Lone Wolf

Friendship

"I-I thought I was the only one left..." I stutter.

"Well you're very wrong about t'at one dear!" Cassidy answers with a small laugh.

We were back at the whore house, in my room doing every drug that we could find (we've come to find that both of us love it). I've become really comfortable with Cassidy, and not just because he was another vampire. "When did you become one?" He asks after a long period of silence.

"What? Oh... I wasn't bit, I was born like this," I answer, trying to scrape the dirt out from under my nails.

He gives me a questioning look. I mock his look back at him, making the both of us laugh. "That's weird love, that usually only happens with—" he stops, confusing himself.

"What? You never seen anyone born one?" I ask.

"I err.... I actually haven't," he answers quietly.

I get up and groan, "well how did you become one Cassidy?"

"I was bitten," he says, followed by nothing more than silence.

"Well yeah but like.... how? Was it someone you knew?"

After I grab my beer, I sit closer to him, wondering what his real story was.

He sighs, "that's not important. What is important is that we've fully run out of pills!"

I give him a blank stare, and get up and walk off. If he doesn't want to open up to me then so be it! It's not like we were close anyways. "Now where are ye goin' love I can scrounge up a few things if ye need 'em!" he yells at me, starting to stand so he can follow.

"I don't need anymore pills, I was just gonna change because I have work soon," I laugh at him.

He gestures an "ohh" with his mouth and sits back down, watching me undress. I don't care for people watching me change, half of the people in this town have seen me almost completely naked anyhow. Still facing away from him though, I take off my shirt and put on a corset, and a hoodie over top of it. He laughs, "hoodies and corsets can really get a man goin' can't it?"

"Oh shut up, this is just for outside so I don't bump into anyone lookin' for trouble. You don't even know how men get seein' girls in corsets walkin' lonely down a street," I say, turning around to face him again.

I then take off my pants and put on fishnets, I notice him watching me curiously, and I stop, "if you're lookin' for a show then come pay to see me," I say mockingly, shaking my head.

"I'm starin' as much as I can before I have to," he laughs.

I laugh too, "you gonna walk me or what?"

He nods and gets up, and we walk downstairs to see everyone from the Quincannon place again. "Finally comin' to your senses and workin' hard like the rest of these girls aren't ya!" I hear someone yell.

Clive.

I turn around and stare at him, "say something to me again, Clive, and you'll end up like the guy I threw out of the window," I say, stepping closer to him.

"I don't have any problem puttin' bitches like you in place. So please, try!" he exclaims, throwing his hands in the air.

"C'mon love, no need to fight with someone who probably has sex with little kitties on his free time!" Cass says, chuckling to himself.

"What'd you say scrawny guy?" Clive asks, getting angry.

"Oh c'mon you can think of a better insult than that lad! Look at me! You have so many options..." he huffs, "scrawny guy."

Cass puts his arm around me and pulls me away. He could see my anger and laughs a little at me. "Well don't tell me you're really letting that guy get to ya!" he says.

"That man really gets under my damn skin," I say, looking around for a cigarette.

Cassidy pulls one out and hands it to me, I have him help me light it and I take a long drag. Letting out the smoke, I look at Cass, "so... you ever plannin' on tellin' me how you became a vampire?"

"Maybe some day," he says so quietly that it was almost a whisper.

I stop walking and look at him with a smile, "well, you bein' the only friend I've really ever had, I guess I can wait!"

He smiles at me, "sure love, let's get you to work then."

—

The next day I decided to go back to the church and apologize to preacher. Also with the slightest hope that Cassidy would be there. I feel kind of ridiculous, hoping to see him again. Is it a crush or am I just happy to not be alone? That's the real question. But anyways, I put on my usual "going out" outfit and walked there. I find the Mayor and the preacher outside. "Hey preacher!" I yell from far away.

He squints to see who it is, "Dez! What are you doin' up this early?" he laughs.

I stop once I'm close enough to not have to yell to him and sigh. "I know, it's surprising. I just came to—"

He holds his hand up, "hold on."

He yells at Tulip to see what she's doing, and then looks back at me. "I'm sorry what were you sayin'?"

"Well I was just gonna say that—"

I'm interrupted again, but this time by the Mayor. I give him a mean look and wait for him to stop talking. But the preacher stops him and tells him that he needs to talk with me first. We walk inside and I find myself looking around. "Okay, I'm sorry Dez, you were sayin'?" preacher says.

"I just wanted to apologize for what I said to you last week. I should've come earlier but I uh... got caught up in a few things. I feel real bad though. I just don't want things being bad between us because I really do think comin' to church could help me and all—"

He stops me again, "Dez, I understand. And what you said helped me uh... wake up! Would you like to help me set up these chairs?"

I see Cass peeking from behind a doorway and stutter a little, "I uh... I actually think I need to get goin'. I'm sorry preacher, maybe next Sunday?" I say, taking glances at Cassidy making weird faces at me.

The preacher smiles and nods, "sure thing."

We part ways, and I try to be sneaky walking over to Cass. "Miss me already love?" He asks, taking my arm and pulling me into a smaller room.

"I didn't come for you scrawny guy," I mock, "I came to apologize to the preacher for last week!"

"Oh is it now? 'Cause I got this crazy feelin' that you really wanted to see me today," he says, with a joking smirk, stepping closer to me.

"Well I think you're crazy then," I whisper.

"Tulip?" we hear from the other room.

Cassidy shuts the door and leans on it, staring at me. He mouths 'drink?' with a shrug and a smile.

I nod in agreement.

As we are walking out, we hear an argument coming from the main room in the church. I give Cassidy a weird look, and we both sneak over and take a look. It was the preacher arguing with Eugene, the kid with the hole in his face. I felt bad for him, he got made fun of so much, but I could tell he was a good boy. They were arguing about something the preacher did, or had? I'm pretty confused. But then something happened. The preacher got so mad that he yelled "go to hell Eugene!"

And the kid fell straight through the floor, that opened as if there had been a door there already. I was stunned. What the hell just happened?