Run, Little Vampire. Run!

Ch. 8: A Peaceful Afternoon

(Jessie’s POV)

Thank god today's Saturday. I actually slept in a little this morning, so by the time I got up, Dad was gone. I took my time with my morning routine, but now I’m sitting at the kitchen table with my bowl of Cap'n Crunch, munching away, when Mom comes in.

She had a small present all wrapped up in her hands and I rolled my eyes when I saw it before saying, “Please tell me that’s not for that d*ckhead, Mason?” Mom just laughed softly as she said, “Sorry, sweety. But his dad is your dad’s biggest client right now, so we have to at least be civil. I’m going to take this up to the castle and drop it off in a bit and I’d appreciate it if you came with me.”

I gave it some thought before I shrugged and said, “Okay. So long as I don’t have to stay for the st*pid party.” Mom just laughed as she reassured me, “No sweetheart. You won’t be staying.”

Not that I wouldn’t mind being able to explore an actual castle, mind you. Which, by the way, who even lives in a real f**kin castle anymore? Can you say “TACKY”? But I guess that’s rich people for yah’. Sooo not the life for me. I've never liked the idea of being some pampered princess. I prefer making my own way in the world.

“So what’d yah’ get the king of a**hats? Please tell me it’s something like pink, fuzzy, slippers! I will soooo love you forever. Or, better yet, a pet snake!” I giggled and mom giggled with me even though she cringed at the idea of getting a snake. “Nothing like that, Jess. It’s just a new set of cufflinks with a matching tie-clip and matching money-clip. I told your father you young people don’t use such things these days, but he liked them so he bought them.” Mom gave a little shrug at that and I just laughed.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mason with cufflinks in the eight years I’ve known him. Sad thing is, I bet when he’s all dressed up nice he’s actually a sight to behold. There are many things about Mason Cromwell I can say, but one will never be that he’s ugly. At least not on the outside, that is. But who knows? Maybe being rich means he dresses up more often than us poor folks even think of doing. Personally, I’d rather be poor if being rich means getting all dressed to the hilt on a regular basis. I never did like to dress up. Even on those rare occasions when you have to for some reason.

Right after lunch, mom and I jumped in the car and headed up to Castle Cromwell. I’ll be honest, when they said it was a castle I really thought they were either pulling my leg or over exaggerating. But nope! It’s a frickin’ castle! And said castle was quite busy with party preparations.

There were people buzzing around all over the place. It was utter chaos and there was this one woman barking orders like a military officer or something. Thankfully, Mason was nowhere to be found. So, we were able to just drop our package with the guy at the door with the stick permanently lodged up his a** and left.

I made him sign for the package. Mom thought I was nuts. We laughed about it all the way to the salon. We decided to get our hair done. BIG mistake. All the salons were packed with people primping for the pampas a**es big day. I got quite a few snide remarks asking when the baby was due but I just ignored them all.

Mom wasn’t so kind. She had words with a few of the girls.

As we were leaving the third salon we tried, one of the guys from school was outside waiting for his b*tch of a sister. He saw me and, of course, just had to say something. I was getting tired of the bullsh*t, so when he said, “Hey Jessie? Now that you’ve not only had your f**kin cherry popped but you're all preggers and safe, how about you let me show you what a real-man can do?”

I turned to him with a sickeningly sweet smile on my face and said, “Well, Dougan, I’m very sorry but I can’t do that. You see, I have a very strict ‘no posers allowed’ policy. So, when you’re all grown up and actually are a real-man, that's IF you actually manage to become one, ask me that question again. Maybe then you’ll have matured enough to know you’re a f**kin a**hole that I wouldn’t let touch me with an actual real-man’s d*ck. Not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t wanna make your little girlfriends there, jealous… ooops… I mean homeboys. I wouldn’t wanna make your homeboys jealous.”

I turned to walk away with my mom, who had this proud smile on her face. I don’t think I took three steps when a hand was wrapped around my wrist and Dougan was snarling, “You b*tch! Who the f**k do you think you’re talking to?!” I just eyed him for a second and said simply, “A poser.” Then jerked my wrist from his grasp, glared at him a moment, and walked away.

Once we were in the car again, I sighed, “Mom, I don’t think a spa day is happening. How about a movie instead? We can go to the mart and grab some snacks, then gear up Netflix and just veg out.” Mom smiled as she started the car up and said, “sounds like an awesome idea, Jess. We can order a pizza or something for dinner.” Then off we went.

(Mason’s POV)

It was right around 2 o’clock when one of the guards approached me with a small, wrapped, package in his hand. “Your majesty. This was just delivered for you.” he began, then frowned as he said, “the young miss who dropped it off made me sign for it.” I laughed at that as I wondered for a second who the h*ll would be dropping off their present. I thought mother had invited the entire f**kin state to this st*pid farce and no one had sent back an rsvp back saying they weren't going to attend, at least not that I'm aware of.

That thought was immediately followed by the wish that more of these b*tches mother has coming tonight would just drop off their gift and then stay the h*ll home. “Thanks, Ralph.” I said as I tried to smile at him. “You’re welcome, sir.. and.. Happy Birthday.” Ralph had been in service to my dad long before mother even came into the picture. He’s a good man. A bit intense sometimes, but a good man.

I took the gift from him and stuck it in my pocket. Guess I’ll open it later. Not like it was gonna be anything special, from anyone special. No one coming to this f**kin fiasco was actually even my friend other than Nate and Kraig. They were always by my side, and I'm grateful to them for their friendship. I don’t think I could get through this tonight without them.

Thankfully, I’m not involved in any of the chaos going on right now. Dad was so angry with me for that incident at school along with my little outburst yesterday that he had the royal guards hunt me down and bring me back after I stormed off. Now I’m confined to the castle until the party tonight, which is fine with me.

What really gets my f**kin goat is that for all the f**kin fuss my mother is making over my birthday you’d think she’d seek me out and wish me a happy birthday, right? But no. I haven’t seen her once yet, today. I’ve heard her plenty, but not actually laid eyes on her. The sad thing is, I’m not even avoiding her or anything. I don’t have to. So long as I don’t go near the party preparations, I won’t even exist to her until the time comes to show me off to the world. Her own personal prized f**kin pony, on full display. All I need is a wreath of roses around my neck and the night will be perfect. For her, anyway.

And as if he could read my thoughts, my father finally came shuffling towards me with a big cheesy grin on his face. “Happy Birthday, Son!”, he practically shouted with glee. I just smiled at him as I said, “Thanks, father.”, and he drew me into a hug.

My father cared, I knew he did. This display of affection, while rare, was genuine. So I returned the embrace and tried like h*ll to put our current differences aside for a few minutes. The hug didn’t last long, but when dad pulled back he looked around as if he were being sneaky and quietly said, “ Here, my boy. Don’t tell your mother, though. She’d be livid if she found out I stole from the caterers.” He chuckled as he gave me a cupcake with a candle in it he’d been hiding behind his back. I chuckled at his comment just as the candle lit on its own and dad quietly sang the birthday song to me and I was all smiles.

It was this moment, right here, that I would like to remember most as the years go by and I think back to this day. Mind you, it wasn’t the mischievousness of what dad was doing that just made it even better. No.. It was the happy twinkle in dad’s eyes, as he sang the hookiest song in the world to me, that made me so filled with emotion. Of course, when he was done, I blew out the candle and we shared the cupcake together.

All too soon our little moment was over. He had to get back to helping mother with the party and I had to get back to not helping mother. “Mason… I know you don’t believe this right now, but your mother loves you very much. She really does want you to be happy. This party is her way of telling the world how proud she is to have a son like you.”

I just rolled my eyes at that. He still didn’t get it, neither of them did. “Father, I know mother loves me. But if she truly wanted to make me happy, she would at least make an effort to listen when I speak. Lately, the two of you pay no attention to what I say and it bothers me. More than you could ever know. And this party?...

...This isn’t me, father. Nor is it about me. There are plenty of other ways mother can show the world how proud she is to have a son like me. Some are even ways I would've been happy to go along with. But she’s pushed this fiasco on me because while she may love me, she doesn’t care about me. Not as much as she cares about showing off to her so-called friends. Friends who would turn their backs on her in a heartbeat if she ever lost her crown.” I just shrugged at that point.

Dad gave me a thoughtful look and for a moment I actually thought he might understand. Maybe he did, though he apparently wasn’t gonna admit it. “I don’t know if I agree with you on that or not, son. But, at least for tonight, let’s just try to be a happy family. Okay?” I groaned as I rolled my eyes again, but I still nodded. He smiled with genuine love for me as he clasped my shoulder for a second, then turned and left.

I wondered if he even knew she hadn’t yet wished me a happy birthday. I guess I’ll never know the answer to that now, though. So, I went on my way to the castle library. I figured at least in there it’d be quiet.

I sat for a while and read a good book about pirates, but then I got bored. So I took out my phone and played on some of my apps. I finally ventured back out into the main hall but it was just full-on chaos in there. So I did what any self-respecting guy my age would do…

…I snuck out.

Once I was outside, I made my way over to Christina Myers’ place. She lives with her Mom but her Mom should be working right now. So I threw a couple of pebbles at her window. A bit cliche, I know, but whatever works. Right?

Christina was at her window in just a few short seconds and before I could even speak she was letting me inside the house. Tina wasn’t exactly the prettiest girl in the world but d*mn she was good in bed. And that’s exactly where I spent the rest of my afternoon.

A few hours later, I was standing in front of the full-length mirror looking at my reflection. Yes, I have one. Moving on…

This suit mother had tailored for me was actually really nice. I hated to ruin it by wearing it to this stupid event, though. It was a simple, all-black suit with a thin tie and soft leather dress shoes. I’m told all the girls were “asked” to wear either white, or pastel pink and all the guys were asked to wear either black, or dark grey. I mean, seriously? Could she have done anything more obvious? Why not just have it printed on the invitations “wear white because you might basically be getting married tonight”??

Which is why I got undressed and went into my closet to pull out my best pair of jeans and a nice tee. Hey, at least I’m not wearing my stone-washed jeans with the tears in them and one of my wife-beaters. Right?

When I was turning to leave my room, I noticed that package from earlier and stopped to open it. It was actually this really cool set of cufflinks, tie clip, and money clip. I thought it had to be from one of the vampire families because each piece had a Celtic Cross engraved on it in black and in the center was a black rose, which is one of the images on our royal crest.

I opened the card to see who it was from and my heart just plummeted when I read the words. “To: Mason Cromwell, Happy 18th Birthday. Best Regards: The Monroe Family.” She isn’t coming. Could this night get any worse?