By the time Abby and I leave the bar, I have already amassed a bit of interest on LINGR. Most of the conversations don't pan out, just "down to fuck?"s. When I finally return home at around 2 am, I have an unread message from a fairy named Fred.

Fred: You're cute for an undead person ;)

If my heart could thump, I think it would. When I was human, text flirting never failed to set off my heart and sweat glands, in a good way. Swallowing, I take off my hat and jacket, setting them on the counter of my apartment. I go and open my casket, wrinkling my nose. It certainly smells like it needs a good cleaning day, but I'm the only one who lays in it at the moment, so no biggie. I slide in, lying down, and keep the top part open. Lifting my phone above my face, I type back.

Vick: It's hard being a glamorous vampire, but I try to avoid sparkling like Edward Cullen

I put my phone down on my chest, eyes wide. Am I really doing this? Well, Abby did say I needed to venture out and meet some new people. Even if things don't pan out—

But damn. If my comedy set sucked tonight, what's to say that my text flirting skills have suffered in the three months I've been a vampire too? With quick fingers, I lift the phone up, only to see Fred has already responded.

Fred: You better—sparkling is my thing ;) You know, being a fairy and all that

Winky faces are a good sign. Winky faces are a very good sign.

I giggle and continue texting Fred. He's funny. We text about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and whether I measure up to the vampires written in that show. When I say, 'Of course,' Fred calls me a 'vampire poser.' I don't know why, but I find it cute. At 7 am, I put my phone down, fold my arms down in my chest, and close the casket top as the morning sun beats in through the window brightly, a smile on my face. He wants to meet me for a walk whenever I wake up. Nothing more, nothing less.

I've always been a night owl, so I catch a few hours of sleep in the morning hours, then spend most of the day chilling in my casket. (Since I'm still a fledgling, I can sleep, but the desire to sleep wanes bit by bit each day, which sucks because sleeping is my go-to move when I'm feeling depressed... which is almost always.)

Then I begin to get ready to meet Fred by mid-afternoon. I brush and floss my fangs and other teeth. They gleam under the luminescent light of the bathroom, my bathroom light that flickers and makes me think I'm in a horror movie. I guess I'm the antagonist of the horror movie now, though, huh?

I dress in a long yellow skirt, rainbow suspenders, a cute long-sleeved red polo, and my handy smiley-face hat. After I've gathered my keys and wallet into my waist bag, I go to my refrigerator door and open it. Abby was kind enough to hook me up with a blood supply every week so I didn't have to attack people at random ("That's not what we all do," she said in response to me the first time I uttered that, rolling her eyes). Still, even though the literal taste buds on my tongue perk up at the sight or smell or touch of blood, I suppress the urges quite well. I don't know, I think the thought of sucking on someone's neck or wrist or wherever to suck their life force out of them isn't appetizing to me.

Geez. I'm even a failure as a vampire.

This is what Abby says: she thinks I'm one of the worst vampires she knows. "But you'll learn," she always says afterward in an attempt to appease me. "When you find the right donor—the right human—the two of you can get a lot of pleasure out of the bloodsucking experience." Every time she says this, I scoff. It's easy for her to say: she has three cis male humans at her beck and call. Apparently, they're all her sexual partners too. I shudder thinking about it. For me, nourishment and sexual pleasure shouldn't necessarily mix...

I grit my teeth and reach for a blood pouch, feeling the blood splash from side to side. Open it, I raise it to my lips. Then, before I know it, the pouch is crumpled empty, and the blood slides down my throat. I lick my lips. One more can't hurt, right?

After seconds, I wipe the back of my hand across my mouth and shut the refrigerator. I've been drinking blood more and more as the weeks go on. Yikes. Good thing I'm feeding myself before meeting Fred because there's no way I am drinking blood in front of him.

I grab the rainbow umbrella by the door and slide out, locking the door behind me and pocketing the key back in my waist bag. I stroll down the hallway and out into the bright sun, the umbrella swinging open in front of me before I balance in on my shoulder.

It is a lovely day for a walk, and I'm due to meet Fred at the public park closest to my apartment. Once I arrive at the park, I notice humans and magical beings alike: human children chasing werewolf pups around, fairies zooming by in their clusters, and witches sitting in circles under trees. The first time I saw them in this park, I told Abby they were having a séance. As is custom between us, she laughed at me. "It's a monthly book club, stupid," she had said.

Taking a seat on a gross park bench, I don't have to wait long: a Black fairy zooms up to me, his eyebrows waggling. "You must be Vick," Fred says. "So nice to meet you in the flesh."

I hold out my hand and, to my surprise, Fred takes it and kisses the top. "Your undead flesh, I should say." When he looks up at me, his eyes twinkle. I can't help but smile.

"Nice to meet you too." I gesture for Fred to sit down next to me, and when he does, he only comes up to half my forearm—and he's standing. The thought of how fairies and larger magical creatures—and I guess now humans—figuring out to have sex enters my mind briefly, but I shake that away when Fred smiles again at me.

"So," he says, "what's new?"

"N-nothing much." Damn, his smile is so lovely. With bright white teeth, all straight except for one of his canines slightly crooked—come on, Vick, focus on the conversation. "Just was chilling in my coff—at home all day."

"Same here," he says. "It was cleaning day for me!"

Silence blankets us. Well, it's not silence, but the sounds of the park. He looks at me expectantly, and I bite my lip—

"Ouch!" My hand flies to my lip, feeling where I punctured it. "Ouch ouch ouch—"

"Can't handle your fangs?" Fred snorts. "Come on, vamp."

My brows furrow. "No need to be a jerk. I've only been a vampire for a few months."

Fred's mouth opens, his brows raising, but I tear my gaze away from him and suppress the lump in my throat. Dammit. This isn't how I wanted this date to go. Everything was better when we were just texting—

Yellow sparks grow and shrink in front of my eyes, which widen, and I gasp as the sparks tickle my lip. When I bring my hand back up to the wound again, I can feel it has been healed over. "Fred, did you—"

"I didn't know you were a fledgling, and my joke wasn't too funny, was it," he says, coaxing the yellow sparks back toward them, and they envelop into his skin. His twinkling brown eyes meet mine, and the lump in my throat returns. "I'm sorry about that. I'm sure it's really overwhelming for you still, this transition into the magical world."

"Shit..." The tears pool in my eyes, and one caresses itself down my cheek. I sniffle and wipe at it. "Nah, I'm just too sensitive about it."

"Sensitivity isn't a bad trait," Fred says, and his smile is less flirty and kinder when I look at him next. "If I'm being honest, I had a lot of fun just texting you."

"Me too."

He waggles his eyebrows. "How about we keep it like that for now? We don't have to rush anything—we can be friends first."

If I had still been human, being "just friends" would have bothered me and sent me on a whole self-deprecating cycle about why I'm not good enough for that person. With Fred, though? It warms my cold dead heart. "You know," I say, "you were the first person I actually wanted to talk to on that app."

"Oh I know, right?" Fred rolls his eyes. "So many thirsty creatures and humans on LINGR. That's why I wanted to talk to you too."

Ooff, there goes my cold dead heart again with another spasm. Fred is the best, and he only further proves it the rest of the afternoon, us cracking jokes and flirting and walking through the park. Even if this goes nowhere, I'm glad to have met him today. 

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Stay tuned for Chapter 3: She's a Furry... Friend !!