Letters to Romeo

Even though Melanie was coughing, in between, she couldn't stop herself from glaring at Simon. Conner came to her side and patted her back, and he said, "You are tearing up, here," he picked up the glass of water that Simon had offered and brought it up to Melanie's lips. "Drink this."

Simon flashed a charming smile at the human girl before he let his back lean against the chair while watching Conner, who was attending Melanie.

Melanie drank a couple of sips from the glass of water, emptying it, and she placed the glass on the table before she would end up breaking it in her hand.

"Are you feeling better now?" asked Conner, and Melanie nodded.

"Would you like to have some juice, Mel?" Simon suddenly asked her out of nowhere, and Melanie's eyes widened. Did he hit his head somewhere, or was he like this from the beginning?

And as innocent as the question was, Conner himself didn't understand why Simon had suddenly turned attentive towards his best friend. He was quick to jump in and said, "Let me go and get you the juice. Orange, isn't it?"

"I do not need juice right now. I am perfectly fine. I was just eating too fast I think," replied Melanie on seeing Conner stand up from his seat.

"There is still a lot of time left before the curfew to be imposed, take your time," Simon waved his hand, and before he was about to mention the drink, Conner excused himself from the table. "Don't go choking on things that you aren't supposed to choke on. Unless you are practicing something."

Melanie quietly glared at Simon, her eyes darting to look around the place where a few students were looking at them before they averted their gaze away from the table where she was sitting at.

"You should be glad that the water in the glass is empty for me to throw it in your face," retorted Melanie, and she realized what Simon had just done. He had purposely chased Conner off the table so that he could spend alone time with her.

"Mm it is hot. I wouldn't mind you throwing it on me, but then you never know what the next thing people will be talking about. Not to mention, my fangirls would not be happy with your treatment towards me," Simon replied to her words with a charming smile on his face. He brought his hand towards his face to push his red hair backwards.

"I am sure they would be more than happy to know what kind of sociopath you are," came the quick retort. "Not to mention, they are like that towards you because of your ability."

"Are you talking about compulsion? I am not that self centered narcissist who likes to compel people to like me. People like me for who I am. You would be surprised," answered Simon, and he got up from his seat. But before going to pull his chair, she said,

"Come near and I swear I will stab you with the fork," Melanie glared at the vampire, whom she knew had more than a few screws loose in the head department.

Simon gave her a look before he changed his chairs with another and sat down, "The chair was wobbly, I didn't know you were imagining me to come and sit next to you." He then sat down, making Melanie clench her jaw. It had been barely more than a minute, and the red-headed vampire had already riled her. She wondered if she would end up having a high blood pressure before finishing this year. "Conner seems to be quite attentive towards you since we returned from our weekend holidays. Is your love finally being reciprocated? Is your heart bursting with uncontrollable joy?"

Melanie turned to look in the direction where Conner had walked, and she then turned back to look at Simon, whose green eyes had turned bright. Her lips twisted before she asked, "Why do you care if Conner has feelings for me or if I have feelings for him ?"

"Because you both are my dear friends. My dearest actually," replied Simon, showing his perfectly aligned teeth.

"We don't need you to worry about our love life, you should worry about your own," remarked Melanie, crossing her arms and looking in the other direction.

Like Simon, Melanie had also taken note of Conner's sudden attentiveness.

"Do you even know why Conner is being kinder to you?" questioned Simon, where he crossed his leg one over the other, and he rotated his ankle in the spot where it was. "It is because now he feels threatened that his childhood sweetheart is being stolen from him. By me."

Melanie rolled her eyes, "You think too highly about yourself, don't you? Conner is just being his kind self. There's no need to take credits."

One side of Simon's lips pulled up high, and he tilted his head, "How about we two keep a bet? To see if Conner reacts to something I am going to do?"

"I have no interest in it, nor am I involving Conner in your little schemes to provide you entertainment," came the quick response from Melanie, and she said, "How many times do you want me to remind you that you don't have to make a conversation with me?"

"I don't know why, but when I see you, I have this urge to annoy and irk you. Almost where I want to see you in tears," confessed Simon, and Melanie, who was looking in the other direction, turned to look at him. She didn't know if he was being serious or if it was only words.

"When is your birthday?" Melanie asked him, and a sudden twinkle formed in the vampire's eyes.

"Why? Are you gifting me something that day? If it is, every day can be a birthday," stated Simon, and he uncrossed his legs before letting the upper part of his body lean towards her.

Melanie nodded, "I was thinking of paying for a session of yours with a counselor." Hearing her words, for a moment, Simon didn't respond to her and then he started to chuckle. This only made her turn her hands into tight fists.

"I don't mind going if you are willing to come with me. It is quite lonely to go alone to attend these kinds of things," replied Simon, not rejecting the idea, and Melanie wondered if Simon was a lost cause and if she would one day end up murdering him. Then she thought he wouldn't rest in peace and would instead come to haunt her from his grave. Simon then said, "You know what? I will be gracious enough and help you get with Conner."

"I don't need your help and I am not going to get with him."

Her thoughts went to his words of going along to the counsellor. Did he visit it before?

"Don't be shy, Mel. How long will you keep your one sided love to yourself, unrequited feelings? Before he moves on from his dead girlfriend's feelings, you should snatch him. I found it unbearable to see you like a sad little puppy," Simon tapped his finger on the table, and Melanie felt the intense urge to stab it with her fork. "I won't benefit by getting two lovely people together. Instead, consider it more to be me rinsing off my sins."

Melanie had the same thoughts. Apart from boredom, this vampire was going through, why was he trying to do something so out of his character? Something just didn't fit right.

It was true that her feelings still lingered towards Conner, and it was something that would take a lot of time to detoxify herself from those feelings. But it would be a lie if she denied that Conner's concern and previous attentiveness didn't move her resolve of trying to move on from her feelings. Somewhere it tore and bothered her mind, bringing it back to the hope she held.

Victoria was the first to join them at the table, taking a seat next to Simon, and she started to speak about the food they were serving today. With Melanie, who already knew about the existence of the vampires, the vampiress didn't bother to hide about the amount of blood used for the vampires.

And after a while, Conner returned to place the glass of juice in front of Melanie, and he said, "They didn't have orange juice, but there's grapes. It should be alright, right?"

Melanie offered a smile to him, and she gave him a nod, "Thank you for this."

"That's fine. I realized you are always the one getting me things and I should do the same," he lightly chuckled before getting back to have his food.

Soon the place at the table got busy with others, who were quick to join them, where Julie had come to sit too with Roman. Melanie couldn't help but ponder over Simon's offer. She looked at Conner, who was talking to Maximus, and then her eyes shifted to look at Simon, who was talking to Victoria, and when the vampiress went back to having her dinner, Simon's eyes moved to meet Melanie's gaze. It was as if they were secretly bickering with each other without using any words but only through their gaze.

Julie, who noticed this, her eyebrows slightly rose, wondering what was going on between her best friend and Roman's best friend. She leaned towards Roman and whispered,

"I think we are having a staring competition."

Roman gave a brief look at the two of them from where he sat and took a sip of blood from his coke can. He didn't bother himself with what others were doing. Instead, he turned to look at the girl sitting next to him.

"Skip classes with me tomorrow, Winters," said Roman, and Julie stopped chewing her food. She turned to look at him with her eyes slightly wide.

"You want to go out of Veteris?" asked Julie.

Roman brought his hand to her mouth, wiping the sauce smeared in the corner of her lips. "I wish, but with Luciano guarding the gates, it is going to be a hassle to get in and out of Veteris. Not to mention, with the exams that have been preponed, I thought we could study together. It would be more productive."

Julie gave it a thought before she nodded, "Okay," a smile appeared on her lips, and Roman looked satisfied with her answer. "Do you need to study a lot?" she asked him because lately, they had been busy with other things apart from their academic books.

"Just a little," he replied to her, and the thought warmed her heart. The time they had right now was peaceful, and she knew it wouldn't stay forever like this, but she hoped it would stay a little longer.

Julie watched Roman gulp the remaining blood from the can. Even though not many noticed, she saw how he was trying to keep himself calm and not go cave-vampire when it came to consuming blood. She asked him, "Are you thirsty?"

"Always," Roman replied to her question while he licked his lips to savour the last possible taste of blood that was left on his lips.

"I can get you a can if you want me to," offered Julie, and Roman's lips quirked up.

"People here are soon going to wonder if you are a morm or a vampire," he said, and when he turned to look at her, Julie noticed his eyes that were switched between black and red.

"Your eyes," murmured Julie under her breath, and he nodded before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Maybe I should have taken the training of controlling my blood thirst more seriously when I was having sessions with Evans," Roman looked slightly annoyed, and he exhaled air. "A ripper's body is like a black hole. The more you feed it, the more it craves and at one point, it becomes impossible to stop the person. Which is how most of the rippers end up dead as they turn into a problem."

But Donovan had a theory that Roman had the dark stone within him, thought Julie in her mind. Then wasn't it like a double-edged sword? Where if he didn't feed on blood, he would lose his mind and on the other side was the dark hole.

Roman was clearly struggling to keep his ripper side in control. He ran his fingers through his hair. While people were busy talking at the table, Conner decided to ask Olivia,

"Do you have all the details of the students in the infirmary who are hurt?"

Olivia watched Conner, "I wouldn't say all. Just a few of them."

"I see, I was wondering if I could take a look at Reese's file, you know," said Conner, unaware of the fact that he was questioning a vampiress.

Olivia played it cool and gave him a surprised look, "Reese's file?" And on seeing Conner nod, she nodded back, "I think I can get it for you. I can speak to doctor Isolde and let you take a look at it. It should be alright."

"Thanks, Olivia. That would be of great help," smiled Conner with a thankful expression on his face.

"It isn't much," replied Olivia, and her eyes met the eye's of her friends who were at the table when Conner went back to speak to Melanie.

Julie stood up from her chair to get something else to eat, and after buying it while returning to the table, one of the student's crashed into her.

"Watch where you are going," spoke the boy in a harsh tone, glaring at her when it wasn't her fault, whereas he had abruptly stood up from his chair.

Julie stared at the person with a frown and said, "I believe you are equally at fault for suddenly standing up. It isn't like I knew you would be pushing your chair." She was careful enough to not spill anything on the floor or the person.

Hearing her words, the boy took offence, and he pushed the chair to the side and came to stand right in front of her to tower over her. He took a closer look and said, "I see that it's the four eyes. Did you suddenly gain confidence since you turned into Moltenore's girlfriend?"

"I don't think I need to be someone's girlfriend to remind you about basic human decency," replied Julie, and she noticed the way his eyes suddenly turned red. She blinked again before it turned hazel, making her wonder if she was dreaming. The boy glared at her, "If I were you, I would have watched that mouth before speaking . You don't want to go making enemies with people in here unnecessarily," the boy sneered before noticing how Julie was staring at him. "What are you looking at?"

A little confused, Julie wondered if this person was turning into a ripper too, which is why she was able to see the red eyes. Because the vampire students in here were able to control their When he went to grab her shoulder to push her aside, she caught his hand, and instead of him, she was the one to push him to the side.

The vampire lightly crashed into the people sitting at the nearest table. He glared at Julie, this time, it was him who turned confused. How could a mere human push him? Unless this human was truly a vampire now? His eyes shifted to look at where Roman was, noticing how he had stood up from his seat.

Julie turned to look behind her, noting Roman, who didn't look pleased. She turned to look at the front and said to the boy, "Let us drop the matter right here, instead of causing fights that are not required."

The boy quietly glared at her before his friend called him, "What's gotten into you? Getting into a fight with Moltenore's girl?"

"But did you see that, the human had pushed him. Did you turn weak?" laughed the boy's other friend. That was enough blow to the boy's ego.

While the boy who had been rude to Julie was talking to his friend, Julie made her way back to the table. And though the other people at the table looked like they were talking with each other, she could sense that there was something tense in the atmosphere.

Looking at the people at the table, suddenly everyone's eyes were red and it felt even stranger than before to Julie. Surely the vampire students in here weren't losing their control over themselves. Was she able to now recognise vampires without them showing their true self, asked Julie to herself.

Roman pulled the chair for Julie, "Everything okay?" he asked her.

Julie offered him a smile, "Yes, everything is good," and she sat down. She waited for him to join her by sitting down, but he didn't. "Rome?" she called him.

"I think I will go and get that can of coke," he hummed.

"Now?" asked Julie, knowing exactly why he was suddenly thirsty.

"Mm," came the response from Roman before walking away from their table and heading in the direction of where the boy was, who looked annoyed.

The boy could be heard saying, "I am not scared of Moltenore. One should know how to behave with us vampires, especially when they are humans." Someone tapped on his shoulder, and when he turned, suddenly a punch landed on his face, sending him right to the floor.

The boy winced in pain, moving his jaw in pain, while looking up to see it was Roman standing in front of him.

"What the fuck?" asked the boy, looking more than offended this time. "What was that for?!"

"I thought you were trash that needed to be moved," remarked Roman, his eyes looking dully at the boy.