Not Another Vampire Story - 22
22. Happy Fallout
Final Chapter
PG13. Tween, humor, middle school, angst, vampires, serial, teen, fiction, summer. #ReadFree
Read from the beginning.
Suggested Music: Run To You on YouTube
Sylvia comes to terms with her answers.
Outside the weather was cool, refreshing, and welcome. Sylvia rushed into it, trying to steady the flurry of information blasted at her.
It was all true.
And it was all . . . okay?
Julia was okay with this?
Her cell phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket. Holly.
"Oh-my-gosh-Ryo's-quitting-NEWS!" Holly's voice erupted from the phone.
Sylvia tried to react appropriately. "What?"
Holly took a deep breath and ran it together again. "Ryo-chan is quitting NEWS! He and YamaP are quitting NEWS!"
Sylvia sat down on the porch and frowned. "There's always been rumors about that."
"But this time I think it's real. Really real."
"But he's still in Kanjani8, right?"
Holly huffed. "Is that all you can say, Red?"
Given the circumstances, Sylvia thought, yes. "You like Kanjani8 better than NEWS anyway, right? So maybe Ryo does, too."
There was silence over the phone for a moment. "Yeah. I guess so. Okay . . . I guess I panicked."
Sylvia's mind twisted back over Julia and Terry's news.
". . . still there?"
"Yeah, I'm here." Sylvia frowned. "What did you say about Junno?"
"I said there's a singer who looks just like him in a Kpop group. DBSK, or Dong Bang Shin Ki. His name is ChangMin and he's a dead ringer for Junno. Well, almost."
Sylvia didn't believe it. Then again, she'd just accepted a vampire into the family.
"And I'm hearing rumors about a Kpop group getting put together for something called BTS."
Sylvia blinked a few times. "BS? What kind of name is that?"
"B. T. S. BTS."
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"I gotta go, Chocolate. I've got to . . . stew a while."
"Oh?" Holly's voice grew gossipy. "Wanna share?"
"Not quite yet." Sylvia pressed the phone off before Holly could push the topic. She sat looking out at the grass in the yard, her mind buzzing with too much new information.
Who was she to judge Terry? If he had his vampiric cravings under control, was good to Julia, and Julia wanted him, why not? What was the problem?
She closed her eyes tight. All those old black and white vampire movie images swam through her mind. Fangs, cloaks, blood, women swooning. . .
But it wasn't like that. Not really.
"Hey, what're you doing?" It was Lane's voice.
Sylvia's eyes flung open.
There stood Lane with his ten-speed bike leaning on a kickstand in their driveway. She blinked and stood up as he met her at the steps.
"Nothing," she said limply.
He stopped in front of her, and even with her standing on the bottom step, he was still taller than her. She also got a very up-close look at those steely gray eyes.
"You waiting on someone?" he asked, glancing to the driveway, then to Terry's car. "You got a date?" he asked, looking her full in the face again.
She giggled a little. "No."
"Good." He grinned, shifting on his sneakers, hands jammed in his gray and cobalt hoodie. "So, you got plans for the first Friday dance?"
She frowned and then blinked twice. "The dance at my school?" The dance Matt had asked her to? The day she was counting-down to pass with a daily No in science class?
"Yeah, your school." His gaze went to each of her eyes, nearly melting her on the spot. "You going with anyone to it?"
She shook her head.
He misread her surprise. "Yeah, I know it's kinda odd, with our parents seeing each other and stuff, but it's not like we're related. Even if they got married," he added hastily, grinning a bit. "Even then we wouldn't really be related. Just step-shit kind of stuff. No blood relation."
"Oh, yes, it would . . . be . . . steppish." She watched his hand fumble in his pocket before looking to his face again. "You want to go to our school's dance?"
"Yeah. I want to take you to the dance, Sylvi." He focused on her lips for a long second, then looked to her eyes. "I know you can't really date until you're fourteen, but we could at least go to the dance, right?"
Fourteen? How did he know that? Where had he gotten that information? "Date?" She felt her cheeks pinken, her breath stop. "Really?"
He chuckled, nodding. "Yeah. Oh." He pulled his hands from his pocket and held one out to her. "I got you this. Figure'd I'd give it to you now. Supposed to be for your birthday, but that's a few weeks away, and I'll probably get grounded by then."
On the palm of his hand lay a small red and gold cell phone charm. It was a heart-shaped strawberry dangle.
He held it closer, and she slowly took it.
"For my phone?" she said, holding up the bright charm that glinted, winking at her in the afternoon sun.
"Yeah. I was gonna get you a holder for your phone, but I wasn't sure what model you had and I didn't want to get the wrong one." He stepped closer. "So kind of early Happy Birthday, I guess."
She smiled at his grin, feeling her warm cheeks flame pinker. "Thanks, Lane." She nodded, catching a whiff of something musky about him. "Thanks."
He shrugged, grinning. "I thought you liked strawberries, you know, 'cuz you always smell like them. Some perfume or something, I guess." His eyes went to her hair. "Or shampoo."
And then it nearly knocked Sylvia off her feet. No, her shampoo was banana. She looked him nearly level in the eyes. "You think I smell like strawberries, Lane?"
He nodded. "Don't you?"
The warm feeling in her cheeks blossomed all through her. Maybe it was the way Lane was looking at her, or the promise of a date for the dance with someone she wanted to go with, or maybe it was Lane's uncanny sense into her.
Like Terry had said.
She smiled, looking down as Lane's hand cupped beneath her fingers holding the charm.
"So you'll go with me?"
Something about that slight contact made her nod. "Yes." The strawberry caught the sun again, shining red enamel. "But you're still coming to my birthday, right?"
He nodded. "Long as I'm not grounded." He grinned, a devious light coming to his eyes. "We've got a game against Brookside Western the week before, so it might get rough."
"Don't get grounded," she said.
He nodded, turning, letting her fingers brush from his hand. "I'll try not to. I gotta go. I'm kinda grounded right now, but it's up this weekend."
She shot a glance at the driveway. "Don't get caught, Lane."
"I won't."
He climbed on his bike—no helmet, she noticed—and shoved off down the driveway.
She waved, the charm gripped in her hand. "Bye!"
He grinned and waved back. "Bye, Strawberry!"
Sylvia watched him until he was out of sight down the sidewalk.
Strawberry?
She was Strawberry to someone?
She looked at the charm again and smiled wider.
The year was taking a turn for the best.
Thanks for reading Not Another vampire Story! It was fun to write, and drew on some of those embarrassing middle school experiences everyone tries to avoid—from the lives of, ahem, people I know. ~ Sakurapu
Thanks to Sakurapu for sharing her story!
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