Mrs. Murphy held out her hand. Mindy gave her the shell before sagging back in her chair.
“I think these recriminations aren’t helping us get to a place that we’d like to be at… But it’s safe to say you have been going out for a while, Mindy and Lucia?”
They nodded.
“So, it wasn’t just a fling?”
They shook their heads.
“Or an experiment, because everyone experiments. Abraham Lincoln experimented. It doesn’t mean he didn’t love Mary Todd…”
Mindy shook her head. Lucia said, “Actually, the dildo was an experiment—”
Mindy stomped on her toes. “I think it would be best if you waited for the Talking Shell.”
“Yeah, Talking Shell, okay.”
“Alright,” Mrs. Murphy broke in, “so, we are going to be discussing your relationship and how this family is affected by your relationship. Donald, is there anything you’d like to say?”
“Nope,” Mr. Murphy said. His arms were crossed. His eyes were aimed at Lucia. It did not look like he was thinking about what a catch she was.
“Alright then. I’ll give up the Talking Shell soon, but right now, I would just like to say that Mindy, we’re not angry with you, we’re not disappointed, and we obviously support you having whatever sexuality you were born with.”
“Thanks, guys.” Lucia nodded awkwardly.
“And Lucia. We’d like to talk to your parents about this issue… Do you think that would be safe for you? Does your mother know about your orientation?”
Lucia shrugged. “I don’t know that she cares? Like, that I’m a lesbian—or about lesbians… I’ve never heard her say anything bad about the gays, but it’s not like she watches Rizzoli & Isles or anything.”
“Alright. So for now, we’ll just keep this between ourselves, and we’ll see about Mrs. West later.”
“I can post some gay stuff on her Facebook wall,” Mr. Murphy said, “see if she bites.”
“Good thinking, Donald.”
He poured some water into his cup and drank.
Mrs. Murphy drummed her fingers on the Talking Shell. “Now, Mindy—Mindy, it is just fine and we support you making relationships and expressing your sexuality and just…having orgasms. Orgasms are great, they’re healthy. Donald and I—”
“If I steal the Talking Shell, do you have to stop talking?”
“Mindy, that rudeness is not in the spirit of family meeting!” Mrs. Murphy wagged her finger.
Mindy grimaced. “Sorry, Mom.”
“That’s okay. As I was saying, there’s nothing wrong with sex or dating or kissing or whatever you do. However, we are still your parents and it is still our job to…parent you. And that includes first, setting boundaries and second, being aware of what is going on in your life. And you have made that very difficult for us, young lady. And that was a deliberate action on your part, and it doesn’t matter that you were lying about having sex or smoking crack or whatever, you were deceiving us.”
“I didn’t…” Mindy brought herself up short and gestured for the Talking Shaell. Mrs. Murphy gave it to her with a nod. “I didn’t lie. It’s not like you ever asked me—”
“Are there any gorgeous ex-cheerleaders desperately in love with you?” Lucia finished for her.
“Am I dating Lucia?” Mindy finished for herself. “I’m eighteen, it’s my business, and she’s great.” Mindy turned to Lucia. “Look at her. She’s great.”
Lucia beamed as much as she was able with Mindy’s parents scrutinizing her.
“We don’t have a problem with you dating Lucia,” Mrs. Murphy said. She’d taken back the Talking Shell. “Or any woman for that matter… You do identify as a woman, don’t you, sweetie?” she asked Lucia.
“What else would I be?” Lucia looked around. “A vampire? I’m not a vampire.”
“Well, you know, gender is a fluid thing…”
“Mom, she’s a woman, okay? And I’m dating her. What’s the big deal?”
Mr. Murphy requested the Talking Shell and got it. “Lucia, are you wearing glitter?”
Lucia looked at her arm, which had caught some sunlight and sparkled. “Maybe.”
* * *
Two hours later, her parents seemed satisfied with Mindy talking about her feelings and having gotten painfully specific on the dangers of STDs and STIs, which were apparently another thing. She didn’t get a blanket approval to finger-bang Lucia or anything, but they seemed reasonably certain by the end that Mindy wasn’t going to get pregnant during a threesome, get abused by Lucia, get choked out during bondage play without a safe word, or set herself on fire with flammable massage oils. Apparently, flammable and inflammable mean the exact same thing.
Mindy still thought they were watching, having an aftershock discussion in the kitchen while she sat with Lucia out on the porch. But she didn’t mind. She couldn’t mind much when she was holding Lucia’s hands. “I don’t think my ’rents like your sense of humor.”
“Which is weird, cuz I’m funny as hell.”
Mindy nodded. “So, you’re pretty sure I haven’t been fucking other women behind your back?”
“Hey, I was pretty sure there weren’t any vampires in the world either. Never say never.”
Mindy squeezed Lucia’s hand, hard enough to silence her. “I don’t want to fight.”
“I don’t either! Why am I the one that wants to fight?”
“Lucia…” Mindy picked up Lucia’s hand and brought it to her lap, petting her fingers along its wrist, staring into Lucia’s eyes. After a moment, Lucia gave in and relaxed. She leaned back against the swing. “Lucia, I know it’s been a while since you’ve slept alone, but would you be alright if tonight you stayed in your own room?”
Lucia stayed bolt upright where she sat, but she kicked the ground so the swing went a little harder. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I love sleeping alone. Love it.”
“It’s not what I want, it’s just that after today, my parents are absolutely going to be poking their heads into my room—”
“And so what? What’ll they do if they find out their daughter is a little spoon? Call the cops on me?”
“I don’t know what they’ll do. They’re not bad people, I just don’t want—I think it’s best if we don’t provoke them.”
“How is it a provocation—it has nothing to do with them, it’s you and me and we love each other…”
Mindy squeezed Lucia’s hand tighter. “It’s not forever, okay, it’s just while they get used to the idea.”
“No,” Lucia said blankly, overpowering Mindy’s last word. “That isn’t…” She blinked repeatedly. “I need you, Mindy. I can’t just stop needing you because it’s inconvenient.”
“It’s just for tonight—”
“Oh, don’t lie, you’re not gonna be celibate for one night and then have me bust out the Vaseline tomorrow.”
“Okay, maybe a week—maybe two. Just to show them that we respect—”
“You respect—”
“Respect their rules, and I am not breaking up with you, Lucia, we’ll still see each other, I just can’t—”
“You can’t. You can’t…” Lucia nodded fiercely, like Mindy had confirmed some thought in her head. “I can’t walk out in the sun without taking a bath in makeup. I can’t go to church. I can’t be around someone with a bloody nose without wanting to eat them. And you—you can’t stand up to your parents.”
“I would stand up to them if they were being unreasonable.”
“But they’re not, are they? You are. You’re ashamed of me. I made you come like a fucking sprinkler last night, and now you want to put me away like a dildo.”
Mindy fixed her with a stare. “You can calm down right now if you want to keep having this conversation.”
Lucia was trembling. “I have never been the girl that parents approve of. They look at the way I dress and the way I talk and they think slut. And I’m fine with that. But with your parents, I could wear the floral dre
sses and bake pies and talk all G-rated like a Disney movie, and they will still never approve of me because I’m a girl.”
“They’re not like that.”
Lucia pushed her fist into her face, biting her knuckles as Mindy rubbed at her thigh and tried to figure out how to get rid of the black hole in Lucia’s stomach when she still had her own.
“We should just go,” Lucia said. “Get our GEDs and go. I don’t want to be in this town when there’s some vampire targeting you…”
“Or we wait until graduation and get into a college that doesn’t send their diplomas by mail.”
“Or we check out Principal Haywood. See how she likes her stake.”
“Lucia, no,” Mindy said humorlessly. “I’m not going through the whole Bakula thing with you again.”
“I’m just saying, we should check her out. If the opportunity presents itself. We’re going to the dance, she’ll be at the dance—”
“We’ll see,” Mindy promised. “We’ll go to the dance and we’ll have a nice time and after that, if you still wanna drop out of high school and run away together—”
“And join the circus,” Lucia suggested wryly. “Don’t forget joining the circus.”
Mindy smiled back at her. “Yeah. But before we leave, I’m having a nice dance with my girlfriend, just like any other normal high school student.”
“Minz,” Lucia said, “if you were normal, you really think I’d be dating you?”
CHAPTER 24
Mindy couldn’t wait to see Lucia’s dress. She’d bought it months ago, at some sale so good it was practically grand larceny, and kept it in the back of her closet, refusing to let even Mindy look at it. She’d said she was saving it for prom, but that’d died a quiet death. Now she said she was wearing it to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.
Lucia was fashionably late, however. Mindy went with Seb. A text glowing on her phone told her she had no idea how hard it was to apply eyeliner without a reflection.
The theme of the dance was fairy tales. It was done up with all the hallmarks of an enchanted forest. Potted plants lined the floor, poster-board tree branches were taped up to the wall along with string lights. A cardboard castle covered the closed-up bleachers with a plush dragon on top of it. And, of course, Nicki Minaj music.
The tables had flowers wreathed around candles, and actually really looked great, Mindy was very impressed. The boys wore rented tuxes, the girls mostly dresses, with some in masquerade garb as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, even Pocahontas, which seemed a bit offensive. Mindy was just Mindy. And Seb, as always, was just Seb.
She sent Lucia a text while he got her punch. No one with superspeed should be this late.
No reply. She wasn’t the only one checking her phone. The boys kept to one wall, girls to the other. Snippets of a conversation about Call of Duty came from one side, opposite the pings of texts arriving and being sent. Mindy was in the middle, where the chips were.
“Do you think I’m cool?” Seb asked.
“Mm?” Mindy was checking her phone again. “Yeah. Sure.”
“No, for really. Would I be described as cool if you were describing my coolness?”
Mindy put away her phone. “Yes, Seb. You’re cool. You’re like Jon Hamm with a slightly smaller dick.”
“I’m offended by your sarcasm on both personal level and on behalf of Mr. Hamm.”
Mindy couldn’t get too drawn into the repartee. It was pathetic, she knew, but she opened up her phone again and sent Lucia another text. I’m turning into a pumpkin here.
The DJ tried a new song, speakers exploding with Rihanna. Mindy felt the wood floor pounding the beat into her shoes. Boys and girls started to drift together, while Mindy leaned back against the buffet table, staring up at the ceiling. It’d been decorated with strings of silver tassel, florescent stars, and a box of glitter attached to the air vent so that whenever it blew fresh air in, a shower of sparkles went with it. It was great. The perfect, cheesy setting for a high school dance. Only Mindy couldn’t enjoy it.
L? She sent again. You’re starting to worry me.
The AC came on again, spritzing Mindy with glitter. She had to brush some off her chip. One of the banners came loose and a chaperone had to climb the bleachers to reset it. A big mural of Rivendell. LOTR Club’s contribution to the dance.
“I do trying to be cool,” Seb said. “Would I be cooler if I did not trying to be cool?”
“You know what? Dance with me. That’s at least cooler than standing around.”
“Really?” Seb asked, not sounding enthused, which was, of course, just the reaction Mindy looked for when she asked someone to dance.
“I’m not going to a dance and not dancing with anyone. I’m not eleven years old anymore. I mean, it’d just be as friends, right? No—love triangle stuff, right?”
“You’re a lesbian, you have girlfriend. I do not think love triangle would happen.”
“You don’t watch a lot of TV, do ya, Seb?”
She took his hand, leading him onto the dance floor. Pleased that it was sweaty by the time they got there. The speakers were pumping out something hard and dancey, a thudding bass pounding into their skins, hard to get comfortable with. They had to dance it out. On the floor, Seb shook himself off, limbering up, and tried to set up something not too awkward. Mindy followed suit. She wouldn’t really call it dancing. But her skirt blurred as she twirled around, her arms and legs sweated silver as she flailed them, and she caught some interested glances from the sidelines. More for Seb than for her.
“I’m pretty sure Mia King is giving you the eye,” she told Seb as they shook it out. “When she asks you for the next dance, try to use contractions.”
“Why would Mia King wanting to dance with me?”
“Want to dance with you, Seb, why would she want to dance with you? Nothing makes a girl think a guy is hotter than another girl thinking that guy is hot. I know, it’s weird, but that’s the whole thing with Benedict Cumberbatch, right there. I think it started as a joke and just snowballed out of control.” Seb wasn’t paying attention. No one was. He was looking over her shoulder, following the gaze of just about everyone else, out to the open door.
Lucia had arrived.
She’d washed the dye out of her hair like someone panning for gold, turning it into a thick velvet curtain just cresting her shoulders. Her movements, grown bold and aggressive over the past few weeks, were still confident, but now slow and graceful. As she stepped out of the evening gloom, her bronze skin shone half-burnished in the dim light. She wore a white Kaufman Franco column gown. Its floor-length hemline clung to her legs, showing them off, while the one-shouldered jersey side cowl toga loosened into light, airy folds, turning her sexuality into elegance. A dark belt and black gold earrings were the only slivers of night on her. If Mindy had never seen her before, it would’ve been love at first sight.
She moved heedlessly through the crowd, people automatically moving out of the way, her body swaying and rolling—not so much to the beat of the music, but like the beat was following her lead. She walked right across the dance floor, splitting up couples, sweeping aside suitors, until she was at Mindy.
“Mind if I cut in?”
“Not at all,” Seb said, taking a step back. Lucia gave him a smile, maybe out of respect for his survival instinct.
“You came,” Mindy said.
“You’re mine, so I had to be yours.”
That was as long as she could wait. Lucia took Mindy’s hand. Her pulse sped up, her breath quickened to bring oxygen all the way to the fingers Lucia clutched. It put a playful quirk on the vampire’s lips. Almost exposed her fangs. She led Mindy through the stomping of awkward teenage feet, all the couples doing the sway-and-pray, until they had their own little place. Then she moved one of Mindy’s hands to her hip, locked another in her own fingers, and when she danced, Mindy danced. Everything else just fell away. Unimportant next to Lucia’s smile.
“I didn’t know white was your color,�
�� Mindy gasped.
“I didn’t either.” Lucia dipped Mindy and brought her back. “But I thought—why shouldn’t it be?”
With their hands clasping and their bodies pressed together, Mindy thought about how people talked about love. A steamy affair. A warm hug. Hot sex. Always things for the living. But you loved people after they were gone, right? When they were cold. The world grew hot, it burned, and you retreated to the shade of memories. To the cold, dark places outside the light.
Mindy didn’t burn for Lucia. She just needed her. In a world on fire, Lucia was cool relief. Everyone made room for their dance, backed away from them. They were so cold, you could burn yourself touching them. And Mindy had never felt so alive.
They didn’t bother with small-talk. Nothing about movies or politics or homework or gossip or celebrities or Macy’s Day sales. They were embedded in each other. Talking was just a reflex action.
“When I came to your house, that first night,” Lucia said, simply, honestly, because there was no need to pretend. “I wanted to die in your arms.”
“I know,” Mindy replied.
“I thought it would feel like this.”
They danced to Beyonce and Rihanna, Maroon 5 and Pink, Lady Antebellum and Shakey Graves—and, begrudgingly, to Taylor Swift. Until Mindy’s feet hurt because she’d never broken in those sweet new heels, and Lucia took her to the folding chairs in the back of the gym and laid her down across two of them so Mindy’s head was in her lap and Lucia could play with her hair. They watched everyone else try to dance as good as they had.
“Did we remember to teach Seb how to dance?” Mindy asked, watching him do something not quite a seizure with a band geek.
“Shit, I thought you were gonna do it,” Lucia replied. She snapped her fingernails in Mindy’s hair. “Got a nit.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah.” Lucia made her fingernails click again. “’Nother one. ’Nother one…”
Mindy grabbed her hand. Kissed her wrist. Lips putting a little pulse where it was meant to go. Wondering if a heart could beat for two people. Thinking she’d never used it much before Lucia came around anyway.
Ex-Wives of Dracula Page 31