Breathing was getting hard for the teenager. He gasped for breath at the end of each packet he finished.
Heavy breathing echoes through the room. Saliva mixed with crimson liquid slowly drips down his teeth and down his long, pearly white fangs, now stained red, along with his lips. A pale hand runs through his choppy, strawberry blonde hair. A tongue, colored with crimson, slowly runs over the flesh at the corner of his lips.
"A little more won't hurt, right, Vladimir?" he tells himself, sinking his teeth into a packet of tomato juice.
"You're fucking obsessed…"
Juice dribbled down his chin and onto the tile, kitchen floor beneath his bare feet. With each taste, he could feel his senses intensifying. Oh how weak he was before, it shamed him. Running all those laps in gym class was a pain.
A loud slap snapped him back. Vladimir's cheek was now a little red, his flesh stinging.
"Listen up you tomato juice addict!" Vladimir's older cousin snapped at him, snatching the packet back and kicking him in the shin. "At this rate, you'll be figured out. Seriously…" He stared at the thicker crimson liquid in his own glass. "One day, you'll learn to enjoy actual blood."
"I-I… I couldn't help myself! I've been drinking only tomato juice ever since middle school!" Vladimir whined, licking the rest of the dilute juice off his hand. "Human blood tastes too good. But I hate it. I go to a human high school… I can't… I can't drink their blood…" He looked at his hands with disgust. "So my only option is tomato juice. Not as energy refilling as blood, but still…"
His cousin scoffed and turned on the television. "When Aunt comes, you should drink blood. Or you can figure out a way to make your juice look like blood. Ya know, she's already pretty disappointed in you. She calls you a fake vampire…" He faced the TV.
"Vampires seemed to have adapted to live in our world," one reporter stated. "It seems that they can stand under the sunlight without being bothered, and they can eat human foods too. It seems that the rumors of vampires living in our world are true too."
His cousin scoffed again and rolled his eyes. "They took three thousand years to figure that out?! Genius!" He rolled his eyes again and muttered with sarcasm.
The reporter continued to drone on and on about their "new" discoveries when something caught Vladimir and his cousin's attention.
"Now, standing here with me is a vampire. His name is Anto—"
The television was broken that day and Vladimir had to buy another one from the same store as usual, who looked at him funny. Another stupid ass television, they would always say, in a joking manner.
"Vladimir," a fair, tall boy about Vladimir's age jogged up to him in the crowded hallway, brushing his platinum blond bangs to one side. "I asked if you were going to club today… Though, you were really out of it…" Lukas murmured, adjusting his grip on his books.
Vladimir laughed nervously. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
"About what?" After he was met with silence, Lukas sighed. "It doesn't matter. Don't tell me. It's strange for you to think," he spoke the last part with a sly smile.
"Hey!" Vladimir laughed and lightly pushed Lukas's other arm. He actually felt a bit better from Lukas's attempt to cheer him up.
Another boy, one with messy blonde hair and emerald green eyes ran up to them. "Shut up and go to class you guys. You are going to club today, right?"
Lukas nodded and he and Arthur stared at Vladimir. Vladimir, giving up, raised his hands.
"What the heck. Why the fuck not?"
"You like that guy, right?"
"What?" Vladimir laughed nervously. "Which guy?"
"Bondevik kid," his cousin replied, smirking slightly. "But I do have to say, I see why you like him. I totally understand."
Vladimir blushed and looked away. "Maybe I like him a little more than friends, but it's probably just a phase or something."
His cousin only cracked up. "A phase?" he howled. "You talk like Aunt! I keep telling you. Get him on your bed or something. If I was you, I would have already banged him."
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"
The boys exchanged small smiles and they ran to homeroom. Vladimir stared at Lukas through most of the time. He occasionally bumped into Lukas, causing Lukas to bump into Arthur. All of them would shout 'Hey!' at the same exact time, causing them to chuckle quietly. However, Lukas's younger brother had to show up and ruin Vladimir's entire day.
"Lukas…" Emil murmured. He glared at the other boys with his deep violet eyes before getting up to his toes and whispering in Lukas's ear. The Norwegian's deep blue eyes grew wide and in a few seconds, returned as a look of frustration.
"Are you sure it was him?" Lukas asked, his eyes glaring at the floor. Emil nods.
"Hey, Lukas, are you alright?" Vladimir asks, with a small laugh at the end of his question. He placed his hand on Lukas's shoulder.
"Don't touch me!" Lukas shouts, with a frightened look in his eyes. He slaps the hand off his shoulder and push Vladimir away. After the entire hallway fell silent, Lukas turned and slowly walked out of their view, into the crowd, his brother following.
"I haven't seen that Bondevik kid in a while. I don't even see Arthur."
"I just don't feel like seeing any of them. Okay?"
"What? Were you rejected or something?"
"Shut up." Vladimir's hand gripped at his shirt where his heart was, his lips pulling into a thin frown. His heart ached. Did Lukas figure out he was a vampire? Did Lukas just hate him for doing something? It couldn't be, right? He had even grinded down his fangs for when he saw Lukas and Arthur. Grinding your fangs hurt a lot. But Vladimir's heart hurt even more than a thousand grinds.
Lukas did not come to school the next day or the next. He was out for an entire month and by now, Vladimir and Arthur was used to it. Both used to sit in the small clubroom and play around with the tarot cards and the little magic charms, waiting for the Norwegian to join them. He never came.