I nodded.
“Good. I’d like to take you both to dinner tonight since we didn’t get a chance to yesterday.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Better get ready for school,” she said, leaving my room.
I took a shower, slipped on a charcoal V-neck sweater dress, tights, and black suede boots. I pulled my hair into a loose up-do and then went down to breakfast.
“You must be feeling better,” said Nathan, who was sitting by the counter next to mom, eating a large bowl of cereal, “haven’t seen you in anything other than your ratty old jeans lately.”
“Ha ha,” I said, looking into the fridge. I grabbed the bottle of orange juice and began filling a glass.
“Oh, no,” murmured my mom, who was at the counter, watching the news.
I turned around to look at the television and froze. A photo of my co-worker, Susan, flashed across the screen.
“Early this morning the body of nineteen-year-old Susan Fields was found in a dumpster behind Ruth’s Diner on Main Street,” said the reporter.
I dropped my glass and it shattered. “Oh, my God,” I choked.
“No!” gasped Nathan in horror.
“Officials aren’t saying whether this is related to the other teens found murdered Saturday morning, but obviously foul play is suspected. We’ll keep you updated as more information is released.”
My mom turned off the television while Nathan and I stared at each other in shock. Both of us knew Susan fairly well; Nathan had even gone out with her a few times.
“I’m so sorry,” sighed mom. “I know you three were friends.”
I turned to my mom with tears in my eyes. “I think I’ll be staying home again.” Then I stepped over the broken glass and went upstairs to my room. I threw myself onto the bed and buried my face into my pillow, mourning for the first friend I’d made in Shore Lake.
Seconds later, Nathan knocked on the door and entered, his face full of anguish. “This is really fucked up,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “I just saw her last night, too.”
I turned to him. “You saw her last night?” I sniffled.
He nodded. “Yeah, after work I was craving an omelet. They have the best egg dishes, you know, especially the Texas style, with the peppers and…”
“Yes, I know…” I prodded, impatiently. “Keep going.”
He nodded. “Okay, anyway, I sat up at the counter and we talked for a while. Then, some guy walked into the diner and she pretty much shut me down.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean, shut you down?”
“She basically cut me off during our conversation to go and wait on the other dude. I could hear her gushing over him with the other waitresses, too,” he scowled. “I was like… hello, what am I, scrap-meat?”
“What time did you leave the diner last night?”
He shrugged. “About ten o’clock.”
“Did you notice anything else?”
He shook his head. “No, the place was pretty dead, except for that other guy. I do remember she talked to him quite a bit, though.”
“I wonder if Rosie knows anything more.”
I also wondered who that guy was that Susan had been talking to. Something niggled at the back of my mind. Then it hit me.
“I wonder if it was Drake,” I said.
“Who’s Drake?”
“A guy she dated a while back. A friend of Ethan’s. I’m pretty he’s a vampire, too.”
He snorted. “Of course.”
I sighed. “Nathan, when are you going to start to believe? Too many people are dying around here, and if you can’t accept what’s going on, you’re putting your own life in danger.”
He sat down at the edge of my bed and looked down at his hands. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been having some strange… I guess you could say… visions or dreams.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Just… I don’t know. Ever since I went to the club with Celeste the other night, I’ve been having these nightmares. But the crazy thing is they seem so real.”
“What kind of nightmares?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Well, I um…I had this dream that I was chasing Celeste through the woods and when I caught her, I...”
“What?”
He frowned. “I hate to say this but, I held her down and tore into her throat, like a freaken vampire. Thanks, by the way, for putting those ideas in my subconscious, with all your vampire talk.”
“Nathan…”
He stood up and began to pace. “The shitty thing is…”
“What?”
He smiled humorlessly. “I can’t believe I’m actually telling my own sister this, but it kind of excited me.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh…that is pretty creepy.”
He snorted. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
I took a deep breath. “Nathan, have you had sex with Celeste?”
He stared at me for a minute and then gave me a shit-eating grin. “Yeah, once.”
I stared at him in horror. “Did she bite you?”
He shrugged. “No, not that I know of.”