Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the television show, True Blood, or the book series by Charlaine Harris. I do, however, own all characters that were not in or mentioned in the show/books.
Chapter Seven
"Life's disappointments are harder to take
when you don't know any swear words."
Calvin and Hobbes
When the clock in my room turned 10 pm, I let out a groan of defeat. I had been staring into my closest for what seemed like hours. In all actuality it had been 37 minutes, but I still couldn't decide what to wear. Granted, I was still undecided about whether or not I actually wanted to meet up with the mysterious John. Even his name had me had me a bit suspicious. John. It was plain and unassuming. For all I knew it wasn't his real name.
I gnawed on the inside of my lip and browsed through my hangers. Choosing an outfit was beginning to become ridiculously hard. I cursed myself for being such a girl.
Should I go with shorts and a cute top or was this place a little more sophisticated? What about a simple black dress? No, that would be too much for a first whatever this is.
After a little searching on the Internet I found out that Coyote's Bar and Grill—not to be confused with Coyote Ugly, where girls danced on the bar—was similar to what Southerners would call a honky tonk. I expected to find rednecks and pool tables not cocktail dresses and white collared folks.
"Ah ha!" I exclaimed when I found the perfect dress to wear. It was a cream dress that fell to the middle of my thighs, and at the center it was cinched with a thick brown leather belt. The bottom of the dress as well as the straps were lined in lace and the top part of the dress cut straight across the top of my breasts. It was the right mixture of Look at me! and I'm a good girl that I was looking for. Brown cowboy boots that my mother had forced me to buy completed the ensemble.
But what if he's a creep luring you to your uncertain death?
I switched from chewing on my lip to my thumbnail. I really wanted to go out tonight. Not necessarily to see John—though his chocolate brown eyes and golden skin were definitely attractive—but also because I literally had zero friends. I was still unsure if Eric could be considered a friend. Right now he was at wary acquaintance status.
Thinking about Eric led to a solution to my current predicament. I could call him and ask him to keep an eye out for me. Hopefully, he understood that I wanted him to make sure I came home at the end of the night and not that I wanted him to follow me around on my, well, whatever this was.
As I searched from his name in my contacts I wondered just what I would say to him. Somehow "You're a big scary vampire so will you search for my dead body tonight?" just didn't have the right ring to it.
"Speak to me."
I got chills from just hearing his voice.
"Eric, it's Maggie. Uh, listen, I just wanted to call you and say that I'm going to meet up with this guy tonight at a bar. Um… if I don't call you by two tonight, do you think that you could come looking for me?"
I liked it. It was vague but hinted at all the right things.
"Will you be in danger tonight?" Eric's question seemed more concerned that curious. I figured I was imagining things. In what world would someone as drop dead gorgeous as Eric ever be interested in me. Things like that did not happen in the real world. Well… neither were vampires, but we all see how that turned out. Besides, Eric was an asshole. Calling him was simply a means to an end.
"I don't think so, but could you just make sure I get home? You don't have to follow me or anything like that. Just a phone call or something?"
"I am not a babysitter," Eric replied before hanging up abruptly. Clearly no one had taught him cell phone etiquette. Who knew if he had etiquette period.
By the time I had actually gotten ready, primped, and found the place it was 11:45. Surely, John would have given up by now and left, but I still had to show up and at least see if he had waited.
I walked into the bar unsure of what to expect. Just inside the door was a dimly lit room with the bar lining the back wall. Pool tables and dartboards decorated the main floor.
"What'll ya have?" the bartender asked, barely sparing me a glance. I looked over the selection of beer, called out the first beer I saw, and paid for it. While sipping on the beer, I glanced around the place hoping to catch a glimpse of John. All of my primping would not go to waste.
As the minutes passed by the heat in the bar and the lack of air conditioning made the hair on the back of my neck absolutely unbearable. I threw it all over one shoulder, hoping to relieve some of the heat.
"I have one of them," the girl sitting next to me exclaimed, pointing at my neck. Instinctively my fingers went to the area of skin she was pointing to and found the spot where I was bitten at the church. "Well, actually I have a few of them, and they're in places no good girl should have them."
I scratched at the label of my beer, unsure of what exactly to reply with. "
"That's nice."
"I'm Lillian." Her hand was shoved into my face.
I gave a small smile, shook her hand, and replied with my name expecting that to be the end of the conversation.
"My first time with a vamp…It was real romantic," Lillian said before stubbing out her Marlboro Light. The smoke swirled around the bar, choking me.
"Well, that's good," I whispered before I lifted my beer to my lips. The liquid hit the back of my throat, and I winced. One thing was for sure: if I was going to start this whole drinking thing, I needed to buck up.
The sound of pool balls clacking together filled the air, and several people groaned. There was a low overhead light hanging just above a pool table. Underneath it was a man wearing a New Orleans Saints shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He was leaning over the green table ready to hit the eight ball in. The haze from cigarette smoke made it hard to make out his features. Onlookers were scattered about, anxiously awaiting the results. The man's hat was pushed slightly to the side, and his tongue darted across lips in concentration.
"That's my Johnny," Chatterbox—I mean Lillian—giggled into my ear. "We've been together for a while. He's sooooo hot. Like looks wise, but also physically. He always feels like he's burning up. I mean it's a little hard to take when we're lying in bed together…"
More groans filled the air, but this time it was mixed in with cheers and clapping. Johnny must have won.
"…He doesn't know about… well you know." She tipped her beer toward my neck.
I nodded and took another sip of my beer. The taste wasn't as bad this time.
"He's really good at pool… and other things." She wiggled her eyebrows and smiled into her beer.
My eyes did a sweep across the bar again in hopes to find John. When I didn't see him, I hopped up from my seat.
"I have to go to the restroom," I muttered to Lillian. It wasn't that I was trying to be rude, but where I grew up it wasn't kosher to divulge your deepest darkest secrets to a random girl at the bar just because you both had bite marks. Mine was completely unintentional. Something told me that she sought hers out. Now, my Grandma Joan would have rapped my knuckles if she heard me talking bad about a person I had just met, but there were times to be proper and this was not one of them.
I walked to the back of the bar and found a door with a sign that read, "Darlins." Figuring I had the right one, I pulled the door open and was met with a toilet and a broken down sink. The bathroom tile hadn't been cleaned in God knows how long. There was a ring of mold inside the toilet, and the off white walls were doing nothing to inspire cleanliness. I tried my best not to touch anything for fear of contracting a staph infection. The door shut behind me, and I turned the deadbolt. The mirror on the wall was cracked and dirty, but it at least let me see my reflection. I tidied up my make-up and tried not to think about how I was here at this hole-in-the-wall bar, sipping Coors Light, and listening to Chatterbox. Best Saturday night I've had in Shreveport for sure…
There was a knock on the door, snapping me out of my thoughts. Well, I guess I had avoided Lillian as much as possible. Now all I had to do was go finish my beer and get the hell out of there. It was clear John wasn't there.
"All yours," I mumbled to the girl outside the door. She brushed past me without saying a word. It was rude, but I shrugged it off. To the left of the bathroom was a door that led outside. It was cracked open and letting in deliciously cool air. I slipped out the back to get some fresh air. The temperature hadn't dropped much from the daytime. It was still hot and humid as hell, but it was cooler than being inside. Despite being in Louisiana, things weren't very different from Texas. The weather seemed to have two levels: hot and hotter.
The gravel crunched under my feet as I walked along the perimeter of the bar, checking things out. Boredom was getting the best of me. There was only so much longer that I could fake my way through a conversation. I was all for making new friends, but Lillian was not a contestant in that contest. My mom would have told me to make the best of the situation, and I was pretty sure that this was the best the situation would get.
"Well butter my butt and call me Biscuit! You made it," a male voice called from in front of the bar as I rounded the corner.
I looked up from the ground and found a Saints shirt and red hat standing in front of me. It took me a few seconds to realize that John's name was actually Johnny.
"You have a girlfriend." The phrase wasn't accusing, more like a fact.
Johnny blinked a couple of times before a look of understanding washed over it. He flicked his cigarette to the ground.
"Lillian."
I nodded and kicked a couple rocks under my feet. Johnny was quite adorable, if not handsome. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and adopted an "awe shucks" stance with slumped shoulders and his head down.
"Kind of low down don't you think? Inviting me to a bar where your girlfriend is at."
I felt my blood pressure rise. It wasn't that I was mad—okay, I was a little bit—but cheating was such a rude and dirty thing. I didn't want to be a part of it, even if he was cheating on someone as annoying as Sir Blabs-A-Lot.
"We're not really together. She's just a girl that I hook up with a few times a week. Nothin' big."
I laughed. "That poor girl acts like you two are a few steps away from walking down the aisle. What do you do, just play along with her little fantasies?"
Johnny opened his mouth to reply, but I cut him off.
"You know what, I don't want to know. Clearly, I see what kind of character you have. Normally, I'm not one to pass judgment, but this situation just takes the cake."
I stormed off, putting all of my emotion into every footstep. To think that I had gotten all dressed up and giddy over this cheating asshole despite my best efforts. And because I was feeling like a bitch, I threw over my shoulder, "Lillian slept with a vampire."
A/N: This is the dress that Maggiewore to the bar: http:/ www. modcloth. Com /store/ModCloth/Womens /Dresses/Agarwood+Dress
Sorry sorry sorry! I've have this written for a while and kept planning on adding more to it, but that never happened. I'm in the process of writing my senior honors thesis, and it is taking foooorever. This is kind of a filler, but it puts me right where I need to be for the next chapter.
