A Kiss That Bites

Author's Note: I am having a Beta Reader from another site help with a few of my more rougher chapters and help out with grammar/punctuation errors. So, please be patient while this story gets updated. Thanks. Also, feel free to review if you have the time!

Today is a day like any other. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth. The same old routine day in and day out. It may seem mundane, but this is my life and I like it that way. My friends are the party types; they travel the world and throw wild parties. As exciting as that sounds, I would rather be at home, working at my own pace and taking care of my MeMaw. Today is going to be no different. Even though it’s my birthday, there’s no way I’m letting my friends drag me off to another bar and call it my "birthday party". As always, I would just sit there, watching them drink, making a pass at every man walking by, before finally dragging them out the door past two o’clock in the morning. Falling into bed exhausted, I would try to sleep, but can only remember the drunken antics of my two best, and only friends. Though, two is quite enough in my book.

"Angerona! Angerona! Have you seen my jade tea set?" Agatha Savalides screamed.

"Hmm? What?" Angerona looked around and realized she was so deep in thought she hadn’t noticed she was still in her pajamas. It took her grandmother to snap her out of her thoughts. Sighing, Angerona got up off of her bed and opened her bedroom door.

"I’m coming, MeMaw! I‘ll be right down!" Angerona called back.

Yawning, she opened her closet door. With her head leaning on the door frame, she looked into its depths and frowned, finally pulling out a few articles.

She threw her nightgown on the floor and stretched, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She pulled a face, displeased by what she saw: too wide hips, too large bust, long, wavy, dark brown hair. Her friends Eva and Lexie were beautiful. Angerona felt plain and average by comparison. She felt as though she had no interesting or exciting qualities. Sighing with discontent, she slipped into a comfy t-shirt and pulled on a pair of well worn blue jeans. Barefoot, she padded down the staircase.

“Now what were you yelling about?” Angerona asked as she made it to the bottom of the stairs and into the living room.

The house was not large by any standard, but there was plenty of space for the two women. There were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a spacious living room to the right of the staircase, and a cozy kitchen to the left. There was once an office down the narrow hall from the living room, but Angerona no longer trusted her grandmother to safely navigate up and down stairs. Now, this space, which had once belonged to her grandfather, had been converted into a comfortable bedroom for the elderly and slightly senile woman.

Sighing, Angerona shook her head, watching as her grandmother scattered papers over every available space. It seemed as thought she had completely forgotten about the tea set. She was clearly intent on fining something else entirely. Angerona cleared her throat, making her presence known, and carefully stepping around the papers, made her way over to where the other woman was standing.

"MeMaw, tell me what you’ve misplaced and I’ll help you look." Angerona smiled as her grandmother turned her sweet, aging face towards her.

Angerona gazed upon her MeMaw and remembered some old photos of Agatha when she was a young woman. When Agatha Savalides was young, she had long, wavy brown hair and a smile that could light up a room. Her chocolate brown eyes sparkled with intelligence and her skin was the shade of cream. Now, her hair was gray with a dusting of white and that once brilliant smile rarely graced her lips now. Her eyes were now dark with troubled thoughts and often glazed over when she had fits. Agatha's skin was now wrinkled and covered in age spots. Yet, Angerona still thought she was beautiful, even now with her advanced age.

"Angerona! I can't seem to find those blasted papers! The papers that speak of our blood and have you seen that jade tea set?" Agatha squinted as she looked around the room before looking back at her granddaughter. "I can't find that jade tea set that has the silver trim and the painted roses. It’s quite old you know and I was going to use it today. I’m going to have company and I thought it would be nice to serve tea in that set."

“That was the set we put in the attic, remember? Because you hadn’t used it in so long? You told me to wrap it up very carefully so it wouldn’t break or worse ‘be used in a manner not befitting of its glamour’.” Angerona patted one of her grandmother’s wrinkled hands. “Come on now, it’s time for breakfast. And don’t forget, today is my birthday! I’m 24 today and later I’m going to bake a cake to celebrate. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”

"I suppose my little chickadee. Lead the way and let us break our fast." Agatha smiled at her granddaughter as she completely forgot what she was so upset about.

Angerona just shook her head lightly and grinned. She was quite use to her grandmother's musings and ramblings. It upset a great deal of other people, but not her. She was so use to her grandmother's fast changing thoughts and moods that she now over looked a lot of her MeMaw's chaotic moments.

With that in mind Angerona lead her grandmother to the old, battered kitchen table and helped her sit down in one of the creaky chairs. Once Agatha was settled and comfortable, Angerona pulled several pill bottles out of the cabinet, and tapped one pill from each into her hand. She set them down on the table in front of her grandmother and poured a glass of orange juice for her to take them with. She leaned against the off-white and slightly rusty refrigerator and made sure every one of them was swallowed.

When she was satisfied, she turned around and started toast for their breakfast. She silently hoped that her friends had forgotten about her birthday and would leave her well enough alone. She was looking forward to a nice quite day with her grandmother. However, she had a sinking feeling that Alexis and Evahraine would be calling her soon. They had done so every year since the death of her parents’ death and would more than likely continue to do so until they day they all died.

The young woman stared about the kitchen and sighed. She noted that the once bright white and apple patterned wallpaper was now faded and peeling away from the wall from age. She also noticed that the once bright white cabinets were dingy, their knobs tarnished.

Everything in the house was quite old and battered from age. Just like her MeMaw. Yet, she would never change a single thing in the house. She loved each creaky chair, each chipped cup, and even the leaky old sink in the kitchen. Angerona was so deep in thought that she hadn't even noticed the small tendrils of smoke coming out of the off-white and battered oven.

"Angerona you look so sad. What is bothering my little chickadee?" Agatha said gently to her granddaughter noticing the spacey look on her face. "Also, I think the toast might be burning, dear."

"Oh no!" Angerona snapped out of her musings when she heard the smoke detector start beeping and watched in horror as smoke rolled out of the oven. "Blast it all!" She ran over to the oven and turned it off.

She grabbed a large, apple shaped pot holder and jerked the oven door open. Smoke came rolling out and Angerona coughed loudly as she grabbed the pan the bread was on. She set the pan on the stove and looked sadly at the smoking remains of her toast.

Sighing, Angerona looked over at her grandmother who smiled placidly up at her, hands around her half empty glass of orange juice. Shoulders slumping, Angerona left the oven door open as she went over to open one of the small windows in the kitchen to let the smoke out. She waved the smoke out for a moment before turning to the counter and the apple shaped bread box, intending to make more toast.

"Don't worry dear. We all tend to burn things from time to time. By the way, where is that rustic tea pot you usually use? I don't see it about and I would love a cup of tea." Agatha said as she slowly got up to help her granddaughter.

"Oh, MeMaw. That isn't a tea pot; it’s a coffee pot and I figured we’d have juice today instead of tea or coffee." Angerona said with a small grin on her face as she carefully watched her grandmother. "Anyway, it looks like I need to make a trip to the store, we’re out of bread." She said as she sighed while closing the bread box lid before going over to her grandmother.