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Normality	By : AlphaOmegaPsi Category: Twilight Series > AU/AR > Slash Views: 2984 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

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AN: Uh...hey, guys. Long time no see. ^^;

So here's the thing: this chapter gave me a lot of trouble. It just didn't want to cooperate, so I had to sort of force my way through some of it. So it's a little sucky, but all in all I think it's somewhat of a success. The ending was sort of rushed too. I wanted to take it farther, but I had no idea where I was going to stop it so I just cut it off there. I may add to this, and if I do you'll be informed in the next chapter.

So I've already planned a sequel to this starring everyone's favorite sparkly vampire family. Well, not starring...they take a bit of a backburner, actually. It's gonna take place a few years later. But they're there, trust me. I won't reveal any more.

Thank you to Raisden_Captivity and Angel. No, Barlie did not imprint on Ethan. He's not a werewolf, so he doesn't imprint. However, Ethan is gay. If you're new to the story and haven't figured that out, consider this a free spoiler. Enjoy!

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I didn’t want to feel guilt for hurting Ethan’s feelings; he was a horrible bloodsucking monster that I was trying to drive out of town, after all. But for some reason, that didn’t stop my gut from twisting every time my sister glared at me the next morning. And man, did she abuse that privilege. She glared when it was my turn for the shower, she glared at me over breakfast, and she glared at me the entire ride to school. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say her face had frozen that way.

I still didn’t really know what I’d done to offend Ethan, and Lizzie literally wasn’t talking. I went over the conversation dozens of times in my head, but couldn’t quite figure out just where things had gone sour. It bugged me because, monster though he might be, the fact that Ethan was also a Sci-Fi buff excited me. It was rare for me to meet someone as obsessed with it as I was. As far as I knew, nobody at school was interested in it, or at least not enough to risk hanging around me just for conversation. Lizzie outright loathed it, and told me so constantly. Mr. Yorkie liked it, but he was my boss, not my friend. Besides, it was nice meeting someone my own age who was into Sci-Fi.

I frowned to myself at that thought. What was I thinking? Ethan was probably hundreds of years my senior. He was a bloodsucker, after all, and it was so difficult to tell their age. Besides, what did it matter if we shared a common interest? I was still going to run him out of town if it killed me.

I hadn’t had the chance to talk to my father last night. I couldn’t tell if he knew what Ethan was or not. He might have been hiding it, not wanting to embarrass mom in front of her friend, but then again I didn’t think his nose was very strong when he wasn’t a wolf. There was a good chance he didn’t have a clue. I definitely had to talk to him about it tonight; I couldn’t let it drag on any longer than it already had.

Mom pulled up to the drive at school and pressed a big kiss to my cheek.

“Have a good day,” she said, smiling.

“Yeah, yeah.” I made a big showing of wiping my cheek, rolling my eyes good-naturedly. I didn’t actually mind it so much; nobody would dare say anything to my face in fear of angering me, so I didn’t need to be wary of ridicule, and it at least let me know that she loved me. She kissed Lizzie’s forehead, then both of us hopped out of the car and waved as she drove away.

I usually hung out with Lizzie before school, but today she disappeared into the building. Still pissed, no doubt. It didn’t matter; I still had that book to finish, and I intended to put a big chunk into it by the end of the day. I settled into the back corner of my first-period class, loving the emptiness of the room, and cracked open the book to where my bookmark indicated.

The day flew by in this way. I didn’t pay much attention to my classes, instead opting to hide the book under my desk and read the whole time. I found out I had gotten a D on my Math test, and I forgot my homework for Science, but all of that seemed insignificant while I was reading. I was in my own little world, where I didn’t notice the whispers, where I wasn’t a complete failure in every way, and where I didn’t have to think about that bloodsucker all the time.

That’s what I told myself, but in truth the whispers still came in loud and clear; all my failures seemed to build up in the back of my mind like a laundry pile; and, try as I might not to, my mind was plagued with thoughts of Ethan. I realized I didn’t really know much about him. I knew his name, and the fact that he liked Sci-Fi. I didn’t know exactly how old he was, what school he went to, if he had any hobbies, what kind of TV shows he liked…it wasn’t like it mattered, but for some reason that knowledge made me feel even worse about the whole situation. I knew I had to apologize sometime, but I didn’t even know where he lived. I would have to ask Lizzie sometime soon, but I didn’t want my mother to know I’d insulted her friend’s son so I would either have to convince her to tell me at school or I’d have to get her alone at home.

When lunch rolled around, I found Lizzie sitting in our usual spot. I was relived, because I thought I’d have to go looking for her. We usually ate together since nobody else wanted to sit with me, but with the way she’d been acting toward me, I thought she might ditch me to go sit with her friends.

“Hey.” I grinned as I sat down across from her with my own lunch. She glowered into her bologna sandwich. “Come on, are you still mad at me? Look, I’ll go apologize, okay? I just need to know where he lives.” She glanced up.

“You promise you’ll go apologize, and not just antagonize him again?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said sincerely. “I feel really guilty about it, okay? Even if he is a monster, I really do want to apologize.”

“When are you going to get it through your head that Ethan isn’t a vampire?” Lizzie asked exasperatedly. “He’s just a normal kid like you and me. There’s nothing evil or monstrous about him. You’d realize that if you bothered to get to know him.” She wrote down his address for me on a piece of notebook paper. “I’m going to kick your ass if I find out you were a jerk.”

“I won’t be,” I assured her, taking the slip of paper and sticking it in my pocket. “I promise; I just want to apologize to the guy.”

I didn’t want to start a fight, but I still thoroughly believed that Ethan was a vampire bent on sucking my sister’s blood. If Lizzie wouldn’t protect herself by staying away from him, it was my duty as her big brother to protect her. As I pulled out my sandwich and began to eat my own lunch, I was already forming a new plan in my head.

At the end of the day, Lizzie caught up with me. “Are you going to Ethan’s now?” she asked. I frowned.

“I’d like to go home first, piranha,” I scoffed. That was just like Lizzie to be so impatient. “Is that okay? For me to spend maybe an hour at home before I go rushing off? Will you live with that?”

“Don’t make fun of me,” she snapped. “You just have a habit of putting things off until the last minute. Ethan deserves to be apologized to before he turns forty.”

“You sure do think highly of him,” I mused, lifting an eyebrow. I ignored her indignant expression as I hefted my bag over one shoulder and headed for home.

“It’s because he’s my friend!” she said, rushing to catch up. “That’s all, got it? I can be friends with a guy without wanting to date them, you know!”

“I never said any of that,” I pointed out. “You’re the one jumping to crazy conclusions about wanting to date him. I was just commenting on how you’re acting so close when you only just met the guy a few days ago.”

“Actually, I’ve known him for years now.”

“Oh?” My eyebrows rose in surprise. “How is that possible? They only moved here recently.”

“I found an old email address in mom’s desk when I was ten,” Lizzie explained. “She said an old friend from high school gave it to her when they graduated. I guess it was that Mike Newton guy. Anyway, I sent an email and Ethan answered. Ever since then, we’ve been messaging back and forth.”

“Really?” I frowned. I had never noticed anything different. “But wait, you didn’t know his name when I first met him.”

“We used screen names,” she said. “I didn’t learn his real name until he actually moved here. The bookstore was our first face-to-face meeting, and the first time I actually learned his name.”

“And here I thought it was just some random guy picked up off the streets.” I sighed. “You could have at least told me you knew him.”

“Oh, like that would have gotten you off of your ‘Ethan is a vampire’ kick!” Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Besides, between you lying to me, and eating, and you working, there wasn’t really much time for me to mention it.”

She was right; it wouldn’t have made me think any differently about Ethan than I did now. Actually, knowing that they’d been talking before only increased my suspicions about his intentions. I’d have to keep a much closer eye on him from now on.

We approached the house and Lizzie ran off to her room. I was a little less formal. I threw my bag on the floor and flopped down on the couch, turning on the TV immediately. I knew I should get over to Ethan’s and apologize, but some strange part of me actually cared what he thought about me, and I didn’t want to look weird just showing up on his doorstep to apologize for something I wasn’t even sure I was in the wrong for.

Lizzie probably thought I forgot about it when I left school, but in reality it was at the forefront of my mind. It was escalating into a bit of an obsession, actually, but above all I could not allow myself to lose face. If I looked foolish in front of him, he could use that to get under my skin and see my true self. If I was going to keep up this intimidating charade, I had to plan everything carefully and not allow a single mistake to slip through.

I wasn’t really paying much attention to the TV when the doorbell rang, so naturally I wasn’t exactly put out when I went to answer the door.

As soon as I saw the person standing on our porch, the term “Speak of the devil and he will come,” sprang to mind. Though, in reality, it was more that I was thinking of the devil. Ethan blinked in surprise and even took a step backward. It took all my will to retain my stoic mask instead of letting my own shock register.

“What are you doing here?” I asked calmly. I wasn’t being nasty about it; it was a legitimate question.

“Lizzie and I are seeing a movie,” he explained, dropping his gaze. “Is she, uh…here?” I almost smirked in triumph; he was still scared of me, still scared I was able to do something bad to him. The rush of power was almost enough to forget what I needed to do, but I realized that I would just have to do it later if I didn’t do it now, and I might as well get it over with.

“Listen,” I said, fighting to keep my voice indifferent instead of the sheepish tone it wanted to settle into. Ethan’s green eyes slowly rose to meet mine. “I apologize for the other day,” I said simply. I knew he knew what I meant, because a smile appeared on his face a second later.

“It’s no big deal,” he assured. “Don’t even worry about it.” Something in the way he said it caught my attention. If I looked closely, that smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. If I listened, his sincere tone fell flat. Was it possible that what I’d said really hurt him that much?

“Ethan, what are you doing here so soon?” My sister’s small form shouldered past me. “The movie isn’t for a few more hours.”

“Well, I was just sitting at home bored and thought maybe we could go to an earlier showing,” he said. “Or should I have called first. Sorry if it’s too early.”

“No, no, it’s fine, I was just planning on taking a shower so if you don’t mind waiting…” She smiled sheepishly. “I really stink from school, sorry. You can hang out with Barlie until I’m ready.” She shot me a glare as she walked by that was loaded with one word: behave.

I shut the door and led Ethan back to the couch, where I once again casually flopped down. Ethan sat next to me, perched on the edge as if he was going to bolt any minute.

“Hey, loosen up,” I found myself saying. It was weird because, as his enemy, I should have been happy to see him so nervous. Instead, I found that it put me on edge too, and I didn’t like that one bit.

He leaned back into the stiff cushions and smiled that fake little smile again. It occurred to me that the only time I’d ever really seen him smile was the first day I met him. Even then, I hadn’t had time to properly appreciate it, since I was so hell-bent on scaring him. It had only been two days ago, but it felt like a lot had happened lately. I felt like I knew him a bit more than I probably should have.

Ethan was still tense, I noticed, even though he was doing his best to look relaxed. His back was just barely touching the couch, and his fingers kept doing weird little drumming motions on his knee. He hadn’t taken off his shoes, and he sat perfectly still in the same position, like he was scared to move even a muscle. His eyes were darting everywhere as if looking for an escape route, and I was reminded of a rat trapped in a small cage. It was disconcerting, sitting next to such a pile of nerves, and it made me sit up straight instead of the relaxed sprawled position I had been previously enjoying.

“I’m not going to eat you, you know.” On the contrary, I was worried Ethan was going to eat me. Or worse, my sister. “You really can relax. It’s okay.”

“I’m just not a very social person,” he admitted. “And I don’t really know you that well…”

“You seemed fine yesterday when we were talking about Sci-Fi,” I pointed out. “If you’re so uncomfortable, talk about that. I’ll listen.”

“You will?” Ethan looked doubtful. “Well…the movie I’m going to with Lizzie today is a Sci-Fi about some aliens who come to earth and become trapped here. I’ve wanted to see it for a while, and she doesn’t really like the genre but she said she’d go with me so I didn’t have to go alone.”

“Yeah, I heard about that,” I said. “It supposedly got some pretty good reviews, but I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know how good it is.”

“Well, why don’t you come with us?” Ethan offered hesitantly. “It’ll be nice to have another Sci-Fi fan there instead of someone who will be bored out of her skull.”

And then it hit me: the thing my strategy was missing. Ethan was giving me an opening here to spend time with him freely. He was basically inviting me to spy on him. Intimidation had its moments, but if he thought we were friends, then I’d have free reign to do things I couldn’t normally do and Lizzie would have no say in the matter.

“I’d love to,” I said, flashing my first real friendly smile. Ethan looked shocked for a moment before grinning back. This time it lit up his eyes like lights.

“Thanks,” he said, he voice a little less nervous now. “I’m glad you’ll be there.”

Something in the way he said that seemed strange to me, but before I could say anything about it, my sister, wearing nothing but a towel, appeared.

“Lizzie, put some clothes on,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“You invited him to go?” Lizzie asked Ethan, ignoring me. She looked a little disappointed.

“Oh…yeah, sorry,” Ethan said, his demeanor instantly shedding like a second skin. “Did you not want him to come along? I just figured maybe he’d want to go, and I did it without thinking…”

“No, it’s fine,” she sighed. “This buffoon needs to get out of the house every now and then anyway.”

“Yeah, it’s not like I’m sitting right next to you or anything,” I said pointedly. “Thankfully I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lizzie waved me aside like I was minor annoyance. “I’m going to go get dressed and then we can go. Don’t you two get comfortable.” With that, she disappeared into her room and it was just Ethan and I once more.

The companionable conversation that we had settled into had faded, but the atmosphere still felt comfortable. Ethan was considerably more relaxed, though I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or my sister. Nonetheless, I was glad not to have to sit beside Twitchy McTwitcherson anymore.

Today was the start of what promised to be a beautiful friendship…and a beautiful plan to set in motion.
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Normality