The Trouble with Vampires

Final Draft

This story... Lol so this story went through a total of three drafts. I considered posting all three versions but the second version is too similar to the final draft so I left it out. The first version, though... Lol hope y'all enjoy that one. I'm always grateful when a kpop idol has a name that no westerner would ever suspect belongs to someone who's Korean/Japanese like literally all I had to do with Riki's name was just add a 'c'. Leaving his name as is as 'Riki' I thought was just too much of a risk like lol knowing my luck someone would've put two and two together and realized who inspired the character. "Marlene" was the name I used for Marsai. Anyways, to all tuning into this fic, I hope y'all enjoy it.:D Feedback of any kind is very much appreciated.:)

-

"You're really gonna be a senior in four months."

            Marsai looks up from absentmindedly pushing her breakfast around on her plate at the woman sitting across from her. Her mother had spoken those words in a manner of softness she only allowed to seep into her speech when she's being sentimental.

            The single mother reaches across the table, placing her hand over her daughter's. Her mother's touch has always been comforting, more than suffices for a fatherly touch she knows not. The tension in her muscles she'd been having a hard time shaking off in recent days unfurls. There's an overwhelming amount of pride in the eyes that stare back at her and in the smile tugging at the corners of her mother's mouth.

            "I'm really proud of you, Marsai."

            She feels a wholeheartedness in the smile she sends to her mother, is thankful for her low spirits' noninterference in this moment. "Thanks, mom."

            The woman sighs, the smile on her lips sadder than before. "I wish I had taken school seriously when I was your age but there was...a distraction in my path." Her mother lets out a humorless laugh, leaning back in her chair. "A distraction that goes by the name of your father."

            Marsai frowns, the mention of her father never failing to ruin her mood. "Daddy issues," a widespread disease that she refuses to let get the best of her. Her father had walked out on her mother when she was pregnant with her. But it's okay, because Marsai had closed the door behind him and locked the door when she was old enough to grasp what her father had done.

            What tricks had her father used on her mother? Had they been as crafty as the ones Riki used on her? She really has to hand it to the asshole. He's a damn good actor. Who knew the school trip to Switzerland would be when he decided to flex those prime acting skills of his. She's still trying to forget the second to the last day of the trip.

"You'll catch a cold, dummy," she recalled him saying in that teasing voice of his.

            He joined her at the balcony railing of their shared hotel room and leaned forward from out her peripheral. Anxiety had been what kept her awake late into the night. Sometimes she had moments like these, moments where her uncertainty over her future was so strong that falling under the spell of sleep was near impossible. She herself wasn't the only person she was afraid of letting down. She had her mother to worry about, too, her mother who she owed everything and more to.

            "What if my hard work isn't enough, Riki?"

            She felt his eyes on her. "What?"

            Her shoulders sagged under the agonizing weight of her anxiety as she clutched at the railing. "Ivy League is the goal, it's always been the goal. It's what my mother has been working me toward. But everything doesn't always work out like we want it to."