My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 9: What Are You Doing Here?

"I'm going to school!" I shouted to no one in particular.

Actually, that's a complete lie. I said it to the tiny sleeping cat in my bed. It had only been two days since Victor had moved into my home, yet it seemed as if he had been living with me forever. When little cat didn't open its eyes, I wrote a quick note.

Went to school. I'll be back around ten tonight. I have work at the library. Try not to get into trouble.

~Phillip

I read the last sentence back to myself. Shaking my head as I did so. Yesterday morning, I got up to the rude surprise of over twenty dead rats in the backyard.

On Saturday, Victor said that he had already hunted when he came back in for the night before he shoved me up the stairs, but he didn't say on what. The following morning, I was horrified as I walked out into my backyard to find dead rats strewn everywhere. Judging by my neighbor's scream, Victor had gotten into her backyard and left her gifts too.

The conversation last night had not gone well. When I told Victor that he just couldn't leave dead rodents around, he responded by asking me if I would prefer that he feed on humans instead. I told him no. "Just pick up after yourself next time," I reprimanded him. Victor sighed, setting the book I had given him down on the table and proceeded to glare at me. I gave up fighting him then, too afraid I would end up as his next meal.

Now, as I hurried to school, I could barely keep my mind straight. This weekend had been a whirlwind. I'd finally met and was now living with the man I had been watching at the bar for months. I would call it luck, but that hardly seemed right. Victor was beautiful, handsome, and dangerous all at the same time. His knack for becoming a cat at night to convince me to let him sleep in bed with me was almost too much to bear. It would have been weird if he had stayed in his human form. Now that I thought of it, it was weird anyway. I closed the door to my car and drove off to school.

                                                            ***

Hours later, I sat behind the library check-out counter; scanning returned books into the system. Around five, Jenna came in to bring me food from the student union. "I know you won't eat unless I feed you," Jenna said, handing me the bag. "Tell your boss you're going on lunch."

I looked over to the side where Tom was standing. "I don't know, Jenna."

"Go have lunch, Phillip!" Tom shouted at me. "God knows you need to eat, kid," he said under his breath.

"Now wasn't that easy," Jenna said, smiling at me. The two of us headed into the library cafe, where I scored free coffees for us from the girl at the counter. The two of us ate together. Jenna told me about some jerk in her biochemistry class that kept interrupting the teacher.

"I've never seen him before this year. Apparently, he's some transfer student from Europe. He kept interrupting Mr. Clarkson. The ass." She started imitating the young man, "Uh, Mr. Clarkson, your wrong. Uh, Mr. Clarkson, you don't know what you're doing. Uh, Mr. Clarkson," on the last one she sighed and dug into a sticky piece of fried orange chicken. "The guy's a dick, Phillip! And you know what? He actually had the nerve to ask me out after class." She pointed her chopsticks at me, "Of course, I told him to get lost. I have a boyfriend."

"Did you tell him that?" I asked.

"Not the last part, no," Jenna said hotly. "It's none of his business. Plus, I don't want that guy to know I'm dating anyone. He's a creep."

"What does he look like?" I asked. I wanted to know so that I could keep an eye out for him at the library.

Jenna took a sip of her coffee, "Dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, chiseled jawline. He's built like he goes to the gym on the regular. So far, I have only seen him wear a white shirt and blue jeans with a pair of dark red chucks. You can't miss him."