Changed

Chapter 6: Just Love Me

The yelling woke me up.

“You’ll die!” Mr Michaels shouted downstairs.

“Stop yelling!” Mrs Michaels was crying again. “You’ll drive him away, the way you always have.”

“What? Drive him away?” Didn’t you hear what he just said? He is leaving anyway!”

I groaned, feeling in the bed for Kyle, realizing he’d gotten up. His parents were trying, in their way, to tell him that they loved him and didn’t want him risking his life by leaving their home. I felt the same way. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I knew Kyle so well, we were going to leave as soon as I emerged from the bedroom-maybe we can eat first- and it wasn’t going to be a graceful exit.

“It’s because they blame you for not fixing me,” Kyle told me as we left his parents’ house. It was still raining; Mrs Michaels had given us raincoats and umbrellas. The rain seemed to have cleared the sky of the vampire birds of prey. Another miracle.

At least we had gotten breakfast first. Pancakes and coffee. Blessed coffee. While I’d been on the street, I’d heard a story that a man knifed another over the last cup of coffee in a coffee pot in a diner.

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t forgive Kyle's parents for being so narrow-minded as to pick a fight with their son and his best friend, when they might never see us alive again. I adjusted the heavy backpack, filled with extra clothes, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Kyle was carrying the heavier one, packed with food. He had a small satchel over his shoulder too, packed with photographs of Edann, seven of them, as if someone might not recognize him in the first six. Edann was weird looking, with almond-shaped eyes, a long hooked nose in a long narrow face. So he wasn’t handsome, he wasn’t nice and there were other gay guys at our school if Kyle wanted a boyfriend. Gay guys who liked me a lot. Unfortunately, Edann was the guy for him.

Kyle groaned when we reached the pocket park, site of their first make-out session, after her birthday party in the eighth grade. I’d been so excited and happy I hadn’t slept all night.

“Even the trees got burned up,” he said. We walked close together, holding hands. I had a strange floating sensation; if he hadn’t held on to me, I thought I might have floated away in sheer fear. We passed dozens of burning buildings, sizzling and steaming in the rain. The subway station split the sidewalk; by mutual, unspoken consent, we gave it a wide berth.

Darkness and seclusion-perfect vampire territory.

Shadows and shapes moved in the alleyways; we walked down the centre of the street, gripping each others hands. It was strange, but I was more afraid with Kyle here than when I was by myself. I don’t think I could stand if anything happened to him. He was so nervous; he was broadcasting “come and get me” to anyone interested in easy pickings.

He pulled out a cell phone from his jacket and dialled numbers, lisening intently. Finally he grunted and put it back in his pocket and moved his bangs out of his eyes. My heart stirred and I touched his check. He smiled distractedly, I knew he was glad I was here but it was Edann he most wanted to see.

I used to have these long conversations with my girlfriends about if Kyle would ever come back to me. Kyle had been my actual boyfriends for over two years. We mad out all the time, but had never gone further than that. We had been too young. Then he and Edann found each other… or rather Edann found him. Edann had moved to here and zeroed in on Kyle, even before Edann was sure Kyle was gay. So Kyle had given me the “we can still be friends” speech. Only in our case, it was true. We were excellent friends, we thought alike, read alike. We both hated sports. And Edann, who was a jock, hated that. He never said a word about it to Kyle, as far as Kyle was concerned Edann loved me like a sister. Had used those exact words, in fact, when I tried to discuss it with Kyle. But when Kyle wasn’t paying attention, Edann dropped large amounts of passive-aggressive bullshit-veiled threats and lots of snark. He picked fights just before they were meant to meet me somewhere. Being somewhere else when we were all meant to be together was classic Edann, King of Bitter Homosexuality.