All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
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When they got to the sweet shop, the same girl was running it as before. Maria got another cinnamon roll, and Carmen got a 'blood slushy'. They walked over to the park, and sat together underneath the gazebo.
"Is that any good?" Maria asked as she ate.
Carmen took another sip of it.
"No, not really." She said. "I'm not sure why anyone would want cold blood, mixed with chunks of ice."
"You're the one that wanted to try it." Maria giggled.
"Yeah, and Christopher Columbus wanted to find a faster route to India, but things don't always work out like you expect them to." She said. She paused to take another sip. "Still, I don't want to waste perfectly good blood."
"Hey, Carmen?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something?" Maria said. "It's about something Switchblade said to me the other day."
Carmen sat her drink down and rolled her eyes.
"Was it about how we shouldn't be seeing each other and so on and so forth and blah blah, whatever?" She said. Maria nodded. "Because he had the same conversation with me."
"Do you think he's worried about us getting in trouble?" Maria asked.
"No." Carmen scoffed. "He's just got this whole thing where he thinks relationships between humans and vampires never work out. He's still not over his baby mama."
"You're not worried that he's right?" Maria asked. "What if we do just end up hurting each other."
"What, are you worried about outgrowing me?" Carmen asked. "Or me getting tired of you?"
Maria ran her finger across the edge of the concrete gazebo floor.
"Both, I guess." She said.
"You don't think it's worth it for us to be together, even if it's not for forever?" Carmen said.
"I-" Maria clenched her hand into a fist. There was a strange well of frustration building up inside of her. "I like you a lot. I don't like to think about things like that. It doesn't seem fair."
"It's not." Carmen agreed.
"Then why do you want to even try? I don't want to be upset. I don't want to have my heart broken because I didn't listen to what I was told to do-" Maria cut herself off and bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I'm saying stupid things again."
Carmen reached over and grabbed her hand. Her fingers were cold, and slightly damp from her drink.
"It's okay. Be honest with yourself."
Maria took a deep breath and shook her head.
"I don't-"
"Listen, maybe when you date, you do get your heart broken sometimes. Maybe not every relationship lasts forever." She said. "But maybe, you let the church decide who you marry. Maybe you stay together forever, but you always resent him and wonder what you could have had. Either way, you're taking a risk."
