Dedicated to nessa129. Guys, her works are awesome. So well written and edited (cherry on top, huh?) You should definitely check out her books if you like simple yet effective romance/teen fiction/humor genres! She is an AMAZING author. (WAAAAAY better than the writer of this book, without any doubt). Love ya!

Chapter 44: You're Gonna Marry Julian, then?

I didn't know what to do as Julian's closed. Partially sniffling and partially horrified, I stood up.

"BRANDON! LUCAS!" I screamed.

No answer. Why in the world were they still inside? I called their names again but no response. I ran to my car to grab my cell phone which had no service. I went back to Julian's side and tried to get him to wake.

"Julian, wake up. I swear I'll punch you if you don't." No response. I slapped his cheek a couple of times, but still nothing. The blood covered the middle of his chest. I tried to check his pulse but I couldn't tell from the wrist. Sniffling--whether it was from the cold or not, I couldn't tell--I brought the pads of my index finger and middle finger to his neck and felt a pulse.

A huge relief.

Just to make sure, I put my hand on his chest and felt for his heartbeat. Before I could process what was happening, a hand wrapped around mine tightly. Julian's eyes flew open.

"Hello."

He burst out laughing at my expression.

More laughter was heard behind us. I looked up to find Brandon and Lucas with their phones out, pointed at me. Brandon held the "spirit of the girl" which was nothing less a puppet or doll. I turned back to Julian who was laughing, clutching onto my hand.

"What the hell is this?" I demanded, pulling my hand away and standing up. If this was what I thought it was, then I was going to be hiding three dead bodies in the cemetery soon.

"The climax of my horror movie!" exclaimed Lucas. "You were supposed to act dumber than that, you know? You don't check the pulse of the dead person in a horror movie or try calling the ambulance!" All three of them were laughing again.

"You guys did all this drama for your goddamn horror movie, Lucas?" I asked outraged. He was lucky he stood a couple of feet away from me.

"Wasn't it great? You really thought he died," Lucas smirked.

"She slapped me six times. I might have very well be dead," Julian said clutching his cheek. "Sheer luck that I'm still alive."

I gave him a glare before bending down to pick up the fake knife. "Let's see how long that lasts." The three of them stared at me in surprise before backing away. I was really ready to murder them all in a heartbeat.

If only the knife's blade wasn't made of plastic.

After chasing each one of them with the knife, I was stopped by Brandon. "Relax, Cass. It was just a funny joke." Lucas and Julian nodded their heads in agreement.

I looked at him shaking my head. "A funny joke?! You three are a bunch of idiots!" I shouted. "Death is not funny! This is not something to joke about, damn it! I- I really thought he- he- ah- shit!" I said dropping the knife. Cursing wasn't my most favorite thing, but I had nothing else to say.

I backed away from them clutching my face. They thought this was just some another prank. Who the hell found it fun to make someone fake death? I kept wiping my eyes which wouldn't stop leaking from the relief and anger at what had just happened.

"Cassie!"

"Sandy!"

"Don't talk to me!" I snapped and wiped my face one last time. The guys stood with guilty looks.

"Cass--"

"Shut up, Brandon!" I looked at the three of them and gave them the most disgusted look I could. "You know what I hate the most? Lying! Lying about something like this is unacceptable! Prank? A damn horror movie prank? There is a limit to everything, and all of you just crossed it!"

All of them stood quietly for a second before Lucas blurted out, "the limit does not exist." Him and his brother were laughing again. Julian awkwardly stared between them and me.

"Cassie, we weren't trying to upset you. It was a harmless--"

"Julian, shut up!" I hated the anger of mine, but they should have seen it coming. "What if you-- or any of you three were in my position? Think about me- no, I already know none of you give a damn about me. Think of your close friend or family member or any idiot you trusted lying there dead in front of your eyes! How would you react to the 'harmless' prank?"

Their pale looks told me I had gotten them.

"Sandy--" Lucas said taking a step forward but I stepped back.

"I am sick of the three of you. You know me! Brandon, you've known me for so long and really?" Brandon gave me a guilty look. Turning to Julian, I said, "You know me pretty damn well, too. I certainly did not expect this...idiotic thing from you." Julian seemed really guilty especially with all that blood on his chest which suspiciously looked like sauce. "As for Lucas, I honestly don't know what to do with you. Frankly speaking, Crowell, you're so immature!" Lucas didn't say anything and had a blank expression on his face.

"We weren't trying to scare you, Cass. You're overreacting," said Brandon.

"That's because I had higher expectations from you three!"

Without sparing another glance at any of the boys, I stormed off to my car. The three of them had legitimately gone over the limits to jokes.

What if Julian was actually dead?

No.

Just no.

Running a hand through my hair, I took deep breaths and drove home.

¤》¤《¤

Gramma picked today to be the day of torturing me as well. As soon as I entered the house-cool and collected-I was pulled into the kitchen.

"We're cooking dinner together!" Gramma said loudly. I pulled my arm away from her grasp and sighed.

"Please spare me today," I pleaded. She gave me a skeptical look and shook her head.

"You say that every time. Not getting off the hook today, Sandy," she said shaking her head. Her stubbornness was really hard to put up sometimes, I swear.

"Why can't you ask Cate? Why me? My life is hard enough already," I argued, stepping towards the doorway of the kitchen.

"Cate helped me yesterday. How about this: either you cook dinner or bake the dessert? Take your pick," she reasoned. I narrowed my eyes at her and said nothing for a while. "Or you can help with both..."

"I got the dessert," I said quickly. One thing was better than both. It might as well take my mind off things. "But tell me why you are making all this? Can't you just make Petrina come and do the work? So much easier that way."

Gramma was quiet for a couple of minutes. "Petrina will no longer be working for us."

"What?"

"Sandy, relax. The company isn't doing that well and your parents thought it was better to save money by laying off Petrina," she said as she went over to the fridge to grab some vegetables. She was avoiding meeting my eyes.

"Gramma, what do you mean by 'the company isn't doing that well?'" I asked narrowing my eyes at her.

"We had some losses recently, but your grandpa and dad are pretty good trying to make it up," she said as she started cutting tomatoes.

"How big were the losses?" I asked fully focused on what was going on.

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't that bad-" Her sentence was cut off was by the doorbell. "Why don't you get that for me?"

"CATE! DOOR!" I shouted.

Gramma gave me look. "Go, get the door." The door bell rang again.

"Then, promise you won't make me do any work." I really hated anything related to cooking, baking, or using my culinary skills in general.

"Nice try, but no," she said flatly and proceeded to cut some weird cucumber-like vegetable.

"What is that?" I asked for the sake of curiosity.

"Zucchini," she replied as the bell rang once again. "Get the door."

I groaned and trudged towards the door. Cate reached it right before I did.

What a waste of my walk.

"Who is it, Cat?" I asked as she talked in a lowered tone to someone. I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to figure out who it was.

"Let us in, Cate," I heard the male voice say. Jimmy walked in with a huge smile. I grinned upon seeing my older brother. Finally, some sane person--a guy at that--coming in. "Hey, Sandy," Jimmy said. He gave me half a hug and repeated the same with Cate. My smile faltered immediately as I saw Jimmy's best friend, David, walking in behind.

"Oh look, Sandy, you are so grown up," David said as he walked over to give me a hug. "Looking hot," he winked.

Ew.

"I'm gonna punch you if you touch me," I told him sternly. He was always flirting with every member of the female species. It was disgusting. Cate adored him because she prefered those "older blond haired, blue eyed hotties." Yeah, she was forgetting the part that David was her older brother's age.

"As always. I'll just hug Cate then," David said hugging a squealing Cate.

"Jimmy! David!" Gramma said from behind. She seemed really happy to see her oldest grandchild. I don't think she knew David too well since she was smiling brightly at the idiot. Jimmy gave her a huge hug in surprise.

"You're finally home, Gramma! I missed you!" he said pulling away.

"Yes, I am. I missed you too, dear. I know college has been keeping you busy," she said patting his arm.

"More like girls," scoffed David. Jimmy threw David a glare. I rolled my eyes along with Cate.

Gramma just said, "boys" and went back to the kitchen. I really thought I was off the hook until Gramma yelled behind, "Sandy, get in here."

"She's making you help?" Jimmy asked with a knowing look. Gramma always did this. She used to make Jimmy cook, too before he moved out. I nodded and went over to the kitchen, ready to throw a tantrum.

The door bell rang again behind me. That confused everybody. I just went to the kitchen, avoiding people in general. Gramma gave me a weird look and asked, "Who was at the door?"

I shrugged. "Don't know don't care. Where's the cake mix or cookie mix or whatever mix box?" Take the easy way out.

"We don't have any. You're making it from scratch," she said casually.

"Give me a break."

"No. You can ask your siblings for help," she pointed out.

"Yeah and then they'll expect me to help them out later. No thanks," I said as I went to the recipe book. I flipped it open to the page with the recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

"Sandy!" I heard Cate yell my name. I groaned. Gramma rolled her eyes but said nothing. "Come here!"

"I'm busy!" I shouted back.

"With what?" David asked from the doorway of the kitchen. I ignored him. "She's so cold to me, Gramma," complained David. Gramma chuckled. "By the way, some Lucas kid and a British kid came to see you."

Gramma and I froze and looked at each other.

"No," I said shaking my head at her slowly.

"He doesn't happen to be your Lucas by any chance?" Gramma asked as she wiped her hands on a towel. She didn't even wait for my response as she hurried away. I turned to David who seemed amused.

"'Your Lucas,' Sandy?"

"Please tell me you were kidding about Lucas," I said almost pleading, "and Julian."

"So, the British one is 'Julian?'"

"Damn. I'm not going out there. I swear if they come in here..." I muttered as I grabbed a knife.

David gave me a weird look as he backed away. "Babe, you have issues." He kept looking between me and the knife as he left.

I rolled my eyes and went to get the butter out of the fridge and cut the stick in half.

I worked patiently for a little bit, hearing random laughing noises in the living room. My cookie dough turned out to be worse than I had expected. Oh joy. Nonetheless, I shoved the cookies in the oven. Everything was going well--close to it, anyways-- until the devil himself interrupted me...and almost killed me, indirectly.

"Evans!"

I was cutting one of the tomatoes Gramma had left half cut (She never came back. I swear she was way too hyper to see Lucas Crowell, finally!). His voice startled me, making me end up cutting my skin.

"Lucas, ugh!" I exclaimed as I dropped the knife and immediately rushed to the sink. Turning on the tap, I let the water wash away the dark blood.

Gross.

"Geez, Evans. Pay more attention," Lucas said as he came over to my side quickly. He examined my finger with his face scrunched up and then looked back up at me.

"Is today your indirectly killing people day?" I asked.

He gave me a flat look. "Sandy, don't be angry. I came over to apologize, you know."

"Yes, because saying sorry solves everything," I said as I turned off the tap and inspected the cut. Not too bad. It definitely hurt less in comparison to what I went through today.

"The prank wasn't supposed to be anything too bad," he insisted taking a step my way. "Brandon and I found that puppet girl in the morgue and thought it would be funny to include it. When we showed the video to you, it wasn't supposed to go any further."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the whole drama at the steps was Brandon's idea. He said it was just an experiment to see if his 'Cass with feelings' was still alive."

Controlling any anger, I said, "I am just another human being! You guys take me as some- some weird alien or something. I'm not!"

"Alien? Nah. More like a heartless bi- person," he stumbled over his words.

Wow.

"Get out."

"I didn't--"

"Get out, Lucas!" I snapped, pointing my good index finger right at the doorway.

"Sandy, listen to me," he said taking another step my way, trapping me between the fridge and his body.

"I don't want to--" Hating the proximity, I tried to push him away he grabbed my wrists.

"Listen!" Lucas snapped. He took my silence as a go. "You're getting too carried away with your emotions, Sandy. I'm not saying you're heartless and all that. Not after what I saw today, anyways. All I'm saying is that I admit the prank was a little too much. We weren't expecting you to believe us, honestly."

"Yes, because no one would believe death."

"Stop with the stubborness!" Letting go off my wrists, he stared at me. Lucas was angry at me, but he didn't have any right. "Julian's alive. Nothing happened, sweetheart!"

"Not to you!" I snapped. He blinked at me, backing away. "What?" Lucas just stared into my eyes for a long time.

"It hurt you a lot, didn't it? Seeing Julian dead," he stated. Something about the way he was talking and looking at me was weird.

"Of course, it did." I didn't know what was wrong but Lucas looked away, seeming preoccupied with something. "Lucas, I don't have that many people who I'm actually fine interacting with. It's not fun almost losing one of those people." I didn't know why I was explaining myself.

"Am I one of them?" he suddenly asked.

"After what happened today, none of the guys in your family are in there."

Both of us stood quietly for a little bit. Lucas seemed to be lost in his thoughts while I was lost in mine. It wasn't until the burning smell that we realized we were in the kitchen with something baking the oven.

"Cookies!" I exclaimed as I remembered. Quickly grabbing the oven mitts, I rushed to pull out the charcoal black cookies. I put the tray on a cooling rack which was pointless, considering no one was going to eat those things.

"I might have to rethink about Cassandra Crowell," said Lucas as he examined the burned food.

"Who said I was marrying you?"

"Who said you weren't?" he grinned. "You can't expect any other guy to marry you, Evans."

"I guess I'm not getting married, then," I shrugged. Did I really want to get stuck with someone like him?

Lucas opened his mouth to say something else when Julian came over. The foreigner looked a little cautious of me. After all, he was the dead guy. "Hello. Mind if I join?"

I gave him one look before turning to face my burned cookies. What a disappointment. I didn't expect Julian to hurt me so much.

"Hey, Julian," Lucas said cheerfully. "You can join. I was just telling Sandy how hardly any guy can put up with her."

"Has any guy ever tried?" Julian asked. I looked up at him surprised along with Lucas. "I'm quite positive that if someone actually tried to know Cassie, he'll be able to get along with her fine."

"Talking about yourself?" Lucas grinned at him.

"Of course. After the...problem we had an hour ago, I have to redeem myself," Julian grinned back. I rolled my eyes and pretended the guys didn't exist.

"She's not mad at you," Lucas said, leaning against the counter.

"'She' can talk for herself," I told him.

"So, she isn't angry?" Julian asked in a hopeful tone.

I turned to look at him. "Oh, she is definitely angry. How dare you go through the prank?!"

"It's alright for you to play Mother Nature and I can't play dead? Where's the justice in that?" replied Julian.

"He has a point," Lucas said with a nod.

"Justice? Julian, you are the more mature one!"

"Are you calling me immature? Indirectly?" Lucas asked, feigning being offended.

"I'll call you immature directly to your face," I said meeting his brown eyes. "Lucas Sebastian Crowell, you definitely are immature."

"You still fancy him," Julian blurted out. If looks could kill.

Lucas smirked at me. "I'm not too sure about that," I said slowly and threw Julian a death glare.

"Sweetheart, stay on my good side. I'm telling you already: You won't find anyone else to marry."

"Dying alone sounds better than marrying you," I retorted.

"Ouch," a fourth voice said from the doorway.

David. I hated that blonde guy so much.

He looked at all of us and grinned. "It's been established that I'm marrying Sandy." I rolled my eyes at him. Lucas and Julian both gave us confused looks.

"I would rather marry Lucas than you, David."

"Ouch," Lucas said in the same tone David had said it.

"Correction: I would rather not marry either of you."

Lucas snorted. "What? You're gonna marry Julian, then?" Julian gave me a small dimpled smile and waited for my response.

"Nope. He deserves better," I said honestly, "I'm gonna be more of a--"

"Lonely cat lady," David said and the guys burst out laughing.

"Solo adventurer, thank you very much," I finished, giving them glares. "Cats are awful, by the way. Animals, in general, are terrible." Julian gave me a look. "Including Antonio."

"You don't even know him!" Julian insisted.

"You know his dog?" Lucas asked surprised.

"Yeah, he told me how if I ever ca-- he mentioned it once," I said tersely. I had omitted the detail--on purpose--about how Julian and I established that we would talk if I ever needed him. It wouldn't disturb his family or dog.

"Antonio is a trained dog," Julian said shifting the subject away slightly.

"I brought my dog, too! Do you want to see it?" David said excitedly. We all gave him baffled expression. Looking sheepish, he explained, "I left Sandy in the car."

"You named your dog after me?" I asked appalled.

David grinned. "Not you, but the Spongebob character, Sandy."

"I hate my name," I muttered. The joy of being named after a squirrel. I looked at Julian who mouthed, "Cassie." I tried my best not to smile at him.

"I don't," Lucas said giving me a small nudge before turning to David. "Dude, why did you leave your dog in the car? Bring her in!"

"Okay!" David rushed out before hearing my protests. Lucas told me to be quiet and deal with it.

"It's only a dog, Sandy. One won't make a difference," he said.

"Agreed. Animals are a fabulous company, anyways," said Julian.

"I've been hanging out with animals for a while. Give me a break," I said as I made my way out of the kitchen.

"What's on your arm?" Julian asked as I was about to pass him. I stopped by his side to see what he was pointing at.

"Sandy's trying to test her blood type. I bet it's AB negative," joked Lucas.

I looked at my finger which actually had blood running down. "It's A positive, thank you very much. At least, this blood is real." That statement earned me some guilty looks. I started to wiped my hand off on my shirt. Julian stopped me mid-way by grabbing my arm.

"Try putting it under water. You need to keep it clean to avoiding infections," he said as he looked over it. I tried not to pull my arm away. His hand was really warm compared to my arm's temperature. "What happened?"

"Lucas startled me when he came in," I explained as Julian let go and I went to wash it off...again.

"Blame the nice guy," Lucas said behind me.

"Blame the idiot," I corrected.

"Are there any band-aids here?" Julian asked, ignoring our argument. I heard cabinets being opened and closed behind me.

"I don't need a band-aid," I said as I washed away the blood.

"And she calls me immature," Lucas said in a low tone.

"Cassie, you have to cover your cut. You're intelligent enough to know that," sighed Julian.

"I'm intelligent enough to know that, too," Lucas said proudly. Julian and I looked at him and said nothing. Lucas had some unnecessary contributions sometimes.

I just turned to Julian and said, "I don't kn--"

My sentence was cut off by a huge a golden creature attacking me.

I didn't know what to expect as saliva spread over my hand and ran along my arm.

Oh boy.

¤》¤《¤

A/N

Whatya think? Was the joke funny? -____- I swear I would have killed those guys if they ever did that to me. Btw, all my goal last chapter to create doubt in your guys' mind about whether Julian was alive or not. I don't killing my fav characters (sometimes I do).

Julian is still alive. I didnt understand the concept of Sandy/Cassie having a dream. How did that theory came up? Guys, this isnt some PARANORMAL story. I am a very secular and science-y person. You would NEVER see me writing paranormal stuff.

Whatya think of David?

Cat person or dog person?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

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