My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 6: There's a Vampire in My Home

The only other time I had no idea what to do in my life was the night my parents died. I found out while at my high school orchestra concert. There'd been a crash on the freeway, my parents were identified, and I was the one who got the call. The paramedics asked how old I was. I told them I was sixteen. I lied and said that I had an uncle in town who could take care of me, but Uncle Mel had long since gone away to California, where the sun shone. And so, from that time one, I lived alone.

I told no one about the accident for months until one day, Jenna came over. Sensing something was wrong, she barreled into my house to find my parents' ashes on the dining room table.

There had been no funeral. I couldn't even get the money they allocated me in their will until I was legally an adult. I'd found a part-time job within a week as a coffee barista at a local shop in the middle of town. I made just enough to pay the house bill and amenities, barely enough to be able to eat.

I was at a complete loss for the first time in my life since then, driving home on the freeway with a vampire sitting next to me. He sat still and silent. I could smell the iron on his breath, something I hadn't noticed earlier this evening when he spoke to me.

It was well past one in the morning, the rain poured down, causing the windshield to become spattered with its large droplets. The windshield wipers did their job, but only just. It was cold inside the car. Without saying anything, I turned the heater on.

Keeping my eyes face forward, I didn't know what to say to the vampire sitting in the passenger seat next to me. I'd only just met him. We'd hit it off well. And now? Now I had him in my car after he'd just drank someone's blood.

I blinked, trying hard to focus on the road as I took the offramp. I heard the scrape of a palm against wet trousers, a sign of nervousness before Victor began to speak. "Do you have anything you wish to ask me?"

I drew in a breath, "No." I could tell he didn't want to hear that word.

"Look, Phillip, I am sorry that you found out about what I am the way that you did. I never wanted you to know."

I looked at Victor out of the corner of my eye. "Eventually, I would have. I mean, you invited me to continue to talk to you. You went out of your way to walk me to my car. You made me a bookmark. I don't know why you would think that I wouldn't eventually find out that you're a..." I waved my hand up in the air, "you know." I still couldn't believe that he actually was a vampire. But I could not mistake what I had seen with my own eyes. The way he materialized out of thin air into my car had me baffled. The girl who had been bleeding out seconds before he turned to me had walked down the street with little more than a spider's bite a short while later.

The vampire stayed silent beside me. I wondered if he was at a loss for words. I didn't understand his affinity towards me. If he indeed was a vampire and humans were his prey, why in the world would he even show any interest in me other than being his food.? Why was he so insistent on staying with me?

The two of us sat silently in my car as I drove the rest of the way home. Victor nervously wrung his hands as his hair fell into his face. I wondered if he had ever been in a car before. Possibly. It would seem irrational to think that he wouldn't have been. I mean, this was the year 2022, for god's sake! Cars had been around forever!

I turned into my driveway and parked, aware that now was the moment I had been waiting for. What if I just left him outside my front door? Vampires weren't able to go inside unless invited, right?

He'd got into my car just fine, I thought, then tried to rationalize that it was a car and not a house. Of course, things would be different.