Hungry Love || Book 1

NINE: "I'll Always Find You"

"It's here."

Alec stopped the car gently. He didn't look away from the road, he waited for Lydia to open the door and to go burst into tears on her mother's lap. That night hadn't been easy for anyone, especially not for her.
Seeing that she didn't move, Alec got out of the car and went around it. He sighed for a long moment before opening the door. The redhead looked at him, confused.

"Are you going to stay in the car forever?" He told her.

Lydia rolled her eyes and stepped out. Alec slammed the door then.

"Listen," Mathews approached, "I know we aren't friends, but –."

"You saved me." The redhead murmured.

"No, Lydia." He shook his head, "I didn't save you."

"Alexander," Lydia touched his chest as she had done last night, "you could have made me forget, right? But you trusted me. Why?"

"Because I can protect you better this way." Alec explained, "If I made you forget, you would be stubborn and continue to stick your nose into dangerous things."

"Thank you." She looked him in the eye.

"Hm," Mathews caressed her pink cheek, "just don't scare me like that ever again."

Lydia smiled at him.

Her small hand went all the way up his back and brought them closer. Alec's body shuddered and he pulled the redhead's face closer. He leaned in, their noses touching.

"Lydia," Alec warned her.

"Are you going to kiss me?"

Oh, he wanted to. He would live the rest of eternity unhappy if in return he could kiss Lydia one single time. His fingers traced her parted lips and she closed her eyes.

However, Alec tore the closeness between them and stepped away.

"You should get in. Your mother must be worried." He told her.

"Yes."

Jones smiled at him as if nothing had happened. She climbed up the small stairs and opened the door. Before she entered, she looked back one last time.

"See you tomorrow," Lydia waved, "friend."

"Goodbye, Lydia Jones."

And then she disappeared behind the white door.

Of course Alec wanted to have held her and kissed her as if there was no tomorrow, but there was. And he had to put her safety first. Getting involved with a vampire was far more complicated than the tv shows and the Twilight books showed, it was far more difficult than the encouraging campaigns of human-vampire relations spread in town made seem.

Alexander could fall in love with her and suffer for her. And he would do it willingly. But he would never let Lydia Jones go through that kind of pain.

Monday

Lydia was in the library. The English book was open, on the long, narrow table, and her pencil marked a pleasant rhythm as she read her argumentative text again.

"Lydia?"

She pushed her red hair away from her face and looked up. It was Octavia, she was sitting in the chair across the table, her eyes were red. She didn't look like herself.

"I'm so sorry." The brunette sniffed, "I know that sorry is not enough. And I don't know how I can ask you to forgive me when I can't forgive myself."