I was home from college for the summer, and I was relaxing on my bed. I wasn't alone, though. Somehow, he who I call Vampire Boy had made the trip from Athens to Atlanta and was sprawled on my bedroom floor. He had a board game out in front of him. It looked like Monopoly. All the game pieces were out, but he wasn't doing anything with them. I suppose he'd figured out that it's tough to play a board game by yourself.
I felt really guilty because he and I only went out on one official date, and I hadn't bothered to call him since the date. He wasn't a bad guy or anything (though he bit my neck once, which is why I call him Vampire Boy); I just hadn't had an overwhelming desire to call him again. In the dream, he kept telling me how hurt he was. He said he was really beginning to have feelings for me, and he couldn't believe I hadn't called him.
He was wearing an old-fashioned Army uniform, so it was hard to take him seriously. He had grown a goatee as well, and it looked ridiculous with the Army uniform. I noticed that the front of the uniform held a lot of medals and badges; I wondered how he had earned them.
Suddenly, my mom came into the room. I knew she was going to say something about my having a guy over, so I decided to pretend that I had no clue Vampire Boy was even there. My backpack was sitting beside me on the bed, so I unzipped it and started pawing through it. My mom emptied my trash can and left the room.
"Look, if you don't want me here, I can go," Vampire Boy said.
"Oh, it's not that I don't want you here," I said. "It's just that I have something else to do."
"No you don't," he said. "You told me that you invited me over because you had nothing else to do this afternoon."
"Well," I said, "then I'm not feeling well. I have a headache. I need to rest."
"Yeah, whatever." Vampire Boy stood up, kicking the board game to the side. "Just give it up, Laurie. I know you don't like me." He exited my room and started walking down the hallway.
"I never said that!" I hopped off my bed and followed him down the hallway. "I just... don't think I need any company right now."
We were in the kitchen by that point. Vampire Boy was looking at all the magnets on our refrigerator. I heard my sister in the living room and realized she didn't know I'd let this guy come over either.
I said to Vampire Boy, "I'll invite you over some other time, okay?"
He nodded, adjusted his Army hat, swiveled around on the tile floor, and headed out of the house.
