“Seriously, Seneca, I can not believe you didn’t tell me about breaking up with Chip the moment it happened!” Olivia exclaimed directly into Seneca’s still asleep brain. “He called and cried to me for, like, an hour or something. And that’s after I ignored him the first four times. Goddamnit, girl, that is so totally not cool. Not cool at all!”
Seneca sighed, wiping her eyes as she pulled the phone from her ear. She rolled over, looking at the time on her alarm clock. It wasn’t even nine in the morning and it was Saturday! Her day to sleep in. She rolled back over, closing her eyes against the morning, and her best friend.
“Good morning to you, too, Olivia. You know it isn’t even nine AM yet, right?” she mumbled thickly into the phone.
“Oh, did I wake you? Sorry, since your ex-fiance called me like five times last night. He said he called you, too. Where were you last night? I tried to call you, too, but it went straight to your voicemail,” her friend complained.
She groaned. “Hold on, Liv. Give me like, five minutes or something, I need to wake up. I’ll call you right back.”
Olivia snorted. “You’d better, or I’m going to…I don’t know. I’ll call your mom. I’ll tell her about Chip!” she threatened. “Kennedy really liked him.”
“She did not!” she mumbled.
“Fine, she didn’t, but I’ll tell her anyway. You know how she hates getting her news about you from me.”
“Alright, I will, I promise,” she muttered, hanging up on her best friend.
Olivia was talking about Seneca’s adopted mother Kennedy Smith. Kennedy was a sweet Wren who had adopted her when she was twelve, saving her from a life on the streets after her real mother, another Wren, had committed suicide. The small, endless fountain of guilt that was her mother’s suicide trickled into her at the thought of it.
Her real mother, Jennifer Kinsey, suffered from depression Seneca’s whole life, and the doctors had told her that was why she took her own life. Seneca knew better. Her mother killed herself after Seneca had her first cravings for blood, just before her thirteenth birthday.
She remembered that day well, hell, she would never be able to forget it. With terrible clarity, she recalled her first blood, Gabriel Jones, her first real boyfriend. By the time she realized what she had done, her mother was there, calling her a slut and an abomination of God, blaming herself for sleeping with the devil, and for keeping his baby. Gabriel had left quickly, confused and disoriented, but somehow blessedly unaware of her nature.
Her mother locked her inside her bedroom for three days. Three days of eating granola bars pushed under the door when her mother remembered, or if she cried long enough, apologizing and begging for forgiveness. She was lucky she had a bathroom in her room, preserving what little dignity she could. Those were the three longest days of her life, three days of hell.
On the third day her mother set their trailer on fire. Seneca escaped, kicking out the window of her room and running to the neighbor’s trailer. Her mother died in the fire.
She had never known her father, though she knew his name was Jack Mahon. Growing up, any questions about her father had always earned punishment. Sometimes it wasn’t so bad, sometimes it was just days on end of being ignored, as if she didn’t exist. Those times, they weren’t so bad, not compared to when…she didn’t want to think about those days.
After the fire, she found herself in the system. She had no family in the area, her mother’s family from the deep south. The deep, bible belt, judgy south. Her mother had been disowned for having a baby out of wedlock. No one would acknowledge Seneca as kin. She was placed in a few foster homes, but none of them ever lasted long. Most people couldn’t handle her, not when she had special needs that she couldn’t explain to them. Eventually she ran away, sleeping on the streets when it was warm enough, and sleeping in homeless shelters when it was too cold to be outside.
Kennedy had found her at a homeless shelter after she had been homeless for three long months. She took her home immediately, recognizing her instantly as vampire through her Wren’s ability to sense vampires. Kennedy had saved her life, helped her accept who she was, got her back into school and helped her graduate from high school and college. She owed Kennedy more than her life.
She pushed those feelings away. She didn’t want to let them drag her down, not with how good she felt since her night with Godwin.
Godwin…just thinking about him set her heart aflutter. She longed to see him again. Three days was too long to wait…but she had promised. They would meet at the bench by her job again on Tuesday. It wasn’t so far away, but it felt like too long, forever long!
Seneca sat up, scratching her fingers through her tangled mop of morning hair. She stretched, feeling refreshed and…good. She felt good, good about herself and good about life. It was a feeling she wasn’t accustomed to having. She chewed on it, worrying it and studying it from all sides when her phone buzzed again, distracting her.
The display told her it was Chip. She hit decline, sending him to her voicemail. Guilt gnawed at her stomach, but she did not want to talk to him. Not now, and not ever again. Her phone vibrated in her hand a moment later, showing her she had seven new voicemails. Her stomach fell even farther. She knew that a majority of them were probably from him.
Was there a way to delete them all without listening to them? She would have to search the internet for advice. She was not going to listen to them. She was never going back to Chip, the big dumb puppy he was.
She pushed herself out of bed so that she wouldn’t dwell on those feelings and headed for the bathroom. She took an extra long shower, enjoying the feel of the hot water on her skin. It reminded her of Godwin’s touch and she closed her eyes, imagining how his fingers would feel on her skin.
She called Olivia back twenty minutes later. Unlike Kennedy, Olivia did not know her secret, and if Seneca had anything to say about it, she never would.
“Sorry, Liv. I was still half asleep. And…before you bite my head off, sorry I didn’t call you after I broke up with Chip. I was kind of on…radio silence.”
It was strange, she hadn’t had any missed calls from either Olivia or Chip on her phone when she got home last night, but she had seven voicemails. Maybe Godwin’s apartment had bad reception? Her phone had been the last thing on her mind last night…
“No, I get it, especially with how many times Chip called me. You owe me, Seneca!” Olivia challenged her.
“I know, I know,” she sighed, resting the phone on her shoulder while trying to measure out tea into her Tea-Rex infuser. She filled a teacup with water and placed it into the microwave for two minutes. “I’m sorry! I just couldn’t…I couldn’t marry him, Liv. He was so…god, he was so needy and selfish. I realized that I just couldn’t do it. I can’t be married to him, not even with those abs…”
Olivia snorted through the phone. “Well, why did you say yes to him then?”
“I told you!” she exclaimed, moving to the fridge, looking for something to eat for breakfast. “He was just so pushy, and everyone there was so…I couldn’t say no under that pressure! Also, for the record, I didn’t actually say yes, either. He assumed I did, and he rolled with it. He is so self centered, Liv! He didn’t even listen to me, and not just then. He was gonna want picket fences and puppies and babies and I can’t…that isn’t me!” She pulled out a yogurt and shut the door to the refrigerator, placing it on the counter.
“You got that right. I can’t imagine you all barefoot and pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, girl, I am totally and always taking your side. I’m just pissed that I got blindsided with this. We’re best friends! I can’t believe you didn’t call me for moral support! I’m almost hurt…” she whined with fake injury in her tone.
“Shut up!” Seneca teased. “I’m calling you now. And anyway, it all happened so fast, it was kind of a blur, you know?”
Olivia laughed. “Yeah, well, for me, too. Chip cried to me for like an hour. A whole hour! It was horrible. You aren’t going to change your mind and go back to him, right? I can delete him from my phone?”
“Oh. My. God. No! I am not going back to him. I am going to delete him, too, and burn everything that might lead him back to me. I am so so so glad I never brought him here, Liv. Like, for reals,” she said as the microwave beeped, signaling her water was hot enough for the little Tea-Rex to start steeping. She pulled it out and dropped the Tea-Rex into the water. “I would have to move. And change my name. Maybe get into the witness protection program.”
“He wasn’t that bad!” Olivia chastised her.
“He totally was!” Seneca said defensively. “You didn’t date him!”
“But…” Olivia trailed suggestively. “Those abs, though…”
Seneca snorted. “You don’t even like abs! And…abs aren’t everything. I learned that recently.”
“But they’re your thing!” Olivia objected.
Seneca bit her lip, thinking of Godwin. “Maybe…maybe I’ll find a new thing.”
There was a telling silence from the other end of the phone before Olivia exclaimed too loudly, “you already found a new guy! O-M-Jesus Seneca! I can’t believe you!”
“Shh!” Seneca hissed into the phone, covering her mouth conspiratorially. She longed to tell someone about Godwin but wasn’t sure it was the right time. But…she wanted to tell Olivia. He was a mystery, and she wanted to talk about him, if not just to say it out loud. To know she didn’t just make up a mysterious incubus as she quickly lost her mind.
“Don’t shush me! We’re on the phone anyway, so no one is even around to eavesdrop. But, now I know it’s true. You are a horrible liar. Who’s the new guy? Where’d you meet him? Is he why you broke up with Chip? Were you cheating on Abs McGymerson?” Olivia asked slyly.
“I, ah, well, ah…” she faltered, unsure of how to start with Godwin. She couldn’t just tell Olivia he was an incubus.
“You did cheat on Chip!” Olivia jumped to the conclusion when she hesitated too long. “You dog! I can’t believe my uptight, loyal, boring Seneca cheated on Mr. Abs McGymerson! I am so proud of you. Living life! My little girl is growing up…” Olivia fake-cried in joy.
“You’re happy I cheated on Chip?” Seneca asked, slightly offended.
“You admitted it! You cheater!” Olivia teased scandalously. “And, yes, I am. He wasn’t the right guy for you. All you saw were his abs. I knew it wasn’t going to last long. In fact, it lasted longer than I thought it would. Kennedy and I had a bet…”
“You guys bet on how long I’d be with Chip?” Seneca narrowed her eyes, taking a testing sip of her tea. It was still too hot.
“We bet on all of your boyfriends. We both lost this time. I’m usually so good at getting in the timeframe.”
“I’m so hurt!” Seneca cried out half seriously.
“No you’re not, you knew he wasn’t right for you. We were just making a friendly wager of it. Anyway, tell me about the gentleman caller who got you to fall off the cart…” Olivia lead.
“It’s the wagon, not the cart. And…I didn’t cheat…not really. I just kinda dipped my toes in the water I guess. I haven’t done it with him or anything,” she balked.
“Uh-huh. Sure. Not cheating if there’s no penetration, right? I’ll tell that to my future girlfriend and let you know how she feels about it. But you just keep telling yourself what you need to in order to sleep at night. Who’s the new guy? Tell me, tell me! You know you want to!”
Part of her wanted to dodge Olivia, the part of her who kept her vampiric nature back from her best friend. The other part of her longed to talk about Godwin. Just thinking about him woke up the butterflies in her belly. “His name’s Godwin,” she said against her better judgement.
“Godwin? That’s a weird name. Where’d you meet him?” Olivia pressed on, gathering information.
“At the park by my work. Met him on my break, we just kinda started chatting and it went from there. I dunno,” she recalled, remembering his touch on her skin. The thought made her shiver.
“When did you meet him? How long have you been…flirting around?” Olivia asked playfully.
“I wasn’t cheating, Liv!” Seneca reminded her. “And…we on the 6th. He…I dunno. He gets me, Olivia. I can’t explain it. I immediately felt a connection with him.”
There was a second of silence. “You remember the date you met him? No way, you broke up with Chip like, the day after you met Godwin!” Olivia barked once she did the math. “No way! This guy is good…”
“Olivia!” she whined into the phone around a bite of yogurt. She removed her Tea-Rex. She had left it in too long and the tea was oversteeped and bitter, but she sipped it anyway. “But…yeah, he is good. I mean, he’s just…I dunno, Liv. I really…I am really looking forward to seeing him again.”
She could hear the smile in Olivia’s voice. “I’m glad you found a guy you are into. I mean, the last three boyfriends you’ve had, well, you didn’t actually seem to interested in them as people, only as attributes.”
“That’s not true!” Seneca argued weakly.
“Uh-huh. Sure. Because you were totally with Mr. Abs McGymerson for his charming personality and stellar conversational skills. Come on, Seneca, you can’t lie to me. I spent an hour talking to a manchild blubbering on and on using the same sixteen words. Sixteen words!” Olivia said mockingly. “I counted!”
“Sorry, Olivia…” she apologized, feeling bad that her friend had taken the brunt of her breakup with Chip.
“I’m not saying it to make you feel bad. The point is, you were only with Chip because he was cute and you dug his abs. This guy…it seems like this Godwin fellow already interests you. Not his attributes, but him. I think…well, this is good, Seneca. It’s time you found someone you can be with, as opposed to be seen with. I’m not saying this to be mean…well, maybe just a little. Tough love and all. ”
“I know,” she replied carefully. She wanted to be offended, and her chest was tight with how uncomfortably close to the truth Olivia was. “I think…I am looking forward to seeing where this thing with Godwin might go. We aren’t dating, mind you. I don’t know if he is interested in a relationship like that. Just…more of friends, I guess.”
“Is he married? Are you seducing a married man?” Olivia said scandalously.
“No! Jesus, Liv, why do you always jump to conclusions like that? I’m not that bad!” she barked.
Olivia huffed into the phone. “Don’t get in over your head. You sure he’s not married already? The last thing you need is an angry wife on your case. You think Chip was bad…” she trailed off.
“Oh, advice from some personal experience, huh?” Seneca teased sarcastically.
“Mine doesn’t count ! Shut up!” Olivia barked in mock offense. “Anyway, yeah, I know a thing or two about jilted spouses. Just saying…make sure before it goes too far.”
“Liv, I know he’s not married. I’m sure of it.”
“Okay,” Olivia replied. Seneca could practically hear her head nodding. “When are you meeting him again?”
“Tuesday,” she answered too quickly.
Olivia laughed. “You aren’t excited at all or anything. Be careful. You don’t know Godwin from Adam right now.”
Seneca sighed heavily. “I know. I just feel…”
“See! That right there,” Olivia exclaimed. “You feel. You feel something for a guy. You really are growing up.”
“Shut it!” Seneca snapped lightheartedly. “Anyway…I got a million things I have to get done today. I’m helping Kennedy tomorrow with the dogs. I gotta get going.”
“Kennedy is still playing around with those dumb dogs?” Olivia grumped. “You figure she would have given up on them by now.” Seneca could imagine the shiver of repulsion her best friend had probably just had thinking of all of Kennedy’s dogs.
In addition to taking in runaway pre-teen vampires and working as a legal assistant, Kennedy also collected stray dogs, often rehabilitating them until she could find them good homes. Seneca spent every Sunday helping her adopted mother wash, feed, walk and clean up whatever dogs she happened to be working with at the time.
“Oh, Kennedy is not the type to give up on anything,” Seneca said fondly. “If she were, I would be long gone by now.”
“Well, that’s one good thing…” Olivia relented. She was very not fond of canines.
“Gotta go, I’ll call you if anything else happens,” Seneca said as she stood up to take her dirty spoon and teacup to the sink.
“You’d better, or I’ll crash your next date. Speaking of which…when can I meet him?”
She nearly choked on the last little bit of tea in the bottom of the cup. “Ah, um…I dunno. Soon. Bye, Liv, I gotta go!”
“Wait, Seneca, is he hot?” Olivia asked cattily.
“God yes, he’s sexy as hell. Bye Liv!”
Olivia laughed affectionately. “Bye Seneca. Good luck with your new dark horse.”
Dreadfully Erotic 