Chapter 53: Epilogue-2

"Girl what did I tell you?!" "I don't think he looks that much like Kieran though, maybe the height is the same but this guy has blonde hair and blue eyes and he's super pale! Kieran has way darker skin and dark hair and green eyes!" "Caroline, he's a vampire! His skin is supposed to be that pale!" "Oh..." We both dissolved into a fit of laughter and only stopped when I had to clutch my healing ribs in pain.  My injuries were still major but after I was released from the hospital I had been on the mend. Part of my instructions from my doctors were to get as much rest as possible, and part of that rest included spending time watching 'True Blood' with one of my best friends, something we never seemed to get around to doing before the incident occurred. I didn't really know what else to call it- my attempted kidnapping, my almost death, 'the incident' just seemed like a more apt name to call it by. Nathan McCormick had officially confessed to all the awful things he'd done to me and all the other girls he'd victimized per his lawyers since, according to them, he would receive a lesser sentence by straight up confessing than going to trial.  Apparently if we had went to trial, he could have received life in prison without the possibility of parole, which sounded very appealing to me but it wasn't my call to make. Instead, the District Attorney had declared that he would receive a lesser sentence of ten years for each count of sexual assault and five years for each count of assault and battery with the possibility of parole after serving a consecutive sentence of thirty five years. It wasn't a perfect deal, but at least it was something that kept him away for a long, long while. Eva's hand waving across my face in order for me to pay more attention to what she was saying caused me to pull myself out of my thoughts and I refocused myself back onto the conversation at hand, as trying to live more in the present was something that I was trying to work harder on.  My walls still weren't one hundred percent down, and I was sure they never would be, but I'd settle for a solid ninety nine percent if it meant being able to connect more with the people around me and be more present in the reality around me. "Earth to Caroline, did you hear me?" "Sorry, I am trying harder I really am!  What were you saying?" She sighed dramatically, her favorite thing to do, and plopped her back down against my bed making it bounce from the weight of her body a bit. "I said, aren't you going to text back lover-boy? He has been messaging you non stop since we started our marathon!" I rolled my eyes at her and reached for my cell phone on the night stand and, sure enough, four different notifications from none other than Kieran Robertson blinked back at me from my LED phone screen. I opened the first notification and a goofy smile attached itself to my face and I didn't think it would ever disappear as long as Kieran was with me. We still had a long road ahead of us, and I didn't know where life would take us as college quickly approached.  I was considering Juilliard to further my music career and Kieran hadn't even discussed college with me as we hadn't been doing much talking since things had gone back to normal; it was hard for me to keep my hands off of him since the idea of my own untimely death became all too real and I wasn't about to take any liberties with that fact. YOLO, as they say. I followed the instructions of the first text message that requested me to peek outside my bedroom window, and I was more than amused when I saw what was waiting for me. Kieran was perched on his window ledge grasping a bouquet of shimmering daisies and it was all I could do not to turn into a puddle of mush at his feet. I quickly shuffled open my bay window and contemplated flinging both of my legs over the side just to get to him quicker, but my injuries weren't superficial and didn't allow me to do much 'flinging' of my appendages. "What's all this for?" I asked him coyly, but by the sound of my bedroom door shutting as Eva left my room I quickly realized it must have been something planned ahead of time. His megawatt smile lit up the darkened features on his skin and I could have sworn I saw a sly tint to his usual grin. "You'll see.  Now back up, I'm coming in." I didn't hesitate in getting out of his way ever since he discovered a new found hobby of his that was doing some kind of parkour move where he jumped from his window onto mine and landed like he was a spider-monkey; I definitely didn't want to get in the way of that.