Thicker Than Water by Abigail Livinghouse (top ten books of all time .txt) 📕

The only thing that kept Derrick Grison away from  family, was family itself.  A strong, independent eighteen year old with a thirst for understanding and knowledge had no place in his life for family drama. If he could, he would've dropped the title at the first chance offered so that no one would associate him with the other members who shared the Grison name. Only, there was one thing that always brought Derrick back to one of his blood relatives, and that was blood itself.

"Grison." Mr. Giddens called out my last name in his phlegmy voice. 

I inwardly rolled my eyes. The biology lecture on protons and neutrons was something I had learned when I was a freshman in high school, not a sophomore in college. This repeated material was enough to put even a caffeinated eight year old asleep, and though it was against my nature of honor student to sleep during classes, I was quite tempted.

 Instead, I raised my head from the perch of my chin and looked at Mr. Giddens square in his round black eyes. "Yes sir?"

The skinny man moved with apparent laziness through the aisles and stood over my desk, his red snot-filled nose shoving itself into my personal space where it most certainly did not belong.

 "Since you were paying such close attention to my speech, why don't you tell the class what happens when you split a proton?" He asked cheerily.

 I sighed. Much to his soon to be displeasure, I had been paying attention and he was about to find out that I knew way more than he did. I wasn't bigheaded, I was educated. Leaning forward and clasping my hands together in front of me, I spoke. "Well you see Mr. Giddens, this is more of a question for the debate team than a biology class. Protons are solids, so why split them? If it is really necessary, splitting a proton is a way to separate and create new subatomic particles. Other than that, I see no reason we need to split them."

 I finished my little speech with a smile as Mr. Giddens opened his mouth to retaliate. The bell rang just as the first bit of sound came out of the squeaky teacher, and I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed out the door with another pleasant smile at Mr. Giddens before I was out.

 Adeline was waiting for me at the door, her books in her arms and her baby pink bag hanging by her side. My girlfriend Addie was one of the most beautiful and smartest girls on campus. She had the softest strawberry blonde hair that framed her face, and inviting ocean blue eyes that lit up as soon as she saw me. A flowing white sundress covered her thin figure, and a gold locket that had been a one year anniversary gift from me to her rested contentedly on her full chest.

"You're early today baby, Giddens giving you a hard time?" She asked as she looped her arm through mine and we made our way outside to the courtyard where we would be spending our free period.

 I shrugged. "Nothing out of the ordinary of course, my dear."

 She smiled her breathtaking smile filled with straight white teeth and a pure happiness that positively glowed, and I couldn't help but smile back. Addie and I had met three years ago at a friend's sixteenth birthday party. I had been just about to turn sixteen at the time and her fifteen. We had met and shared the same dislike for the music being played at the party, being as we preferred much more classical arts, and before we knew it we were completely engrossed in a discussion about Mozart and Beethoven, not even caring about what was going on around us. We had talked for hours and I had left that night with her number in my phone. Obviously I had texted her the next morning, and the rest is history.

 Currently Addie is seventeen, a freshman here at Princeton University and I eighteen, a sophomore. We've been together a little over two years-and if you're thinking we purposely applied at the same college so that we could be together, you are wrong, I was shooting for Harvard, her Yale, and we just got lucky-and I must say I couldn't be happier.

 The large courtyard in the middle of the college was well taken care of with cherry blossoms and lilacs surrounding the area, giving the garden a nice floral smell in the spring and summer. Holding my hand, Addie led me over to one of the stone benches resting underneath a flowered tree. I sat down gladly, shoving my books aside and shifting so that she could lean against my chest as she opened up one of her poetry books.

 "What is it you're reading today sweetheart?" I asked her. She looked up at me and smiled, always glad to know that I was interested in her reading.

 "Sleeping with a Famous Poet. It's lovely." Addie said, showing me her open spot in the middle of the book where I caught a glimpse of some of the delicate descriptions and subtle themes changing throughout the page. The cover showed a painting of a half clothed woman lying on a cloak in a luscious green field, her eyes closed and the title of the book shadowing her body. 

 I moved so that I was resting against the small tree we were under, and shut my eyes as Addie began reading in her gentle voice without any questioning from me.

Night had just fallen upon campus. College kids were out partying no matter what day of the week, while others were busy cramming for that last minute test the teacher had sprung on them weeks ago. While I, I was heading to the local hospital.

 I wasn't ill but I could feel myself reaching the breaking point. I knew that this was inevitable, it always was. In the daytime it's easier because of how draining the sunlight is, however when it's no longer day then that's when the bloodlust comes out to play. I was just thanking whatever god there was out there that I hadn't felt this way around Addie earlier. I had barely felt even a bit of pain, but now it had escalated to unbearable levels. My pain tolerance wasn't low either, and I wasn't exaggerating.

 I never let myself get close enough that there was even the slightest chance that I would use Addie. It's harder to control when your pulse is racing and excitement is pulsing through you, and that happens on occasion with me and her. I just had to learn to control myself, because if Addie was ever hurt because of the demon inside of me lurking just beneath the surface, then I would never forgive myself. I would never be able to show my face to her again.

 I had reached the hospital just down the road and entered in through the sliding glass doors with the glaring red ER sign above them. I went up to the reception desk where Nina was sitting in her usual seat. She looked up immediately at the entrance of a patient, but relaxed when she saw it was me.

 "Oh God, Derrick. I thought it was someone important." She said with her hand over her rapidly beating heart. That sound was all too loud in my ears, and I was very aware of it.

 I snickered. "Thanks."

 Nina was a nurse in her early twenties who had graduated from Princeton at the end of my freshman year. She was tall and thin, with olive skin and big brown eyes. Her long cocoa brown hair was always pulled back and she was wearing a pink shirt with teddy bears all over it, their arms outstretched expecting hugs. She moved around the large reception desk which usually had more than one person there, tonight was quite the opposite and took my arm leading me down the hall.

 "How ya holding up?" She asked as we walked. I shrugged, although just the touch of her warm skin on mine sent the raging beast in my stomach clawing at my throat. With every slash of its claws came a deep sensation of pain. I swallowed, but that did no good.

 "I'm fine." I said in my dead tone, which was usually alight with fascination.

 She didn’t take her eyes off of me as we made our way down the corridor, and she shook her head at my response.

 “Yeah right, you look like hell.” She said bluntly.

 I rolled my eyes at her, smiling despite the pain that was still burning my insides.

 We had made it to the end of the hall when Nina stopped, stuck a key in a door to the left of the operating room, and we went in. Inside were rows of freezers on each wall, containing the very thing that I needed most.

 Nina led me down to the last freezer on the right and opened it up to reveal overlapping rows of plastic bags filled with a dark red substance. I felt my shoulders relax at the sight of it as my mouth filled with saliva. Nina reached in and pulled out two, handing them both to me.

 I accepted them with a barely mumbled thank you before biting right into one. The thick blood that slid coolly down my throat was enough to satisfy the beast that gladly opened its mouth for it, and the second bag was just as smooth and sweet as the first. When I was done, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and handed the empty bags to Nina, who crumbled them up and hid them in her pocket.

 The best thing about having a nurse as a friend was that she wasn’t squeamish about giving blood to me and disposing of what was left. She was used to that kind of stuff working in a hospital all day. The only abnormality was that I was drinking the blood instead of having it pumped into me.

 “You want a few bags for the road?” Nina asked with the freezer door half open.

 “No, I better not.” I said, shaking my head. It was tempting, but if someone say my dorm advisor would find a hospital pouch filled with blood in my room, then that would not exactly go