I don't remember what kind of face I made when that idiot blurted his secret to my face. My mouth sorta froze open and my fork of food dropped out of my hand. I knew he was weird when he mentioned the blood, but topping it off with the vampire claim? That was almost creepy and if not for the delicious sandwich I was looking forward to finishing, I think that I might have left then and there.
The boy did not seem to notice how shocked I was. What he did notice was the fork on the grass and he kindly picked it up for me.
"Ophelia, you dropped your fork." He said, as if that were the only problem here.
My gaze did not leave his face, "Ah-huh?"
"I've already put the spoon in my mouth, so I shouldn't give it to you." The stupid boy continued, "Want me to go get you a new fork from the cafeteria?"
"Uh." I did not stop staring.
Apparently taking my stupid stare as a 'yes,' he stood up and casually brushed grass off his jeans. We made eye contact again as he gestured towards the cafeteria.
"I'll go grab you a new fork. Wait here, okay?" Then he flipped the hood over his head again and stepped out of the tree's shadow.
In an instant, everything clicked into place. His porcelain pale skin, the hoodie, his obnoxious good looks… I had read books about characters like him, but hadn't put two and two together yet. When he turned to grin at me, I noticed he had pointy canine teeth. I revelation spilled out of my mouth in a shout:
"YOU'RE A VAMPIRE???"
For all the times I complain about my social invisibility, there are still as many times when it's useful. Like that moment. I screamed a really important secret in public, but no one took notice. The cafeteria banter continued as normal and no one so much as looked in our direction. The apparent vampire did notice my outburst and he yelped a surprised reply.
"Not so loudly!" He dropped to his knees next to me, holding his hand over my mouth. Not against my lips, mind you, but quite close. As if he was too polite to touch me without permission, but still wanting to enforce my silence. "It's a secret, remember?"
"Yeah, a secret! That you should probably keep?!" I replied in a loud whisper, "I don't even know your NAME. How would I know you're a vampire?"
"My name is Eliot!" He whined, "A-And I-- Wait."
We both got really quiet. The boy, Eliot, dropped his hands to his sides and stared at me with a horrified expression. Meanwhile, I returned to my previous occupation of staring at him in stunned disbelief. My mouth felt dry and my throat tight. I didn't know what to do with this unbelievable revelation. Neither did he, apparently.
"You really didn't know?" He finally whispered.
I shook my head.
"Ah… Ahhhhhh." Eliot cupped his face with his hands as he whined, "We're in so much trouble."
"Are you serious? You weren't joking?"
He shook his head, face still held, "N-Noo."
"Dude, you can just tell me it's a joke." I said. I could hear my own voice shaking. "Th, there is still time for me to buy that kind of excuse!"
"Oh, uh…" He averted his emerald gaze nervously, "I-It's a joke! Ahahaa... "
Nope. I did not buy that.
His list of obnoxious talents did not include lying.
We returned to an awkward silence, and even more awkward staring contest. I'm sure that both of our minds were reeling with some degree of panic. Eliot, because he had revealed his secret to me. Me, because I believed it. What did it say about me that I was so quick to believe my classmate was a vampire? Was I that sick of reality? Did I have even a shred of realism to ground me?
My concerns were pretty trivial at the time. I didn't even consider that knowing a secret could mean life or death. I was more worried about my reputation as a smart and realistic person than I was about being a dead or alive person.
I was shaken back into reality. Literally as Eliot put his hands on his shoulders and gave me a soft shake. My gaze snapped to his like a magnet. He looked genuinely terrified for some reason.
"You need to get out of here." He whispered frantically, "Skip school. I'll have this figured out by tomorrow."
"Skip school?" I repeated. Normally, I would be very eager to skip school. I'm also not normally face to face with a vampire, especially not one who is suggesting the school skipping. Curiosity got the better of me as I narrowed my eyes, "Why should I skip school?"
"It's dangerous for you. At least, now it is." Eliot explained, "Bad stuff happens to humans who learn our secret at school."
For a brief moment, I was more intrigued than I was scared. No, 'intrigued' is the wrong word. I was 'excited.' My mind was returning to the books about vampires like Eliot. The pale, hooded, high school boy kind that populate the books I like to read. In those books, exciting things happen when the protagonist discovers the vampire secret. My mouth was no longer dry: I think it was watering for adventure. Or the sandwich that I had yet to finish eating. Either way, I was not as scared as I should have been.
"What kind of bad stuff?" I had started to ask. Just then, the school PA system butted into our conversation.
The voice of a girl calmly echoed across campus: "Attention, please! Will Ophelia Malory and Eliot Durant please report to the student council room? I repeat…"
"Heek!" Eliot jumped to his feet, hands curled into fists that pressed anxiously against his chest, "Oh no! They found out!"
"What? Who did? The student council?" I shrugged my shoulders, "That was fast. Nice response time."
"This is no time for being impressed, Ophelia!" Eliot was nearly in tears for some reason. Did he hate the student council that much? I watched him from the ground, trying to imagine what was going through his mind. Less because to be sympathetic and more because I was wondering what kinds of exciting adventures lied ahead.
He bit down on his lip, visibly resisting another verbal outburst. Slowly, Eliot lowered his arms and uncurled his fists. I could see his thought process physically calming him down. It looked like a good time to ask more questions, but Eliot spoke up before I could.
"Just follow my lead, okay? It'll be fine." He said in a surprisingly calm and level tone, given how spastic he had been forty seconds earlier.
"Oh... Okay?" I decided to go along with him. While I still didn't know how to react to the secret, I did know how to react a student council summons. Eliot and I packed our lunch in silence (Well, I packed that sandwich into my mouth,) before heading back to the school building. I left the serene picnic spot behind us, and with it, any trace of the life I had lived before.
I would never look at anything the same way again.