A Day in Bridgend

‘Lilly!’ Sam shouted happily. She leapt forward, flinging her arms around me. I smiled; it felt so nice to be in the warm arms of a human again. Even though it had only been a few days I had missed that feeling. She pulled away to look at me. It seemed she hadn’t even noticed I was with the four men. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked anxiously.

‘I’m fine,’ I assured her. ‘But we need to talk. Can we come in?’

Finally she looked behind me. At first she frowned as if confused, then her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. ‘Lilly, are they…?’

‘Yep!’ I laughed at her reaction.

She searched desperately for words, her mouth opening and closing but with no sound coming out. Eventually she just moved aside, I stepped in and led the vampires to the kitchen. Sam came in after them, still staring at them in amazement. She turned to me suddenly.

‘How?’

We laughed at the bluntness of the question. ‘I met them in Bridgend,’ I said simply.

‘Right, so where have you been since then?’

I glanced up at the vampires, then turned to her and said, ‘You should sit down.’ She frowned, giving me a weird look, but went over to sit on one of the chairs. I went over to her and took her hand. ‘Sam, I need to tell-’ I stopped abruptly as I looked down at her hand. Her sleeve had slipped up a little and I could see the beginning of a long cut. I started to push her sleeve up further. She tried to pull away from me but I held her tightly. ‘Did you do this?’ I asked angrily, staring at the many cuts running up her arm.

‘I-’ she started. I just knelt down in front of her and grabbed her other arm. I pushed the sleeve up roughly and ignored her as she squeaked in pain. On both arms the cuts were fresh and still bleeding slightly. As I handled her arms roughly they bled even more. I already knew the answer to my question.

‘Why did you do it?’ I asked, my voice shaking with anger. It had been almost a year since she had last cut herself and I was angry with her for breaking that now, after all that time.

‘I was scared. I was worried about you. Your parents were asking me all these questions. We didn’t know if you were even alive. I kept getting these images of you in my head. Lying dead in some ditch somewhere. Being tortured. Being raped.’ She was close to tears again now. I glanced up at Jay standing beside me; we both knew that I could have been in that situation if they hadn’t wanted me alive. ‘I just needed a release,’ she finished sadly.

I shuffled closer to her and gently moved a strand of hair from her face. ‘Are there more?’ Slowly she raised her trouser leg. Running up her leg were the words “I’m sorry”. ‘Why were you sorry?’

‘I couldn’t help your family to find you,’ she replied quietly.

I sighed. ‘Never fucking hurt yourself over me, understand?’ I said firmly. ‘Never! Even if I do fucking die.’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be sorry.’ I stood and hugged her. ‘Just don’t cut again. Promise?’

‘I promise,’ she smiled as I pulled away from her and knelt on the floor again. ‘What happened to your wrists?’

I looked down at the plasters and thought about how I was going to do this. ‘That’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about,’ I said slowly. I looked up at her and said, ‘Bullet are…Bullet are vampires.’

She stared at me, then at them, then broke into an amused smile. ‘No, really. What did you want to tell me?’

I returned the smile. I had expected this. ‘Its true.’

‘No, it’s impossible.’ She sounded a little unsure now. ‘They must be having you on. You’re just kidding right?’

‘Nope,’ said Padge.

‘Look,’ I said pulling off the plasters on my wrists and then on my neck. I moved my hair out of the way as I shuffled closer so she could see them. She stared at the marks as it finally sank in that we were speaking the truth. Behind me Bullet smiled at her widely, all showing their sharp, pointed teeth. She gasped, leaping up from her seat and desperately moving back. She fell backwards over the laundry basket and hit the washing machine hard as she fell.

‘Its okay,’ I said quickly. ‘They won’t hurt us.’

‘You’re not a vampire?’

I smiled and shook my head.

‘They bit you.’

‘Yeah but that doesn’t matter now. We’re friends.’ I stood, went to her and squatted in front of her. ‘When I met them on Tuesday they took me to Padge’s house. They bit me and then asked me to go on tour with them. And I agreed. Since then, I’ve been living with Matt and none of them have hurt me in any way.’

‘But, they’re vampires-’

‘I know. They wont hurt us. Will you?’ I turned to them, hoping that if she heard it from them she would calm down.

‘Well, we weren’t planning to,’ said Moose.

Slowly she stood up and I followed her. She kept her eyes on the vampires all the time as she took a couple of nervous steps forwards to look at them a little closer. I moved away and sat on the table against the wall. I watched as Matt went to her and took her still bleeding arm.

He inspected it carefully then raised his eyes to look at her. ‘Can I?’ he asked. Without waiting for an answer he bent his head and pressed his lips to one of the bleeding cuts. He sucked on it gently. Padge joined him and took her other arm. At first she frowned, looking a little disgusted as they drank. But as they moved to the next cut and the one after that her face cleared, she was realising that they were helping to stop the bleeding. When all the cuts had stopped they both let go of her and stepped back.

‘Thanks,’ she said quietly.

‘It was our pleasure,’ said Padge coming over to sit beside me.

‘You have blood on your face,’ I said, smiling slightly.

‘Really? Where?’ I pointed to the side of his mouth. He wiped it away with one finger and licked it off. He smiled back at me. I turned my attention back to Sam, who was looking incredibly uncomfortable. She sat down slowly.

‘So you’re going on tour with them?’

‘Yep!’ I said excitedly. ‘Awesome, eh?’

‘Its…’ she paused searching for a word. ‘Its mad.’

I laughed. ‘I know! I still can’t quite believe it myself! But here we are!’

‘Yeah,’ she said. It still seemed she was in shock. ‘Shall we go into the front room?’

‘Okay,’ said Moose as Padge leapt off the table. I led them into the front room where we all sat down and made ourselves comfortable. I sat with Moose and Matt on one sofa while Jay and Padge sat on the other. Sam sat on the armchair, obviously too nervous to sit between two vampires.

‘When are you leaving then?’

‘Just over a week now, I think,’ said Matt.

‘Wow, that’s not long,’ she said. She looked so sad. ‘Do you parents know?’

‘No,’ I said quickly. ‘And you can’t tell them anything. You can’t tell anyone you’ve even heard from me.’

‘Especially not the bit about us being vampires,’ Padge added.

‘I won’t tell anyone anything,’ she promised.

For a while we just sat there, talking about the coming tour and how school was going. It seemed that now I was missing I was the most popular person there. Even people I didn’t know, people whom I thought didn’t even know I existed spoke about me.

‘So I’m popular now?’ I laughed. ‘Weird.’

‘When they talk about you its usually something along the lines of, “Did you hear about that weird girl with the really long hair?” ’

I laughed again. ‘Just about sums me up. That’s the way I want to be remembered.’

Her smile disappeared. ‘You sound like your going to die.’

‘Well to most people she will be dead,’ said Jay. ‘Dead to the world.’

I thought about that. Everyone I’d ever met thinking I was dead. It was such a strange thought. But in some odd way…I liked it. I smiled to myself. Matt nudged my foot my foot with his, interrupting my thoughts and making me look at him. He smiled at me and my own smile widened.

‘Lilly, can I speak to you alone?’ I looked over at Sam and realised she had been watching us.

‘Yeah, of course,’ I replied, getting up and following her to the kitchen again.

‘You said earlier that you’re living with Matt,’ she said, smiling slyly as she poured me a glass of milk.

‘Yes,’ I said suspiciously, as I took it.

‘Have you…you know…done anything with him?’

‘No.’

‘Oh, come on! You’re living with Matt Tuck and you haven’t done anything sexual with him?’

‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘We sleep in the same bed but that’s it.’

‘You sleep in the same bed?!’

‘Only because he doesn’t have another one! And keep your voice down!’ I glanced at the door. ‘Besides, you know I’m not ready for that kind of thing.’

She smiled. ‘I can’t believe you sleep with him. Even I envy you and I’m gay!’

I laughed. ‘I have to get away from you. You’re a freak.’

She giggled as we went back to the front room. I sat on the arm of Sam’s chair while I drank the milk.

‘We should go soon,’ said Jay. ‘Its getting late and we haven’t fed yet.’

I looked at him sadly. I wanted to stay with my friend but I knew he was right. ‘Okay,’ I said. They stood up and I drained the glass. Sam took us to the door.

‘It was…nice meeting you,’ she said to the vampires.

‘And you,’ said Matt.

Sam turned to me. ‘I’m going to miss you so much,’ she said into my ear as she hugged me.

‘I’m going to miss you too,’ I said hugging her tightly. ‘Be careful, okay? And don’t cut yourself over me again.’

‘I won’t,’ she smiled. ‘But actually, I think its you who should be careful.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ I promised her. I gave her one last hug then walked to the car with the others. I stopped suddenly and ran back to her. I kissed her lips quickly, then ran back to the car and jumped in leaving her standing there, a completely baffled expression on her face. When I got into the car Padge and Moose were looking a little shocked, while Matt just smiled slightly and Jay looked as if Christmas had come early.

‘I thought you said you weren’t gay,’ said Padge still staring at me as we drove away.

‘I’m not,’ I replied. ‘I just felt like I’d really regret not doing it.’ Moose, who was sitting beside me, smirked however he didn’t say anything.

The journey back was a lot happier than the journey to my hometown. On the way we had all been silent, anxiously considering the possibilities of what could go wrong. But now Matt put music on and we chatted happily. The mission was over.

As we passed the guard outside Matt’s building I glanced up and smiled. ‘Home,’ I murmured. For this was home for me now, even after just a few days. It felt right. The very second I entered the apartment the kittens ran to me. They scampered around my feet as I took my bag to the bedroom. The boys had decided to go straight out to feed. I couldn’t be bothered to, so Matt just gave me the keys and let me go up alone. I took Gatomon out of my bag, hugged her tightly then turned to the kittens. I squatted in front of them.

‘This is Gatomon. She is NOT a toy for you to play with, understand? If you make even one hole in her your getting a spank, alright?’

They both cocked their heads to the side as if they understood so I held her out to them and let them inspect her. I smiled and after a moment stood up to put her under the covers on the bed. I grabbed my diary and a pen from my bag, went to the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice and sat down to write everything that had happened over the last few days. Including my thoughts on Matt… By the time he came home I was just finishing off.

‘Wotcha doing?’ he asked coming over to me when he had taken off his jacket. When I told him he smiled. ‘Can I see it?’

‘No,’ I said a little too quickly. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t press me. Instead he stood up and went to the kitchen.

‘Are you hungry?’ he called.

‘No, I just ate a cookie,’ I replied, shutting the book and leaning back with my orange juice.

‘A cookie?’ he echoed, appearing close by. ‘You didn’t eat before we left either, did you?’

I shook my head. ‘I didn’t have time.’

He sighed and said firmly, ‘I’m making you food. I may not have to eat but you do.’

‘You don’t have to…’ I said but he ignored me and went to the kitchen. After a few minutes I followed him. He was standing at the stove frying a massive steak. ‘Can I help with anything?’ I asked.

‘Umm…yeah. Can you get a plate and some cutlery for yourself?’

‘Okay,’ I said opening a cupboard door. I took them to the table and set them out. As the smell of the steak filled my nostrils I realised just how hungry I was. As soon as I realised this, the steak seemed to take ages to cook, just to annoy me. When it was finally ready we sat at the kitchen table. The steak was perfect, it melted in my mouth and tasted so amazing I discarded the cutlery and instead used my fingers.

‘Do you like it?’ he asked as he watched me eat, looking slightly amused.

‘Its amazing! You’re amazing!’

He laughed.

© Amber Williams 2008