Super Shorties

Human Actually

Crap happens. That was the biggest lesson I learned in highschool. And the biggest crap I had to deal with was in the form of several hoes who were bullying me.

Thankfully my best friend always had my back. Bree never let me down. We met our freshman year in health because neither of us had a partner for a project. Second semester we had a computer class together and because we already knew each other we sat side by side. Bree isn't exactly a prep but she dresses nicely and smiles at everyone she knows in passing. She knows probably half the school at least by their names. Me on the other hand you could call goth, emo, scene, take your pick. Sure I like black, it doesn't get dirty as easy. Yeah I like big hoodies, they're super comfortable and hide my scars. Bree is the only reason I'm still alive actually. I was in a really bad place my sophomore year and I got really depressed. I was suicidal but Bree helped me through it. My only friend before her was a girl named Stephanie. We had been friends since grade school but I guess I never really knew what friendship meant.

Stephanie pretty much walked all over me and I let her do it. She would abandon me for her boyfriend and then bitch at me for "never being around." She called me an attention whore when she was the one screwing half the school. So when Bree came along and treated me like an actual person... I don't know it was like I was drowning and then suddenly she's teaching me how to swim. When Stephanie broke me apart with cruel words, Bree was there with the super glue. Piece by piece she put me back together better than before. My grades went up, I began to have confidence in myself, I smiled, and we laughed.

Sometimes in band she'll smile sadly and stroke the scars on my arm her fingers are always so cold, and then, I think its subconscious, she'll run her finger over her own arm. I know the scars are there, she told me, they're just hard to see because of how pale she is. Bree likes to think she's an enigma but I know her. I see what she doesn't show the world. When she smiles I can see the pain and the utter exhaustion in her big blue eyes. Of course she'll never admit it, she keeps up a strong front so I don't worry, but I still do.

It was a warm day our senior year and we happened to be walking to band together. I was wearing my usual, a plain black T-shirt and jeans. Bree was wearing a pink shirt with flowers that said flourish. We were talking about the upcoming band trip when some boneheaded jock blocked our way. "Look what we have here. A fairy and a vampire." He sneered. Two equally giant guys stood in the doorway to the boy's locker room and laughed. I should be used to it by now but it still hurts. I ducked my head but brought it up again when Bree linked her arm in mine. Then she did the oddest thing. She smiled at this huge guy and showed off a pair of gleaming fangs I had never seen in her mouth. "She's human actually." She chirped. Suddenly everything clicked into place. The cold hands, the tired eyes, the running of her finger over my wrist. She hadn't been looking at my scars, she had been feeling my pulse. Its strange how you can know someone for four years and never realize, never imagine, that they were a vampire.