A/N: Thanks to Lara F, Ralai, Ashley, and Blythe for reviewing! Thank you for taking the time to tell me your thoughts because I really enjoy reading them :3
The next day, I was surprised to discover that I had slept in till about 4pm and that I still felt tired. I was also mad that basically the whole day had passed me by. I got up and dressed myself, and when I went upstairs, the sudden light shining through the windows pained my eyes so much that I verbally voiced my discomfort.
"Ow," I muttered, closing my eyes to lessen the pain, "that's really bright."
Eventually, my eyes adjusted, but there remained a small discomfort in my sensitivity to the light. Looking around for breakfast, or rather lunch, I spotted the few donuts that were left over from yesterday. I grabbed one and took a bite, but as soon as the food touched my tongue, I involuntarily gagged. The donut tasted horrible. I found myself wondering if donuts got stale after only one day.
I threw the wasted donut in the trash and decided to eat a leftover slice of pizza. The pizza tasted a bit strange, too, but I ignored it because I was too hungry. Once my hunger was satiated, I called Ed to see what he was doing. Apparently his parents wanted me to come over so they could meet me and had also invited me to eat dinner that night with them. I agreed and walked the few minutes to Ed's house. Unlike him, I didn't go hopping through people's yards to get there quicker.
As I was walking to his house, I had to keep closing my eyes every few seconds. The rays of the sun were irritating them so much that at one point I actually had to walk back to my house to grab a pair of black sunglasses. Unfortunately, while I had solved one problem, another one seemed to appear. I felt a numbing sensation somewhere on my arm, and when I twisted to get a better look at why, I found a mild rash.
"So, this is what I get for turning nineteen..." I said to myself, sighing. I was let in to Ed's house once I was there, and stood before his parents. I noticed both of them wore glasses and assumed that Ed had inherited his bad eyesight from them. This reminded me to take my sunglasses off.
"Hi, I'm Vanessa," I smiled to make a good impression and held out my hand for them to shake. Ed's father took it first and shook my hand like any man would.
"Hi, Vanessa, you can call me John," he greeted back with a smile and let go of my hand.
"I'm Lori," his mother said with an even wider smile, taking my hand, also. She was obviously happy that her son had made a female friend.
Ed's mother told us that dinner would be ready in about an hour and they would call us when it was ready. Ed and myself nodded our heads and we headed for the living-room. I saw a grandfather clock in the corner of the living-room and I read the time to be six in the afternoon. Ed plopped down onto the couch and turned the television on while I sat down beside him.
"So, I wanted to introduce you to a show of mine. It's called Fright Night and it's pretty chill," Ed commented as he changed the channel to Fright Night.
"Yeah? What's it about?" I asked.
"Vampires, werewolves, that kinda shit," he told me and I responded by laughing.
"Are you sure that Twilight book wasn't yours before you gave it to me?" I grinned.
"Dude, that's not even funny," he stated seriously.
So, we sat and watched the show. The protagonist was named Peter Vincent, and each episode was a continuation of the last. Ed had to fill me in on some parts I didn't understand because I hadn't watched the earlier two seasons. The first season was about werewolves which lead into the second season about vampires. Currently in the third season, Peter Vincent was fighting the original vampire, Dracula.
As I watched the show, I was surprised to find myself actually watching it. When Ed first showed it to me, I thought it would be one of those stupid, painfully cliché shows with over-the-top CGI. It wasn't. Well, maybe a little, but I knew that I would be tuning in to watch new episodes whenever they came on. When I told Ed this, he seemed overjoyed that I actually liked it.
Then dinner was ready and it ended up being spaghetti with other things on the side. All in all, it both looked and smelled delicious. When I put the first bite of spaghetti into my mouth, I was disappointed to find that it didn't make my taste-buds dance in joy like I thought it would. I actually had to refrain myself from spitting it out. I tried to eat it, though, because I didn't want to offend Ed's mother by saying that I didn't like the spaghetti.
At seven-thirty, the sun was beginning to set because summer was coming to a close. I was grateful when the sunlight dimmed, though, because it had been irritating my eyes. I looked down at my plate, and was happy to see that I had managed to eat half of the food that was there. Unfortunately, Lori asked me if there was anything wrong with the food.
"Um, no," I lied, "I guess I just ate too much for breakfast."
At eight o'clock, Ed walked me home. It was dark out as the sun had already set.
"I think there's a vampire living in our neighborhood," he said out of the blue. I stopped walking and looked at him. He did the same.
"What?" I asked, my voice full of disbelief and doubt.
"There is. A vampire. Living in. Our neighborhood," Ed repeated slowly.
"Yeah?" I questioned, "then who is it?"
"I don't know," he said in disappointment, "but I know there's a fucking vampire living here."
"And you expect me to believe this...?" I trailed off, waiting for him to explain.
"Yes, of course I fucking expect you to believe it!" he voiced in a rush.
"Why?" I responded, drawing my eyebrows together.
"Because it's true!" Ed said defensively.
"Ed," I started, "Fright Night is amazing and all, but it's fiction. Vampires aren't real."
"I'm not talking about fucking Fright Night!" he told me, "I'm talking about real life, dude."
"You swear alot," I said offhandedly, and then continued, "do you have proof? Evidence? You can't expect me to believe you just because you say so."
"Fu-" he began, but then cut himself off, "if I find evidence, then you'll believe me?"
"Yeah..." I said slowly, not entirely sure what was going on anymore. Was I really having a conversation about finding evidence that vampires were real?
"Alright, then I'll find evidence," Ed stated, "and then you'll believe me. You'll fucking have to."
By then, we were already on the sidewalk by my house, so Ed said goodbye and quickly left. I felt a little bad as I watched him walk down the street. I was discouraging his ideas, but they were impossible ideas, weren't they? Vampires didn't exist. Plain and simple.
As I turned around to start walking up my driveway, I bumped into something and fell backwards onto my bottom. Gazing up though the dark, I saw Jerry. His eyes were staring down at me, and while they were usually a dark brown, they looked absolutely black in the absence of any light. He held out a hand for me to grab, and when I lifted my own hand and our skin made contact, a chill ran up my spine, like usual, at the lack of warmth.
"Vampires?" he questioned, showing his teeth when he smiled. I assumed he heard part of my and Ed's little discussion.
"Yeah," I smiled back, nervousness creeping its way into my voice at having Jerry's full attention. It didn't surprise me that I was acting this way.
"Ed thinks there's a vampire living in our neighborhood," I explained.
"Really?" his voice gave off a tone that I couldn't identify, "and who is it?"
"He... doesn't know," I spoke, "but he keeps insisting that it's true."
"Do you believe him?" he asked, and once again, there was that tone.
"No..." I voiced slowly, shaking my head, "I don't know. He seemed so sure about it, though."
"Don't worry about it," Jerry let out a short laugh, "kids come up with crazy ideas these days."
"I guess. You... you don't think of me as a kid, do you?" I questioned carefully, keeping my voice neutral.
"No," he stated, and looked me in the eyes, "I don't."
I gave a small smile for reasons unclear to me. Why was I glad that Jerry didn't think of me as a child? I was an adult by law, this I knew, but when I was around Jerry I always felt so young, so childish. The feeling wasn't totally unjustified, though, as the handsome man definitely had more than a few years on me. I was attracted to him. I subconsciously knew this, but I had never actually admitted it to myself. Clouds of doubt cleared, allowing a light of understanding to shine through to my mind.
"Good," I said, and then boldly added, "I don't want you to see me as a kid."
If he was at all surprised by my sudden boldness, he hid it well.
"Why?" Jerry gave a smile that was just shy of being a smirk. He was teasing me.
"Because I'm nineteen, not twelve," my voice held its strength, but I could mentally feel it begin to curl into itself. My mind had unleashed a momentary strength of confidence, but it had been unleashed for too long and was washing away.
"What are you really trying to tell me, Vanessa?" my handsome neighbor spoke, and though his words were soft, his tone was enticing.
Then the confidence was gone.
"Um, nothing," I mumbled, my eyes falling to look to the ground.
"I see," I heard him say slowly, disappointment practically dripping from his mouth.
"I have to go," I suddenly voiced, wanting to get away from him and hide. I wanted to crawl under my bed-covers and pretend that I hadn't said anything. I walked away in a hurry, keeping my eyes locked onto the front door, not wanting to become distracted. Once the door was open and I was standing in its frame, I glanced at Jerry. I couldn't help noticing that while he seemed disappointed that I had run off, he also seemed pleased with something else. I mentally shrugged it off and shut the door.
I stayed up late into the night, not feeling the least bit tired, but also distracted by my thoughts. I eventually fell asleep around five in the morning, and when I woke up again, it was a few minutes past six in the evening. I was sleeping in alot later than I usually did last two days, and I wondered why. When my stomach grumbled, I was forced to think about my hunger instead of my recent unusual sleeping habits. I marched up the stairs into the kitchen, intent on getting some food into my belly.
As I looked around the kitchen for something to eat, I saw crackers, ravioli, chicken soup, and other things that I would have normally eaten. I craved to have something specific, but I didn't know what. I was forced to eat chicken soup when I could no longer handle the aching in my stomach. The taste of the soup left something to be desired, and as it slipped down the inside of my throat, I was reminded of the red wine. Something clicked in my mind, and I knew the red wine was what I wanted.
I left the soup half-eaten on the kitchen counter, and hurried down the steps into the basement. I found the wine bottle next to my mattress and sat down as I picked it up, uncorking it as I did so. When the red wine touched my lips and tongue, I couldn't help the sigh of contentment that left my throat and the feeling of satisfaction and something else race through my body.
I nearly laughed as the bottle left my lips. I made it sound like I was an alcoholic, which I wasn't.
A few large sips of the thick wine later, I was feeling full, so I capped the bottle and put it back next to my bed. When I heard the front door open and slam shut, I knew it was Charley, so I went up the stairs rather quickly. I was surprised that I didn't trip and fall all the way back down them at the speed I was going.
"Hi, Charley!" I greeted, my voice light.
"Someone's in a good mood," my cousin observed, "did you just get up or something?"
"Yeah, I did," I answered.
"Lucky," he said, his brown eyes nearly turning green in jealousy.
"I know," I grinned at him, "but it's your own fault you have to get up early for summer school, so don't be hatin' on me."
"But today's Saturday, right?" I continued to speak, "you didn't have summer school today."
"Yeah, but I just meant in general," Charley explained.
"Where's your mom?" I asked, suddenly remembering that she was supposed to bring me to spend the gift cards she had given me for my birthday. She probably saw me sleeping and decided not to wake me up.
"I don't know," my cousin shrugged, "I haven't seen her today."
A moment later, I heard banging on the door. I knew it was Ed before I even opened the door. He pushed passed me into the living-room, swinging a backpack off his shoulders and onto the couch.
"I have your proof!" he declared, pulling out a large slip of paper and laying it out on the floor. As I got closer, I noticed that the entire neighborhood was drawn out onto the paper and that there were about seven houses that were circled.
"What is this?" I asked, kneeling down.
"I just told you!" Ed voiced fiercely, pushing his glasses back up with his finger, "fucking evidence that there's a vampire around here."
"Ed, man," Charley spoke up, "quit shitting around. Why don't you get a life and stop obsessing over that show, huh?"
I was going to say something to my cousin, but Ed beat me to it.
"Shut the fuck up, Charley!" Ed nearly shouted, "go be a dick to someone else!"
Soon enough, their "conversation" turned into a full out argument. They were yelling, and throwing swears into their sentences to make themselves seem more macho. All the noise was giving me a headache, and I had the intense urge to bite down onto something.
"Guys, stop!" I demanded, and the aggression that ripped its way out of my mouth made the two boys stop immediately. Their eyes were wide with amazement at my tone.
"What. The. Fuck," I pronounced each word slowly. "You guys used to be best friends, and now you can't even be in the same room without yelling at each other! Charley, go upstairs and cool the fuck down. Ed, go home."
The word surprise didn't describe how I felt at that moment in time when both boys did exactly as I said without complaint. Ed simply walked out the door without a glance over his shoulder, slamming the door behind him, and my cousin stomped up the stairs, shutting his own door with more force than necessary.
I let out a long sigh, and sat down on the couch to calm down and closed my eyes. I felt something scratchy rub against my elbow, and when I opened my eyes to see what it was, I saw Ed's backpack sitting on the couch next to me. This reminded me of the large piece of paper that he had put down on the floor. Sliding off the couch and onto the ground, I looked down at the sheet, deciding to try and figure out what Ed meant by evidence.
A/N: So, anyone curious why Vanessa didn't burst into flames/dust when she was out in the sun? xD