▲ My Vampire Best Friends ▲

Chapter One: Partying With Vampires. What Can Go Wrong?

   Silvia and I were best friends. We'd grown up together. Our houses were three blocks away from each other. We went to high school together, passing notes between the desks and snickering at all the sweaty kids who thought they were so cool. We sat in the back, buried in our books. We were only ever really alive after school. That's when we went to the ocean and looked out, into the silvery shining haze. Wind blew our hair back. Then we would ride back in my car and blast rap music.

Silvia smelled like lavender. So did I. We wore the same perfume. I cut my hair just like her in fifth grade, with my own scissors. Every time I was upset, all I had to do was text Silvia. She would be there in an instant, waving out the window, with frosty sweet glazed donuts.

One time Silvia hit me in the head with a football, and it smacked me so hard, I passed out. One time we went into the woods together and got so lost, we had to call the park rangers. One time we broke into our high school at night, and we almost got arrested. There are so many crazy beautiful stories I could tell about us and our friendship. But unfortunately, all those stories are eclipsed by this one.

  This is the story of how me and my best friend became vampires.

———

  "WOOHOO!" My best friend shouted.
  I cackled back at her. Silvia's face was makeup-stained. I pushed forward, wiping a mascara smear off her eyelid. Silvia sashayed towards me, shimmying her bright red flapper dress.

  "I've never felt so alive!" Silvia shrieked.

  "I know!" I shrieked back.

  It was the truth. We stood there, dancing in the dark, as the neon strobe lights washed over us. The world was red. No, it was green. Now it was bright yellow, like the sun, covering the whole wide world. Silvia and me glided back and forth, brushing past sweaty bodies.

  "Cheers!" Silvia shouted, clinking her beer glass against mine. With that, we took a sip, giggling at all the fizz.

  "I love you, Silvia," I laughed, pulling my arms around her. "You're my best friend. You're just like my sister."

  "You too, sis."

  "Wanna dance with me, ladies?" a leering man asked, with a quivering mustache.

  We said in sync, "No thanks!"

  Then, cackling, we clicked our beer glasses together. And the drunker we got, the brighter our night got together.

  It was a dream come true, right? Ha-ha. No. Try a nightmare.

——

  Hello. This is June Briggs from the future. I'm from the night after.

  Last night we went out. Mistake number one.

  I could still feel the strangers from last night, following us. Dancing with us with strobe lights at the party. Trying to drag us home. We were so stupid.

——
  "Silvia!" I shrieked, from the bathroom, before toppling over and laughing. "Silvia, baby, we're all out of toilet paper!"

  "I've got you!" Silvia said, tossing me some.

  A moment later, I stepped out, pulling my dress back over my butt. Silvia was in the mirror, making her lips red. She dabbed a quick bit of concealer over her cheekbones and wrinkled her nose, staring at her chubby cheeks. She sucked in her teeth again.

  "No guys are noticing me," Silvia pouted.

  "Oh, trust me," I said. "They did."

  Silvia turned around, to face me. "Like who? Like that mustache guy? Trust me, he would've wanted anyone. I  wasn't special."

  "You are to me," I said, scrubbing my hands with soap. "You're my best friend. Now let's get back in there and find you a man."

  Silvia nodded, pouting, before following me back out the door again, into the glittering lights again. Immediately, the smell of booze and smoke fill the air. I hold her sweaty hand. She looks down at our feet.

To be honest, we really didn't belong here. For one, we weren't 21. We had fake ID's. And for two, we weren't those kinds of girls. We never partied in high school. We spent our days eyes glazed over textbooks or falling asleep at the computer. When we weren't doing that, we were at the sandwich shop across our high school, scraping mayo on top of wheat buns. Sometimes a car or two of giggling, eyelinered girls and guys with shining hair would go by, and we would wonder where the hell they were going. Well. Enough of those days. Silvia and I had just graduated. And we had saved up money enough. Here was our night to finally come out and tell the world, "Here I fucking am!" We were all grown up!

  As Silvia wandered through the crowd, her grip tightened on my own. She couldn't stop laughing uncontrollably. Her hair was so stringy and her face was so flushed. She flopped back and forth like a zombie. Just how drunk was she? I didn't know. I hadn't been paying attention. I should've been. I didn't think about it. I always had a better tolerance. I've only ever seen her take a sip or two. But meanwhile, on some nights without her, I retreated into my parents' wine cellar, with wandering hands cracking open corkscrews and taking slow, long sips of whatever I could get my hands on it. If my parents knew that I did it, they never actually asked.

Ugh, I was so stupid! I should've been keeping a better eye on her!

  Back into the lights, the music pounded my ears. The lilting beat made me swing back and forth. But a moment later, the song switched and the song grew deep and dark. Almost sexual. I was smacked by the rhythm and tossed back and forth, like an ocean hitting the shore. But I was here with my best friend and I loved her. This was our first night in the real world, and I'd be damned if she had a bad time here.

  "We're going to find the coolest people here," I yelled at her.

  "What?" Silvia yelled back.

  I was already moving. I swayed across the floor, bopping my hips like some kind of belly dancer.

  I screamed again, "Let's find the coolest people here!"

  We wandered the crowd. I scaled along the wall, peering off into the edge of the club, where shadowy, shady figured sipped drinks and PDA, slipping fingers around each other in public corners. Near the edge of the room, the smoke was thicker. I coughed and ducked my head like we were in a fire drill. No way, fuckers! I was making this a night to remember! I dragged Silvia with me to the absolute edge of that room. Velvet chains and a burly man separated us.

  "Excuse me," I asked the burly man, "Can we go into the VIP section?"