Chapter 14 Molly
Molly
My knee bounces under the table Monday morning as I wait at my desk. I don’t realise I’m biting at a hangnail until I’ve accidentally pulled it. I click my tongue against my teeth and rummage in my desk drawer one-handed until I retrieve a Band-Aid and wrap it around my thumb.
Time to get a grip, Molly.
At the slightest movement from the office door, I snap my gaze to it, but it’s just Kenneth sauntering in, already shaking his blender bottle. I curse under my breath and close my eyes for a moment. I just need to recentre.
Over the weekend I may or may not have had a literal mental breakdown because I got to work an hour early today feeling about 80 per cent sure that Elijah Thorne is a vampire.
Even thinking it makes me feel insane.
But what the hell else am I supposed to think?
It started at the party: the pair of us next to each other on the balcony, then he leaned, or I leaned, and somehow we were kissing. A kiss isn’t a big deal; a kiss is just a kiss.
But that didn’t feel like just a kiss. That felt like—
The kiss felt like magic.
It was like the kisses I read about, the Princess Diaries foot-pop kiss, the kind of kiss that makes you dizzy and drunk on the feel of lips on yours.
I don’t know what I thought we were going to do, but I definitely didn’t think that he’d abruptly stop what was shaping up to be the best make out ever.
At first, the sting of rejection was more like a scalding burn, but after sitting with my head in my palms for ten minutes, I finally got too cold and went back inside.
I stopped in the bathroom first, certain my lipstick was everywhere, which is when I saw the thin lines of bright red snaking down the side of my neck and collarbone before slipping down my cleavage.
The sight startled me, and I reached for a wad of toilet paper.
I wiped up the blood, cleaning my chest and neck all the way to the source of the injury: two thin slits.
I hadn’t even felt it happen.
Amid my distress and confusion, someone knocked on the door and I yelled that I’d be just a minute as I scrambled to finish wiping some of the now-dried blood and found a Band-Aid.
Devi only had these bright green star-printed ones, which Luke teased looked like I was trying to cover up a hickey.
I made my excuses shortly thereafter and spent the whole night stewing, putting pieces together that I wouldn’t let myself believe.
I came to one conclusion. One outlandish, completely impossible conclusion.
I barely slept, trolling through Reddit threads and random forum sites that looked like they were built in the ’90s. I couldn’t find anything conclusive, and the further I looked, the sillier I felt. But the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became.
First, all the layers I saw him wearing on his first day of work–that wild ass sunhat–then there’s the food, or lack thereof; the way he speaks like he was not indeed a child of the internet but like a child of the abacus.
He is rather pale, which isn’t that weird, but it is strange that he’s that pale and yet never blushing, not when I’m telling him he’s stupid at work, not when he had to kiss Luke Lemming at Devi’s party, not even when he made out with me.
It takes nothing for my face to flush red and yet he looks cool, calm, and collected always. It’s physiology and it’s not adding up.
When I finally did fall asleep sometime around six in the morning on Saturday, I slept a fitful sleep and woke still exhausted.
I spent most of the evening watching vampire movies and oscillating between thinking I was right and thinking I was moronic.
By the time I fell asleep with Fright Night on in the background, I had determined that Elijah was not actually a vampire.
But when I showered on Sunday and saw the little pricks on my neck again, I was back to square one.
I used a ruler to measure the distance between the cuts, then measured the distance between my canines.
It wasn’t the same, but it was close enough to make me drop the ruler with a clatter in the sink.
I sat in the shower for way too long trying to convince myself I was being absurd.
The rest of the weekend went much like this. And now, I anxiously await his arrival so that I can… what? Confront him? He’s going to think that his rejection made me a lunatic. Cool.
‘Mol,’ Kenneth whispers, making me jump. ‘Jeez, what’s wrong with you?’
‘Nothing,’ I say too quickly. He raises his upper lip and looks me up and down.
‘You sick? It’s rude to come to work sick, some of us have lives, Molly,’ he scolds, but he smiles too.
‘Oh, but if I stayed home, who would do all your work for you?’
‘And just what life could you possibly be talking about, Kendall?’ Devi says, walking up behind me.
She puts a to-go cup of coffee on the desk in front of me, PSL written on the side.
I could kiss her in gratitude for the foresight and generosity to get me a pumpkin spice latte in this my day of need, but I settle for squeezing her forearm and taking a greedy slurp.
‘Every time you pretend you don’t know my name it just makes me think you like me more,’ Kenneth tells Devi, eyes all dreamy and mischievous. She makes a gagging sound, then turns her attention to me.
‘Happy Birthday Eve, by the way.’
‘Thanks,’ I say, taking another hot sip. My impending birthday had slipped my mind with the possibility on the table of Elijah being an inhuman entity. ‘By chance, did you take any pictures at the party?’
‘What party?’ Kenneth asks.
Devi ignores him. ‘Of you?’
‘Oh, of anyone,’ I say. ‘… for my journal.’
‘You had another party and didn’t invite me? I thought we were tight,’ Kenneth whines.
‘What are we journalling about?’
I bite my lip, debating what to share to make her less suspicious than she already is. Why can she instantly sniff out funny business?
‘Hailey is asking for a picture of the cowboy.’ I make wide eyes, and she gasps lightly.
‘You didn’t,’ she whispers.
I nod slowly.
‘Didn’t what?’ Kenneth asks.
‘Karl, adults are talking,’ Devi chides. She gives me one more meaningful look before retreating to her desk, hopefully to send me the pictures straight away.
My phone buzzes instead with a text.
Devi: YOU HOOKED UP?!!??? IN MY BED!???!!
Molly: NO.
Molly: We kissed. On your balcony.
Molly: Very different.
Devi: TELL ME EVERYTHING.
Molly: LATER. Plz send any photos of him you may have.
My knee bounces while I wait for a response.
If he is a vampire, surely he wouldn’t show up in photos, right?
Or is that just mirrors? Two long minutes later, seven photos slide into the text thread, all featuring the man of the hour.
A few of him grinning next to his friend and Luke, one where he listens intently to someone telling him a story, and two more where he looks somewhere outside the frame.
It’s not the time, but he really did look hot in that costume.
I type back a quick thank you thank you thank you, but I’m a little disappointed that my theory wasn’t proven. Or relieved? I still don’t feel like I can rule out vampirism entirely, but I have no idea how else I could test this. Maybe someone here carries holy water around? Or garlic cloves?
I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to keep from wincing too hard at how ridiculous my thoughts sound.
‘I’m losing it,’ I mutter.
‘Molly,’ Ryan says from beside my desk, startling me. I drop my phone on my desk with a clatter.
‘Hm?’
Ryan raises a single eyebrow at me. ‘I’m taking Elijah around with me today. Could you pick up a couple extra tickets in his stead?’
My head snaps in the direction of his office, where I spot Elijah peeking around the door frame. He disappears quickly, caught. When did he sneak in? Probably when I was zooming in on his teeth in the photo Devi sent, looking for sign of sharp incisors.
‘My schedule’s already pretty full today.’ It’s true, my schedule is always full. Ryan is the one who makes it that way.
‘Ah, come on,’ Ryan says.
‘I’ll do it,’ Kenneth says. ‘Tomorrow’s her birthday.’
I am as touched by this offer as I am surprised.
‘Thanks.’ ‘Way to be a team player, Kenny.’ Ryan snaps with both hands and doesn’t say goodbye before striding back to his office to have a fun day with his new bestie.
Doesn’t help me with my plans of sussing out Elijah’s status as a mortal, but I can be patient.
If I don’t lose my mind in the meantime.