Wow, I can't believe I made it to chapter 30! I have to say that I love this story and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I still have quite a few ideas. And who knows what else I'll come up with along the way. so anyways, I really love this chapter. It was very emotional for me, i think I actually cried while writing this. Ha-ha I guess I'm just a sucker for love. Enjoy!

Chapter 30:

By the time we were home I was dyeing to crawl in bed and cuddle with Corey.

I smiled at the thought of him; I missed him.

I yawned as I got out of the car, slamming the door shut.

"Oh god, I could use some coffee right now." Drake said as we walked to the door.

"Coffee? I could use some sleep. Why do you love staying up all night?"

He shrugged; his cigarette between his fingers. "I love the nighttime."

I threw my cigarette on the ground and put it out with my foot as we approached the porch.

Drake did the same.

"I can't wait 'till you're done with school. We can go out drinking, stay up all night. It's going to be awesome." He said.

I laughed. "Can't wait,"

We walked inside, Drake locking up the door after I came in.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, pumpkin. I'm going to go make coffee."

I rolled my eyes at his silly nicknames. "Night,"

He shuffled off to the kitchen and I sprinted upstairs.

As soon as I got to the door of my bedroom the door opened and Corey stood there, his hair messy and only wearing boxers. He looked like he'd already been to bed.

His eyes got wide and he smiled. "Wow,"

"Hi," I smiled.

He breathed a laugh. "The hair...wow."

I laughed. "Drake talked me into it. Do you like it?"

"Jesus Christ in hell, you look amazing."

I bit my lip and held back a laugh. I could feel my cheeks getting warm.

"Would you like to come in?" Corey asked.

I laughed. "Yeah, that would be nice."

I walked into the room and he shut the door behind me.

He wrapped his arms around my waist. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Oh how could you? You were too busy having fun. Dyeing your hair and god knows what else. You smell like cigarettes."

"Yeah...Drake offered me some." I said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah,"

"So you took the offer?"

I nodded.

"Why?"

I shrugged.

"How many did you smoke?"

"Three...five,"

"Why the hell would you smoke? You know how bad that is."

"Yeah but, I..." I didn't finish seeing as I didn't have an excuse.

He shook his head. "That has to be the most idiotic thing you have done, do you realize you could die from smoking?"

"You worry too much."

"No, I don't. It only takes one cigarette to get addicted. You had five. That's a lot."

"I'm not going to do it again."

"Well hell, you've got Drake offering them to you, it's going to be pretty easy to do it again."

I looked down.

"Smoking is like inhaling poison. God, Arabelle why would you do something so stupid?"

"Why are you making such a big fucking deal out of it? It was a couple of cigarettes; I'm not going to die." I said, sounding more pissed off then I'd meant to.

He let go of me and took a step back.

Okay so maybe I was little agitated from the night I'd had and the fact that it was sometime in the middle of the night and I wasn't in bed like I should be.

He breathed a laugh. "Well I'm sorry for being concerned. I guess I should just stop caring about you anymore 'cause apparently it gets on your nerves that I care whether or not you die."

I sighed.

"What happened to your arm?" He asked, noticing the bandage that covered up my new tattoo.

"I thought you said you were going to stop caring about me." I muttered.

"I wish I could." He said then walked out of the room.

I stood there for a moment.

He wishes?

Even after all this time he still wishes he didn't love me.

He doesn't want us to be together.

Then why are we?

He's the one who said he loved me.

I don't understand, what more can I do to convince him that we should be together?

I sighed and went to my bed, sitting on the edge.

I felt a pang of nausea.

"Oh god," I muttered to myself. "Alcohol and cigarettes,"

Lord only knows what had been in that bottle Jimmy gave me probably every strong alcohol thrown together.

That's what it tasted like.

I walked to the bathroom, feeling lightheaded.

I closed the door and sat down beside the toilet; just in case I was to get sick, I would be close.

After awhile I came out of the bathroom, I did get sick; twice.

After brushing my teeth thoroughly multiple times I glanced at the alarm clock by my bed; it was just after four in the morning.

I sighed softly.

I felt tired but was too restless to go to sleep.

Maybe Drake still has some coffee left, I thought.

I sauntered downstairs and into the kitchen.

Drake was sitting at the counter like it wasn't the middle of the night and everyone else wasn't in bed.

Coffee in hand, he looked up at me. "Hey, Bells what are you still doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, plus I got sick. Have you seen Corey?"

"Oh, uh, no isn't he always with you?"

"No. He walked out shortly after I got back and I haven't seen him since just wondering where he was."

"Why did he walk out?"

I shrugged. "I guess you could say we sort of got in a fight. He didn't like that I smoked and I didn't see what the big deal was."

"Oh," Drake muttered. "Yeah, I could defiantly see him as the type to get upset about that stuff. He worries to much as it is. I can tell."

I walked over to the coffee pot and fixed myself a cup.

"So are you mad at him?" Drake questioned.

"No."

I never am.

"Do you think he's mad at you?"

"I don't know why are you asking these questions?" I said with irritation.

"Just curious," He said then when back to sipping his coffee.

I sat down at the counter across from him and put my head down on the table.

"Why don't you just go to bed, Bells?"

I ignored what he said. "Do you think he left?" I asked.

"Who? Corey?"

"Yeah,"

"I don't know do you mean like left as in left, left like never come back?"

I nodded.

"I doubt it. Unless you had like the worst fight ever."

I closed my eyes, still laying my head against the counter.

"Drake, do you think we're right for each other? Be honest."

"Yes. I most certainly, without a doubt think you're right for each other and you are stupid to doubt that."

"It's not that I doubt it, I think he doubts it. He has since the beginning. He doesn't think we should be together. He's said it many times." I said.

"Yeah but that was awhile ago, he was still on that vampires should hate humans kick. It's different now."

I lifted my head up to look at him. "Do you think? Or does he still think like that?"

"I think he thinks that but not about you two, I think he thinks that you're an exception."

I laid my head back down. "Drake, I don't think Corey wants to be with me."

"Why on earth would you think that?"

It wasn't Drake who said it and I immediately looked up and saw Corey.

"I'll give you two some privacy." Drake said, walking out of the room.

It was silent after that.

Corey came up to me. "Why do you think I don't want to be with you?"

I looked down and shrugged.

"You have to have a reason."

I stayed silent.

"Arabelle, please look at me."

I looked up at him, resisting the urge to look back down.

"Tell me why you think that, I need to know." He said.

"Because...you don't think vampires and humans should be together. You wish that you didn't love me so we wouldn't be together." I muttered.

"Why do you think I wish I didn't love you?"

"Um, what you said before you left earlier."

He glanced away for a second then looked back at me.

"I didn't mean what I said; I don't wish that I didn't care about you."

"Then why did you say it?" I asked.

"I don't know I was mad."

I looked back down.

"Arabelle, I love you more than anything. I want to be with you; I've always wanted to be with you.

That is the only thing I could ever ask for. And that is the god honest truth."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes."

I bit my lip to hold back a smile. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. It's my fault." He stated.

"I don't think so."

"Wait what are we talking about? Are we talking about you thinking I didn't want to be with you or about the smoking?" He questioned, looking confused.

"Both." I replied.

"Oh, well either way it still is my fault. I made you think that I didn't want to be with you and I overreacted earlier."

"You didn't overreact; I was just irritated-but not by you."

He sat down across from me, where Drake had been sitting.

"Why were you irritated then?"

"Well Drake talked me into...facing my fears so to speak. It was kind of a rough night."

"He talks you into a lot of things."

I nodded. "I need to stop listening to him."

Though sometimes he has good advice, I thought.

"So what fear did you face?" He inquired, grabbing my cup of coffee and taking a drink of it.

"My fear of needles." I stated.

His eyebrows rose. "Oh really and how did you do that?"

I held back a smile. "I got a tattoo."

He spit out the coffee that he'd been drinking.

I should've waited 'till he was done taking a drink.

"Nice," I laughed.

"You did what?" He asked.

I handed him a napkin and he wiped off his face.

I laughed again. "I got a tattoo."

"Wh-I-of what?"

"Well I'll show it to you."

I got off the stool and went over to him.

"You're not planning on taking another drink are you?" I asked.

"Ha-ha very funny just show me the damn thing."

I laughed under my breath.

I pulled the gauze off my arm then showed him his name displayed on my arm in the black ink.

Looking at the tattoo again reminded me of how awesome it looked.

I really loved it. Even if it was just simply his name it meant more to me than anything else could.

I was glad that I did it too show him how much he means to me.

Lord knows this is the last thing he ever expected me to do.

"Holy shit," He breathed.

He looked at me and smiled. "I can't believe you did that for me. That's so sweet."

I grinned. "I thought it was a good way to show you just how much I love you. And it was so worth it, Even if it did hurt like hell. Now you can be reminded how much you mean to me every time you look at it."

He looked back down at the tattoo. "Aw god, I feel like I'm going to cry."

He turned away and I saw him squeeze his eyes shut and blink a few times.

"This sucks, how do you make it go away?" He said.

I breathed a laugh. "Make what go away? Your emotions? You can't."

"Ah damn it all to hell."

He looked back at me, his eyes glistening in the light.

"Make it go away." He whined.

I laughed.

"Why are you laughing? It's really not funny." But he laughed afterwards, disregarding what he said.

"I'm sorry, Corey I can't make your emotions go away. Why don't you want to cry?"

"Because crying sucks and once you start you can't stop and...it's just stupid."

I shook my head.

He took a deep breath and pulled me closer to him.

He softly stroked my cheek with his thumb and looked directly into my eyes.

"I love you so much." He said.

"I love you too."

He smiled. "Not as much as I love you."

"Oh my gosh. I got a freaking tattoo of your name and I have a fear of needles!" I exclaimed.

"I know and I'm amazed that you did that for me."

"Well you shouldn't be."

He gave me a strange look. "I shouldn't?"

"No. I would do anything for you and you should know that. You mean everything to me, I couldn't live without you. I swear to god you are what makes my heart beat. You are my only reason for living and I-god I just love you so much." I took a deep breath. "I wish I could explain to you how much I love you but I just can't find the right words."

He looked down and I saw a tear stream down his face.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath, wiping his cheek.

"Corey, it's just better if you cry, it's pointless to try and hold it back." I assured.

After a moment he looked up at me, tears cascading down his perfect face.

"You're the only person I've ever trusted." He said.

"Well I promise to never break your trust; you can always count on me."

He stood up and hugged me as he continued to cry.

I could feel the tears in my own eyes.

After a few minutes he pulled away and kissed me lightly.

"Thank you." He said.

"For what?" I asked.

"Everything."

I leaned up and kissed him. "Anytime, love."