Black Sunshine: A Dark Vampire Romance

“Yeah, maybe,” I say, and it makes me feel a bit better.

“Hey,” my mom says, putting down her mug and looking at me with hopeful eyes. “Since you’re having problems with Matt at the moment, maybe you’ll rethink your birthday plans.”

I sigh. My parents have been very weird and emotional about my birthday. When I turned sixteen and eighteen it was all good, but now that I’m turning twenty-one, suddenly they think it’s the end of the world, like I’ve officially grown up and won’t be their daughter anymore.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago they asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I said I wanted to have a party with friends, and then they suggested maybe I could spend my birthday with them.

Like, alone.

Like, on a family trip.

And, as much as I love my parents, that doesn’t spell a good time to me.

I told them no, of course, but I’ve been feeling hella guilty about it ever since, and now after the whole thing with Matt, maybe it’s not the worst idea.

“I don’t know,” I tell her carefully.

“Oh, it will be fun. I promise you. We’ve been looking at one of those cool houses to rent in the middle of the desert, like Joshua Tree. You love that place.”

It’s true. I’ve been to Coachella a few times, and once after the festival, Elle and I rented a glamping spot in the middle of Joshua Tree National Park. I totally fell in love with the place. Something about the remoteness, the sparseness of the land, the stars, and that ever-reaching night sky, like you’re plugged right into the universe. I swear I could feel my blood singing to the moon.

“Are you sure you want to take me to the middle of the desert?”

“Of course!” she exclaims. “We can light a bonfire, dance around it, get drunk.”

“Yeah, right,” I tell her. Oh, they’ll totally dance around the bonfire and yell blessings up to the moon goddess or some nonsense, but my parents very rarely drink. They don’t like to lose control. They don’t even smoke pot, although that’s something I do regularly. Helps dull the world a little, and definitely helps me sleep.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. It will probably be our last trip as a family.”

I finish the dregs of my coffee and give her a sharp look. She’s smiling, but behind her eyes she’s absolutely gutted for reasons I don’t understand.

“Mom. Don’t be so dramatic. I’m still going to be living downstairs. I’ve still got two more years of school, and even then I’ll end up doing my Masters and PhD here. I’m not going anywhere.”

She sniffs and gently runs her fingers under her eyes. “I know. I can’t help but hate that you’re getting older.”

Ugh. Talk about pulling at the heartstrings here.

“Stop. Look. If I say yes to the desert birthday, will you stop acting so sad about it all?”

She smiles. Still looks sad though. “Yes. I promise.” She clears her throat. “Do you still want that Alexander McQueen bag for your birthday?”

I’m not really a designer goods kind of gal, most of my clothes I get through AllSaints and Free People when I can afford it, and Poshmark when I can’t. But a couple of weeks ago I saw this black Alexander McQueen purse with this skull and stone design and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s expensive as hell, so when I mentioned it to my parents I really didn’t think anything would come of it. I’ll be working most of the summer at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, so I figured I would just save up.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to bother with that,” I tell her. “I know it’s stupid expensive.”

“You only turn twenty-one once,” my mother says. “Stay right here.”

She walks off down the hall to the bedroom and I’m left wondering what’s going on. It’s not long before she’s back and holding an Alexander McQueen box. “I did a thing.”

My mouth drops open. “What?!” I immediately reach for it. “You got me the bag?”

She holds the box away from me. “I did. We both did. But we should probably wait until your father is home before we open it.”

“But…but it’s not my birthday for another two weeks.”

“I know.” She rotates the box around and around in her hands. “But why wait? Why not enjoy it now? You can wear it to class when you do your final exam. For good luck.”

“I don’t know what to say.” My parents have always spoiled me throughout my life, I know that much. I work extra hard because of it, because I’m always trying to be deserving of it. They have money, too, my father coming into a huge inheritance from his father, someone I never got a chance to meet before he died, but even so, the guilt is real.