Diary of a Vampeen (5 page)

“I have no idea. Between my parents
and Mike, even Kellan, I don’t know who’s acting more eccentric at
the moment. It’s just been a weird day for me. Well, a weird two
days if you count last night,” I noted.

“True. They all do seem a tad off when
I re-examine the situations.”

“Is there a full moon tonight or
something?” Even I was beginning to act strange. I was searching
the halls and on the prowl for anyone else out of place or acting
out of character.

“Not that I know of. Maybe the
birthday gods are in motion right now,” she suggested with a smile.
I chose to ignore her.

Moments later we took our seats having
carefully avoided eye contact with any part of Kellan. I looked up
at the clock to see how long I had before the final bell rang; I
had roughly three minutes. Just enough time to ask him yet would be
saved by the bell should he refuse.

I stood up and made my way to his
desk. I started fidgeting with my hands right away out of
nervousness. I’d never asked any guy, friend or not,
out.

“Uh, hi Kellan,” I said.

“Hi,” he replied, staring up at me
expectantly.

“Um, so I guess your parents know my
parents and well my mom called me and I guess your mom wants you to
get out more and so I was just wondering if you wanted to do
something this weekend…” I slurred everything together in one
breath as an extra-long sentence. I couldn’t even look at him. I
looked everywhere but into his brilliant green eyes. I felt my
cheeks color as I waited for him to answer. My heart was about to
beat out of my chest. I was mortified. My mother definitely owed me
after this.

A smirk crept up on his face as I
continued to wait. He checked the clock and made me stand there and
wait until seconds before the bell when he finally said,
“Sure.”

I knew he’d done it on purpose. He had
to have seen how uncomfortable I was. I cut my eyes at him as the
bell rang and I made my way back to my desk. I was definitely ready
for school to be over.

“Ok class. Today we are doing
something slightly different. No new lessons; I am instead giving
you this entire period to get a head start on your monologue due
next Thursday. I don’t mind if you bounce ideas around in groups
but there is to be no copying or plagiarism,” Mrs. Henderson stated
sternly. “You may begin now.”

Mel turned around in her seat to face
me. “So do we really need to buddy up on the monologue or are you
ready to talk birthday party planning?” she inquired with a raised
eyebrow.

“How about neither?” I suggested
hopefully.

“Oh come on Lex. It’ll give you an
excuse to buy a new outfit,” Mel tried to reason with me in her
whiny, antagonistic voice.

“I don’t want a new outfit, and if I
did I wouldn’t wait for a party to buy it. Plus you know I hate
shopping.”

“Such a waste,” she grumbled. “At
least tell me how it went with Kellan,” she urged.

“It was painful, torturous, every
adjective you can think of along those lines. My mom couldn’t pay
me to do it again,” I sighed.

“That bad?”

“Worse.”

“At least it’s done and over with and
you have an obligation free weekend,” she beamed.

“Oh no, he said yes. I don’t know
whether that’s good or bad at this point.”

“Yikes,” she winced. “You’ll have to
let me know how it goes.”

“Of course,” I said before she turned
back around in her seat.

I sighed turning my attention to my
notebook to begin my assignment. Caught in the moment with Mel, it
took me by surprise when Kellan spoke.

“So how do I get a hold of you? You
know so we can meet up,” he interrupted my gaze for that all
important pry.

“Oh, um. Here’s my cell,” I fumbled
while writing my phone number on a piece of paper and passed it to
him.

“I’ll call you later tonight then,” he
confirmed before returning to his desk. As soon as the coast was
clear Mel turned towards me again.

“Hmm. Why do I have the feeling there
is more to this than meets the eye?” she grinned.

I rolled my eyes dramatically. She
chuckled and turned back to her own papers though I doubt she was
actually working on the assignment.

Chapter 4

Surprisingly the last hour seemed like
eternity but I was finally free to start my weekend. I tossed off
my tennis shoes and dropped my back pack at the door.

“Hey Mom!” I yelled as I walked
towards the kitchen. When I received no answer instantly I called
again, “Mom, are you home?”

As I reached the kitchen I saw the
note attached to the fridge.

Lexi,

Your dad and I have gone
to Myrtle Beach for the night. I deposited extra money in your
account for pizza; the number is on the post-it by the phone. We
should be back by 11am tomorrow.

Call me if you need
anything!

Stay Safe! Love you,
Mom

I sighed and looked around the empty
space. I never enjoyed spending time alone in my house the way most
teenagers pined for. I secluded myself most of the time but I felt
secure knowing someone was nearby.

We had a rather large house for the
neighborhood. It’s a grand two story home with a colonial design
spread over thirty-five hundred heated square feet. There were five
bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. Two bedrooms were on the
first floor, my parents master and another they reconfigured into
their office. I had the upstairs master and adored having my own
attached bathroom. The other rooms were set as guest quarters
though we’d had zero guests in the last seven years actually stay
here.

Reluctantly I made my way to the phone
and ordered my pizza. The guy said thirty minutes for delivery so I
trudged upstairs to my room. I grabbed my MacBook and plopped down
on my king size bed. I checked my e-mail prior to the daunting task
of updating all of my networking sites. How did these things become
so popular again? MySpace, Tagged, hi5, Facebook, twitter… it feels
like a chore!

I quickly logged my activity in
Facebook, Tagged, hi5 and twitter. Last was always MySpace. Never
failing in consistency were my friend requests from new foreign
bands claiming to be local or upcoming rappers messaging event
invites galore – unavoidably annoying! And don’t even get me
started on the survey bulletins of random unimportant questions.
Who cares what you’re first thought is when ‘yellow van’ is
mentioned?! Ugh. Needless to say I saved the worst for last I
guess; at least it’s a million times easier to navigate than
Facebook, but the equivalent to being entertained by a dog
sometimes.

I logged in. Surprise, surprise! - new
friend requests. “What band is it today?” I asked out loud as I
clicked on the ‘new friend requests’ alert.

“Oh,” I gasped. Kellan sent me a
friend request. I quickly accepted and clicked to view his profile.
His background was a woodsy landscape of forest and mountains in a
dark setting under a full moon. His ‘about me’ section was simple
reading:

My name is Kellan. I’m
from Seattle and just moved to Charleston, SC. I’m quiet. I enjoy
the peace I have within my mind. If you want to know something,
just ask me.

I clicked his photos link; he had five
photos posted. The first was of Kellan along a jogging trail it
looked like, though he clearly wasn’t jogging in jeans. I gave him
the benefit of the doubt though; Seattle is far different from
Charleston. The second was him and, I was guessing, his best friend
in Seattle; attached was the caption ‘Me & Craig’. He was just
as gorgeous as Kellan; the same build and beautiful blue eyes
matching messy wind-blown blonde hair. The third picture was of
Seattle, a city scape with the space needle. The fourth pic was of
Kellan in the backseat of a car, I assumed it was his parent’s. The
caption read ‘On the drive from Seattle to Charleston’.

The last picture was a group photo.
The description read ‘Family Reunion – August.’ I looked at his
family. Everyone was beautiful. Aunts, uncles, cousins, they all
stood flawlessly on the page. They seemed related in some fashion;
their features were different yet united. They all adorned the same
flawless complexion despite the dark and light hues of their mostly
toned bodies.

It took me a minute to
recognize the pair. I gasped. There in the back row were my
parents. Unmistakably my dad had his arm around my mother, as did
many of the other men with their spouses.
That’s impossible though. Mom and Dad were supposed to be in
Spain. This doesn’t make any sense. Why would they lie to me about
Spain?

I jumped at the sound of the doorbell.
I checked the time on my phone. Sure enough it had been half an
hour. I scurried down the stairs to open the door.

I decided to watch TV as I
ate my pizza in the family room. I flipped through channel after
channel on the satellite finding nothing of interest. I eventually
settled on the classic movie
‘Roman
Holiday’
with Audrey Hepburn. I enjoyed
classic shows and movies; the new stuff was entertaining but just
doesn’t compare to the wholesome appeal love carried in earlier
decades.

I grabbed a second slice of pizza as
my phone rang. Without checking the caller ID, I answered,
“Hello?”

“Hey babe, what’s up?”

“Not much. Eating pizza and watching a
movie,” I replied. “What about you?”

“Just chillaxing,” he stated
hesitantly. There was a good two minutes of silence before he spoke
again, rather reluctantly. “Lex, can I ask you something without
you getting weird on me?”

“Sure. What’s going on?” I was trying
to be nonchalant but my interest was piqued if only by his strange
aura today.

“Um. Well, I’m not really sure how to
word this right so I’m just going to ask it,” he
explained.

“Okay. Just spit it out,” I
encouraged.

“Do your parents like me?” I knew he
was building to something.

“As far as I know,” I offered in
slight confusion.

He sighed quietly before continuing.
“I don’t want to sound like a prick but why did your mom push you
to ask another guy out? That’s just shady shit parents pull when
they don’t approve of their daughter’s boyfriend.”

I instantly understood and felt
guilty. I couldn’t blame him for his perspective; it made sense
when dealing with most families, but not mine. My parents weren’t
like that; particularly my mom. She didn’t have a problem
expressing her disapproval and, thus far, she’d shared none over
Mike.

“I know how it looks and I don’t blame
you for thinking that, but my mom isn’t conniving. My parents have
known Kellan’s since I was a baby. I really do believe it’s just my
mom’s way of helping welcome them to the area. I don’t think she
meant any harm. Plus, I agreed that we could make it a group thing.
It’s nothing Mike, really. I promise.”

I could feel his tension start to slip
away. I knew he didn’t completely believe me, but it did no good to
push further. My parents hadn’t done or said anything to make me
think Mike was right in any way. Likewise, he didn’t know of
anything they’d said or done to imply he was right so we were at a
dead end.

“Sorry. I just, well, I didn’t expect
any competition I guess.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” My
heart sunk a little. I knew he didn’t have any competition. He
never did and probably never would, but hearing him say it hurt. I
felt like he’d just stabbed me with a short, sharp blade and
awaited my reaction.

“Hey! That’s a trick
question.”

“How so?” I sat up on the couch,
having abandoned my pizza long ago, anticipating his
reply.

“Ok, so I maybe stuck my foot in my
mouth back there. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I don’t
expect to keep you forever-“ he fumbled before I abruptly cut him
off.

“Come again!” My mind was reeling. I
was struggling to take in his whirlwind of misguided
destruction.

“I, damn it,” he huffed in
frustration. “I just meant that I didn’t expect any competition so
soon. I thought I’d have you to myself for a little while before I
had to fight for your attention again.”

Well, he did come up with a nice save.
It still didn’t erase the unease I felt inside. We usually say
things we mean when we speak without thinking; they just tend to
get us in more trouble because they lack the editing that softens
the blow or avoids the point.

It had me questioning how he truly
felt about me. I mean I knew Mike cared about me to a certain
degree, but even the best of friends could be the cruelest of
judges.

“Um, I think I’m just going to go for
now.”

“Babe, don’t go. I’m really sorry. I
didn’t mean it; you know that,” he pleaded.

“It’s ok. I’m not mad.” It
was the truth. I wasn’t mad; I was upset and disappointed. Mike was
always the one lifting me up, never cutting me down. He’d never
made a joke about my weight or offhand comment about my
imperfections. Until now, I thought he liked me just the way I was,
but now I was wondering if he liked me simply because he knew no
one else would. Men are territorial, just like dogs.
Am I just a pissing contest to him?