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Savannah

November and December were two of the happiest months of my life And all because of Tristan

They were also the hardest, for the sarow tired of me, find someone else Someone he could publicly date Like Bethany Brookes, as constantly co over to flirt with hih he was polite, he never gave herwith me, Tristan found ways toin the Charmers practice room after hours, to sweet notes left in ood-luck notes And of course we could always count on drea, which we did at least twice a week

On every date, real and dreaed to pull me out of my shell I&039;d never beento listen to others But so about the way Tristan looked at hting the urge to kiss him all the time, which tended to make him shaky on real dates and completely end our connected dreaet the fact that I still hadn&039;t told hi into a vampire Which was a debate-worthy topic all on its own, considering the vaer affected ed va with Tristan, it wasn&039;t perfect The council&039;s watchers hadn&039;t gotten tired of hanging around campus They&039;d even started to spy on me at Charmers events They scared me half to death outside the annual Fall Ball where, after putting up with Bethany Brookes&039;s totally unsubtle flirting with Tristan all night, he and I had tried to sneak outside and have just one dance together Only to have that dance cut short when I looked up and spotted the watchers spying on us fro had been seeing Anne get revenge on Brat Twin Vanessa by arriving on the arm of her newly dumped ex-boyfriend, Ron Abernathy Anne and Ron had further shocked everyone by co dressed as a football player and a cheerleader Only for revenge would Anne stoop to wearing a fake version of the ene on the cake was how Anne actually looked better in the fake uniforan to sit at our lunch table every day, which made Anne smile a lot more than she ever had before

But even with so et that Tristan and I were breaking the rules every timeeach other outside of school events And to add to that pile of guilt, there were all the things that having to keep our relationship secret meant Tristan couldn&039;t take me to the movies or out to eat, couldn&039;t sit with me at lunch, couldn&039;t explain to his friends why he wasn&039;t dating anyone right now He couldn&039;t even dance withat the Fall Ball, because it was too easy for everyone to figure out as behind eachthe concession stand with ood ti his party-guy lifestyle

By Christether for two ed, and yet

I was already completely in love with Tristan

Is to myself noasn&039;t a discovery It was icas if I were finally relaxing aI&039;d been fighting for far too long

Just being around Tristan was a relief, an escape from the rest of the world and the future When it was justHe ht

When I ith him, I liked myself And I knew exactly who I was

But ere apart, I reme down onthe rules, and the people I was lying to, which only sees Tristan was giving up just to be with me And when I remembered all of that, I didn&039;t like myself irl who kept giving in to her e

When ere apart, I didn&039;t recognizeelse that I remembered when I ay fro to return his calls ay different fro any calls from him at all Even when I&039;d refused to speak to him, Nanna had always mentioned when he&039;d called But he hadn&039;t since October He&039;d warned ht not be able to contact us for a while, so I was trying hard not to worry about him But he hadn&039;t said he&039;d be out of touch for months

Mom and Nanna didn&039;t seem worried about his absence They claiathering every ten years or so, and that he ht What party, no , took fouron your kid once a week? So was up But untilnot to care enough to worry about hi not to let anyone see it, either After all, how could I possibly explain?

Going to bed early on New Year&039;s Eve, as I&039;d proined Moe and wanted to stay up to see the replay of the televised New York City ball drop at our local ht hour She even tried to bribe uilty I could hardly speak, I claiht after the live ball drop at eleven o&039;clock instead

The scene I found waiting for h I&039;d landed in the e, noisy crowd It was totally crazy

"Tristan?" I yelled, though I had no idea how he could possibly hear me

A broad aisle had been roped off in the center of the crowd Tristan walked along this aisle toward old scarf and hat I&039;d spent four weeks working with Nanna to learn how tohis hair peek out along the edges in little curls I wanted to grab and tug The blue in the hat reen eyes sparkle

"What do you think?" He held his arms out wide

"This is nuts! When did you learn how to do this?" We&039;d both always been able to i in our shared drea on this scale

"I had a lot of free tihts e couldn&039;t connect"

"Well, I am definitely impressed But where exactly is this supposed to be?"

"Times Square in New York City, of course Best place in the world to ring in the new year! Or at least as much of it as I can reain, this time slower and with even more respect "Wow This is all fro Apple?"

I shookI&039;d done hen Mom had moved from New Orleans back to East Texas when I o, plus short weekend trips for dance competitions with the Charmers earlier this month, which unfortunately Tristan&039;s parents hadn&039;t let hi, you won&039;t know it"

I laughed

He reached into his coat pocket then pulled out a cardboard hat and two noise ended, he said, "Your turn Play a song we can dance to"

"Me? I can&039;t"

"Sure you can Just pretend you&039;re listening to it on your iPod"

"Tristan, I can&039;t do ic I don&039;t kno!" I probably couldn&039;t even e it if I really tried because of my vampire side

"Sweetheart, you already are How do you think we dreaic, I&039;d be able to see you in your dreams, but you wouldn&039;t be able to see or hear ic for years and didn&039;t even realize it?

Experi over so a squeal out of rabbed !"

It was hard at first to focus on both the song and dance with Tristan Hu of it and discovered I was actually pretty good at res onin the middle of Times Square with Tristan was an absolute blast and exactly what I needed to take ed me when I ake It was one of the absolute best moments of my life, even if it was only a dream and the noisy crowd around us looked suspiciously two-dimensional

"Tristan, why are all these people flat like cardboard cutouts?" I teased as he spun ed me back in to him

His smile turned decidedly sheepish "I only saw one side of them I didn&039;t really pay o to New York City often?"

"Yeah, usually every year for New Year&039;s, at least They like to check in on the Clann families there"

"Are there a lot of descendants there?"

He shrugged "Maybe twenty or so Nothing like East Texas We&039;ve got just over a hundred in this area"

"So why didn&039;t you go to New York this year?"

He changed theso he could hold me close It took real effort not to melt into a mindless puddle "What, and o to some local party" He nuzzled the side of h out of ht now?" Ones he would be having fun at if not for et the thought out of ht where I want to be" He shivered in hty, I irinned when they appeared Then I pressed loved hands to his cheeks to warm them

"In real life, yeah, probably It was a little chilly when I fell asleep outside"