Sweetie You Had Me

As the hot water descended onto her skin, Julie felt like all of her worries washed down the drain. It was amazing that a few pleasant smells and hot water could make her forget about all the horrible things that were happening around her. She scrubbed and soaped until the already fogged mirror was sweating with a steamy coating. She had probably never washed so thoroughly. It was as if she was trying to erase the memory in itself. It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to remember. In many places it was hard to wash as completely as others because of the tender bruises and cuts. She looked upon them with utter disgust and tried to will them into disappearance, while trying to avoid them in her cleansing escapade.

She had been washing for a while. It wasn’t until she felt a shrill burst of cold water that she noticed her heavily wrinkled fingers and toes. Less reluctantly than she would have assumed, she stepped out of the shower swiftly, the frigid water not so gently pushing her out. She promptly grabbed a towel and wiped herself dry, and then did the same to her hair. She wrapped the scratchy garment around her tiny frame and maneuvered over to the damp mirror. She wiped the metallic surface clean of the precipitation and started at her slightly warped reflection. She studied it with her golden brown eyes, not really happy with what she saw. It was exactly the same as it usually was, but she had many open wounds. Where those were absent, scars and bruises took their place. She prided herself on her clean complexion, but she feared it had been permanently destroyed. She was disappointed by how much this bothered her, especially after everything that had happened. People were dying and she was worried about maintaining her perfect skin. It seemed that vanity would forever be her most persistent vice.

Julie’s thought process was interrupted by an unwelcome knock at the door. She jumped slightly not expecting the sharp and sudden noise. “Yes?” She called.

“Julie!” It was Joe. “I really have to pee,” he told her very impatiently. She guessed she probably had interfered with the guy’s normal routine. She felt bad about hogging the bathroom for so long, and guessed she was the reason none of the guys had their girlfriends living there, if they even had any. Vampire hunter is a pretty sexy occupation, but it must get hard for them to stay in a relationship if it was anything like what Julie and Brendon had gone through.

“Oh!” she replied in mild surprise. “Sorry! I’ll get out!" Thankfully she had brought a fresh top and a pair of pants in with her so she dressed as quickly as possible and let Joe in. He stood there bouncing on his feet. They smiled awkwardly at each other and Julie moved quickly out of the way as Joe rushed passed her and shut the door with a loud slam.

As Julie stepped away from the bathroom door, her eyes jumped to a new brash sound. Her ears perked accordingly in reaction to the sound that had come from the slamming of a different door, the front one, where Pete had just walked through. Julie smiled and waved at him, perhaps a little to energetically. He looked at her with that same face he always wore, scowled and scrunched, just stared at her. He stopped walking in and stood not moving in the living room. Julie’s smile quickly faded and her hand dropped stealthily behind her back. He blinked his glowing eyes at her and muttered in a tone of resentment, “Still here, huh?” He then continued to walk towards his destination.

Julie’s expressed changed quickly. Her eyebrows furrowed and her fists clenched. Those sweet, gentle eyes changed into glowing darts of momentary abhorrence. Julie was in a fragile state of mind. Not only was she tried and sore, she was on the edge of a mental breakdown. Everyone in the warehouse had been nothing but nice to her, because they knew how unstable her mood swings were. She was tired of being pushed around and treated like dirt by every vampire that crossed her path and she was done sitting around and crying about it. Andy watched as Julie’s face reddened with anger. He swallowed hard on the cereal that was in his mouth, afraid that the noise of his chewing would set her off. Her eyes followed Pete’s Ape-like framed until her body began to do the same. She stomped her way over to the large man, following him down the hallway until she was just a foot behind him. She opened her mouth to speak, eyes still furrowed deeply, but she was surprised when Pete turned to meet her red face.

Julie’s mouth closed briskly and for a moment the doe-eyed starred into the evil-eyed silently. She was startled when Pete spoke to her. “Well?” he asked her. Julie was taken aback. Her eyes flickered with confusion, but she opened her mouth again, only to be interrupted by him a second time. “No?” he said as more of a statement then a question. “Fine. Then I’ll say it for you.” Julie once again tried to protest but Pete placed a forceful hand on her mouth. Julie’s eyes widened with shock and anger but no matter how she tried she could not escape his strong grip. She became even more disgusted with the situation when she saw how dirty Pete’s hands were. They were covered with dirt and dried mud. What in the world had he been doing this morning? “No! No, really, I’ll say it for you,” Pete began. He cleared his throat and said in his best impression of Julie’s voice (which was not very good), “You can’t treat me like this Pete!” His voice was exaggerated and obviously mocking what Julie had just been previously thinking. “William has been so mean to me and I simply can’t take you being mean to me to!” He continued. “Brendon! Brendon! Pete’s being mean to me!” It appeared that he had finished because he removed his hand from Julie’s mouth. She would have liked to believe that she pushed it off, but it was obvious that she didn’t. Pete laughed at her, standing there looking so pathetic. “Don’t you have anything better to do then stare at me?” He asked her, growling at her menacingly.

Julie tried to think of something witty to say, but her mind failed her. She huffed at him, and muttered, “Fuck you,” defiantly, although it only came back to bite her as Pete walked away, laughing.

“Wouldn’t you like that.” He laughed more until he was at his bedroom door. He opened it and walked it slamming in Julie’s defeated face. Would she never win?

Julie was tired of all of this. She was tired of everything. She folded her arms over her chest, still fuming with anger. She turned a few corners of the hallway before she ran into probably one of the best people she could. Julie’s face softened a little, though her anger lingered, as she stared into the gentle eyes of her lover. Brendon smiled warmly at her and brought her close to him to embrace her. Julie’s arms remained crossed inside of the hug, but she leaned her head onto his chest. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his touch. She felt a wet drop on her cheek, which made her look up at him. He must have just gotten out of the shower because his hair was wet with cold droplets. He met her gaze. “You want to say goodbye to Jon?” He asked the question very casually, even though it was not a very casual situation. Julie felt her heart race. How could she have forgotten about Jon? She nodded, but buried her head once more into Brendon’s chest. Why am I such a terrible person? Julie couldn’t help but think that way. It was terrible of her to have forgotten about Jon this whole time she had been alive and safe. Brendon ran his fingers through her hair. “You’re not a terrible person,” with this he attempted to reassure her. He failed as Julie shook her head. He lifted her face. “There’s still time to be better.” Julie nodded.

“I’ll go put my shoes on.”

It was several minutes later that Julie and Brendon were standing in the middle of One of the Forest Preserves outside of Chicago’s bounds. The two of them stood under the shade of hundreds of Oak Trees gazing down at a disrupted part of the soil. Julie realized why Pete’s hands were so dirty. On the lump in the earth rested a single white rose, something the couple had picked up on the way. Brendon wrapped himself around Julie as she stared at Jon’s grave. Her eye’s were dry, too dry to cry for Jon, but as she starred she thought about nothing but the good times she shared with Jon while he was alive. They stood there silently as Brendon ran his pale fingers through her hair. Both of their faces were blank, staring at the grave.

“Brendon?” Julie’s voice seemed to shatter the sacred silence that had surrounded them since they arrived.

“Hm?” He asked, sliding down so that he was lying beside her. She looked at him, her hair falling in her face.

“Are you afraid?” It was a simple question, but it felt so profound at the moment. Brendon shifted his gaze to Julie, almost astounded by the question she asked him. How could he respond to that? “Yes, darling, I’m terribly afraid. I’m afraid for you, I’m afraid for my friends, I’m afraid for myself.” But what kind of boyfriend would he be if he told her he was so worried about her he never wanted to return to Chicago ever again? He couldn’t do that. If Julie couldn’t find hope in him, then who would she find it in? He decided a long time ago that if everyone in Julie’s life let her down, he would be the exception.

“No.”

It was Julie’s turn to look at him astonished. “I don’t believe you,” she told him, blank faced. Her eyebrows were not crinkled, nor were her eyes stern. She wasn’t angry with him for lying, but she knew he was. Brendon sighed. He turned her body towards him and grabbed her hands. Her starred at her intensely as he spoke to her with such sincerity, Julie wouldn’t dare accuse him of lying to her.

“It doesn’t matter that I’m afraid, because I know, despite everything that happens, it’ll be alright as long as I have you.”