep; so I didn't dream at all. Downstairs I hear Mason's voice muffled by the walls. I glance at my clock and notice that I overslept.

" Hey guys," I say as I yawn. Madison is sitting on a stool, picking at a bowl of grapes as Mason drinks a glass of orange juice.

" I see you just got out of bed," Madison says with a smirk.

" Yeah, but I feel better," I told her.

" Mason's irritated, and you'll never guess why," her expression shows that she's trying hard not to laugh.

"Um... All I can think is that he failed a test? Can't think of anything else," I tell her, glancing at him with a confused expression as he angrily gulps his juice.

" No," he grumbles as he shoots Madison lasers when she starts to laugh.

" Oh," I say quietly. I'm totally confused.

" It's just a rumor and Hayden only said 'maybe' when I asked, but I heard he already slept with six girls!" Mason exclaims, causing Madison to laugh even harder. Why does she find this so funny?

" So? What about it?" I ask, feeling sick to my stomach once again.

" He even had a threesome with Monica and Layla!"

" Uh.. Thanks for the info, but I should care why?"

" Monica's my ex! I slept with her once and we broke up when I asked for one. . ." Madison almost falls off the stool when Mason mentions that.

" Wow, Mace, real gentleman-ish of you," I say sarcastically as I cross my arms and give him a soft smile.

" I don't know about you, but I care! I only had sex twice-"

" T- M- I!" Madison yells. Then she gets off the stool and begins to walk out the kitchen.

" I mean, I'm in the basketball team and I'm attractive, right?"

I just sigh and begin to walk away as well; leaving Mason and the remains of his wretched dignity in the silence of the kitchen.

Mason's tantrum from earlier took an unfortunate turn of events when Hayden walked through our front door. He acted as if nothing ever happened. I expected Hayden being greeted by a flying chair thrown by Mason. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, Mason opens the door and does the usual greeting; an earthy hug, some weird dude handshake and invites Hayden inside.

" Hey, Serenity," Hayden says.

I turn my head away from my television and smile at him. I begin to blush since I unexpectedly made contact with his eyes. I think he notices, because he knowingly smirks at me.

" Hi Hayden!" Madison runs in out of nowhere and wraps her arms around his neck.

" Oh, h-hey Madison, what's up?" He asks in a nervous tone.

" Nothing," she replies with a flirtatious smile.

Hayden gently removes her arms and takes a step back.

" Well, let's go play Black- Ops. I heard there are new maps." Mason says, clearing up the awkwardness in the air.

" Okay, nice! See you around Serenity."

Whoa... He just mentioned me. What about Madison?

" Did I come on too strong?" She asks me.

" Ya think?"