CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
VIGGO RASSMUSSEN
For goodness’ sake, Lila! You must get out of your comfort zone!
LILA MURPHY
But it’s so comfy in there.
Vampire Falls. Season one, episode four – “Bury Me”
Of all the people I expected to find Vivian sitting with, Dorothy was not one of them. I take a deep breath, smooth down my hoodie, because apparently appearances are important to me now, and I walk over to their sofa. Vivian’s looking down, smiling at Dorothy as she finishes her story.
“. . . and she said, ‘I’ve never even seen that corset!’”
Vivian throws her head back and laughs, putting her hand on Dorothy’s shoulder who looks delighted. They both look at me.
“Hey, Curly. You OK?”
“Hi, Dorothy. Kind of.”
“What do you need? More fire breathing?”
“Not this time.” I bite the inside of my cheek, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to navigate this. “It’s actually Vivian I wanted to talk to.”
Vivian’s eyes widen for a split second, then she crosses her longs legs and raises an eyebrow.
“I’ll piss off and leave you to it,” says Dorothy, holding up her hands so I can pull her up from the sofa.
She shuffles off towards the coffee shop, and I turn to Vivian.
She’s wearing over-the-knee velvet boots and a striped jumper dress.
She looks like she’s advertising the sofa, whereas I look like I’m advertising cold and flu medicine.
She blinks at me, her perfect eyebrows getting higher and higher.
“Sit down or something then. You’re hurting my neck.”
I nod and sit down, sprawling backwards. The sofa’s lower than I thought. I clamber into an upright position as Vivian watches me and smiles.
“Er . . . congratulations, by the way,” I say, amazed I manage to get the words out.
“Thank you,” she says, quietly and reserved, not at all the way I’d say it. “That’s not what you wanted to talk about though, is it?”
I shake my head, and she clasps her hands over her knee.
“What can I do for you then, little one?”
“Well,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I kind of hoped you’d help me with something.”
“Help you with something? Don’t you want Roxy to help you, whatever it is? You’re a little team, or whatever.” She clears her throat and looks around the lobby. “Where is she anyway?”
I stiffen, even though I’d prepared for this.
“I don’t actually know. We haven’t spoken today. She didn’t come back to the room last night.”
“I know,” she says, biting the side of her thumbnail, her green eyes wide. “I mean, nothing happened but she needed somewhere to stay so . . .”
“Fine,” I say, rubbing my forehead. “I mean . . . it’s none of my business what she does.”
“Of course it is,” she says, frowning. “Isn’t she your bestie?”
“Yes, but . . .”
“Aren’t you like a mama bear when it comes to you and yours?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, isn’t that why you hate me?” she says. “Because you’re protecting your friends?”
“What?” I say, my head spinning. “I don’t hate you, Vivian.”
I say the words, but they couldn’t sound more unconvincing.
“Lies, lies. Everyone hates me – or they love me – I totally get it though,” she says, shrugging.
“You do?”
“People – some people,” she says, looking me up and down, “make their mind up about me before they’ve given me a chance. Some people like to put other people in neat little boxes. A box for nerds. A box for jocks. A box for hotties. Do you know why some people do that?”
I shake my head.
“Self-preservation. So they can stay safe in their box. Sometimes though, they don’t know what’s in the other boxes until they’ve opened them. Maybe they’ve misjudged what it says on the outside.”
“OK . . .” I say.
This conversation isn’t going the way I thought and it’s making my brain hurt.
“Do you get what I’m saying?” she says.
“No,” I say, totally getting what she’s saying.
She smiles and inches forward on the sofa.
“Look, I’m not here to get between you and Roxy, or you and Charlie,” she says, her full lips in a serious line. “I actually think you seem fun.”
“Then why do you call me bitch all the time?”
“I call everyone bitches,” she says, waving her hand dismissively. “I’m terrible with names.”
“Oh,” I say.
“Look, when I offered to help Charlie out with Sadie, he said you’d be here and we could end up hanging out. I mean, he got that totally wrong. Boy,” she says, rolling her eyes. She’s right there. Boy. “But I can see why he wanted to.”
Again. This conversation has gone off the tracks.
“You can?” I say, blinking at her.
She nods. “You’re ridiculous; it’s adorable.”
“Is it?”
“It’s been so much fun,” she says, smiling and nodding.
“Has it?” I ask, wondering what convention she’s been at.
“I’ve never been to a convention,” she says, her eyes sparkling as she looks around.
“I had no idea it would be this cool. The competition, the cosplay, the people. Getting to know Roxy.” She smiles wider when she says her name.
“Seeing Sadie fall even harder for the show. And Dorothy! I mean, where did she come from?”
We both turn to see Dorothy in the middle of the foyer juggling some fake oranges for the queue outside the coffee shop. She throws one up high, spins round, then catches it in her mouth.
“Nobody knows,” I say, gobsmacked.
We turn back to each other, and Vivian reaches forward and flicks the toggle on my hoodie.
“I’ve had the best time with you guys,” she says, smiling, “and even though I have total hair envy, I’ve really enjoyed our fun little rivalry.”
Fun?
“Really?” I say, my mouth hanging open.
“Really,” she repeats.
Her phone vibrates and she picks it up. There’s barely a frown line on her forehead, whereas I’ve already got a perma-line from being constantly livid at the world.
But I think I have good hair, so swings and roundabouts.
Getting a compliment from Vivian has boosted me in a way I didn’t know I needed.
I kind of don’t blame Roxy for wanting to kiss her.
“Charlie’s asked me to help with Sadie.” She puts her phone in her bag and gets up. “She’s in the middle of an eleven-year-old breakdown.”
“You better go.”
“Didn’t you want to ask me something?”
“It can wait,” I say, mentally checking the time and knowing it can’t really but Sadie, and Charlie, need her. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” she says, shrugging. “Been through a million of these with my brother and sisters.”
“How many do you have?”
“I’m the oldest of five.”
“Whoa.”
This explains the winner-takes-all mentality.
“Yep. It’s why Charlie asked me along. To be honest, she’s been a breeze. I’m so glad I came.”
Her eyes twinkle as she recalls the weekend, and her smile is like a prize to anyone watching. I promise you I’m not in love with her, but I can see what Roxy sees. The redhead has layers, but I’ve been stuck on the first one.
“Good.”
“Just come by my room in a bit and we can talk then?” I nod and she turns away, calling over her shoulder. “Later, bitches.”
“Later, bitches,” I respond, falling under the spell of Vivian, despite myself.