Valentine's Day Sucks

“You probably don’t have any idea what you want to do,” my mother said. “Oh, your mouth is full.”

My plan backfired when my mother landed on another topic of conversation.

“Natalie, I forgot to tell you. I volunteered to chaperone the Valentine dance. Well, the PTA called, and I had to agree, but I knew you’d be excited. We are going to have so much fun!”

The lasagna started its way back up my esophagus.

Matt had frozen, his fork in midair.

“Mom!” I nearly shouted. “I’m not going to the dance.”

Mom looked from Matt to me and back. “I thought surely you were.”

Matt started to speak but I couldn’t let him take the heat for my mother’s assumption.

“No,” I shook my head emphatically. “We aren’t. Mom and Dad, me and Matt are just friends.”

Mom eyes widened, and she backpedaled as fast as she could. “Oh, no, dear. That isn’t what I meant at all. I just thought you would want to be there since I am going to be there.”

“Shhh,” my dad said, patting my mother’s shoulder. “You’re making it worse.”

“This lasagna is fantastic,” Matt said before heaping another spoonful into his mouth.

With all the vampire craziness and my fears about his family, dinner with my family had turned out to be the most awkward. Once again, my life reaffirmed what I’d long known to be true. Valentine’s Day sucks.

***

We were supposed to pretend to go to a movie after dinner so I could get some red blood cells in me. I would have backed out of the whole charade if my sustenance hadn’t depended on it. Better to drink my blood with the Johnsons than to sit in my room face-to-face with Matt late tonight.

“Are we still going?” Matt asked as my mother cleared the table.

I nodded.

“Oh, right,” my mother said. She’d been thrown for a loop and she was trying to cover with fake enthusiasm and a plastered-on smile. “You two run along. I wouldn’t want you to be late.”

“We can stay long enough to help with the dishes,” Matt offered.

The politeness I usually admired had come back to bite me in the butt. I tried sending my mother subliminal messages and, when that didn’t work, I shook my head vehemently behind Matt’s back and made waving bye-bye gestures.

“No, thank you. I appreciate the offer, but we have it under control.”

“Great!” I grabbed Matt by the arm and dragged him toward the door. The only thing more insufferable than dealing with him after my mother’s faux pas was continuing to deal with Mom and Matt at the same time.

“Slow down,” Matt said through laughter as I closed the front door behind us. “Your mother isn’t going to come after us.”

I shook my head. “You don’t know my mother.”

Laughing again, he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m not afraid of her. Now let’s get our story straight on what movie we are seeing but not seeing. The more we interact with your parents the more I worry.”

I should have known he could distract me from my mortification.

***

When we got to the Johnsons’ house, Matt saw the glasses of blood on the table and said, “Oh, thank God! I thought I was going to starve to death.”

“Hi, honey, how did it go?” his mother called from the couch.

His parents and sister were watching a movie in the great room.

“Fine,” he said.

“Let’s eat,” I said, striding toward the table.

I sat down, took a long sip of blood, savoring the taste, and relaxed for the first time all day.

Matt slurped his down like a human would a mocha latte.

I savored mine, taking a smaller sip. “AB?” I asked.

“You’re getting pretty good at it,” Matt said.

The truth was that I was starting to feel a lot more “at home” in the Johnsons’ house than at mine.

Just as I had feared, his mother came over to sit with us. “How’d he do? Manners? Did he eat enough?”

I smiled as I glanced over at Matt. “He did great. Perfect manners, and he totally pulled off normal.”

“Wonderful,” she said. “I have to admit I was worried.”

“Mom, I told you I had it under control.”

She sighed. “It’s just so important that they like you. More important than either of you can imagine.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Hold the drama, Mom.”

“My parents definitely like him,” I said. “I think they want to keep him. They might want to arrange a trade for me. Or maybe they want him as a son-in-law.”

Matt spit out some of his blood.

“Son-in-law?” his mother asked. “Well that is certainly good news.”

“She’s overreacting,” Matt said. “They just assumed that we’d be going to the Valentine dance together.”

“You mean you aren’t? You should. When is the dance?”

“No. We aren’t. Nat explained to them that we are friends and only friends. She made it very clear.” He raised one eyebrow and locked eyes with his mother for a long moment.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “Still, I don’t see any reason to miss the dance. You only have so many Valentine’s dances in your life.”

Heat was rising in my cheeks. “Please, Mrs. Johnson, I think he got enough pressure at my house.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sweetie,” she said, patting my hand. “Matt wants to take you. Don’t you, Matt?”

I wanted to crawl under the table.

Matt didn’t meet her eyes or mine. “I guess you would miss the dance otherwise, Nat. It’s not like you could go with someone else. It would be too dangerous. You couldn’t be within,” he cleared his throat, “inches of some other guy without wanting to bite him.”

Oh no. He was caving. He thought he would have to take me the dance. He thought it was his duty.

“It’s really okay. I don’t need to go.”

“Too late. It’s settled. You two are going to that dance.”

I looked Matt in his blue eyes. “I am so sorry.”

“Yeah,” he said, looking away from me. “I see that.”

***

After Matt dropped me off at home, I tried to sneak up to my room without my family noticing. I made the landing and was in sight of my door when I heard my brother yelling, “Mom, she’s home!”

Great. I marched into my room and sl

ammed the door. The moms were going to push Matt away from me. Taking me to the dance was just asking too much. They were messing up our friendship, and I knew he didn’t want to take me. If he’d wanted to take me, he wouldn’t have said all that junk about being my only chance to go.

Mom rapped on the door.

“Come in, Mom.”

She peeked her head in first. “Are you still speaking to me?”

With a dramatic sigh, I said, “I suppose.”

Stepping into the room, she held her arms out and said, “I am so sorry. I never meant to embarrass you.”

“I know.” I wanted to stay mad at her, but I felt too crummy.

“Did the movie go okay?” she asked.

Movie? Oh, right. “Yes.”

“Good.”

“Mom,” I said. “He asked me to the dance, but I think he thought he had to. His mother was pressuring him also.”

“She was at the movie?”

Crud. “No. She texted him.”

Mom’s face turned from bright with excitement to creased with worry. “Oh, honey. I’m sorry you feel like he was forced into it. This should be an exciting time for you.”

She sat on my bed and put her arm around me. “Matt’s smart, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then, he probably could have found a way out of asking you if he had wanted to.”

If she knew the whole story, she might understand. I couldn’t tell her that he had to take me to prevent the possibility of the violent murder of another classmate. By me. “I’m not so sure,” I said.

“You are a beautiful girl, and any boy would be lucky to take you to that dance.”

“You’re my mother. You have to say that.”

“Okay, then.” She stood up. “I’m going downstairs. Have some faith in yourself.”

Faith in myself. Huh. If she only knew how much I was hiding from her, she wouldn’t have any faith in me.

“Oh,” she said and turned around. “Don’t forget that I’ll be there too.”

No freakin’ way. “No, Mom. No!”

“Why not?”

“It will be hard enough as it is! You have to promise not to chaperone. Or I won’t go.”

Mom grumbled under her breath for a few moments.

“Remember? You wanted a nice romantic date with Dad? To make up for New Year’s Eve.”

“Fine. I won’t go.”

“You’re the best, Mom.”

***

Mom woke me at the crack of dawn by opening the curtains in my room to let the glaring light attack me.