Vampires Will Never Hurt You

I didn't see him again after that night... Well, at least not at first. Sure, he had left his impression on me, but after Monday rolled around with no sight of him, he began to slip from my mind. I half-heartedly scanned the halls for him at school. Once I thought about it, I couldn't recall ever seeing him at school. I refused to let the thought that he was really just playing the role of date to one of my classmates enter my mind. But as I said, Gerard faded from my memory. It wasn't until the Friday after the prom that I ran into him again.


I was walking to lunch with two of my best friends. Mary and Sam. We were an oddly matched group. I was tall and recieved plenty of albino jokes because of my pale skin and white-blond hair. If I wasn't known to blush like a tomato, I might have believed them. Mary was the athletic one, average height and toned to hell and back. Her red hair and freckles made her hard to miss on the field. Then there was Sam. Sam was short and oriental, with black spiky hair that made her look like a pixie. Yes, the three of us were quiet the trio. It was sort of sad that I had to leave them once I was no longer dead like them. But that comes later. As of then I was still with them and coincedentally walking out to eat in the school courtyard.
Mary was chattering on about a boy from the basketball team when I spotted him. I must have stopped walking because they both looked at me. My eyes fell directly onto the back of a black leather jacket. The build was right, but it was the hair that gave it all away. The shining inky layers were leaning softly with the slight wind and I felt my breath catch in my throat. I willed him with my mind to turn around, but he remained with his back to me, speaking to a group of boys who were all apparently wearing black and loitering beneath the shade of a tree. I looked down at my own green sweater and felt dread flood through me. Why hadn't I chosen something decent to wear? Why was I in Nana's hand-knit Christmas massacre of thread? Mary and Sam were staring hard at me now, touching my shoulder and asking what's wrong. I simply looked at them, my mouth gaping, when he finally turned around. He didn't scan the grounds, he just looked dead at me, like he had known where I was all along. Our eyes met and I felt my infamous tomato blush creep up my face while his lips split into a grin. He seemed more handsome than I had remembered him. I glanced at my friends, eyebrows raised, and they seemed to be as suprised by him as I was.
"Is that guy smiling at you, Annalise?" Mary asked, her voice taking it's usual assertive tone. My mouth still hung open while I gave a half-hearted shrug and looked at Sam, who seemed to be calculating something. I went back to looking at Gerard and felt my stomach drop as he hitched his head towards an alley between two of our school buildings. I tried to shake my head no, but he just threw his head back and laughed, heading off towards the alley with me saying hurried goodbyes to Mary and Sam to follow after him.
Walking across the courtyard on my way over to meet him, I had time to analyze my situation. Was he going to rape me? The thought horrified me, but I doubted he'd do it in broad daylight so close to the other students. Once I began actually thinking realistically, there wasn't any reason at all for him to want to talk to me. We exchanged brief words outside of a crummy dance. Why was I expecting for us to fast-forward to rape? I could see him, leaning casually against one of the brick walls, lighting a cigarette while his eyes smiled at me. I approached him, seeing the student parking lot at the other end of the alley. He took a drag from his cigarette and turned his head to blow his smoke away from my face. I gave him points for that. He turned back to me and grinned in a way that was already becoming familiar to me.
"You look like you've made a full recovery from all of the fun of prom."
I let out a small laugh, shaking my head and leaning back against the wall next to him. I was no longer worried about Nana's sweater. He wouldn't have beckoned me to this desolate location to talk if my sweater had offended him that badly. Suddenly a though struck me.
"Oh crap. I've got your jacket in my car. Thanks a lot for lending it to me, do you want me to give it back to you after school?"
He seemed to think about it for a minute before asking me "Do you have your keys with you now?"
"Yes," I replied. "Why?"
"Well, we could always just go grab it now." He gave me a crooked smile and tilted his head towards the parking lot. I placed my hands on my hips and gave him a level scowl.
"You know students aren't allowed into the parking lot until after school lets out." My answer seemed to amuse him, because I earned another chuckle in response.
"Come on, Annalise. Don't you ever break the rules?" As he spoke the last words he turned so that he was standing in front of me, trapping me between his own body and the wall. I looked up at him, trying to guess the number of centimeters beween us. Even at such a close distance he was perfect, and I found myself shaking my head wearily in defeat, following after him as he made his way down the other end of the alley.