Diary of a Runaway (BOOK #3)

A Misguided Heart

 Jane

           "Where the hell are we?" I asked Luke as a little bell ran above us.

"This fine establishment happens to be one of my favorite places in Newberry." He smiled while leading me to a faux leather booth. A girl skated by, flashing Luke her crooked teeth. My stomach turned a million angry flips. "This is a near authentic 50's diner. I thought you might like it."

I sat down across from him. "If you're trying to impress me, you're failing miserably. I'm not a burger and milkshake kind of girl."

He rolled his eyes. God how blue they were. "Hey, don't knock it until you try it. It's my favorite place, remember? That means you have to give it a chance."

I glanced down at my menu. "Ugh, do you know how bad this stuff is for you?"

"Coming from someone who drinks blood."

I pursed my lips. "Don't knock it until you try it."

He wrinkled his nose in disgust and laughed. "That would be border line cannibalism, you know. Maybe not even border line. I'd much rather have a burger...and fries...and a shake...and onion rings..."

"Good," I said, shoving my menu at him. "You eat. I'll sit here and watch you suffer from heartburn."

Luke ordered his food from Miss Crooked Teeth who glared at me and flirted with him the whole time.

"Wow," I commented after she rolled away. "She's surely in love with you."

"Who?" Luke asked, dumbfounded. "Jessica? Oh, of course not. She's just being nice. Evidently that's the thing girls do these days. You should try."

I ignored his last words and went on. "You should really find someone, you know. A 'nice' human girl. Looks like there are plenty around here that will say yes to anything you ask. Make that an 'Oh, yes!'"

His cheeks flushed red. "So what, you want me to go ask a girl out? Tired of having me around already, are you?"

"I don't think I could ever get tired of you, Luke," I told him in all honesty before I realized how inappropriate it was especially after rejecting him. "Sorry." I shook my head. "I shouldn't have said that. But I do think you should be hanging around people other than vampires and Hunters and the in-between."

"And I don't think that's possible," he admitted. "After learning everything I have in the last few weeks—realizing the world is so much bigger than I ever thought, I can't go back, Jane."

And neither could I.

I shook my head. We had to. We had to find ourselves on a friendly basis; nothing else could happen. No matter what I my heart wanted, I could only claim it to be stupid. I had to stop hoping. For a cure. For humanity. I should know it was all impossible--nothing but the dream of a naive girl. Just as it'd always been.

"You have to," I told him. "At least stop giving me those gorgeous puppy dog eyes every five minutes. It's getting extremely hard to look at them and say no."

The blood rushed to his cheeks again as he clasped his hands together. "Fine. We're platonic, but don't think that all these feelings are just going to disappear. I don't know if you've heard, but I'm not one to easily give up."