Valentine again splashed cold water in his face and raised his head. In the mirror of the school toilet, his pale, completely white and bloodless face was reflected, covered with a shiny film running down the sharp chin of water. The black hair on the forehead were wet, and now on their ends hung large drops of cold water, transparent as rock crystal.
A month has passed since that ill-fated day when Draculaura was one thousand six hundred years. After her birthday, he stayed for another week at home, pretending hopelessly sick. This, of course, could have lasted much longer, but soon his father suspected something amiss and literally threw him out of the house in the morning to school. Fortunately, the other monsters in the school were too concerned with themselves to remember too long about his grandiose failure. But still, when he met in the corridor with someone from the company of Draculaura's friends, there was a silent reproach on their faces, although they never refused to help Valentine: to lend a pen or write off an lessons, for example.
"Of course," the guy thought irritably, leaning on both sides of the sink with both hands. "They are too kind."
However, at lunch or in class he always sat alone on the last desk, as if on an uninhabited island, and from this feeling of loneliness, which, it seemed, could be felt by hand, Valentine wanted to scream.
And yet it did not last long. Monster High School would not have been such if it had not been given a chance to correct it, and soon boys and girls began to sit at the lessons or at dinner, and hopeless optimist Frankie Stein even talked to him to make sure that in each a man still has something good. Old friends invited him to a sporting event, Venus McFlytrap and Laguna Blue invited him to take part in a charity evening dedicated to the protection of the environment
But this was incomparably small compared to what he had before.
Valentine threw a vintage black jacket over his shoulders and looked meticulously at the mirror, grinning in his most tempting smile. Clean, like a glowing white skin from within; a clear oval of the face with cheekbones protruding like rocks; Perfectly laid hair, black as pitch; A beautiful figure and large, like the world itself, almond-shaped eyes.
The guy's smile went out, and he approached the mirror and grunted discontentedly.
Eyes.
Huge eyes of reddish color - the only thing that he really hated in his impeccable appearance. Red, like dried blood, like a poisoned apple, like a withered rose, they used to frighten all his admirers before, breaking all his grandiose plans. He tried differently to deal with this flaw - in addition, it was for this reason that he still wore sunglasses out of habit - but soon Valentine found the remedy just perfect for himself: the eye drops widening the pupils made his eyes black and smooth , like two buttons.
And now Valentine, pulling a tiny glass jar from his secret pocket behind a white lace handkerchief, lifted his head and drenched several transparent drops, and his eyes became huge. Only at the very edges could be seen a narrow bright border of reddish color.
Valentine hid the drops.
"That's better," he thought, completely satisfied with his present appearance. Now this for him is especially important, because he has truly grand plans for today.
He was going to regain Draculaura, having take away her from this huge dog, by a misunderstanding bearing a human name. Starting to meet again with Draculaura, he wanted to regain his former popularity - both among the guys, and among the girls, of course. He is serious, he wants to do everything as quickly as possible. He was tired of waiting, ущемленное самолюбие не давало ему спокойно жить, it was just nauseous.
Valentine took a smart leather briefcase and, opening the door, went into the dark school corridor and walked towards the school hall. It was already four o'clock, and at school there was absolutely no one left. The most belated pupils left with additional occupations fifteen minutes ago. There was only a basketball club, which was still practicing in the gym on the second floor. Valentin knew for sure that it was there that Draculaura was waiting for his precious Claude. He watched as they embraced, two hours ago came to the gym, at the sight of this someone else's happiness, he began to boil inside
In ten minutes the girl will go down to the hall where he will wait for her, and after twenty minutes, more basketball players will discuss with the coach the last training, change clothes and scatter to their homes. Well, Valentine thought, this should be enough. Perhaps, it is even too much. Draculaura will fall again at his feet as early as the first minute.
He quickened his pace, listening as the steps of his expensive leather boots on the lacing sounded echoing from the high violet walls and vaulted ceilings. At school he did not meet a soul. It was deserted here, like in a cemetery.
Soon Valentin was in the hall, threw the briefcase on a bench under a huge staircase and sat down himself, putting next to him a huge, like a planet, a magnificent bouquet of dark red roses with wavy edges. The guy suddenly grimaced and looked at his pale palm. It showed several tiny cuts from the thorns, and they bleed slightly.
"Too bad," thought Valentine, wiping his hands with a silken white handkerchief and watering him with tiny droplets of blood. Bright scarlet flowers blossomed one after another on the scarf.
There is very little time left. Valentin sat in absolute silence with a bouquet on his knees and was surprised to find that he was nervous. He kept looking at the stairs every minute and took out a pocket mirror in a filigree silver frame and looked meticulously at his eyes. The drops that he used today were new, and Valentin was not yet completely sure of their trouble-free operation, so he was a little afraid.
There was a sound of light footsteps on the stairs, and a quiet whisper of rustling skirt. Valentine tensed and jumped up, pressing the bouquet to his chest.
That's her.
Draculaura descended to the last flight of stairs and happily purring something. She wa absolutely beautiful, as always. She looked like a small porcelain doll that would look great in his collection, locked in a closet behind a transparent glass.
The girl had to cross a few more steps before appearing on the floor of the hall from the alternating lilac and violet tiles, but then Valentine stepped forward from the shadow of the staircase and stood at the marble railing, raising his head.
-Draculaura...
[to be continued...]