Suzanne narrowed her eyes, trying her best to look intimidating. It was pretty early for her on a Sunday, and her frizzy hair paired with plaid pajama shorts probably didn't help her in her endeavor.
Okay, it was closer to noon, but who the hell was keeping track. She was an incredibly hard worker during the week, she should be allowed to have at least one day to be the human equivalent of a jellyfish.
"I hardly think you're in a position to tell me what I should and shouldn't eat, considering you're a fucking corpse."
Damon gasped dramatically, drawing the attention of an elderly woman standing further down the aisle of the grocery store who proceeded to look scandalized at the display of the two of them squabbling in public.
"Why, I never! I'm just looking out for you, Suze! If you don't eat meat how will you get your protein?"
Suzanne rolled her eyes and reached into the shopping cart he was pushing, shoving a few things out of the way before finding what she was looking for and holding it up.
"Tofu. We've gone over this."
Damon only wrinkled his nose in exaggerated distaste before he smacked the package back into the cart while muttering a few less-than-complimentary sentiments about her dietary choices. Well, he'd have to get used to it. She was a vegetarian and a moody vampire wasn't going to convince her to suddenly shove a burger down her throat.
He paid for her groceries when they were done. Seeing as he'd probably stolen the money at one point or another, Suzanne didn't bother turning down his offer. It wasn't like it would inconvenience him and her income wasn't exactly stellar.
When they reached her Jeep Suzanne almost broke into laughter. It was still so strange to her that her best friend was a vampire. A vampire that was currently loading her groceries into her car.
Life was weird sometimes.
When he slid into the driver's seat, however, all charitable thoughts left her mind.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Damon put on an exaggeratedly innocent face and looked side to side before pointing at himself and mouthing 'me?'
"I was thinking that you looked so tired, I should take over the wheel for a bit. Besides, nothing you got needs to be loaded into the fridge right away. We could go to the lake."
Suzanne let out a resigned sigh but climbed into the passenger seat. She thought over his words for a moment and decided to take offense to his comment.
"I don't look tired, you jackass. I'm just not wearing makeup today. I'm hardly going to get dolled up for the likes of you."
Damon snorted and turned on the radio as they pulled out of the lot, quickly changing it to an old rock song Suzanne didn't recognize. When he began humming along it was soothing in a weird way. It was a sunny Summer day and she was with her best friend. Life was pretty good right now.
"Wait! Can we get Louie first? He loves swimming."
Damon nodded and continued driving, taking the turns that would lead to her apartment. Unloading the groceries into her fridge only took a few minutes with his vampire speed and as soon as they were done Suzanne walked over to the Dalmatian sleeping in the corner of the living room, gently waking him up.
She pet him for a little while and cooed at him as Damon mocked her baby talk behind her back. Jackass.
Once her dog was sufficiently roused, Suzanne walked into her bedroom and began rifling through her things. It only took a few moments to realize that she didn't currently have any swimsuits. With a low sigh she found a sports bra and a pair of under armor shorts she figured would work just as well.
"I'm going to get changed, give me five!"
When she returned to the living room after throwing on a sun dress to act as a cover-up, Suzanne had to stifle her laughter to the sight in front of her.
Damon was crouched in front of Louie, and they seemed to be having a staring contest. Without looking away from the dog, Damon addressed her.
"We should go all out. Picnic with mimosas and shit. This needs to be an epic day to add to The Summer of Damon and Suze."
Absentmindedly, Suzanne cut him off and interrupted with their long standing argument, "The Summer of Suze and Damon. My name sounds better in front. And I'd be down for that. It will be nice having a day to completely relax. We can bitch and moan about our lack of love lives and sunbathe. It'll be like Sex and the City but without either of those things."
After her rant Damon seemed to give up on his weird rivalry against her Dalmatian and turned his head to meet her eyes, raising his eyebrows before he said in a falsely serious tone, "I really question why we're friends sometimes."
Suzanne yanked his ear as she walked by on the way to her kitchen to pack lunches and was immensely satisfied with the undignified yelping sound he made. As she pulled open the fridge and pulled out the orange juice for mimosas she answered in a sing-song voice, "Because we have the same brand of crazy and inability to make normal friends."
Damon didn't answer her verbally, but when he came over and began helping her make sandwiches she figured her answer had satisfied him. The monotony of spreading jelly evenly over wheat bread allowed her to zone out until Damon interrupted her day dream.
"Peanut butter and jelly? Are you five?"
Suzanne shook her head, unbothered as she continued making her food, but said, "No, its almond butter. I'm deathly allergic to peanuts. As I've already told you. You trying to kill me, D-Bag?"
A huffing sound was all she got in response, so Suzanne continued rambling out loud.
"It's strange to be going to the lake and swimming. I'm usually scared of swimming. Terrified actually, ever since I was twelve. I drowned in my neighbors' pool and had to be revived with CPR. I guess the no-fear thing comes in handy sometimes."
Next to her, Damon froze for a moment before he once more began chopping tomatoes for what looked like the start of a makeshift caprese salad. His tone of voice seemed to be aiming for casual, but Suzanne could immediately sense that he was on edge.
"The no-fear thing?"
"Yeah. You compelled away my fear, remember? Can't tell anyone about you and I can't feel fear. It's made my life a lot more interesting, to say the least."
Damon stopped what he was doing completely then and turned, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look at him.
"Suze… have you been doing things you normally wouldn't because you can't feel fear?"
Suzanne rolled her eyes and tried to turn back to their lunches, but his grip was firm. With an exasperated sigh she said, "No, dumbass. I can still assess what is and isn't stupid to do."
Damon still seemed on edge and released her, running a hand roughly through his hair as he began muttering only just loud enough for her to hear.
"This isn't real. You're not actually my friend. You wouldn't be if-"
Suzanne felt a surge of rage, bothered by the self-disgust she could practically see emanating from her best friend. Sometimes she wished she could find all of the people who had ever made Damon feel this badly about himself and punch them in the fucking throats.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're saying – "
Before another word could leave her mouth Damon snapped his head towards hers faster than her eyes could track, looking sad when his pupils began dilating.
"I take back all of my compulsion."