Moonlight Denial: Shades of Moonlight Book One

Not too bad for a weirdo, huh?

“I just don’t get it. I know, for a fact, that I never called him a weirdo out loud,” Nicoli muttered from his spot at the window. The glass felt cool as he leaned against it and he stared past his reflection to the world outside.

“Well…I’m pretty sure I didn’t say it out loud…I don’t think I did…maybe I didn’t,” he the contradicted himself, tapping his finger against the glass pane.

“You know, the more you question it, the more you’re going to doubt yourself,” Amelia told him. The red head watched her upside down friend from the two pushed together desks she was currently lying on.

“Oh shush,” Nicoli said with a pout before munching on the fish stick he had bought. “Let’s just say I’m at least seventy to eighty percent sure I never called him weirdo out loud.”

“Hmmm.” Amelia rolled over onto her stomach and placed her hands under her chin. “What did you say the guys name was?” she asked as she reached over to the desk next to her and pulled a gummy bear out of a small, plastic bag.

“Ethan Meier…the guy was so strange,” Nicoli murmured, replaying yesterday’s events over in his head for the thousandth time. Out of everything that had transpired that one statement ruffled him up the most.

Not too bad for a weirdo, huh?

It echoed over and over in Nicoli’s head. He just couldn’t figure out why Ethan had said that if the boy had never called him a weirdo to his face. Did Nicoli’s demeanor scream what he was thinking? Was it a lucky guess? Was it a coincidence? The questions had kept Nicoli up most of the night, slowly driving him crazy.

“Maybe he’s telepathic?”

“Huh?” Nicoli was brought out of his revere by the question and he turned away from the window. “Telepathic?”

“Yeah, you know, someone who can read someone else’s mind,” Amelia elaborated as she grabbed another squishy candy bear from the bag. Only this time she dipped the colorful bear into a small portion cup of barbeque sauce before popping it into her mouth.

Nicoli made a face and turned back to the window, setting down his fish stick back in his little box, his appetite suddenly gone.

“I know what telepathic means, thank you very much,” he retorted.

“Hmm, but that just doesn’t seem right,” Amelia went on, ignoring Nicoli’s comment. “Maybe he’s a vampire?” The girl’s dark red colored lips turned into a smile. “Yeah, I think that fits a lot better.”

At this Nicoli quickly spun around and stared at Amelia.

“A vampire?” His expression then turned sour and he rolled his eyes. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? There are no such things as vampires.”

“Oh, right…I forgot for a second that I was talking to a non-believer. Whatever was I thinking?” she said her tone carrying a bit of sarcasm.

“Damn straight. Anyone who goes around spouting out that kind of nonsense should have some sense knocked into them,” Nicoli said haughtily as he strolled over to a free desk next to Amelia’s makeshift bed.

“Speaking of which: How’s that black eye of yours?” Amelia asked with a smug smirk.

Nicoli scowled at her and, just to get even, snatched a few gummy bears from her bag.

“Hey!”

“I don’t understand how you can eat these with barbeque sauce,” Nicoli muttered as he stuffed the handful into his mouth as he sat down.

Amelia glared dangers at him before hmphing. In one, fluid motion, she spun her legs around and sat up so they were facing each other.

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she simply told him and proceeded to eat her odd food combination. “But I was being serious, Nicoli,” she then said. “Maybe this Ethan guy is a vampire, which, if he is, you should be really careful.”

Nicoli let out a long, drawn out sigh and shook his head.

“There is no way I’m going to listen to this bullshit,” he said. “There are no such things as vampires or witches, ghouls, goblins, ghosts, or any other such ridiculous thing for that matter. They’re simply figments of some disillusioned mind and not worth my time.”

Nicoli was about to get up when two feet banged on the desk on either side of him. Two pale, milky legs barred his path of escape. Nicoli looked up only to shrink back at the intense, fiery glare the red head was giving him.

“Yes way you’re going to listen to this bullshit, ridiculous or not,” she growled through clenched teeth. “Now. Sit!”

The boy sat. The cold prickle on the back of his neck told him not to argue, and he agreed with it.

In what seemed like an instant the frightening, wrathful look marring Amelia’s features melted away to her normal, nonchalant look.

“Now, I don’t care if you don’t believe a word of this, but you’re going to hear me out,” she told him as she grabbed another piece of candy and pushed it past her lips.

Getting over that brief moment of total obedience, Nicoli scowled and crossed his arms.

“Fine, go for it,” he grumbled.

Jeeze she’s pushy. I really thought for a second that she was going to bite my head off, he thought.

“Okay,” Amelia said with a nod, lowering her legs once she was sure Nicoli wasn’t going anywhere. “From everything you told me, this Ethan sounds like a true, blue vampire.”

“And why, oh knowledgeable one, would you think that?” was Nicoli’s snide remark.

“Well, think about it,” Amelia said, leaning forward. “He knew you called him “Weirdo” even though you never uttered it aloud. He had an umbrella even though it was a perfect blue sky yesterday and he was wearing gloves and sunglasses. Was the guy really pale?” she then asked.

“Well…yeah,” Nicoli told her. “But you’re really pale too, does that make you a vampire?” he shot back.

“Hellllo, I’m a red head,” Amelia told him, grabbing a lock of her hair a waving it about. “Of course I’m pale. If I was out in the sun for more than five minutes I’d be extra crispy,” she said, as though it were obvious. “But this guy is different, right? Blondes don’t have my problem.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t like to get out much!” Nicoli insisted, his nerves becoming frayed. “That doesn’t instantly make him a vampire. It was bright outside, so that’s probably why he had the sunglasses and some people just like wearing gloves. Sure I can’t figure out the whole weirdo thing just yet, but I’m sure it’s completely plausible,” he said. Every excuse sounded damn good to him and he was sticking to it.

“And what about the umbrella?” Amelia asked calmly, unaffected by all of his points.

“He said himself he watched the weather and it was wrong. What’s wrong with that?” Nicoli demanded.

“How about that the weather reported it was going to be sunny and clear all week?”

Nicoli’s mouth opened, but no words came out. No arguments, no excuses, nothing. His brain didn’t know how to make a retort to this information.

“…It did?”

“Mmhmm,” the answer was drawn out and just as smug as the smile on Amelia’s face.

“W-Well, so what?” Nicoli snapped, trying to pull himself back together. “I thought vampires couldn’t go out into the sun at all. You know the whole sunlight plus vampire equals big fiery ball of undead death.”

“Good point,” Amelia consented. “But that depends on which version of the vampire you believe in.”

“Version?” Nicoli asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Uh-huh. There’s a hell of a lot of different interpretations of the vampire that range from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice. Some says vampires are burned by holy artifacts, some say they’re not. Some say vampire’s explode on contact with the light from the sun and other’s, my dear Nicoli, say that they can go out into the sun for a time, but it weakens them. So all of this Ethan’s attire could have been protection so he didn’t get too weak too fast.”

Amelia finished her long explanation and waited for Nicoli’s reaction. She could see the gears in the boy’s head turning, trying to come up with a good rebuttal.

Finally Nicoli opened his mouth to try and counter Amelia’s points, when suddenly a shrill cry rang through the classroom, making both of them jump.

“Damn, lunch times over,” Amelia pouted.

“We better get out of here before this vacant room isn’t so vacant anymore,” Nicoli suggested, relieved their conversation was disrupted.

The two gathered up their things and quickly exited the classroom. As they were walking down the hallway that was filling up with other bodies, Nicoli couldn’t help voicing something else that had been nagging at him.

“I wonder why he was looking through the archives too,” he muttered.

“Huh?” Amelia voiced curiously.

“It’s just something else I wasn’t able to figure out,” Nicoli told her. “He obviously wasn’t doing a report like me, so what could a guy like him want with a bunch of dusty old documents?” he asked.

Amelia was silent for a moment as they trudged their way through the sea of students.

“I honestly don’t know. I’m not sure how they’d be useful for an outsider,” she replied.

“Outsider?” Nicoli asked curiously.

“Yeah, he can’t be from around here. My family knows pretty much every single person that lives or ever has lived here and there has never been a family with the name of Meier that resided in Whixton,” she told him.

“…Damn, all of this mystery stuff is starting to give me a headache,” Nicoli grumbled.

“You get used to it around here,” Amelia chuckled. “But speaking of your report, the info you got at the library isn’t going to be enough for you to write a good essay,” she informed him as they came to a halt outside of her next class.

“Huh, it’s not?” Nicoli asked in confusion.

“No way. You can’t go into a proper history of Whixton just from reading stuffy old words on a page. So that’s why I’m going to kindly give you my valuable time this weekend and take you on a tour of the town and give you intimate information about some of its most historical aspects,” Amelia told him with her thousand-watt smile.

“Uh-whoa, wait, what?” Nicoli stuttered in confusion. “You can’t just schedule my weekend! What if I have something important-”

“Call me at eight tonight and we’ll make proper plans,” Amelia interrupted him and poked his nose with her finger. “Now you better run off to class before you’re late,” she said cutely.

A flash of flaming red hair was the last thing Nicoli saw as Amelia slipped into the classroom. He stood there for awhile after she was gone, trying to make sense of what just happened.

“How can one girl be so bossy!?!” he exclaimed. His out burst getting him stares from those still filing into class.

Nicoli’s face flushed and he quickly made his way to his own classroom. He continued to fume as he stalked through the hallway.

“Stupid controlling, know it all, thinks she can just…wait.” Nicoli stopped abruptly and his face turned red as a thought struck him.

“Did I-did I just get roped into a date?”

*****************************

“Yeah, it was good, thanks Mom!” Nicoli called out before closing his bedroom door with a snap. The boy let out a content sigh. Being filled with good food was always a plus.

Nicoli walked over to his desk and opened up his Dell laptop and turned it on. He plopped down and leaned back with a sigh as he waited for it to boot up. Once everything was fully loaded and set up he opened up his Instant Messenger program. Nicoli’s eyes widened and his heart leapt for joy when he saw Zack was online.

“Hallelujah! Finally!!!” he cried out excitedly. Before he could click on Zack’s username a window popped up and an image of his best friend Zack came into view, showing he had his webcam on.

The image wasn’t the greatest, but Nicoli could see Zack’s short, dirty blonde hair that always had that funny arc in the front where it parted. Familiar, friendly blue eyes stared back at him and for a second Nicoli had the feeling of being back at home.

“Nic! Buddy! Thank God, I was about to go craz-Holy shit!!!” Zack voice exclaimed through the microphone. “Dude, what the hell happened to you!?” he asked, seeing Nicoli’s condition.

“Nice seeing you too,” Nicoli said dully and shook his head. “That’s the first thing you say to me after not seeing me for almost two weeks? Holy shit?” he asked.

“Well, I had this whole, drawn out, mushy, best friend’s forever speech, but the glaring black eye kinda threw me for a loop,” Zack retorted. “Seriously, what the hell happened?” he questioned again.

“I made a new record that’s what,” Nicoli replied. “Second day of school I got into a fight because people can’t take the stuff that spews out of my mouth,” he explained.

“Oooh bad move,” Zack grimaced.

“Yeah, ya think? I just forgot I don’t have you and Brittany to pull me out of the trouble I get myself into now or have Brittany chew me out because of those stupid actions,” Nicoli said with a sigh.

“Yeah it’s totally sucky and boring without you here,” Zack told him. “Doing all of our normal treks through the city and going to our usual hang out spots just doesn’t feel the same without you, buddy.”

Nicoli couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face at the knowledge of being missed.

“Brit actually had to smack some sense into me after I tried to hop in my car to go rescue you,” Zack added.

“Ouch, I’m surprised you don’t have a black eye too,” Nicoli chuckled.

“It was close. But what about you? Besides the fight has anything good happened to you? Have you found any friends to try and fill up that empty space in your heart since we’re not there?” Zack asked while batting his lashes at the screen.

Nicoli snorted and shook his head. Good ol’ Zack.

“Nah not really…well, maybe I have,” Nicoli muttered, not sure on how to describe it.

“Maybe? Do tell,” Zack encouraged.

“Well, I met this girl named Amelia. She’s kinda…invited herself into my acquaintance,” Nicoli explained.

“Oooh forceful, huh?” Zack asked with a grin.

“Yeah, and not to mention bossy. My God you would not believe how she says something and expects you to do whatever she says.”

“Kinda like Brit?” the blonde haired said questioningly.

“Kiiinda, but imagine if there were five Brittany’s and all of them were drunk on power,” Nicoli said to give a visual.

“Oh my God! I’m sorry,” Zack said in horror. “Is she at least hot?” Zack then asked with his normal, pervy smile.

Nicoli pursed his lips as he thought over Amelia’s looks.

“I can safely say she’s good looking, but not really smokin’, holy crap I think my pants just exploded, hot,” he explained.

“Huh, well, good looking is better than nothing,” Zack deduced. “You should totally snap a picture of her and send it to me so I can see for myself.”

“Ugh, like I want to give you material for your nightly perversions? I don’t think so,” Nicoli said while making a face.

“Ha, you’re just angry cause we can’t have “male bonding” time anymore,” Zack said with a smirk as he made a jerking motion with his hand.

Nicoli’s face flamed red and for a second his brain faltered on what to say.

“Sh-Shut up, asshole!” he sputtered. “We only did that two or three times and if you ever tell anyone about that you are so dead,” he said darkly.

Zack broke out in loud, rumbling laughter and hit his hand on his desk a couple of times.

“Don-Don’t worry about that, Nic,” he said as he calmed down. “I have just as much shit to take if anyone found out,” Zack assured his friend.

Nicoli moved on, to change the subject to something less embarrassing

“So how has Brit been? She holding up well?” he asked.

“Holy crap I never thought someone could actually cry their eyes out, but Brit came really close,” Zack told him, his smile disappearing. “It was almost impossible to consol her, but she’s been doing better,” he said. He leaned his elbow on the desk and his fingers subconsciously began to play with his left ear.

“Awe, poor Brit. See forcing friends to move away really can scar you psycholgica…ly,” Nicoli trailed off, noticing something odd in Zack’s action. “Zack, what the hell is that in your ear?” he asked his tone going dangerously low.

“Huh?” Zack blinked at him in confusion before realizing, a little too late, what he was doing. “Oh, uh, nothing!” he said as quickly covered his earlobe.

“Isn’t that the weird ass blue, diamond shaped earring you bought awhile ago?” Nicoli questioned. “I thought you said you weren’t going to wear that until…you didn’t!” the boy exclaimed in shock, which soon gave way to anger.

“Wait, wait, Nic! Hear me out before you blow this out of proportion,” Zack pleaded.

“Out of proportion!? You promised! You promised me you weren’t going to tell Brittany how you felt until I got back to San Francisco!!!” Nicoli raged, feeling both angry and hurt.

“I told you to wait before you blew up,” Zack said, trying to get Nicoli to calm down. “You don’t understand, Nic, she was devastated when you left. She kept saying things like “Soon you’re going to leave me too,” and “When everyone moves away we’ll probably talk less and less until we’re little more than acquaintances,” what else was I supposed to do, Nic!?” he demanded.

“Comfort her, not take advantage of her emotional state!” Nicoli snapped.

“Take advantage!? I did no such thing! She was convinced I was going to leave her too and the only way I could think of to convince her otherwise was to tell her I loved her. That I was in love with her. That I’ve always been in love with her and that I’d never leave her. It just happened, Nic, it’s not like I did it on purpose,” Zack told him, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Nicoli was too angry to think that this was practical. To put himself in his friends shoes in a situation like that. It was just the straw that broke the camels back to him.

“Didn’t you stop and think just once that I, the person that had been coaching you over all these years and helping plan how best to confess your feelings, would want to see my two best friends finally stop their bullshiting and realize they more than liked each other!?” he bellowed.

“No! For you information I didn’t!” Zack screamed back, his patience giving way. “Sorry to tell you this, Nic, but for once I wasn’t thinking about you! Sorry to break it you, but this was about Brittany, not you. Now if you would stop being a whiny little selfish brat you’d realize your friends are finally together, so why don’t you shut your stupid blow hole and be happy for us!?!”

Nicoli’s jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. His chest heaved from all his yelling and rage. But what got to him most was that his eyes were stinging and felt like they were going to water soon. It was just too much.

“You know what? Fine, whatever, I don’t need you. It’s more than obvious both of you don’t need me! So just go about your happy lives together!” he yelled back, his voice audibly cracking. His chest began to burn and heave for a completely different reason now.

In the image Zack’s face went from anger to shock, as if realizing what his own words just meant to his friend.

“Wait! Nic, I-”

Zack didn’t get a chance to finish as the IM was abruptly closed and the computer shut down. Nicoli stood up so fast his chair toppled over. He was so angry he wanted to grab his laptop and chuck across the room. The voice of reason stopped him so he picked up one of Beethoven’s chew toys that was on the desk and hurled it as hard as he could. A high pitched squeak sounded as it hit the window and bounced to the floor.

“That stupid asshole!!! That stupid, fucking asshole!!!” Nicoli screamed at the top of his lungs. He went about kicking everything in range: The chair, the desk, and even the bedpost, which caused him to get angrier when pain shot through his foot.

An urgent knock coming from his door made him pause.

“Nicoli, are you okay?” came his father’s worried voice. “What’s going on, why are you yelling?”

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” chimed in his mother.

Nicoli just stared at the door, every part of his body frozen and numb. It was only when the doorknob rattled and began to turn did he go into action.

Nicoli threw his whole body against the door as it began to open, effectively slamming it shut. With a shaky hand he fumbled with the knob before locking it.

“Leave me alone, I’m fine,” he snapped harshly. When he was sure the door was securely locked he pulled away from it and began to pace the room, his anger renewing itself, causing his blood to boil.

The knob continued to rattle and another knock came from it.

“Nicoli, open this door. Tell us what’s wrong,” Lance insisted.

“Please, Nicy, let us in,” Laura said.

Nicoli covered his ears. His parent’s kind intentions were causing his nerves to go over the breaking point. Finally, not able to bear their pleas, Nicoli grabbed his digital alarm clock.

“I said leave me alone!!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he ripped the cord out of the wall and hurled the clock at the door. The crash echoed and bits and pieces of the machine fell to the floor.

There was a long, eerie silence. Nicoli could actually hear the seconds tick by in his head. He was panting harshly and he could feel his eyes not only sting, but burn from his out of control emotions.

“Come on, let’s leave him alone for a bit, Laura,” his father said softly.

Nicoli heard his parent’s footsteps head away from his door and his body shook in relief. He collapsed to his knees, ignoring the pain of the hard, wood floor.

“Oh God, Lance, you don’t think It is happening again, do you?” Nicoli faintly heard his mother ask.

“Hush, don’t talk like that. He’s just upset about something. Let him cool…”

Nicoli didn’t hear the rest of what his father was saying as they walked out of ear shot of him. He distantly wondered what “It” was, but at the moment he really couldn’t get himself to care.

A choked sob rose from Nicoli’s throat and he bent over so his face was pressed against the floor. He covered his head with his hands as he screamed into the wood. His anger melted away to hurt and his scream of fury gave way to sobs.

Nicoli stayed like that for several minutes until his throat was sore and raw, forcing him to quiet down.

“The only way I could think of to convince her otherwise was to tell her I loved her. That I was in love with her. That I’ve always been in love with her and that I’d never leave her.”

Nicoli slowly sat up and wiped at his tear soaked face.

“Sorry to tell you this, Nic, but for once I wasn’t thinking about you! Sorry to break it you, but this was about Brittany, not you. Now if you would stop being a whiny little selfish brat you’d realize your friends are finally together, so why don’t you shut your stupid blow hole and be happy for us!?!”

“Why?” Nicoli’s voice cracked. His finger’s tightened on the sides of his head, digging into his scalp. “Why didn’t they wait for me? I wanted more than anyone for them to be together and to be happy, so why didn’t they wait for me to come back so I could be happy with them?”

”Stop being a whiny little selfish brat. Stop being a whiny little selfish brat. Stop being a whiny little selfish brat.”

“God…I am a selfish brat,” Nicoli muttered, burying his face in his hands.

So many conflicting emotions were welling up in him. On the one hand he felt guilty. Guilty that he was so infuriated by Zack and Brittany finally fessing up to their feelings for each other. He knew about their secret feelings since the beginning and worked with Zack for years to try and get them together, waiting for that perfect moment.

But Nicoli felt betrayed that that perfect moment was him leaving. He always felt the three of them needed each other to be happy. That if one of them were to part the other two would be lost until that other one came back, but he was wrong. He was out of the picture and now Zack and Brittany were happy with just the two of them. They didn’t need him. Nicoli was the expendable one.

Exhausted, Nicoli crawled over to his bed and hefted himself up onto it. He flopped over onto his back and stared at the ceiling. His breathing became slow and regular as he calmed down, but he felt so heavy. So alone.

“Why am I lashing out at everyone?” he muttered.

His friends. His family. What was he doing? At this rate he was going to be completely alone if he drove everyone away.

“I should go apologize to Mom and Dad,” Nicoli muttered as he laboriously sat himself up. But that’s as far as he got. He didn’t want to face his parent’s just yet. He didn’t want to listen to parent assurances or parent advice.

He couldn’t try and talk to Zack about this, not just yet. His friend had probably already told Brittany what had happened and she would most likely get angry or distraught because of him. Nicoli couldn’t deal with that right now.

Nicoli needed someone not emotionally related to this. Who wouldn’t take sides and tell it to him straight of what he should do.

“Call me at eight tonight and we’ll make proper plans.”

Nicoli’s head whipped over to the clock to see what time it was, only to see it not there. Remembering why, he looked at his watch to see that it was a quarter to eight. Not caring if it was earlier than requested, Nicoli shuffled over to his tipped over chair and went through his jacket that was pinned underneath it.

Nicoli went back to the bed with his cell phone in hand. When he sat down and flipped it open he went through his contact list. When he found Amelia’s number he stared at it for awhile. For some reason his hand hesitated in hitting the dial button.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Nicoli forced his thumb to press down. He held the phone to his ear and listened to it ring. The suffocating feeling of dread that had been bearing down on him let up when the other end picked up and it disappeared completely when he heard Amelia’s voice.

“Hey, Nicoli, right on time. Very punctual.”

“Hey, Amelia. I know you wanted me to call about this weekend, but…can we talk?”

========================Ch.3 End