“Yeah. The night they came after you guys. That night was a catalyst that made Sebastian see things different. I know he’s been different ever since. He started off more sullen. Now he’s more – philosophical, I guess you could say.”
“Die, rebel scum!” Mason yelled out, referring to a video game kill.
Matthew laughed. “I’m still a good twenty-three points ahead of you.”
“For now, Matt. The game’s only begun.”
“The only question is,” Matthew returned to their discussion, “is how the catalyst this time will affect the rest of us. Maybe we need to be as introspective as Seb has been.”
“But what if there’s something else?” Mason asked. “Like something – or someone has gotten to Seb. And made him think differently. Like gotten in his head. Changed him.”
“Well I guess having friends aside from us could be a good thing,” Matthew admitted. “Seb’s become more thoughtful. He’s really been growing. Mentally. It feels like just yesterday he was known only as the insult king.”
“Eh, I miss the old Sebastian,” Mason admitted. “That’s the kid I became friends with. And I don’t think all friends are good for you.”
“Truer words have never been spoken my friend – Now take this, blaster!”
Meanwhile, Hailey was in her room fully dressed. She’d put on a blouse, her favorite jeans, and red glittery converse shoes. She stood in the mirror of her bathroom taking more time than usual to do makeup. If there was one favorite part about this big old house in Corpus, it was that her bedroom had its own bathroom.
Rolled out on her bathroom counter was contour, highlight, blush, eye shadow, liner, and lip-gloss. Hailey applied a bit of each after doing her hair. She was looking her finest.
This was it. This was the night. Her night. If there was one unfavorable aspect to her night, it was in not having anyone to tell about it. Face it, girls loved to kiss and tell. But Hailey had no one to tell. Only that morning, Percy had hypnotized Tara, and to a lesser extent, Madison to forget about him.
She couldn’t call up Madison or text her about the butterflies in her stomach or the ecstatic joy she felt from knowing she was truly loved in a romantic sense. She couldn’t call up Madison in fear of Madison recalling what occurred that morning. Hailey didn’t understand in great detail how a vampire’s hypnosis worked but she assumed it made you forget… until it didn’t. Were the memories repressed or erased? And if they were repressed, could they return? Perhaps it depended on the person. Would someone with a stronger willpower be more likely to recall the events wiped from their memories by a vampire?
Regardless, Hailey knew her love, and Percy’s love, contained a sense of loneliness. He was, undoubtedly, the only person she could really share her feelings with. No one else could know in fear of judgment or jealousy or some other reason that hurt too much to think of.
But when you had a boy as perfect as Percy, he alone fulfilled any lingering sense of loneliness within her.
So Hailey tossed her hair to the side, brushing it, allowing it to flow down her back. It was, to be sure, her favorite physical quality about herself.
I love when he runs his hands through my hair, she thought. I can feel how much it excites him. Me, someone who never considered herself important, able to excite an eternal boy.
You see, being liked by a vampire did wonders for mortal sensibilities. There were several billion humans on earth. But only a few million vampires. They were special. Unique. For a human to be liked by one, therefore, made that human special and unique. Many vampires only interacted with their own kind. That meant it had to have been less than one percent of humans who were lucky enough or smart enough to attract the attention of a vampire. Hailey was in that small percentage of lucky or smart humans.
Feeling like a girl in love for the first time, which she was, she pulled out a small tube of red lipstick while she was in the bathroom. She used it to write the name Percy in the corner of her mirror in cursive lipstick. And under the name – she drew a heart.
No one else ever entered her bathroom. She didn’t care how silly or juvenile it seemed. It was something she always wanted to do. It was for her eyes only. The name and heart is where most girls would have stopped with their rendering of love. But Hailey was no ordinary girl with no ordinary boyfriend. She completed the mirror drawing with a small rendering of fangs next to the heart.
“Perfect,” Hailey said aloud to herself.
She heard a light tap at the window. The tapping made her heart race. She didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. But she did have to turn around to let him in.
Hailey rushed to the window. Levitating at the outside of her window was Percy, dressed in his usual black attire, complete with a leather jacket. He was smiling. It was an infectious sort of smile that made Hailey return one of her own before she pushed the window up.
She unlocked the window and lifted it.
“Am I just in time?” Percy asked.
“Any time you arrive will always be perfect for me,” she answered.
“Well, I’m waiting for my invitation,” he smirked in a manner of banter.
“Percivell Bartholomew Clementwell III, I invite you into my room and into my life. Now and forever.”
He closed his eyes, smiled, and glided through the window, landing on the floor of her room.
“I finally understand what you meant the first time you ever invited me in here,” he said as he opened his eyes and grabbed Hailey’s hands. He held her hands up to his chest.
“What do you mean?” Hailey asked softly.
“I mean, to live would be an awfully big adventure. And I’d like to share that adventure with you.”
“I know what my meaning in life is,” Hailey grinned. “I’m looking at him.”
“Hailey you couldn’t be more coy if you tried,” Percy said, to which they both laughed quietly.
“We have to keep it down,” Hailey whispered.
“No, we don’t,” Percy whispered back. “The only thing we have to do is get out of here.
Hailey’s face lit up. Looking into his eyes and receiving him made her forget what he’d even come for – to take her away for the night.
“The faster the better,” Hailey said, placing a finger to her lips.
Hailey rushed to her bedroom door and locked it. Percy pulled Hailey over to the window. He lifted her in his arms as if she were as light as a feather. “I’ll be careful,” he said. “Your window’s a tight squeeze.”
He made sure her head was out first, along with his own. Then flew their bodies into the chilled night air. But instead of flying higher and higher, Percy gracefully descended to the pavement, right outside of Hailey’s house. He let her down and she stepped onto the sidewalk.
“We’re not going to fly?” Hailey asked.
“Not tonight,” he shook his head. “Walk with me.”
They walked for a few yards and stopped in front of a shiny new blue BMW. Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. One click, and the car roared to life while the headlights blared.
“What?” Hailey said with a look of shock and awe on her face. “You have a car? You drive?”
“Yes and yes. Now get your cute self inside.”
Without being told twice, Hailey rushed to the side of the car, opened the passenger seat, and dived in. Percy stepped in as she admired the car. It was black inside, of course. The dashboard was made of polished wood. Everything else was leather. It had a fresh new car smell, or at least what Hailey assumed was a fresh new car smell. Screens and knobs were everywhere. It was immaculate, pristine, and brand new.
Percy put the car in drive and drove off down the neighborhood and out of Hailey’s old suburb. The ride was the smoothest she’d ever felt. She was in awe, admiring every aspect of the car.
“This isn’t your first time driving, is it?” she asked him.
“No, of course not.”
“I didn’t know you owned a
car,” she said.
“I didn’t. Not until today. I can’t claim that vampires have much use for them. But they are nice.”
“How do you afford it?” she asked.
“Every vampire that is a member of an Order lives very comfortably.”
His hands gripped the wheel as the horsepower drummed. The speed of the vehicle increased at his whim. From the smirk on his face and the glimmer in his eyes, Hailey could tell he loved the thrill of fast driving.
“Trust me,” he said.
“How did you–” she began to ask before he swiftly answered.
“Remember, I can smell your every emotion. Relax. You’ll always be safe with me.”
He stopped at a red light. The perfect engine hummed in silence.
“Tell me what you think of the car,” he said.
“It’s amazing. It’s really nice.”
“It’s yours,” he told her abruptly, facing the street and not her. The traffic light turned green and he drove on.
“What? No,” she laughed in nonbelief. “Can’t be. You can’t just give me your car.”
“Sure I can,” he said. “It’s yours now. I already told you vampires have little use for cars. Occasionally yes. But we already have a few at the Manor. I didn’t purchase this car this evening with the intention of keeping it. It’s my gift to you.”
“It’s…” Hailey said, utterly shocked and stammering for what to say. “I can’t believe you’d give me a car.”
“Believe it,” he smirked. “It’s all yours.”
“It’s just…” she began, “How do I explain it to my mom? It’s not like an ordinary seventeen-year-old boyfriend can buy a brand new luxury car for someone.”
“You underestimate my ability to persuade,” Percy smirked. “Just one look into my gaze and she’d be perfectly okay with it. And with us.”
“Just… hold the car for me. For now. I’ll think of what to tell my mom. And then I’ll take it. Just know that I love it. It’s the most extraordinary thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“For what?” she asked.
“For accepting it.”
“It means so much to me. I promise you by next week it’ll be in my driveway every night.”
“You know,” he said, bringing up another topic. “I’ve realized that you haven’t asked me where we’re going.”
“I expected it came along with dating a vampire. And this point I just say yes and find myself pleasantly surprised by wherever the road takes me. I told you I could submit to a vampire.”
“And you never disappoint.”
“So since you brought it up… where are we going?” she smirked.
“Last time I took you off into the night we attended the Surrender. It was a very vampire thing of me to do. So I thought I owed you the courtesy of returning the favoring. So we’ll be going on a more human date tonight.”
“That sounds amazing,” Hailey admitted.
“We have a new car. You have a new car, excuse me. So I thought we’d put it to use at a drive-in movie theater. They were extremely popular the last time I lived in America.”
“I’ve heard of them,” Hailey admitted. “Never been before. I don’t think there’s one in Corpus.”
“No but we’re already outside of the city right now. I’ve been speeding for fifteen minutes now. In twenty more we’ll reach the nearest drive-in.”
The next several minutes were filled with silence. The warm overwhelming kind that made Hailey feel intoxicated even. He let one hand off of the steering wheel, his right one, in order to hold Hailey’s hand.
His thumb caressed the backside of his hand. She knew it was the sort of feeling you experienced only when you were young and in love for the first time. The kind of love that was special and carefree and monumental. Even life changing. She knew her life could never go back to being the way it was before. Not with Percy in it.
So many thoughts filled her head. But they were not the noisy kind. They were the kind of thoughts that filled her with happiness as she daydreamed of a future with him. The thoughts in her mind were not crammed together like cars in traffic, but like a synchronized school of fish swimming through the ocean. Peaceful, calm, and beautiful. She’d never known this type of calm before.
That feeling continued once they reached the drive-in theater. Percy drove up to a booth, paid a fee in order to park, and was given a pair of wireless speakers. He parked, placed the speakers on the dashboard of the car, turned up the volume, and together they began viewing a movie that had been playing for twenty minutes before they arrived.
It was the sort of movie date in which the participants paid more attention to one another than to the movie that was being played on the large screen in front of their car. It was a great form of privacy. Until a red vested attendant knocked on Percy’s window, rapping with his knuckles.
“Yes?” Percy asked as the automatic window moved down.
“The windows are so dark I couldn’t see inside. Wasn’t sure if anyone was in here. Just wondering if you’d like any concessions? Popcorn and soda? Anything?”
“No. We’re not in need of anything” Percy said, flagging him away. As the dark window went up, his turned his attention to Hailey. “I hope you don’t mind. I figured we would kiss at some point in the night. And if you did, I’d rather not know the taste of popcorn on your lips.”
“It’s fine,” Hailey said. “I already had dinner tonight. Does the smell of food make you queasy?”
“No, it’s not that. In the presence of humans it is impossible to not smell it. But when you’ve not eaten the same food as humans in hundreds of years, it brings about no pleasure.”
“I understand,” Hailey said, caressing his hand. “We’ll just enjoy the movie.”
They faced the screen for as long as they could, watching the newest theatrical fantasy film released in the states. Attention to the movie, however, did not last long. In mere minutes, Percy tilted his body and faced her. He stared at her, watching her as she watched the screen. Taking in her full appearance. Her hair, her forehead, her eyes, her chin, her lips.
Finally she faced him.
“You’re looking at me,” she said shyly.
“I have been for a while. I adore your profile. Every bit of you is stunning,” he before running a hand through her hair, caressing her – devoured by passion.
“Remember you mentioned us kissing?” she asked. “Well I’m not really into the movie much. Not like I’m into you.”
She reached her body over, joining him in his driver seat. A single button pushed the seat back, allowing them more room as she sat in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He ran his hands through her hair once more, playing with her locks. She smiled buoyantly as they looked into each other’s eyes.
“I told you once before that I would devote my whole self to you. Nothing has changed,” she told him. His eyes graduated with intensity. Her body overflowed with wild tremors as their faces touched. She felt a surge of bliss and emotions within her that she didn’t know were possible.
Her eyes closed and his lips parted her mouth. Her breathing quickened. Her soul was inflamed with passion as their lips met repeatedly. Now it was her hands running through his soft black hair. The taste of her pink lip gloss making its way into his mouth. Their heavy breathing was mutual. His breath upon her and hers upon him. She glowed in his arms, pressing her chest to his and caressing his cool face.
Her soul opened, its softness bared to the vampire boy who kissed her passionately. Though they made out in her new car, Hailey felt as if she were floating in the air, flying with him up to a cloud. He breathed in all of her as his hands moved further up the backside of her shirt. He was an aphrodisiac of fireworks to her heart and body. She tingled to his every touch. She knew this was as far as they would go tonight but it was already more than she’d ever dreamed of.
Then came the moment of exclus
ivity she would never share with a human boy. His incisors turned to fangs as he rubbed her neck. He bit her as the sensation of pain flashed between hot and cold. She moaned as his lips met her neck – blood trickling into his throat. The pain would last but a moment to please the eternal boy she gave herself to.
***
It was around midnight when Mason awoke from his sleep and headed down to the kitchen for a can of soda pop. He headed back upstairs after successfully retrieving his beverage. That’s when he noticed a light shining from underneath Hailey’s bedroom door. Mason knocked on the door. There was no answer.
He knocked again and called her name. Not once but twice. He grew suspicious and placed his ear up to her door. That’s when he heard it – the rustling of wind into the room. The kind of wind you’d hear only if the window were open.
“No,” he said to himself, fearing the worst. What if the vampire took her? That’d be impossible unless she invited him back in. At first Mason planned to burst into her room. But he realized that would require breaking something which would wake his mom. So he rushed downstairs and hurried back up to the second floor hallway with a knife. He wiggled the knife between the door and seal as he twisted the knob. Voilà! The door popped right open.
Mason crept in, discovering a lamp still on, the window wide open, and the bed totally empty. He must have taken her! He thought to himself. Then he saw her bathroom light was also on. He hesitantly walked into her bathroom. That’s when he saw it. The name ‘Percy’ scrawled in red lipstick with a heart and fangs drawn beneath it.
He didn’t take her. She went with him willingly. She’s out of her mind. I can’t let this continue any further. It ends tomorrow!
***
Saturday morning arrived and it showed on Mason’s face. He’d slept very little after discovering his sister had willingly taken off with a vampire, surely the same one who slammed him into the closet. But not the same one he saw for a split second in the gym locker room. Unable to sleep much, he tossed and turned in bed, asking himself if the entire town were infested with vampires.
Mason was frizzed, messaging each of his friends and eagerly awaiting their response. Saturday mornings were always slow. No one was up early – unless you hadn’t slept at all like him.
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