Not Another Vampire Story - 13
13. Ride with Valtieri II
PG13. Tween, humor, middle school, angst, vampires, serial, teen, fiction, summer. #ReadFree
Suggested Music: Kpop music on AudioNetwork
Sylvia has a heart to heart with Terry.
Minnie had found her voice. "He really knows you?"
Sylvia savored the envy in the blonde's girl's voice even as she tried to calm her nerves jolting at going anywhere with a—
Don't think it, she told herself. "Yeah," she squeaked out to Minnie.
"You know him?"
"'Course I do."
When she made no move to actually get in, Terry parked and got out.
A small gasp of admiration went through Sylvia's female classmates.
She stood up straight as Terry looked at her across the car top.
He leaned on the car's driver side at the door, crossing his arms on the roof and leaning over to look intently at her. "I don't bite, Sylvia."
The hair on her neck pricked up. It's a common phrase, she told herself. A common phrase.
Half the students on the sidewalk had slowed or stopped to watch her. She didn't know if they were waiting to witness her child-abduction scene or if it was just the natural reaction to Terry.
He grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Come on. I need your input."
". . . Okay."
He came around to the passenger side before Sylvia could get to the door and opened it for her. She slowly settled into the seat, fingers strangling her bag strap when he tried to take it and put it in the back seat.
"I'll hold it," she mumbled.
He nodded and closed the door, then went around the other side and got in behind the wheel. He checked for traffic and pulled carefully away from the curb. Sylvia enjoyed Minnie's jaw-dropping expression as they coasted by her and her subordinates.
And then she realized that she had trapped herself with Terry.
"I called your mom and told her I'd try to pick you up from school, so she's not expecting you on the bus," he said as they waited to turn at the stop sign where the buses were being filled with unruly kids.
"Oh. Thanks."
He nodded.
The car turned onto the one-way street that the buses used to disperse into the town's traffic at a main light. Terry turned onto the four lane street, heading away from the Burns' house.
"You don't mind we grab a bite to eat, do you?" he asked as Sylvia gripped the bag tighter.
Her mind froze. "I have a lot of homework," she finally stammered.
"Oh. Well, just something to drink. A milkshake? Smoothie?"
"Sure," she managed.
She eased off on the book bag, not wanting to appear as frightened as she felt. She took a deep breath.
"Hey, Vampire Knight," he said, spotting the manga still in her grasp.
She looked down at the book, her mind freezing anew. "It's Holly's."
He pulled the car into a left lane before a traffic light. "Is it any good?"
She returned his attention, nodding numbly. The whole car smelled faintly like his cologne, but not suffocating strong like a few of the boys in her gym class did after leaving the locker room in an attempt to smell like a man. "I'm not very far in it."
He nodded, grinned, and maneuvered the car into the next lane on the side street. "Are you into that whole subculture, Sylvi?"
"I don't believe in vampires," she said, mostly for the sake of her own sanity.
He looked a little surprised, then chuckled. "I meant manga."
"Oh." Of course, you idiot, she thought. "Yeah."
"What's your favorite?"
She tried to breathe normally, easing her fingers from the bag again. "I'm thinking about trying Fruits Basket."
"That's the zodiac one with the orange cat, right?"
She nodded. "You know of it?"
He smiled at her. "It was quite popular when I was there last. About a year ago, for business."
"There? Japan?" She attempted a timid smile. "I'd kill to go to Japan."
He laughed. "It's a little easier than that, Sylvi. Just a plane ticket."
She summoned her courage. "How did you meet Hyde and Gackt?"
"The movie they were filming had special lighting and makeup elements," he said easily. "Some of the actors had side effects, and our company provided a line of tailored skincare for their sensitivites."
"Is that what the ShowMe thing is about on the photos from the beach?"
He looked at her sharply, then nodded and grinned. "They do the cameras, lenses, and special film processing. Dakmarr-Moore handles the dermal issues. They also make great app filters. Let me know if you want a link for your phone."
"That's so cool," she sighed.
He chuckled. "Glad you approve."
He got them milkshakes at a fast food drive-thru—after Sylvia passed on the bland assortment of smoothies—and they took the long way through town to Sylvia's house. She finally relaxed enough to set the book bag and manga in the back seat—actually, he did that for her—so she could turn all her attention to the chocolate shake.
Well, most of her attention, anyway. She stirred the shake with the straw inside the plastic cap.
"Julia told Mom you were twenty-three." She groaned as she said it. She didn't know why she did; give her something sweet to drink and she would blubber away the family secrets. Not that they had any secrets.
He half shrugged. "I hope it's not a problem, for you."
"No." Being a vampire, now that was a problem. She shook her head to clear it of Bela Lugosi's image that kept popping up. "But Julia is only seventeen."
"That's part of what I want to talk to you about." He pulled the car down a street where she knew the library was located. He found the two-story brick building where Sylvia and Holly had had their first serious crush on manga. He turned into a parking spot in the lot and put the car in park, switching off the engine.
He turned in the seat to look at her, and in the shaded light he looked more like the time she'd seen him in the back bedroom at Brian's party that odd night.
"What did you mean, you know I know?" The words were out her mouth before she thought, as if the shake was part truth serum.
He returned her look for a few seconds, shaking his paper cup back and forth a few times. Then he brightened, lifting his arm at the elbow toward her. "The patch. I gave it up. I don't smoke anymore."
Her eyes went to the small off-white patch that peeked from beneath his polo shirt sleeve. "At all?"
He shook his head. "I saw you looking at it a few times. Haven't had one in many weeks."
She found herself smiling fuller now. "'Cuz I didn't know what you meant, exactly, when you said it."
He nodded, looking down at the cup. "Julia told me about that." Now the light from the trees overhead played games with the sun, and his features didn't appear as amicable, just a bit of harsher edging to them.
Nothing that Sylvia could pinpoint, exactly; just a different lighting, she told herself.
He smiled, which helped the lighting some. "That's cute, your misperception. Julia said she cleared that issue up."
She nodded, moving uncomfortably on the seat.
He glanced at her as she did. He cleared his throat and set the cup in the cup holder in the console beneath the dash. He turned in his seat to look at her. "What should I get Julia for her birthday?"
She sighed in relief. Julia's birthday. What had she thought he was going to want to talk to her about? She chose not to think about that question, and instead focused on what he'd actually asked.
"She's only working a few hours a week at the coffee house now that school's back in," she said, "so her income is cut way down. She just bought that Fendi purse she wanted so much. I'm not sure what she wants next."
He nodded, watching her steadily. The sun was more balanced now and he looked like his normal charming self. "I was thinking about jewelry. Does she like her birthstone? Sapphire," he added when she frowned a bit.
"Oh. Yeah. Blue."
"She looks good in blue," he said, glancing back at his shake in the holder.
"She looks good in anything," she clarified, wishing she didn't sound so envious.
"Hmm. She does." He grinned slowly at her, looking her over thoroughly. "Don't tell me you don't have your pick of the boys in school, Sylvia."
Her cheeks heated and the milkshake did nothing to cool them no matter how hard she sucked on the straw. She shook her head, making herself stop slurping before it backed up through her nose. She didn't want to pull a Matt incident.
"Well, the year is young. You'll be turning heads soon." He smiled fully now. "Anyone special in mind?"
Sylvia made herself lower the cup. "I'm in eighth grade. At the top of school this year. There's nowhere to go but down or sideways."
He nodded slowly, watching her. "What about Brian's boy? Lane."
She made a face.
He laughed, turning back in the seat to the wheel. "That's what I thought." He started the car. "Earrings? Pendant? What do you think she'd like?"
She sighed as the car backed out of the parking space. Julia. Julia? Julia would swoon over anything Terry got her.
"I think a pendant," she heard herself say.
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Thanks to Sakurapu for sharing her story!
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