100% Freshie Chapter 28 --PG-13

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librarian_7
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100% Freshie Chapter 28 --PG-13

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Disclaimer: The characters from Moonlight are copyrighted by CBS, and no infringement is intended.

Special note: This work takes place in the world of Moonlight, but your favorite vamps are not the main focus. Sorry about that; try to enjoy the story anyway. You might be surprised.


100% Freshie

Chapter 28

Annie settled her sunglasses more firmly on her nose and leaned back in the uncomfortable plastic chair, wishing she were almost anywhere else, but when you were running out of clean underwear, you did laundry. She’d never, she reflected, been in a Laundromat with comfortable chairs. And lord, but her mouth was dry today. She pulled another bottle of Gatorade out of her tote bag, and twisted ineffectually at the cap. She felt weak, and supposed it was the blood loss. And that thought made her smile, putting a hand up to her neck, to where her turtleneck sweater covered the marks Tyler had left on her neck. “Cry,” he’d called her. She had a freshie name now, and she needed to start thinking of herself by her new name. And she not only had a real vamp bite, he said he wanted to feed from her again. Behind the dark glasses, her eyes softened. She’d been afraid, but that other freshie, Danger, had been right. Tyler’s bite had been, well, orgasmic. If he wasn’t the dark, brooding Byronic presence she’d expected, he’d do.

Meanwhile, this stupid bottle was never going to open. She just couldn’t get it to twist.

“Excuse me, ma’am, can I help you with that?”

Cry looked up. A powerfully built, tanned young man was standing in front of her. He was maybe college age, no older, wearing faded jeans, an old t-shirt, and a friendly expression. And while she didn’t normally talk to strangers, this one looked harmless. Besides, she thought, I spent yesterday evening with a vampire and lived to, well, maybe not talk about it, but lived, anyway. She considered. What danger could there be from this obviously ordinary young man?

She held the bottle out to him. “Thanks. I just can’t seem to break the seal on this one.”

He took it, unscrewed the cap effortlessly, and handed it back. “There you go.”

Cry smiled at him and took a long swig of her drink. She ought to just thank him again and let him walk away, but the truth was, she’d been too isolated for too long. Too focused. “Been in town long?”

“About a week.” He smiled back, crinkling the skin at the corners of his eyes. “That obvious, huh?”

“The ‘ma’am’ was kind of a giveaway.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I figured. It’s a hard habit to break, you know?”

Cry nodded in agreement. “Habits can be pretty powerful.”

The young man looked away, down. “Yeah. They can,” he said. “Look, I don’t mean to impose, but, uh, it’s really nice just to talk to somebody. I’ve been on the road for awhile, and it’s been a lonely couple of weeks.”

“I know what you mean. I’m kind of a stranger in town myself,” Cry replied, and that was all it took. They chatted awkwardly at first, but it got easier. It was all so normal. Eventually, the clothes were washed and dried and folded, and he suggested coffee. She declined, and he asked for her phone number.

“I don’t have a cell,” she said, “but I’ll be getting one in the next day or two.” Danger and Tyler had both stressed the importance of having a phone, if she was going to be any kind of a freshie at all. And while she had doubts about being at the beck and call of any vamp, even Tyler, she’d been grateful at Danger’s pointed suggestion that Tyler arrange for a phone for his new freshie. “Anyway, why don’t you give me your number, and when I get my phone, I’ll call you?”

If he was disappointed, he didn’t show it, and as he shouldered his bag of clean laundry, he gave her a cheery wave. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you, Cry.” He paused. “I still think that’s a funny name.”

“Well, you know how nicknames are.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Well—call me.”

“I will.” As she picked up her own basket of laundry, she watched thoughtfully through the Laundromat windows, as he strode across the street to where his Cherokee was parked in a patch of shade.

When Cry got back to her apartment building, she found a note from the manager informing her she had packages to pick up in the office. One “package” turned out to be a bouquet of blood red roses; the other two were smaller. The apartment manager, an older woman with teased, improbably blonde hair, scarlet talons, and a permanent cigarette in her hand, sniffed that she must have impressed someone, leaving unsaid that it seemed unlikely for such a mousy little thing to have done so. Not without having gone further than she should.

Cry blushed at that, although she felt the tiniest bit smug, knowing that the old harridan would never believe how it was that she’d “impressed” someone. And she wondered what the note with the roses might say, but she wasn’t about to do that in the office.

As it happened, the note said only ‘Thanks—T.” That was innocuous enough, although she supposed there might be a way to twist it into something less innocent. As she was sure the manager might have done.

The smallest package contained her permanent WFS membership card, as well as a supply of basic business cards. They carried a WFS logo, her new name, member number, and an unfamiliar phone number. On the back of her membership card, the emergency contact listed was the WFS headquarters, and it also gave instructions that if the situation warranted, she should be taken to Sacred Angels Hospital, which she’d never heard of before. As she switched out the temporary card in her billfold for the new one, she remembered what the supercilious woman at the society office had said when she turned in her paperwork. Cry had been a little dismayed at the long questionnaire, although some of the member benefits, such as health coverage, seemed generous. That had gotten her a sardonic smile from the well-dressed receptionist.

“They’re not stupid, you know,” she said, “and they do try to take care of their own.”

The last package contained the cell phone Tyler had promised her, and she noted with some amusement that three numbers were already programmed in. The WFS, Danger, and, of course, she saw with a smile, Tyler. And there was a brief note.

“Cry—Guess you’re all official by now. Call Danger if you have any questions, and I’ll be talking to you soon. Tyler.”

She programmed in the number of her new acquaintance from the Laundromat at once, but the first call she made was to a number several states away. As she expected, the call went to voicemail, but she really only wanted to leave a message anyway. “Mom?” she said, “things are going well. I think I’m on the right track at last.”
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francis
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Re: 100% Freshie Chapter 28 --PG-13

Post by francis »

Annie has fond memories and knows she has Danni to thank.
I like to hear more about how a freshie is introduced to the WFS, the cards are good, and the Sacred Angels Hospital seems to be almost canon, so often did I read it in fanfiction.
I hope Annie doesn’t get into trouble. I get bad vibes from this young man.
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