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Erica was wrapped in blankets, sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring at her laptop as an article about Dusk illuminated her face in the darkness. She piled a handful of popcorn into her mouth, spilling half of it onto the bed. Her hair was tied up - as always -, and her thin red glasses laid on the bridge of her nose. She picked up her phone and frantically attempted to start a call.
Sarah was staring at her phone, tears rolling down her eyes as she tried to look at herself, seeing nothing reflected back on the dark side of the screen. Her phone blinked awake as Erica called her. She wiped the tears away and cleared her throat, attempting to answer in a cheery voice.
“Hey! What’s up?”
“Did you hear?!” She asked, her eyes darting around, expecting the worst.
“No, what’s wrong?”
“Nothings wrong,” Erica said, “I was just wondering if you had seen the announcement!”
Sarah blinked. Erica waited for her to respond. To break the awkward silence, she said, “They’re making another Dusk book!”
“Really, that’s cool!” She wanted to be excited for Erica. She tried to sound normal. All Sarah hoped is that it would work.
“The author just announced it, and even though it will take some time to come out, there’s already rumors about another movie adaptation! Isn’t this the best?! We’re gonna get more people to join the Dusk fan club!”
She let Erica go on over the phone while trying to make herself tired. Tea, warm water on her face, even laying down; it did nothing. Erica yawned and let her voice get lower energy as the night rolled on, desperately wanting to get every thought in her head out to her very best friend. Sarah desired to feel that same excitement that her friend did, she wished to live the life she did only a few weeks ago, and somehow go back to before she ever met Jesse. She never thought she would wake up one night and never go back to sleep, and watch as everyone around her aged more with every day while she only stood still.
“That’s what I would want if they ever made a TV show,” Erica said, leaning on her desk and rubbing her eyes. She tried not to let out another yawn, but it escaped her mouth without her permission and she apologized to Sarah while taking off her glasses to try and squint them awake.
“I should let you get some sleep,” Sarah said, sitting on her perfectly made bed, the sheets yearning to be pulled back and to be rested on again.
“When the book comes out, we need to read it together, have our own book club, like the old days,” She said, taking down her ponytail to get ready for bed.
“Okay, we will,” Sarah responded. She slid on the floor next to her backpack to get some homework done. She was starting to get behind on her math assignments.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Right as she hung up and started to get her work out, there was a voice at her window.
“What are you doing?”
She flipped her head around and peered over her bed to see Jesse standing at her window, grinning and eyes glowing.
“Nothing,” She whispered out in a shaky breath.
“Let’s get out of here,” He said, as a demand. Sarah knew “no” wasn’t a sufficient answer for him. She learned that the hard way.
Sarah squeezed a bag of blood into a mug while standing in her kitchen.
“You know that’s gonna be really hard to clean,” Erica said. She came in from the hallway and stared at Sarah in a perplexed way. Her long blonde hair flowed over her shoulders and down to her hips.
“I don’t like drinking out of the bag! It just feels weird sometimes.”
“Oh, and a mug is gonna be better somehow? It’s gonna get all over your mouth,” She commented, while Sarah took a sip anyway. When she leaned the cup back there was a pale reddish orange stain all on her upper lip. Erica couldn’t help but giggle.
“It’s like Got Milk, but much more morbid!”
“I was gonna wash my face soon anyways,” Sarah said, grabbing a paper towel and wiping the blood away.
There was a ring at the doorbell, and Erica went to answer it.
“Hide your blood mug, or else they’re gonna call the cops on us.”
Sarah quickly lowered the mug into the sink and watched as Erica answered the door. A delivery man was on the other side, and he handed Erica a package while she signed for it.
“I wonder what it could be…” Erica said with a smile. She brought it over to the kitchen and started attempting to open the box. Sarah grabbed her mug again and took another sip.
“How you can drink that cold is beyond me,” Erica said while trying to peel the tape off the seam.
“Warm blood is overrated.”
“Yeah, like you would know! Blood from a beating heart is the best, it's the way we’re designed to get our food.”
“I’m not gonna argue about this with you again. And just rip the box open! You’re taking too long.”
As Erica ripped the box so hard that half of it fell to the floor, she yanked out what was contained within it and squealed with excitement.
“It’s here!” She exclaimed, jumping up and down and holding the item to her chest.
“What is it?”
“It’s the book! The book! It’s finally here!” She responded, “And look! I bought two!”
She handed Sarah half of the package, revealing it to be the Dusk novel that was promised to them years ago. Sarah took the book and looked at the cover. A painted cover of werewolves and fairies surrounding the main characters, all with their fangs out and pale faces.
“I’m gonna start reading mine right now!” She said, cracking open the hard cover and running her eyes around the first few pages.
“They have fairies in this now?” Sarah asked, barely recognizing the characters behind the main three in the front.
“Yeah, don’t you remember? They were introduced in Dusk V .”
“I don’t think I’ve read that far…”
“What?”
“I’ve seen all the movies, but I’ve only really read the first book. And that was a long time ago.”
As Sarah was confessing, Erica had already fled to the hallway, and came back with a large stack of books.
“You’re gonna have to read these before you can get to the new one,” Erica said, placing the stack in front of her friend.
“You’re kidding! I don’t have the time to read all of those!”
“Well you’re gonna!” Erica said, folding her arms and walking away.
Sarah stared at the giant stack and grabbed the first one off the pile. Her eyes graced the cover of the second book, all with characters she recognized and a tight feeling of something longing within her chest. She remembered the first day her and Erica bonded over the Dusk novel and movies. A time that felt like decades ago that just slipped through her grasp and stung a little when she thought about it. Those book covers meant more than just stories she missed out on; it represented time she would both never get back and also continue to live with, forever.
She grabbed the giant stack and hulled them to her room and placed them on the same floor, and leaned up against the same bed frame she had done that night the new book was announced. This time, she wasn’t going to be interrupted in her own time, she was going to reclaim it. She was going to keep her promise, no matter how inconsequential it may have seemed.