Garlic Is For Vampires (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 19: Never Have I Ever

We were sitting in a circle on the floor, with shot glasses filled with tequila in front of all of us. We went through five questions already and nobody had said anything yet. Until Bennett brought out the dirty questions.

"Never have I ever gotten a dick piercing," he said. I didn't expect any of us to raise our hands until Brendon's did and he drank the tequila.

"Confess, my child," Angie said.

"After high school, during the summer," he said, studying his shot glass. "Hurt like a bitch, but you know..."

"Do you still have it?" I asked. My cheeks were warming up.

Two little red dots appeared on both of his cheeks. "Yes."

"Never have I ever had a one-night-stand," I said. Three hands went up in the air-Angie, Brendon, and Bennett, and then they clinked glasses and shot down the tequila.

"Freshmen year, college," Brendon said.

"Junior year, high school," Angie said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Last week," Bennett said. Then he looked at me with a grin. "Never have I ever broken my leg because I was so clumsy."

That was the cover story I gave my friends, and only Brendon knew the truth. It was because I was attacked by a vampire-yet again-but even if I told them the truth, it would still only be me who'd been attacked by a vampire, again. So I chugged down the tequila.

"I fell down a couple of stairs," I muttered, and then we continued with the game. When Bennett started to feel buzzed and Angie was drunk and talking about Cheetos, we decided to call it quits. Now we all knew our secrets, like how Bennett secretly picked his boogers and ate them until he was ten. And when Brendon admitted he watched porn when he was twelve. And when Angie said she kissed her cousin during a game of spin the bottle. And when the truth came out that I was still a virgin.

A lot of people were quiet after that one.

I didn't feel any shame about it, but I would've wanted to know the feeling of being with someone while giving myself to them. You know-that feeling people are always talking about when they're in the heat of the moment, and then afterwards when you're happy and content. Angie said it was a wonderful feeling-and that she didn't regret anything. I mean, if Dylan and I had gone any further I would've pretty much regretted my first time since he wasn't even human. So I just sat back and stayed quiet.

Before I went to bed I grabbed the bottle of holy water from inside my fridge and beckoned Brendon into the kitchen. My friends were grumbling and getting up from the couch to go to my bedroom to sleep, Angie carrying a bag of the hot Cheetos in her arms with Bennett scratching his chest, complaining about an itch.

"Here," I said, filling a glass with holy water before handing it to Brendon. "Drink this. It's the holy water Skylark gave me to ward off Dylan."

"I don't think he'd be interested in seducing me since I was the one who shot him multiple times."

"Please, just drink it. Someone else might be waiting for you to fall asleep and drop your guard. There could be a beautiful red-head succubus waiting for you."

"I don't like red-heads." He glanced at my hair. "No offense."

"Non-taken," I said, since he noticed the reddish tints in my hair, giving my hair a red look. I poured myself a glass of holy water and drank it quickly to ignore the burn it left in my throat. I didn't bother to ask if it was supposed to burn. Brendon made a funny face as he drank it but once I was done I left to get him a blanket and a pillow. Then I came back and handed him the blanket and pillow from the closet.