HEY GUYS! :D
Theaterlover here.
My name for this story, (if you didn't know, it changes with every story) is Nami. That's what my friend calls me, even though that's not actually my name… whatever. I like it.
Anyways, I've been writing this one FOREVER and I never really got around to posting, and when I copy pasted it to a word document, it was 98 pages! :O Ridiculous. I should have posted a while ago.
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! I do not own any character from Glee or anywhere else. I do not own anything mentioned.
Enjoy! :)
Summary- Niff! Jeff never meant to make the call. It wasn't his fault, but when he meets Nick, a jock across the country, he needs to find a way to fight for this new boy, all the while trying to fight against who he is. Vampire!Jeff
Prologue.
You never understand how much you don't see.
The boy's hands drifted over the desk, his fingernails hardly touching the wood. His eyes tracked his own fingers as they followed the lines in the grain. Flashbacks of the blonde boy played over and over in his mind, words ringing in his ears, trapped by the large headphones still pressed on his head, and seeming somehow to echo through the room. His focal point changed as his computer went to screensaver, causing his eyes to flick up and lock on the screen. The music from the screensaver suddenly blasted in his headphones, and he jumped three feet in the air, smacking at the headphones and falling to the floor.
When he settled, he was on his back, the headphones swinging by their cord, slowly back and forth above him. Seemingly fascinated, his eyes followed them back and forth. If someone had walked into the room, he would have seemed hypnotized. But he snapped out of it.
"What's wrong with you?" He scolded himself in a quiet voice, sitting up abruptly and promptly smashing his face into the headphones, and then the desk. This really wasn't going well for the boy. He rubbed his face and stood up, stumbling to the bathroom.
He stared at his face in the mirror, and sighed. There was something different about this blonde, and he knew it. He knew that he wasn't normal. That he was something different. The blonde had a secret. And this boy was going find out what.
Chapter 1
Jeff POV
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I could smell my mom in the other room. She was sitting alone at the table, her blood pulsing under her skin, her tears streaking down her face. They fell onto the hardwood table, making little splashes that I'm sure even she couldn't hear. I could imagine the tiny waves they would make in her cup of coffee.
Mom never wanted us to know how much she cried. And of course, my sister never knew. I heard Meghan shift on her bed, flipping a page of her magazine. Secondhand Serenade blasted through her earbuds. I could hear it loud and clear. Did she need to listen to it so loud?
My mom cleared her face and blew her nose. I listened as the chair scraped back, her footsteps echoing softly through the house as she headed for the bathroom, leaving the coffee on the table. I could smell it, steaming on the table, and I could imagine the steam curling up through the air, dissolving and spreading towards the ceiling. My pale fingers tapped against the table. The sound echoed in my head. I swallowed and wished for everyone to sleep already so I could hunt.
I turned my eyes to the computer, pulling on my headphones. I flipped down the microphone, pulling up Skype. My eyes tracked the mouse as if it were my victim as it slid across the screen. I went to my friends, and after remembering that I had none, I typed in a random name and stared at it for a while.
Nila2784.
Normally I never hit send. I would look at the name for a while, wondering if I should, wondering if it would lead to anything. I had only hit send twice, and once it wasn't a real number and the other time when the girl answered she screamed and hung up. If I had been her, I probably would have done the same thing.
I absentmindedly tapped my fingers against the desk again, staring at the name. Nila2784. My hunger distracted me as I turned towards the window. I closed my eyes and let my senses find a victim in the city.
Yes, I was different. I wasn't normal, as you can probably tell. I was a vampire. I was a bloodsucker. A leech. Scum. Not natural. But due to this curse, I had a gift. My senses could basically leave my body, move around and see and smell and hear things for me. Like I was there. But then I wasn't with my body and it left me quite unprotected.
I tried not to be a monster, though. I tried to only kill the bad people. I tried to stay a good person. Or, as good as I could, with this awful burden.
I found my victim. There... He was standing by a bar, watching two girls laugh and walk down the street. I could smell his lust. I could tell what he wanted to do.
I was at the door of my room in a flash, my head out in the hall.
"Mom!"
I waited and listened as she jumped in the bathroom, her comb falling to the floor and her elbow slamming into the towel rack, making me wince. Something rolled towards the edge of the counter, and I heard it fall and plummet towards the floor, but she swiped at it and managed to catch it.
"Nice save," I whispered so she couldn't hear me.
"Yeah? What is it, Jeff?" She called back, leaning on the counter, the bottle of make-up, mascara, I assumed, by the smell, still in her fist. Her eyes closed and her head drooped.
"I'm going to bed. Goodnight!" My throat burned. I needed to feed, now. I needed to go. I needed to save the two girls.
"Goodnight!" she called back, her head coming up a bit, just enough to call, and then falling back down.
I ignored the painful sympathy, closed my door, and was instantly at my window. I slid it open quietly and moved silently across the lawn. I heard the man start towards the two girls, who were still unaware of his presence, and I shot down an alley, trying to get there in time.
I almost didn't make it. I dropped off of the wall into the alley just as the man grabbed the first girl. The other girl turned and gasped, but I covered her mouth before she could scream. I didn't want to call attention. Not if I was going to kill him. "Shhh," I whispered in her ear, and I let her go.
"Don't hurt me," the girl in the man's arms cried.
The man laughed. "Don't struggle, then."
Before he could do anything, I stepped into the light and he noticed me and lowered his eyebrows.
"What are you doing, skinny?" he said in a gravelly voice.
My anger bubbled below the surface of my skin and I ran my tongue over my teeth. My canines were sharp. Not sharp enough for people to notice, but sharp enough to cut through things. Like this man's skin. As I thought about his blood, saw it beating underneath his thin skin, saw his pulse in his neck, heard his heartbeat, loud and wet and appealing, I felt my teeth become slippery as my venom released, ready to kill the man.
I swallowed the fire in my throat. I couldn't kill him until the girls were gone. I didn't want to have to kill them, too. Because if they saw me feeding, they could tell people. I needed to remain a secret.
I stepped forward. "Let go of the girl," I growled menacingly.
"A skinny kid like you isn't going to do anything to me." his teeth flashed as he laughed. I could smell the cigarette smoke and alcohol on his breath. Gross.
I closed the gap between us and clamped my hand down on his wrist. It snapped beneath my grasp, and he cried out in agony and released the girl. She scrambled over to her friend, and I wrapped my hand around the man's neck, driving him against the wall. His hands scraped uselessly against my hand as his eyes bugged.
I turned to the girls. "Go," I said softly, and they ran, not looking back. They smelled much nicer than the man. I almost followed, but I stopped myself. Those girls were innocent. This man wasn't.
"Don't hurt me," the man choked out, tears falling down his face.
"Don't struggle, then." I quoted him, and I glanced to make sure that the girls were gone before leaning forward and sinking my teeth into his soft neck. He tried to scream, but he only gurgled as I released him and let him fall to the ground. His blood was unclean, poisoned by drugs and alcohol, but it was better then being hungry. I crouched over him and began to suck the blood out through his neck, and his hands beat at me, gradually slowing and eventually stopping altogether. When he went dry, I stood and wiped my mouth off, disgusted. I hated being this way. I hated having to do this. People always looked so... Awful when they were dead and bloodless. Pale, waxy, eyes bulging, most of the time their hands curled and their mouths still open in an unheard cry for help. I ignored my feelings and pulled his body onto my back and took him to the bay, where I threw his body out and watched it sink.
This was my normal routine, every third day, because that's usually as long as I could go without feeding. I ran home, slipping silently through my window and sitting back at my desk. The seat was cold.
I paused. My mom was in her bed, her breathing even. I could still smell the coffee on the table, now cold, my mom's tears next to it, drying on the wood. My sister had fallen asleep with her headphones in, Secondhand Serenade still playing. I was surprised that it didn't wake her up. Her light buzzed, she had left it on.
I sighed. Was every family like this? We were so split apart, so distant all the time. I supposed part of it was my fault. Since I was like this I had to lie a lot, so I began to cut myself off from them. It had only been a year, a year of this crap, a year of this high school where no one figured it out. And if I could keep it that way, I could move to 'college' and maybe fake my death and then move to New York or Miami or something. Nowhere even in the same state as my family. Not even on the same coast. I didn't have it completely planned out; I didn't really know what to do. I was still that scared little boy that got changed and couldn't tell his mom. I was still that boy who had to figure it out all by himself.
"Hey! Kid! Hey!" I jumped, realizing that my senses were again outside in the city. I located the sound to be coming from the headphones, and I yanked them on and looked at the screen.
"You okay?" the boy asked.
He was smiling, amused at my spacey-ness. He had long brown hair, swept a bit to the side. His eyes were brown, his smile warm. He was wearing his headphones and mic under the hood of his grey jacket, which hung open over his black shirt. The room behind him was dark, but I could see that there was a bed, a poster for the New York Yankees and a poster for New York University, a bookshelf with a bunch of classic books on it, like To Kill a Mockingbird and All Quiet on the Western Front and some biographies of people like Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler and Abraham Lincoln. A closet door was cracked open, showing just a couple pairs of jeans, and a letterman jacket. A hamper and a basket sat next to the door. A nightstand next to his bed had a clock on it that read 3:17. I checked my own clock, and saw 12:17. Three hours ahead... That must mean that he was on the east coast.
It took me a half second to take in all of this, and I regained my posture. "Sorry, I didn't realize I hit call," I said, pulling on my headphones.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
"No, I must have typed the wrong number." I lied. It was too weird to tell him the truth.
He chuckled. "Well, I'm Nick. You are?"
It was weird to have someone seem interested in knowing me. I was a background character. A lethal background character. Fun.
"I'm Jeff."
"Well, I'm not doing anything right now. If you don't care, I would be fine with talking for a while." he told me, leaning back in his chair and intertwining his fingers on his stomach.
"Sure, that sounds fine." I responded. He seemed really nice. It was weird to talk to someone my own age. Someone that wasn't my mom or my sister.
"Well, for starters, where are you? In Cali, I'm guessing? Your accent shows it."
"Yeah." I said back. "San Francisco. You're on the East Coast?"
"New York. How'd you know? I thought I was good at hiding the accent." He laughed. His teeth were very white and straight.
"The clock," I told him. "You're three hours ahead. How late are you planning on staying up?" I laughed with him.
"I can sleep in class," he chuckled.
"Not worried about your grades?" I asked him. My mind switched tracks on deciding what kind of person he was.
"Nah. I'm only worried about football practice."
So he was a jock. I could see his muscles. Of course he was.
"How about you? You play sports?"
Only if I want to kill people, I thought. "Nah. Not really."
"You a nerd? Study a lot?"
"Not really." I never studied. Like at all. I didn't even need to pay attention to ace the tests at my school. Side effect of being a vampire, my brain catalogues everything, even if I'm hardly paying attention.
"Theater geek?" he was trying to pin a stereotype to me. But I guess I didn't have a look like a certain type of person.
"Nope." I was kind of having fun with this. He was struggling.
"Ummmm... Art kid." he was sure he had got it, and I felt bad. Because I did like to draw, but I wasn't an art kid. So, for reasons that I couldn't really explain, I nodded.
"You got it."
"Ooh! Can you show me something you've drawn?" He grinned wide.
I smiled at his crazy happiness. He was very enthusiastic, with his puppy dog face and grin. I could imagine him with big floppy ears. "Sure, one second."
I pulled off my headphones and crossed the room, looking for a drawing. It was weird, but I wanted to show him my best drawing. I wanted it to make him smile.
Unfortunately, most of my drawings were sickening, things that I had seen, quite a few dead people, and a bunch of the monster that I saw in the mirror.
I finally found one that was okay, a drawing of a boy who was not me, but he was a metaphor for me, (luckily nick wouldn't know) and he was standing, looking in the mirror. His reflection wasn't him, it was a big, shadowy demon with sharp teeth and it was pressing on the mirror, like it was trying to get out.
"Here's one of my best ones," I told Nick, sitting down and holding up the picture.
He studied it for a minute, and then said, "Wow, Jeff. It's amazing. Who is the boy a metaphor for?" He looked up at me, taking me by surprise. He was intuitive. He was expecting me to say that it was me. I could see it in his eyes.
"It's a boy from a book that I read." I lied quickly.
He brightened considerably. "Oh! What book?"
"Um... Nico from Percy Jackson and the Olympians?"
"That sounded like a question." he laughed.
"Have you heard of it?" I could see it on his shelf, all of the spines worn down. Of course he had-
"Of course I have." He spoke, interrupting my thoughts. "That's an amazing series. One of my favorites."
I chuckled.
"Don't laugh at me. I'm a completely normal seventeen year old." he scolded me, his eyes sparkling with laughter.
We talked for a long time. We talked and talked and talked until his clock hit six thirty and his alarm went off. He was in the middle of explaining the house that he grew up in, and he jumped and spun around to look at the clock while I just froze.
"Oh..." he mumbled. "Wow, we talked for a long time. I lost track of time."
I didn't. I thought. Oh well. It's a gift... "Oh... You gotta go to school?" I still had three hours before I had to start to get ready.
"Yeah, I do. Maybe I'll call you later?"
I smiled. He wants to talk to me again? Nobody ever wants to... "Sure! But remember I get out of school three hours later than you do."
His teeth flashed as he smiled. "Right. I'll see you later, Jeff."
"Bye, Nick."
The screen went dark as he ended the call, and I sighed. Dust flew off the top of the monitor and I watched as it drifted in the wake of my breath.
I sat there for a long time, until the clock hit four and I decided to sleep. I climbed in bed and closed my eyes, allowing sleep to overtake me.
"Jeff!" my mom called. "Your alarm went off a half hour ago! Get out of bed!"
I opened my eyes to the same old peeling ceiling. Outside I could hear a raccoon rooting through our garbage, breathing heavily. My sister was sitting on her bed, staring at the wall. I could practically taste her regret. She was wishing she had gone to sleep earlier. My mom was sitting on the couch, a cup of steaming tea in her hands, the coffee from the night before cleaned up, the dishes from the previous day clean and smelling like soap in the cabinets above the sink. I could smell fresh French toast on my mom's breath and in the fridge as well. The bathroom smelled like her shampoo.
I shook my head, trying to clear the rush to my senses. It happened every morning, probably due to the lack of senses that I had every time I slept. Sometimes I just didn't sleep. I didn't really need to, but often it made me less hungry.
I climbed out of bed and took a quick shower. I hated the shower. It made everything smell like shampoo and shower water, it made everything echo, it basically cut off my senses. As soon as I was out I dressed and opened the door, allowing the cold, clean air to replace the musky steam. With a pang of sadness I realized how before I was changed I used to love the warmth of the bathroom after a hot shower, how I used to stand there with my eyes closed, just letting the steam surround me...
I had changed. When I was changed into a vampire I became a different person, an unemotional asshole with a cold heart. But only because I needed to block people out. I hadn't had many friends before anyways, so what did it matter? No one noticed the personality change.
But here was Nick. I didn't know him very well, but I wanted to get to know him. He was cute. He was nice. He was sweet.
Oh, right. Yes, I'm gay. The only time anybody acknowledged my existence was to bully me.
I left the house, my backpack on my back. I hated school. Everything about the way I moved changed, and I was suddenly bitter.
I could hear everything; I could hear everyone talking, before I was even a block from the school. I liked to pretend they were talking to me. It made school a little more bearable.
I made it to school and sat down on a bench, listening to the conversations. Nothing too interesting today... My throat burned. I didn't want to kill any of them, but the monster inside of me growled, telling me that just one wouldn't hurt.
Yes. Just one would hurt very much.
I could hear the bell ringing in the office before it rang outside, and I stood and headed off to my English class before anybody could plug up the halls. They parted around me anyways, it didn't really matter. I just preferred not to have to deal with the harsh stares and looks of fear.
Why were they afraid of me? I would never know. The ones that looked afraid of me never spoke to anyone about it. Maybe I'll find out someday.
My English class was loud. Maybe not to the teacher, but my supersonic hearing made every whisper way way too loud. I knew all the rumors, all the drama, everything.
It sucked. Royally.
I tried not to listen to the boring drama of the kids and I let my senses wander through the next few classrooms. Nothing interesting... Wait!
"Jeff? Oh that creepy blonde one?"
Creepy? How am I creepy?
"Yeah. I heard he's gay."
"Yeah. I know. I was afraid he was going to jump me or something," the first one laughed. I almost jumped up to go and kill him. But I fought against the monster.
"Dude. David. Not cool." The tan, second boy said.
"Chill out, Wes. I was joking. He's creepy, sure. But we should get to know him." See? Glad I didn't kill him.
"When?" Wes asked.
"I don't know. Lunch today? He seems like he could be a cool kid."
"Yeah. Do you ever see him at lunch?"
"Yeah. He's always back next to the back building."
"Are we just going to talk to him?"
"Why not invite him to the thing today?"
"The drawing thing? Okay. You think he'll come?"
"Maybe. It's hard to tell with him."
I liked these boys. They were nice. David and Wes. Maybe I would go to that drawing thing...
But suddenly the burning in my throat reminded me why I didn't have any friends. I could be close to anyone. It might end badly for them.
I sighed, returning to my body. How come I couldn't be normal? I watched a fly's wings carry the small bug around as he tried to get out the window until the bell rang.
At lunch, I sat back in my normal spot, leaning back and staring at the sky. I watched a plane fly by, and saw a young girl's face in the window, looking down on the terrain, her eyes wide with wonder.
"Jeff?"
I dropped my eyes from the sky and let them land on the two boys in front of me.
"Is it okay if we sit with you?"
I shrugged. I could feel Wes's fear, but David was confident. He sat down right next to me, and Wes sat down sort of in front of me.
"Hello," I said softly. Wes was taken aback. I was confused as to why. I could find out later. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck. My throat burned as I noticed the blood underneath his skin, but I swallowed hard and struggled to keep myself sitting. "I'm Wes."
"And I'm David. How are you?" David said, pulling out a sandwich and beginning to eat.
"Alright. I'd be better if I wasn't so hungry." I blurted, and then realized what I had said. I looked down. At least nothing too bad had slipped out.
"Oh, here, have some chips." Wes offered, reaching in his bag.
"No," I said instantly. Gross. "Thanks. I'm on a diet." A very special diet...
"Oh. But you're so skinny, why would you need to be on a diet?" David laughed.
"Oh, thanks. But you'd be surprised how fast the weight comes on," I answered.
David slowed his chewing and looked down at his sandwich. I tried not to laugh, but Wes couldn't handle it and he burst out laughing. I let go and allowed myself to chuckle.
David put his sandwich down as if it would detonate, and then he turned back to me. "So we never see you with any friends," he informed me.
"Yeah, I don't have many," I mumbled, retreating back into my shell. I didn't need friends. They would only complicate things.
But Wes and David wouldn't have that. They exchanged a glance. "Would you want to come to our art club tomorrow? And don't forget this is a rare thing. We don't usually invite new members."
"Oh, nah, I'm not very good at art."
"Don't kid yourself, man!" Wes said. "You are an amazing artist. I have Mr. Darien's class right after you. And all those art things? He likes to show us yours."
I blushed. "He does?"
"Oh, yeah I think he quite admires your work." I studied him. He had no twitches, no sweating, no fear or worry smell on him. Could he possibly he telling the truth?
He shifted under my stare, and I looked down again.
"So come on, will you give it a try?"
"Maybe..." I mumbled. Which was a no.
"Come on." Wes said. "Really. You look like you could really use some friends."
I hesitated. Because really, I could. I wanted friends. I needed someone to talk to.
But I couldn't. I couldn't. I would end up hurting one or both of them, or they would find out, freak out, and I would be forced away.
My senses seemed to widen as they waited for my response. I could hear everything. I could smell everything, see everything. The ants climbing on David's backpack. The gravel shifting beneath Wes's unmoving feet. The way their clothes moved when they breathed.
Heartbeats.
Blood.
Food.
I almost lost it. I almost leaned forward right then and bit down. The only thing stopping me was the fact that I was digging my fingers into my leg.
"I... I can't." those three words were some of the hardest words I had ever spoken. The monster inside of me was growing to say yes get them alone and eat them. I wasn't used to being this close to people. I stopped breathing.
"Why not?" David asked. They could see something was wrong.
Quick! You need some sort of excuse, Jeff! Now! I ordered myself. I only had a certain amount of air left. No big sob story.
"I don't do well with friends," I said, forcing tears to my eyes. They saw my eyes start to water and looked horrified. "I've had... Bad experiences." I dropped my voice to a whisper, dropping my eyes as well.
David leaned over and hugged me, and even though I wasn't breathing, his scent burned in my throat. I felt my venom release and I bit down on my tongue. He pulled away, and I looked down, using all my willpower to stay sitting.
To make matters worse, the sun came out.
Damn sun.
My whole body burned, the pain in my throat choking me as their scent mixed together and was thrown at me.
No, the sun didn't physically affect me. I didn't sparkle or any shit like that, and I didn't burn up. It just made me hungrier, somehow making me burn everywhere instead of just my throat. And it multiplied everyone's scent by about four.
Before I knew what I was doing I was up and running away. I caught myself at the gate, dropping onto my knees in the shadows, panting, trying to ignore the smell of the teens on the other side of the courtyard.
I needed to feed!
"No!" I growled at myself through gritted teeth.
I stayed there for quite some time, until finally I had calmed down and pushed away the fire in my throat. I had caught control of myself just in time, right when David and Wes ran up, falling to their knees beside me. "Are you okay?! You look like you're going to be sick."
"Here, come to the bathroom with us."
"No," I stopped them. "I'm okay. I'm sorry for that. I was... Bad memories. Sorry."
"It's fine, Jeff. Don't worry. Do you want us to walk you to class?"
"Did the bell ring?"
"It did."
That shows just how bad it had been. I hadn't even noticed the bell ring.
Fifth period... 12:45.
My mind instantly had done the calculations. 3:45, school is out in New York.
Why did I care so much? I couldn't tell. There is something about him...
"You know, I think I'm just going to walk home."
"That sounds good." Wes said.
"Do you want a ride?"
"No, thanks. I'll be fine. You should get to class."
For a moment, I felt fine. I felt accepted, cared for. It was a feeling to be coveted. I wanted to have this feeling more. I wanted it to fill me up, to feel it everyday...
But there was an obvious problem. I had just proved that.
Maybe I could try...?
"Alright. See you tomorrow?"
I hesitated. "Yeah." I decided. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Wes grinned. "Great! Bye!" then he grabbed David's arm and dragged him towards class.
I stood by the gate, listening to them go.
"I told you that was a good idea."
"Well yeah, but what about that weird running away thing?"
"Dude, you heard him. Bad memories."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Don't judge him before you get to know him."
"You think he'll go to the art club tomorrow?"
"Maybe. Hopefully."
I sighed, letting my senses fall back into my body. I let their conversation boil in my mind as I ran home, too fast for anyone to even notice me. I was home in about five seconds, and I pushed my backpack through the window to my rooms and climbed inside. My mom was at work, and I left my key in my locker. It didn't matter. The window was fine.
My room smelled familiar, it smelled like me. Like my family. Everything was exactly as I had left it.
I did my homework in five minutes, even the calculus, and then I turned on my computer and pulled on my headphones. I hit call before my computer was even fully loaded.
"Hello?" Nick's smiling face popped up on the computer screen. He was wearing a letterman's jacket and his headset.
"Hey, Nick."
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he laughed.
"I... Felt sick."
His joking expression fell off his face and was replaced by a worried face. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm better now." seeing his face was like a breath of fresh, non-burning air, and I didn't know why.
He grinned, his perfect teeth flashing.
"Well, what do you want to talk about today?"
Hope you liked it! :)
REVIEW! I'll love you forever. Let me know what you think. Is it good? Any suggestions? Any thoughts at all?
Tehee!
-Nami