Part 15 (1/2)
”What's in your room, Raven?” he asked, glaring at me. ”Let's go back to your place.”
”Uh...well...” He was right. I couldn't bring him into my house and subject him to Billy Boy and my white-bread parents. Not on our first date. ”My room's a mess.”
”Well, mine is, too,” he said.
”I don't have to go home, really.”
”I don't want to get you in trouble.”
”I always get in trouble. My mom wouldn't recognize me if I wasn't in trouble.”
But the streets we walked, hand-in-hand, led back to my house, and no matter how slowly I walked, before I knew it we were standing on my doorstep, saying good-bye.
”Well...until...next time...” he said, his face s.h.i.+ning beneath the porch light.
”Next time the mortuary?”
”I thought we could watch a movie at my house.”
”You have a TV?” I said. ”It's powered by electricity, you know.”
”Sa.s.sy girl, I have Bela Lugosi's Dracula on DVD, since you like vampires so much.”
”Dracula? Awesome!”
”Then it's a date. Seven o'clock tomorrow, okay?”
”Sensational!”
We had made another date and there was nothing to do now but say good-bye. Primo moment for a luscious kiss. He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in, his eyes closed and his lips full.
Suddenly the door locks rattled. Alexander stepped out of the light and into the bushes.
”I thought I heard voices,” my mom said, opening the door. ”Where's Becky?”
”She's at home.” It was actually the truth.
”I don't like you running off without telling me,” she scolded, holding the door open for me.
Longing to have that moment back and one moment more, I looked over at Alexander.
”Did you guys go to the movies?” she asked as I reluctantly stepped inside.
”No, Mom, we went to the cemetery.”
”For once, I wish you would give me a straight answer!”
For once, I was giving her a straight answer.
And as I looked over my shoulder for a final glimpse of my Gothic Dream Mate, she closed the door on my heavenly first date.
18
Movie Madness
I was always late for everything-dinner, school, even movies-but tonight I was early, as I arrived at the Mansion at 6:45. Alexander opened the door himself and kissed me politely on the cheek. I was as shocked as he at his sudden display of affection.
”That never happened when Jameson opened the door!” I said.
”Well, you better tell me if it does. We have a rule, you know. I don't kiss his girls and he doesn't kiss mine!” Alexander glowed even more than he had that night I'd snuck in and he had extended the hand with the spider ring. He was growing confident.
He led me up the grand staircase to the family room. It was filled with modern art pieces- flowered paintings, an Andy Warhol print of Campbell's soup cans, Barbie doll sculptures, and flashy, furry, wild rugs. There was a black leather couch, a big-screen TV, and a gla.s.s table with a giant tub of movie popcorn, SnoCaps, Dots, Sprees, Good & Plenty, and two neon-green gla.s.ses filled with pop.
”I wanted to make you feel like you're at the movies,” he explained.
He put in the DVD and turned out the lights, and we snuggled together in the darkness. I picked SnoCaps and he chose a pack of Sprees. The popcorn rested between us on the couch.
Dracula was getting ready to take a bite out of Lucy when Alexander gently pulled my face away from the screen.
He stared me at with his deep midnight eyes. He leaned toward me. And he kissed me. With pa.s.sion. He kissed me! He finally kissed me! Right there in front of Bela Lugosi!
He kissed me as if he were drinking me in and filling my heart and veins with love. As I took a breath, he began kissing my ears and gently nibbling them. I giggled like crazy. His lips and teeth made their way down my neck, his mouth filling me with total pa.s.sion. His soft biting on my neck tickled. I was so into his spell, I stretched my legs out clumsily on the coffee table, spilling Alexander's gla.s.s and then the popcorn over him. Alexander, startled, sunk his teeth into my neck so hard I screamed.
”Oh, no! I'm sorry!” he apologized.
Popcorn was scattered everywhere and I held my neck, which was pulsing like my heart.
”Raven, are you okay?”
The blood rushed from my brain, and the room began to turn one way then another, and my stomach felt nauseated. I did what any overexcited, sappy girl would do. I fainted dead away.
It seemed like hours later, but it was only seconds. I awoke to Alexander calling my name. Dracula was still in Lucy's room. The only difference was the lights were on.
”Raven? Raven?”
”What happened?”
”You fainted! I thought that only happened in old movies!”
”Here, drink this.” He put my gla.s.s to my lips, like I was a baby.
Alexander's pale face was even paler. He took some ice that had spilled on the table and placed it on my neck. ”I'm so sorry! I never meant to-”
”That's cold!” I cried.
”I've ruined everything,” he said, holding the dripping ice on my neck.