by Amy McClung
Today was the big day. I am meeting Quinn for lunch to talk, and I still don’t know what I'm going to say. The reason I picked the park is so that we were in public, and there will be lots of people around to keep me safe. I'm not scared of him, simply afraid to be alone with him because of my feelings clouding my judgment.
Even getting dressed was a challenge today. First, I tried a turtleneck and decided it may scream 'Don’t bite me bloodsucker!' I decided to go with a black V-neck and a nice pair of jeans. I grabbed my tennis shoes, always good to be prepared for a quick getaway. Then again, he is a vampire who can run faster than my brain can function, but still.
Once downstairs, I made some ham and cheese sandwiches and grabbed some chips and a couple of sodas. We probably wouldn't eat anything, but I’d like it to seem at least like an average day. I won’t call it a date because it’s definitely not that. I grabbed my keys off the hook by the door and shout goodbye to my parents as I closed the door behind me.
The park was full of kids, and it was a beautiful day outside, sun shining and not a cloud in sight. Since I made it to the park first, I set up a picnic table for us. Ok, this looked like a date. I packed all of the stuff up and decided to leave it in the bag. Ok, this looks awkward, like I don’t want to be here. I unpacked it again. Laughter erupted from behind me. I turned, and there was Quinn smiling and gorgeous as ever.
“Are you having issues?” he asked. My face reddened, a bit embarrassed that he witnessed my display. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. He took it as an invite and leaned in and kissed me. I stepped back a little alarmed and his face fell. “Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
I stuttered a bit and said “It…It’s ok; I wasn’t expecting it, but it was nice.”
His smile shown that he felt reassured and his voice confirmed it, “You packed us a lunch? It looks great, I love ham and cheese,” he said.
I extended my arm to the right motioning for him to sit down. We sat across from each other and ate our lunch. It was a bit awkward at first, but he looked content, and I felt calm, calmer than I expected to feel.
The straightforward approach seemed to work the best lately, so I went for it. “Are you really a vampire?” I asked, already knowing the answer. I had to start somewhere, even though it was a pretty lame question.
He set his sandwich down, looked at me and he smiled. I saw his incisors extend into fangs. It wasn't scary on him; it was almost sexy even. He had on sunglasses, so I wanted to test the other theory now. I reached up and slowly pulled his glasses down his nose. Behind them, his eyes were a bold green color.
As the sun touched them, red streaks formed and he began to blink, as though it was painful. I pushed them back up on his face. Quinn seemed to be trying to read my mood. His brow furrowed in a pensive manner. I decided not to keep him guessing. “I’m not scared of you. I thought about it all night long and never once did I think of you as scary. I like you and that's the only thing that does worry me.”
He seemed to be more confident now, so I had to elaborate before he got his hopes too high. “I don’t see how we could make a relationship work based on what we are. I mean, have you ever heard of a vampire dating a werewolf?”
He looked at me for a moment, shrugged his shoulders and said, “There’s a first time for everything, right?” He smiled the sexy smile of his and winked at me.
A werewolf falling for a vampire is not natural. Not only do I have to worry about telling people what I am, but I would have to tell them what my boyfriend is too. Why can’t I just be a normal teenager?
My thoughts seem to run wild at times, and I forget that I'm not speaking them and stare off into space. That's what was happening now, and I must have stayed quiet too long because he looked apprehensive.
“What are you thinking about now?” Another question had come to mind, and I was trying to figure out how to phrase it correctly.
Bluntly, I inquired, “Why didn’t I smell you before? Why can I still not smell you…as a vampire, I mean? I've tracked them before by their scent, but it isn’t there with you.”
He responded with a question back, “The other times you tracked a vampire’s scent; it was in wolf form, right?” I nodded, and he continued, “Your senses are heightened as a wolf. You can smell things that your human nose would never notice, even hear things that your human ears wouldn’t pickup. I probably smell somewhat different than most humans, but you wouldn’t notice vampire on me until you shift.”
I thought of how much I loved the way he smelled. I wasn’t fond of vampire smell, so it was a good thing it wasn’t noticeable when I was a human. As uncontrolled as my shifting is, I'll never go near him as a wolf because his scent would cause that urge to kill to take over. He was staring at me again. I walked over to his side of the table, sat on the bench beside him and looked straight ahead, but put my hand on top of his. He closed his hand over mine. I could do this; it felt right somehow.
We sat there for a few minutes watching the kids playing on the swings in front of us. There was a nice cool breeze blowing, and it kept blowing the musky scent of him my way. He smelled utterly delicious. I closed my eyes and breathed him in for a moment. To get back to the matter at hand, I finally got up the nerve to ask some more questions.
“How did it happen? How did you become a vampire?” At first he didn’t answer, he let go of my hand and turned to face me instead. He is so gorgeous and seeing his lips I remembered how that kiss felt. Come on, Parker, pay attention before you miss something important.
He began, “I was seventeen when I was attacked by another vampire. I was in school, it was 1952 and it was the week of the Sadie Hawkins Dance.”
I blurted out, “1952? That makes you…like almost eighty years old.”
He laughed, “Seventy-six actually.”
I blushed, “Sorry, please continue.”
He went on with his story, “A friend of mine had asked me to go to the dance with her and I agreed. I went to pick her up at her house and she invited me to come in while she finished getting ready. When she finally came downstairs, she looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her. She had long blonde hair that she had twisted up on top of her head with curls framing her face. Her skin was like porcelain and she wore a red dress with a flowing skirt and a plunging neckline. I never thought of her in a romantic way until I saw her that night."
"She came over and sat next to me on the couch and I was nervous, to say the least. My palms were sweaty, my knees felt weak. She was my best friend, but all these new feelings arose and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to act on them or not. She leaned toward me and I thought she was making the first move, I breathed in her perfume and closed my eyes ready to kiss her. Instead, she put her hand on top of my head, turned it to the side and bit into my neck."
"At first it was a sharp stabbing pain and a burning feeling, and then it felt good. It was like a rush, like a drug I imagine. I was addicted so quickly to the feeling of euphoria that came over me. She fed me some of her blood next. At first I tried to push her away, but a few drops hit my tongue and it made me want more.” He stopped there and stared off in a daze.
“So, she was your best friend and you never suspected she was a vampire?” I asked, breaking the silence. A look of shame came across his face like he felt guilty that he didn’t know about her. I continued, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Quinn said, “You didn’t.” He paused, “I had no idea Vampires even existed at the time, they were just the objects of scary stories that people told. We had known each other since we were kids. We were twelve when we met, and we knew each other better than anyone else in our lives."
"She had apparently been attacked just before she bit me, and it was my fault. It was a tradition that I walked her home from school every day. Most people thought we were a couple, but we felt more like siblings most days and wo
uld laugh about those rumors. One day we had an argument at lunch, I barely remember what it was about it was so stupid. I stormed off and told her to get her own escort home from now on. That afternoon she was walking home from school and she took a shortcut through a tunnel to avoid running into me. Instead, she ran into a man who ended her life…“ His words trailed off and I reached out to take his hand in an effort to comfort him.
He took a deep breath and went on, “She was turned about a month before the Sadie Hawkins dance. After she had turned me, I asked her why she did it and she said it was a curse put upon her because of me and she wanted me to suffer for it as she had. Of course, I was hoping for her to say she did it so we could be together forever, not for revenge. She said, once you become a vampire, you have to feed so you can either feed to kill or feed to create. When the craving hits, you can’t always control yourself and if you feed and stop to let them feed off you, it slows down the craving. The pain was unbearable. Later I found out that was the hunger inside me."
"She told me what I needed to know as a new vampire, such as sunglasses,” he said as he waggled his glasses on his face. “And I never saw her again after that day.” I felt his sadness. If my story had gone that way, it would be Jackie who turned me. I can understand the betrayal, the hurt, and the feelings of guilt he associated with that day.
“What was her name?” I asked him.
A sad smile appeared as he answered, “Elizabeth…my Lizzy was what I always called her. I would have died for her before that day. I couldn’t believe I let that thing destroy her, now I am one of those things. Before that day, she was the most kind-hearted person I'd ever known. Everyone loved her. I loved her. Legend says that when you're turned into a vampire your character is enhanced. If you were mean, you would be pure evil basically, but that wasn’t true with Lizzy. She became the opposite of her human personality."
"After that day, she became pure evil in my eyes and I felt a loss worse than I ever imagined. I tried to find her for weeks. I wanted to take care of her, try to bring back the woman that meant everything to me. After a while, I gave up and decided that my Lizzy was dead and not coming back. Dealing with the fact that I was one of those things now was almost as painful as losing her. I spent the next few years struggling with my hunger, attacking people and then feeling guilty about it. Finally, I learned to hunt animals and become attuned to their blood. The faces of the people I killed though still haunt me.”
He looked away from me as he continued, as though ashamed to face me. “I wish I could tell you I only killed bad people, but I couldn’t control it. I don’t know anything about them except what their faces looked like and the way they begged for mercy as I killed them.” Shivers went down my spine at those words. “I can’t blame you for not wanting to be around me. I hate what I am, but there is nothing I can do about it, other than let you bite me and end it all now.”
Shaking my head, I put my hand on his face, looked into his eyes and said, “I would never do that, so don’t even think about it.”
He leaned his head against my hand, for a moment, and closed his eyes. We had sat like that only briefly before I asked, “Do you have any idea where she is now, if she is still alive?”
He replied, “Not a clue, I haven’t seen or heard from her since that day. Until now, I pretty much stayed away from people in general. I finally decided I was tired of being alone all the time so I chose to go back to school.”
To that statement I nudged his arm and said, “Who would ever want to go back to high school?” Well, at least that got him to smile again.
“Do you feel comfortable telling me about when you…changed?” He asked, catching me off guard.
I stuttered at first, feeling the anxiety rise at admitting the truth once and for all, and then began to tell him my story. It wasn’t as devastating as his, in fact, it sounded pretty pathetic in comparison. “Whew, that was easier to say than I thought it would be. You're the first real person I’ve told.”
He looked confused, “First real person?”
Humiliation washed over me as I explain, “Well I've practiced how I would tell those closest to me by telling it to dolls, to the mirror, even my car. Any audience I could get that couldn’t actually process the information, you know?”
“So Jackie doesn’t know?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t gotten up the nerve or figured out a way to tell her. It’s easy to tell you because you don’t think I'm a freak.” He stuck up his index finger and thumb holding them about an inch apart to signify 'a little bit' and I smacked his arm. He threw his arm around my shoulder and hugged me to him as we laugh.
It didn’t take long for things to get serious again though. “It’s got to be hard to keep that bottled up inside all this time, hon. I think you should tell her.” Quinn continued by saying, “I can be there with you if you want; if it would make it easier to have someone to hold your hand or help calm her.”
I didn’t respond. I don’t know if I'm mad at him for suggesting it or scared of the thought of telling her. One thing I knew was that I didn’t feel relaxed anymore and I wanted to leave.
“I need to go. I have a lot of stuff to do today.” I stood up and put the picnic back in the bag. He looked upset and tried to reach out to me. I backed away. “I'll call you later, okay? I really need to get going, it’s not you… it’s me.” Wow, that’s a line I never wanted to use. Sounds so cliché, but it's really what I meant. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be around him, it’s that I couldn’t deal with it at the moment, not with all the other things I am dealing with right now.
Quinn's eyes were sad when he said, “Ok, call me later? Look, I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I thought if you told Jackie it would help because she's your best friend and you'd have more support.”
Oh my gosh, why is he not letting this go? Can he not take a hint? I swiftly grabbed my stuff and waved goodbye to him. “I’ll call you. Bye,” I yelled as I ran to my car. When I got in, I looked back at the table and he still sat there, seemingly lost in thought.
Nice, Parker. He spilled his guts to you about how his best friend in the world, the first woman he loved, destroyed his life and you act like a baby and run off because he suggests you act like an adult and tell someone the truth. My hand was on the door handle and I started to get back out. I stopped when I saw Mitchell walk up to Quinn with Jackie right behind him. Quinn pointed to me in the car. Acting as though I didn’t see, I drove off.
My phone rang within seconds. It was Jackie, of course. I answered, and she said, “What’s up, chickie? We ran into Quinn at the park and saw you leaving. Why don’t you turn around and hang with us for a bit? It could be like a double date.” Rolling my eyes, I told her the same thing I told Quinn, that I had things to do. She knows me too well and I knew she wouldn’t believe that. Sounding annoyed, she said, “Whatever…talk to you later” and she hung up. I'm sure I'll get an earful tomorrow when we're alone.
Silencing my phone, I kept driving. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I wanted to get far away from my life at the moment. As I rounded the corner, I saw something collapse in the road. It looked like a dog and then…. I slammed on my brakes, Oh my gosh, it shifted!
Chapter Six
