~~
Rika
~~
After we finished our conversation with Clovio and the others, the four of us went to get a drink from the student center before class began. It would be nice to have something to sip on while going through the lecture for the first time.
While the four of us sat together near the fountain in the center of campus, I noticed that something seemed off about Lyssa. She was looking off into the distance and seemed to be trying to find something. I didn't know what was going on with her, but I knew that she was different than usual. I mean, I had been around her since the day that she was born, well almost. I would know if one of my best friends was acting differently than usual.
“Lyssa, is something wrong?” I called out to her, worried and curious at the same time. It was our first day of college. Our first day of classes. First day of meeting a bunch of new people. There was a lot to process today and she could just be overwhelmed.
“U..uh..uhm, n..no, I don't really th..think that anything i..is wrong really. I..I just have this really strange feeling. And, w..well, there is something in my head that is telling me that I..I need to find someone.”
.....
I could tell that she was looking for someone with her heightened sense. Lyssa was a pure vampire, that meant that she could literally sense things about people that I could never even imagine. She had told me once that it was like being able to smell the blood of everyone around you and knowing when they were near after you had learned that scent.
Lyssa, being a pure vampire, had that ability more than her sister, who was a hybrid of wolf and vampire. For Alexa, she could smell people like a wolf, but she could also sense them like a vampire could. There was a slight difference there. I thought it was interesting and cool, and just another way of showing that we were all different.
“Who do you need to find?” Alexa was looking at her twin sister like she was worried about her as well. She, like me, had seen that she was not acting normal right now.
“Is it someone that is a bad guy?” Ilana, who looked just like my Aunt Juniper, asked in a soft voice. Her green eyes glistening and wavy, ashy blonde hair swaying in the wind.
“No. Not a bad guy. Nothing like that. It's just... It's just weird, you know. It's like, a voice inside of me is telling me that I need to find someone and be with them. I..it's almost like, my heart and my mind are both telling me that I am in love with someone. Someone that I just met.”
There was a moment where me, Ilana, and Alexa just stared at Lyssa. I had a feeling that we were all processing the information and thinking the same thing. This was amazing. It was definitely not what we were expecting, but it was amazing all the same.
“LYSSA!” I almost shrieked as I squealed her name loudly.
“Oh my Goddess, Lyssa!” Ilana squealed as well.
“Lyssa! Oh my Goddess, are you serious?” Alexa was grinning as she asked her sister that question.
“What? What is the matter with all of you?” I guess that Lyssa hadn't made the same leap that we had. She was still trying to figure it all out. I guess since neither of us had known someone that this had happened to, it was hard for us to recognize it. I mean, I didn't get it until I listened to what she had said. I might not have gotten it if it were me, though.
“Lyssa, think about what you just said. Your heart and your brain are telling you that you're in love with someone. That you need to find them. Probably that you need to be with that person. What does that tell you? What do you think that means?”
“Huh?” She was seriously having to think about it. I swear, she could be so dense. She was a smart girl, brilliant even, but she was clueless when it came to social things. Well, not always, just when it came to things that dealt with boys.
“Think about it, Sissy.” Alexa took her sister's hand and looked into her eyes. I knew that she was trying to get her to understand, and she was calming her down by using the nickname that they had for each other growing up. “Think about what those words mean.”
“W..well, I..I uhm, I have never felt it before. B..but I guess that, uhm, i..it can mean that I found my... I found my... I uhm, I found my-.”
“MATE!” The three of us said the word in a very loud whisper with so much excitement filling our voices.
“You found your mate, Lyssa. So, who was it?” I think that I was way more excited than the others. I mean, this was what every woman wanted, wasn't it? They wanted to find that other half to themselves. And, here, one of my best friends was the first of us to find a mate.
“W..well, I felt it when we met with the German students today.”
“But it didn't happen when we met them the other day?” Alexa asked Lyssa, to which she shook her head no in response.
“Hmm.” I thought about it. “Well, that means that Gunnar, Clovio and Aloisius are not your mate. Assuming that it's a man, that means that Warrick is your mate.”
“Or it could be Hede or Hedi.” Ilana laughed. “There is no saying that you can't have a same sex relationship.”
“I don't want one. No offense to my dad and papa, but I want a man, not a woman.” Lyssa laughed as if even she thought that was funny. “Then again, it would serve me right. Fate would do that to me, wouldn't it?” We were all laughing now.
“Whomever fate chose for you, Lyssa, I know that you will be happy.” I smiled at her and then checked the time on my phone. “We need to get going. We have class in five minutes. This works out, though. Warrick is in our class, we will know if it is him.” I grabbed Lyssa's hand then and pulled her along behind me as I made my way to the proper lecture hall in the correct building.
I think that I could confirm right then and there that it was Warrick that Lyssa had mated with. When we sat down in the room, just seconds before Alexa and Ilana had reached us, Clovio sat next to me and Warrick sat next to Lyssa.
“Hallo, there.” Warrick, with an even thicker accent than Clovio, smiled at Lyssa.
“H..hello.” Lyssa was grinning like she was excited and nervous at the same time.
“You know, Rika, my friend here has not stopped talking about your friend since he met her earlier. I think he likes her.” Clovio whispered into my ear as we watched the two of them act so nervous around each other. Alexa and Ilana sat in the row behind us, presumably to watch the show of me and Clovio and Lyssa and Warrick. They also had the rest of the German students sitting near them as well.
“I..I think that you're right.” I nervously whispered back to him as I finally took my eyes off of my friend's blushing face. The only problem was, Clovio was really close to me and the moment that I saw his handsome eyes looking at me, I blushed as well.
“Maybe we should all go on a date together. You and your friend Lyssa can show me and Warrick around the city. We don't know where anything is yet.” At that moment, Clovio smiled so handsomely that I found it almost impossible to tell him no.
“Y..yeah, I would like that.” I agreed almost instantly, only hoping after the fact that Lyssa wouldn't object.
“Great, we can go out this weekend. I can't wait to see what you show me around the city. It will be fun.”
Throughout the rest of the day, Clovio and the others were there to talk with us, walk us to and from our class and lunch. And just to hang out with us in general. It was nice, honestly. Having a guy around to talk to that wasn't someone that I had grown up with. I liked it a lot.
Now, I just needed to not let my brother know about this. I didn't want him to start a fight with me about meeting some guy and going out with him already. It wasn't like I had planned it or anything, but he was overly protective, and overly stupid at times.
Then again, when I saw him walking through the campus all that day, I saw that he was talking to Armina. The two of them were looking rather chummy together. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to have my date with Clovio and not have him acting like it was the end of the world.
I could hope at least. And if I managed it, then I would be able to live my life as if it were my own. No Mom, Dad or Reagan telling me what I could and could not do. Huh, maybe the fact that our parents were busy and away was actually going to be a good thing. For me, at the very least.
I went home that day with nothing but good thoughts in my head.
