Title: Normal to Supernatural in Just One Night
Author: MJ Parker
Rating: pg-13
Distribution: FF.N, if you'd like to use it else where I'd be happy to let you. Please ask first though.
Summary: When a girl walks down stairs to find her mother with a handsome blond vampire, her life changes completely.
Authors Note: All I can ask is please Read and Review. Also I can assure you that this character is not a Mary-Sue. Please let me know if I should continue.
I was really tired that night. Fall-asleep-on-top-of-my-keyboard-and-drool tired. There was a small matter or three reports that were due the next day that I hadn't started until eight o'clock. That was four hours ago. I was done with two of the papers with just one more on the themes that Dickens wrote about to go. I needed sugar and caffeine, two things only accessible from the kitchen. Saving the papers, so as not to loose the efforts of my toil, I rose from my desk in my room and went out into the hall.
It was pitch black in the hall. This was natural it being midnight and all, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I wanted to turn on the light but my mom was a light sleeper and the slightest change would cause her instant awakening followed with a lecture of massive proportions on me not doing homework. Besides, the lights weren't my biggest concern; it was the stairs I had to worry about. They groaned horribly when anyone walked up or down. They did the same as I walked down that night. The noise sounded louder than usual at night, but I didn't hear any noises from my mom's room so I continued my quest for food.
Our house is small. When you come down the stairs you're five feet from the front door and five feet from the door to the kitchen. The wood boards here creaked too, but I wasn't as worried when I walked across. I noticed that light peeked through the swing door leading to the kitchen. It was a good thing I was down here before my mom, I could turn it off and avoid another lecture about leaving unneeded lights on. My mind was mostly back upstairs at my computer trying to form the opening paragraph of my next essay. I noticed the low murmuring coming from the kitchen, but my distracted brain decided it was the icemaker in the freezer. Either that or I'd left the fridge open again. Another thing I could fix. I vaguely wondered if the milk had spoiled. If it had I wouldn't have any for my coffee and I'd have to drink it black. Yuck and ew didn't even begin to describe what I though about that.
I pushed open the kitchen door, walked in, looked around to see if I'd left the fridge open, and screamed. Very, very loudly.
No, there wasn't any horrid fungus growing out of the refrigerator. I'd actually left it closed. My problem was that my mother was on the kitchen table on her back and the only part of her that I could see were her legs. In fact if I hadn't seen the pair of toffee brown legs I wouldn't have even identified her as my mother, and I certainly couldn't identify the guy on top of her. The only thing I could identify was what they were doing. Two words…It Burns!!!! Sixteen year old girls do not need to see their moms getting laid on kitchen tables. I was never going to eat off of that table again.
As I stood there screaming like a complete idiot both the guy and my mom sat up straight, giving me views of things I did not need to see. I screamed some more and squeezed my eyes shut. I heard the sound of pants being slipped on and zippers being zipped. When the rustling finally stopped I opened my eyes and stopped screaming.
"Gin…what are you doing up?" Mom asked. She pushed a tendril of her curly hair from her face as she tried to smooth down her clothes. The whole 'being nonchalant' thing wasn't working. What am I doing up she asks; being traumatized for life, that's what. The brief moments of what I'd seen on the table were even worse than that video we'd watched in health class.
I didn't answer her, because I had no idea what to say. I turned my attentions to her 'friend'. I couldn't tell his age, he could've been my mom's age or a bit younger. His hair was bleached white blond and at the moment was in the process of curling on his head. He was wearing black jeans and no shirt so I was able to see a well-defined six pack pressing against porcelain pale skin. The first thing I noticed on his face were his eyes, they were a brilliant blue that stood out against his skin. There were also cheekbones that looked like they could cut you. Had seen him and mom walking hand in hand in the mall I'd have thought they looked good together. They did; mom's darkness accented his paleness precisely. And their eyes, blue and green respectively, matched well. Mom was short and lithe, while he was tall and muscular. These observations were dismissed about ten seconds after I noticed them, seeing as how I hadn't seen them in a mall but having sex on the kitchen table where I ate meals.
Mom's mouth dropped open as I turned and started opening cabinets, methodically looking for the sugar I'd come for. I took stale snickers and twizzlers from the shelves. After placing those down on the counter I grabbed the coffee pot from the coffee maker and filled it with water.
"What do you think you're doing? Coffee at this time of night?" Amazing how she could slip back into mom mode so easily. I put the grinds into the filter. When hot liquid began to drip into the pot I silently reached under the sink, pulled out Lysol and a rag and moved over to the offending table. "Ginger what are you…" Her voice trailed off into laughter when she saw me start to scrub down the table.
"Would you and your friend like to clean it off? Some of us eat here." I said, taking one last swipe. My voice was level with only a touch of sarcasm. The plus side of having a mom barely sixteen years older than you is that you can talk to her like a sister and not get in trouble, most of the time at least.
Her laughter subsided, seeing that I was actually slightly angry at her. "Gin, hun, this is William. Will, this is my daughter Ginger."
"'Lo ducks," William greeted me. Gee, somehow my mother had managed to pick up a Brit, here in 'Mayberry', New Jersey (it's really Maplewood, but everyone calls it Mayberry because it just seems so perfect). I noted that he at least looked a little abashed at being caught doing the nasty by a teenaged stranger. Not too much though; he was almost smirking.
"W-William and I have known each other for awhile." Mom tried to explain. "He just got back into town…um, he might stay a few days, right Will?"
He nodded with a grin. "Yeah, and it's Spike luv, Spike."
"William," she said firmly, and matched his smile.
Did I hear a 'Ginger, do you mind if my sex-friend stays a few days'? No, it was 'he's staying'. No one bothered to ask my opinion on the matter. Mom usually did that with boyfriends. I was always involved in these sorts of decisions. Why was this Will/Spike guy any different? I poured my coffee into a mug and grabbed the candy into one hand.
I glanced at Mom and Will as I backed slowly to the door. "I have reports…school stuff, uh… good night?" It came out sounding like a question, like I was asking permission to go back to the safety of my room where people weren't doing disturbing things. Mom took it as a question and gave me the patented concerned gaze.
"Look, Gin, I'm sorry…we're sorry. Really, that wasn't supposed to happen. I just haven't seen Will in such a long time. It won't happen again."
"It won't?" Will asked, shooting Mom a grin that I'm assuming was supposed to be sexy, but I wasn't going to acknowledge that.
Mom didn't answer that question with words or looks, instead she continued to focus on me. "Are you okay Gin? Do you want me to come upstairs with you?"
"No, I-I'm just going to work. Just work, then sleep." I answered, flashes of earlier scenes bombarding my mind. It was starting to burn again.
"Ok, I'm going to get William set up in the basement. I'll be up to check on you later. I want you in bed in an hour."
And it was then I that I turned and hurried as fast as I could out of the kitchen without being completely obvious that I was still scared out of my mind. There had been a naked man on my kitchen table. My thirty-year-old mother was sexually active. All I'd wanted was some coffee. Sleep would not come easy tonight.