"Tripp! Get in here quick!" I yelled, finding my dress lying on my bed later that evening, now sporting two red stain sleeves.

"What!" He asked breathlessly, obviously wondering what could have made me yell for him.

"Thank you! I love it!" I told him, twirling the dress as I ballroom danced around the room, with myself of course. He clutched a hand to his heart.

"God Sarah, don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack." He snapped, slumping slightly against the doorframe.

"What? It got you here fast didn't it?" I chuckled and pushed him out the door.

"Yeah, whatever." I changed quickly, not wanting to still be here when Candi came back. I heard something knock on my window. I pulled back the curtains to find a widely grinning Rez on the other side of the glass; he motioned to the lock so I would open it. This could be fun.

"What?" I mouthed, shrugging stupidly. He motioned again, I tapped the lock twice. "Say please." I mouthed through a giggle.

"Open the window Sarah." He yelled so I could hear his muffled voice.

"Open the what?" His eyes narrowed humorously.

"Ha ha very funny, now open the window." I slid it open slowly, painfully slowly; he shoved it all the way open once his patience had run thin.

"Want to go out tonight?" I blinked twice.

"What?" I blurted, that was a new question, he said it slower.

"Do you want to go out with me tonight?"

"And do what?"

"Walk, movie, food. I won't care whatever, please?" He whined.

"But I have a performance."

"Skip it." He grinned.

"But-"

"Pwease?" He pouted, quivering his lower lip in a pitiful display. I laughed.

"You suck at that." I critiqued.

"Then you teach me how." He challenged, tempting, very tempting.

"Um…" I looked at the door. "Alright just wait a minute; I need to leave a note or something so Tripp won't completely flip out. I quickly ripped put a blank page in the back of a book and wrote a quick note on it and stuck it to the side of my mirror. I hoped he wouldn't be too mad. I grabbed my street shoes and jumped out the window, with a little help from Rez.

"What's wrong with your leg?" I groaned.

"Something about a car, I'll tell you later."

"Fine, let's put some distance between here so that Tripp doesn't catch you so easily." He grabbed my hand and pulled me along at a jog. Well, he was jogging; I was running to catch up. "Too fast?" He chuckled, turning around and jogging backwards.

"No of course not. I'm only human, instead of a super human vampire, but yeah, I can catch up." I panted, talking sarcastically. He slowed to a walk so I could breathe in the icy air, painful to my lungs. Once again, I realized I was in my stupid black dress in the snow, I shivered once.

"Oops, should have told you to change first, here." He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around my shoulders; I hugged it closer, just like Tripp's it was cold even though he had been wearing it. We walked in silence for a few minutes until the question I had been mulling over finally popped to the surface.

"What's it like?" I asked finally.

"What's what like?" He kept walking. I toyed with the button on his coats sleeve.

"Being a vampire." He stopped then and looked at my small form, his face almost expressionless in thought before he shrugged.

"I don't know." He said simply before continuing. "I haven't actually been one for very long. Okay I guess, sort of like being human only…it lasts forever."

"Well, how long have you been a vampire?"

"Since 1984." He answered frankly. So he must be around his forties if he looked around eighteen or twenty, that's if my math isn't as bad as it usually was. But another question bubbled out of my mouth.

"How do you turn into a vampire? I mean, obviously it's not being bitten because…" I pointed to my neck and laughed. "If that was all there was to it I would have fangs right now." He sighed heavily then sat gracefully on the slightly damp sidewalk, patting his lap, looking up at me.

"What are you lookin' at me for?" I grimaced.

"You don't want to get your dress wet, and with those heels, you're going to get tired really quick." He repeated the patting motion.

"The last time I sat on a vampire's lap I was the days special." He sighed exasperated and shook his head, white hair falling into icy blue eyes.

"I won't do that, I promise." He flashed a warm, sincere smile. Ugh, I hate that smile. I gingerly sat onto his open lap, his arms encircling my waist. It was awkward, and I wanted off.

"So." He began, sounding like an old man reminiscing his childhood. "How I became a vampire? Well, it's a complicated process." He breathed in deeply before he truly began. "When a vampire drinks your blood, as you already know it doesn't turn you, the vampire has to contribute also, by allowing the human to drink their blood, exchanging it."

"That doesn't sound so complicated." I said, bored with the explanation. I Stood up off of him and hiked my dress back down, smoothing it out.

"Maybe it isn't, but no matter how complicated it actually is, it seems really weird and surreal while it's happening."

"That's because it is surreal and weird, you're not living, and yet you run around acting as if you were." I scoffed.

"Who said we weren't living?" He seemed almost offended.

"What?"

"Vampire is not an undead thing, we live, hasn't somebody told you this already? 'Vampire' is a species, sure we can change people into us but we can reproduce also, not that it's easy, but it can happen."

"Well," I blinked. "That's new."

"Yeah, Stoker was a little off, here listen." He pulled me by the hand back down until I was on my knees; my head held to his chest, sure enough, the steady heartbeat was like a drum in his chest. "See?" He murmured softly. "I'm here." I pulled myself from him and continued to walk down the alleyway, oddly empty at this time on night.

"So you live, but you don't age." I clarified, kicking a can. "If you live, do you die?"

"Now, that's were the curse part of it comes in." He was now walking just behind me. "We live forever, now imagine everyone you've ever known, ever loved, die, while you live on." I turned around to face him, looking him in the eyes; sadness filled them so I dropped my gaze.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I whispered, studying my shoes.

"And the only way we truly die is extremely painful." He didn't explain, leaving me wondering. A few seconds later, I asked myself.

"How do you die?"

"Burnt Alive." I pulled myself onto the low brick wall and looked at him, eye to eye.

"You weren't kidding."

"Yeah, I know." He stood in front of me, placing his elbows next to me. "I'm surprised Tripp hasn't told you this." I rolled my eyes.

"Tripp doesn't tell me much of anything."

"Typical." He scoffed.

"You don't like him much do you."

"Why do you say that?" He asked, caught off guard by my question.

"Well, you remember that chick in the middle of that tango from Hell two days back? Yeah, that was me." I retorted, slightly sarcastic.

"Oh well, what does he say about me?"

"He said you were weird and that I shouldn't talk to you." I stated, bluntly and word for word.

"Maybe he was right."

"What?" That sounded like a weird reply.

"I am weird." He smiled, flashing his pearly whites. I shook my head.

"Yeah sure you are, now move so I can get back home before Tripp ends up strangling me."

"Make me." he teased, eyes gleaming.

"Okay, like how?" He made kissy faces at me, I made a face. "No thanks, I'm cool." I started walking on the wall, my arms spread out like a tightrope walker, Rez following next to me on the ground.

"So do you like it here better than your own home?" He asked out of the blue.

I mulled the question over for a minute. "Yeah, I guess so, I mean…It's definitely better than being with my parents in the neighborhood we were at, I kind of miss them, just because they were my parents, but no, I can't say I miss it."

"So you're saying you enjoy living in a club filled with vampires just waiting to sink their teeth into you?"

"I actually do, vampires definitely aren't evil like in the books, they're interesting, but they still have their own bad characteristics." I looked at him, a light glare on my face. "Like jealousy, possessiveness, greed, flirtatiousness."

"Got to love it hun." He helped me off of the wall and I hit the pavement.

"I don't have to do anything." I protested.

"Besides work at the club." He mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I could leave anytime I want, but as I said, I like it there."

"With the vampires."

"God! Why do you completely dismiss that thought? Yes with the vampires!" I spat.

"Because I am one and I don't like most of them."

"Well then that's your problem." I said before walking down the road, seething just the littlest bit. How dare he question the way I live? Stupid vampire.

"You hate me don't you." He stated sadly, pathetically. He was still farther behind me. I sighed, exasperated.

"I don't hate you; you just irritate the hell out of me." I didn't turn to face him, because I knew by the tone of his voice I would melt if I looked at him.

"I'm sorry I irritate you."

"Don't apologize, just stop doing it." I started walking again until I heard him running, noisily, to catch up.

"Where are you going?" He asked, now walking backwards in front of me.

"Back to the club, like I told you." I didn't slow down but he stopped, me bumping into him.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want Tripp biting my head off now Move!" I dodged around him and jogged down the alley, until I tripped over something and skidded on my hands for about a foot.

"Ow, just my luck." I pulled into a sitting position to examine the damage. My already gauzed leg now had a new addition to the mess; my knee was now bleeding too, the rough stones doing a number on it, along with me hands. Rez was at my side in an instant.

"Oh god are you…" He stopped speaking and inhaled deeply. "mmm." Oh crap.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I stated cautiously, scooting over a little bit. His eyes popped back open and his gaze kept moving from my face, to my hands, to my knee, then back again.

"Hey!" I yelled. "My face is here, look at it, not hold your breath and help me up" I added please as an afterthought. He did as I asked but his eyes were still locked on my hand, which was now a foot away from his face.

"You really do smell like roses." Alright, that was my last straw. I started walking away until I was jerked back; he still held onto my hand, he slowly pulled it up to his mouth.

"Rez….what are you doing?" Then he licked it, and no, I don't mean he fed on it, he just stuck his tongue out and liked it like a Doberman.

"EW! Gross!" I pulled my hand away and wiped it in my dress, doing the up and down 'that was nasty' dance, shaking my hands in front of me. "That's disgusting!"

"No, it's delicious."

"Ugh!" I turned on my heels and stormed off of the road like Hell's fury.

"Now I'm going home, and if you follow me I will personally see to your painful and immediate death!" My last words before leaving him in the dust.

hey sorry it took me forever to upload... I'm trying to get this story to a publisher but it's taking me a while to actually do it. I wasn't going to upload until I sent it in..but since it's taking longer... I'm gonna upload it now. hope you like it!!

~Ronnie