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Chapter Twenty Six
The next morning she knocked on the brothers’ door and Josh opened it with a genuine smile. There was something about him that she was drawn to, she felt at ease in his company and that smile seemed to say he felt the same.
"We're going car shopping," she told him. "For you."
"For us? No, you don't have to...
"Yes I do," she cut in.
"Actually my brother is plotting to get his car out of impound. He loves the thing, it's his baby."
"Where is it?"
"A lot in New York City. It's not registered to either of us so it was picked up as an abandoned vehicle."
"Oh. Well how can I help? Do you think I could get it?"
He smiled that dimpled smile again. "I guess with your unique ability that would certainly be a possibility. In fact I'm pretty sure my brother intended to recruit you."
She knew Austin would not like that plan. "Okay. Look, my guy uh, well he probably won't like the idea. So, I'm going to have to...okay how about this, I buy a car which I say is for you, put it in my name and then we can meet somewhere in a few days for operation “rescue Will's baby."
Josh laughed. "That would work."
"What would work?" Will walked out of the bathroom toweling off his hair. He had that sexy guy out of the shower look and Anna couldn't help but appreciate it, though she felt no attraction to him.
Anna told him the plan and he considered it and nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. I'm definitely getting the jealous boyfriend vibe, pretty sure we’re not winning him over anytime soon. So we’ll go hole up in a seedy hotel and call you in a few days, see what's up?"
"Actually I'll grab you guys a couple of pre-paid phones so we can keep in touch. Plus I'll give you some cash..."
He waved his hand, "Nah, we just gotta get back to the city, our things our stashed, we've got money."
"So you're too prideful to take my money, yet you have no problem using me to rescue your car? Which of these things do you think requires more effort and strain on my life? 'Cause Austin and I are going to have a fight about me going anywhere pertaining to you, or I'm going to go without telling him which means we'll have a fight later.....
He threw up his hands half smiling, "Hey, you don't have to, I can get it myself."
"Oh yeah, that was the point I was making." She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.
"We'll gladly accept your money Anna, we really appreciate it as well everything else you've done," Josh shot his brother a look.
"Sure thing," Will shrugged, "if your handin' out cash who am I to argue?"
There was a light knock and Austin and Jenna entered. "So, we ready?"
"Yeah."
"There's a dealership right down the road." Austin's demeanor had not improved. Usually he was a friendly guy, but as Will noted, he was not thawing towards them.
"Right, so let's go."
An hour later they said their goodbye's. Anna didn't hide the phone purchases from Austin and she could feel his disapproval making her wish she had. They needed to have a serious conversation about this.
She privately asked Jenna if she would put on her Ipod so she could talk to Austin on the ride home, and she didn't wait until they'd gotten far down the road before starting.
"You were a complete ass to them, just thought you should know."
Austin went on the defensive, "Hey, I can't help it if I'm cautious and protective, we don't know those guys, even if they are Seers or whatever. That doesn't make them saints."
"That's not what your problem was. If it was anyone but me involved you probably would've been friends by this morning."
"Hence the protective part."
"So you admit it?"
"Freely."
She stared at him, anger mounting. "You are not, and I repeat NOT my father. Or my husband last time I checked, so this possessive thing you're doing, I don't like it."
He glared at her. "Why is it that whenever you get irritated you aim right below the belt? This cruel hurtful person just springs right out of you."
Anna opened her mouth then shut it again. Was she being cruel? She looked over at him and bit her lip. His eyes were on the road but a muscle was ticking in his jaw indicating his distress.
She took a breath and let it slip through her lips slowly. Before they'd left to meet the McClaron’s she’d made a comment about them having to stop pretending everything was normal. If she boiled it all down, his negative reactions of the past couple days were probably stemming from that, from the fact that somewhere deep inside he was waiting for the inevitable heartbreak of her leaving him.
Her life was changing, had changed the minute she'd been turned into this....this thing. Yet she was still only nineteen years old and it would be some time before it became readily apparent that she was different. She pictured herself twenty years from now, still the exact same. Then she pictured Austin. A forty-year old man, though still undoubtedly handsome he would have gray throughout his hair and wrinkles around his eyes, and then how about twenty years from that? At sixty, no matter how well he maintained himself, he would be entering the winter years of his life. And she would still be...this. She could continue telling herself that she didn't know it to be true, but it was a lie. She felt different inside, all of the normal aches and pains that came with being human were absent, she felt the way she imagined she must have felt at six or seven with the added element of inexhaustible energy.
She turned and looked out the window, watching the scenery race by. Time was like that when you were human and there was a finite limit on life. At their age it wasn't something they thought about much, the years seeming to stretch out ahead of them endlessly, but she knew better. And she knew that Austin did too. She wished he had never felt so strongly for her. If only he’d been able to look at her as just a friend, then she could be in his life in the same capacity she would be in the girls' lives.
They spent the rest of the drive in silence. Jenna fell asleep listening to her music while she and Austin stayed lost in their own thoughts.
When they reached home the girls were waiting for them. They’d been apprised only briefly on what was transpiring and they were definitely interested in the details and the outcome.
Anna let Jenna fill them in and when she was finished they all looked at Anna for her input.
She smiled widely, “I performed a movie style jailbreak, I don't know what I can say except it was about time I put my superpowers into action!”
They laughed and chatted excitedly and Anna walked over to Austin wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her head against his chest for a moment then pulled back turning towards the girls. “I think we should plan another party, you know have an end of the year summer bash.”
“Oh yeah definitely!” Marina exclaimed.
“How about Saturday night?” Jess suggested.
“We should get fireworks,” Macey put in, “The Pennsylvania border is only an hour and a half away. We missed fourth of July this year,” she added.
“Yeah, we can drive up there tomorrow,” Jenna stated. The girls wandered out onto the porch and Anna hung back with Austin.
"So what brought that on?" Austin raised a brow.
"I don't know I just feel like we all need something....fun and distracting. You start classes in two weeks, you must want to have some fun before you hit the grind, right?" She cocked her head, "Or do you figure you'll be involved in all those 'girls gone wild' college parties....
He laughed and grabbed her wrists, pulling her to him. "Those won't start until I hit the university next year," he teased. He was completing a two year Associates for drafting at the local community college, then going on to a university for his architectural degree.
"Yeah, I hear those SUNY guys are off the hook," she poked him in the ribs. They continued bantering back and forth and she felt the tension ease between them.
**
The next day Anna made a secretive call to the McClaron's explaining that she couldn't get away until after the weekend to which they replied “no worries”. She spent the rest of the week in the company of the girls savoring every minute and of course she spent time with Austin. Their escapade with the McClaron’s had vastly diminished her fear of the world outside Olin Falls, so they resumed the dating they’d done before her trip to Europe.
She’d come to a concrete decision during the moments she spent alone. Sunday would be her last night at home for a long while. She was going on the road with the McClaron’s. Once the decision was made she pushed it aside not wanting to dwell on the idea of goodbye until she absolutely had to.
On Saturday the girls gathered at her house and spent the early afternoon setting things up for the party. There were six kids on the blacklist- the boys who'd been dogged by shadow men and started the fight at her last party. The fight was a good enough reason to be banned so no one questioned it and Anna crossed her fingers that A: they wouldn't crash it, and B: no one else would show up with one in tow. She’d only seen a few of the malevolent entities since she'd returned from London and still didn't know if they would sense the change in her. She really didn't want to end up going all Buffy the Demon slayer in her hometown.
She called her dad to apprise him of her plans and as usual his response was neutral. He was too preoccupied with the happenings in Third World Haiti to be overly concerned about some teenagers drinking beer. After their brief discourse she found herself wondering if his reaction might have been different had she said "Dad, in Europe I was kidnapped and turned into a vampire, and I believe my new role in life might be to hunt and slay demons." She shook her head, smiling a little. The best she could have hoped for is him returning home because he was concerned about her mental state.
Once the beach was set up she ushered the girls up to her room. Austin was working until five so she had a little time with them before things started. They all flopped onto her bed.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Jess gushed. “I love parties!"
Macey laughed and smacked Jess on the butt.
Anna smiled a little, but couldn't hold onto it. All week she'd persistently pushed thoughts of the future away but in the back of her mind she kept thinking This Is It.
"Uh oh, what's wrong with you?" Marina asked, cocking her head to the side.
She shook her head and bit her lip, trying to force back the Sweeping Tide of Change, as she'd dubbed the feelings that kept trying to erupt. "I was planning on waiting until tomorrow before I..." her voice broke off on a sudden sob and she struggled to keep it together.
"Anna! What's going on?" Jess scrambled across the bed and put her arms around her.
She sighed. "The real reason for the party is for us to have one last hoorah before our lives change. Tonight I plan on focusing most of my attention on Austin, making him feel special. I'm not sure if it's a good plan, maybe it's selfish and I'm just making things harder in the long run, but I want him to feel how I feel…" She made a face finding it hard to articulate. She tried again. "What I mean is that he's this amazing, wonderful guy who I adore, who deserves to be idolized, never mind appreciated, and I'm about..."she stuttered as the tears tried to come, "about to shatter his heart.." she started sobbing in earnest then, shudders wracking through her body as she bent over her knees. He had been there for her when she’d needed him and she was going to hurt him unmercifully in payment. He'd called her cruel, and he was so right.
"You're gonna break up with him?" Jess asked with a frown.
Anna couldn't stop crying to respond so it was fortunate that Jenna understood.
"She has no choice," she stated. "She's a vampire. For us this is not as much of a problem, but for a relationship? She might be immortal, do you guys understand what that means? Because I've been trying to wrap my mind around the idea and it isn't easy. But what I do get is that while we all age and eventually end up crippled old crones in rocking chairs, she will still look like she does right now."
There was a few beats of silence while the girls absorbed the things that Anna's own thoughts were more and more consumed by.
"Poor Austin," Jess said quietly, and that really said it all.
She got herself together and went to the mirror, Jess helping her fix the make-up she'd ruined with tears. "I'm going on the road with Will and Josh," she stated, still looking in the mirror.
There was a chorus of "Whens?" though none of them seemed surprised.
"Soon. After I tell Austin...." she trailed off, "I can’t be around here after that, not for awhile."
She was greeted by silence again and in the mirror she could see them looking at her sadly.
She shook herself. "Okay, enough crappy sad stuff, that's why I wanted to wait. Sorry about that guys, it just bubbled out of me. Tonight we are not going to worry about it, tonight we’re going to have fun and pretend the future doesn't exist!"
"Yeah!"
"Definitely!"
"Let's parrrtttyy!"
On that note they headed down to the beach.
They decided to go on a boat ride and Macey went up to the stereo on the deck and turned on the music so people could begin the party without them if they didn’t get back in time. They rode down past Logan point then headed across the lake and by the time they turned for home the sun was setting. The sky was painted pink and purple and Anna soaked it in wondering if there were many places in the world with sunsets as glorious as the ones over Seneca Lake.
They could hear the music cranked over the sound of the motor as they pulled into the hoist and Anna spotted Austin standing at the end of the dock with Nathan. She hopped out of the boat and beamed a smile at him then swayed her hips provocatively as she made her way down the dock. The song ended just as she reached him and she threw her arms around his shoulders pulling her body up to wrap around his waist.
"Hey…
She halted his words with a kiss that she continued through most of the next song, putting her hands inside his hair and holding him firmly. She was vaguely aware of the shouts and lewd comments thrown their way, especially when Austin's hands wandered over her backside. She felt him smile against her mouth and returned it.
"Yo Valence, you lucky bastard, how do you feel about sharing?"
Austin turned towards the obnoxious entity of Tim Wheelin. "Sorry Wheelin, I’m pretty fucking selfish." He kissed Anna again to punctuate it.
Anna pulled him under the pavilion and they danced for a couple of hours before joining in on some beer pong. They made an excellent team beating one pair after another, but still drank their share of missed shots and Anna felt her buzz growing. Fortunately the effect only served to make her giggly, and she found she was thoroughly enjoying herself.
Around two a.m. the crowd began to thin and Macey told her she'd done a general head count around midnight and there'd been over a hundred and fifty people. Not a bad turnout Preston, she thought, a farewell party to remember. And she would remember it, she'd made a point throughout the night to capture faces in her mind. Mostly though, she'd focused on her nearest and dearest.
She filled her cup with the dark ale she favored and went over to where Austin was seated by the bonfire talking to Nate. Jess was sitting on the stones between Nate’s legs talking to Macey who was giggling as usual and Anna smiled at the scene.
She seated herself in Austin’s lap and he wrapped an arm around her waist, continuing his conversation about Texas Hold'em.
"I have an idea guys," she interrupted, "do you have your guitars?"
"In my trunk," Austin nodded.
"Yeah me too," Nate arched a brow and grinned at her, “sing along time?"
"That's my idea."
Austin and Nate headed up to get their instruments and Anna joined Jess and Macey’s conversation. Marina plopped herself down next to Macey and when the guys came back the twenty or so people who were left gathered around, pulling up chairs and logs and putting in requests.
"This is the perfect way to end it," Marina said.
She nodded. It sure was.
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