Moving Forward

November 11, 2008 on 1:19 am | In Dead End Streets Chapters |

David only wanted to sleep when he got home from school on Tuesday, but first he encountered his mother.  “Dr. Goldblume’s on Thursday morning.”

He nodded.  “Yes ma’am.”

“You still want to see him?  You hated it last year.”

“Last year I didn’t think I needed it.”

*****

“I just don’t get it,” Heather moaned at lunch the next day.  She sat on the floor in the padded room with Grace, Sprite, Gabby, Katy and Lex.  The two werewolves were splitting what looked like a small mound of cheeseburgers for the coming full moon, barely acknowledging her pain.  “Why does everyone get to be a couple but me?”

“I’m not in a couple,” Grace pointed out.

“Hey,” Sprite said, “I offered.”  She cuddled up closer to Gabby.

He glanced at his new girlfriend.  “So this whole lesbian thing.  Can I watch sometime?”  Sprite rolled her eyes and punched him in the stomach playfully.  “I take that as a no.”

“Big no,” Sprite agreed.  “You know Heather, David’s single.”

Heather glanced across the room to where David was sitting with the other three vampires.  “I don’t think so.”

“You’re seventeen,” Katy pointed out, coming up from her cheeseburgers for air.  “Does it really matter that much?”

“I feel left out.”  She replied.  “And I liked Adrian.  I liked…you know…”

“Sex?” Sprite offered.

“Slut,” Grace said with a laugh.  “Join the club of girls who’ve been screwed over by incubi.”

“That’s not fair,” Sprite said, pulling away from Gabby.

“I didn’t say it was fair,” Grace said.  “But that’s the way it is.  You don’t have to get upset about it.  You knew he was going to hurt her the moment they started dating.  You can’t expect commitment out of the cubi—”

“Um,” Gabby said, but Sprite hushed him.

“No, no, she’s right.  We’re sex fiends who have complete disregard for everyone else’s feelings.  Never mind that I have yet to meet a human who’s been with a cubi and never saw them as more than a sex toy with arms and legs!”  Her three human companions stared at her, and Lex and Katy had both stopped eating.  “What?”

“I don’t feel that way,” Gabby said, his voice small.

“I didn’t mean you,” Sprite snapped, still angry.  Grace leaned back, a grimace on her face.

“So neither of you are better than the other,” Lex spoke up.  “Heather, I’m sorry you were dumped.  And I’m sorry David was dumped.  Neither of you deserved it, and both of you will recover.  Sprite, Grace, neither of you are better than the other and neither of you have any right to generalize how other people feel just because your own experiences have not been all you wanted.  Get over it.  There are more important things in life.”

“But she—”

“Lex is right,” Katy interjected.  “Let it go.  It’s not that big a deal.”

*****

“Lets skip out of here early,” Lex suggested to Katy as the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.  “I don’t want to be here any more today and we could blow off tomorrow too, if you want.”  They followed the crowd of people filtering out of the room.

“You don’t have to worry,” Katy replied, taking Lex’s hand.  “Tomorrow night will be fine.  I promise.”

“I know.  Still, I don’t want to go to school.  Do you?”

“No,” she admitted.

“We’re both over eighteen.  We can call ourselves in sick.  My aunt will be at work and we can have the whole house to ourselves.”

“Oh,” she said with a false laugh.  “That’s what this is about.”

“What do you think?”

Katy took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.  “Okay.  Let’s do it.”

“Really?” Lex said, surprised.

“Yeah.  Let’s do it.  All of it.  We’ll have a celebration tomorrow.  For life.”

“For life,” he echoed.  “Let’s get out of here and find a restaurant that serves pie.”

Katy had to laugh and grasped Lex’s hand harder.  “C’mon.  We’re busting out of this joint.”

*****

“No Katy?” David asked when everyone had arrived in chemistry.  “Where is she?”

“I saw her and Lex sneak out the back door,” Sprite said with a grin.  “Someone’s gonna get some.”

“Not me,” Heather chimed in, slapping her notebook on the table and digging in her bag for a pen or pencil.

David watched the blond fish a pencil out of her bag.  As soon as she pressed the point to paper it snapped.  He could tell she was trying her best not to swear in frustration and quickly handed over his pen.  “I’m sorry to hear about Adrian,” he offered.

She took the pen, which he saw as a good sign.  “Are you really?”

“No.”

“It’s not a big deal,” she said.  “I’ve been through worse.”

“I have a question,” he told her in a whisper as class started.  “I know we’ve had issues in the past, but can’t we call it a truce?  Do we have to be awful to each other for the rest of the year?”

“I’m not the one almost biting people when they’re making out.”

“I’m sorry.  I’m starting therapy again this week.  To help me work things out and get control of myself again.  I promise I’ll be better, and normal and good from here on out.  Can’t we just be friends again.  At the very least, can we not be enemies?”

Heather sighed.  “Okay.  But I still don’t like you.”

“I can live with that.”

*****

“Can you believe the nerve of Grace?” Sprite asked as she and Gabby walked home from school together.  “Saying that stuff in front of me like that.”

“I wouldn’t let it bother you too much,” he told her.  “You know it isn’t true.  I mean, no one is really committed any more.  I wouldn’t say the cubi are any less inclined.”

“My mom’s been married three times.  Doesn’t that say something?  She’s not wrong, you know.”

“So?  My grandparents are divorced, and that was back in the day when it just wasn’t done.  You go out and find someone who isn’t related to a divorced person–or several.  The human animal is biologically programmed to be on the look out for the better mate.  That’s nature.  It’s society that’s messed things up when it comes to love and marriage.  I wouldn’t let what she said bother you.”

“It does.”

“Well, is there a way to make you feel better?”

“Maybe.”

“And what’s that?”

Sprite gave him a sly smile.  “Ice cream!”

He laughed.  “Okay.  We’ll get ice cream.”

*****

David slept like a log afterschool and woke up with nothing to do.  He didn’t start work until the next night, and that would still be only a few nights a week.  There was, he knew, only one cure for the boredom.

He found himself cradling a guitar in Carmilla’s living room while Sam taught him chords.  “We’ll have you playing the Ramones by the end of the night,” Sam promised, showing David how to rearrange his fingers on the strings.

“Can’t we just play Guitar Hero?”

The look Sam gave him was not promising.

“I’m glad you came back, David,” Carmilla said, sitting sideways in an olive green easy chair with her legs thrown over one arm.  She was re-painting her fingernails black.  “You really should spend more time with your own kind.”

“There is no ‘my kind/their kind.’  What is with everyone and their hang-ups?”

“Birds of a feather,” Carmilla replied.

“What about Sam?”

Sam looked down at what he was playing.  It was supposed to be Bluesy, but David wasn’t positive.  Sam’s musical talents seemed to be hit and miss.  “It’s only a matter of time,” he told David.  “Timing has to be just right, the situation perfect—”

“You’re not telling me—”

“Yep.  I’m going to be reborn into darkness and live forever.”

“Over my undead body,” Carmilla muttered.

David rolled his eyes up at the ceiling.  It was official.  They were nuts.

*****

I know there is much suckitude to this chapter.  It’s the bits that help flow time and characters from plot A to plot B are always the worst.  Nothing exciting happens, but you have to allow for time and growth.

The economy is starting to affect my family and it really sucks, and my heart was just not in this one…sorry guys.  But the next chapter is going to be interesting in the Katy/Lex sense, so we’re all good.  Can I use Judy Blume’s example for teen sex scenes, or is that too much?  (Please tell me you guys have read ‘Forever.’)

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