Page 19 of This Blood That Binds Us
I wondered why I had just agreed to do the exact opposite of what I said I was going to do, but that could wait.
“See you then.” He held the door open for me, and I bolted.
I walked out to the bus stop outside my dormitory. The clouds broke into pools of burnt orange above my head. The wind blew my hair in my face, sprinting the soft scent of my rose perfume forward. My heart was in my chest again. This was it. I was finally going to get to tell Chris everything.
The dirt whisked in a cyclone near the yellow bench I was sitting on. I swirled my heeled boots around in the dirt and kicked it on top of my laces.The sun was beating down, and my skinny jeans were sticking to my legs. The bus stopped to unload its passengers.
One by one, the heads trickled out of the bus. Why was I so nervous? I sighed and let my shoulders fall away from my ears as I leaned back.
I went to redial, and the shrill ring of my cellphone snapped me out of my trance. I shuffled around to bring it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Kim! Hey!” Chris said, muffled. The roar of talking and laughter made it hard for me to hear him. “There you are! I was starting to worry.”
I was surprised by the spark of annoyance that zapped right through me. I’d been calling him for almost a week.
I closed my eyes and brought my fingers up to squeeze the bridge of my nose. “I’m fine—”
“You don’t sound fine. What’s up? You said you wanted to talk to me.” My fingers were sweating as I gripped the phone. “I did...something happened. Something big.”
“Don’t tell me. You got that scholarship for your sophomore year—”
“No. No. It was something bad.”
“Oh...okay. Hold on.” A long pause followed by a click of the door came through. The roar in the background of his call vanished. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
Nervous laughter escaped my lips. I squeezed the phone, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks. Pregnancy would be so much easier to explain. “It’s not that. I went on a camping trip, and...I was attacked by a man.”
“Oh my god. How bad were you hurt? What happened?”
“I’m not finished. It was a man, but he’s more than that. He bit me...and took a lot of blood. I had to go to the hospital.”
“What the hell? Like some psychotic drifter?”
“Closer but not it. I’m going to tell you something, and you have to promise not to think I’m a crazy person.”
“Okay . . .”
I took one big breath, filling my lungs and letting the words pour out on the exhale. “I think the person that bit me was a vampire.”
A pause stagnated, and I wondered if the call dropped.
“Kim! This isn’t funny. I thought something actually happened to you. You scared me.” Chris laughed. “But it’s a good joke. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I’m not joking! Something did happen to me. I have proof. I’ll send the picture.”
I quickly scrolled through my phone to send the picture I had snapped of my shoulder that morning. I was waiting to go backto the doctor to get my shoulder looked at until I showed Chris. It was the only bit of indisputable evidence I had.
Another pause.
“Kimberly, when did you learn to do special effects makeup!? This is amazing.”
“It’s not makeup! I’m telling you. I. Got. Bit.”
“That doesn’t mean it was a vampire! I know you used to watch that Buffy show when we were younger...but come on. What did the doctor say?”
“That it was an animal attack.” I sighed. “But—”
