I Hate Myself but I Love You

Chapter 27

Mr. Hollis looks up at me from his hug with his daughter. "To see if my little girl's okay, of course. And to help in any way I can. I may not be supernatural, but I have read many ancient and reliable books. I'll need you to fill me in, but I hope I will have information that could be useful. Where are you girls staying?"

"My cabin," I respond. Laura and Mr. Hollis break their hug, her smiling at him like he's made her day. Which I'm sure he has. His eyes linger suspiciously on the space (or lack of) between Laura and me. "It's going to get pretty crowded soon."

Mr. Hollis' eyebrows raise. "It's just the two of you in there right now? Alone?" He pointedly looks at how close we are again.

Laura blushes. "It's not like that, Dad."

"I'm sure it isn't." He winks at Laura. "I'll let you two get what you need in there while I get my gear from my car."

Mr. Hollis walks back to his car. Laura lets out a breath, relaxing slightly and her nose wrinkling.

"Carm? I think the salt is wearing off," she says in a panicked voice. "Dad smells better than my favorite chocolate chip cookies, which I didn't know is possible and I really don't want to lose control and bite my dad and-"

"Cupcake." I cut her off; squeezing her hand in what I hope is a comforting gesture. "I brought the smelling salts with me. You'll be fine."

She breathes out a sigh of relief. "Okay, do it quickly, please. My eyes feel weird." Laura looks at me and I grimace slightly, noticing how her eyes are turning silver. I pull the salts from my leather jacket and wave them under her nose. She coughs, her face screwing up in the cutest way and rubs her nose. "I forgot how weird it feels at first."

"We'll work on your self-control later, okay? Right now we need to get stuff from the grocery store."

Laura nods and we walk hand in hand into the gas station/grocery store. She doesn't let go, dragging me down the aisles while I carry a basket in my other hand. We periodically throw stuff in. I'm trying not to think about how my arm might be pulled out of its socket (Laura is new at all this; she doesn't know her strength) when Laura squeals happily, making a few bored looking shoppers look our way.

"Carm, look! They have an entire aisle dedicated to snack food!" Laura lets go of my hand and walks down the aisle, grinning widely at the surprisingly wide variety of junk food.

"Get whatever you want, cutie."

Laura turns back to me, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just don't put the entire aisle in our basket."

Laura smiles at me, her entire face lighting up. She dances over to me and kisses my cheek before scurrying all over and taking down big bags of pretzels and crackers and cookies and donuts. If she isn't a vampire, I'd worry about her teeth rotting.

I press a hand to my cheek where she kissed it, an automatic shy smile on my face. It feels like semester one all over again.

By the time Laura's finished, her arms are full of snacks. "I don't think this will fit in the basket, Carm."