Not Another Vampire Story - 9
9. Unlike a Vampire
PG13. Tween, humor, middle school, angst, vampires, serial, teen, fiction, summer. #ReadFree
Suggested Music: K-Pop AudioNetwork
Amid the heat of embarrassment comes a frozen M&M, Julia, and a hint of Terry’s history.
It was only Jamie's analogy at lunch that put Bela Lugosi's image in Sylvia's mind, she was quite sure, and it was still there when she got home that afternoon to find Terry's black Mustang parked in their driveway. She paused at the neighbor's hedge, pulling the hair-tie from her ponytail and shaking out her hair. Maybe if she went in through the kitchen door she could avoid Julia and Terry.
Not so.
She'd barely slipped in the back door only to confront both of them. Julia was at the counter, a cutting board, knife, and ingredients before her. Terry was sitting at the table, as if watching for the back door to open, the kitchen radio playing some pop tune.
It was too late to make a break for the front door, so Sylvia ducked behind her hair and tried to exit to the hall near the living room.
"Don't be rude. Come back and say hi." Julia's ever-sympathetic voice stopped Sylvia in her tracks, still avoiding looking at Terry. Her hair hung over most of her face, peek-a-boo style.
"Very Veronica Lake," Terry said, grinning as she slowly peeked at him.
Julia finally turned around, a large spoon clinging with rice in her hand. "What're you hiding, sis?"
Sylvia edged to the hall, trying not to lift her head that would remove her protective curtain of reddish-blonde hair. "Nothin'. Just in a hurry."
"Hmm?" Julia raised an eyebrow, setting the spoon back in the glass bowl of vinegar-laced white rice.
Sylvia looked to the sheets of nori, rice, and chopped ingredients her sister was preparing. "What are you making?"
Julia stepped closer, wiping the hair away from Sylvia's cheek. Her blue eyes widened, and then she gripped her younger sister firmly by a shoulder and pulled all her hair back. "You got hit?"
"No." Sylvia tried to flinch from Julia, but the older sister grabbed the book bag away and gave it to Terry, then pushed her to the sink where the light from the window was better.
She tilted Sylvia's head. "What happened? You and Holly have a fight?"
"Jeez, let me go. No, it wasn't Holly." Sylvia tried to pry Julia's fingers from either side of her face. "Would you let go?"
Terry had set the bag on the table and was now standing behind Julia, leaning over her to see Sylvia better.
He whistled lowly. "Did someone hit you?"
For a moment Sylvia just stared back at him, wondering how Julia ever managed to speak with him so close, smelling of aftershave, concern leasing his dark eyes. And then she remembered that even Julia lost herself sometimes when he was this close.
"No; it's from gym . . . class," she stammered, adding class so they wouldn't think it was a Jim. "Dodge ball."
"You never play dodge ball," Julia murmured, finally releasing her face.
Sylvia stood straight, pulling her hair over her cheek, eyes still going to each of Terry's arms.
He was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt, hunter green, with the Dakmarr label again. Her eyes traveled up each arm, finding no telltale needle marks or bruising on his well-shaped arms. Below one sleeve she glimpsed a square patch of white. When she looked to his face, she knew he'd noticed her stare.
Julia left for the refrigerator and opened the freezer. "You should keep ice on it, sis." She rummaged around for an ice pack.
Sylvia looked to Terry.
Amusement hinted his eyes, something of a grin at his lips, one corner lifting in less than a smirk. "I know you know," he said in a low tone. "I don't anymore."
Sylvia opened her mouth, but no words came out; just a miserable squeaking sound. She merely nodded, some mindless bobble-headed movement. ". . .Okay."
He grinned fully now, his eyes going again to the mark on her face. "I might have something for that."
She made another bobble.
Julia was tossing things through the freezer, cursing in her cute way. "Where're all our ice packs?"
"Are you sure no one hit you, Sylvia?" Terry asked, the depths of his eyes holding her, almost mesmerizing.
She took a deep breath, wanted to step away, but couldn't because the sink was right behind her. "No one hit me." Don't look into its eyes! came dialog from a dozen vampire movies through her head. Or maybe those were Medusa movies, not vampire movies. They certainly weren't Terry movies.
"Here." Julia appeared at his elbow and presented Sylvia with an ice pack shaped like a large frozen yellow Plain M&M candy. "Hold it to your cheek until it's melted."
Sylvia took it, scowling. "I don't need an ice pack." She looked to Terry, now able to compose herself. "I got a math quiz to study for," she said, easing away from them. She grabbed her book bag and headed down the hall before she realized she still had the M&M.
"Already?" came Julia's voice as Sylvia reached her bedroom and shut the door.
She didn't answer, instead dropping her bag by her bed, automatically turning on the CD player to a KAT-TUN song, and slouched into her desk chair. She flicked on the computer screen and opened a side desk drawer to find the small mirror she kept there. She looked at herself, grimacing at the darker patch of skin on her left cheek. It did look like she'd been slapped hard enough to knock her off her feet. She put a finger to it; yup, still tender.
She put the mirror away and logged-in to check her email account. She looked at the list of new emails. So far it was Holly, Holly, and Matt. She made a face. How did he get her email address? Oh, science partner-stuff. She'd been in so much pain after gym she'd accidentally given him the email she actually checked on a daily basis instead of a throw-away account.
She looked at the top of the home page, and then typed into the search engine space.
Dakmarr.
The name was all over Terry's shirts, and since he was hanging around Julia so much, Sylvia thought she should check up on things. The screen changed to listings for the entry, and the whole first page was devoted to various lines including Dakmarr Pharmaceuticals. She opened the first longest listing and waited for the page to load, absently holding the M&M to her cheek.
The outline of lab beakers and mortars was in the top left corner of the page, above a very modest looking three-story brick building.
"The world's oldest family-owned pharmaceutical company," she read from the italicized slogan. "Where experience matters." She shrugged.
Oldest? How old could that be? Mid-1800s?
"Ooh, checking up on him."
Julia's voice made Sylvia drop the ice pack on the key board. It took a bounce, changing the screen to another minimized open file on KAT-TUN CD release dates she'd been keeping.
"What about a knock, Julia?" Sylvia wiped the condensation from the melting M&M off the keyboard with her shirt. She deleted from the screen the nml that the ice pack had accidentally typed as it bounced, and saved the file, and then minimized it, which made the screen display the webpage again.
Julia was unscrewing the cap from a small tube of cream she'd brought with her. "I did knock, but you're such a KAT-TUN nut you can't hear anything but Japanese boys."
"What's wrong with Japanese boys?" She watched Julia squeeze a dab of the white cream onto her finger. She leaned back in the chair as Julia's hand neared her face. "What is it?"
"From Terry. He said it'll take the burning feeling away."
She let Julia smooth the cream onto her hot cheek.
"He just happened to have it with him?" Sylvia asked suspiciously.
Julia gave her a longsuffering look, nodding to the screen. "His family is in the business. He carries samples with him all the time. He travels on sales, but only out of the state or the country once a month or so. He works from home, and he's sweet." She rubbed softly until the cream had disappeared into Sylvia's flaming cheek.
"Who's Veronica Lake?"
Julia smiled slowly. "An old Hollywood sex siren from the 1940s. We saw her in a movie the other night. She was this low-key goddess-type, and she had this trademark peek-a-boo droop of blonde hair in her eyes all the time. Like you were hiding behind today."
"I wasn't really hiding."
"Neither was Veronica Lake. She was just being coy." Julia nodded. "We're having sushi tonight."
Sylvia withdrew. "I don't like raw fish."
"Sushi has very little raw fish. You're thinking of sashimi." Julia capped the tube. "I'll make yours with avocado and cucumber, California-style, okay?"
Sylvia nodded, picking up the tube and turning it over to see the Dakmarr logo. "I guess so. Thanks."
"Oh," Julia said as she started for the door, "and he said you'd probably break-out with horrible acne from the cream, but that's to be expected."
Sylvia looked to her, a hand going to her cheek. "Julia, I just started school. I can't have a red mark and zits!" She said it as there was a lull in the CD between songs and her voice rang through the room louder than expected.
Julia sighed, shaking her head. "Just a joke, Sylvi."
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Thanks to Sakurapu for sharing her story!
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