Page 111 of Road Trip with a Vampire
Zelda:About a hat?
Peter:About a hat.
“Zelda, can we make more popcorn?” Becky held up the large mixing bowl we’d been snacking from all evening. “We’re all out.”
I barely heard her. “Sure,” I said absently. He needed advice about a hat? What was happening here?
The smart move would be to ignore Peter’s text, block his number, and go back to watching the romance play out on television. But I didn’t want to do any of those things. Suddenly, finding out what the heck Peter was talking about felt far more important than anything else I could be doing.
Unfortunately, though, my friends were there. If there was official protocol for girls’ nights, texting the ex-situationship who’d been the inspiration for the girls’ night in the first place had to be a violation.
Time to go hide in my bedroom for a while, away from my friends. Like a coward.
“Linds? Becky? My mom just texted,” I chirped. “It’s important. She…um…”Think, Zelda. Think!“She needs me to call her right away.”
“Your mom?” Becky asked, eyebrows raised. “Really?”
“Yep.” I gestured to my phone, and then to my bedroom. “She’s, uh…waiting for me. Better do this in my bedroom. Be back in a minute.”
Lindsay stared at me. “Isn’t your mom dead?”
My swirling thoughts skidded to a halt. “What?” I asked, blinking at Lindsay in confusion.
“Right after we opened the studio you told us your mom died in a fire a long time ago,” Becky said. “Remember?”
“That’s…” I frantically ransacked my memories, trying to remember what, if anything, I’d told them about my family. Even if my parents were alive somewhere, they hadn’t been part of my life for centuries. How would my mother have even come up in conversation?
A vague recollection of a bring-your-family-to-work event early in Yoga Magic’s existence drifted to the front of my mind. I must have come up with a flimsy excuse for why I hadn’t brought anyone with me and told them my mother was dead.
Crap.
“That’s…what she wants to talk about, actually,” I stammered. Speaking of flimsy excuses. “She’s alive! Isn’t that great?”
I fled into my bedroom and closed the door without waitingfor my friends’ reactions to that nonsense bomb. Then I texted Peter.
Zelda:Okay show me the hat.
Three little bubbles appeared as he started replying. I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at my phone, gripping it in both hands as I waited for Peter’s reply to appear. The same way anyone who wastotallynot invested in speaking with their ex again would do.
When the picture showed up, I laughed so hard Lindsay and Becky must have heard it in the next room.
Peter had sent me a picture of himself, stone-faced and wearing the hat I’d bought him in that singing-chicken restaurant in Nevada. It was obviously a selfie, and a blurry, poorly executed one at that. I couldn’t begin to guess why he’d sent this to me.
Even if seeing his face again was the highlight of the past few weeks.
Peter:I think it’s broken.
Peter:It won’t make noise anymore when I push the button on the brim.
Peter:It just sits on my head, cluckless.
Every additional text he sent just made me laugh harder.
Zelda:I can’t believe you kept the hat
Peter:Why can’t you believe it?
Zelda:I thought you hated it
