Page 90 of The Last Vampire
As soon as we are on the ground, Salma announces, “We’re going shopping.” Tiffany is already locking arms with her, and Salma offers me her other elbow.
As I loop my arm around, William says, “Lorena… would you meet me at the Chocolate Bar at noon?”
I know he’s only doing this to make amends, but Salma squeezes my arm as hard as if he’d just proposed marriage. That’s the same time I’m meeting Zach, so I say, “Twelve thirty.”
“We’ll be sure to deliver her to you on schedule,” Salma says to William with a sweet smile. She’s being sensitive to him because she thinks she knows what he’s going through.
My roommates and I move away as a six-legged organism, and Tiffany says, “I thought he said he wouldneverdate you.”
“We’re just friends,” I say. “Like you and Zach. And you and Trevor.”
“Point taken,” says Salma. “Let’s find one of the cute shops you scouted,” she tells Tiffany. Sal’s extension of her dad’s credit card is her only way of reminding him she exists.
As we go from shop to shop, I keep consulting my phone screen to check the time. I already mapped out where the chocolate shop is, so it should only take me three and a half minutes to get there. That means I have forty-two minutes to go until my meeting with Zach and an hour and twelve minutes until I meet William.
The new store we’re in has pink walls, pink furniture, and pink artwork. It feels like it was specially designed for Tiffany, and she immediately starts pulling items off the rack.
“You’re screwed,” says Salma, and it takes me a moment to realize she’s talking tome.
“What do you mean?”
“You really like this guy,” she says, not exactly sounding pleased about it. “And I mean a stronglike. A like that feels a lot likelo—”
“That’s bullshit.” I cut her off because I don’t like where she’s going with this. “And you know Ma’s rule on dating.”
“You’reeighteen,” Tiffany reminds me across a row of clothing. “You really don’t need her permission anymore.”
“I’m bored.”
We spin around to see that Trevor has joined us. He scrutinizes the pink walls like they’re closing in on him. “How can you stand to be in here?” he asks, looking at Salma in her all-black getup.
“I can still admire other colors,” she says. “Even if I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing pink—sorry, Tiff.”
“I feel the same way about wearing all-black, so touché.”
“Where’s Zach?” I ask, scanning the store for him.
“He didn’t come.”
I look at Trevor so fast that I feel a crick in my neck. “But he was just at breakfast with us—!”
“I know, he sucks,” says Trevor. “But he said he needed to finish up some things for the paper, so he got permission to stay back.”
That doesn’t make any sense.
Did he decide to run with the story about William anyway? Why wouldn’t he at least hear me out? And why miss this field trip when he could be taking photographs of a new setting for the school paper?
Two customers enter the store, and I recognize Brooke and Cat. “Oh good, you’re all here,” says Brooke upon seeing us. “We read reviews about a bar that doesn’t card,” she says in a low voice when she comes closer. “Jordan, Alex, and some of the others are going to meet us there. Why don’t y’all come? You can tell William, too,” she adds, looking at me. “It’s called the Hangman.”
Tiffany opens a map app on her phone to look up the bar. “Got it.”
“Join us, Trev,” says Cat, giving him a coy smile.
“Ooh, you need those!” Salma exclaims loudly to Tiffany as she reaches for a $500 pair of shiny pink boots.
A saleswoman materializes at her side. “What size would you like?”
“I’m gonna find a bathroom,” I tell Sal before taking off.
