Far Too Young to Die

"Okay, she just texted me back and said she’d be here any minute," Kenna said as she whirled around on her heels to look at Poppy. Kenna bounced happily over to where the sound dock was set up and set her iPhone in it, then grabbed the remote so she would be ready whenever Z did arrive. "Is everything ready?" she asked, glancing around. Kenna had somehow or other convinced Chase to buy her and Z some alcohol (and to use his house for this surprise party). He’d said he needed some Toby time anyway, and Kenna had done her best not to shudder at the thought.

She watched as Poppy zipped around the room putting the final touches on the decorations before finally coming to a stop. “I swear, I get really bad motion sickness when I watch you do that. You think I would have learned by now,” Kenna chuckled before pausing as she heard the taxi pull up outside. “She’s here!” Kenna cried out before running full speed and jumping (like someone in an action movie would) over the back of the couch and crouching down to hide.

"Poppy, hit the lights and then come hide!!!"

Outside the house, Zita watched the lights turn off and one brow rose. Oh lord, what had Kennoppy planned now?? She handed some cash to the taxi driver before turning and stepping up onto the sidewalk and going to the door. She glanced down at her phone once more and read the text from Kenna that said to just come on in. Taking a breath, she steeled herself for whatever was about to come and pushed the door open.

As he did, the lights flipped on, Kenna and Poppy popped up from behind a couch and yelled SURPRISE at the top of their lungs, and then the heavy bass of the music break of Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha began to play. Z… Well, she couldn’t help but smile. She had pretty great friends.

"Got it!" Poppy shouted as Kenna dived behind the couch, zipping to flip off the lights and hide right next to her. She crouched low, reminding herself over and over again that this would be fine. It was Z! Of course she'd be cool about it. They were best friends, the unholy trinity back together again ready to raze Oxford to the ground with their sexiness and charm.

She wouldn't shun her for this one bad decision, right?

 As soon as she heard the creaking of the door, Poppy sped to flip on the lights and back behind the couch to pop up in time with Kenna. God, Z's face was priceless as she took in the streamers and banners and balloons and her two best friend's grinning faces. Poppy squealed loudly after shouting surprise and wrapped Z up tight in her arms, squeezing her as hard as she could without hurting her. "It's so good to have you back, Z! What a brave soul coming back down to this swamp when you had the world in your hands back in NYC." She teased, nudging the girl a little bit and raising an eyebrow. "Heard anything more from the great Ariana Grande? You guys looked like you were well on your way to being bffs at that VS show! Which, btdubs, I am still dreaming about every night. T-Swift, Ariana, and nearly convincing Ed Sheeran to make out with me? Actual heaven."

The girl giggled once more before turning to Kenna and grasping her by the shoulders. "Oh my god. Please tell me we remembered Twister and Monopoly. I told Jackson and Alcide we'd be playing strip something tonight and I am def using my snapchat for devious purposes tonight." She wiggled her eyebrows at both of the girls before devolving into another fit of giggled. "Regardless, Z, we've got all your faves. Copious amounts of alcohol, chips, salsa, chocolate, pizza's coming...."

If Toby lived in a perfect world, it would just be himself and Jackson and Brett and his reliable old black lab Lou for the rest of his days, but Toby didn’t live in a perfect world. And Lou was currently curled up dutifully on the rug beside the couch that housed one fiery redhead by the name of Poppy Garten. Lou was a traitor and a vampire sympathizer, clearly — but then again, vampires seemed to be growing on Toby as well.

He sighed as he set his keys in the bowl in the foyer, slipped off his old work boots, and trudged into the living room as Pops flipped through the channels. And to think that less than a year ago he only had the sports cable package and beer in the fridge. Now he was stuck with 900 some channels, TruBlood stocked behind the milk and the eggs, tampons in his bathroom, and his house smelled a little bit like a vanilla cupcake — but the last wasn’t really a complaint because he did kind of like the smell of whatever candles Brett or Poppy or Kenna burned. He had no idea who the culprit behind the candles was.

Toby shot her a look as he crossed past her into his kitchen, heading to the fridge to grab a beer and a leftover sub sandwich before trudging past her once more and plopping onto the couch beside her, wordlessly chewing on the meat and cheese. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table, silently finishing his sandwich before looking to her again, sighing out through his nose. “The Saints are playing the Ravens, or there’s probably an Ole Miss basketball game on, and yet here we are. Watching the Kardashians.”

With that, the girl finally looked over, giving Toby a wide, fanged-out grin before taking another swig of her TruBlood and reaching out to pat Lou gently on the head. Okay, so yeah, the free TruBlood was great and the nine thousand channels were even better, but really: Poppy liked breaking into Toby's house because of shit like this. Toby had just kinda accepted that she was gonna be here sometimes. Didn't make a fuss, just plopped down and whined about reality tv. It was nice.

"I'm not out tonight because nothing good starts for another few hours, silly. Only old people and creepsters go out before midnight." Poppy raised an eyebrow at Toby and chuckled a little. "Which, by the way, is a leads me to ask what you're doing here. Shouldn't you be off with your little puppy and it's mama or with one of your husbands? I was shocked and surprised to hear you coming up the walkway. Thought I'd be able to help Kenna and Hugo completely trash the place before you caught wise."

Okay, so, she'd only really trashed the place that one time. But Hugo had bet that Poppy couldn't run through every room in the house in under a minute, and how could Poppy have known that she'd lack the fine motor skills to keep herself from crashing into everything as she cruSHED HUGO'S STUPID BET LIKE A BUG. Had taken about as much time to try and set everything to rights, too. Just, unfortunately, not before Toby had come home to three sheepish looking kids.

Poppy saying the words out loud made it all the more real, as if listening to her lack of a heartbeat hadn’t been enough. “What? No-no I don’t want you to apologize,” he began quickly, seeing how defensive she had gotten. In a sense, he couldn’t blame her. Jackson was having a hard time controlling his temper because someone had done this to her, he wasn’t actually mad at Poppy. Hell, he’d never be able to actually stay mad at her. “I just…didn’t expect it, that’s all. The last time I saw you you were just a kid and now you’re-” he paused, motioning up Poppy body, unsure how exactly to explain it. “A vampire,” he finally settled, because that was the bigger issue here

"....Wait, what?" The vampire blinked a little as Jackson's insistence that she didn't need to apologize finally hit her. He... He was okay with this? He was okay with her being some undead monster that sucked the blood of the innocents? This was a shocker. No one had been this cool about her being a vampire since, well... since Kenna.

Jackson had always been like a brother to her. A really hot older not-brother that she'd bang like a screen door in a hurricane given half a chance, of course, but still. She'd expected a lot more screaming and yelling and threats to whomever it was that 'did this' to her.

So this chill-ness of his was a bit... unsettling.

"I mean, of course I don't have to apologize. I've done nothing wrong. I'm an adult woman who can make her own choices and... and I chose this and it's gonna totally be fine." She shifted a little where she stood, tossing her red hair over her shoulder and sniffing regally. Poppy would be a vampire princess if she damn well pleased and so what if she still sometimes woke up nearly screaming in the middle of the day because she couldn't hear her own heartbeat and it was totally eerie and weird and okay maybe this wasn't all okay but like she was gonna tell Jackson that!!!!!

As she watched Jackson bashfully look at the ground, though, her dead heart softened a little. It had to still be new to him too. After all, Jackson had been alive, really alive five years ago when he went off to war. This had to be new for him, too, this whole undead vampire thing. So she really shouldn't be saying much herself.

Life On Mars? (David Bowie Cover) Jessica Lange