Chapter 372) It Ain’t Easy Being A Vampire Teen

“You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.”

― P. Monahan

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium
Home to '2Dark 2C' Band Members Chase Cameron and Colton Vatore, their wives Hailey and Maddie, plus teens Connor and Keira

Noisy slamming of doors, followed by loud yelling, only getting louder accompanied by hard steps bouncing down the stairs announced something wasn’t all that hap-hap-happy at the Elysium. All four parents were in the living area watching the following scene unfold.

“You are a MORON! Total moronic idiot!” Keira just turned around to Connor at the bottom of the stairs, hissed those words at him, then tried to walk off, which he foiled by quickly grabbing her wrist, roughly, flinging her back around to face him, her body crashing into his, which she acquitted by pushing him.

That was when her father intervened.

“HEY – kids! What the actual fuck?! Especially you, Romeo! You got that a couple numbers gentler there, bubba?!” Colton rumbled, but only got shut down by the daughter he was trying to protect.

“Dad – stay out of this! I can handle a dumbass like Connor MYSELF!” without ever taking her death glare off Connor, Keira hissed the words at her father, which called her mother to action.

“Keira Vatore! Wanna try that again, but this time talk properly to your father?” Maddie’s tone was a warning.

“Properly? Seriously mom? He’s a musician! Since when does he do anything properly? Or any of us. Nothing here is EVER normal. And I thought you all were cool. Well, all aside for that fool here!” Keira pointed at Connor.

“Fuck you, Keira!” Connor clapped back angrily.

“CONNOR CAMERON! ENOUGH!!!” Hailey’s voice sounded.

“Mom, seriously, you guys don’t even have a clue! Keira wants to become the school slut now and I am not just sitting by for that.” Connor told her.

Keira wasted no second and planted her flat hand in Connor’s face leaving a bright red mark, for a moment the 15-year-old boy looked as if he was gonna cry. Everyone present froze for a moment.

Connor ran the back of his hand across the burning mark the slap had left, then without another word, he ran out of the house into the backyard, while now 15-year-old Keira looked guilty and remorseful.

“KEIRA! What is going on with you of late! Enough! Go to your room! RIGHT NOW! I’ll be up in a second and we will discuss this!” her mother Maddie ordered, with a trembling bottom lip Keira turned on her heels and ran back upstairs, moments later the loud slamming of a door announced she obliged.

“What the hell is going on with those two? They used to be thick as thieves and now this?!” Hailey wondered, Colton shrugged and answered.

“I can fill you all in. While you and Chase were at the funeral in Windenburg, I got a call from the school to pick up Connor from the principal’s office. He was just supposed to go there to pick up his early graduation certificate from the secretary’s office today. Long story short, instead he started a hallway brawl with some kid talking shit about Keira. And from what I have puzzled together so far, we know that Connor hated high school, feeling singled out for being a Vampire, and maybe he was, so when he was offered early graduation he just jumped at it without considering consequences, and now Keira is pissed at him for graduating early without even discussing it with her, she says it made her feel like he was abandoning her – or in her dramatic words: ‘like he didn’t care about her at all anymore’, which we all know is BULLSHIT – so to get back at him she is flirting with other boys right under his nose, putting cuddly Selfies with them doing the duck lips and what not on social media for Connor to see, and even accepted an invite to go to the dance with some boy I don’t even know, even though she was originally gonna go with Connor, all of that clearly to rub Connor’s face in her being disgruntled at his decision. Obviously, Connor hated high school but now hates not being there even more and feels backed into a wall. So, the tit for tat seems to be the new normal between them, no matter what I say to either of them or both together, they both just turn on total teen hearing and I could be talking to a plant. We all can see it, they are clearly crushing on each other, I am pretty sure they both feel it, but neither has the balls to act on it and I got no parenting strategies left here to figure out what to do, so from where I sit, it’s gonna be 2 long years and change till my darling daughter graduates too. Until then, she may be THIS fucking ray of sunshine. Joy to us all.”

“No way! NOT gonna happen. I thought both were just taking the many funerals hard, which is why I understood Connor not wanting to go with you guys to Windenburg today, but no way is it gonna go on like this. I’ll talk to Keira. A REAL mother-daughter talk about the realities of life and choices, including other people’s affecting her.” Maddie decided, but Hailey stepped in her way.

“Talk to her about what exactly, Maddie? About you wanting two immature 15-year-olds acting like adults, especially when one of them is a mortal and the other a Vampire, which, as you well remember, really complicates matters? Like Colton said, we all know she and Connor are crushing on each other, which is weird to begin with as they grew up like twins, born the same day and all four of us raising them both, but then again, them not ending up together and instead dating other people would probably be a helluva lot weirder at this point. So, a Catch-22 for us adults, imagine the teens. Plus, they are both only 15, very inexperienced, just starting to learn how romance and love feels and how to build up to a relationship and such. I think Keira’s real problem here is that high school can be rough, especially when you lose your closest ally so suddenly, and from personal experience having been a very regular and mortal high school girl dating a Vampire boy once myself, … that just makes everything uber-complicated. If he gets accepted to uni it will add a lot of physical distance between them. Super-rough. Keira is freaking out and Connor doesn’t realize it, he’s so confused about his own future.” Hailey explained.

“I agree with Patches. And as that former Vampire boy in her story dating that mortal high school girl long-distance, I can add, it’s not much brighter from that perspective either, unless you already know how to port, which took me till almost 17 to perfect enough to make it to Patches’ home and back without incidents. I’ll talk to Connor. He’s the one who chose early graduation, begged us to allow it, he’ll just have to deal with the fact that life doesn’t stop for Keira now.” Chase added.

Chase walked outside and found his son in the dark garden, sitting by the pond, tossing rocks in it. Chase sat next to him.

“Try not to hit the fowl, please.”

“They have wings, dad. If it bothers them, they can fly the fuck away.”

“Connor … most birds don’t see well in the dark, so please quit filling the pond up with pebbles. We paid people handsomely to put the pebbles where they are and the pond where it is. If we ever need that filled in, we’ll let you know. Now, talk to me kid. I already heard about Colton having to pick you up from the principal’s office at a high school you no longer attend for fighting. That’s talent right there. And what’s up with you and Keira? You used to be peas in a pod.”

“She hates my choice. And I am starting to as well but can’t change it now. What’s done is done. I told her I’d practice with her, her grades are really good too, a little more effort and maybe she can graduate early too, but she doesn’t want to. She says high school is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and she wants to live it, full experience. What experience, I ask you, dad? Maybe for a mortal like her it’s great, but I got tired of being treated like a freak. Getting kicked off the football team for being a Vamp was just the cherry on top of that crap cake from me. DONE with that bullshit!” Connor sounded disheartened and genuinely upset.

“That’s my mistake. I thought being open about who and what you are right from the start was the right approach, since I hated having to lie all the time and fake being something I am not. I see now that sometimes lies are kinder for everyone. Maybe we can change your look, I don’t know, I think I am seeing you in a bright Cameron-green mohawk and then re-enroll you in high school under a fake name as a regular mortal boy? How about John-Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmitz, since, ya know, your name is my name too?” chuckled Chase.

“Hilarious dad. I wouldn’t go back to high school if a gun were to my head. Or a stake to my heart or highly concentrated garlic oil being poured all over me. Just NOPE! How pissed is Keira?” Connor wondered, followed by a sigh.

“Judging by the door slam nearly making the walls crumble after her dramatic exit, I’d say pretty pissed, but that may have been at her mom, not you.”

“I can’t stand her going to that damn dance with some douche. I know boys my age. I know what I keep thinking about, now before you get mad, I don’t act on it, but I am thinking it. I also know other boys don’t hold back; they go as far as they can. And I know that guy. I KNOW he’s gonna try something with her. And I won’t be there to help her, if she needs it.” Connor punched the ground next to him with his fist.

“Connor, I am no teen girl whisperer, but judging by the glowing red mark Keira left on your cheek, my guess is she can hold her own and make a ‘No!’ perfectly clear to any boy. She was raised by all four of us, she’s feisty. Confident. And not a slut, as you called her. For that, you DEFINITELY need to apologize. Sooner the better. That should have never been said, son.”

“Yeah, I know, I was just so mad at her. And apologize how? You know Keira and if I were to go knock on her door now and tell her I didn’t mean it, she’d just even out the other cheek for me or kick me in the balls. Probably both.” Connor said, making Chase chuckle.

“I’d maybe have my speech prep’ed beforehand, plus a flower in my hand and maybe her favorite chocolates. That extra-effort may keep her from wanting to hurt you more.” Chase winked at his son.

“Ah – nah, dad, not food. Flowers okay, but not chocolates. She always tries to feed me those then too! URGH!” Connor’s disgusted frown made Chase laugh.

“Then you suck it up and eat them, wearing a big smile! Your mom used to do that to me all the time when she was still mortal even after she knew I was a Vamp. When a girl likes you, REALLY likes you, she wants to share her treasures with you. A bite of her favorite piece of chocolate is a great sign. Like a prelude to a kiss, in a way. If she only likes you some, you’d get the candy she doesn’t like anyway, or she’d just make you watch her eat them.”

“So by your logic, if I REALLY like a girl and she REALLY likes me back, every time I bring her chocolates – if I am really lucky and don’t strike out – I have to accept puking my guts out afterwards? Super outlook, dad.”

“Well, not just chocolates, be prepared to be handfed each time she eats something she finds delicious. Your grandparents got so mad at me for going through that serum like crazy, you know that stuff that allows us to eat, back when I was your age and dating your mom. It wasn’t just her who liked me, her parents did too, and you know your grandma loved to cook. It’s either that or find a Vampire girl. Yeah, that’s the way that cookie crumbles, kid, pun fully intended.”

“No thanks! No Vamp chick for me!”

“Oh, we don’t like our own kind now?”

“That’s not it, dad, but are you really gonna make me say it? The reason why I am not interested in other chicks, mortal or Vamp? Like do I really have to say it out loud even though I know you already know? Haven’t I been humiliated enough already?”

“Nah, kid, that’s all right I don’t need you to say anything about that. I remember too well how complicated first love can be. Just make sure you clear the air between you both before things get out of hand even more.”

“Easier said than done, dad. Girls my age are REALLY complicated. I mean completely unpredictable, and nothing EVER makes sense! Used to be easier when we were little, you know, hanging out with Keira.”

“Get used to it, son. That won’t change much again. But if you tell your mother I said that I will take you out to the forest and leave you there, tied to a tree.” Chase laughed, Connor reluctantly chimed in.