by Martha Woods
“What’s happening to that guy?” Jamie asked, screwing his eyes up to squint at the screen, “Is she biting him or just… really weirdly nuzzling him?”
“She’s trying to drink his blood, don’t you know how vampires work?”
He scoffed, “I know how vampires work, I’m just wondering why she’s trying to find blood in his windpipe, somehow I don’t think that’s a very valuable location for blood.”
“Well, she’ll end up getting blood anyway?”
“Ok, sure, next time we go out I’m going to drop my food on the ground and lick it up off the tiles, I’ll still end up getting food, it’ll just be a little messier.”
“Ugh, you’re so gross!” She slapped the back of her hand against his shoulder, leaning back against the wall and feeling her legs starting to go to sleep. “Fuuuuuuck, this is just what I needed you know? It’s nice watching these with a friend.”
“So help me God, if you put yourself through this when you’re alone then I’m calling off this friendship,” He laughed, “No way can you be that much of a masochist.”
“I appreciate a good work of art!” She protested, “And… they’re pretty good for getting me to sleep.”
“You can’t do that with a good movie?”
“Oh sure, I’ll put Children of Men on, that’s really a movie that you can sleep through.” She rolled her eyes, shaking her head to make sure he really saw how stupid she found the suggestion. “What about you? Three years of knowing you and I still barely even know what you do for fun aside from sleep and go to the zoo, what’s the deal with that?”
“I just… don’t really have anything else that I want to do. I like staying in I guess.” Why exactly he did not know, he’d been much more social when he was a kid after all, but there were some questions that he just didn’t feel qualified enough to answer. The mysteries of how his mind worked were definitely topping that list, and had for years at this point, and he’d just given up and accepted that he was more or less just coming along for the ride. “I’ve got a friend here, that’s enough for me.”
“Yeah but… do you really just want me to be your only friend? What about the other people in the dorm?”
“They’re usually too loud, or they’re too… I dunno, sometimes it feels like they’re just looking at me like some test subject.”
“There’s a lot of Psychology majors here, half of them don’t actually see people as people anymore, that’s not your problem though!” Shuffling the laptop onto his lap and shaking her legs out, she repositioned herself to lean on her side to look at him fully. “You’re a great guy Jamie, but I just worry about you, you know? I mean… the first time I ever met you was because you woke me up screaming through your wall.”
“I’m… sorry about that.”
“You don’t have to be! But I just want you to know that I’m not afraid of you, and once other people get to know you, the real you, then they won’t either!” Pausing to yawn, Rachel waved her hand in apology before leaning her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry, kind of a long night you know? Guess it just took it out of me more than I expected.”
“Don’t worry about it,” He said, patting her thigh, “Do you want me to get going? Leave you to sleep?”
“Nah, I want to enjoy this while I still can, let’s finish the movie, ok?”
Jamie nodded, pushing her to the side and placing his head down on her pillow, the two of them looking down at the laptop and watching the amateurish actors go through rapidly dismantling any semblance of a script or serious atmosphere, in a glorious cacophony of bad CGI blood and plastic teeth. By the time that Jamie recognized that Rachel had fallen asleep, his eyes were starting to flutter as well, shadows dancing at the edges of his vision as he pushed the laptop to the end of the bed where it would be safe out of reach of their feet, before he let his eyelids fall shut and take him back into sleep. Maybe he should have left, made sure that she wasn’t disturbed and chanced laying down in his own bed, but he was certain that if he moved a single muscle that he would lose this one chance that he had for actual, genuine rest.
It had been far too long to even consider that, so he did what anyone else would do in a situation like this: Shuffled himself against the wall as much as he could, to make sure that she at least had enough space to be comfortable, and rolling onto his side so that he was staring at the wall rather than her. They knew each other well, and this wasn’t the first time this had happened, so he knew by now that she didn’t appreciate waking up to see someone’s face about three inches away from hers with their mouth open and drool down the side of their face. Even with a trusted friend, it wasn’t a very pleasant image to be greeted with first thing in the morning.
“Goodnight Rachel,” He mumbled to himself, letting his body fall limp and every ounce of tension leach out from his limbs, the mattress threatening to swallow him whole as he allowed sleep to take him. Before he passed out completely, right on the edge of consciousness, he could swear that he head a mumbled, ‘Goodnight Jamie’ from her side of the bed, but before he could process what, if anything, he had heard, he was gone.
“This isn’t what I expected to wake up to,” Rachel said, lifting her head up from the back of his neck and unlinking her arm from around his waist, blushing as he looked back at her and flicked his eyes between her face and her hand, “I swear, total accident.”
“I uh… don’t worry about it,” He replied, privately wondering just how he’d ended up on the other side of the bed in the first place. He’d basically flattened himself against the wall, there was no reason that he should have moved back over into her space. Well, other than the fact that she was a natural source of warmth, but even that didn’t make sense with the sweltering heat, especially since it was the middle of the day by this point, the early morning excuse for needing warmth was very much not in play.
“Ok, gotta admit, this is not what I intended, but that’s just something that we’re going to have to deal with,” He said, still not moving completely from her side even as the moment stretched on and was getting more and more awkward. “Did you like the movie at least?”
“Oh God no it was terrible,” She laughed, bumping her forehead against the center of his back, “But the company was good at least, that’s probably why I ended up falling asleep.”
“My very presence makes you want to sleep? That’s a nice compliment.”
“Not that you dick, you know what I mean,” She groaned, reaching over blindly for her phone, “What’s the time?”
“About… one in the afternoon.” He paused, letting that run through his mind a few more times before he sat up straight, almost rocketing her off the bed if she hadn’t done the exact same thing. “One in the afternoon!”
“I’ve got a class!” She yelled, “And so do you!”
“Crap!” He jumped out of bed, spinning around in place before clapping his hands against his pockets, searching for anything that could have fallen out or otherwise left his side at any time during the night. It was only then that he realized, and that she realized as well, somehow, that he hadn’t been wearing pants the entire night, not since he had left his dorm to go get an overpriced, over flavored lime soda. To say that the realization was unwelcome was… a tremendous understatement.
“Do you uh… need to borrow some jeans?” She asked, looking away as the muscles in his thigh flexed with his movements, “I think I might have some close to your size.”
“I try to squeeze myself into your pants I’ll end up cutting my legs off from lack of blood, I’ll just… have to make the run I guess.”
Rachel nodded, allowing herself a small smile at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. “I know that everyone already knows that we’re friends and everything, but I’m still sorry if this starts any rumors.”
“I’m sorry if this starts any rumors,” He laughed, “But whatever, maybe someone’ll actually think I’m normal after this.”
“Don’t get too cocky, you might ac
tually have to talk to them once in a while.”
“Ugh, yeah you’re right,” He groaned, “Oh well, nice while it lasted.”
Taking a deep breath and squeezing his hand around the handle of the door, he flung it open and stepped out, hoping that he was at least emerging at a time of day where there weren’t many people milling around. Unfortunately for him they’d just hit a transition period between classes, so those that lived in the dorm were both coming and going, bringing friends and family with them in the small breaks that they had before they had to start either studying or drinking again. This was all to say: Not a great time to be stepping out with only your shirt and underwear on.
“Excuse me, sorry,” He said, pushing his way through a small group that was blocking the hallway, having seen him emerge from Rachel’s room, “Just gotta get through here, don’t mind me.”
They parted, looking between her door and his back in obvious confusion before they looked downwards, seeing the tight muscle in his thighs and calves flexing and stretching with his every step, barely an ounce of fat on him, completely belying the… otherwise fitting look of long sleeved shirts and hoodies that he looked to be trying to disappear into. None of them were going to admit that they would think about doing anything other than saying ‘Hello’ every now and then, but looking at what he was obviously hiding in his day to day life… a few of them at least understood why he could be emerging from Rachel’s room obviously disheveled and in a state of undress.
“Didn’t know he had it in him,” Said the leader, laughing with his shoulders shaking in his letterman, “Hey what’s his name again?”
“James, or something like that,” Answered the girl next to him, squeezing his arm with her hands, “He doesn’t really talk that much, kind of just hangs around in his room. I think, I haven’t really seen him around since I’ve been living here.”
“You’ve been living here three years right?”
“Yep.”
“And how long’s he been living here again?”
“...Three years?”
“Wow,” He laughed, pouting his lips, “We should do something about that, you want to invite him to something?”
“Uhh…” Wondered his friend, another top-heavy boy, obviously on an athletic scholarship, “Why would we do that?”
“I’m interested, I want to see what he’s got to offer. And did you see that guy’s legs?” He whistled, “Legs like that, imagine how fast he can run. We get him on our side, get him in the team, see what he can do? We could do some pretty amazing things maybe.”
“We’ve already got some pretty amazing guys Josh, I don’t get why we’d want him too.”
“Because we can always be better,” Josh said, shrugging his shoulders, “And besides, maybe I’m just feeling nice lately. I kind of want to throw him a bone maybe, see where that takes us.”
“You just want a study buddy,” His girlfriend said, “We can’t really help you after all, we’re too busy.”
“Yeah yeah, science majors I swear…” Josh patted them on the backs, shuffling them towards his room and getting one last look at the back of Jamie. “Come on, let’s go plan something.”
Chapter 2
By the time you got to university, not that Jamie had much experience with the ‘Before’ period of education, it was generally understood by about half the staff at any given facility that about three quarters of your students would either be showing up late or not at all. It was their first taste of semi-independent freedom after all, the first time that they were free to do whatever it was that they wished with whomever they wished, and a great deal of the time that meant drinking, drug, sex, or a combination of the three.
Hey, you were already out of pocket a couple dozen thousand dollars, at least these three things were cheap if you went looking.
Jamie had never been to high school, in fact coasting into university on a forged diploma and a very generous cash donation from a certain figure in his family that had an interest in remaining nameless, though he made a note to himself to repay Megan someday for all her help. What this lack of prior experience meant however, was that Jamie generally, exhaustion or sickness permitting, showed up to every single class, every single lecture, every single office meeting either directly on time or even earlier. A few students, whether they realized it or not, had almost started using him as a measure of time, if he was running that meant they were tremendously late, and if he wasn’t showing up at all then the class must have been cancelled and they’d just forgotten to check their email. So when a few of these students were sitting in the coffee shop on the other side of campus and saw him sprinting away like his life depended on it, they came to the very quick and very stunning revelation that they were a good twenty minutes late for their lecture, and finals were more or less just around the corner just waiting to ambush them.
The staff on duty weren’t enthused by the coffee that was spilled by their exit.
“Sorry I’m late!” He panted, shoving the door open and resting his hands on his knees, breathing harshly before looking up at the room. Most of them were either half asleep or fully asleep, but the few that were awake and at attention were all staring right at him and the obvious bedhead that he was sporting. Rumors had already started circulating, and while someone having sex was hardly front-page news on a university campus of all places, a number of them had to admit that the thought of him being involved was… intriguing. Their only impression of him had been the studious bookworm, maybe a little strange, generally completely unapproachable, it seemed like it could be a good icebreaker.
As soon as they were done chuckling at him blushing in embarrassment at being the center of attention.
“You’re rather late,” Professor McNamara said, wiping at the corner of his mouth to hide the small grin of amusement, “A rare occurrence. Don’t worry Jamie, you haven’t missed anything except an endless description of the coffee that I had this morning. Class, any answers for what that was?”
“A caramel latte,” Said one of the students up front, who Jamie recognized as one of his dormmates.
“Right you are, thank you Theodore.” He turned back to Jamie, nodding once. “There, now you’re all caught up on the fact that I have the taste buds of a twelve-year-old girl, you can take your seat now.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jamie said, bowing his head and shuffling up the aisle, nodding his thanks when the caramel latte student moved their bag out of the seat next to them. Slumping into his seat, Jamie tried focusing on the words written on the whiteboard, but try as he might he just couldn’t get his mind to cooperate with him today. Maybe it was something to do with how he had woken up, both times, but that wouldn’t make any sense. It wasn’t a first time for either of those occasions, why would he suddenly start freaking out about them now?
“Hey,” Theodore said, leaning in, “You got a pencil I can borrow?”
“Uhh, sure,” Jamie answered, digging through his bag and finding a loose pencil floating around in the bottom, “It’s not sharp, sorry.”
“Allgood,” He replied, pulling out a slip of paper and writing down a series of digits, before grinning and sliding it over to Jamie, “Me and the boys are having a party tomorrow night, get some new blood in the team, you know the deal. Why don’t you come along? Apparently you’ve got some muscle on you.”
Jamie looked down at himself, before arching an eyebrow. “Do I look like I’d be the football type?”
“Do I look like I’d be the literature type?” Theodore answered, “Look, just give it a thought, you know? Worst comes to worst, you come along and have a few drinks, that’s it. That doesn’t sound so bad huh?”
“I think we have different definitions of what the worst thing that could happen is, but… sure, I’ll think about it.” He took the slip of paper, scanning it for a second before asking, “Is this your number or did you give me someone else’s as a joke?”
“That’s my number, I honestly don’t know what the gag c
ould be otherwise.”
Slipping the piece of paper into his pocket, Jamie wrestled with something that he could say in response before he settled on a simple, ‘Thanks’. Theodore didn’t look much like he’d been expecting anything else, and he was actually paying attention to what Professor McNamara was speaking about anyway, clearly taking his education seriously. Perhaps Jamie had been a little too hasty to judge, he hadn’t considered the more sports oriented students to be stupid by any means, he’d grown up around enough raw brawn to know that they were all too often just as eager to work their brain as they were their muscle, but some things do leech through inadvertedly. This party might be a good idea in fact, help him strip some of the thoughts away that he’d been holding onto for who knows how long.
And besides, it had been a good few years of studying so far, it was about time that he pushed himself and actually put himself out there. Rachel had made that clear that morning, he couldn’t just rely on her to be there for him twenty-four hours a day, though they were far from that dependent on one another. But if things got bad, for either of them… it would be best to have more people in their corner, more people who would be willing to weather the storm and help them through everything that came their way.
And you can’t do that for yourself if you’re focused on someone else.
“Hey, Rachel!” He called, knocking on the door and leaning against the doorframe. She wasn’t asleep, that much he was certain of, but whether she actually wanted to see anyone was completely up to her, he knew that feeling better than anyone.
“What?” She called from inside, shouting over the music coming through her speakers, “Come in, I can’t hear you properly!”
Pushing the door open, then closing it behind him to prevent the rest of the dorm giving them a noise complaint, he took a few steps inside and tapped his fingers against the back of her chair, staring down at her laptop and waiting for her to ask for him to speak. She usually ended up going into the zone, writing nonstop for hours upon hours until entire essays had been completed in as little as half a day, an impressive feat that he’d only managed to replicate once and that had left him bedridden from exhaustion for the next two days. So far be it from him to interrupt one of those sessions that she thrived on, he was the intruder here.
