Forever And Never

When Ramsey came home the next evening from his day of working at Branch Wood, I was already standing silently in the bathroom preparing mentally and physically to ask Ramsey for something that had been on my mind for days. I'd showered and done my makeup, thinking it couldn't do any harm to look nice, and I'd dressed in a white shirt Ramsey had brought from my room along with a pair of blue jeans also taken that night. I'd fixed my hair over and over again, his possible responses to my request making me nervous while I waited, but once I was certain he was seated at the table and that I had the chance to talk to him, I opened the door to the bathroom and stepped into the hallway, walking until I was standing at the table and looking down at him.
After a second of silence he looked up from his newspaper he'd laid out on the table before him and his blue eyes met mine, a look of curiosity coming over his face when all he saw was me smiling down at him. "Good evening..." He said awkwardly, taking his hand away from the edge of the page he was about to turn to grab his coffee cup resting on the table right of him, not taking his eyes from me as he took a drink from it.
"Hi," I answered with a smile as I stood there, mentally persuading myself to speak up and ask him, though all I did was stand there and look down at him with an strange smile. After a minute or so, Ramsey looked back down to his paper with a small laugh and continued reading, choosing to ignore me and move on with what he was doing. After standing there a while longer and watching him, I stepped away from the table and past him into the kitchen to get a glass of water, then walked back quickly and sat in the chair to his left, taking sips from the cup wordlessly.
After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Ramsey finally looked up once again from the words he was reading and his eyes fell on me, a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright?" He asked, and I looked up from my glass curiously and stalled answering for a few seconds. Finally, I opened my mouth and spoke.
"What date is today?" He looked away for a second, not expecting my reply to be a question of a completely different topic, and after giving me another weird look he looked down at his paper and flipped the pages closed lightly, glancing at the front where the date was printed before returning to the page he was one saying, "December 23rd..."
I nodded with a weak smile and sat back in my chair, drinking more of my water as I turned my eyes from Ramsey and glanced around the room. His face looked confused, but once he'd answered my question he went back to reading again and taking sips from his own drink. After sitting a little longer I stood once again and walked to the kitchen to refill my glass, using it as an excuse to build up my confidence and to quietly observe him from behind while he read his newspaper silently.
Once the glass was full once again, I took a drink from it in my hands slowly as I leaned against the counter, nonchalantly contemplating how to approach Ramsey in a way that would ensure me getting what I wanted. The way I would have normally done it was to confront him head on and blurt out my question, most likely resulting in him telling me no. I'd had days to think this through and realized that that method wouldn't work with Ramsey and I required a more structured plan if I expected the results I wanted.
He would be finished with his paper soon enough, finishing the last of the articles he was interested in, and then he would fold it up quietly and go take a shower, then he would prepare for bed and my chance to say anything would pass by without me ever even raising my voice to talk. It would mean that I'd chickened out, and I wouldn't allow that despite the fear I was having at what his response to my question would be.
I set my glass on the counter behind me and turned back around quickly, taking an unneeded breath as I stood in place and gave myself a lastminute motivational speech. Due to the way he was sitting, his back was directly facing me as he looked right to his paper spread out on the table, and I looked at him as I convinced myself a final time that this was a good idea then finally, I walked forward until I was standing behind him a few inches from his back. I hesitated for a split second, then leaned down slightly and wrapped my arms loosely around his neck, resting my head on his right shoulder to where our faces were touching.
His back straightened immediately and, although I'm sure he knew I'd been standing behind him, he hadn't expected me to put my arms around him and be so close. He looked away from his newspaper and stared straight ahead in front of him, his face harboring hardly any emotion. Once we had been in silence for a few seconds, I tilted my head in attempt to look at his face as I spoke and finally voiced my question in a small, timid voice: "Ramsey... Can I contact my family?"
Though maybe not in the way I'd executed it, I could tell that he'd been waiting for the day to come when I would request to speak with my family. The very first night I'd woken up from my transformation he'd promised that he would schedule phone calls so that I could keep in touch with my mom and brother and let them know that I was alright. Now that I knew that it was only two days until Christmas, I wanted more than even to be able to hear their voices and tell them that I was okay.
Ramsey swallowed hard uncomfortably and I listened as he took in a slow breath of air, then after a few more moments of steady quiet he replied, "Why don't you just forget about them?" His words were void of any emotion, though his eyes looked sad as he looked forward away from me. "It's better to just forget; they'll just end up dying one day and causing you pain. It's better to just leave them behind and forget about your mortal life. Just like August, we found out that he lived in a town about sixty miles from here but we put him here so he would forget his old life. We could do the same with you, forgetting about your life and your family."
I shook my head lightly and with a somber smile answered, "I can't do that Ramsey... they're my family." I shifted my arms around him slightly and rested my face against his more, sad that he would suggest such a thing when talking about my mother and brother. I didn't want to ostracize them from my life if I didn't have to, the ability to speak with them was still possible.
"They'll all just die eventually," He insisted in a whispered voice, his face changing to show his true feelings of somber despair. I realized he was afraid to see me hurt by the eventual passing of all the humans that I'd left behind when I'd become a vampire, and while I understood him, it didn't stop me from wanting to speak to them.
"Then I don't have much time, do I? I'd better spend it wisely." I pulled my face from his so that I could offer him a cheerful smile, which he returned with a weak grin though his face was still showed that felt troubled. I understood that he wanted to protect me from the pain of having those around me die, but I knew the danger I was putting myself in, and the risk I was taking to speak to them. Ramsey's attempt to pull me from them made sense, but I realized that instead of separating myself from them because I wasn't the same as them anymore, shouldn't I be spending more time with them before I have to leave once they realize that I'm not aging and start asking questions?
"Alright..." Ramsey whispered hoarsely, "Okay I'll arrange it. I'll talk to Branch Wood and get a phone with an untraceable number, and you can have twenty minutes with them." He looked to me and smiled again with a more happy expression, then took my hand still around his neck and kissed it lightly.
I grinned excitedly saying, "Thank you, Ramsey!" and kissed him on the cheek happily before released him and pulled back to celebrate my victory. Despite the fact that Ramsey was intent on keeping a strong hold on me to prevent anything from hurting me, I'd managed to convince him to allow me a phone call to my family and a chance to hear their voices once again for Christmas.