A Bloodie Rose Chapter Fifteen

Thanks to all you and all your positive feed back, especially Ap, Marie 22, Zero's New Love, Imani and Bina
Love, Little Shrimpy

Chapter Fifteen

"What are we doing?" I asked.
"It’s not a fire from… Burning popcorn or anything."
"What is it from, then?" I asked.
"Your locker," he replied.
"What?" I questioned, confused.
"Jason set stuff inside your locker on fire and then it burned everything," Candace explained.
I froze. This was going too far. Jason could have hurt someone that wasn’t me and it would be my fault.

Zero put his hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him. "I know what you’re thinking-Jason has no intention of hurting anyone who wouldn’t have an effect on me-which would basically be everyone besides you and my family."
"What if he accidentally hurt someone or…" I started.
"He’s not that careless-trust me, I’ve known him for years," he interrupted.
I watched as the smoke grew bigger, thicker, and blacker. I could smell the burning embers of the flames.
"Come on, we better get out of here," Zero said.
"B-but I…" I started, but he was already tugging me into the Mercedes.

He opened the passenger door for me and I quickly got in. He got into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the parking lot with many other cars following us. I assumed every student had been instructed to leave the building.
"Why does stuff happen a lot to keep me out of school now?"
"Just his failed attempts to…" He couldn’t finish the sentence.
"Oh…"
Just then, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and flipped it open.
Where r u? it read.
I checked the name of who sent it-Mia.
"Who is it?" Zero asked, nervous it was Jason.
"Mia just texted me-relax."
He sighed. "What does it say?"

"Snoopy, much?" I asked, with humor.
He wasn’t amused. In fact he just sent a bone-chilling glare my way.
"Okay, okay, jeez. It says ‘Where are you?’" I quoted.
"Tell her you went home-don’t say you’re with me."
"Why?" I asked as I replied to the text.
I went home I typed.
"For all we know Jason could have taken her phone and is using it to contact you-I’m just taking precautions. I don’t want you to get hurt."
I bit my lip to hide a smile. He was really thinking about me and my safety all the time. In a way I felt bad, he probably didn’t have many friends here since he was always with me. It was at that moment I decided to help him make some friends. He might like Pat Varkatzas-I haven’t talked to him in a while, maybe it was time to strike up a conversation with him.

"What are you thinking about? You seem like you’re scheming something," Zero said, glancing from me to the road repeatedly.
"How did you know?" I asked, surprised.
"I was only kidding," he said.
"Oh… Uh, so was I," I said, trying to sound convincing. It didn’t work. It sounded like a question.
"What were you scheming now, sweetheart?" he asked. No matter how many times he called me sweetheart-I don’t think the feeling I got would ever disappear-nor would I want it to anyway.
"Oh, you’ll find out Monday," I said, pretending to be distracted by some stray squirrels scampering up the trunk of an old oak tree.
He shook his head. "You and your schemes… Always getting you into trouble…"
"Mhm…"
He sighed.

My cell vibrated again. I flipped it open and it was another text from Mia.
Oh… We got worried. R u ok?
Yeah I replied and pressed send.
"Who texted you this time?"
"Mia again. She asked me if I was okay and I said yeah… Will you calm down, Mr. Bodyguard?"
He almost smiled.
The Mercedes stopped at the end of his medium-length driveway. In a quick moment he was standing in front of me opening my door. He took his Manson sweatshirt off and put the hood over my head and let the back hang down behind me.
"Um…?" I said, confused.
"I’m trying to conceal your smell with mine-and your hair has the strongest scent."
"Oh…"

I put my arms through the sleeves of the sweatshirt and zipped the front of it up. He extended his hand to me and pulled me out of the car, wrapping his arm around my waist and guiding me to his backyard and onto the light brown, wooden porch. He opened the glass door and I stepped inside. He followed, shutting the door behind him.
He threw himself on the black leather couch, pulling me with him. He ending up lying on his back, stretched across the seat cushions, with me on top of him. I could feel heat boiling in my cheeks and my heart beating a million times a second. His eyes were closed and a smile formed on his perfectly flawless lips.
"Ah, your heartbeat is beating so fast… Is my very presence enough to make you excited?" he said, playfully, twirling my hair in his fingers.
I felt the beats quicken even more than before as Zero chuckled, his eyes still closed. His arms encircled me and pulled me close. I could smell his sweet cologne and I could feel the warmth of his skin against mine.

"Why do you always close your eyes?" I asked.
"Why do you think I do?"
"I don’t know; that’s why I’m asking."
He almost smiled. "Do you want to see why?"
"Yes," I replied.
He slowly opened his eyes and my eyes opened wider at what I saw. His eyes were blood-red again. I almost gasped, but bit my lip to keep me from doing so.
"Oh…" was all I could say.
"I just don’t want to scare you… Sort of how I did before in the attic…" he trailed off.
"You wouldn’t," and before he could protest that he did, I added, "You wouldn’t scare me again," I emphasized.
He released me from his arms and folded them under his head.

We were silent for a few moments when he began to sit up as he said, "Come on, Candi and Luke are home. Let’s go upstairs."
Then I heard the garage doors open.
He stood up with me and we walked up the stairs and down the hall.
We lied down in his bunk bed and I curled up against his chest. I listened to his light breathing.
"I love you," I said, muffled against his shirt.
"Mmmm," he said, inhaling my scent, "I know."
He propped himself up on his arm and whispered, "I’ll be right back. Go ahead and read or something to keep yourself out of trouble."
"Okay," I said.
He jumped down from the top bunk and down to the floor. He quietly left the room and shut the door behind him.

I climbed down the ladder and to the ground. Now was my time to investigate his room. It might be the only time I had to do so.
I looked up at a sleek, black bookshelf. I pulled out a few random hard covers. The last one I pulled out was a black notebook with a stenciled, red and orange fire. I flipped it open to the first page and a white piece of paper slid from the book. I picked it up off the ground and opened it up. It appeared to be a letter written to Zero. In the top right corner there was a date-it was written yesterday. It read:
Zero,
Veronica is coming soon. Be prepared and keep Rosetta out of her way. Be very careful, son. We love you and we’d never forgive ourselves if she hurt you or Rosetta.
Then, there was a stamp below the short paragraph that read:
Adelaide and Elliot Sterling
Zero’s voice brought me out of my trance of reading.
"What are you looking at?" he asked.

The letter slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor as I jumped out of surprise.
He walked over, swiftly and quickly, and picked up the letter. He glanced at it once, quickly, and then looked up at me.
"Why is she coming here?" I asked.
"How did you find this?"
"You said to read or something while you were gone, so I did and I found the letter."
He sighed. "I also said to stay out of trouble," he mumbled.
"Why didn’t you tell me?" I asked, ignoring his comment.
"I was afraid you’d be mad."
"I’m even madder that you didn’t tell me."
"I was going to," he said.
"You should have said something as soon as you knew!"
"I’m sorry," he said, looking soulfully into my eyes.
"Wh-why is she even coming here," I asked, slightly afraid of the answer.
"I-I, I, uh, think it’s because mad about me, you know, not marrying her…"he said, awkwardly.

"I’ll take care of her for you… If you want," I said, grinning and cracking my knuckles.
He chuckled. "No, that’s all right, sweetheart-I can handle her myself."
Again with the sweetheart… I love it.
"Well, if you change your mind…" I joked.
He smiled.
"Do you know when she’s going to be here?" I asked.
"Not really…"
"Do you have any idea?"
"Within a month..." he said, unsure, and sounding as if he was asking a question.
"Ugh…"
"Sorry… Gianna saw her coming here in her sight of the future, but she still hasn’t been able to figure out the date yet," he explained.
I didn’t say anything. I felt a heavy pang of jealousy, though I knew Zero didn’t love Veronica. She loved him and that was enough to turn him away from me. She seemed to determined to have Zero… I needed to do something… Anything to assure myself that he would always be with me.

What should I do?
"What are you thinking about?" Zero asked.
"Nothing," I replied.
"Hm… Always keeping secrets…"
"Yup, that’s me," I said, smiling.
He chuckled.
He stared at me for a long moment.
"What?" I asked self-consciously.
He blinked rapidly. "Huh?" he asked, dazed.
"You were staring at me…"
"Oh, I just dazed off thinking about something…" he said.
"What was it?"
He didn’t answer.
That got me the angriest-when I was ignored, or someone pretended to ignore me. It was the most aggravating thing for me and he probably knew that.

"Zero," I said.
He sat underneath the bed-at the desk. He opened the sleek, black laptop and pressed the power button.
"Will you stop ignoring me?" I whined.
He laughed light and airy. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes, very badly."
"Well, I was trying to plan what I was going to do when… Veronica gets here," he said.
He typed in a password on the laptop and then the desktop opened. His background picture was a band concert photo. It was too blurry for me to figure out what band it was.
"Who’s on your background?" I asked.
"Oh, it’s Slipknot."
"Ah…"

He clicked on the Internet icon and opened AOL mail. Then, went the annoying voice-"You have mail." The voice that always annoyed the heck out of everyone.
He opened a message from an unnamed sender. "Hm…"
It read,
I’m coming, Zero. NO one leaves me. You’ll pay for it and so will that brat you picked over me. I’m better than her and you know it. Leave me a cozy spot in your bed. ^_^
Love, Veronica
An urge of jealousy ran through me. I bit my lip so hard it almost bled to keep me from firing off and freaking out over it. I clenched my fists so tight they became numb after a few seconds.
"Why can’t she just… Get out of my life?" he said.
"Because, who wouldn’t want you? You’re, amazing," I said, a deep blush coloring my cheeks.

His eyes widened slightly and he blushed, deeply, out of embarrassment.
"Uh, um…"
He looked uncomfortably around the room.
"Still embarrassed by complements?"
"So are you," he replied.
I shrugged.
He stood up and held my head in his hands and kissed me passionately and then the kiss grew softer.
I pulled away. He looked at me with hurtful eyes.
"Why can’t I remember her from France?" I asked.

"I don’t know. I thought out of everyone-you would remember her the most vividly."
"The person I remember the most is you, then my mother, then my sister, then Lukas, and then Candace…"
"What about your dad?"
"I don’t remember him either," I said.
"Hm… That’s weird."
"Why?"
"W-well, because he’s your father-I mean he is related to you through blood and you remember me and Lukas-you know, blood is thicker than water," he said.
"Yeah, I guess it is weird…" I said, "Maybe if I saw him as my father it might spark a memory."
"Maybe…" he replied.