If Only

The only thing you'll get is this curse on your lips Fall Out Boy

-

-Brendon-

"Bill," I snapped at him. "I can't believe you did that to her!"

William rolled his eyes. "It was for her own good."

"Her own good? Will, using-"

"I don't want to hear it Brendon," William interrupted.

"Did you even think about what you did?" I asked.

"Yes," William stated. "She trusts us now."

"Trusts us? Bill! She only trusts you. Only you. What's going to happen when she goes to Pete's, huh?"

"What are you saying," he asked.

"I'm saying," I gritted me teeth, "that if she only trusts you, how's our plan gunna work with Pete. She'll barely even talk to me, let alone four guys she doesn't even know."

William tapped his fingers on the table. "It wasn't supposed to be that strong."

"You saw her this morning. She almost passed out!" I said. When he didn't answer, I added, "fix it, Bill. Fix. Her."

William smiled then. "You like her."

I wouldn't meet his eyes. "Stop-"

"Brendon, Brendon," Will clicked his tongue. "You have no clue what you're getting yourself into."

-

-Leah-

I had another dream that night.

This time when William kissed me, I kissed him back.

-

It was like a switch went off, and I was back to where I was before the dreams. Will was hardly there anymore, and I wanted to see him, I wanted to talk to him. But Brendon was there, always bright and cheery, all smiles and sparkling eyes.

"Toast okay?" he asked when I got up. At first he was weary, like he didn't really want to talk, but at the same time he was worried, and the latter got the better of him.

I smiled and nodded my head, and just like that he was back to normal.

"So, how are you feeling?" he asked, joining me at the kitchen table with toast. He smiled as he slid it across the wood surface, his eyes glowing.

"Better," I said. "My head still hurts a little, but it's nothing unbearable."

He smiled, "That's good, because the guys finished the rec room."

I grinned. "They set up the ping-ping table?"

"You're going down, Leah!" he laughed, and maybe if Brendon was always around I wouldn't mind missing William.

-

"Oh, Leah!" Butcher whined. "You were supposed to be good at this!"

I shot him a glare. "Yeah, but Brendon was supposed to be bad!"

"You're the only person in this whole house he's ever beat," Butcher laughed.

"Where did you guys play? Brendon made it like you didn't have a ping pong table before."

"We didn't," Butcher grinned. When I shot him a quizzical look he added," We used to go into the Walmart a couple towns over. It was open until one in the morning, so we just went and played."

"And no one kicked you out?" I asked.

"No one bothered us," he said. "Brendon used his mind control and we got away with it"

"Oh," I said. "I didn't know that."

"Nothing to worry about," Butcher dismissed. "It works better on the weak minded, people who don't know about us vampires. Plus, Brendon's not that good at it anyway, so we only got like two hours out of it."

"Alright, alright," Brendon interrupted, tapping his ping pong paddle on the table. "Best out of seven?" His eyes were sparkling, his hair was a mess, and he was a little sweaty, but he seemed not to care. And nobody else seemed to care either. Not Butcher, not the other guys in the room, and not me.

"Fine," I stated. "But..."

Brendon eyes lit up brighter. "But what?" he asked.

"We're playing cards later."

"Oh snap," Butcher said. "I'll have to get everyone for this then."

I smiled at him. "Yeah, it's about damn time I met everyone else."

-

When we ate lunch, I confronted Brendon about his mind control.

“What about it?” he asked.

“Well, I mean. I didn’t know you had the-the power, is all,” I said, glancing away from my soup to peak a look at him.

“I never use it, Leah,” he said. “And I’d never use it against you.”

“Does William have mind control?” I asked, because Brendon’s eyes were sincere and I believed he wouldn’t use it against me.

Brendon hesitated. “No, not that I know of.”

-

Once everyone who wanted to play was seated, Butcher started shuffling the Uno cards.

"Everyone know how to play?" Brendon asked.

Will stared at me from across the table and winked. I told myself my heart skipped a beat because Brendon nudged me with his shoulder, not because Will grinned wickedly. He motioned his head to Brendon, who was collecting his cards.

"We'll beat him," William mouthed.

I blushed back at him because Will, at the head of the table, was before Brendon. I was after Brendon, so I knew Will would want us to reverse and keep nailing Brendon with our Uno cards.

"Alright," I mouthed back, Brendon still oblivious.

"Yeah, I think we're good," Mike answered. Brendon introduced me to Carden before we sat down. He seemed nice.

“Then let’s play!” Brendon laughed.

-

"Brendon..." Will said flatly.

"What?" Brendon asked, glancing at Will, then at pile of cards in the middle of the table. "Oh, Butcher your turn."

"Brendon," Will chimed in again.

"What?" Brendon asked, trying to stare intimidatingly at Will.

"Uno," Bill smiled.

Brendon threw his head back. "Are you kidding me? That's the third time in a row!" Brendon sighed, glaring at everyone around the table. "I hate you all."

Brendon ended up losing all eight rounds of Uno, and went off to pout when we cleaned up.

“Hey, Leah,” William said, grabbing my arm as I was sorting cards. “You mind going on a walk with me?”

-

The wind was cold against my skin, and my breath fogged in front of my face. The park we were walking through was silent and empty, with the only light coming from the moon. William seemed to know where we were going as we weaved through trees and strayed from the dirt path.

“You like it at the manor?” he asked as we strolled farther into the trees. His arm kept brushing mine, and we were only inches apart.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “It’s better than living with my brother.”

He glanced at me and smiled. “I’m glad. You and…you and Brendon seem to be getting along.”

I blushed. “Yeah, yeah I like Brendon.”

“Do you like me?” he asked, stopping and turning to me.

It wasn’t cold anymore, and his warm breath was puffing onto my face. I knew my cheeks and ears were red, but it was no longer from the cold. His hands were shaking as they rested on my hips, and he leaned in closer to me.

“Will, I-”

“Please say yes,” he interrupted. “Please. You trust me, right?”

“Yes I trust you, I have no reason not to.”

“And you like me, right?”

I looked straight into his eyes, which were glowing brightly. William was so close to me that I the warmth from his breath, the warm feeling on my cheeks was dulling because his cold hands were on my waist. He pushed his thumbs into my hips ever so lightly, and I shivered.

“Yeah, Will,” I breathed. “I like you.”

He leaned down and kissed my forehead, his cold lips brushing softly against my skin. “I need you to do something for me.”

“What?” I whispered.

“At the end of the park, all the way through the trees and by the street, Pete’s with his friends. They’re doing a weekly sweep, checking to make sure no vampires are hiding out on their territory. We’re standing on the borderline, Leah.”

“Will,” I said, my voice shaking.

“Shh,” he said, and pushed his lips to mine.

The cold of his lips contrasted with the heat of mine. They were smooth and wet, and he used them to part mine open. I was getting lightheaded, and only standing because he was still holding my waist, still holding me up. He broke apart from me, but his face was only centimeters away from mine.

“I need you to go with them now.”

I shook my head, and kept blinking away tears. “I don’t want-I don’t want to go.”

“It’ll be okay,” he said in a hushed voice, and pressed his lips to mine again. “You can trust them, Leah. They’ll take care of you. Just go over there, and pretend you ran away from the manor. Pretend you’re scared, and worried that if you go home we’ll come and find you.”

“I am scared,” I said, pushing my face into his chest. I didn’t want him to see the tears roll of my cheeks.

He put a calming hand in my hair, while his other arm wrapped around me. “There’s no reason to be.”

“But I didn’t get to say goodbye to Brendon!” I cried.

“You’ll see him again, Leah,” he said, pulling us apart so I could look at him. “I won’t leave you there. I’ll come for you.”

“How long?” I asked.

He rubbed a thumb under my eye, wiping away a tear. “Four weeks,” he said, and kissed me again. “This isn’t goodbye, Leah. I promise.”