I sat at the kitchen table listening to my sister and her friends gush over the fictional Edward Cullen from the living room for the millionth time. I didn't see the fascination. I liked my vampires staked and burned by sunlight. Give me Sookie or Buffy any day.
Gwen, my sister, forced me to watch Twilight when it finally came out of DVD. She couldn't force me to read the books, (I had, but I will never tell her that) so she did the next worse thing. She yelled at me to leave when we were half way through. I bashed Bella's neediness and Edward's self-loathing. I was amazed these two got together at all, even for fictional people. Gwen was even more irritated that I called Edward, Cedric. But come on, he was a wizard before he became a sparkly gay vampire. And Jake, well I remember when he was shark-boy. You can never un-see that.
Gwen and I had nothing in common, except for our looks. We were identical twins. Gwen was popular and outgoing, I was intelligent and quiet. As sisters went, we loved each other and loathed each other at the same time. Mostly, I liked to give her a hard time. Now that she was in to Twilight, we had vampires in common. Sadly, mine were Anne Rice or Sookie Stackhouse vampires.
I rolled my eyes when Gwen and her friends, Cara and Alyssa, walked into the kitchen. They were Team Edward Twi-hards. They held the unjustified idea that teenage boys would actually be like Edward. A fictional, hundred year old, vampire... idiots.
"So, Andie, who's your favorite vampire?" Alyssa asked.
"What?" I asked, astonished they acknowledged me.
"Edward, Jasper?" Alyssa asked.
"If I had to choose, um...Eric." I turned my attention back to my homework.
"Who's Eric?" Alyssa laughed.
"He's no one," Gwen answered.
She gave me the 'stop embarrassing me' look. I shook my head before ignoring them. The three of them lounged around the kitchen picking at the salad I made for dinner. Alyssa and Cara left as my dad arrived home.
"Hey girls, how was school?" he asked, kicking off his boots.
"Good," we said in unison.
My dad walked into the kitchen and started piling salad, chicken and rice onto a plate. I cooked and cleaned, the one thing I could relate with Bella. My dad worked construction. We'd been living in Houston for six months now. There was always some type of construction here. Since dad has been raising Gwen and me alone for the last ten years, he needed to make money where ever he could. Our mom's car was hit by a drunk driver on her way to pick Gwen up from school. We lived in Grand Rapids then. I missed snow and cold days. Dad did his best, but I was sure having two teenage girls was not easy.
"Your homework's done." Dad looked at Gwen. He knew mine was done. I didn't make friends as easily as Gwen. I really liked being alone, which only seemed to worry my dad.
"Well, almost," she lied.
"Gwendolyn," Dad said disappointed.
"I only have like a half an hour's worth. I will finish before I go to bed."
"How bout you finish it now," Dad demanded.
"Fine," Gwen huffed marching to her room.
Dad waited until he heard her door closed before he said, "Still watching those movies, huh?"
"The fan base for those is amazing. I don't think she is the only girl in the world obsessed with them."
"It's just hard to understand." Dad shook his head and began eating.
"It could be worse, we both could get sucked in." I kissed him on the head before heading to my room.
I think my dad was glad I never got obsessive over things. I read every supernatural fiction book I could. It was fun to forget reality. Gwen found Twilight, she went overboard. I couldn't imagine how it would be when she found a boy she liked. Thankfully, we were both pretty picky.
I knocked on Gwen's door before I opened it to tell her goodnight. She sat on her bed, her books and papers concealing her pink comforter.
"Do you want some help?" I asked. It was the nice sister thing to do, and I was the nice sister.
"No, I am done actually."
"Alright, night." I started to shut her door.
"Andie?" Gwen called.
I poked my head around the door. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry about Alyssa. She shouldn't have said anything to you."
"It's fine," I pacified.
"You have to admit, it is strange that you are probably the only girl in school not interested in Twilight."
"I am sure I am not alone in that," I smirked.
"I wish you could understand how wonderful these characters are. I think you would like them if you got to know them."
"When they come to Houston, you let me know. I will definitely take your advice and get to know them."
"You're such a jerk." She laughed as I shut the door.
It was strange to me that Gwen acted like these characters were normal people, just waiting for the right time to say hello. Get to know them, I thought, yeah that will happen. My sister was crazy.
I grabbed 'Dead Until Dark' from my desk before climbing into bed. I had read it dozens of times. It wasn't my favorite, but I could read it to fall asleep. Don't think that it's boring, I have just read it so many times and it slowly became my bedtime story.
My mind began to twirl the idea of real vampires. If there were vampires, there were angels and demons as well. I wasn't ready to live in a world with angry demons or witches and warlocks. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for me...
