Stella blinked, "You're not a turned vampire then?"
She realised she knew almost nothing about Simon, much less than the little she knew about the rest of them.
Simon looked at her, turning away from the road from the first time, "You didn't know? I was born."
"Oh...." was the only response Stella could manage. After a while of silence, she asked in a small voice, "Will you tell me your story?"
Simon asked, surprised, "You want to know my story?"
Stella nodded, her eyes expectant. "Why?" Simon furrowed his brows.
Stella's amber eyes were twinkling as she said, "Because I want to. Isn't that reason enough?"
Simon was reluctant. But he made the mistake of taking his eyes off the road again and looking into Stella's expectant amber eyes. He sighed, he never could win against those eyes. "Well, it's not very interesting...." Simon tried to squirm out.
"Oh. I won't force you. It's okay if you don't want to tell me." Stella was disappointed as she turned to look ahead too.
After an uncomfortable silence, she spoke, "So, where will we be having breakfast? And I really need to buy some groceries too."
Stella was trying to bring conversation to lighter topics, but Simon's eyes, though fixed on the road, seemed to be somewhere else.
He said in a sort of dreamy voice, "I can tell you up till a century ago. After that, it's not only my story to tell."
Stella was confused. She put a finger on her chin, tilted her head and blinked three times before saying, "Up till a century ago?"
Simon: "Yeah. After that, my story becomes too entangled. So that's all I can do."
But Stella shook her head as her eyes grew bigger, "Up till a century ago!!! How old are you!?!?!?"
Simon laughed at her reaction, "That was what you were shocked about! I'm 326."
Stella stared at Simon wide-eyed, still as a statue, her only movement the blinking of the huge eyes that looked like they would pop out of their sockets anytime.
After a while, Simon began to get worried, "Stella? Stella!!! Come on!! Say SOMETHING!!!!!"
This something seemed to bring Stella back to consciousness. She blinked and shrieked, "326!!!!! YOU'RE ANCIENT!!!!!!!!!"
Simon chuckled upon hearing her response, "Maybe from the perspective of humans, I'm not even middle-aged as far as vampires go."
Stella's mouth fell open as she stared at Simon. Recovering from her shock, Stella leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, massaging her forehead, "See. This is why I'm so eager to know about you guys. I don't want my reaction to come out this way everytime you guys tell me something."
Simon: "Let's clear the age thing up before we go into my story."
Stella opened her eyes and looked at him.
Simon said, "You see. We vampires are not really immortals. We can be killed, yes, that's one reason. But we are not immortal as we have a lifespan. Though it is so much longer than humans that we look like immortals to them."
Stella blinked and Simon continued, "We are born, and we take ten years to grow as much as you humans grow in one year. So if you see, I'm only 32 something in human age."
He looked at Stella, "Now that you believe I'm not a ghost, I'll begin my story."