Penelope Collins
A thousand years into my existence, I’m finally going to college. Not that I really even need to – that’s been more than enough time to get to learn everything that I could possibly learn about anything. What I’m really after is the experience – you know, being able to say that I actually did it. Ask any other vampire in the world how they’d feel about going to college, and the majority of them would laugh in your face. But me? No, my life was taken away from me and I will do anything to feel what it is to be a human again, and if going to college is what it takes, then going to college is what I’ll do.
“I really don’t understand why you’re doing this, Penny,” Max shook his head as he watched me attempt to fit my entire wardrobe into one suitcase. There are only two people on this earth that I will ever allow to call me ‘Penny’ instead of ‘Penelope,’ and Max was one of them. “You already know everything, there’s no point.”
I looked up and pushed my bangs behind my ears to look at him. “I have to do this, Max. I’m in the middle of an existential crisis and the only solution is college.” I crossed my arms across my chest stubbornly as he rolled his eyes at me. Max is my best friend, he has been for hundreds of years. A lot of people don’t understand our relationship what with him being a werewolf and all, but the bond that we’ve created is stronger than most family bonds. He doesn’t understand why I want to go to college, but he does understand that the one thing I want more than anything is to be human.
After about an hour of packing up Max’s truck, we arrived on campus – the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I looked like any other college student, forever frozen at age eighteen and carrying a shitload of bags. I decided on a single room so I could at least have one place to privately… well, you know. Max helped me load everything into my room and gave me a look like a concerned father dropping his little girl off for her first day of school. “Make good decisions,” he finally winked, pulling me into a bear hug. “I’m only fifteen minutes away, you know. You’ll still be seeing a lot of me.” I hugged him tighter, then finally let him go.
“I love ya, Max.”
“I love you, too,” he said, flashing me a dimpled smile. I shut the door and turned to look at my new home; I had managed to bring the tiny, white-walled space to life with an obscene amount of posters and some colored lights that I hung over the windows at the back wall of the room. In a bin far under my bed, I kept blood bags of every different type, and on my dresser I had all the jewelry laid out that protected me from the sun. My personal favorite is one that hangs around my neck at all time – a cameo necklace of a black rose that was given to me by someone I’d rather not remember. Being social is part of the human college experience, so I opened up my door and stepped into the carpeted hallway. I knocked on the door across the hall, which was also a single, and nearly collapsed out of shock when the door opened.
“Hello, Penny,” the familiar voice said cheerfully, pushing the door all the way open. “Fancy meeting you here.” I stared blankly at him for I don’t know how many moments, trying to recover myself. I looked into those blue-green eyes that I knew so well, and was filled with more emotions than I could even begin to handle. Looking at him felt so familiar, so natural, but then I remembered what he had done to make me hate him so much. I pushed him with enough force to send him flying into the back wall of his room, and I stepped inside slamming the door behind me.
“Why are you here?” I demanded as he stood, giving me that irritating smirk that I knew so well.
“That wasn’t quite the reaction I was looking for.”
“You’re right, I should’ve just killed you instead.”
“You know that’s not possible, love,” he chuckled, taking a seat in front of his desk. “You would never be able to do it, anyway.” Even with how much I despised him, he was right. And not because I’m not strong enough, but because I don’t have the heart to. I could never.
“Are you gonna tell me why or not?” I asked him, avoiding his eyes that I knew were fixed to my face. He didn’t answer me though, so I finally looked up and my eyes met his. The smirk was gone and he was staring at me with a look he’d never given me before, at least not in a thousand years. But as fast as it appeared, it was gone. He raised his shoulders in a shrug and answered simply, “I’m bored.” I didn’t believe that for a second. He wasn’t here for college, he was here to make my life miserable. He was exceptionally good at that.
“You really do have to ruin everything for me, don’t you?” I scowled taking hold of the doorknob and letting myself out before he could say anything, slamming the door with enough force to leave a crack in his wall. I nearly knocked over a young girl as I stormed back into my room, feeling furious and confused and hurt and a number of other things all at once. He’d already taken so much away from me, did he really have to take this, too?
