In Love With a Vampire

Chapter Sixteen

Jim

She had laughed.

It had caught me off-guard. I had expected an insult, a slap on the face. Instead, I had watched her eyes widen with realization and then, she had laughed. It had been a strange sound, squeaky yet raspy, deep yet light. I could tell she did so wholeheartedly, she even clutched her stomach with her arm and her eyes had become teary. For the first time since our first meeting, roof girl had genuinely shocked me. Long after roof girl had vanished, I remained transfixed on the spot, trying to understand what had just happened. By the time the bell rang signaling us to move on with our day, I had made up my mind; I had to stay away from roof girl. The last girl who sparked intrigue in me had ended up losing everything. Even brats did not deserve the kind of destruction that I seemed to possess. Besides, she seemed to have her own baggage, her own secrets. Why was she hiding out in the boy’s locker room in the first place? Why could I not enter nurse Dee’s office? And how had she heard the boys discussing some ** model’s boobs? What had she really been doing on the roof that day? And how had she gotten to class before me? Her accent also bothered me, a lot. There was chaos around her, I could feel it. Sighing, I made my way into the institution. My life was already too messed up without the mystery surrounding roof girl.

My timetable informed me that I had a date with Mr. Fibbs. I scrunched my nose, the image of him scratching the inside of his armpits forming in my mind. I wondered whether I had enough time to hide out in the school’s garden and smoke. It would certainly be a welcomed relief; my head felt heavy from the day’s events. In fact, I could hear my therapist repeatedly say, “when you are feeling overwhelmed, go to your happy place.” My happy place existed inside my mind and the key to that glorious haven happened to be a smoke. Surely even my father could not argue with that logic. My phone buzzed, I fished it out from my back pocket.

Come straight home after school, we are hosting a party.

Yes, I definitely needed a smoke. My father’s parties were a never-ending nightmare of fake laughter, smiles, and conversations. Men searched for younger women in the crowd to escape their clinging wives while women walked around spreading damaging gossip their faces lacking expression due to all the botox. We had not hosted an event in a while because of everything that happened. Guilt bubbled at the base of my stomach. Perhaps I could do this one thing for them. My little brother deserved the best life, no matter how it came to him. Without mulling over the matter further, I picked my literature books and made my way to class.

* * *

“Have you ever wondered why humans enjoy tragic stories? I mean look at the success of Hamlet, Romeo, and Juliet; Shakespeare was a great hit because of his ability to bring tragedies to life, why? Why do we enjoy stories riddled with death and suffering?”

My doodle was no art piece but it did make me smile. It was a drawing of Mr. Fibbs dancing the hula. I had just completed making a drawing of a large flower behind his flabby ear. In my doodle, Mr. Fibbs was furiously sweating due to the rigorous dancing and the blazing sun. I had gotten the inspiration from the Hawaiian shirt he had decided to wear today.

“Maria right? What are your thoughts on this?”

I lifted my gaze and furrowed my eyebrows. The desk beside Maria was empty. Roof girl had been in such a hurry earlier I had assumed it had something to do with arriving in class on time. My gaze averted to Maria. She was pale and fidgety, her head lowered, her lips moving but no sound coming out.

“Louder Maria…”

My gaze flickered to Mr. Fibbs. His right hand was slowly moving towards his left armpit. Disgusted grunts filled the air as he began scratching his left armpit.

“I would like to be excused please…”

“Just when I pose a question? Yes, very convenient Maria. Answer the question then you can leave…”

Silence draped the classroom as we all watched redhead struggling to formulate the answer. She looked so stiff, her figure hunched over her desk. Mr. Fibbs emerged from behind his desk and made his way to Maria.

“We do not have all day Maria…”

Maria remained quiet. Instead, she continuously tapped her foot on the floor.

“Give an answer or I will send you to the principal’s office.”

A whimper escaped Maria’s mouth, the girl was clearly agitated about something completely different. Were teachers not trained to see this kind of thing? A student in distress?

If they had, would Nate be dead?

I suddenly sat upright, as if I had been slapped across the face, hard. The thought had emanated from my subconscious. I could feel familiar emotions surfacing; rage, despair, guilt. I grabbed my pencil and jammed it into the flesh of my hip. The tip of the object pierced my skin, the impact shooting pain into the core of my being. The pain overrode everything else, averting my focus from the memory that haunted my very existence.

“Tragedies allow us to purge our own emotions. That is why people watch Titanic and cry; they are seeing something that is worse than their real-life tragedies. Tragedies make our problems seem…lighter.”

“Very insightful Seth, even if I had not posed the question to you. It seems you will be joining your damsel in distress in detention today.”

I watched as Seth’s face fell. It was hard to picture him in that locker room now. The image of him sensually describing roof girl, attempting to be seen as manly seemed blurred. Now, he seemed smaller despite his taut build and as he flitted his gaze towards Maria, he seemed vulnerable. My cafeteria analysis had been way off.

“Now may I be excused?”

A few uuuuhs emerged from the back of the class. I too was surprised expecting Maria to maintain a low profile after Mr. Fibbs’ blow up.

“By all means, as long as your destination includes the principal’s office.”

Mr. Fibbs dramatically held out his hand pointing at the door. There was no hesitation. Maria grabbed her belongings and sprinted towards the door. Before Mr. Fibbs could comment on her leaving with her stuff, Maria had vanished. I dragged my eyes back to roof girl’s desk. Maybe she had fallen ill again? I swatted away the thought, I had promised myself that I would distance myself from roof girl. I intended to keep the promise.

No more chaos.

“Turn to page sixteen of the text book…”

As Mr. Fibbs began to read an extremely boring passage, I allowed my focus to waver. I found myself staring through the window, painting an image of Nate, Sara and I seated on the grass listening to an illicitly downloaded Eminem album. I felt my lips tug upwards at the image of Nate springing from the ground with his arms flailing in excitement. Sara’s laughter echoed in my ears as Nate launched himself into a rap battle with me. Breath hitched in my throat as Sara began beatboxing surprising Nate and me. The palpable image suddenly vanished, my eyes catching sight of something red briefly suspended in the air. I rapidly blinked, uncertain of what I had just witnessed. Was that hair? Seconds later, I saw two men dressed in dark suits walk across the stretched grass-draped ground outside our classroom. They were stoic, moving in sync, with their hands in their pockets. They too vanished from sight.

“Remember to hand in your assignments at the end of the week…”

The bell had rung. Everyone was leaving the classroom. I tried to force myself from my seat but I could not.

What the f**k had I just seen?