Embrace I: First Vampire (rewrite)

Embrace I: First Vampire (rewrite)

Chapter One: Creatures

“Goddamn it,” I cursed. I rolled over reached blindly and slammed my hand on the black gadget on my cluttered nightstand that blared out an irritating mix of static and music. As soon as my fumbling hand found the snooze button, the noise stopped. I peered through half-open eyelids and saw my room was half-lit by the morning light that peeked through my window. I groaned and clamped my eyes shut, rolling over again. I hated waking up in the morning.

April fourth started with me rolling out of bed and hopping over a pile of shoes around my room, grabbing my towel and a fresh pair of random panties and taking my usual fifteen-minute shower in the bathroom I shared with my sister. I tiptoed back to my room, hoping not drip all over the hallway, with the towel wrapped around my body and I let it drop to the floor when I closed my door and flipped the lock. As I toweled dry my hair I scrutinized the ever-growing pile of dirty laundry in the corner of my closet, and then my clean clothes, which was within dangerous proximity to the pile.

I didn’t make a huge deal about getting dressed like half the bimbos in my school did – I grabbed my bra, a clean black and white stripped tank top and a pair of black Capri pants and my flats before toweling the rest of my body and slipping on the chosen attire – glancing again the pile of dirty clothes. I made a mental note to come home and do my laundry before smelling my clothes – just to make sure they weren’t from the wrong pile. I looked the cracked mirror that was glued on the wall and studied my semi-dry hair. My dark brown hair was wavy and long and often mistaken for black. I had dyed my bangs and several tresses of it bright pink to piss off my mother and it was fading to the pink of a baby blanket. I shoved my fingers through my hair and my shaggy bangs quickly and grabbed my backpack from the floor.

I scratched my cat goodbye and went down the kitchen to hunt up a quick breakfast. My sister sat primly on the stool, her ear glued to her cell phone, and a sickly sweet tone dripping from her voice. She was talking to her idiot frat boy boyfriend. Her nose wrinkled when she saw me. My sister lived for everything I hated – designer purses, pink, and rap music.

I ignored her as I went through the cabinets, and snagging the second to last packet of chocolate pop tarts I found behind the oregano. I waited for them to get done, glancing at the clock on stove and calculating that I had enough time to get to school and eat my pop tart. I turned and rested my hips on the edge of the counter, biting my lower lip and answering a text from Brandon.

Brandon was my next-door neighbor – and boyfriend – who drove me everyday to school and back unless we stopped somewhere private for a quick tongue war.

“Did someone die?” My sister motioned to the black clothes I wore. I studied her Hollister outfit with my lip curled.

“Maybe,” I responded curtly and the toaster spat out my pop tarts. I grabbed them and pushed past her to walk outside. Brandon was waiting in his blue Jeep, his stereo turned up so it was blaring some strange form of industrial metal. I threw my backpack into the back seat and slid in into the car.

My lips met Brandon’s instantly and he pulled away from curb, still kissing me. I laughed when a horn honked and he braked just in time to avoid a rear-end collision. Halfway through the drive to school, we switched so I was driving. Brandon instructed me through the intersection and once again, I felt like a lowly junior next to him. I gave him a triumphant smile when I managed to park perfectly in the school’s lot.

I think it goes without saying how much I hated my school.

The building’s red bricks, along with the electronic sign that proclaimed the building as a high school seemed fake. We went into the building, holding hands and waving at a silver car that drove by. I knew Cendres was driving that.

I stopped by my locker first while Brandon left for his first class. I managed to one handedly pull out my biology book, my cell phone and my iPod in one try with one hand before shoving my backpack in it and kicking the metal door shut. My cell phone was slim enough to it fit in the small pocket of my pants neatly.

Biology was more or less – a joke. I plunked down in the middle of the classroom – my assigned seat – in front of Ivy.

Ivy’s gray eyes and mile long blond hair was the envy of most girls in my school, but unlike them, Ivy was in our group. I hate to sound like a stereotypical teenager, but in a school where the groups lived and breathed inside their invisible boundary lines, it was impossible not to. They stayed away from us, and we just didn’t care. Ivy’s clothing was once again, just short of being over the top. Her long black skirt hid the three-inch patent leather boots, and a black button up shirt that was left open hid the black shiny halter with the eye-popping plunging neckline. She reached over and her hand curled around my neck. I grinned and turned. Tom was next to Ivy, already asleep, his curly mass of blonde hair was disheveled on one side. It was a miracle he made it to class at all. Apart from the three of us, the rest of our little group was split up in different classes. Adam was in his advanced math class, Jenny was in English, Juliet was still at home because she didn’t have a first class and Cendres was in my next class.

When it came down the dynamics of the school, it was easy to say, we were the outcasts, we were rabid, venomous and contagious, which is why whenever one of us walked down the hall, people gave a wide berth… just in case.

By the second word that our well-meaning teacher spoke, I was already zoned out, slumped in my seat, my fingers doodling random lines and patterns on my notebook. It took a poke from Ivy to get my to realize that Mr. Tandarich was actually talking to me.

“Um. What?” I asked while Ivy laughed. My eyes darted to the board where a diagram of squiggles and circles that looked oddly familiar was drawn. “Er. Mitosis?”

When my correct answer threw him off stride, I went back to the usual reverie of doodling until the bell rang. With the boots on, Ivy was an inch taller than me. I never had the guts to wear the boots she usually did – partly because that would put me at almost six feet, but because of my mortal fear of tripping and falling on my face. We followed the stream to the hall and we split up to head to head to English. Cendres joined us halfway up the stairs to the second floor. Her long black hair was twisted up in chopsticks and her black pants were leather.

I felt a mild pang of envy. Cendres was petite, barely five one, and slender, whereas I was tall, still slim, but curvy. Her gray eyes were filled with humor while she and Tom clashed for a quick make out session.

“Gross!” I shouted and shoved them away, laughing.

Cendres and Tom parted with a sound that echoed in the hallway. “Sorry,” Tom apologized and smiled blearily at me. I’d known these kids since third grade.

I wrinkled my nose at him and Cendres looked around. “Where’s Brandon?” She asked me, and I looked around distractedly.

“Around. His next class is industrial technology, so he won’t be passing by,” I said and felt an arm curling around mine. I didn’t have to look to see who it was. The always-awed looks Ivy got from everyone who stood nearby told me.

Her blue eyes were heavily lined in black and her long blonde hair was up in a loose bun with random tresses falling and brushing her shoulders. As usual, Ivy’s attire was a tight black dress that hit the middle of her thighs and wedge heels. It was hard to tell with Ivy, if what she was wearing was because she liked it because she loved to have people stare at her.

It wouldn’t have surprised me to find out that it was both. Ivy’s vanity was a force to be reckoned with.

The day dragged on, and when it finally ended I made my way to the library. It was the unofficial meeting place, and the back, corner table was our territory. It never failed to annoy me how everyone else shied away from our table. I felt a big hand slide around my waist and I turned, smiling.

Brandon kissed me and we both walked to our table, where Tom automatically pushed his math homework towards me. It was an unspoken truth that Tom had passed all of his math classes because of me. Anthony and Crystal sat between Cendres and Ivy, who had her feet on Anthony’s lap.

“I heard Estrella talking about you in the bathroom,” Cendres said quietly, looking at me. I scowled and I felt Brandon tense next to me. Brandon, who was a star track athlete, was well known and very popular in our school. I was already past the point of caring about such petty things as high school popularity, but it sometimes caught up with me. I knew Estrella was a vulture and she seemed to have this uncanny ability to get way too close to Brandon in any situation.

In short, she was a slutbag and we all hated her.

“I don’t want to know what she said,” I said, but couldn’t help but glaring at the blonde who quickly looked away.

“In a chick fight, who would win, Mia or Estrella?” Tom queried and Brandon opened his mouth before cocking his head to the side thoughtfully.

Cendres and Ivy answered almost instantly, “Mia.” My ever loyal friends grinned at me.

“Estrella has claws,” Crystal pointed out, teasing me.

“Mia has a hell of a right hook,” Brandon said too. I smiled. It was quite funny, seeing as when I first met Brandon, I was a sophomore and I had accidentally punched him in the jaw. My first words to him had been mortified apologies while Brandon had been flat on the ground staring at me.

The bell rang half an hour later and we all piled into each other’s cars, ready for the drive home.

“She’s going to spread some nasty rumors,” Brandon said thoughtfully and I didn’t have to guess at who ‘she’ was.

“She does that every week,” I answered, frowning.

“They’re going to be about you,” he said.

I sighed. “It was bound to happen. I wouldn’t worry about it. They all die out after a few days.” Brandon kissed me goodbye and I walked back into my house.

It wasn’t empty, like it usually was.

I saw his eyes before I saw the rest of him. They were the brightest green I’d ever seen and they were gorgeous… like the rest of him. I dropped my backpack on the ground and didn’t move.

I somehow knew he meant no hostility towards me.

“There you are,” he said.