by Unknown
“You’re next,” the man’s deep, gravelly voice says.
“Argh!” Fear pushes down on me, like invisible hands on my shoulders.
I collapse under the pressure, dropping inside the limousine with a crash.
“Ouch,” Vinny screams from inside the limousine as my body lands on his foot. The shoe jabs into my gut. I roll to the side, away from the pain, grateful that it was a dress shoe. One of the girls’ pointed heels would have been a hell of a lot more painful.
“Sorry, sorry,” I mumble. I reach for Aaron’s pants and pull him down from the sunroof.
Aaron drops down into the limousine.
“What the hell?” he asks me as his eyes dart around with concern rather than anger. He helps me up off the floor of the limo.
“Did you see that?” I take hold of his hands.
Aaron pulls me up to the seat, his arm around me. “See what?”
“The man outside, the man with…” I can feel everyone’s eyes burning into me like hot daggers; they lean forward, eager to listen, waiting to hear what I will say next.
“Which man?” Aaron asks.
I try to talk naturally, and not sound like a crazy person, but it’s impossible. “The one with blood on his face.” I fall back into the black leather seat.
My body jolts upward as the weight of Aaron’s body forces the cushion up when he takes a seat next to me. “With blood on his face,” he repeats, raising his eyebrows.
I nod my head frantically.
“Sadie, you’re starting to scare me,” Lakia says. I’m scaring myself. Her face is as white as the man’s teeth… The man’s sharp teeth. Like vampire fangs.
A salty tear trickles down my cheek. Before it can reach my chin, Aaron wipes it away. He stares into my eyes as if he’s searching for something.
“Ryder. What was in Sadie’s drink?” Concern washes away from Aaron’s face and is replaced with anger as he grits his teeth.
My throat goes dry at the thought of the liquid I drank. Did Ryder put something in my drink? I want to believe that he did, that the image of the vampire outside was just an illusion.
“Ryder!” the group moans.
A shower of red plastic cups pour down on him. He smacks each of the cups to the floor, deflecting them.
“Ryder. You frigging drugged us again?” Lakia snaps, wagging her finger at him like a mother would when scolding her child.
Ryder squints, and his eyebrows rise on his forehead. He looks confused—but then again, he always does.
“Nothing to do with me,” he says, raising his hands.
“Come here,” Aaron says as he wraps his warm, muscular arms around me, making me feel safe. “You’re freezing,” he says. I hadn’t realized my body was shaking. He takes his jacket off and wraps it around me. I shudder when the satin lining touches my skin.
“Whatever he gave you will wear off soon,” Aaron whispers in my ear. He kisses my cheek gently before tilting his head away from me.
“I hope so. That was the worst trip ever,” I say, burying my head against Aaron’s chest. His heart beats strongly, as if to the rhythm of the music.
“Not cool, not cool at all,” Aaron yells over to Ryder. I can feel him shaking his head back and forth.
“It wasn’t me,” Ryder protests.
But it had to be the drugs… Vampires do not exist.
Chapter Three
Whatever was in my bloodstream seems to have gone, even though I never felt like I had been drugged. Well…except for the fact that I thought I saw a vampire. I know that was definitely the drugs.
“Ryder,” I snap as we exit the limousine, “you stay away from me tonight, or I swear I will kill you!”
“I see you’re back to your old self,” Aaron says, smiling at me tenderly.
“Stay close,” I say as I loop my arm around his.
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.” He bolts forward towards the school doors, dragging me with him. “Come on, let’s have some fun!”
I have the urge to glance over my shoulder. It feels like someone is out there, watching me. I squint in the darkness, but all I can see is the movement of the trees surrounding our school. Sadie, don’t let whatever Ryder gave you screw with your head, I tell myself. I shake my head, hoping it will get rid of anything bad that’s lurking in there.
As we get closer to the doors, vibrations from the music flow through my body. It’s prom night.
“Photo time,” Lakia squeals as we walk into the school towards the photographer, her excitement infectious.
“Okay, we want couples first, then one with just girls, then just boys. You got all that?” Lakia asks the photographer.
He nods in response.
Lakia claps her hands. “Perfect. Come on, guys.” Under the overhead lights, her orange tan looks a little milder, thank goodness. If it hadn’t, I would look pale, like Lakia said earlier.
She takes me by the hand. “Sadie, Aaron, you two right here.” She places us in front of the photographer.
Lakia grabs our other friends from the limo. “Vinny, Brittney, you two here.” She directs them to stand next to us. Then she grabs the rest of our group, placing everyone in the spots where she wants them.
Her flows she spins around to find someone. “Ryder? Get over here.”
Ryder nods to a kid he was talking with and then heads over to us.
“Move up,” Lakia says as she wiggles her shoulders side to side, making room in the middle for her and Ryder.
“Sadie, show teeth when you smile, like I showed you,” Lakia orders. She’s the self-appointed selfie queen.
Lakia steps forward and angles her knee out, flashing her leg at the photographer, then places her hand on her hip. I try to mimic the pose, much to Aaron’s delight. “Looking good,” he laughs. I feel like a mannequin, stiff and lifeless. “Lighten up. It’s meant to be fun.” He winks, then places his hand on my lower back. My body eases up with his touch.
“Say ‘cheese,’” the photographer says.
“Cheese,” we all say in unison.
I lose count of how many different poses Lakia makes us stand in.
Aaron and the boys’ photo session is over. They are lingering with other kids, waiting for us to finish. Wish I could be with them, instead of standing here.
Aaron’s eyes catch mine. Help me, I mouth. Aaron smiles, then puckers his lips. I playfully blow a kiss back.
“Lakia, you nearly done?” someone yells, frustrated. It’s Tiffany, another girl from our school.
“Love your dress! One more shot, okay?” Lakia grins. Please let this be the last shot. My mouth is drying up from smiling.
“Yours too,” Tiffany replies, somewhat mollified.
“All yours,” Lakia informs the waiting group as the photo shoot finally ends.
“Thought prom would be over by the time we got that done with,” Aaron says as I walk over to him.
“Me too,” I reply as I slip my hand into his.
Ryder pushes open the doors to the room where the dance is being held, and the volume of the music increases.
Prom is already well underway. The normal lights are off and replaced by colored lights. A mirrored disco ball beams high above the already-packed dance floor.
“Over here,” Lakia yells, waving her hands. “That was lucky—last empty table.” She drops down into a seat. Brittney and I sit on either side of her.
“Group selfie.” Lakia wraps her arms around us and pulls us in for a photo on her phone.
We all look at the photo. My smile does look better with teeth in it, but I cannot admit that to Lakia.
“Did you see Tiffany’s dress?” Lakia asks as she places her phone back in her purse. “Talk about leaving nothing to the imagination.”
Aaron’s warm hand rests on my thigh. I turn to face him. “Why don’t you go hang out with the boys? You don’t want to listen to girl talk.” Ryder and Vinny have already gone over to some other guys.
“I’m fine right here with you.
” He smiles, then leans forward and kisses me as if he’s wanted to since we got here.
A sigh comes from Lakia, breaking my peaceful moment. I unwillingly pull away from Aaron’s lips. “Are you going to be making out all night?” she asks.
“So what if we are?” Aaron asks.
Lakia gets to her feet. “You can have her all night when you get to the motel, but for now she’s mine. Dancing time!” She grabs hold of my hand and pulls me forward.
“We just got here. Give me a minute,” I plead.
“Nope,” Lakia says.
“Go on—I'll catch up with the boys,” Aaron says. “Show Lakia the new moves I showed you,” Aaron adds.
“Really, you want me to show Lakia your dancing moves? You can show her yourself when you get on the dance floor,” I say.
“Deal,” he says as he leans in for a quick kiss. Then we walk off in opposite directions.
Lakia pulls me to the packed dance floor before I get a chance to turn back. The crowd is packed like a mosh pit. The smell of sweaty armpits comes from the guys.
It’s so packed that everyone’s bodies are touching. I wave my hands in the air to the music as I move my hips. Lakia dances sexily as always, trying to get Ryder’s and other people’s attention. She just smirks and carries on.
I feel like someone is watching me. My heart flutters as I spot Aaron smiling, standing with his friends.
My throat dries up. “Going to get a drink. You coming?”
“I’m good. Love this song,” Lakia yells over the music.
I push my way through the crammed bodies. I can feel Aaron’s eyes following me. Aaron is standing at the edge of the dance floor, waiting for me. “Nice dancing,” he says.
His arm wraps around my lower back, pulling me in.
“You turn next.” I smile. Aaron nods in agreement.
The buffet table is filled with goodies. I dunk a chip into some dip, and Aaron does the same. He shakes his head. “Look at him,” he cocks his head at Ryder.
Ryder’s doing his best impression of sexy dancing, thrusting his hips towards some random poor soul.
“Lakia’s going to be pissed when she sees that.”
“By the looks of it, she’s already seen him,” Aaron says. Guess he’s right. Lakia is also doing her sexy moves, and the guy looks as if he’s enjoying it.
“It’s like they’re having a dance-off to see who can be the biggest slut.”
“Yeah.”
I nudge Aaron. Ryder’s arms snake around the girl’s waist. “Looks like your boy won.”
“Ouch,” we both say in unison as Ryder doubles over in pain. Clearly, the girl he was dancing with wasn’t impressed with his moves, and kneed him in the balls. I will have to thank her later.
Ryder staggers forward, pushing anyone in his way out of it. Even under the disco lights, his face is glowing red.
Lakia shoves her dance partner away, watching Ryder with concern. Their tit-for-tat game went a little far this time.
“Here,” Aaron says, passing me a plate.
“Good idea.” We start filling our plates.
“Did you see that little bitch?” Ryder blurts out.
“Here, get some food,” Aaron says, passing him a plate.
Ryder waves it away, instead opting for the fruit punch. “Need a drink,” he says, patting his chest. Guess that’s where his liquor is stashed.
Ryder reaches over to a plate of cheese squares and drops one of them into his mouth. He chomps on them as he watches Lakia staring at him. Then she pretends like she wasn’t watching and carries on dancing. Ryder smiles smugly, as if he knows he can do anything and still have her.
He holds a piece of cheese between his fingers, then flicks it forward. Then he does it again. He’s aiming for a kid. The kid flinches and looks over at us. “You looked hungry, Rat. Feeding time.” He flicks more.
“Lay off him,” I snap.
Ryder laughs as the kid tries to dodge the cheese missiles.
“Ryder, cut it out.” I push down his arm.
He swiftly turns to me, scowling.
“Come on, Sadie,” Aaron says, shaking his head at Ryder and leading me away.
“Why are you friends with him?” I ask, fuming, as we sit at the table.
“Same reason you’re with Lakia, I guess?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Opposites attract. Something like that.”
“You and me aren’t opposites. Are we?”
Aaron smiles. “We are perfect.” He winks, dropping his arm around me.
“We are, aren’t we? Not like our dysfunctional friends.”
Lakia strides over, like a mother about to scold her kids. “Are you two going to spend the whole night watching others have fun?” she asks, her hands firmly on her hips.
“We were hungry,” I say.
She looks down at our empty plates. “And you’re now finished. Come on. You too.” She pulls Aaron up from his chair.
“You heard the lady,” Aaron says, pulling me up.
Lakia leads us onto the dance floor. Dancing with Aaron is too much fun!
Aaron waves his arms in the air to the music, a grin plastered on his face. It’s infectious. Endorphins whiz around my body, and I feel like I’m flying.
An elbow nudges my ribs. “Watch it,” a kid says next to me.
I lower my hands. “Sorry.”
Aaron steps between me and the kid. “Kelvin, apologize to Sadie,” he orders.
“What? She pushed me,” says Kelvin, blinking rapidly.
Aaron steps closer to the kid. Their foreheads nearly touch. “I won’t ask again.”
I can feel the tension between them. “Aaron, it’s—”
He cuts me off before I can finish. “It’s not,” he says, gritting his teeth.
“Jesus, Aaron. I’m sorry, all right?”
Aaron tilts his chin up. I’ve only ever seen him behave that way on the field. Kelvin hurries away without looking back.
“Frigging jerk.” Aaron laughs as he secures his arms around my waist, locking his fingers together. He moves my body to the music. I can feel every muscle in his arm. I needed him more than I knew tonight.
The piercing, white school lights come on. Prom is over. I feel like it just began.
My feet are killing me. It’s going to be damn painful to run with blisters on my feet at my final track race next week. I’m going to be hobbling like an old woman. I hope they heal by then. These shoes are going straight into the trash when I get home.
“You ready?” Aaron asks. He’s wanted to leave for the last hour. To be honest, so have I—and not just because I want to take these damn shoes off. It’s mostly because I want to be alone with Aaron—just the two of us.
We had no choice but to stay till the end, because the limousine is making one stop—at the motel we all booked.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I smile as Aaron leans in and kisses me on my lips. Excitement fills every part of my body, tiny butterfly wings fluttering over my skin… Tonight is finally the night.
Other than the weird, trippy vampire-teeth moment, this has been one of the best nights of my high school experience. I will never forget it.
Chapter Four
The ride to the motel is different than the ride to the party. The limo seems smaller than before—maybe because I wasn’t paying attention before. The music is also lower, not the deafening beat of the bass we had on the first ride. Yet my ears are still ringing from the evening’s events.
Friends are crashing, either worn out from too much alcohol or from partying too hard. My other friends are making out. They seem keen to get to their motel room. I hope the limousine hurries up, or we will have a full-on show on our hands, which I have no intention of watching. No way. I shake my head.
Lakia and Ryder sit leaning away from each other. Lakia’s got her arms crossed, which is a normal pose for her when they’ve had a falling-out. She’s barely spoken to Ryder since he drugged me. They
both keep stealing glances at one another, but neither of them wants to speak to the other first.
Aaron places his arm around me and holds me close to him. My body flutters with excitement. I breathe in the smell of his musky cologne and the bitter sweat from his nonstop dancing. I giggle at the thought of what we all looked like on the dance floor.
“What are you chuckling at?” Aaron asks.
“Just remembering your sick moves on the dance floor,” I say, wiggling my hips in my seat for added effect.
“They were good. Weren’t they?” he asks hesitantly.
“Of course. You learned from the best.”
He stares at me with a longing expression. My heart skips a beat. I want him, more than anything.
The limousine slows down and comes to a halt. Aaron and I smile at one another.
“It’s a good thing we’ve stopped. Any longer and I would have turned into Vinny.” Vinny’s arms are wrapped around Brittney as they make out, clearly unaware that the limousine has stopped moving.
“Me too,” slips out of my mouth, heat rising through my ears.
Aaron’s eyes dart for the limousine door as he swiftly moves towards it before anyone else can react.
“Coming through,” Ryder announces as he pushes to the doorway.
Once I’m out of the limousine, Ryder’s arm is wrapped around Aaron’s, leading him towards the motel reception. Aaron glances back at me, but I wave him on. Soon I will have him all to myself.
Lakia links her arm around mine. “Can you believe Tiffany won homecoming queen?” She pauses. “Bit cliché, cheerleader winning it.
“Oh, Nicole and Bret were making out. Stephanie was so pissed about that. And—” Lakia continues with a breakdown of all of the different hookups through the night. Brittney and I add in oohs and ahs before Lakia rambles on with the next piece of gossip.
“Ting…ting,” rings a small brass bell over the doorway for the motel reception area—if you can call it that. It’s about the same size as my bedroom, with yellow nicotine-stained wallpaper that has the faint image of the floral pattern that was once there. The corners are peeling away, as if even the wallpaper wants to leave this rotten place. There is a wooden counter with a God-awful fake potted plant collecting dust. It clearly shows how long it’s been since it got cleaned—never.