Experts say that when somebody experiences something traumatic, there is a series of psychological phases that the individual goes through. For instance, after the initial shock comes the denial. Believe me, finding out you're a vampire definitely qualifies as something traumatic. And that was definitely the psychological phase I moved into after the initial shock.
I woke up late the next morning as was usual for a Saturday. I had kindly asked Elizabeth to leave during the night, and she had gracefully accepted—though not without another cunning, crooked smile at me, and another promise to see me again—so I was alone except for the snoring Larry. I made up my mind to give Elizabeth and the events that occurred last night as little thought as possible. As much as I had expected what Elizabeth had told me, the whole vampire concept did have a few holes, didn't it? I certainly didn't feel like the undead; I still breathed, and my heart was still beating, and I didn't feel compelled to find a coffin to sleep in while I waited for the sun to go down. When I looked in the mirror, I still saw my reflection, and when I touched Larry's crucifix or stuck my hand in water, nothing particularly nasty happened to me, so I couldn't have really been a vampire, right?
Still, I couldn't deny the fact that I felt... different. I don't think it's something I could really explain in words. It seemed as if my senses were heightened somewhat, like I was feeling the world like I never had before. Like I could feel the world breathing around me. I know, your head's probably spinning to understand that. I didn't really understand it either. But at the time, I made a stance and declared to myself that it didn't mean anything.
It was about half-past ten, and I felt interested in a little human contact. Aside from Larry, of course, who as far as I was concerned was more garden slug than human. I picked up the phone and dialed Alicia's room.
Someone picked up after the third ring. "Hello?" It wasn't Alicia. It was her roommate, Julie.
"Uh, hi, is Alicia there?"
"I think she's over at the library right now, but if you want I can... oh wait, here she is!"
Some shuffling ensued, and Alicia's voice began flowing. "Hello?"
"Alicia! It's Vincent."
"Vincent, what is it?"
I stopped for a minute. "Now that you mention it, I don't really know. I just felt like talking to you."
"Well, maybe that's a good thing, because I actually have something to tell you."
"What's that?"
Her answer was utterly laced with innuendo. "I broke up with Bobby."
I said nothing for a moment. That didn't mean, however, that she and I weren't communicating. I could practically hear her thinking "Come and take me" over the silence. "So what do you want to do about it?" I finally asked.
"I don't know yet. For right now, we'll just stick to the study date plan... unless you want to go do something now?"
I almost said yes. Then I stopped myself, and looked over to the closed blinds. I could see the daylight through them very clearly, and it definitely scared me. "Well, maybe some other time. I've got some stuff to take care of, but I'll definitely see you at six."
"Okay, I'll see you then! Bye!"
"Bye." I hung up, feeling rather uncomfortable. I looked towards that window again. We already established that the whole vampire bit is crap, right? Why was I so scared of the sun? Was it just because I had a bad experience with it yesterday? Yeah, that had to be it. Not once did I ask myself why I'd had that bad experience in the first place. All I knew was that the sun was shining and I had no intention of going out in it.
Following a quick cup of coffee—which, if I may say, tasted a little differently than usual; not necessarily better or worse, just different—and a shower, I decided to kill some time by sitting down with some video games for a few hours. A little bit of Grand Theft Auto proved all I needed to get my mind off of the issue of what I was now. After keeping this up for about an hour or so—I'm not entirely sure how long it really was, since I'd gotten rather absorbed in it which was really the general intent in the first place—Larry finally woke up.
"Morning, Larry," I said bluntly, not bothering to spare a look at the arising lummox. I didn't need to see him to know he was awake; I just needed to be aware that the snoring had stopped.
"Hey, mornin' Vince," he groaned. "Up bright and early to steal a few virtual cars, huh? Gotta get up for somethin', might as well be that."
I managed to pass most of the day comfortably, but ultimately, six o' clock began approaching. I prepared to leave with my books when I happened to spare another glance at the window. It wouldn't be out much longer, but for the time being going outside still meant stepping into the sun. I couldn't exactly tell Alicia I was late on account of that, now could I? If I was to go see her, steps had to be taken.
At last, I bit my lip (metaphorically, I mean) and took that hesitant step outside. It was a little uncomfortable, and I stayed in the shade as much as possible, but when I didn't start frying up, I concluded that the sun block and sun glasses I was wearing were doing their job nicely. No, wait a minute, the reason I'm not burning up is because I'm not a goddamn vampire! I had to remind myself of that. I breathed a little easier now, and continued on to the library.
Not surprisingly, Alicia was there first. She looked up at me as I approached and smiled. "I wasn't entirely sure you'd make it," she beamed.
"Neither was I," I said on a whim. She gave me an odd look, which left me wishing I hadn't said that.
I sat down with her, and we broke out the books. As the time went on, I began to get the feeling neither of us was really paying much attention to the books. We went through notes out loud, which I couldn't repeat here if I tried. Hell, I couldn't have repeated them two seconds after we read them. Her lips spoke the words we had written; all I saw was her lips moving. After having kept this up for about an hour or so and accomplishing very close to nothing, I suppose Alicia began looking for something to blame on our apparent lack of progress. Well anyway, that's one possible reason for what she ultimately said: "Do you want to take this into my dorm room?"
I looked at her a moment, then shrugged. "Sure," I said, "why not."
We packed the stuff up and proceeded to relocate. Every step of the way, we walked side-by-side, our hands each floating around the vicinity of touching, which happened through the occasional accidental bump. We did our best to keep our eyes ahead of us, but every now and then we would turn our gazes momentarily to each other.
When we reached her dorm room, she informed me that Julie was going out to a movie, so we had the room to ourselves. We spread the books out on her bed and attempted to continue our studying. If anything, it was going worse than before. Neither of us could stop looking at each other. The tension in the room was such that I could almost bite into it. At one point, we were both staring at each other for what must have been at least a full minute. We snapped out of it at about the same time, and tried to get back to the studying, using a book that we both reached for at the same time. Our fingers practically interlocked.
The powder keg finally blew.
