CH7: INTOXICATING

I woke up the next day, excited for today’s event. I told myself I’d forget about last night and have fun with Mia. She invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family. I’ve met her mom but not her grandparents, but I was still excited.
I slept surprisingly well despite what happened last night. It was lunch time and Gramma made me spaghetti. She also made lots more for me to bring to Mia.
My uncles and I killed time by playing video games. Uncle Jasper shot me for what seemed the 50th time before Aunt Alice called me into her room so she can dress me for the dinner party. Everyone else was dispersed all over the house. I entered her colossal room and she pulled me into the bathroom. She sat me down on the salon chair and started applying all sorts of makeup on my face. Soon a second pair of hands started weaving through my hair. I opened my eyes to see it was Aunt Rose. I remembered how nice it felt when she used to brush my hair when I was younger.
Within an hour, I was dressed and ready to go. The sun was preparing to set. Aunt Alice dressed me in a pretty beige poofy dress with just enough tool. The outer layer was riddled with sparkles and she gave me a matching silver glitter clutch purse. She insisted for me to wear the new stiletto heels she bought me but we compromised on my champagne peep toe wedges.
I said my goodbye’s to my family before piling into my dad’s Volvo with my parents. We reached Mia’s place in 8 minutes. Her house was small but cute. Outside it was painted a light yellow. The front lawn was free of any leaves. Even the rose bushes were neatly trimmed and perfectly round.
I got out of the car and waved off my parents. The huge bowl of spaghetti would’ve been really heavy for a human to carry with one hand but thanks to my half-vampire strength, I managed pretty well. I rang the doorbell and quickly went into a stance that showed me struggling with the weight of the bowl of pasta. A full 20 seconds past before Mia opened the door.
“Hey, Nessie! Oh! Let me give you a hand with that,” she said, taking the spaghetti so that I could hang my light gray trench coat on her coat rack. Outside the house was very light in color but inside it was a very warm red with tons of brown accents everywhere. Gramma and Aunt Alice would easily approve this design.
“Mia, your house is too cute! I love it in here. It has such a warm vibe to it,” I proclaimed following her to the back.
“Thanks,” she smiled genuinely. “So I hope you don’t mind, but we’re going to be eating outside. Thankfully it’s not snowing like we expected. We have heater torches outside plus my grandpa is grilling some chicken out back.”
“Oh, it’s totally fine,” I said.
Her grandparents were so nice. They were in their late 50’s at least. Mia’s mom could easily pass as her sister but instead of having Mia’s hair color, she had long brown locks.
We ate, laughed, and talked. It was nice spending time with someone else’s family. Mia looked gorgeous with her peach strapless dress that fell just above her knees. Her family was curious about my family and I gladly told them my cover. Mia’s grandpa joked about how Mia’s grandma became mesmerized by my doctor of a father. He said she was having some pain near he knees and my ‘dad’ was the one who treated her.
I laughed knowing all too well that even many of the nurses had the hots for my grandfather at the hospital. The night was ending all too quickly. Mia loved the spaghetti I brought and even requested if she can save some for leftovers. We also took pictures. Mia and I took one together and then I took their family picture inside, in front of the fireplace. Once that was done, her grandparents left.
I helped Mia clean up for a little bit. After that, we went up to her room. We plopped down on her bed and started flipping through her fashion magazines.
“So whatcha been doing over the break?” she asked while reading her horoscope.
I shrugged and answered, “Nothing much I guess. Just practiced some martial arts with my family.”
Her head shot up, along with her eyebrows, and incredulously said, “martial arts isn’t a ‘nothing much’ matter,” doing air quotes at ‘nothing much.’
“I’ve been doing it for a while now. In fact, I’ve gotten better that I took Jacob down the other day,” I said, my smile growing at the memory. She must’ve taken it the wrong way because she replied, “I knew it! You DO like Jake! It’s so obvious with the way you look at him. And if you ask me, he definitely likes you back. Too bad he’s sorta older than you.” She was lying on her stomach with her hands cupping her face.
I rolled my eyes at her and said, “I told you it’s not like that. Jake and I are strictly just friends. I’ve known him all my life.” Before she could interject I continued, “Besides, if I did like him and I told him I liked him, things would get extremely awkward. I don’t want to lose it.”
She was quiet for a while and then she started laughing. “You’re just not convincing me, sweetie. I know you enough to know you’re crushing on him. And I mean if I were in your shoes, I would be, too, cos the guy is tall, dark, and gor-ge-ous! So as your BFFNess. YOU-LIKE-JACOB,” she said with her eyes practically coming out of her eye sockets.
I shook my head and giggled at her persistence. But I gave in. She is after all my BFF.
I replied, exasperated, “Okay! Okay! Fine, you win. You happy? I like Jake. In fact I’m falling in love with him even though I know I shouldn’t!”
She got up from the bed and started jumping up and down from my declaration. After a good 3 minutes of her dancing and clapping she sat back down and calmed herself. “You should really let him know how you feel. I know I said he was a little older than you but so what? Age is nothing but a number, baby!”
You have no idea how true that is, I thought to myself. “Since I told you how I really feel about Jake, I might as well tell you how we almost kissed.”
Her eyes bulged out once again as I told her about the incident.
We talked for hours and hours but it was getting pretty late. Mia walked me out to the living room to retrieve my coat. My parents arrived right on time:11:30 pm. It was pretty chilly outside so Mia stayed in and just watched as I went inside the Volvo.
Before we drove away I remembered that I left my clutch purse in her backyard. Daddy heard my thought and he stopped the car. “Go back silently. Make sure Mia or her mother don’t see you.” I nodded and dashed out of the car. I ran full speed to the back. It wasn’t lit so I didn’t need to be worried about getting caught. I had my clutch in hand and was about to head back when a figure emerged from the woods.
“Hey, cutie,” he said seductively. My brain was screaming at me to move but I couldn’t. As our eyes were locked in placed, he held me there. “Why don’t you join me for some cake? Come on, don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.” He motioned for me to come to him with his finger. My feet obeyed and in a few seconds I was right next to him.
He was as tall as my dad and was so hauntingly handsome with his hypnotizing lavender eyes. Now that I was closer to him, I got a better look.
“Would you like some cake? It’s red velvet. The blood makes it red…” As he spoke, his eyes swirled with a rainbow of colors. The more it swirled, the more I wanted to obey him. My mouth began to water. He wasn’t lying when he said there was blood in the cake. I could smell it and it was calling me.
“Just take one bite. I promise you, it is to die for,” he whispered angelically. I couldn’t say no and I realized I didn’t want to say no. I was inching towards him, my eyes never looking away from his, although I was aware we were getting deeper into the forest.
He held up the fork that had a piece of the cake and he fed it to me. A burst of flavors danced around in my mouth, intoxicating me. It was heavenly and I swallowed quickly. What happened next was a blur. A huge russet wolf pounced on the vampire stranger and as he fell and our gaze broke, I fell, too.
I was paralyzed. I stayed down and as the piece of cake digested I felt the toxin spread all through my blood stream. Everything shut down. I could only hear what was going on around me. I heard my mom calling for me and my uncles restraining the vampire stranger that poisoned me. Then the last thing I heard was the wind as I was being carried through the forest back home. After that, all went black.