I didn’t finish writing what happened after that guy said, “You’re Orly Bialek.” That’s because I pushed the journal to the corner of the bed and rolled over. I couldn’t write anymore. I guess I was excited. I probably fell asleep grinning like an idiot, looking like a self-help author photo and not cute like a happy corgi or Peko-chan on the bags of Milky candy.

  Well what happened was Otoboke Beaver screamed out their last vocals, thanked everyone for coming, and the show ended. The mortals hitting on the other vampires desperately began speaking again, hoping to be invited to come with us. Of course they were invited. But I didn’t care about them. I was staring up ahead, waiting for him to turn around and he did. Our gazes met, his eyes smiling. Darcy noticed, and touched my arm. “You ready to go?” she asked, winked, took my arm and we all turned toward the exit. She held me close as we flowed out with the crowd. I didn’t even look back. “You played it cool,” Darcy said. “Do you know him?”

  “No clue,” I answered, and I left feeling like I did play it cool.

  But by the time we were in the parking lot, I was wondering if I had played it too cool. He knew my name, but I didn’t even get his. I struggled not to turn back around to look for him, in case he was watching. I just had to hope he would find me again. Los Angeles is a big place, but he found me here, just by watching Grace’s Instagram. I grabbed my phone and pulled up my IG to look to see if a guy who looks like whatever his name is was following me. I don’t have a ton of followers, most of them are Cob?lcescu and Ketsuen, so it didn’t take long. I didn’t see anyone who looked like him, but some of my followers use cartoons or images of random other stuff as their profile pics. I realized then that I hadn’t posted to my IG in well over a year. My last post was a photo of me and Kristy. We’re sitting outside the Griffith Observatory. The sky is hazy dark behind us. It looks starless, but we were laughing. Seeing it made me sad. And it makes me sad again to be writing about it now.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Rosanna’s hair looks longer than when we first met in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. She only used to tease it up when she was working. She just asked me to choose her shade of lipstick even though I could tell which one she wanted me to pick. But seeing her isn’t what brought her long hair to mind. It was because I was thinking about Kristy and how I used to brush her hair. This is getting depressing again. Is this what journals are for? To spell out your sadness? Khalil’s right, I should give therapy more of a chance. Fuck it. I’m gonna get drunk.

  I’m back and I’m drunk. Plan successful. But no messages from any strangers on Instagram. I wonder if he knows where I live. Showing up at the show like that was kinda stalkerish so maybe he does. I wonder if he knows I’m empress. He called me Orly. I’ve long wanted to go against our rules and have everyone and their mother call me Orly, but for some reason, since I didn’t tell him he could, I want him to call me Empress or even Imparateasa. Now that I think about it, it feels kinda cocky that he called me Orly. I make no sense. He does what I want everyone else to do and now I don’t like it. He didn’t bow either. He only kinda nodded to me. But he is mortal, and he certainly isn’t Cob?lcescu, so I guess I can’t make our rules apply to him. He’s still cocky though. Sigh. I need to stop thinking about him. But how can I when he was looking at me instead of Rosanna or Darcy? Damn, I need another drink.

  Rosanna just said she’s meeting up with Corinne at a bar and asked if I wanted to come with. She said I could get in because there’s a restaurant too.

  “Is Grace gonna be there?”

  “I don’t think so, Orly. Corinne said she’s going to a lecture on the history of lexicography.”

  “What’s that?”

  Rosanna laughed. “I had to ask what it meant too. It has to do with choosing which words get added to dictionaries.”

  “Oh my god. Can we all look up the word boring?”

  Rosanna nodded and laughed again. Her laugh is gentle. It fits her so well.

  Twenty minutes later she went out the door and hurriedly I texted Grace and she said she’d swing by and pick me up. So I have to get ready now. Should I wear the lipstick Rosanna didn’t pick?

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