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"I think I have something planned with Alexander."
"Then how about the next afternoon?" he pressed.
"Don't you have school?" she asked.
"We could meet right afterward."
"I get tutored by Jameson."
"I could come and watch," he said.
"Don'tpanI you understand? I can't see you then. I want to, but I can't."
"Don'tpanI you understand? I can't see you then. I want to, but I can't."
"Why not?" he urged.
"I have something planned every day!" she shouted.
"What's going on?" Alexander asked.
"Nothing." Stormy took a bite of her ice cream.
"I was just seeing if Stormy could hang out with me and Henry during the day," Billy said. "We always go out at night. I'd like us to hang out in the day sometime, instead."
"That's not possible," she said.
"Why?"
"Stormy will be going back to Romania soon," Alexander said flatly.
"I will?" Stormy said, surprised.
"She will?" Billy and I asked sadly, in unison.
"I'd like her to spend the days with me," Alexander said. "You know, to catch up before she leaves."
"I'm not ready to leave," she said.
"You can't stay here forever," Alexander replied.
"I want to stay here," she demanded, "with Billy and Henry and Valentine and Raven." I felt touched that she felt the need to be with me.
"We can talk about this later," Alexander said softly.
"No, we can discuss this now. I'm not going home!" Stormy was getting mad, and I wasn't sure what to say or do.
"Well, you have to sometime," Alexander said. "We'll talk about it when we get home."
"I don't have to leave now," she said. "And you can't make me."
Stormy hurried off and sat on a bench outside the bakery.
"I'm sorry - " Billy said to Alexander. "I shouldn't have brought all this up. We can hang out whenever it's convenient," he said. "Just as long as she can stay here."
My brother joined her, and the two sat on a park bench outside a coffee shop. I noticed Billy fiddling with something in his back pocket.
He pulled out the mirror he'd taken from Henry's telescope. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but I had a pretty good idea.
"Don't you dare," I whispered to him.
"Why not?" he asked, faking naivete.
"Because I said so." I sat down next to him.
Stormy was busy licking the dripping ice cream off her cone.
"What will I see?" he asked. "Or not see?"
"If you do this, I'll break your fingers," I threatened in his ear. "You'll never play a video game again."
"What's going on?" Stormy asked.
"Just sibling talk," I said.
"Oh, I know how that is."
"Maybe you should go stand by Alexander," I tried to prompt her.
"I like it here," she said.
"I just wanted to see your reaction," Billy said. "I wanted to see if you already knew. But I sensed that you did."
"Knew what?" I asked.
"Look up there," he said.
He motioned to a mirror hanging on the corner of the building. The kind of mirror that is used to help cars see the pedestrians before they came out of the alley.
It was angled so that we could see the bench we were sitting on. I saw Billy and myself, but the seat next to Billy, where Stormy was now sitting, was empty.
My mouth dropped almost to the cement sidewalk below us.
My brother didn't say a word.
"I'm not leaving," we heard Stormy say. "My friends are here."
Billy gave me a knowing glance, then smiled sweetly at Stormy.
"I love this ice cream," she said. She held her cone out to Billy. "Want a bite?"
"A bite?" he asked, staring at me. "No, I don't think I do, but Raven? She might."
Chapter 16 Secrets and Sundaes
There was a lot of tension between Billy and me as Alexander drove us home. I didn't know if he'd say anything to Alexander and Stormy about his discovery or what he'd say if he did.
Hey, Stormy - why don't you show up in pictures or reflect in mirrors? I heard him say in my mind.
I kept the conversation moving, and I bantered on about mundane topics and recent movies I'd seen. Anything to keep my brother from talking about what he'd seen - or rather, hadn't seen.
When we arrived home, we were saying our good-byes when Billy spoke up.
"I want that picture, remember?" my brother said to me. "Especially if Stormy is leaving soon, I want a picture of us together."
"I'm not leaving soon," she said for us all to hear.
"It's late," I interjected. "They have to leave. Maybe next time."
But Billy had already placed his phone in Alexander's hand.
Stormy gladly stood next to Billy. It was as if she liked playing the part of the happy mortal.
Alexander looked at me as if I knew what to do. I turned away in frustration.
Alexander took the picture, then handed me the phone. I tried to hang on to it but Billy snatched it from me before I could delete the picture.
"Good night, Stormy," Billy said. "Good night, Alexander."
"Good night," they both said.
Billy went inside, and I knew if I stayed for a long good-night kiss, he'd have that picture already plastered on a social network site.
It was one thing to have Becky know the truth about Alexander and the other vampires' real identities - but quite another for my little brother to know. Could he keep a secret? I'm sure he had already told Henry by now. The two must have been concocting their experiments like young Einsteins.
I blew Alexander a kiss and ran inside.
In the family room, my mom was reading a magazine and my dad was watching college football. Billy was already upstairs in his room. I ran up the stairs and charged over to my brother and tried to grab his phone away from him.
"What are you going toe yt Billy sn do?" he asked. "Kill me?"
"That would be too easy."
"What are you two doing?" I heard my mom call from downstairs.
"So you admit it?" he questioned.
"I admit nothing."
"You saw what I just saw in the alley mirror," Billy said. "Or rather, what I didn't see. You can't explain that away."
"I don't know what you saw," I said. "You need glasses."
"I have twenty-twenty vision," he asserted.
