Puppylove

Chapter 1

Alejandro squinted at his phone screen. The beaming summer sun made for lovely weather, but not being able to see the map was a bit distracting, as was the need to wear light clothing so as to not be baked to another death. He set his old-timey travel bag down on the asphalt, and took out the umbrella he had been pressing between his cheek and shoulder to stay hidden from the sun. He was stood still, studying the screen, when a loud car horn blared right behind him. The sudden interruption made him almost drop his phone, and he juggled it in the air before catching it and turning around. Right in front of him, he found a truck, and from the driver's window leaned a skinny girl.

"What are you doing standing in the middle of the road!?" she inquired loudly, yet her expression was not angry like her tone might imply. Perhaps she assumed the rumble of her engine was loud enough to obscure her voice, or perhaps she was equally as startled as Alejandro himself.

"I was looking at the map," he replied as if that was supposed to answer her question.

"In the middle of a straight road!?" The girl sounded now mildly worried, like she suspected him to be slightly insane. Alejandro supposed she wasn't entirely wrong.

"I have a very bad sense of direction," Alejandro informed her. The girl's expression shifted to one of boredom, and slight irritation.

"I can drive you to town if you stop standing in the middle of the road," she offered, patting the headrest of the passenger seat of her vehicle. From that, Alejandro perked up quite a bit, before he picked up his bag and wordlessly climbed into the truck. The moment he got the door closed, she got the car moving again, not waiting for him to put on his seatbelt. Alejandro put it on as they drove, then looked at the travel bag on the 3rd seat between him and the driver. He frowned and grabbed the seatbelt for that seat, then threaded it through the handle of the bag and clicked it closed. Happy with his handiwork, he rested his elbow against the truck window. The umbrella rested against his leg as it leaned against the seat on the floor.

Alejandro could feel the driver glancing at him curiously from time to time as they drove along the asphalt road that split a seemingly-infinite hayfield. The area had no shade in a several-kilometer radius. They sat in the air-conditioned truck in silence. As seconds rolled by, the driver's looks grew more frequent, as if she was trying to study him. A smile started to tug on Alejandro's lips, and while he attempted to hold it back for a moment, he failed. With a grin and while still looking out of the window, he spoke to himself humorously, "I thought vampires were supposed to all be white and pale."

"I wasn't thinking that!" the girl yelped in surprise, her eyes wide.

"But it did cross your mind," Alejandro replied. He turned to look at her and smiled softly. "I get it a lot."

"Hm," the girl hummed "I was about to ask if you were a vampire." Alejandro nodded.

"I'm Alejandro Ortega, and I'm a vampire." He introduced himself with a hand on his chest and a bow of his head. "Nice to meet you, Ms...?

"Just call me Tilly," the girl laughed, and her long, red hair bounced with the movement. "Tilly Mazie," she added.

"Lovely to meet you, Tilly," Alejandro smiled even wider.

"What brings a vampire to our small town?" Tilly inquired.

"Ah, I have been flying a long way," Alejandro explained, "I needed a place to nap for the day so I crawled into the drainpipe under the road near where you picked me up, but I appeared to have fallen asleep and some rats demanded I be evicted from their home before the harvest comes, since they use it to huddle for safety." Tilly chuckled at his story.

"How did you fit in there?" she looked him over with wide, curious eyes.

"I can turn into a bat."

"Just one? I thought it was a swarm."