I Don't Bite...Often

I stared at my phone. It was sitting a little bit away from me on the bed. It was my enemy at the moment, I didn’t want to call Monica or Ritter, I didn’t want everyone to be mad at me.

“Either you do it and maybe smooth things over, or you don’t and lose your best friends.” I told myself, I quickly grabbed the phone before I had the chance to change my mind.

I wanted to call Monica first, she wouldn’t be as mad, besides we are best friends, she should be supporting me through all of this.

I hit speed dial one and the phone began to rang, I almost hung up but I stopped myself. I needed to do this.

“What do you want?” Monica’s voice asked me icily, as if I was her worst enemy or the nerd in the back of the room that smelled weird.

“I want to talk to you.” I could hear how desperate I sounded, I hoped that she could tell how much I need her right now.

“There isn’t much to talk about. You dumped you’re awesome boyfriend for some emo freak that you don’t even know.” I had heard that tone of voice before with Monica, but she only used it on the people she hated the most. Tears sprang to my eyes.

“Monica, I know it’s hard to believe, but I do know him. I know that he’s different, and I know that he makes me happy.” I hoped she would understand, and she probably would…eventually.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how you could get rid of Ritter. He was like so perfect, he was so sweet and he was going to buy you a car, Rose! A car for heaven’s sake!” Monica was sadder about my breakup than I was, but I understood. Monica absolutely hates change, it scares the shit out of her.

“Monica, things have to change. Ritter and I were just…well I can’t explain, but there’s something about Tyler.” I was so tired of this already, I could never explain it to Monica in a way that she would understand.

“Well I got to go now Rose, but I promise I’ll talk to you later.” I could hear the warmth seeping back into Monica’s voice, oh thank god.

“Okay, bye.” I hung up the phone, it hadn’t been the make up that I had wanted, but it was better than nothing.

I knew what I had to do now, the big challenge. I was going to have to call Ritter, he would be pissed and there would definitely be some yelling going on. I hit speed dial two and waited for him to answer.

“Hey Rose.” Ritter’s voice was calm and relaxed, just like it always was. Maybe he had changed his mind.

“Hey Ritter. I’m so sorry for how today went. I didn’t want it to be like that.” I kept waiting for him to yell, to cry, to be mad, something, anything to show me that he remembered that we had broken up.

“Yeah, it’s totally cool. You need your space, I get that.” I swear my mouth was hanging wide open, he was taking it so well.

“I’m so happy you forgive me. I hope we can be friends.” My smile was a mile wide, as long as he was okay with it all.

“That’d be great. I just want you to know Rose that I will never give up. I will wait for you until you realize that I’m the one for you. I don’t care if I have to wait forever, I love you. There is no way that I’m giving you up.” My mouth clamped shut. Ritter had turned into a total weirdo, he had to move on, that was part of the unwritten rules!

“Ritter, I’m not coming back. I have Tyler now. You have to move on.” I couldn’t believe this, of course things had to get all complicated, story of my life.

“No Rose, you have to come back. We are meant to be, this Tyler guy is just an infatuation.” I could barely speak, Ritter was actually kind of scaring me.

“Ritter, no. I’m going now.” I waited for his reply, it was the least I could do. I felt so terrible.

“Okay my love, but I’ll be waiting for you.” Ritter said. He hung up quickly, so I had no time to reply.

I stared at my phone. Never in a million years did I think I would actually be afraid of Ritter. He was crazy if he thought I was coming back, Tyler is so much better than him. Was Ritter actually going to stalk me? Would he try to hurt Tyler? I laid back on my bed and thought. Ritter wouldn’t be able to hurt Tyler as badly as Tyler could hurt Ritter. Ritter is a human, Tyler is a…

That’s when the reality finally sunk in. Tyler is a vampire. I’m not dreaming, this is all real. I am crushing on a vampire, someone who sucks blood. Are vampires even real? All my life people have told me that they’re fake, imaginary, some evil demon that someone thought up, so that must mean that Tyler’s crazy. He probably has some mental disease, he thought he was a vampire and he went around finding random girls so he could pretend they were his victims.

My brain flashed pictures of Tyler in a cape, thinking he was actually a vampire. I was smiling like an idiot because I thought he was cute, then he would attack me and maybe even kill me. So many pictures flashed by of Tyler as some insane, tortured person, but I just couldn’t believe it.

Every time I saw a crazy version of Tyler, his sweet smile, or his cocky attitude would immediately take over. I loved those parts of him. He couldn’t be crazy, he was too perfect, too confident, too smart. I guess I could call him and ask him, but that would be really weird.

“Hey, so are you really a vampire or are you just crazy?” I would ask him.

He would clear his throat, probably thinking I was the crazy one.

“You don’t believe me? I am a vampire, I’m not crazy.” He would hang up the phone angrily and I would never see him again.

I played many situations in my head, but then I thought of something. The place Tyler had been thrown out of the first night we’d met, The Hole, it was probably a vampire club or something. That’s why he had been so hurt, the guy that had thrown him out and had probably been some super strong vampire guy.

I excitedly grabbed my phone, before I called Tyler I decided to switch my speed dial, I would make him number one, Monica number two and I would erase Ritter from it all together.

I waited impatiently for the phone to ring. It only rang twice but it seemed like it had taken him hours to pick up.

“Hey.” Tyler’s voice came over the line and I could feel some electricity.

“Hey, meet me at my house, I want to talk to you about something!” I was so excited for some reason. It’s not everyday that you realize you met a vampire.

“Okay, I’ll be there right away.” Tyler laughed at my obvious excitement. I hung up and stuffed my phone quickly into my pocket.

I grabbed my jacket, scarf and mittens and ran outside. The weather seemed to be getting warmer and warmer, a very good sign.

As Tyler promised he was here right away, it had only taken him five minutes. I looked him over, he definitely didn’t look crazy.

“Okay, I could’ve sworn that I just left about two hours ago. Why the sudden need to see me?” Tyler laughed and grabbed my waist, I love when he does that.

“I just realized something.” I looked seriously into his blue eyes, they were so pretty.

“What did you just realize? How amazing I am?” Tyler joked.

“I just realized that you’re a vampire.” Tyler gave me a weird look, he was probably wondering if he had told me earlier or not.

“Didn’t I just tell you that not long ago? What do you mean you juts realized it?” He laughed, and I had to admit I probably did sound a little bit stupid.

“Yeah, you did. It just sank in a few minutes ago. I realized that I had been so happy that I didn’t care, but now I do.” I saw Tyler’s face fall, he probably thought that I’d ditch him, run away from what he was.

“Are you going to tell me that you don’t want to see me because vampires scare you?” I couldn’t help but notice how sad he looked, maybe I should’ve worded it differently.

“No I’m going to tell you that all of my life i’ve been told that vampires aren’t real. I really want some proof and I think I know where I can find some.” I smiled and he obviously relaxed a bit.

“Where? It’s not like vampires are everywhere, we don’t tend to tell people what we are.” Tyler pointed out the obvious, I had never seen anyone with fangs walking around.

“That place you got thrown out of. The Hole.” I looked at him seriously so he would know that I needed proof and that I wasn’t just joking around.

“Rose, that’s dangerous. It’s a vampire club, you saw how they threw me out of there.” Tyler’s eyes flashed with worry, but I had to have proof.

“I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I just want to look inside quickly, really quickly. We won’t stay for more than five minutes. I promise.” I pleaded with him, I really wanted to see a part of his world.

“Why do you need to see this so badly? It’s just like any other club!” I wished he would just cooperate, I needed to see his world to feel more comfortable around him.

“Tyler, I need to see your world, I need to see what it’s like for you. I feel so stupid! You wanted to read me, well now I want to read you!” I know I was using his own saying against him, but this was important!

“My world is exactly like yours, we’re just a bit different. We live in the same world.” I wasn’t going to lose this, Tyler was taking me to The Hole whether he liked it or not.

“I’m going to The Hole. I don’t care if you take me or I have to go alone, but it will be a lot safer if you just cooperate.” I walked down the road, I listened for footsteps and I wasn’t disappointed.

“Okay, fine. You are so impossible.” Tyler sighed and wrapped his arm tightly around my waist, as if he was trying to protect me.

We walked down the road until we reached the old building. It was made of brick and the sun was a dull, neon red. Vines were growing around it and no one paid it any mind, but right now it was the focus of my thoughts.

“Okay, I warn you, it’s kind of weird in there. Just don’t leave my side and you’ll be fine.” Tyler warned and tightened his grip on my waist, he was definitely worried and nervous.

I couldn’t wait.