Thursday

If there had been any more conversation last night, I hadn't been awake enough to process it. I woke to my mom once more yanking the curtains from my window back, declaring her oh-so cheery "Good morning!"

Groggily, I shoved myself up, already feeling stiff from sleeping curled up on my side. I stared at her almost in amazement; how could she be so cheerful so early in the morning?

Suddenly her eyebrows shot upwards, as she looked from my bed to me, putting her hands on her hips. "Now why are you sleeping this way?" She frowned some, adding "You didn't faint again, did you?"

I blinked, trying to adjust to the brightness. "Mom, I wouldn't actually know, remember?"

Laughing, she nodded. "Right, of course not. But I don't see any new bumps, so maybe you were sleep walking?"

"I don't sleep walk."

She shrugged. "You never know." She then walked around the bed, coming over to me. She kissed my forehead before pulling off the nest of blankets around me and tossing them back on my bed. "Now come on, get up, rise and shine. Time to go to school," she said, heading out of my room.

I could have almost groaned at the thought. But as I sat up, stretching, it was then that I saw my old trunk, and curiosity got the better of me. Had I dreamt everything? Was this the result of falling asleep during Dracula? Or was there really a vampire inside my trunk? Cautiously, I stepped around it, slowly undoing the latch. However, as soon as I opened it just a crack, I was greeted with an angry hiss and I immediately slammed the lid down again, feeling a grin tugging at my lips. Tapping the lid in apology, I muttered a "Sorry, dude."

"Tony," my mom called from downstairs. "Are you hungry?"

Grinning, I turned towards the door, getting to my feet. "I could eat a cow!"

Before I could do anything else, I heard a snort of laughter come from inside the trunk. "Oh, that's real cleaver, Tony…"

On my way out of my room, I grabbed my towel and trekked off towards the bathroom. All throughout my shower, I couldn't help but smile; I finally had a friend in Scotland, and, to top it all off, he was a vampire. I toweled my upper-body dry with a second smaller towel as I headed back to my room about ten minutes later.

I heard the sound of sniffing, and then "Tony?"

"What, Rudolph?"

"Where are you going to go?"

"Um… well," I mumbled, walking into my closet and grabbing a fresh pair of clothes. I yanked up my red boxers before slipping on my pants and walking back out. "I'm going to school… I should be home later though. I'll shut the blinds so if you don't have to stay in there all day." I did as I said, pulling on my gray and blue vintage shirt before grabbing my school stuff. "I'll see you later. Don't get yourself caught."

An indignant scoff came from the trunk. "You forget, mortal, I've been doing this for over three hundred years… I think I'll be all right."

I smiled as I walked out of my room, shutting the door behind me. It seemed as if the day was insistent on getting better, and I was glad for that; when I descended the stairs, for once, I wasn't greeted with the familiar smell of burnt food, but rather pancakes and bacon.

"It looks good," I said as I sat down, forking three large, fluffy pancakes before drowning them in syrup.

My mom smiled, wiping her hands on a paper towel. "Thanks, Tony. You seem to be in an awfully good mood for some one who slept on a couch."

I shrugged. "Good dream?"

My good mood lasted the entire car ride to school, and I even waved a hello to my dad as we passed McAshton Manor. Speaking of McAshton, I had decided that they were not going to bring me down today, so when I saw them once more blocking my way into the school with a

"Good mornin', vampy."

"Yeh mean wimpy, don' yeh?"

I merely rolled my eyes, glared up at them and said "Out of my way, losers," before roughly brushing through them.

Considering, however, from laying flat on my bed, roughly an hour later, with multiple tissues held against my bloody nose, that may not have been the best course of action.

"Fighting with the McAshton boys, of all people!" My mother chided, for probably the hundredth time, as she came back into my room with a new box of tissues.

Since this was not the first time she had said that, I had long given up on trying to explain what really had happened. When I did tell her, she just shook her head saying that I could have chose to ignore them, be the bigger person, yadda, yadda, blah… "They started it…"

She sighed, shaking her head as I turned look at her. "Keep still." As she sat down on the side of my bed, she sighed again. "It's still bleeding. Let me get another tissue." Ripping open the top of the box, she handed me another handful while taking the bloodied ones and throwing them away. As I readjusted the new tissues, she calmly placed her hand on my shoulder, clearing her throat for the best motherly voice possible. "You know, last night, your teacher told me you've been talking an awful lot about monsters…"

I cringed. God! Stupid, stupid, stupid Mr. O'Brien!

"No wonder they keep teasing you."

At a loss for a semi-intelligent sounding response, I opted for the argumentative approach. "Not monsters, vampires."

My mom rolled her eyes. "It's all the same, Tony, and you know that."

"No, it's not and maybe I don't."

"I know it's going to be rough making friends like that."

I folded my arms over my chest, still stubbornly holding the tissues to my nose. "I have a friend…"

It was quite possibly the most hideous face I had seen her make. If smiles could have produced rainbow glitter and sparkle hearts, this one could have done it. She gasped in glee. "You do? What's his name?"

"God, mom! I'm not that incapable of making friends! You don't have to make it sound like a stupid freaking miracle…his name is Rudolf."

Her smile toned down several notches. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm just so glad for you. Where does he live?"

Shrugging, "Not far."

"Well, what's he like?"

Ah, well, funny you should ask, but he's a three hundred year old vampire that even you'd manage to fall for. Oh, yes, that would play in super well with the whole vampire ramblings. "He's, uh… he's very, very cool."

"Well, I think you should invite him for a sleep over."

"I already did." I said, trying to hide my smile.

It looked as if she was about to say something else, but she stopped, sniffing the air. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked around. "There it is again…"

Crap. She had done this last night too. "What?"

"That smell…"

I attempted to sniff as well, but only managed to inhale tissue. "I don't smell anything…" Oh, shit! I didn't… but Rudolf must have… oh, God, he was a vampire and here I was with a bloody nose! As my mom was still looking around, I stole a glance towards my trunk, and sure enough, blood red eyes were peering out at me. Sending him an imploring, yet apologetic look, I faked a cough as the lid shut.

She looked at me. "What was that?"

Coughing again for acting's sake, I shrugged again. "Uhhh… I don't know." I sat up, "But can I go downstairs and watch T.V.? I have a feeling when dad finds out, I'll be stuck in here for much longer and I want to enjoy my last bit of freedom."

Letting out a laugh, she ruffled my hair and nodded. "Sure, but make sure you get a towel. If there's any blood on that couch when you're done, you'll be in here for much longer."

"Sure." I held the tissues away from my nose, and, luckily, it seemed as if it had stopped. Yet, as I came down the stairs, I was met by my dad coming through the door, looking pleasantly surprised.

"Tony? You're home early…well, as you can see, I'm home early too. I thought maybe we could go hit the green before dinner. Are you ready?"

On the last hole, I grimaced as the ball suddenly curved. A summer of not playing was definitely beginning to show. "Craaaap…"

"Ah, come on, Tony, you're just being to hard on yourself. That was much better than what I did."

"Yeah, but you weren't one of the league champions only six months ago…" I sighed, resting the club on my shoulder as I looked up. "What time does it get dark?"

He looked up, "Not for a while…"

I looked back towards the pitch, nudging a rogue tuft of grass with my shoe. "Well, I need to get back before it gets dark."

"Why? What's the big hurry? Are you bored already or do you have homework?"

"No, I know what you've been thinking about me."

After bending over to retrieve his ball, he looked over at me, frowning a little. "Oh, Tony, sorry I've been so rough on you lately…" He waved his free hand around a little, looking away from me. "I've got the job on one hand and the teacher thing-"

Interrupting, I just nodded. "Yeah, I know… mom told me."

"Yeah…"

After a moment of standing poised before the golf ball, I sighed, looking back towards my dad. "Dad… do you think I'm crazy?"

He walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder before he gave it a soft squeeze. "Oh, no, Tony…" He hesitated, releasing my shoulder and rubbing the back of his neck. "I just think vampires belong in a movie somewhere and not in your room."

I froze, the words slipping my mouth before I had considered what I was saying. "How'd you know he's in my room?"

For a long moment he stared at me with a more intense version of a please-tell-me-you're-joking face.

"Ha ha… just… kidding… not very funny, sorry…"

Looking relieved that I had done what he had wanted, he shrugged a little, smiling some. "Kind of funny."

I bit down on my lip, looking around before once more making eye contact. "Oh… then I probably ought to tell you something else that's kind of funny… aha ha… the reason why I came home early today…"

At this, it looked like I had manage to spark his interest, which I immediately regretted. "Right, I meant to ask you about that."

"Ah… well… um… I kind of…" I trailed off into a mumble, quickly tapping the ball with my club so it rolled into the hole.

As I went to pull it out, I froze as he asked "Sorry, what was that?"

"Uh… I got in a fight today?"

There was silence as I turned around, watching my dad give me a couple of looks over. "Really? You don't look half bad…"

"Thanks… I think… but… ah… I probably should tell you… it was with the McAshton boys."

"Two against one?"

I nodded.

He walked over to his bag gently replacing the club he had in his hand. "Well…" He started, slinging it over his shoulder. "Let's just say that today didn't happen… but if it does happen again, well, you'll just have to be grounded for eternity."

I only managed to pick at my dinner when we got home. I apologized before I excused myself and headed upstairs. When I opened my door, I immediately frowned, seeing the vampire lounging complacently on my bed, showing no signs of attempting to hide. "This is what you call good at not getting caught?"

Rudolf snorted before looking over at me. "Oh, please, mortal… I could smell you coming."

"Is this your way of saying I need a shower?"

Looking mildly indignant, he shook his head. "Most definitely not. Each human has their own distinctive smell to their blood. I smelled you the moment you entered the house…" I just noticed he had been holding onto the yellow game boy, but he set it back on the bed, sitting up. "Earlier… when you were bleeding… I don't understand. I thought you were at school… but you came home… your mother said you were fighting with the," the vampire glanced toward the ceiling, searching for the name. "The McAshton brothers? What did they do to you, Tony?"

I frowned. "Nothing."

As I walked into my closet, grabbing a sweatshirt and yanking it over my head, I could hear him saying "Nothing doesn't result in the spilling of blood…"

"I already told you, it's nothing."

Rudolf appeared in front of the closet entry way, leaning against the doorframe. "Why won't you tell me…?" His crimson eyes scanned my face, looking expectant.

For some reason, his questioning bothered me; I scowled over at him, once more repeating "I said it's nothing."

"I don't believe you."

Scoffing, I brushed around him, our shoulders bumping. To be completely honest, I think it might have hurt me more than him, but I ignored the increasing dull pain coming from my shoulder. "You don't have to believe me. I'm still going to tell you that nothing happened." Still irritated with the persistent vampire, I flung myself stomach-down across my bed, yanking the game boy out from underneath me.

There was a soft whooshing and then a groan of the footboard as Rudolf landed on it, gently prodding me in the side with his foot. "Tony… then am I allowed to thank you?"

"…for what?" I finally answered, stubbornly.

"For leaving when you did. The smell was becoming intoxicatingly unbearable… I didn't know how much longer I could have lasted if you had stayed. Thank you for removing temptation…" The bed dipped as he moved off the wooden end of the bed and on to the mattress.

I sat up, eyebrows furrowed. "Would you really have killed me?"

He was silent before he solemnly nodded, looking down at his hands folded in his lap. "I might have… the call of blood is very tempting and there's very little that detracts from it…" He sighed. "If I would have killed you… I don't know what I would have done with myself," His gaze met mine. "Friend."

I felt myself blush, so I looked away, flicking on the on switch to the game boy. After a moment, I held it out to him. "Do you want to learn how to play, or not?"

He grinned, his canines teasing his lower lip. "I would like that very much."

Once I had taught him the basics, Rudolf seemed to not only grasp but thoroughly enjoyed playing it. A few times I had to show him how to do things, like throwing shells at the monsters or how to get off of Yoshi, but other than that, he did well enough on his own.

"Come on, come on! Jump, Rudolf!"

"I'm trying!"

"Oh, watch out for that—"

Our groans mingled with the losing fanfare as we watched Mario tumble down, over a ledge. Suddenly the yellow Game Boy was thrust at me. "You play. You're so much better than I am."

I shook my head, pushing it back. "No, if I do it for you, you'll never learn."

He scowled, "But you helped me before."

"That was different."

"No, it wasn't."

"Was too."

Letting out a huff of irritation, he sat up and looked around. "Fine… but will you teach me how to play that?" He pointed towards my X-Box. "I was looking at earlier. And why is that man on the box wearing such funny looking armor? He doesn't even have a halo at all. Why would they even call it Halo, then?"

I laughed, switching the Game Boy off before heading to the couch and grabbing the controllers. "Just get over here and you'll see."

We had been playing for a while, and strangely enough, Rudolf was actually owning my ass, when suddenly he tensed, suddenly flying out of my sight.

"Rudolf?"

There was a knock on my door before my mom came in, running her hands through her bed-messed hair. "Tony… what are you doing up so late? It's two in the morning… you have school tomorrow... why on earth are you playing that?"

"Umm… what?" I glanced over at my clock on the nightstand, and sure enough the clock read two thirteen. "Oh, wow… sorry, mom. I guess I didn't realize how late it was." I stood up, switching the X-Box off, before I headed to bed, pulling off my shirt and pants before crawling into bed. "Good night."

My mom let out a soft laugh before she murmured, "Good night, Tony," and shut the door.

A moment later, I switched on my lamp and Rudolf was standing there, in a wife beater and a pair of my boxers, smiling down at me, his fisted hands resting on his hips. "Do I look like a normal nineteen year old now?"

I blinked out of shock. Without his usual clothes, the vampire looked much leaner and toned than I ever could have imagined. "Uhh… you…" I swallowed, ignoring the tightening of my stomach. "You look like a nineteen year old getting ready to go to bed…"

The comment seemed to do more than enough to please him. "Well, considering the circumstances, perfect." He turned, opening the lid to the trunk.

"Aren't you cold?"

He scoffed as he stepped inside of it, looking over his shoulder at me. "Tony, I'm always cold. I just can't feel it." Rudolf hesitated. "But thank you…"

I smiled a little. "You're welcome—"

"Good night, loser." He grinned.

I grabbed something off my nightstand and threw it at him. "You would be nothing without me!" I called, listening to him laugh as he shut the trunk.

"I know, thank you again, friend."