Chapter 21: Fangtasia

It was a quiet night during spring break when Marie was sitting on her bed, reading a book, and listening to her dog, Ranger, snore away at the end of the bed. She reached over to her bedside table, grabbed her mug of tea, and took a drink all without looking up from the entrancing pages before her. It had been a rather nice night so far. Her parents and brothers were out, and Elise said that she'd text her later after she was done with work.

However her illusions of having a calm night in were shattered when Ranger jumped up off the bed barking, causing Marie to spill hot tea on her book. She looked sadly down at the soggy pages and jumped again when Ranger let out another bark. "Ranger! Knock it off…" she growled at the dog as she set her mug of tea down.

A second later, there was a knock at the front door. "What?" Marie mumbled. She wasn't expecting anyone and her family would be back for hours yet. Rising from her bed, she made her way towards the front door. She was about to shout out to whoever it was that she wasn't interested in whatever they were selling when a familiar blonde head caught her eye through the glass. "Rose?" Marie moved forward to unlock the door. "Emmett, Rose, what are you two doing here?"

"Here, put these on," Rose said placing a bag from a very expensive designer's shop in Marie's hands and moving into the house without an explanation.

"Hello, Marie," Emmett said moving past her too. "Like the new hair colors."

Marie's hand shot up to her hair self-consciously and fingered the purple and blue streaks of hair set against the black. She turned to stare after the two vampires as they looked around the living room. "Thanks, my friend Alyssa did them last week. My boss wasn't the happiest, but I do wear a hat most days so no one ever really sees them. What are you two doing here?" she asked again.

Emmett bent over and held his hand out to Ranger who sniffed at it suspiciously for a moment before allowing the vampire to scratched his ears. "Hi there, buddy," he said.

"Go get changed so I can do your make-up," Rose said pushing at Marie. Marie gave her a look like she was going to protest and ask what was going on, but Rose pushed at her again. "Go!"

Marie held the bag close to her as she scuttled into her room and shut the door. She would never ever admit it out loud, but the blonde vampire did scare her slightly.

Half an hour later, Marie was standing in her parent's small bathroom with Rose Cullen doing her hair and make-up. Rose turned to look through her make-up choices that Emmett was holding when Marie spoke up. "Not that I don't mind seeing you, but what is going on? I get that we are going out, but where? The clothes are not me, and the color really isn't…" she trailed off, at a loss for a good adjective. "And the make-up?"

"Rose turned and glared at Marie in the mirror. "Alice will be hurt if you say you don't like the clothes."

"We are meeting Alice and the others?" Marie asked before shutting her mouth as Rose brought a brush to Marie's face.

"We are not meeting anyone, just going out. Alice saw that you were home alone and couldn't stand it, but she, Jasper, Edward, and Bella are going to a performance tonight, so Emmett and I are taking you out clubbing."

"That explains the clothing," Marie muttered. She looked at herself in the mirror. A girl in a green and light brown halter top, a dark brown knee length skirt, and dark brown calf-length boots stared back at her. "At least she didn't get me pink…"

"You wouldn't wear it… trust me. It was the first choice Alice wanted to get you, but she saw that you wouldn't even try it on, and she said the green and brown was better than the blue and black choice she had. Now hold still, I'm almost done," Rose said bringing the brush back up to Marie's face. Marie held still, but looked in the mirror over Rose's shoulder at Emmett who was smirking. She cringed, dreading what that could mean.

Half an hour later, Marie was staring at the dark establishment with a single bright neon sign out front declaring its name to one and all. "Fangtasia?" Marie asked. "Really?"

"Vampire club," Emmett said casually.

"Yeah, I know, but you do realize that they won't view you as vampires," Marie said turning to face Emmett and Rose. "They don't sparkle and they're basically going to view you as..." she fished for the words. "Fae with a blood lust," she finished.

Rose shrugged while Emmett glared at her description. "Not our fault that fandoms have collided."

"It isn't Elise's or mine either. We didn't exactly ask for all this weird stuff to happen to us. Now, we don't complain much… unless it's Mr. I Have A Potato In My Pants..." she frowned. "But again, we didn't ask for this."

Rose and Emmett looked to have tuned her out within the first few words. "Are you finished?" Rose asked.

"Yes?"

"Good," and with that, Rose and Emmett grabbed hold of her arms and walked her forward to the door. "ID's?" the bouncer asked. Marie dug hers out of her wrist purse and the bouncer nodded them in. "Have a pleasant time," he said flashing a set of fangs in his smile.

"Thanks," Marie said quietly, following Emmett and Rose into the club, the music washing over them as they entered. Two minutes later, they were seated at a high-top table with drinks. Marie sipped self-consciously at her vodka raspberry lemonade, noticing that Emmett had a bottle of O- and Rose had A+. She stared at the dancers on the floor, their gyrating bodies holding her captive until a pale man with dark hair and a blood red shirt came up to their table and shouted over the heavy bass, "Wanna dance?"

Marie took him in for a moment. Not only was he being stereotypically vampirish but he was also doused in some kind of cologne that made Marie want to throw up a little. She was about to blow the guy off herself, but Rose interrupted, "She's with us, boy. Go bug someone who doesn't have a sense of smell, because you most definitely will not be getting anyone else with that stench hanging around you."

The vampire let out a low growl, which Emmett reciprocated before turning away from the table in a huff. Marie, who hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until that moment, let it all out in a giggle. "That was excellent, Rose."

Rose waved her off and gracefully slid off of her stool. She held a hand out to Marie. "Come on, let's dance. Emmett will watch our drinks."

Marie turned to look at Emmett who merely smiled and nodded. Smiling, Marie allowed Rose to lead the way onto the dance floor and start a fast pace dance to the current song playing. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it had a lot of bass and that bass was thumping along at a particularly fast pace. She tried to keep up with Rose, but she feared that she was a better wallflower than dancer, especially when compared to the blonde in front of her.

Eventually, they made it back to the table laughing. That was when Marie looked over at the door and saw the red head who'd just entered the club. "Wow," she muttered unconsciously.

Emmett looked in the direction Marie was looking and smiled. "Go talk to her," he said.

"What?" Marie exclaimed. "I can't, she isn't into girls."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know who she is."

Emmett let out a huff. "More books?"

"TV actually," Marie shrugged. It was then that she noticed that Rose was missing. When she voiced her observation to Emmett he merely smiled and pointed. Marie looked back to see Rose escorting Jessica through the crowd towards them. "Hi," the red head said as she reached them.

"Um… hi," Marie replied inelegantly.

"Heard you wanted to dance." She smiled.

"I –" she glanced at Emmett and Rose who had moved together and were making their way towards the dance floor. "That would be amazing," Marie finished with a smile.

Several hours later, Marie waved good-bye to Rose and Emmett as they sped off in Rose's sleek red sports car. She pulled out her phone after locking the front door behind her. A text from Elise flashed on her phone. Off work finally… took FOREVER! How was your night? -EW

Marie smirked, thinking about the new number saved in her phone. Good night. Went out. Got buzzed and met a girl. Can't wait to see you this weekend to tell you all about it. Showering then bed. -MJ

Girl? What girl? –EW

Marie? – EW

Oh come on! I just spent the night cleaning up glitter from Jareth's unexpected visit at work. You don't even want to hear the excuse I made up for my co-workers. – EW

Marie? – EW

o O o O o O o

Twilight (c) Stephenie Meyer

Jareth (c) Jim Henson, Brian Froud, & David Bowie