Part 1

"…since the leader is weakened. Tomorrow morning we can go waste those fangs. So, whatcha think?"

I blinked. Shit… I thought. If I was being completely honest, I hadn't heard most of what Annabelle had said for the past ten minutes. The new pair of jeans she'd bought were very distracting. They settled perfectly on her hips, slipping a bit every now and then and exposing some of her lovely tan skin. The worst part was that they accentuated her curves in a very tantalizing way, practically screaming my name.

"Yeah, sounds great." I agreed, after a slightly awkward pause.

A worried look crossed Anna's face, her brows furrowed and her lips pursed. I can think of a much better position for those lips... Oh god, stop thinking about her lips right now. Annabelle started saying something, her lips forming around each letter. Even though they are round, and plump… and a delicious shade of pink…No! Now is the worst time to be fantasizing, stop it! I inwardly cursed myself for my stupid crush and my inability to focus around her.

"Jo?" At my name, I was jolted back into reality and focused my attention on my friend's bright blue eyes again. After a pause, I realized she was waiting for the answer to a question I hadn't heard.

"Sorry, what?"

Annabelle looked even more concerned. "I asked if you were alright. What's been going on with you lately? You've been so… distracted and distant."

"I've just been really tired lately. The motel beds aren't the best I've ever slept in."

The partial truth didn't quell the guilty feeling brewing in the pit of my stomach. I hadn't been getting much sleep, but it wasn't because of the bright orange lumps that the cheap motel called beds. I spent most of my nights trying to ignore the fact that I was sleeping in the same bed as the girl I had been fantasizing about for over a year. We could only afford a room with one queen-sized bed, and what was the problem with two friends who were completely not attracted to each other sharing a bed? Even during high school, when my hormones were running rampant, I had never wanted somebody as badly as I wanted her.

If the suspicious look on Anna's face was anything to go by, she didn't believe my little fib at all.

"You know that's complete bullshit. Spill, now." Annabelle commanded, her light brown hair swaying as she stepped towards me. I shifted my weight to my other leg in hopes of creating some friction between my thighs. God, I loved it when she was bossy.

I tried to sound convincing, but with Anna's penetrating gaze on me I ended up stumbling over some of my words. "N-Nothing, I just haven't quite, uh, gotten used to sleeping at random hours, that's all."

Silently, I cursed how easily Anna turned me on. It was a miracle she hadn't noticed for this long.

"Joanna, if you don't tell me right now, I have no problem wrestling it out of you."

It was meant as a threat, but I had to stop myself from groaning out loud at the mental images. The last thing I needed right now was to be picturing a naked Anna straddling me on the floor, pinning my hands above my head and smiling with that devilish grin of hers.

Anna was about two inches taller than my own 5'6, and her light brown hair was chopped unevenly right under her breasts. As a general rule, Anna was always the leader-type and I would follow her to the ends of the earth. I hated taking orders from anyone other than Anna, simply because she rarely led me wrong and I trusted her with my life. We'd been best friends for years, but I didn't fancy her until my sixteenth birthday party sleepover. There was a very entertaining and inappropriate game of truth or dare in which I had to kiss her, and so my crush began. It's more closely related to torture, though.

It took a moment, but I realized that Anna was only a foot away from me. I swallowed loudly.

"I told you, it's nothing."

Anna rolled her eyes. "If it was nothing you would be joking about how overprotective I am. It's obviously something. You could never really lie to me, anyways. I know you too well. So…" She made a gesture with her hand encouraging me to tell her what the hell my problem was.

I had no intention of doing so. After a few moments of awkward silence, she took the hint and sighed heavily.

Pointing to the bed, she said, "Sit. We need to talk."

I slowly walked over to the orange bed, feeling about the same as a child about to be chastised. As I sat down, Anna turned towards me, her weight was on her left foot, and her hand were on her hips. When she was determined to do something or find something out, she almost always got what she wanted. And by the look on her face, she was very determined.

"I know you haven't been sleeping. You look like a zombie half the time, but it's more than that. You've been avoiding me like the plague, you don't even seem to pay attention to me when I talk to you, and, recently, you've been a pretty shitty hunter."

I winced at that last jab. One of the most important things to me was being a good hunter, in honor of my father, and I'd messed up because I was infatuated with my partner. Great.

"Look, I know I've been distracted lately, but I just need…" I trailed off, not quite sure how to finish that sentence. I'm pretty sure Anna wouldn't appreciate me saying 'a good fuck with you,' no matter how true it was.

"What is it that you need? You haven't talked to me in ages." I was about to disagree, but she cut me off. "And 'what's up?' doesn't count. I mean actually talking and having a deep conversation, not just small chat."

"Did you ever think that I didn't want to have an emotional conversation with you? That maybe I wanted some privacy?" My tone ended up sounding more frustrated than I expected. I didn't mean to sound so angry, but I couldn't think of another way to keep her from asking me so may questions.

"No it didn't, actually, seeing as we've been best friends since 6th grade and we've told each other everything. What on earth could be so terrible that you'd feel the need to hide it from me? I'm the last person who'd judge you." Her voice rose louder with each word, and she sounded more exasperated than I could ever remember.

I stood up, getting in her face. "You know, you talk before you think a lot. And you judge people a lot more than you think. And If you don't want to respect my privacy, then you-"

"God, you can be so fucking stubborn sometimes, you know that?"

Before I knew what was going on, she took my face into her hands and kissed me roughly on the lips. I was completely frozen. Anna took this as I sign that I wasn't interested, and quickly pulled back, her face looking almost as surprised as I was.

"I-I'm so sorry. I-"

I crushed my lips back to hers, flinging my hands around her neck and arching my body against hers. Her arms immediately wrapped around my waist.