We played ball for about 40 minutes before we decided to take a break. Everyone was pumped up, shirtless and sweaty. Well everyone, except Bobby, who looked liked he hadn't done anything but stand up even though Jeff, Mack, and myself were working incredibly hard just to keep up with him. Luckily, he was coming off like just a really good basketball player and not some crazy vampire showing off his fangs when Mack tried to get stupid and tried to trip him up.

"Damn, you're good man! Do you play on your school's team?" Mack was asking. He was bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing heavy.

"Yeah, pretty good team too," Bobby laughed, as he kept dribbling around, ignoring the fact that we were all dying from exhaustion.

"I need water." I said, walking over to the edge of the court. I grabbed my water bottle off the ground and kept walking toward the table, collapsing down on the edge of one of the picnic benches.

"You played good, Max," I heard one of Alex's friends say as I turned around gulping water.

"Thanks," I replied. She was trying to flirt, a big smile on her face. I pretended not to notice.

"Eww, Jeff! You're all sweaty, don't touch me!" I heard Alex complaining from the other side of the table. Jeff was pawing at her, laughing. She glared at him, pissed off.

"So, its Bobby, right?" Alex turned away from Jeff, and smiled at him.

"Yep," Bobby said, walking toward the only empty spot by Alex's friend. I think her name was Candy or Brandy or something dumb like that.

"What school do you go to? You said you play on your school's team?" she said, trying to flirt with him, now.

"Well, I went to a private boarding school way up north. The team usually only plays other private schools, so its doubtful we would have played your school, or you would have heard of it." Bobby replied. Then, he spun the ball on the tip of his finger. Show off.

"Knew it, you got money just like Luke." Mack's head popped up and I just shook my head in embarrassment. Jeff laughed.

"Yeah, I guess you could say we "got money" he good-naturally chuckled a response, but I could tell it was forced and he was bored.

"So, you got a girlfriend then?" Alex's friend piped up, maneuvering in closer to Bobby.

"Could you be anymore desperate?" I said irritated. I like Alex, but not her friends. "He's married so stop acting like a dumb bimbo gold digger."

I felt this over protection build quickly toward Mickey. Not sure why, but I hated the idea of some dumb girl trying to hit on her husband. On reflection, I only meet her for a few moments this morning. But it was like we had been good friends if she wasn't a vampire at all. She reminded me a lot of Alex. Then, I realized everyone at the table got very quiet and I felt all eyes on me. I realized I was the one who screwed up here, not Bobby, which I had been freaking out about because I was sure he would.

"Wait! You're married?" Alex was saying, seemingly pretty excited about it, too.

"No! That's not what I meant." I quickly interjected. "He has a girlfriend and when they're together they act like an old married couple. I thought it was funny, to call them married. Its an inside joke. It was funny before, but not now, just forget it. He's not married. He just has a serious girlfriend."

"Oh, okay. Tell me about your girlfriend, Bobby," Alex said, almost nervously.

"She is really great. Max is right. We are like an old married would be with our dramatic fights and break up then the make up time." he was bragging, as Jeff lifted his fist in the air. Bobby did the same thing. Alex glared at Jeff.

"Man, I'm exhausted! I think I'm going to head home." Mack said,, standing up and stretching.

"Want to walk me home?" Alex's friend asked. He shrugged.

"'Why not." He answered, as the girl practically ran to his side. We were saying our goodbyes to each other.

Suddenly, I noticed how dark it had become. I realized most of Alex's friends had left. I took the last drink of my water took a deep breath. I was exhausted emotionally and physically. I focused back on Jeff and Bobby talking about cars. Bobby was explaining something. I really didn't care what. I figured it was the best time to go home and get some food and have a good night's rest. I would deal with Bobby following me later.

"Hey, I'm going to get going home. I'm actually pretty tired." I said, standing up.

"Yeah me to. Alex, you ready to go?" Jeff asked. Alex was nodding.

"Hey, I can give everyone a lift. My car is s just over there." Bobby pointed.

"Thanks, but no need. Alex is staying with me, and I just live across the street." Jeff said, already starting across the street with Alex.

"Oh okay, cool. Max you want a lift home?" Bobby said casually.

"Sure," I shrugged. "I'll see you guys later." Jeff and Alex were already crossing the street. Bobby stood up and we walked to his car.

It was an awkward and silent walk. Mostly, because I was really angry. He just broke into my house, then he followed me here. I was waiting to speak for when we were far enough away from Jeff and Alex to hear. There was the black car. We got in. Bobby started the car. I looked over at him. He laughed, which just infuriated me even more.

"You want to explain why you broke into my house to get that stupid phone, then followed me here?" Bobby stopped laughing, but was still smirking.

"Because it's my job to watch you and make sure you don't do anything stupid or blab to anyone. Plus I like playing basketball." He said this very of matter factly.

"So, what? You're just going to be following me everywhere I go from now on?" I demanded to know.

"Nope. Just as long as you tell me we can trust you," he said, turning onto my block. "And it won't always be me. Josh will watch you for a few days, then Luke, too, until we decide you are no longer a risk." We stopped in front of my house.

"Okay. Now, you're just going to stay out here in your car and watch my house?" I asked, creeped out by just the thought of it.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Bobby made a weird face as he said that, probably thinking it sounded creepy, too. He was stalking a guy, after all!

"Well come on, then, let's go inside. My dad got pizza." I said.

"What?" he said confused. I sort of confused myself by asking.

"You can go inside and hangout. At least it will feel less like I have a stalker. Something like keeping your enemies close... I got out of the car.

"Your parents going to mind?" He asked, getting out slowly.

Nah. They are pretty cool. My sister has a friend over for the night, too."

Once I was at the door, I shoved my key in, but the door was still sticking and I was going to have to try and fix it. Using most of my weight to push the door open, I heard Bobby chuckle when the door finally gave way and I stumbled in. I could hear giggling coming from under the blanket fort, as I looked at the TV to see a new movie was on the screen. A head of blond hair followed by a head of slightly darker hair popped out of the "door" of the fort. They came running around and instantly froze when they saw Bobby standing next to me. Their little mischievous eyes grew wide in amazement at how big and tall he was. I closed the door behind us.

"Annie, this is my friend Bobby. Bobby, this is my little sister Annie. Her friend here is Macy.

"Hello girls. Have a fun slumber party," he said to them.

"Wow, you are super tall!" Annie exclaimed, staring at him like he was a freak or something.

"Annie!" I said, shaking my head. She hadn't learned to edit her comments yet. She always just said what she thought.

"What? He's like, half giraffe or something," Macy giggled, and then Bobby laughed, too. I sighed. So much for trying to prevent Annie from having any interaction with him.

"No, I'm not half giraffe, but I am half giant." he said proudly, crouching down so he was more at their eye level. Both Annie and Macy screamed some high pitched screams.

"Giant! Run run before he eats us!" Annie screamed, running away. Bobby was laughing at the sight of them diving into their fort. It actually was kind of funny.

"What is going on down here?" my dad said, coming down the stairs. He sounded a bit annoyed. "Why are you girls screaming like that?" He was openly of glaring at me.

"They're just playing around. My friend Bobby made a joke about being half giant and they ran away screaming. Sorry." I said, walking toward the kitchen.

"He is a giant, look how tall he is daddy, he said it himself!" I heard Annie say excitedly, from inside the tent. My dad started to laugh.

"Okay. okay. Don't tease your sister too much. Your mother is asleep. Is your friend staying the night?" He asked. as I nodded my head. "Tomorrow, you're going to need to walk Macy home."

"Will do," I agreed, hoping he'd go back up the stairs. He turned and was gone.

Walking into the kitchen and over to the table, there were two boxes of pizza. I opened the first box to see a half eaten veggie pizza and instantly abandoned that to check the next box. Pepperoni and sausage, sitting pretty in the box with only a few slices missing. Grabbing the biggest piece in the box I shoved as much as I could into my mouth. It was cold, but it was pizza and cold pizza is almost as good as hot pizza, in my opinion. I started chewing and walked over to the fridge and grabbed a soda out of it. I was leaning against the counter as Bobby came in and stood in the doorway.

"There's pizza and we have soda in the fridge." I tried to say, mouth half full of pizza,.

"Kind of full, I ate dinner earlier." he said, walking over to the fridge. I dropped the half- eaten slice I had back in the box. I felt the like I was going to vomit.

"I ate at a lovely little place called McDonald's. Don't be such a baby, Max." Bobby laughed. I closed the pizza box, not feeling very hungry anymore.

"I'm going up stairs," I said, recovering and feeling the anger build again. I pushed past hi making my way out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Halfway up the stairs, I looked back to make sure Bobby was following me because I didn't hear his footsteps, which bothered me. Peeking over my shoulder, I could see Bobby's massive arm and hand gripping the railing. I stopped and listened as I got to the top, but still could not hear what I thought should have been house shaking steps. His ascent was silent, as if he were walking on air. Getting to my room, and not able to slam the door shut like I wanted, I threw myself onto the bed, shouted a few choice curse words into the pillow until I heard the door close. I looked up to see Bobby looking at a small stack of games on my dresser. He had turned on the small lamp on my desk which I rarely used. Why didn't he turn on the overhead lamp? I thought it odd.

I was really still upset at the idea of him sitting outside of my house stalking me. I guess I did care what he did, and now, unfortunately, there was a giant vampire in my house, not to mention his wife was really ferocious when we left and she could be on her way here to kick his ass, or worse. Yeah, that would be a fun thing to explain to my parents. Well, half the house is destroyed due to the fact I invited a vampire in. Oops. Then, I remembered I never invited him in. How was it that he was sneaking in and out of my house without an invitation? I watched movies, I know the rules! I felt the anger flair as I watched Bobby turn on the TV and put on of my games into the system.

"How come you're in my house?" I asked, very curious to know how a vampire got in without an invitation.

"Umm, did you hit your head, you having memory lapses problems?" he asked, giving me a strange look. I shook my head in response.

"No, I know why you're in my house. But how did you get in, when I never invited you? You came in here when I wasn't even here."

"Because we don't need permission, anymore then you need permission to enter someone's home. There are particular occasions when we have to be asked in, but those types of situations don't really concern you." he was saying, handing me a controller.

"Oh. So, movies are wrong about everything, because clearly the sun doesn't kill you, either." I said, watching the TV screen loading the game.

"It won't kill me as long as I'm not already dying, but it will kill Luke and my wife very quickly if they are exposed," he stated simply, pressing the button on the lead controller, which bugged me. My house, I get to be first player controller!

"So, what? There are some are real vampires and some fake vampires?" I asked, sarcastically.

"No, all vampires that can snap your neck in the second it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings," Bobby said, continuing to focus on the game. But I could see he was smirking,

Frustrated with the conversations, moved on the bed to get more comfortable as the game was beginning to start. Bobby had chosen Halo, which was fine by me. I was fairly decent at it. But I realized after playing with all of them last night, they clearly play extensively because they were practically pros at the games. After we started playing the conversation died down to game speak as we only were making comments as to how to get through levels. We played for a few hours, until I paused the game. Bobby looked confused as I got up and stretched. I had sat in the same place for a couple of hours and was a bit stiff.

"I'm going to run down stairs and get some food," I said stepping over him.

"Where is your bathroom at?" he asked.

"Downstairs, I'll show you."

Walking down the steps, I noticed the lights in the living room were off, and I didn't hear any noise from Annie or her friend. I slowed my pace so I wouldn't make too much noise and wake them up. Once at the bottom, I pointed Bobby to the open door next to the staircase. I kept walking into the kitchen and went to the fridge. I grabbed some cold pizza out of the fridge. Bobby came into the kitchen, grabbing a plate and helping himself to a piece, too.

"Max!" I heard a small whimper come from behind me. I turned to see Annie standing there looking tiny and scared

"What's wrong Annie?" I asked, a bit shocked to see her there. I kneeled down closer to her as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I had a bad dream," she said, starting to cry. "You got hurt and you didn't ever come home. Max, I was so scared!" I hugged her tighter and rubbed her back gently!

"Shhhhh! Its okay, Annie, it was just a dream. I am always going to be here for you, cutie." As soon as I said the words, I realized I had just lied. They were going to make me leave.

"But it felt so real Max, I was so scared! I don't want you to ever leave, promise me you won't ever leave!" Annie cried, looking so helpless and said with the big tiger tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I promise Annie!" I replied, feeling like a terrible brother. "Now, let's get you back to sleep. Bobby was standing next to me.

"Here's some warm milk to help make you fall back to sleep," he was saying, soothingly, handing a glass to Annie. She gave him a suspicious look but took it.

"How about you drink it up and I will put in a movie to watch while you fall asleep, how about the princess movie, sound good?" Annie nodded, taking a sip of the milk.

Once I got the movie in and Annie finished her glass of milk, and I had given her a kiss on the head, and she crawled back into her fort. I went back into the kitchen, grabbing my plate. Bobby stood in the doorway watching the opening of the movie. Turning off the light, I headed back upstairs to my room. Bobby followed, closing the door behind him. I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling stressed. I hated lying to Annie like that.

"Annie is a sweet little girl. She won't understand now, but eventually the pain and loss she'll feel when you disappear will fade and she will go on with her life." He explained.

I felt the anger building again.

"Like hell it will, you saw how she was. Once I "disappear" using air quotes, "she is going to be a wreck along with my parents. This is a real shitty thing you're asking me to do to my family and friends. Just just up and disappear without a word. It might be better too just kill me. At least that way, they would be able to mourn and be able to bury me.

"I know Max. I understand. I went through the same thing when I first met Mickey. It was hard on me as well. But it was also different because Mickey's my mate and I loved her so much, which made everything a lot easier for me then it will be for you. But I still felt the pain and anguish of everyone I loved and cared for..." Bobby sighed. I listened, just wishing I had never agreed to go with Luke last night.

"I like Annie, there something special about her. I have a theory about her, and the reason Luke is so drawn to you," he continued, shoving pizza into his mouth.

I don't give a damn about your crazy theories about me, Luke, his freaky parents, and the whole crazy lot of you. You leave my sister alone, are we clear?" Bobby just shook his head.

"it is not up to me, Max. You can't do a damn thing about what is going to happen."

"Like hell. My sister is off-limits from now on. I will do everything in my power to make sure of it."

"Its destiny, Max. It's just the way things are. What is going to happen, and what is supposed to be is beyond our control.

"You just stay the hell away from her!" I was infuriated. "I've already been dragged into this mess and Annie will not have to suffer because of me. She deserves a normal life!"

"Max! Chill! I never said I knew for sure. I could be wrong." Bobby was back-pedaling. Its just a theory, it doesn't matter, forget I said anything." Bobby picked up the controller and started messing around with the game.

"You just better not be suggesting they are going to try and make her a vampire too." I said, choking out words "Annie would never agree to something like this, okay plus it is freaking weird my sister is eight years old. How do you know what she will be like when she is older?"

"Doesn't matter, Max. Destiny is Destiny. We will have to wait and see. My theory may be true, maybe not. Time will tell." He said. "I felt so protective of her when she came into the kitchen. I only feel like that toward vampires and potential vampires. It was a very odd, interesting feeling that came over me."

I became very frightened that Annie would be sucked into this sick twisted world I somehow found myself in. I was grasping at straws to protect her

"Over my dead body!" I said. Bobby smiled, and went back to playing. That may have been the wrong thing to say in my current situation.