Kieran

Both Jackson and I got in trouble with our mothers for skipping school that day, but we agreed it had been worth it. Both of us felt a lot better afterwards and, as Holt had predicted, we were able to catch up on our work no problem, opting to work together on it rather than on our own.

It was now the weekend and neither of us really had much planned. My mother had somewhere she needed to be on Saturday, and wouldn't be returning home until the following morning. So that meant I had the house to myself.

Friday night was pretty much spent hanging out with my mother and Lucas, and Heath asked Jackson to help him run lines for the play, so that's where he was.

Lately I'd noticed that my mother and Lucas had grown a lot closer, and while talking to them that night, I learned that they had begun dating recently. I was really happy for them, especially since I knew Lucas was a good person and he seemed to genuinely care about her. And I was glad Mom was happy.

I ended up sleeping in a lot more than usual on Saturday morning, not bothering to get up until 10:00 AM. I slept really well, though, so I wasn't complaining.

Something interesting to note was that despite the fact that I slept in a coffin most nights there was also a bed in my room, located near the window. I hardly used it, but it was an option.

Anyway, at about 1:00 in the afternoon, I was sitting around reading a book when my phone started ringing. The ringtone told me immediately that it was Jackson. "Hey, Jackson, what's up?" I asked as soon as I picked up.

"Not too much," he replied, "I've got nothing going on this weekend, and neither does Holt, so it's pretty boring over here at the moment."

"Same here. My mom's going to be leaving in about an hour, so I'll be here by myself."

"Where's she going?" asked Jackson.

"I don't know, to be honest, I just know she's not going to be back until tomorrow morning," I replied.

"Mind if I come over, then?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool," I agreed, "Hell, you could even spend the night if you wanted to."

"Yeah, I'd love that.I just have to let my mother know where I'll be. I can't see her having a problem with it, though."

"Awesome," I said, "See you in a bit, then?"

"Definitely."

As I hung up, I went downstairs to find my mother, who was busy getting ready to leave. Wherever she was going must have been very formal, because she was dressed in an elegant black dress and her hair was done.

"Lucas is going to be here soon," she told me.

"Is he going with you?" I asked.

"Yes, he is. Bram Devein's family will be there as well."

"Interesting," I said, "I just wanted to let you know, Jackson's coming over in a little bit. Is it alright with you if he spends the night here as well?"

"That's perfectly fine with me," said Mom, before walking away.It wasn't too long after this conversation that Jackson arrived. I opened the door and let him in, greeting him with a kiss. "I take it your mom said yes?"

"What was your first clue?" Jackson replied with a smile. "By the way, I ran into this one outside," he added as Lucas stepped inside.

"You're early," Mom noted, re-entering the room. "I wasn't expecting you for another forty-five minutes, at least."

"Yeah, well I guess you're stuck with me now, huh?" Lucas joked.

"Oh, somehow I don't think she minds too much," I countered. "Is Erika going with you guys, by the way?"

"Yeah, she's waiting in the car," said Lucas, "She wanted to stop and pick up Serena on the way, which is why we're so early."

"We should get going, then," said Mom, and she followed Lucas back outside. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Behave yourselves, will you?"

"Yes, Mom, we will," I almost rolled my eyes. Were we five?

"See you!" called Lucas, who was already halfway to the car.

"Bye," I said to my mother, then added, "Bye, Lucas!" I gave my mother a quick hug, and with that she left, closing the front door behind her. Jackson and I then began to figure out what we felt like doing. Since it was quite cold outside, both of us preferred to remain indoors today.

There was a pretty good sized DVD stand in the living room, most of which contained movies that belonged to my mother—mine were mostly upstairs in my room. As we looked through the movies, Jackson commented on just how many there were here. Being alive as long as we had been, my mother and I had collected a lot of them.

Just for shits and giggles, we decided to marathon the Twihard movies, which Frankie had introduced Jackson to some time last year, since I'd never seen any of them. According to Jackson, the romance aspect of the story was severely flawed the main characters were terribly written, but overall it was one of those 'so bad it's good' films so he was curious to see my reaction to it. "Someone also made a parody of it, which is actually really funny," he added as he popped the first disc into the DVD player.

"Hey, do you think we should record my reaction for Holt?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think that'd be good," replied Jackson, "He'd love to see that. Let me get my iCoffin..."

Once he did, we started the movie, and at first it seemed alright for the most part. The main character was a werecat who'd just moved back to the town she'd lived in as a child and she had what appeared to be an interesting, fleshed out personality—until the point where her love interest made his first appearance. For me, any likability she may have had vanished after that.

 Just after the part of the film where she learned he was a vampire, I noticed Jackson trying to suppress his laughter. "Wanna fill me in on what I'm about to witness?"

Jackson shook his head. "Nope. Just watch. You'll get it in a minute."

The vampire stepped into the sunlight, and once he turned around, I immediately got why Jackson was laughing, because I cracked up too. "Yeah, because that's accurate!"

"Not to mention the effect is terrible," added Jackson. "Hey, this reminds me...in Biteology we were talking about the different weaknesses that vampires have, and someone mentioned that one of them was roses but not a lot of detail was given about that. It made me kind of curious as to how it works."

"I mean, you'd think they'd have explained it more since that was the whole point of the discussion," I remarked, "I can tell you, though. Roses are one of our weaknesses, yeah, but they aren't fatal to us, and it's specifically red ones that affect us. Any other colour doesn't really do much. Roses, to us...well, they put us to sleep in the same way as an anesthetic would for anyone else. But there are a couple other things. For one, there are some vampires who are immune to them, but only a few. My mother and Drystan, for example, they're immune."

"What about you?" asked Jackson.

"Weirdly enough, no," I replied, "the other thing, too, is that I can't even touch a red rose without being knocked out by it."

We only recorded my reaction to the first movie. I didn't care for the films overall, but Jackson hadn't been kidding when he said they could be hilarious to watch at times. The most amusing thing about them, to me, were all the liberties they took with how they wrote their vampires, especially since these movies were made by monsters and not Normies. Granted, the Vampire Majesty series had done the same thing...

Halfway through the final film, I'd pretty much lost interest in the story altogether. I glanced over at Jackson, who looked as bored as I was. I smiled and leaned in pressing my lips to his. He smiled against my mouth and kissed back. My hand found the remote for the TV and I pressed pause.

"It was boring anyways," I breathed.

"You're right," Jackson said quickly moving his mouth back to mine. We kissed passionately before my fingers moved to his shirt. I hoped he wouldn't mind but he made it easy for me to remove it. He did the same to me while the kissing continued.

"Are you sure?" I asked breathlessly.

"Yes."

The next morning we awoke in my bed, wrapped in each other's arms with Jackson's head resting on my chest. The sun was well up by this point, but neither of us felt like rising just yet. I awoke just before Jackson did and as I gazed at him I smiled, noting how peaceful he looked in sleep. That look of peacefulness didn't leave him as he opened his amethyst blue eyes and smiled back softly.

No words were needed then. The look in his eyes told me just how content he was, and I was too.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked anyway.

"Really well," replied Jackson, "It was the best sleep I've had in a while, to tell you the truth...and last night, well—it was amazing."

"Yeah, it was," I agreed, playing with his hair.

"I know that sounds really cheesy, but—"

"Hey, that doesn't bother me," I laughed, cutting him off.

"Right, forgot who I was talking to for a second there," Jackson joined in. He lifted his head in order to kiss me, and then resumed his previous position so I could continue playing with his hair.

We stayed like that for a little while longer, and it wasn't until I heard the sound of my front door open that we had to get up. My mother was home.

As Jackson moved to get up, I groaned and said, "I'm not up yet." I then pretended to snore.

Jackson laughed again, and he was about to respond when my mother called me. "Kieran, I'm home! And I have some news; can you come down here, please?"

"In a minute!" I yelled back. Once we were both up and had gotten dressed, we headed downstairs to see what it was my mother wanted to tell me. Lucas wasn't with her, so he'd probably gone home already. Or just hadn't left there, depending on if she'd just come from there or not.

"Took you long enough," she said when she saw me. "Hello, Jackson," she added.

I let her first comment slide for the most part as Jackson returned the greeting. "Hello to you, too. So you said you had some news you wanted to share?"

"Yes, I did," said Mom, "I was told last night that something very important will be taking place this summer."

"What's that?"

"Queen Elissabat's wedding," replied my mother. "We've been invited to it, and we're each meant to bring someone."

"That's pretty interesting news," I said, "You'll be bringing Lucas, I'm guessing?"

"Who else would I bring?" My mother nodded. "And you, Kieran? Do you have anyone in mind?"

My eyes flickered to Jackson, who was standing on my right. "Actually, yes," I said, "Would you be interested in going with me?"

Jackson's eyes lit up. "Yeah, I'd love to."

My mom smiled at us. She'd known about our relationship since it had officially begun, and she couldn't be happier for the two of us.