The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

I knew Holly kissed me only because she was tired of hearing me blabber on and on about my sad childhood. At the same time, I was really happy she did. It was nice to reminded that even in a time like this, there were simple solutions to complicated problems. A kiss, a simple meeting of two lips, could chase the ghosts away.

Never did I imagine one of the happiest moments of my life would involve lying on the floor of a Walmart with Holly's arms around me. Her caramel hair, laced with strands of canary yellow, mingled with mine until I could hardly tell where she ended, and I began. Her hair seemed to bring color into my bleak world, to remind me of a time when the world was a place of parties and sunshine.

"I have a secret to tell you," Holly said. "It might take your mind off all this dark and depressing crap. Want to hear it?"

I nodded. Why not? Back in high school, it was all about gossiping about the quarterback and his chain-smoking cheerleader squad girlfriend. Now that we had graduated, it was about some billionaire's worthless spoiled children. The popular kids still ruled the world. Some things never change.

"Once Charles Liang's daughter, Angela, came to our store in Bal Harbour to replace some diamond earrings. She lost one skinny dipping in the ocean the day before. She came up to me because I guess she assumed because I look Chinese, I might speak a little mandarin."

"And you sold her the biggest, most disgusting diamond you had, right? One of those rocks that have a name? And you earned enough on commission to retire?"

"Yeah, something like that," Holly said. "She just wanted some steel studs. Weird right? The chick whose daddy owns all of Yagerin just wants some plain ass studs."

"Did she hit on you?"

"Nah, I wasn't her type. She never even looked at me twice. Those people, they float around in their own worlds. They never see people like us. We're just ants to them."

"Were you able to at least speak her to in Mandarin?"

"Girls with hair color like mine can't be expected to speak perfect mandarin," Holly said with a chuckle. "Then again, to be honest, if that's not bad enough, I've been made fun of for my English. The people in China they all learn to speak English by listening to tapes made in Britain or something."

"Figures."

"Yeah, I know. They're going around correcting my pronunciation because I don't have an English accent like they do. My Chinese customers always tell me I turn my Rs into As sometimes, like a native Brooklyner. They're not wrong, ya know. My first boyfriend was a transplant from Brooklyn. Was sent here to swampy Florida live with his grandparents after getting caught smoking weed."

"Is that when you realized you wanted to experiment with girls?"

"I get bored fast," Holly said. "Men are so simple. They just want to follow their ding-dongs everywhere. Women are more complicated. We give more of ourselves to our relationships. We love deeper, get hurt more. You won't hurt me, will you, Ailith?"

I shook my head. "Are you still talking about my dream? Ew, because there were no boys in it. I don't like boys. Until you kissed me, I was completely asexual. It was just school-home-study for me. The only people I hung out with were my family."

"I know, you're really sweet to your family," Holly said as she nuzzled my neck. "That's what I love about you. You would fight tooth and nail through all eighteen levels of hell for them."

Yeah, right, I thought to myself. I had no family left.

Holly lifted my chin and kissed me. Despite her gruff and bad-ass exterior, she was surprisingly shy and gentle in bed. I slid my finger between her legs and stroked her across the seams of her jeans. She stifled a moan as I applied more pressure to the spot just below where her zipper ended.