The Embrace of the Vampire

When the school bell finally rang for the last time of that school year, I joined the voice of the beast that suddenly seemed to have awaken inside the school building and roared loudly, finally free at last.

I rushed out of the classroom, and Rachel was already waiting for me in front of it.

“Summer break is finally here!” she said and she hugged me and started jumping up and down. I joined her, as streams and streams of students passed us, headed towards the exit.

Jessica found us like this, and she just rolled her eyes. “Let’s go,” she insisted. “I need some fresh air. This place smells like a dump.”

That was Jessica in a nutshell she always complained about one thing or the other, but she was actually a really good friend, great listener and gave good advice, and for whatever reason she liked me and Rachel the punk-goth and the immigrant’s daughter with the weird wardrobe because my mom bought new clothes once a lifetime or so it seemed, so I had to wear a lot of her clothes most of the time.

The day was gorgeous outside. It was late May in Texas, but the weather was still not too hot, the sky was clear and even beside the chatter of excited students, you could hear the birds chirping overhead.

“Let’s walk home,” said Rachel. “I don’t want to get on the bus and breathe the same germs like those losers.”

“Rachel!”

“What? I’m just stating the truth. I’ll have to do it again in August and I’m not looking forward to that at all.”

Rachel is my best friend. She wears black clothes and very heavy make-up, which my mom doesn’t understand because she keeps saying that Rachel’s face is too pretty and that she shouldn’t paint it like a clown. When she said that in front of Rachel the first time, I thought I was going to lose a friend, but luckily for me, Rachel thought it was funny.

My mom would never let me do anything like that. She kept me on a pretty tight leash.

“I can’t walk,” I said, frowning. “My mom is expecting me home soon, and she’ll get worried if I don’t get there on time before she has to go to work.”

“Awe, come on, Nevena,” said Jessica. “I’m not the one for walking myself, especially after the incident, but the day is gorgeous.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “You know how my mom is.”

Rachel and Jessica nodded in unison. Rachel had pitch black hair, dyed of course, big blue eyes and dark-purple lipstick. Her eye-shadow was applied heavily and her face looked serious. Jessica’s hair was blond, and she had the brightest brown eyes I’ve ever seen in anyone. Her make-up was minimal, her nose petite, and her lips full and naturally red. She could’ve definitely been the most popular girl in school instead of hanging out with losers like me and Rachel, but she always said that she had too much integrity for stupid crap like that.

And then there I was the Serbian potato with my too-Slavic face long brown hair (because girls have to have long hair, according to my mom) that is always too oily no matter how much I wash it, big forehead, thin mouth and a nose that was just a tiny bit too large for my face. The only thing I liked about myself was my emerald green eyes, but my mom said that I couldn’t wear make-up until I turned eighteen so I couldn’t use my eyes to my advantage just yet.

“Jessica! Over here!”

All three of us turned towards the direction where the voice was coming from. It was Griffin Lockwood, one of the star football players from our school, and the most recent boyfriend of Jessica’s. He was driving a yellow shiny convertible and was waving at his girlfriend. We all approached him, led by Jessica.

“Did you steal it? I actually don’t care if you do, because – hot damn!” Jessica put her arms on the car and rubbed them as if she had just discovered the rearrest of diamonds.

“You seem more excited to see the car than you are to see me,” said Griffin. “Hello Rachel. Neeveena.”

I blushed. Partly because I’ve liked Griffin for the last two years, although I was never going to share that fact with Rachel or Jessica, and partly because he got my name wrong – again.

“Ay, don’t be such a jerk, Griff,” said Rachel. “It’s Neh-veh-nah. Not Neeveena. You know that already.”

“Sorry!” said Griffin, and he smiled at me, looking me directly into the eyes. His skin was golden-brown, his eyes were dark brown, like melted chocolate, and he had one of the most irresistible smiles I’ve ever seen in real life. “How about I just call you N, would that be cool?”

“No, that would not be cool…” Rachel started, but Jessica interrupted her.

“Come on, get in y’all, Griffin will give us a ride home,” she announced.

“But…”

“Let’s drop Nevena off first, before her mom freaks out.”

Griffin knew that he was fighting a losing battle, so as soon as we got inside of his car, he started driving. I explained where I lived and we were on our way.

The wind was blowing my hair backwards, and I simply closed my eyes for a second, letting the chatter of my friends disappear as I sank deeper into my head, my fantasy fueled by the scent of Griffin that carried through the wind, back to me, tickling my nostrils.

I know that he is Jessica’s boyfriend, but I’ve been dreaming about Griffin for the last two years, and it is completely my fault that I never shared that with my only two friends. But for me, Griffin was the perfect guy in every sense of the word he was American, which was most important to me. My mother had the silly notion in her head that I was going to marry a Serbian, but not if I could help it. He was half-black, half-white, and he was so hot. By far, the hottest guy in our school, even though not everyone would’ve agreed.

I wanted a boyfriend so bad, but according to my mom, I wasn’t allowed to date until I was out of high school, which meant a whole another year. It sucked, but hey, at least a girl can dream.

“… party tonight? Nevena?”

Hearing my name, snapped me back in reality. Jessica had turned around to look at me from the front seat, and Rachel had her arm halfway towards me as if she was about to check if I was still alive. Griffin was watching the road, but his eyes were also looking at me in the mirror.

“What was that?”

“Did you fall asleep?”

“No, no, I was just…” but I didn’t know what to say and I could feel my treacherous blood rush to my face. “What did you ask me?”

“Griffin is having a party at his house tonight to celebrate the end of the school year,” said Jessica. “We were wondering if you can come.”

My mood deflated instantly, because I knew that my mom would never let me go, but suddenly for whatever reason, I felt defiant. “I’ll come,” I said. “I promise.”

Rachel and Jessica looked at each other in surprise, like they couldn’t believe it. “Great,” said Rachel. “That’s great.”

We arrived in front of our apartment building, and I said goodbye to my friends and Griffin and started walking up the stairs to the third floor, apartment 314.

“Dobar dan, mama,” I said in Serbian, greeting my mom the same way I’ve done in the last fifteen years, ever since I started speaking. The weird thing was that I didn’t get a response. I proceeded into the living room, and my mom was getting up and wiping her eyes as she did so, trying to pretend like she wasn’t crying. “Oh no,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“It’s your grandmother,” said my mom, and my stomach clenched because I knew that whatever it was, wasn’t going to be good news for me.