The Accidental Kiss

by Nicole Simone

  “What do you want?” I asked, getting to the point.

  “You know what I want.”

  I pushed away the fear and settled for anger instead. I was having a good time with my friends, eating pretzels, and enjoying life as a normal teenager when Parker had to come along. Besides, how could he drain my blood with thousands of people surrounding us? Frankly, it seemed like this whole intimidation tactic could have waited.

  “Fuck off,” I snarled.

  A glimmer of surprise registered on his face, which quickly morphed into pure delight. “You are a little spitfire, aren’t you?” Parker chuckled. “How thrilling.”

  Dread turned in my stomach. This was obviously a game to him with a pint of my blood as the grand prize. I took another step backwards, bumping into a rack of clothes.

  Faster than you could count to three, Parker closed the distance and bent his lips towards my ear. “You can’t run, Sky. Your knight in shining armor might have saved you last time but mark my words, we’ll get you and when we do, you’ll be begging for death.”

  After Parker had reminded me of my fate, he vanished into the throngs of people. The moment was over as quickly as it had happened. Feigning an illness, I asked to be dropped off at home. Since I was pale as a ghost, Lucy and Emily had no qualms about doing so. A string of goodbyes later, I opened the front door and nearly wept at the smell of my mom’s perfume lingering in the entryway. She used to say that without me, she wouldn’t have found the life she was meant to live. Back in the olden days, my mom had been a wild child; rebelling against her strict southern mother drove her to party, drink, and dance on bar counters until 2:00 a.m. Until she met my dad, who was her stillness in the rockiest of seas. The details on why they got divorced were hazy but he had left my mom broke and with a 6 month old baby to take care of. After answering a random ad in the newspaper, she became a beauty mortician and as they say, the rest was history.

  Frank head-butted my legs and I bent down. “Hey buddy, you will take good care of mama if anything happens to me, right?” He licked my cheek. Burying my face in his coat, tears flooded my eyes. “I knew I could count on you,” I whispered.

  Frank patiently let me hold him until the sadness dissipated and a new resolve kicked in. My mom wouldn’t walk this earth without her daughter. That was a promise.

  “Sky, what are you doing on the floor with Frank? You’re getting dog hair all over your clothes.”

  I pushed myself to my feet and flung my arms around my mom’s neck. “I love you.”

  She smoothed down my hair. “I love you too, sweetheart. Is everything ok?”

  “Fine.”

  She held me by the shoulders as she gently separated us. The worried look in her eyes broke my heart. “You’re sure you’re being safe?”

  “Yes. Don’t fret. It’s not good for your wrinkles,” I said, repeating a line my grandmother was famous for.

  My mom smiled, ridding the anxiety from her expression. “You are a pain in my butt, you know that?”

  “I know but you can’t say my presence doesn’t add a little flare into your life.” I pecked her on the cheek and strolled into the kitchen.

  Laura was standing over a huge pot on the stove. Wooden spoon in hand, she stirred and took a taste. The smell of garlic lingered in the air. I really hoped it wasn’t pasta. My mom had served spaghetti the past three nights in a row.

  “What are you making?” I inquired.

  Laura wiped her hands on an apron and turned around. “My ex-boyfriend’s mom’s recipe for cholent. It’s a Jewish beef stew, but without meat for your mom.”

  This mysterious ex-boyfriend seemed different than others. Usually, Laura had no problem moving on. I used to think she was incapable of love, but looking at her now I recognized the signs of heartache. Her shoulders were hunched as if the weight of what she had lost was too much to bear.

  “You guys seem serious. What happened?” I asked

  Laura’s eyes flashed with remorse as she went back to stirring the stew. A heavy silence fell over us.

  I was about to apologize when she spoke. “He wanted us to move in together.”

  Based on what my mom had told me, I knew moving in together equaled a kiss of death to Laura. A stifling childhood made Laura crave independence like water and when she found it, she was afraid to let it go for anybody.

  “And I’m guessing you don’t want to?” My voice lifted at the end in a question.

  Laura spun on her heels, the wooden spoon pointed at me. “Of course I want to, Sky, but I can’t.”

  I wanted to hear the reason directly from her lips because maybe then she would realize how foolish it was. “Why?”

  She blinked at me. “Why? Because I said so.”

  “That’s not a good…” She shot me a cutting glance and the words died in my throat. I held up my hands. “Ok, your business is your own.”

  “Thank you. Can you hand me the paprika?”

  I shuffled over to the spice cabinet and picked out the red box. Handing it to her, Laura added a dash of paprika into the stew.

  “It’s the secret ingredient,” she whispered as if her ex-boyfriend’s mother would hear her.

  Saved by the doorbell, I left Laura alone to cook out her feelings. As I rounded the corner, my mom answered the door.

  She greeted the visitor in her telemarketer voice, polite but not too polite. “Hello, can I help you?”

  “Yes. I am here to see Sky.”

  My feet skidded to a halt on the hardwood floors. Daemon was at my house, talking to my mom. Fingers crossed she didn’t become aware of his scar or hear his name. Basically this night had a ninety-five percent chance of going up into flames. To be honest, I totally forgot he was supposed to come over tonight. Wait a second…when did I give him my home address? I searched my memory and came out with never so then how did Daemon know where to take me after the voodoo priestess had healed my wounds? The plot thickened. My mom’s laughter grounded me in reality and I bolted toward the front door.

  “I’m here,” I shouted.

  She looked at me as if I was a weirdo. “There is no reason to yell.” She glanced back at Daemon; a flirtatious smiled tilting up her lips. “Sky has always sided with the dramatics.”

  Seriously? My mom had fallen under Daemon’s spell as well. For Pete’s sake, his magnetism was getting out of hand. Daemon stood on the front porch, bathed in the moonlight. A white button up long sleeve t-shirt was rolled casually at his elbows. The top button was undone and showed a peek of chest hair. Black slacks completed the outfit. The air left my lungs. Daemon dressed in his Sunday’s best to come over to my house. It was as if he cared what my mom thought of him, which according to romantic comedies indicated Daemon in turn cared about me. At least, I think that’s how it worked. I never last until the end of those movies because the plot was always the same. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy convinces girl they belong together, and they get married.

  “She also gets lost in her head a lot,” Daemon said.

  I shook off my thoughts to find them both looking at me. “What?”

  My mom opened the door further and stepped aside. “Why don’t you come in?”

  “Thanks.”

  He entered the foyer, almost nailing his head on the chandelier. Either our house was built for a dwarf, or Daemon was freakishly tall.

  “We were just about to eat dinner, would you like to join us?” My mom asked.

  “No,” I answered at the same time Daemon said yes. Shooting him the stink eye, I swung my gaze over to my mom. “He can’t. He has that thing later on.”

  “It got cancelled. I would love to stay for dinner,” he responded smoothly.

  The longer he stayed, the greater the chances were his real identity would be revealed. My mom would freak if she found out there was a zombie in our house.

  She beamed at the news. “Great, I’ll tell Laura to set out another place setting.”

  Once she was out of sight, I pointed in th
e direction of the backyard and beckoned him to follow me outside. When my mom had rented this house, she had grand plans to grow vegetables in the raised planters. So far, she’d purchased seeds, which sat on the dining room table untouched. Stepping out onto the cobblestone patio, I inhaled the sweet smell of jasmine. A wooden pine fence surrounded the overgrown landscaping and it was as if Daemon and I had entered our own private world.

  He broke the silence. “It’s beautiful out here.”

  “It is. I had nothing like this back in Los Angeles. I had to settle for cement and smog instead.”

  Daemon’s smoldering gaze reached inside my soul. “You shouldn’t have to settle for anything.”

  A swell of affection washed over me so strong I felt as if I was drowning. My whole life I had never met anyone like Daemon because, let’s be honest, he was one of a kind. He was passionate, relentless, overprotective, and fearless. I wanted to smack him and kiss him within a five second time frame. He was everything I hadn’t known I was looking for.

  I cleared my throat. “Do you want to sit down?”

  “Sure.”

  The porch swing shifted under our weight. I kicked my legs out and gently started to rock back and forth. “When I first moved here, the mugginess almost did me in. Do you mind living in the south?”

  “It’s fine.”

  Daemon’s vague answers used to grate on my nerves but now I simply saw them as part of him. He rolled up his sleeves; the tip of the rattlesnake tail came into view.

  With my fingertip, I traced the raised lines on his skin. Entranced by the dips and flows of the design. “Why would anyone brand you like a animal?”

  “Because to the voodoo priest we are exactly that. Animals.”

  Hot anger zapped through my veins. “I hate him,” I breathed.

  “Me and you both.”

  My hand stilled on his arm as I snuck at a glance at his profile. Daemon was a mystery in the truest sense of the word. While he told me about his past, he told me very little about his present. I wanted to know everything about Daemon. His likes, dislikes, and how he found life as a semi-free zombie. Since, he was a hard nut to crack, I decided to tell him about the night of the accident and hoped it compelled Daemon to open up as well.

  “There is something I need to tell you.” My eyes slipped over to Daemon to gage his reaction, which remained cool as stone. I took a shuddering breath and continued. “My mom and I moved here because my best friend Melissa died. Best friend doesn’t describe what she was to me. She was a sister, a confidante, and the one who knew me better than anyone else. We met when we were five-year-olds on the playground.” The memory came back to me vividly. “Melissa was crying because the boy she had a crush on stole her graham crackers. I sat next to her on the bench and offered to share my teddy grahams. With snot running down her nose, she accepted and subsequently accepted my friendship.”

  “Nothing like snotty teddy grahams to seal the deal,” Daemon joked.

  A laugh bubbled out my throat. “What can I say? It doesn’t take a lot when you’re little. We were attached at the hip until the…” I choked on the word. “Accident.”

  He slipped his fingers through mine and squeezed. “Tell me, Sky. Tell me what happened.”

  I released his hand and turned my palms upwards. Since the day of the accident, I sometimes awoke at night expecting to see them bathed in Melissa’s blood. “It was a run of a mill car accident. An extremely predictable way to die for a girl who was anything but.”

  “And you were there?” Daemon prodded gently.

  “I wasn’t only there, I was the reason she died.” The confession tasted bitter in my mouth as bile swirled in my stomach. “We had just left our friend’s house party and I asked her to drive since I was pretty drunk. Melissa agreed and got behind the wheel.” I shut my eyes against the images flooding my mind. “We were in the middle of a war against the radio dial when a car t-boned us. When I came to, I stumbled out of the car and saw her body lying on the ground. According to the paramedics, she was thrown through the windshield.” Tears ran down my cheeks. “In that moment though, half dazed and hysterical, it hadn’t dawned on me she was gone. I tried to save her.” I bit back a sob. “I laid my hands over where she was injured but I couldn’t tell. There was too much blood. Everywhere.” My words became disjointed as the grief struck me like a thunderbolt. “So much blood. It tainted the street red.” Daemon gathered me into his arms. “And now it’s time I paid for my actions.” The dam broke free and my tears flowed freely, soaking his shirt.

  “Shh,” he soothed. “Melissa’s death wasn’t your fault and you’re not going anywhere. You belong on this earth with me.” Daemon kissed the top of my head. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Sky. That’s a promise I’ll keep until my last breath.”

  Minutes blended into one as I curled into Daemon and released the anguish inside. He quietly held me until my sobs turned into a whimper. My hands unclenched themselves from his shirt as I sat up. Humiliation heated my cheeks. He must think I was a basket case for falling apart like that.

  Daemon read my mind and put my fears to rest. “You’re incredibly brave, you know that?”

  “No, I am not.”

  Luck was the word I would use instead. The doctors said I was lucky for walking away with minor injuries and my friends told me I was lucky I wasn’t the one who died. Yet when days passed without my best friend by my side or when I woke up with nightmares so vivid it was as if I was back on the gravel road, luck didn’t feel like the correct word neither did brave. If I was brave, I would have gone to her funeral and faced her family, but I couldn’t. Not when I had put her behind the wheel.

  Daemon tilted my chin toward him. His eyes glowed with an intense heat. “You’re a survivor. That takes immense bravery.”

  I tumbled head first into his greenish blue eyes that were like the tropical ocean. I could swim for days in the warmth of his affection. Daemon swept his thumb over my bottom lip, igniting a spark of lust. I leaned forward until our breaths mingled. Energy thrummed between us. In the distance, a patio door opened but nothing mattered except the feeling of Daemon’s lips on mine.

  “Dinner is ready,” my mom called out into the silence.

  The moment shattered into a million pieces as Daemon jerked away from me. I wanted to pull him back and reclaim the kiss I was owed.

  He got off the swing, holding his hand out to me. “You ready?”

  “For what? My mom to ask you a millions questions and grudge up old embarrassing stories about me? No.”

  His laughter was music to my ears. “Come on wiseass. Let’s eat.”

  I intertwined my fingers into his. “Ok, but Daemon? Don’t tell my mom you’re a zombie. Oh! And also you should probably change your name to Laurence or something.”

  “So basically you want me to not be myself tonight?”

  “Yes?”

  If he was insulted by my request, Daemon didn’t let on. “You got it.” He heaved me onto my feet and we walked into the lion’s den together.

  My mom had the set the table with a white tablecloth and a vase of fresh flowers. Our best china was laid out next to gold plated forks. The lights were dimmed low and candles flickered. It was overkill to the ninth degree.

  I groaned. “Is this really necessary?”

  Laura bustled into the dining room, holding a steaming pot of stew. As she passed, she whispered in my ear. “It makes her happy. Be nice.”

  I turned to look over at my mom and saw Laura was right. My mom had a glow to her I hadn’t seen in awhile. Her cheeks were pale pink, her eyes were bright, and the lines around her mouth had faded. Back in Los Angeles, my mom hosted a weekly book club that she had left behind when she moved here. I guess she missed the art of entertaining.

  “Stupid thing,” My mom cursed as she tried to uncork a bottle of red wine. She placed the bottle between her legs. Before she killed herself, Daemon rushed over and offered his help. “Thank you,” She handed it
over to him with a grateful smile. “It’s nice to have a man around for times like these.”

  I tried not to drool over Daemon’s bulging biceps but it was near impossible not to do so. He effortlessly uncorked the bottle and set it on the table next to the pot of stew.

  Laura clapped her hands together. “Ok let’s eat.”

  Daemon took a seat next to me while Laura and my mom sat opposite. I never would have believed it if somebody told me a week ago a zombie would be joining us for dinner.

  “By the way, I’m Laura.” She gave a little wave to Daemon who flashed her a smile.

  “I’m Laurence, it’s nice to meet you.”

  My mom’s hand flew to her heart, as her eyes grew wide. “Oh my, I forgot to introduce myself as well. How rude. As you figured I am Sky’s mom, but you can call me Dee.”

  He trained his green eyes on my mom. “It’s nice to meet you, Dee.”

  Once the introductions were done, I greedily helped myself to a bowl of stew. After the encounter in the store with Parker, my appetite was gone. Nothing like a death threat to chase away your hunger. However, after the crying fest in the backyard, it had returned with a vengeance.

  My mom placed her napkin over her lap. “So what’s your relationship with my daughter?”

  The spoonful of soup I had eaten lodged in my throat. Sputtering, I took a sip of water and cleared my airway. “What the… are you serious, mom?”

  Daemon laid his hand on top of mine. “No, it’s ok.” He swung his gaze over to my mom. “We’re friends.”

  Oddly, although that’s what we were, I felt stung by his comment because weren’t we a little more than that? Friends don’t get to second base and friends certainly don’t conjure up dirty thoughts. Nonetheless, I had no idea what other label to slap on us.

  Laura raised her eyebrows. “Friends? Huh? Is that what you kids call it these days?”

  Leave it to Laura to call out bullshit when she saw it. Daemon took a sip of soup and remained quiet. An awkward tension hung in the air. A couple of seconds went by with only the clatter of silverware ringing out.