Here With You

“Come on Saph! Everyone else is waiting on us! Open up please.” Matt’s voice drifted in as he knocked on my bedroom door again.

“How about you go change into those jeans and that tee shirt that you were going to wear?” I called back.

“What are you talking about?”

“I changed my mind about the dress. I’m changing.”
“What? Why?”

“I’m not a dress type of girl. Remember?”

“Oh come on! It looked great! Please come out?”

“Nope. I’m going to change into the stupid skirt that I got the day the girls dragged me shopping.”

“Sapphire either you open this door, or I’m opening it and coming in.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“You aren’t heavy. I can pick you up remember?”

“What if I’m changing?”

“Why would that bother me?” I thought I could hear a smile on Matt’s face. Yes I said hear, and I’m not kidding.

“Don’t you even think about it.”

“Why not?”

“Matt!” But that is when the door opened and we both stared at each other in shock. I mean Matt always looked amazingly gorgeous, but I never thought the word handsome. It was too fancy. But that is how he looked as he stood in front of me wearing a tux.

“Saph, you looked beautiful.”

“You look pretty damn good yourself.” He laughed and came over, gently pushing a lose strand of hair behind my ear before kissing me.

“So are you ready?”

“Yeah I guess. Let’s go get it over with.” I grabbed his hand and we headed for the living room. Everyone was already there.

“Well finally!” Mary exclaimed.

“Take you long enough?” Lilly added.

“I’ll be damned! She is wearing a dress!” Dani chipped in with a laugh.

“She is!” I heard from Lola and Rave.
“She said she was.” Victoria reminded them.

“Okay, okay! Can we go now?” Sarah asked standing up. My mom had already gotten pictures of everyone else, so I quickly tugged on Matt so we could leave before she turned on me. But I was too late.

“Sapphire, Matt, smile!” We turned and smiled before the flash went off. Several times.

“Mom can we go now? Please?” I almost begged.

“Sweetie here at Star-view there is more like two proms than one. This is a special night for a senior here. I have to document it.”

“Which reminds me! I have something for you.” Matt interrupted before grabbing something from the table.

“Matt please tell me that you didn’t.” I began even though I knew he did.

“Does it look like I did? Dress or wrist?”

“Wrist, please.” I lifted my right wrist and he slid the corsage on. “Thank you.” I had to admit, he had gotten a nice one.

“Well I’ll let you two go now.” My mom said before snapping one more picture.

“See you later.”

“You look nervous.” Matt whispered into my ear as we walked with our friends toward the ballroom.

“I am. I know what is going to probably happen tonight Matt. And I still don’t know why I know or how I am supposed to stop it.” I confessed in a whispered sigh. Matt gently grabbed my arm to stop me from walking forward about more.

“Saph, you aren’t alone in all of this. I want you to know that. No matter what you need me for, I’ll be there. I’ll even be there when you don’t want me. Remember that okay?”

“Okay I will. But you remember something too. I’ll always want you there.”

“You two! Hello! Walk!” Sarah yelled looking back at them. I rolled my eyes and started walking again, with Matt at my side. Once we reached the ballroom I was shocked.

“So tonight really is big deal huh?” I asked looking at Matt who nodded with a shrug. I knew that she would be showing up soon, and I knew what would happen when she did. Matt knew exactly what I was thinking about and tried his best to distract me. And he succeeded for a while. Until the dream became to come to live before my own eyes.

The doors opened and the Professor from the dream walking in with the girl who I already knew was named Medea. She looked just how I’d saw her before. “Everyone this is Medea, our new student! She has just moved here from Miami and I expect that each of you will treat her in a way that welcomes her.” The Professor stated loud and clear.

“Hello everyone.” The girl said in a voice disguised in a honey-sweet tone of voice. I could hear through it just as I had been able to when I heard it in the dream. So this was the girl who was going to try and do whatever evil it was.

Matt and I, along with everyone else, had tried our best to figure out the hidden meaning of what had been said in the dream. But we hadn’t figured much out. Mostly we only knew what we’d figured out the day after it happened.

“Can you see the bad in her?” Matt asked in a whisper. We knew there wasn’t anytime to waste.

“I’m trying. I can’t.

“You’ll be able to when it’s time.” He kissed me reassuringly on my cheek and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. That is when I stopped Heidi walking through the crowd and towards us.

“Your admirer is coming over.” I warned with a quiet laugh, even though I knew if she did anything drastic around Matt to get close to him I’d lose it. But as frustrated as I was that I couldn’t see exactly how bad Medea was I honestly think it would feel good to hurt her a bit.

“Hi Matt.” She smiled at him when she reached us. Matt glared at her.

“What do you want?” He repeated like he did every time she came up to him.

“You.” She answered bluntly this time moving closer to him and placing her hands on his sides. I could feel that very anger coming up and I smiled evilly as I moved slightly away from Matt. “And apparently your girlfriend doesn’t care.”

“Do not touch me Heidi.” Matt almost snarled.

“Oh I care. I’m moving away so I don’t hurt Matt.” I growled.

“I’m not scared of you Sapphire. We all know he will pick me.” She finally removed her hands from him and looked at me.

“If I was you I wouldn’t bet on it. And you should be scared of me.” That is when she slapped me across the face.

“Don’t touch her!” This time Matt snarled.

“No, let her.” I stated amused. I allowed the anger to take it’s reaction and I felt the red glow around me.

“That can’t hurt me.” She laughed and I smiled. She lifted her hand to slap me again, probably because she didn’t know how to throw a punch, and the second her hand touched the mist she howled in pain. “You burned me!”

“I didn’t burn you. You slapped me. Therefore you burnt yourself.” I moved closer and I knew she could feel the heat radiating off me and the mist because she backed away. I toned it down so she wouldn’t get third degree burns when I made my next move.

I’d learned a little how to control the fire when I was angry. I had to add a certain amount of water to tone the heat down. But I couldn’t make it go away completely. I grabbed her arms and she winced in pain at the contact.

“Now listen to me. Matt is mine. Not yours. And newsflash he won’t ever be yours again. Do you feel the burning from my skin? This is low. You don’t want to feel high, that would kill you. So I suggest that you don’t continue to piss me off. Because one of these days I’ll snap and I will not be able to control the heat.” I let her go and she looked me in the face again.

“He will be mine again someday.” That was the breaking point. I lost the control and the mist became a deathly hot. She backed away and towards the wall. Where there would be no where to run to.

“Say that again.” I growled with a hiss following.

“Y-you heard me.”

“That was my breaking point.” Then I heard the one voice that could stop me.

“Saph, don’t! She isn’t worth it! I don’t want to lose you over her.” Matt’s words hit me. If I backed her into the wall and got close enough the heat would kill her. I had to stop. I thought of water and the mist cooled slightly.

“Heidi leave! Now!” Matt wasn’t telling her to stop like he normally did, this time it was urgent. But the urgency wasn’t for her safety. It was so I wouldn’t do something that I would end up paying for later. She ran off like a coward and I turned to face Matt.

“I wasn’t going to kill her you know?” I mumbled as a smile broke across his face and a laugh escaped his lips.
“Uh-huh. Sure you weren’t. Now can you please cool off so I can touch you without getting third degree burns, or you burning my skin off?”

“I’ll try.” I closed my eyes and let changed the element to water. I felt wet after the heat was gone and a little cold. I warmed myself with a warm breeze and then opened my eyes. The last of the mist was disappearing.

“Thank you.” His arms wrapped around me and I realized how I must have looked to everyone else.

“How bad was it this time?” I asked him as I came to my senses.

“Bad. I thought you were going to burn her alive Saph.”

“I though about it?”

“It’s your vampire side.”

“It’s the bond. I can sense that she wants to hurt you.”

We stayed for a few hours before leaving. It was when we were leaving that it happened. Medea was outside and I got that same feeling I had the day I’d saw the bad in Heidi. Then she changed. But it wasn’t like Heidi, who just had emptiness in spots to show the bad, this one only had one spot of white. She was completely black except for that small spot. A scary shade of black that wasn’t my favorite color. I looked away quickly.

“Does everyone wanna go to the beach?” Brian suggested with everyone agreed.

“Uh I’ll pass. I’m too tired. You guys have fun though.” I answered quickly.

“Yeah me too.” Matt agreed. I knew he was lying. He knew something was up. So we told everyone goodbye and began walking back to the dorm houses. We walked in silence until we got there and I sat down on the porch swing. “Saph what happened?” Matt asked in alarm as I put my head in my hands.

“I saw the bad in her Matt, when we were leaving.”

“How bad was it?”

“One spot of good. That’s how bad.” I looked up at him as my eyes filled with tears involuntarily. “And I’m scared.” Matt sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around me.

“Don’t worry Saph. It will be okay.” Then he lifted my head and kissed me the way he had the day he’d found out about the dress. And I had the same reaction as last time.