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Sinclair&039;s convertible was ridiculously crowded

He was driving, I was riding shotgun (finally, a perk to our "relationship"), and Marc, Jessica, and Tina were in the backseat

Tina had come because well, she always ca vampire stuff The two of them ay back-in fact, she&039;d turned him She was like his combination best pal/secretary/enforcer/confidant Which was fine with me, because I sure as shit didn&039;t want to do any of those things

We had decided Marc should coory details out of the Ant, and you never knehen a physician ht co Sinclair had a lot of odious qualities, I&039;ll be the first to say it (again and again); but one thing he liked to do was keep my friends out of vampire issues And I couldn&039;t really blame him you just never knehen a totally normal vampire errand would end in a bloodbath with severed-limb soap

Jessica never accepted these excuses She put her size-nine foot down and that was the end of it The clincher hen she told Sinclair it would be a sha happened to any of his European suits while they were at the dry cleaners

"In the old days," he&039;d replied, "errand runners were actually helpful" But that was all he&039;d said about it; Sinclair was always impeccably dressed, and had all his stuff tailorthe best; his shoulders were too broad and his waist too narrow to buy off the rack I could only i he would have let Jess ride in the passenger seat if she&039;d threatened his best Gucci

So it was crowded, but al

"It&039;s just a word," Marc was insisting Oh, not this again Jessica hated "African American," but she wasn&039;t too crazy about the N word, either "It&039;s lost allThis isn&039;t the nineteenth century Or even the twentieth"

"I don&039;t think we should be talking about this," Tina said, shifting so Marc&039;s elboasn&039;t on her eyebrow She was teeny, but it was a tight fit back there

"No, it&039;s fine," Jessica replied

"Of course it&039;s fine, we&039;re all civilized ad-well, we&039;re all adults Tina, I swear, you&039;re the most politically correct dead person I&039;ve ever known"

"I just don&039;t think this is an appropriate discussion for-for us" Tina had been born around the time Lincoln freed the slaves, so she had perspective the rest of us didn&039;t She was pretty close

"No, no, no," Jessica said, and I curled ers around the door handle, just in case I knew that tone "In this day and age, there are quite a few s to worry about It is just a word It&039;s totally lost itsup at her in the rearview, and Tina was edging away Only Marc, who couldn&039;t so ahead," she continued calmly "You just call me that once"

Silence Followed by Marc&039;sother people that I just think-I mean I don&039;t think-not that anyone should call you-or call anyone-"

"Will you stop already before one of us has to knock you unconscious?" I asked

Jessica snickered, and that was the end of the discussion for that week

We pulled upside my dad&039;s Tudor (four thousand square feet for two people!) and piled out of the car It was full dark, about nine o&039;clock at night My dad had left town that afternoon for a business trip, and the Ant would be alone

This information was helpfully provided by my mother, who supported my vampiric pursuits and helped me out whenever she could Sometimes it&039;s like that, I&039;ve noticed one parent is alreat, and the other one&039;s a shit I had ot oxygen deprived

I rapped twice, then opened the front door Unlocked, of course it was a pretty nice neighborhood Very low crime My dad didn&039;t even lock his BMW when he left it in the driveway As far as I knew, they&039;d never been robbed Of course, if e

"Helloooooo?" I called "Antonia? It&039;s hter"

"And by favorite," Marc added, stepping into the foyer behindback nicely from his humiliation in the car but then, he was pretty irrepressible Once you overlooked the whole atte Come to think of it, it was an attempted suicide

"You haven&039;t even met her," Jessica said as we all crowded into the send Frankly, I&039;m skeptical Can she live up to the hype?"