This Is What Makes Us Girls (Maddison)

[Emerson (DELETED 8699)]

Emerson wasn't much of a talker. At least not when first met. She tended to ramble and be too honest and it was just better for everyone at the end of the day for her to say too little than to say too much. She listened to Maddison carefully, finishing up her nail polish. The cap was screwed back into place, and joined with the rest of the polishes.

"A model? Like, on the runway, or..?" she wondered. She liked fashion well enough, but she didn't think it would be an ideal area of work for herself. And although she caught onto it, the brunette didn't question the past tense verb that was used. It's not like she really had any place to.

"You're twenty-seven? Hm." Everyone always seemed to be older than Emerson. Not that she minded, because she actually preferred it. Age came with maturity (usually), as well as with experience, which meant lots of stories. Emerson loved stories. "I like coloring, but I don't think that's quite the same thing as doodling," she said with a small giggle. Adult coloring books had taken the shelves by storm lately, so it made one of her favorite pastimes something of the norm. "A store. That's cool." She paused for a moment. "I dunno what I want to do for work. But oh well." She shrugged like it was no big deal. In her eyes, at least, it wasn't.

"You like blue? I'd never guess," Emerson teased, motioning to the blue polish now adorning the woman's nails. She sat back into the couch, making herself a bit more comfortable. If that meant flashing her undergarments as she adjusted (she was in a skirt, after all), then so be it. "I'm too awkward to dance with other people, and on my own, I just jump and spin around til I crash to the floor. And I've never had anything stronger than apple juice." Worry sprung in Emerson's chest. She and Maddison seemed to be more different than they were alike.

Pushing the worry as far back in her mind as she could, Emerson perked up a bit. "Single... ish? Oh, c'mon. can't just leave me at that. Someone special?" She wouldn't push, but she'd listen if need be. "And if they have any friends, I'm always looking for someone." She laughed some more.

Emerson froze up a bit at the mention of the city, It'd been about a month, if she remembered correctly, since the last time she visited and stayed for good. In all honesty, she didn't remember all the details, and what she did know was sparse and far in between. Her head did still hurt some. But how would that make her seem to the blonde? The girl cleared her throat a bit. "Not much else about me, really." She fiddled with her fingers. The polish was dry now. "Um, could I braid your hair? It'd be easier for me to talk if you weren't looking at me. If that makes sense?" Emerson hoped she wasn't coming off as being rude.

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

Maddison chuckled and rested back against the couch. "I did some run way shoes, but mostly ads." She shrugged some. "It was fun times. The atmosphere was always great and I loved walking the runways. I made a lot of good friends from it. I still keep in contact with them sometimes. We're planning a get a way here soon I think."

She shrugged some. "Yes, single-ish. It's a really long story and very complicated. I won't bother you with all the details. It's the dude who also lives here. He's techincally my sire..." She frowned. It sounded so...inappropriate. Maybe it was? She hadn't really thought about that part of it.

Maddison had a lot of feelings when it came to Robin. Most of the time she felt that butterfly feeling in her stomach. They had kissed more than once, but things had been pretty awkward since. She didn't want to share the details of Robin killing the drunk guy that had put his hands on her. She definitely didn't want to get into all of the blood. She was doing her best to put it past her and past Robin. She only hope it had been a one time thing.

Maddison sighed some and then nodded. "Sure, I'd be fine with my hair being braided." Sliding off the couch, she moved to sit on the floor, legs crossed. Her back was to the couch so that woman would be able to get better access to her long blonde locks.

[Emerson (DELETED 8699)]

Emerson wondered what it would be like to be a model. If it was anything like dress up, it was probably lots of fun. The only difference between the two would be the mass amount of attention on a single person at once. She didn't think she could handle that. She also definitely didn't reach the height requirements and was clumsy enough without heels to worry about tripping over. Good thing she wasn't a model, then.

"Awe, that's sweet. What do y'think you guys will be doing?" Emerson asked, regarding Maddison's comment about her friends. "I haven't kept in much touch with any of my old friends. I'd rather them not know about me being... different." She couldn't even say vampire. Not even in front of another vampire, let alone one who was a part of her bloodline. It was all still too surreal to her.

Someone else lived here, and Emerson knew it the second she had walked into the door. She was still getting used to her heightened senses, and she could smell something in the air that wasn't anything quite like Maddison. At least she knew who it belonged to. "Oh, your sire?" She shrugged. It didn't seem inappropriate to her. People liked who they liked. Things happened. That was life, and was the relationship between a sire and a childer always concrete and professional anyways? She didn't seem to believe so. "I hope whatever's going on all works out, though."

Emerson let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when Maddison thankfully complied to her request."Thanks. I know it's weird, but it's kinda hard for me to talk when I can feel people looking at me." She gently finger-combed through the woman's hair - it was like silk through her fingertips and smelled really good. "I mean, it's polite to look at someone when they're talking to you. And I know that, too. Something in my brain just registers as that being bad. Dunno." She reached for strands of hair at the very top of Maddison's head and split it into three sections. "So, the city. M'not too sure where to start about that. My first memory of being here is when I got sired." That had been one hell of a night, that's for sure. "I guess I passed out and got thrown around a bit in the midst of everything that happened. Hit my head. And now I can't remember a ton." She frowned, starting a clean French braid down Maddison's hair. "I've been working on trying to get some memories back. They come in bits and pieces, really. But it doesn't bother me too much. My life's pretty okay right now." Emerson continued on with the braid, making sure it was neat. When she reached the end's of Maddison's hair, she tied it off with a spare elastic that had been occupying her wrist.

"There y'go, Madds." She reached over the woman's shoulder to grab another handful of chocolate, popping one of the pieces into her mouth.

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

"Oh. I think we're going to go out of town for a bit. It's looking like Colorado or something, to ski and all that fun jazz. I'm excited. I just can't wait to sink into the hot tub and relax." She hadn't mentioned this trip to Robin yet. She wondered how he would take it. Probably not well. It was best to leave it until last minute, probably. She didn't really know. He'd probably hang out with Lincoln and that wasn't exactly something she liked either.

"It's just supposed to be a relaxing girl's weekend. I hope so, I've missed the girls from the modeling company. I couldn't do it anymore after being turned..." She let that slip and then shrugged, scrubbing at her face. Maddison leaned back against the couch, letting the woman play with her hair. It felt nice to have someone scrub through it. She wasn't really able to do her own braids, so this was a treat for her.

She listened to Emerson's story and frowned some. It must have sucked not to have your memory. She would absolutely hate it. "But how is being sired under Prudence?" She had briefly met the woman and she seemed nice. It would be nice for Maddison to get out and meet more of her so called family members. She spent most of her time with Robin. Sooner or later the two were going to grow sick of each other, right?

Probably.

Maddison smiled when the braid was tied off. "Thank you, Emi. I'm sure it looks lovely." She scooted out from the couch some and popped some more chocolates into her mouth. She loved chocolate. It was her favorite addiction, mostly. The blonde got off the floor and took a seat back on the couch.

"So what would you like to do now?"

[Emerson (DELETED 8699)]

“That sounds like so much fun. I hope you guys have a good time.” Emerson couldn't recall any memories of traveling much before. Even if she had, she didn’t travel much now. In fact, she didn't really have plans to travel too far from where she was now. Where would she go? What would she do? And who would she go with? Traveling alone proved to cause a spiral of problems when to left for Harper Rock that one month ago. For now, at least, she'd be cautious. She'd learned her lesson for sure.

Emerson frowned slightly at the tone of Maddison's voice. She sounded sad. “That must stink, having to stop your job. Sometimes being a vampire isn’t all that fun - I like the not growing old part - but at least now you can focus on opening your shop, yeah?” Emerson didn’t like when people were down. Even if something had turned someone’s mood around that wasn’t her doings, she felt kind of responsible to make them happy again. Or, more positive, in the very least. “When you open your shop, I'll buy all the pretty clothes, promise. You’ll have to hire me to work at the cash register, though."

Did it suck to not have her memory? Kind of. She couldn’t remember her family or her old friends, or where she went to school, or if she had an acceptance letter to some college waiting for her or not. So, yeah, it did suck. But in some ways, she was kind of happy it happened. She could almost start her life anew while being the truest version of herself. That’s all Emerson really wanted in life. And she had done her research - at some point, she could remember stuff. Like how she remembered her name and her age and her birthday and some of the basics as the weeks went on. So there was hope. But she had promised herself not to get her hopes up.

“Prudence. Hm.” She giggled lightly. It was weird to talk about the woman like this, behind her back. Was it really behind her back, though? The brunette wasn’t going to say anything bad. There wasn’t anything bad to say. “She’s pretty. Not too in my face, but I know she’s there, y’know? To look out for me and stuff.” Emerson shrugged. “It’s nice. How’s being sired under Robin? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t wanna.” She only asked because Maddison had. It seemed fair.

Emerson hated making decisions, so when Maddison asked her what should be next for the pair to do, she let her lips fall into a small pout. She preferred other people to make decisions for her. It was just easier that way. “Whatever you want is okay. Really.”

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

"Yes, it would definitely be awesome to have you work the cash register." Maddison smiled some and then leaned over to eat some more of the junk food. It probably wouldn't make her feel good, but right now it did. She ran her hand over the bread Emerson had put in her hair. She only wished someone could do this for her every day. She was good with the front braids and anything else, but she couldn't do braids on the back of her hair. It never stayed tight enough.

Maddison curled up on her side of the couch. "Robin? Well that's a really long story. I guess I can share. I met Robin at the Necropolis. It's some kind of club. He asked me if I was looking for something stronger. I was pretty naive then and didn't really know what he meant. I agreed and we ended up in a private room. To make a long story short, he is apparently a blood doll. So he offered me his blood in exchange for mine, since I couldn't afford to buy his. Something went wrong and I died with his blood in me, so then I was his childe."

She looked away for a moment, deciding if she should continue on with the story. Should she tell Emi about the killing? Maddison sighed and then spoke once more.

"About a week or so ago, Me and Robin were out dancing and just spending time together. Some drunk guy got all handsy with me and wouldn't take no for an answer. Robin...for lack of better terms...killed him. We ended up back at my apartment and apparently Robin likes me and I kind of like him. I don't know. It's all so crazy. He got so jealous that, that guy was touching me. I don't know."

Maddison shook her head once more and stood up, sliding in a girly movie to the DVD player. "Well enough of the Debbie downer talk. Let's watch a girly movie?"

[Emerson (DELETED 8699)]

Emerson let a smile curl at the ends of her lips. Her working at a cash register was far fetched. She could barely talk to someone she knew without stumbling over her words or being too quiet. Not to mention that she wasn’t the greatest at quick math. She still counted on her fingers sometimes. But maybe she could work on it. And, in all honesty, if Maddison asked Emerson if she could braid the blonde’s hair every day, she would say yes in a heartbeat. The brunette didn’t get out much, and when she did, she never felt that she did anything particularly productive. Braiding hair was fun, anyways.

Emerson listened closely as Maddison spoke. “A blood doll? So he basically just… gives his blood away to people?” She mentally weighed the pros and cons of the job. It sounded like it paid a lot, which was always good, but it also sounded like she would be surrounded by people in a club (she’d never been to one before) and would involve her to sometimes give her blood away to total strangers. The cons outweighed the pros in the end and she tossed the idea aside. Especially when she realized how easy it would be for something to go wrong. What would Emerson ever do in a situation like that? She’d be way in over her head.

The brunette noticed Maddison’s hesitation and leaned in a bit closer to listen in. Whenever someone hesitated, they were telling something important. It was easy to catch on to that kind of stuff after listening to people for so long.

Emerson wasn’t as shocked as she thought she would be when Maddison told her that Robin had killed someone. She didn’t know Robin personally (yet; she made a mental note to shoot him an email some time so the two could meet) but didn’t all vampires end up killing someone at one point or another? Emerson herself would never hurt a fly, but maybe that would change. Or maybe not.

“First off, drunk guys are pretty gross.” The girl wrinkled her nose. “Unless they’re cute drunks. Like when they trip a lot and laugh over things that aren’t even funny. Then it’s okay. But if some guy was being handsy with you and you didn’t even give him consent?” She shook her head. Emerson was a strong feminist. She felt it in her heart. “Yuck. I can kinda see where Robin was coming from, but a knee between the legs usually does enough justice.” She shrugged. “But he likes you?” She let out a little squeal of excitement. Emerson figured she and her old friends used to be preppy little schoolgirls that would gush over their crushes during the weekends at a sleepover almost exact to this one. The only difference, still present in the current situation, was that her friends would have crushes on boys their age, and Emerson would be all over the older teachers.

“Awe, this is kinda cute. I mean, he could have been just protecting you in a sire type of way. Like if you compare a sire-childe relationship to a parent-child relationship, y’know?” She paused. “Wait, ew, forget I said that. Anyways, I think you guys should talk about it. You sound kind of confused about the whole thing? It would be good to sort it out. So you’re on the same page and stuff.”

Emerson watched Maddison leave the couch and put a movie in. She didn’t catch the title, but she’d probably end up liking it anyways. She was getting a bit tired, after all. Talking could wear her out for sure.

“Sounds good! Can I get in my jammies - pajamas - and then we can cuddle? If you want?” As the words left her mouth, she realized how dumb they sounded, but that just meant she was out of her shell. Maddison made it easy for the girl to open up. Add in the fact that she had even the smallest amount of sugar running through her veins and was getting a bit tired made it all the much easier.

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

"You're right...I probably should talk to him. Maybe it was just sire/childe thing. But he did kiss me. I don't know. I'm not really sure he likes me. I think he regrets what happened. The whole me accidentally becoming his childe thing."

Maddison lifted her shoulders into a shrug. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about anymore. She would speak to Robin about it later. She just wanted to relax and have fun. It was supposed to be a girl's night. That's why she had kicked Robin out of the house and told him not to come back until the next night. However, Maddison wondered what he was doing. Was he off doing something dirty? Giving his blood away? She hated that he did that, but he was a grown man and who was her to stop him.

Maddison offered another small smile. "Yeah, let's go get changed into our pajamas. You can take the bathroom and I'll take the bedroom." Maddison paused the movie and stood up. She showed Emi where the bathroom was and then slipped into her bedroom. She didn't exactly have a lot of appropriate pajamas, so she had to go with the most appropriate one.

The blonde changed into a pair of sweat pants, they hugged her hips well and then a camisole that showed off some over her skin of her stomach. It didn't exactly reach all the way do to her sweat pants. She checked herself and then left the bedroom to head back into the living room. Once she was seated, she grabbed a few blankets and wrapped herself up in one. "Ready for the movie?"

[Emerson (DELETED 8699)]

Emerson let a pout set on her lips. Situations involving feelings were always confusing. But communication was always good. She was glad Maddison was going to take her suggestion to do so. If it didn’t help much, at least it was something to get the ball rolling. “It’ll work out, yeah? Things always do eventually. Just… try to stay positive,” she offered. “And m’always here if you need to talk or anything.” She shrugged. She didn’t have much experience, or rather, any memory of dealing with these kinds of things, so her advice was little to come by. But she did have lots of free time to listen and a shoulder to cry on if needed. She’d figure out some way to help out.

The brunette caught on that the topic was done for, and she got off the couch. She backtracked to grab her overnight bag and followed Maddison to where the bathroom was. Once she was inside, she shut the door and switched on one of the lights. The room was bright and neat. It was kind of intimidating to her, being a bit too lazy to keep things as tidy. Taking off her outfit, she dressed into the matching shirt and shorts set she had brought for the night. The material was soft, light, and a pale blue. It fit her nicely if she did say so herself. After shoving her top and skirt into her bag, she gave herself a quick once-over and left the bathroom. Her overnight bag was returned to its previous spot, and she was joining Maddison on the couch again, this time with stuffed animal in tow. It was a brown bear wearing a pair of jean overalls. Emerson had scoped him out a shop a few weeks back and slept with it every night ever since.

Emerson was quick to wrap herself up in one of the blankets, making a cocoon of sorts. She got cold easily and always slept with at least one blanket. A small yawn left her lips and she snuggled into the couch. “I’m ready! I might fall asleep on you, though. It’s past my bedtime.” She gave the woman a tired smile. She went to sleep early and woke up late. She had nothing better to do with her time besides sleep, really.

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

Maddison rested back in her spot, eyes closing for a brief moment. She was tired. Truly, she was really tired. There was so much stress involving her and Robin. Were they a couple? Weren't they a couple? She didn't know. So yes, the blonde would plan a night and sit down with him and talk. To be honest, Maddison had thought Robin was gay until he kissed her. Maybe he was gay and he was testing to see if he liked girls too? Could that be it?

She shook her head some to clear the thoughts. Maybe he wasn't. She didn't know. Maddison looked up at Emi and offered a small smile. "I'm tired too. We might fall asleep on each other. I won't be offended if you're not offended." She gave the arm of the girl a pat and then hit play on her remote to play What a girl wants. It was an old movie, but a goodie.

Maddison loved Amanda Bynes post freak out and she loved that the movie resembled a girl reconnecting with her father, something Maddison had done with her own father when he was still alive. She settled down into the couch and pulled the blanket around her. It was time to watch the movie and soon her eyes closed and she drifted off into dreams about things she wouldn't remember when she woke up.