*
I made my way over to Lou’s after I ate dinner with Sue, but not before making a trip to my room to down a few more blood bags. Drake waved me past the hostess and led me to a corner booth.
“I’ll be right back. I just have to wrap up my final customers.” He squeezed my hand and headed towards a nearby table. I watched him closely, trying not to stare. Even though he was tall, he was smooth, never awkward. He smiled at every customer and everyone seemed to respond to his positive energy. He was such a good soul. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of nasty girl would treat him like this Allison girl did.
I’d never met anyone like him at Rochelle High. If I had, leaving would have been a whole lot harder. I would still be there, lurking outside his window and doing everything in my power to be with him.
He disappeared into the kitchen and I studied my hands while I waited. The skin was smooth, even smoother than when I had been alive, or pre-vampire. All scars I once had were gone. It’s like my history had been wiped away. The long thin scar that was on my wrist from the chicken wire we’d used in a school play set—gone. The circular scar on my thumb from when Donovan had thrown a toy at me—gone. All smoothed over like polished marble. No one seemed to notice I was different. My eyes stood out the most, but after awhile, no one mentioned that either.
Maybe the human mind just adjusted to what it saw, got used to it. I knew a guy when I was in junior high who had a patch of hair missing on his head; he’d apparently pulled a pot of boiling water down on himself when he was really little. I remember noticing it at first—it was all I could look at when he was around. But the more I got to know him, the smaller and less noticeable the bald patch became. And one day, I forgot all about it. He was one of the more popular boys in school, well liked by the chicks. That patch of missing hair never slowed him down.
Maybe my eyes had the same effect. Alarming at first, but once you get to know me, it’s just something I have; it’s not everything I am. Look at Drake’s friends. They’d let me right in. I just hoped that was the right move for all of us.
Drake walked out of the kitchen balancing a tray on his hand. He’d removed his apron and was just wearing his jeans and Lou’s shirt. In his other hand he had a Bartlett High hoodie that he tossed into the booth. He set the tray on the table and slid onto the bench across from me, taking a moment to pull on the hoodie.
“Lou doesn’t like us sitting out here if we’re dressed in our work shirts.”
“Gotcha. What’s all this?”
“Dinner. I’m starving.” He cut into the deep-dish pizza and used a spatula to remove a gooey piece. “You want some?”
“Sure, I’d feel funny sitting here without food in front of me.” I nodded towards the other diners.
“Right. Here you go.” He set another piece on a plate and handed it to me.
“How was work?” I asked, cutting into the pizza. I could at least take a few bites, how could I not be in the mood for this pizza?
“Pretty busy. Obviously it’s slowed down now, but Friday nights are always crazy.”
We were both silent for a moment, chewing. I was happy that the silence didn’t feel awkward.
“Oh, I forgot, I brought a notebook.” Drake pulled a small, black hardcover notebook from his hoodie pocket. He shifted in his seat to pull a pen out of his pocket and flipped the book open to a clean page.
“Is that where you write your poetry?” I pointed at the book with my fork.
“Maybe it is.” He raised an eyebrow and pulled the notebook closer.
“What, now I can’t see it?” I pouted.
“Maybe, if you’re really good. But we’ll see. First things first, we got a list to make here.” He wrote Vampire Notes at the top.
“Seriously? You’re going to title it that? What if someone finds it?”
“Do you really think anyone in their right mind would believe I’m talking about real vampires? I’ll just tell them that I’m writing a story, or that they’re notes for English. We are reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”
“True.” I nodded.
“Okay, first things first. You have to drink blood.” He wrote drink blood on the list. “And you told me it doesn’t have to be direct from the source, right?”
I nodded.
“Okay. You can use your eyes for mind control, and you’re obviously super strong, which seemed to surprise even that other vampire.” He wrote a few more lines on the list between bites of pizza. “You can walk around in the sun. And you clearly don’t sparkle. You can eat real food. Anything else?”
“Don’t forget to add the quick healing, and blood that was able to heal you,” I said while loading up my fork.
“Okay, got that. What about dying? You saw that one vampire die in the forest. Branch through the chest, right?” He paused and studied my face.
“Yeah, so I guess the whole stake-through-the-heart is definitely not a myth. And the second guy, behind Lou’s…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish.
“Um, yeah, I’ll add removal of head, too.” His eyes met mine across the table. “You okay with this?”
“Yeah, no it’s fine. It’s just weird. I mean, think about it. Never in my life, or whatever I’m calling this time, did I imagine I’d be having this conversation.” I set my fork down and folded my hands in my lap. “But I think we should do it.”
“Okay, a few more things. Do you sleep?”
“Yes.”
“How long did it take you to turn?”
“I think I figured it was five days.”
“Okay, I brought a couple of things to try, just because they’re part of the myth and all. But I’m really not trying to hurt you. This,” he gestured to a platter next to the pizza, “contains cheese balls fried with garlic in their breading. And this,” he placed a little vial on the table that he pulled out of his pocket, “is holy water. My mom’s Catholic and for some reason keeps it lying around the house.”
“The garlic hasn’t bothered me yet. You figure this is a pizzeria, there’s garlic everywhere.” I slid the platter closer and eyed them carefully. I didn’t want to scream out or anything and scare the customers, but I was curious. “I’ll touch one.”
Our eyes met for a moment. Fear shone in his.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be okay,” I said, picking up the cheese ball and instantly dropping it with a hiss. I clamped my opposite hand over my finger. Drake jumped in his seat.
“Oh god are you okay?” He reached across the table.
“Gotcha!” I giggled leaning back in the booth and showing my hands. “I didn’t feel anything. But just to be on the safe side, I won’t eat it, just in case it could kill me. You might miss me.”
“I would for sure miss you.” He grasped my hand across the table and inspected my finger. “Looks okay.” He leaned back with a relieved sigh.
“So, you still want me to try the holy water?”
“Only if you promise not to scare me like that!” Drake rubbed his hands on the sides of his face.
“I promise.” I fluttered my eyelashes.
“You’re not going to get off that easy. You owe me! You scared me to death!”
“I’ll let you collect later.” I added a flirtatious wink. “But it’ll have to wait until after you’ve tried to kill me with holy water.”
He handed me the vial.
“How should we do this?” His voice shook.
“Don’t worry.” I popped the lid of the vial open and poured one drop on the table. I took my finger and touched the edge of the drop lightly. Nothing. I placed the tip of my finger into the drop, awaiting a burn, a sizzle, anything. Nothing.
“Okay, so I think we can count that out. All old wives’ tales.” Drake let out a sigh, and I realized he’d been holding his breath. “I’ve got nothing else. We can just add things to the list as they come up, I guess.”
“If only we could figure out why those other vampires wanted me to go with them so badly that they would die for it.” I poured myself a glass of Coke from the pitcher Drake had brought to the table.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you how we’re going to figure that one out. I doubt vampires are just listed online or in the yellow pages.” He gave me a strange look. “Although we could Google it—you never know what we might come up with.”
“True, we can Google it later.” I laughed. “God, this just gets weirder by the minute.”
“So, speaking of non-vampire related business, do you want to go to a party at Morgan’s tomorrow night?” Drake asked before returning to his pizza.
“Isn’t that the girl who gave you the note the other day? I think she might be after a little more than homework help.” I took a sip of Coke.
“Naw, get outta here. She wasn’t interested. Do I sense a little jealousy?” he asked playfully.
“Do I have anything to be jealous about?” I asked, sliding my hand across the table and over his.
“Not a damn thing, girl.” He flashed me a goofy smile, flipped his hand over and squeezed mine.
Unfortunately, I was more worried about Morgan. I’m sure she wouldn’t say the same.
Bloody Little Secrets Page 18