Forever Changed

chapter 18



An hour later we were sitting in my mustang riding into town. I was so excited to actually be going out. Even though it was a school night, I thought about skipping tomorrow in order to spend the day with Landon. I felt something for Landon and I had no idea what. Hell I had only met him last night, but it felt as if we had known each other forever.

“So what would you like to do, Landon,” I asked teasing him a little.

“I dunno, hey can we go to a mall?” He asked with hope in his voice.

“Yeah, we can if you would like,” I said laughing at him.

“I would definitely like,” he said as if he were a child who asked for candy and was told yes.

I headed to the mall and I had to ask him before it burst out of me, “Landon, why didn’t you change your eyes?”

“Because I can tell when you look at them that you adore them,” he said as if it didn’t matter.

I giggled to myself and pulled into the parking lot at the mall. We walked in and Landon looked a little uncomfortable. “What’s wrong? I thought this is where you wanted to go,” I said quickly, afraid that he would be mad at me.

“Everyone is going to look at me and wonder what in the hell I am,” he said. Wow, a demon with a worried concern about what people think of him. This can so not be happening!

“Landon, you look like everyone else in here. You look like a twenty year old normal man.” I said looking him up and down.

“Oh yeah the makeover,” he growled, “Sorry Elizabeth I am just a little nervous, I have never done this before, well looking like this that is.” He said with a little disgust in his voice.

“Come on,” I giggled. I grabbed him by his hand and we went shopping. I bought him everything he wanted and I bought myself stuff as well, on one of the credit cards that my father had left for me. We went to see a horror movie and Landon had me laughing so hard during it that we ended up getting kicked out. It was awesome. I had never had so much fun in my life.

“You want to eat,” Landon asked me a little concerned.

“Yes, please I am starving,” I said with a look of pain on my face.

“Let’s go eat then,” Landon said grabbing my hand.

There are a few places to eat in the mall, some nice sit down type places and then some fast food. Landon said that everything was always fast for him, so we ended up at one of the nice restaurants.

We sat down next to the window that overlooked the mall. It was so nice. I absolutely loved having fun with Landon. I had no idea this is what it was like to have a friend. If I would have known this a long time ago, I would have tried harder at making them.

I sighed out loud, not meaning to and Landon looked at me with concern, “Are you ok, Elizabeth?”

“Yeah,” I said squirming in my seat. “I just never had so much fun; I never knew what it was like to actually have a friend. You have given me so much in one day, than I have had in a lifetime. Being my friend is what I needed and I am glad you came up out of your rabbit hole to play.” I said teasing.

“Actually, Elizabeth, you have given me just as much and I’m glad that I was given a choice.”

I looked at him with my head turned a little to the left, “What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Well I was born a demon to the Dark Lord and I have always lived in the underworld, unless I was working. I am one of three sons and I am the youngest. My father gave me a choice. He told me he wanted me to get a taste of the real world and decide on what I wanted. So I did.”

“But if you did then how do you know you were crawling up through my bathroom floor.” I asked a little confused.

“I can’t tell you that, Elizabeth.” He said with a little sadness in his voice. “I am not the only one who has choices, but you do too. I know more about you then you know about yourself.”

The waiter came interrupting our conversation. He had brought us our meals, we sat and ate quietly. When we were halfway through eating, out of nowhere Landon jerked his head up looking out of the window. His eyes became black like they did before when he was concentrating in my bathroom mirror. He growled low in his throat.

I looked where Landon was looking and I saw him, standing on the other side of the mall looking right at us.

He was standing with a group of popular kids. They were all looking and laughing. My eyes connected with Lucas’ for just a brief second.

Why was he laughing at me? I really didn’t care much for Lucas especially now that I had Landon.

When we were in elementary school Lucas, would play cruel jokes on me and tormented me. I thought today at school he was really being nice to me, but he wasn’t he was being his mean cruel self and he proved that right now. He was laughing at me with the group of kids and replayed the scene from school with his group of friends. He had a blond pretending to be me and I watched as he pushed her to the floor and she jumped up on her knees pretending to pick up papers and books.

When growing up you always thought that when a boy was mean to you it was just their way of flirting.

I realized it was all an act. I realized that all the years of his cruel jokes and tormenting that he was not flirting, but I was the center of his jokes.

I couldn’t believe that I had a fantasy of actually being his girlfriend. All the rumors that were spread around were about me. The reason everyone was afraid of me was because of him. I had no friends because of him. I had no great moments at school because of him.

I could see him mouth, “Look she has a boyfriend. What a freak? If he knew her, then he wouldn’t be with her.” All his friends stood laughing.

I became angry. For once I was having the best time of my life and yet he was there to ruin it. I stared at him and I locked my eyes onto his. He couldn’t break the connection, his smile faded, but his friends continued to joke and play around. I imagined him falling over the rail and smashing his face in the concrete fountain three stories below. Everyone would scream, including his friends, blood would splatter on a few shoppers and the fountain would be cracked.

All of a sudden, Landon screamed, “Elizabeth,” I broke my concentration on Lucas and looked over at Landon.

“What?” I asked with so much anger in my voice that I could spit fire all over Landon.

“I was talking to you and I had no choice, but to get your attention by screaming at you.” Landon said looking a little hurt.

“Sorry, I really don’t like that guy,” I said with disgust. I looked back over at Lucas. He had turned completely pale and he had a grip of life on the hand rail in front of him. He was talking to his friends and kept darting looks over to me.

What was that all about? I wondered to myself. I watched as he took one more glance my way, slowly letting go of the rail, and walked hurriedly away with his friends.