Roslyn

James and I arrive at the arcade for our night out. Since neither of us are going to school tomorrow, there is no need to worry about staying out too late. We can relax out here for as long as we want. The only thing that could stop us is our parents.

We walk into the building and are immediately overwhelmed by the busy atmosphere around us. Neon lights flash on and off, momentarily blinding me. I don't know where to look. My attention is drawn to a different game every time the lights flash.

For a school night, there seems to be a lot of people in here. I'm sure they will clear out within the next few hours. "I'll race ya to the skeeball!" I smile, waiting for him to engage. I hope I can get him out of his shell a little bit and help him relax, even if it is just for a little while.

"Are you sure you should-" before James can even finish his sentence, I am running off towards the game.

I grab a ball and turn around to wait for him to arrive so that I can crush him in this game. I rock at skeeball. He is in for quite the shock if she thinks he is going to beat me at this.

James smirks when he finally reaches the area I am in. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm kind of awesome at this game. I've had years of practice..." he reminds me how old he is.

I nod. "I am as well. Tonight, we get to see who the true champion is." I hand him the ball I had in my hands and grab a new one of my own. "It's on." I say as I throw my first ball, landing it in the 100 point hole.

James does the same, almost landing it in the 100 hole. I nod. He is going to be harder to beat than I thought. My next ball lands in the 25 point hole. James scores another 100. I am going to have to step up my game if I want to beat him. I score as many 100's as I can, hoping he will mess up and get a five or another low scoring hole.

I can't lose.

The final score comes to 1120 for me and 1125 for him. He beat me by five points. He is never going to let me live this down. I don't blame him. If I won, I would do the exact same thing to him. I would be gloating all night.

"Loser always buys the food. What do you want?" I ask, walking towards the cafe part of the building.

"I'm not hungry." He clenches his lips together and looks straight ahead as we walk. Oh. I forgot. He doesn't really eat. Well, he doesn't eat like everyone else does.

I make eye contact with someone and immediately stop walking. I suddenly don't want to be in this room anymore. It is just going to cause problems if I stay. I grab James by the arm. "Lets go play some more games." I tug him lightly towards the game room again.

"I thought you were hungry?" James asks, pointing towards the cafe. "You don't have to starve just because I won't eat here. I'll still sit with you. I don't mind."

"I changed my mind." I continue tugging on him. I really want to leave this part of the building now.

"Why? What happened?" James asks, looking around to see what I saw that made me want to turn around. He nods. "I see him now." James points to Anthony. Great. Now he knows we are talking about him.

I nod. It is him. "Can we please just go play some more games." I cling to his arm, desperately wanting to get out of here before Anthony tries to come over and talk to me.

"He's an ex of yours?" James asks, raising an eyebrow with curiosity. He has not taken his eyes off of Anthony. This is so awkward. Anthony stares back, curious.

"Yes now can we please-" James looks deep into my eyes, his expression intense, almost threatening. He looks although he is angry with me for something. He snakes his hand around my waist and yanks me into him, forcing our lips together. I respond to his kiss immediately, something I would not normally find myself doing.

James smiles as he pulls away from me. I feel as if all the parents here with their little kids are staring at us, hiding the little ones' eyes to shield them from the massive amounts of PDA we just showed in the middle of this busy room.

I tug at my hair, a bit confused. I'm not sure if I should be mad or thankful for him distracting me. I smile instead of pursuing it any further for the moment. He grabs onto my hand and pulls me towards the arcade again. "Now he won't come over here and try to talk to you. Come on, let's go." I follow James out the front door, crossing my arms over my chest as soon as we exit the building.

I follow him in silence for a while, waiting for him to say something, to explain what happened back there. He had to have had some reason for doing that so suddenly. It's not fair for him to do that and then say nothing about it after. Did he only do it because he saw I was uncomfortable with Anthony being there?

"What's wrong?" James asks, apparently noticing that I am very quiet all of the sudden.

"Were you just going to kiss me and expect that to be the end of it? Or were you going to have a discussion with me about it?" I ask, stopping so that I can hear him better when he talks. "Do you go around kissing everyone? Is it some sort of challenge for you to kiss as many people in your life as you can?" I shake my head. "What are you at now? Probably a few hundred right? Maybe even a thousand."

James sighs and turns around to face me. "I did it to protect you. Trust me." He walks over so that he is hovering over me as we talk. "He was going to come over and I could tell you didn't want that."

"I can protect myself, James. If you are going to do something crazy like that, you need to explain yourself afterwords at least. You can't just leave me hanging like you did. It's not fair." I step back so that I can see him better. It is impossible to have a conversation with someone when they are right on top of you.

"I understand your frustrations Roslyn. But it was just to get rid of him. Even if I did kiss you because I have feelings, this is never going to turn into anything between us. It can't. There is no point to have a talk. I'm a vampire and you are a human. That is not a good mix for a relationship. I know that and I think you know that too." He begins.

I listen respectfully as he delivers a monologue.

"And it's not like you have any interest in a relationship with me or anyone right now." James tries to explain his distantness. "I know that I am not capable of a relationship after losing Julie and I don't think you are in the headspace for a relationship either Especially after your brutal breakup with Anthony."

"How did you know that?" I ask, dropping my guard. How did he know that? I haven't spoken to or about Anthony since we broke up. Since the night of the attack. There is no way James would know his name or the nature of our relationship.

"It was just a guess. That's why he scared you right? Because he was abusing you? Because he was a recent breakup of-" James tries to backtrack.

"No," I shake my head. "You can't possibly know any of that. You-you said his name. How did you know his name?" I ask, knowing we were not close enough for James to see his name tag. There is no way he could have known Anthony's name. He shouldn't know anything else about him either. Especially the details of our breakup.

James groans. "I guess I forgot to mention that I can read your thoughts?" He mentions, trying to look innocent. "I can hear his too."

"Uh, yeah! That is kinda huge! Have you heard everything I have ever thought?!" I scoff. James nods. This is crazy. How could he not tell me he could do this? I feel like I have been seriously violated. I have no secrecy. Even when complaining about having no privacy anymore, I know he can hear me thinking about that too.

"Don't worry, I won't do it anymore without your permission." James assures me. I shake my head, at a loss for words.

"Can you all read my thoughts?" I wonder if his parents and sisters knew what I was thinking whenever I was at their house. He nods sheepishly.

"It's a lot easier to hear when we are close to the person. If we don't know them, it's harder to get inside their head." He explains.

I walk back towards the car. I can't have this conversation anymore. This is all just too much for me at this moment. I need some time to clear my head and process all of this.

"And for the record, the answer to your question is four." James jogs fo catch up to me.

"Four?"

"I've kissed four people, including you." He adds.

AN: this is another super long chapter. Do you guys like the long chapters or do you like them shorter?