BRITTANY.

　　I continue to kiss him, enjoying the feeling of his warm lips on mine. Our tongues played with each other while our lies remained meshed together. A rush of emotions reached me through the kiss; exhilaration, happiness, and affection. It felt even better as he pushed me against the surface, making me rise slightly with my hold onto him being my only anchor.

　　He was such a good kisser, and everything in me felt like coming for more. A younger me would have been rejoicing at this moment. Hell, even the 'me' from a week ago would have done the same, but right now, everything felt wrong. No. it was all so, very wrong.

　　Using my hands which were on his cheater, I pushed him away lightly, breaking off from the kiss. My lips almost missed the contact of it, but my mind was too jumbled up at the moment to think of it. As I push him back, he seems startled and looks surprised, his eyes, hooded from lust, are now widened with surprise.

　　I continue to look at him before I look down. Wrong. Everything was so wrong.

　　“Brittany, I’m- I’m so sorry” I can hear him say. I don’t look at him and he continues

　　“You must not have wanted me to kiss you. I’m sorry for forcing you. I’m not that kind of person, I swear.” He continues talking.

　　I shake my head bowing slightly to let my blue hair cover my face as tears prick my eyes. If I wasn’t overwhelmed with sadness and worry at the moment, I would have been laughing and trying to correct his assumptions. But I was not in the mood for anything like that. All I could think of was my mother. Her face which was so full of life was now ashen and pale. I could imagine how she was now, lying on the bed, slowly wasting away from within. She was dying, almost at death’s door, and I cannot do anything to stop it.

　　I never felt so helpless in my entire life.

　　At the thought I let out a sob. While my first tear fell. And another and another sob followed. I used both of my hands to cover my face as I sobbed, crying at my helplessness.

　　I needed to find a witch, but where could I do so, especially in such a short period of time? I had only one best friend, Annabelle and had little to no contacts with anybody who knows a wizard. My only choice was the witch my mother told me to bring a male to, and I didn’t want to risk bringing Damon there. After all, what if she demanded a price from him in order to heal my mother? Or what if she harmed him? I would not forgive myself if anything happened to him and I was sure my mother would not be happy if she found out that I had used an innocent man’s life to save her own. It was a dilemma I was unable to deal with.

　　Soon I feel hands touch the sides of my face which I don’t have the energy to push away. I turn away, letting my blue hair cover the side of my face. I didn’t want him to see me in this helpless state.

　　“Hey-hey look at me.” He calls out, until I face him. My hands are still covering my face, and holding on to every tear I had.

　　I appreciated the fact that despite not knowing anything which had happened, he was still very much willing to comfort me. Even through my sadness, I could feel a dash of feeling, like a flower, sprouting in me, adding to the garden of affection I had for him already.

　　Pilling me towards him, he led me to a small couch where I could sit. Holding me all the way. I couldn’t help but lean onto him, seeking any form of warmth and comfort I could. He didn’t complain, only silently murmuring words of affection whilst using one of his hands to brush my hair back.

　　Time passed, and soon I had no tears left to cry. I wiped the remnants of my tears and looked at him. I couldn’t help but goggle a bit in embarrassment. I knew from experience that at the moment, my nose and cheeks must be flushed and my eyes red and swollen. I probably looked like a mess right now.

　　“Why are you turning away?”He asked

　　I blinked as I tried to cover my face whilst still pulling away from him “I don’t want you to see me like this.”

　　“Like what? I don’t understand?” his voice sounded confused and anxious and I had no choice but to spell it out for him.

　　“I look like a mess Damon, surely you can see that.” I finally said, looking at him and revealing my face in its full glory. I felt so ugly at the moment, and it was so difficult to have him see me this way.

　　“All I see is beauty. You look beautiful Brittany.” He said in a yearning way. I could not help but flush at his complement, never breaking eye contact in my stunned state. He too seemed to look embarrassed by his words and the room was filled with awkward silence for a moment.

　　He broke eye contact first, by looking down and focusing on his jeans. I resisted the urge to look away as he shuffled lightly.

　　“So, what was that crying all about?” he then asked

　　That brought me back to the feeling of despair which had stopped for a moment. I should have expected this, honestly. Especially with the crying I did all of a sudden, he must have been freaked out by it. But I held back from saying a word because I didn’t want to burden him with my problems.

　　I shrugged, looking away slightly. “It’s nothing much.” I spoke, trying to will my voice into a semblance of lighthearted normalcy despite all the crying I did earlier.

　　It was obvious that my white lie wasn’t effective as he looked at me skeptically “Don’t lie to me Brittany. It was obvious how that wasn’t nothing.”

　　I looked away for a moment and blinked. I didn’t know what I wanted to tell him, how I could lie to salvage the situation. No words seem to materialize in my mind. I looked at him again “I-“

　　His eyes revealed anxiousness again as he straightened himself “Was it about the kiss? Were you uncomfortable because of that? If it was, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to-“

　　“No- Damon. It's…it's not a kiss.” I said, incredulous that he would even feel sorry about the kiss, or think that he forced it on me. That kiss felt like everything I had ever wanted, and I’ll be damned if I let him think that he had ‘forced’ it on me in any way.

　　But when I thought about it, I began to feel nervous, and because I was nervous, I began to ramble slightly “The kiss was good. More than good, to be honest. And you didn’t force it on me; I was just surprised in the beginning, but you could see that I kissed you back. And it’s not a- what I mean is, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.” I finished with a sigh, inwardly berating myself for my rambling. I bowed my head slightly and looked at me through my eyelashes, shyly.

　　He looked at me carefully and I couldn’t help but squirm under his gaze.

　　“Okay.” He drew out. ”We will most definitely revisit that later, but still, you haven’t answered my question Brittany.”

　　Perhaps a part of me hoped that he would be distracted with the kiss and that he would push aside the problem momentarily but it didn’t work. I gave a sigh and began to speak my mind.

　　“Look, to be honest, I don’t want to burden you with my problems. You already have so many things in your hands, your responsibility as the alpha, your pack and everything. Adding my problems into the mix is only going to make your life worse.” I said. Telling him the full truth I believed.

　　He looked at me for a while, analyzing my features to see if I was telling the truth. Out of nowhere he laughed. “That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.”

　　“What?” I was stunned as he looked at me with a somewhat sarcastic expression on his face. Was he mocking me? I thought as I faced him.

　　I wanted to leave but he stopped me as he began to speak.

　　“When I was about to kill myself in the forest, did you care whether you had problems to deal with yourself? You didn’t care didn’t you? You may have had a million things to do, yet you took it upon yourself to punch the hell out of me to stop me from dying. You hauled me from the forest, and took me to shelter. You took it upon yourself to treat me with the poison and watch over me. And when I woke up and wanted to die, you were the one who held me and I cried and told me that I had something to live for, that there is still hope in my life. You gave me hope Brittany.” He spoke the last sentence so endearingly I could not help but blink away incoming tears from the surface of my eyes.

　　I was stunned as he said those words, I could still remember him vividly in that abandoned house, wanting to kill himself and crying about his failures. I could not let him die and it was all I could do to embrace him and say those words. He had so many people looking up to him after all.

　　I didn’t know when he came closer to me and looked at me with determined eyes before continuing his speech.

　　“If you took it upon yourself to help me then, why can’t I help you? Why can’t I support the one who changed me, who helped me in my time of need and help her in turn?”

　　I was speechless as he moved closer.

　　“And most of all,” he said, bringing his hand to my cheek. “I like you Brittany, I like you a lot. And I will not sit by and let someone I like suffer in silence. So please, Brittany, tell me what’s wrong.” he finished, his eyes looking pleading and her heart melted from both his words and his bright, pleading eyes. She knew now that she couldn’t withhold it anymore. Hell, she didn’t want to withhold it.

　　Yet as I opened my mouth, I could not say a word. I didn’t know where on earth to start. Suddenly all the things in my head were jumbled up and I found it hard to speak.

　　He seemed to notice my difficulty, and he brought his other hand to her hand squeezing lightly. “It’s okay. Take your time, he gently encouraged.

　　His words gave me the courage to say the words. Everything was pieced together in my mind.

　　“It’s…it's my mom.” I finally sighed out.

　　He “my mom, she’s-“I feel tears spring to my eyes once more as I think about her unconscious state.

　　He holds my hand.

　　“My mom is dying.” I had finally let out, swallowing hardly at the knot that seemed to erupt on my throat.

　　“What?” I heard him say. My words made him reel back in surprise. He looked at me with a shocked look on his face. I took a deep breath before I spoke once more, before I repeated those words I myself didn’t want to be a reality.

　　“My mom is dying.” I looked at him, my eyes meeting his “and I need a witch in order to save her.”