My Bloody Girlfriend

Just A Fun Night Out

My phone rings as I make my way across the parking lot. It's only about ten, I've stayed later at work before. It's a long stretch from the office to my rusty pickup, only filled by the dim lights and the occasional parked car. Having rained the whole day the lot smells damp and the ground is soaked with puddles.
I pull the phone from my coat pocket and flash throuh the messages, most from my constantly worried mother.
My car lights up and issues a small beep as I jump into the soft leather seats and find the new message.

SASHA: Hey are you coming?
SASHA: I'll give you five minutes before I start drinking
SASHA: sfvjvfnbfdfbxf😆🎉😎😺
SASHA: Ok I wasn't actually drunk but you should really come over.

I groan and throw the phone over into the passengers seat. Sasha and I met at college, but once I got offered this job and dropped out we lost contact.
We still talked though, and a year later Sasha dropped out also. She grew up in the city and ended up moving in with an old highschool buddy named Lily. Don't get me wrong, I love the girls, but they're way too much party for me. Lily's a small time model, and she's always with her work friends or somewhere bright and with alcohol. Sasha's just a bit more responsible, working as a shoe shop manager and never drinking on work nights.
I twist my fingers through my winding curls again and look down. I'm wearing a stained grey tank that showed off my dark skin, and a pair of patched jeans that ended where my combat boots began. Not exactly party clothing, but maybe I could borrow something from Sasha.
I start up the pickup and yank back my phone to tell Sasha that I'll be there in a few.
The drive from the office to Lilys takes about fifteen minutes when driving through downtown. soon I've left the city lights and begin to pass small lighter condos at the outskirts of the city. Lilys condo is part of a bigger monster, attatched enough to hear your neighbors music but detached just enough that each home has their own seperate backyard.
The condos look like they're made out of a dark orange and tightly packed sandstone, with bright red trimming and large windows. Most of them are owned by budding families with not enough money to move into the city or out of it. Their driveways hold minivans and tricycles and their windows are adorned with child drawings. All except for Lilys.
She still has bright silver Christmas lights attatched to the drainage pipe on top of the condo that she's too lazy to pull down, even now in the middle of summer she insists on lighting them every night. She has a sleek black Mercedes in the driveway, I think it was given to her as a gift. Maybe three other cars scatter by the road around it, none of them like my dads old pickup. Her curtains are drawn, but light still flickers through them, I guess they aren't black-out-drunk yet.
I pull up behind a pretty little convertible and hop out. The little neighbor hood is pretty quiet save for the occasional barking dog, unlike the usual music blaring from Lils house.
The door has blurry windows just at eye height, and I can see two colorful forms darting around down the hall by the living room, and I give the dark oak wood a sharp rap of my knuckles. the figures inside stop for a moment, and then one comes bareling down the hall.
I nervously take a step back as Lily whips the door open with surprising force.
Her skin is as pale white as ever, adorned with a bright yellow top and cutoff denim shorts that are just a bit too short. She's barefoot with her toes colored a bright pink to match her nails, and her blonde hair is piled in a messy bun at the top of her head. With the light from the hall illuminating her face her high cheeks and wide eyes look more childish than usual, even a bit like Amelia Jayston.
I shake the thought from my head as Lily straightens herself, Lisa's right, I'm too stressed and I'm starting to bring my work home with me.
"Oh, we thought you weren't coming! Glad you're here, though." Lily talks excitedly as she takes my arm and drags me inside, I close the door behind me with a quick push of my foot and she walks me down the hall.
"Not as big as usual, I know. We decided to dull it down a bit, it's actually kind of nice." She pulls me and we face the open living room. The tan couches are pushed to the side, replaced by an array of blankets and pillows. Legally Blonde plays on a flatscreen that three girls are crowded in front of. Two other girls kneel around the glass coffee table and do shots, and I find Sasha sitting back on one of the pushed couches with a beer, supervising the party. She glances over and gets up when she sees me, even she has dulled it down. her black smooth hair is puked in a pony tail, and she wears cutoff a just as short as Lilys, which shows off skin darker than even mine. She also wears a bright green hoodie with our old college logo on it, making it look like she still goes to it.
She smirks as she walks over, "Not what you were expecting, right?" I smile and nod as Lily walks off torwards the coffee table.
Sasha glances over her shoulder at her before leaning in to me.
"It took me two days to convince her to throw this" she whispers "She's already half drunk."
I roll my eyes at her and stroll over to the TV.
"God, all you had to do was tell me you were watching Legally Blonde and I would've been here in a second." I plop down next to a girl with short brown hair and Sasha swings herself next to me.
"Aha that's right, I forgot about your obsession." She laughs as I slap her shoulder with the back of my hand. "Right, just like how I forgot about your alchololic problem." I answer back, and she tenses up a bit.
"Hey, only on non work nights." She mutters, ducking her head so the other girls don't hear.
"Yeah, as long as you remember that." She doesn't answer after that, and we settle into an awkward silence with the blaring sound of the TV.
*
As the end credits of the movie roll Lily, now fully drunk, stumbles over to us with a few of her friends.
"Ohhh, Camilleeeeee! Cmon cmon, lets do something funnnnnnn! I haven't seen you in seoooo long!" She giggles and falls over me, making a wreck of the pastel blankets on the floor and struggling to get back on her feet. Finally she settles her predatory like eyes on Sasha.
"Sash! Cmon, lets play truth or dare! It'll be fuunnnn!" She struggles to her feet and grabs Sasha by the elbow, working to drag her over to the coffee table. Sasha looks back at me and I shrug, truth or dare with a drunk Lily could be kind of fun. We settle ourselves around the tiny table, and I grab two shot glasses myself. The liquid tastes sour and harsh in my throat, and I know immediately that Sasha is going to have to drive me home.
Lily reaches across the table and takes Sasha's hands, shaking them around a bit and laughing.
"Alright Sashy, truth or dare?"
" Truth would be safer than dare right now." Sash answers, making one of Lilys slightly sober friends giggle.
"Okayyyyyyy, why did why did why did why did why did......" she's too busy giggling to ask the question. after a few more why dids she gets really quiet and looks confusedly at Sasha.
"Did I already ask you something?" Sasha smirks.
"Yeah, so who's next?" Lily, forgetting herself, nods happily and points over to me.
"Now you ask Camille."
Sasha wiggles her eyebrows at me, and I cover my mouth so she can't see me laugh.
"Alright Cam, lets go with ol'Blood Mary." Now I raise my eyebrows to her, but she shrugs it off. "Lets go old school" she continues "Keep your eyes on the mirror at all times, and it's 'Queen Mary' with the 'oh' in between, and you know how we used to end it, right?" I nod. God, how could I forget the ending? That's the part that scared the shit out of every kid on my block. I told Sash about it in college but I had no idea she would remember it.
Maybe she could see the fear on my face, because she leans over to me once again.
"Come on Cam, you've got to face your fears sometime, right?" I grit my teeth and nod, with that sentence bringing up...... something I'd rather not remember.
Lily and the others seem completely uninterested in the game now, but Sasha is fully immersed. She watches me until I enter the hall, and then I press myself against the wall and breath. God, did she really still hate me? I didn't even consider the college incident my fault, it was both of our ideas! God God GOD why can't she just forget about that like I did!
I push myself off the wall and storm down, swinging open the bathroom door and locking it behind me.
It's tiny, white and blue unlike the rest of the condo. There's a little sink with a white wood mirrored Medicine cabnet and a sparkling white toilet with hair products and plenty of mirrors on its back.
I glance at myself in the medicine cabnet, my face looks flushed and my curls are linked with sweat, I grab a hair tie from Lils collection and tie my hair back as tight as it will go. Only a few curls escape, and I guess that's the best I'll do.
I flick off the single bare light in the bathroom and draw the shades of the tiny window next to the toilet.
God, do I really hate Sasha right now.
I breathe a bit, fast and then finally slow and deep. The moons light only reflects bits and pieces of me, like my eyes and the tip of my nose and a bit of my outward chin. I could be Bloody Mary myself.
I look myself in the eyes, breath, and begin.
"Queen Mary oh queen, take pity on me. I look and I sound, exactly like thee."
"Oh"
"Queen Mary oh queen, take pity on me. I look and I sound, exactly like thee."
"Oh"
"Queen Mary oh queen, take pity on me. I look and I sound, exactly like thee."
"Oh"
"I sing and I dance, to please my fair queen. Yet my only reward, is for death as my deem."
And then silence.
Absolutely nothing, no green ghost in the mirror, not scratching out my eyeballs.
Nothing.
And then something taps my shoulder.