Gravity of Love

(four)

David and I slipped back into the main room undetected, both of us searching the room for the whereabouts of Mannix and Ren. They were on the other end of the room, talking with a small crowd. In the midst of people was a woman and to say she was beautiful wouldn't give her justice. Her face was a petite oval, a pale canvas for almond shaped eyes, the perfect nose and full, sensuous lips. She had raven black hair that cascaded down her back in trimmed waves. For some reason she seemed oddly familiar but I just couldn't place where I had seen her before.

"Who is that?" I whispered to David.

"That, my friend, is Selene."

Ah! So that was the vamp I always heard about even when I was in my teenage years. I listened to other kids talk about her and how great she looked but she was plain fucking gorgeous. "She's heavenly." I muttered n awe.

David only laughed and continued walking. We weaved our way through the crowd and as we neared them, Selene stopped laughing and looked at us. I felt a chill run down my back and lost my step for a moment or two. Mouth shut, eyes to the ground and I'll be fine. Any sign that I was freaking out I knew Ren would gladly pull me aside and force those pills down my throat. Sure I'd be nearly catatonic, but who needed all their higher brain functions anyway?

Selene glided to us and stopped in front of me. She brought a pale hand to my face and caressed my cheek. Her skin was cold marble, chilling my skin wherever it touched. I shivered.

"Do you still find me heavenly?" I blinked a few times to understand what she meant then realized she must have been able to hear me across the room. I gave a forced smile.

"Yes, I do," I replied as smoothly as I could, knowing that Ren was watching me closely.

"This one is yours, Ren?" She asked, turning her head slightly to glance at him.

He nodded. "Had 'im since he was sixteen."

"You have molded him beautifully," Selene said as her hand traveled slowly from my cheek to my neck. Her fingers tickled my throat and her thumb grazed lightly over my lips. Looking deeply into her eyes I flicked my tongue out and gave her thumb a quick lick and kissed it before it moved to my chin. She laughed. I felt all my insides turn to mush and a voice was screaming into my head to jump on her here and now.

"I wish I didn't make that promise to Ren," she said to me, "we would have had so much fun."

I only smiled, not interested in any 'fun' she had in mind. She turned away from me, taking that odd feeling I was having with her. That was it? I really didn't have to worry about Ren loaning me out? Not that I was complaining, but I had thought Ren was lying. I stole a quick glance to look at him; he seemed quite pleased with himself. That was very, very good. It meant I hadn't fucked up, which, in turn, meant I wouldn't get my face boxed in.

David, unlike me, seemed absolutely unperturbed by the whole situation. He gave Selene a wide smile, yet said nothing. I noticed that he kept glancing at Mannix.

"You are David," she stated. He nodded. "Finally I have a face to the name. A name I have, on several nights, heard echoing through these halls."

David looked down, his blonde hair falling forward, covering his eyes. Was he blushing?

"Olivia can be quite loud," David said quietly.

Selene chuckled. "You would know better than I would, though she does speak quite fondly of you." She reached out to him and caressed his face much like she did me, except she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Such beautiful hair," she murmured, "why do you cut it?"

David froze as if he was unsure how to answer that type of question and again looked to Mannix who quickly spoke for him.

"That style looks good on him, don't you think?"

Selene turned her head slightly to look at Mannix. "I don't believe I was asking you, Mannix," she snapped.

"I like my hair this way," David said quickly and a bit loudly, trying to draw Selene's attention back to himself.

Selene turned back to David and scoffed. "Well it doesn't suit you." She backed away and looked at us, her eyes resting on me, then David and back to me. "Twice," she said move to herself than us, "twice have I actually regretting giving my word and in the same night, no less. The pleasures we could have experienced, my pretty ones. A love greater than you have ever had or even could hope to dream of."

"Selene," Ren said slowly, trying to sound stern without being too rude, "you said you'd—"

"I remember perfectly well what I said," she spat her eyes flashed a bright yellow and then it was gone. "Not tonight, but there will be others. Now, I have other guests to attend to. Mannix, Ren, we will talk tomorrow; we have much to discuss."

With that she walked off, the small crowd that surrounding us following her. I went over to Ren and resting my head on his shoulder.

"You happy now?" I said into his shirt, the sweet intoxicating smell of his cologne filling my nose and mouth.

"You did alright," he said stiffly. I lifted my head, nervous by the tone of his voice but relaxed when I saw him smiling.

"Home," I said through clenched teeth, tired of his bullshit for the night. "Now. You promised."

"Damn, Gavin, running off so soon? Don't you want to stay and have some fun?"

I turned around sharply, shocked that David had the nerve to say something like that after what I had told him in the garden. I glared at him, confusion set on my face. Mannix and Ren laughed and David soon joined it. I don't know why it bothered me to see him like this. I knew I wore my mask to hide what I was feeling, to make Ren believe I was who he wanted me to be. Somehow, seeing this side of David made me angry. Angry at him, Ren, Mannix, and especially myself.

"Fuck off," I spat. They laughed harder. I mean, what the fuck was he playing at? He was acting like…like one of them.

You need to get out more, Gavey-boy," he said, still laughing. 'Gavey-boy'?! Now he was going far enough to use Mannix's nick names for me? Day after god dammed day I've dealt with being beaten down by Ren, by Mannix and everyone else who would get their kicks at my expense. I still wasn't used to it, but I dealt with it and I found a way to escape because I expected it. But not from him. Wasn't he ranting about how he wanted to be different? My hand balled into a tight fist, shaking slightly from the tension of trying not to hit him. Ren's "problem solving" skills had clearly rubbed off on me too well, I think. Several people were now watching us with a detached interest.

"You pretentious fuck…" I muttered, turning the hurt into anger like I always did. But my voice could not hide the emotion; my voice came out broken and low. David immediately stopped laughing, his eyes widening as if he just realized what he had just done.

"Gavin," Ren growled, gripping my arm and squeezing it hard. The pain brought me back into my skin and he roughly turned me to face him. "Remember what else I promised if you got out of hand?"

I nodded and snatched my arm away from him, forcing myself to calm down. That fuck was so not worth it.

"I've got a few more people to talk to, and then we go home. Got it?"

"Yeah," I snapped back and watched him with a seething hatred as he and Mannix walked away. I half hoped that David would go with them, but he remained. I glared at him, wishing I could burn a hole into his skull with my eyes. He looked over his shoulder watching Ren and Mannix stop and talk with some red headed vampire and turned back to me.

"I'm sorry. I-I was just teasing." Ah, the other David returns once it's safely just the two of us again. I was beginning to wonder which mask was the true him? Did he even know?

"Your 'teasing' almost got me a one way ticket to Heaven."

He blinked a few times, not understanding what I meant.
"Heaven?" he repeated carefully.

"Forget it," I said.

"If I had known you had such a shitty temper I wouldn't have tried to make fun." He said, heat creeping into his voice. Fine, let him get mad too, see what I care.

"Forget it," I repeated.

"Gavin, I said I was sorry, man," he said more softly.

"And I said forget it," I glanced over David's shoulder and saw Ren looking over at me for any sign that I was acting up. God, I wanted to get out of here.

"Are you mad about what Selene said?"

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"About me and…and Olivia."

I laughed. "You fuck who want to fuck, it doesn't affect me."

He frowned and opened his mouth to speak but I held up a hand to stop him.

"Enough," I spat. "Enough, alright? I've had about all of your emotional shit I can stand for the night. Just drop it, okay?"

He didn't seem too happy about that, but mercifully remained quiet.

"I am sorry," he said and quickly walked off. Great, what the fuck was I supposed to do now? 'Call him back' a small voice in my head pleaded. And say what? Apologize for being so temperamental when it was his bullshit that started the whole thing? I could say something, anything just to not leave things on such a bad note. Again, why did I care? What did it matter? 'It just does' the voice leered. I mentally shook myself, and had decided to go to the bar and drink that stupid voice away when I saw Ren coming back.


"Let's go home," he said when he reached me.

I sighed. "It's about damn time."

"You really are pushing it, do you know that?"

I was, but found myself not caring at the moment. I was tired, that drink from earlier was not agreeing with my stomach and I wanted to desperately escape this room of living death. I wanted to go home, curl into bed and slip into the wonderful nothingness of sleep.

"I just want to get out of here," I said, lowering my voice I added. "Please."

It was probably the 'please' that got his attention. It was usually a word that I didn't use very often if I could help it. Right along with 'no' and 'stop', he had made sure my vocabulary was limited in the areas where it might keep him from getting something he wanted.

"Okay, Gavin, we're going. Come on." He took me gently by the forearm and rested his other hand on the small of my back, slowly leading me away. I wasn't feeling that sick, but now that he was in his protective mode, why ruin a good thing? I let him lead me through the crowd and to the doors. I noticed there weren't any doormen, a contradiction to any early assumption that people were opening the doors from this side to give the illusion that they opened by themselves when you first entered. Despite this, the huge doors still swung open on their own. Automatic, maybe? For doors that huge? Unlikely. We walked through the room and soon found our way back to the garage. As we drove away I quickly filed the door, the fountain and this whole fucking place into the "never-want-to-remember-again" category of my brain. I stared blankly out of the window, finding it hard to find my static heaven. I felt the emptiness and the loneliness creeping over me like a dark shroud enveloping me, suffocating me. Those feeling were always there, waiting at the back of my mind for the one moment I was too tired to run.

"You just need a hot shower and sleep," I heard Ren say. "You'll feel better when we get home, okay?"

"Okay, Ren," I replied. Yeah, like he knew what I needed or what was best for me. I sighed and closed my eyes, tired of thinking, tired of feeling and drifted to sleep.