There were three things I hated in life: garlic, being alone in the dark, and those who try to force or trick me into eating meat. I was dealing with my third pet peeve right now.
I’d been a vegetarian for as long as I could remember, and it really ticked me off when people tried to take that pride away from me. My best friend was the worst. At first it was more of a joke than anything, like putting steak in my ice cream, but now I was starting to think it was a competition for her. She started to get sneakier, like replacing my veggie burger with a regular one and mixing chicken into my tofu
I didn’t see why it was such a big deal to her; it’s not like my food habits affected her. Lately, however, I was starting to think otherwise. Right now for example.
We’ve been eating at the Special Place for lunch since the sixth grade. Skip to five years later and we were still doing the same thing. You see, Taylor is practically a carnivore. That is where my T-Rex nickname for her came from. We have special orders that we got every time too; hers is a medium steak and cheese sub and mine is a Caesar salad. It’s tradition.
Anyway, Taylor knows how much her trying to turn me from herbivore to carnivore bothers me. She, being the annoying best friend that she is, actually has the nerve to order me a 12 oz. steak while I’m in the bathroom.
I almost throw up when the waitress sets the plate down in front of me. Usually, I’m fine with meat around me. It’s not like I’m deathly allergic to it or anything. This steak, however, practically has a heartbeat; I’m sure if I touch it, the steak is going to “moo” at me.
Taylor cracks up over the face I’m making and grabs the plate for her. As she wolfs down the meat, I wonder how she can keep the figure she has. Sure, she’s an all-star track runner and is almost six feet tall, but she’s literally constantly eating. I always ask her how she has such an appetite, but she just replies with, “I run a lot, what’re you my trainer?” Then I let it go because she gets kind of crazy when she’s eating.
“So did you find a date for prom yet?” Taylors asks between mouthfuls.
“Um, almost,” I say with a half smile.
“You’re lying,” she replies, hardly looking up.
“How’d you know?” I ask. She always knows when I’m lying.
“It’s so easy to tell. One, you get this weird constipated look on your face when you lie and also, you’re completely anti-social, so I doubt you’d have anyone waiting at your doorstep with a bouquet of flowers asking you to prom,” Taylor explains.
“Wow, Tay, you really know how to boost my confidence. And I don’t know constipated when I lie!” I protest.
She gives me a whatever-you-say kind of look and resumes eating. My eyebrows knit together in confusion. I think back to times when I’ve lied before. Nobody ever looked at me funny when I did… or did they?
“Well aren’t you going to ask me who I’m going with?” Taylor asks.
“You have a date?” I respond with surprise.
Taylor is one of those girls that all of the guys like, but she never likes them. She thinks they’re all too immature. I think she’s crazy.
“As a matter of fact I do,” she smirks with a gleam in her eye. “And don’t act so surprised, missy!”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “Sorry, so who is he?”
“His name is Cole, and he’s so yummy!” Taylor exclaims. It seems like she’s sharing an inside joke with herself, and I almost question it, but instead just mentally check it off as insanity.
“So, when am I going to meet this Cole character?”
“At prom, next weekend,” Taylor grins.
“We’re still meeting at my house beforehand, right?”
“Maggie, we’ve been planning this weekend since we were like eight, of course I’m coming. And so are Cole and your date.”
“I don’t have a date,” I remind her remorsefully.
“Oh, but you will,” Taylor responds and does this weird thing with her eyebrows that makes me think she has a plan. I never like it when Taylor has a plan.
The next day, I wake to my phone buzzing over twenty times. I check the little digital screen and find eight missed calls from Taylor. I call her back thinking she got mugged or something, but no, it’s just dress shopping day. I reluctantly roll out of my cozy bed after Taylor hangs up the phone and trudge to my closet. She said to wear something cute. How was I supposed to do that when all of my clothes were either lost, too small, or not for the right occasion? After rifling through my closet for twenty minutes, I find a denim skirt and an off-the-shoulder top that I wore almost every day last year.
I meet Taylor at her house before proceeding to the dress shop. When we get there, Taylor leads me towards the racks of dresses and starts throwing some at me. I carry them feebly to the dressing room and wait for her.
“What are you doing standing around? Go try those on!” Taylor reprimands me.
“These are mine? But I didn’t pick any out myself,” I complain.
“Oh, stop whining and go try them on.”
That’s the problem with Taylor. Once she has a decision in her head, it’s nearly impossible to change her mind, so I follow her order and try on all eighteen dresses. Something was wrong with all of them. The pink is too sparkly, the green too frilly, the blue makes me look like a mermaid and the red makes me look 200 pounds heavier than I really am. I come out of the dressing room, and Taylor’s face falls when she sees I have nothing in my hands.
“You have horrible taste in dresses,” I say and stride towards the exit.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah,” I reply.
“No, look,” she says, and I turn around.
I notice briefly that she’s holding a beautiful lavender dress in her hands. However, I’m more fascinated by the dress I spot behind. It is navy blue, fitted, and perfect. I grab the dress and display it to Taylor. She grins.
“Perfect.”
As we leave the store, I get little excited butterflies in the pit of my stomach. I’ve been waiting for prom since my sister went when she was in high school. She is 25 now, so, it’s been a long time.
The next week flies by and, suddenly, prom is staring me in the face. However, the school day seems to take forever. All of the talk of prom fuels me, and I can hardly sit still. When the final bell rings, I race home with Taylor in tow.
When five o’clock rolls around, Taylor and I start the beauty process. My hair is in curlers for about an hour, and by the time I take them out, my makeup is already done. I put my long brown hair into a French twist and secure it with a silver clip. Taylor sticks little fake diamonds in my hair when she’s done with her own makeup.
We put our heads close together and stare at our reflections in the mirror. Taylor looks like a goddess. Her curly blonde hair falls around her heart-shaped face, and her makeup looks natural yet gorgeous. Then I glance over at the girl next to her and feel rather astounded. I look kind of beautiful.
“I have to go, Maggie. My date is waiting. I’ll be back in a half hour with your surprise!” Taylor exclaims and runs out the door.
Taylor has been talking about this “surprise” all day. It is putting me on edge. I’m afraid it’s going to be a wild tiger or a horrible school picture (she does stuff like that). But, I am also secretly hoping it is a date. Taylor has Cole, and I don’t want to be the only loser in the school without a date.
I slip into my dress and wait impatiently for Taylor’s car to pull into the driveway. When Taylor finally does, my mom is already at the door with her camera. Taylor and Cole step out of the car, as well as someone else. My heart skips a beat. I fix my dress and go to greet everyone.
“This is Tyler,” Taylor introduces. “I figured he could be your date.”
“Okay,” I reply awkwardly, and introduce myself. Tyler smiles and introduces himself again.
When we get there, almost everyone has already arrived. Music from inside is so loud that it makes the ground vibrate. We step inside, and instantly become part of the mob of students.
My feet are already killing me after an hour of hardcore dancing. It is then that I notice Taylor, Cole and Tyler are all nowhere to be found. I feel like a loser again, dancing with people I don’t even know, so I run outside in search of them.
I spot a small piece of lavender silk on the ground. I pick it up. Is this a part of Taylor’s dress? I find another, a slightly larger piece that’s closer to the woods. I start to run into the woods, fear that Taylor has been kidnapped on my mind.
I hear a growling noise not too far away from me, and a scream catches in my throat. The full moon hardly lights up the forest enough for me to see clearly. I start breathing heavily, and leaves crunch all around me. Suddenly, I see Cole. I sigh with relief.
“There you-“ I am cut off by a piercing growl.
Then Cole is at my side, gripping my hands behind my back. He turns me so that I’m facing a six foot tall grey wolf with its teeth bared at me.
“I’ll kill her, you know I will, so just back off,” Cole says to… the wolf?
“What?!” I scream in confusion and fear.
The wolf stares at me and I freeze.
“Let go of me Cole! What’s going on?”
“Shut up,” he says in a rough voice.
Just then, the wolf lunges at me. I scream bloody murder because at that same moment, I feel a sharp pain in the side of my neck. I fall to the ground just as the wolf attacks Cole. The wolf rips him apart in a matter of seconds, and I scream until my throat goes dry. Then I black out.

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I wake up in the place where I blacked out. The first thing I notice is the way my throat feels like it is on fire. Then I notice Taylor sitting wearily on the ground. Her dress is shredded, and her hair is wild.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobs and falls into my lap.
Oh my god, she smells horrible, I think.
“What happened?” I ask, confused.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Taylor repeats hysterically.
I grab her shoulders and shake her. “Tell me what happened, Taylor!”
“I didn’t mean to... I didn’t think you’d follow us… I couldn’t keep up with him,” she cried.
I give her a minute to wrap up her crying before I ask again.
“You’re not going to believe me, but I super swear this is all true…” Taylor starts.
“I’m going to believe you, just tell me,” I promise.
She shakes her head, but continues anyway. “Maggie, I’m a werewolf. I know, I know, werewolves aren’t real. Well, they are. I was bitten two years ago when I was out in the woods. Now, at every full moon I change.” She points towards the full moon.
“Are you on drugs?” I ask.
She sighs and hangs her head. Walking a few feet away, suddenly she transforms. I’m talking going from an innocent girl to an enormous grey wolf. I gasp and jump to my feet in a nanosecond. I momentarily wonder how I got so fast before returning to the fact that my best friend just turned into a wolf. In front of me, the wolf changes into Taylor again and I feel like fainting.
“See?” she says. “Cole was, um, a vampire. I swear, no lie, and obviously werewolves and vampires are sworn enemies. He didn’t know that I was a werewolf, so I used my advantage against him.”
“Huh?”
“Maggie… I was planning on killing him.” She saw my expression and continued quickly. “They’re bad, Maggie, really bad, and that what we’re supposed to do. So when he had you captured, I knew he would kill you. Vampires kill people like you and I couldn’t let that happen to my best friend, I killed him. But, he was too quick.” Her voice cracks at the last sentence, and I think about what she meant.
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“He bit you. He was too quick, and I’m so sorry, Maggie. I should’ve never been so foolish, and it’s all my fault. I don’t blame you if hate me forever.”
It’s so hard to believe what she’s saying, but by the look in her eyes, I can’t deny the truth.
“So what does that mean?”
“You’re one of them,” Taylor whispers.
“A vampire?” I manage to choke out. She nods. “And you’re a- a werewolf?” I stutter. She nods again.
“That’s the reason why you’re so fast and your huge appetite?” I conclude.
“Yeah,” Taylor responds, quietly.
It is then that suddenly everything clicks. I run across the clearing in a tenth of a second. My throat burns so much that it becomes the focus of my attention. The only thing I can think of to quench my unbearable thirst is a cute, little deer. I begin to cry. Taylor is a werewolf and I’m a… vampire. Wow.
“Are you going to kill me then?” I whisper.
She touches my arm lightly so as not to scare me. “Maggie, you’re my best friend even as a supernatural freak. And even though you smell horrible, I still love you.” She grins and hugs me.
“Why do you smell so bad?” I ask and she laughs.
“It’s normal for vampires and werewolves to be repulsed by each others’ natural odor,” Taylor explains. “Walk with me and I’ll tell you everything I know.”
And although my throat is burning with hunger and my best friend smells like a wet dog, I hook arms with her. We begin to walk farther into the woods. I still don’t know where life goes from here, but right now, in this moment, everything feels okay.