The Accidental Vampire

Chapter 1

I don't know why I was going. Maybe I thought that I would finally fit in and have some fun. I don't know. I'm just that pathetic I guess. But when Stacey invited me to come along on the girl's day out I couldn't resist. I should have known that it would turn into a couple's thing. I'm sadly single. Recently single. He was a jerk.

I trailed after the group of giggling girls that were hanging on their boyfriends into the restaurant. We found a large table and started looking through the menus. I sat between Stacey and Amber where I thought I'd be most comfortable. They were both practically in their boyfriends' laps and laughing at everything that came out of their mouths. I sighed. I can't believe I used to be like that. I was so stupid. I shook my head and looked down at the menu. My mouth started watering at the items listed there.

Suddenly the table went quiet. I looked up to see a very handsome waiter at the head of our table holding a pen to a notepad. His face was flawless with a nicely shaped mouth and large chocolate eyes surrounded by thick lashes. All the girls were staring. All the boyfriends were glaring murderously. His face was inscrutable, angled down at his pad with his curly black locks almost in his eyes. I looked back down at my menu, uninterested. I was through with guys.

The girls started calling out their orders shyly with the guys following after. When it was my turn, I ordered a six ounce sirloin without looking up. I felt a nudge. "You forgot your drink," Stacey murmured to me. I glanced up to see the waiter right beside my chair looking down at me expectantly. I jumped. "Oh, sorry! Ummm I'll have a Dr. Pepper please?" He quickly wrote it down, nodded and left. An eruption of giggles followed and I slouched in my chair wishing I could disappear.

Conversations resumed, most of them now about the gorgeous waiter. I just sat and toyed with the edge of my napkin. "Hey, don't you think that waiter is the most gorgeous thing alive?" Stacey giggled at me, "I think you should try for him." She smiled. I shook my head and told her I was off boys. She shrugged and turned back to her boyfriend.

Our drinks arrived and a hush fell over the table again as the waiter made his way around it. When he reached me and set my soda in front of me, his arm brushed mine. My eyes widened. His arm was icy cold. He jerked back and quickly gave out the rest of the drinks. He then strode away as fast as he could without running. My heart sank. I even repel waiters.

I sipped my drink, depressed. A different waiter came with our food and I got several glares from the girls sitting around the table. I sighed. My sirloin looked and smelled delicious with its sides of mashed potatoes and green beans. As I tucked into the meal I couldn't help but wonder what was so repellent about me. I popped a piece of meat into my mouth and the thought was washed away. The steak was the most delicious hunk of meat I'd ever had. I chewed it slowly, savoring the juices.

"Hey, Emma, what did you do to the guy anyways? He looked like you shocked him or something," Stacey said. I shrugged and took a bite of green beans. "Maybe you should be more social. You know, talk to people and stuff." Stacey chewed on a bread stick thoughtfully. "I think that's part of your problem." She nodded and grinned at me like she had given me the best advice in the world.

"Thanks Stacey. I'll keep that in mind." I took another bite of meat. She smiled and turned back to her boyfriend.

I finished my meal fairly quickly. After I swallowed my last bite I looked around to see that most plates were still occupied with food. I wiped my hands and mouth on my napkin and set it aside. Leaning back, I closed my eyes and rested my hands on my lap contentedly.

Stacey was chatting up a storm to Chad about the waiter. She was telling him about how she thought that he would look very yummy in a tux. I peeked at Chad and smiled when I saw that he was red faced and had a vein pulsing in his neck. Stacey was happily oblivious to him. I glanced at the others to see several similar situations, but some where the girl was cowed and focused on her food while her boyfriend had a possessive arm around her.

I suddenly had the need to visit the ladies room. I leaned over and told Stacey that I was going to the restroom and she nodded waving a hand at me while still talking it up to Chad. I shook my head at her air-headedness and carefully extracted myself from the chair. I took my purse from the table and looked for the restroom sign. Seeing it all the way across the restaurant, I sighed. Just my luck. When I got there, there was a lady with two small children in a stall. I thought nothing of it until I was situated in my own stall and one of them crawled underneath the door. He looked up at me with large brown eyes and screamed. The mother promptly reached under the stall, grabbed the child and started yelling at him rather loudly. I finished quickly, hurriedly washed my hands then made my escape.

When I got to the table I stood there extremely confused. I looked around thinking I got the wrong one. I stared horrorstruck at the empty chairs. The waiter that brought our food hurried up to me and angrily accused me and "my gang of unwieldy teenagers" of skipping out on the bill. I apologized profusely, but the man didn't calm down until he had my credit card in his hand and was walking off to charge me for all thirteen meals. I stood at the table numb and miserable. How could they have done this to me? My lower lip quivered.

Both waiters then came back. The second one handed me my card, while the handsome one stood with his gaze averted. I put my card in my purse and looked up to see that they were both still there. The one that gave me my card back simply said, "tip." I stared at him in disbelief, but he wouldn't budge, so I dug in my purse and handed him a twenty. He finally turned around, nodded at the other waiter and they both left.

Broke and abandoned, I left the restaurant. I took one step out of the building and darkness descended. I glanced at my watch to see that it was almost ten. This was turning out to be the worst day ever. I reached into my purse and retrieved my cell phone only to find that the battery was dead. I cursed. Looking around, I saw a pay phone on the side of a building almost hidden in the shadow of an alley. Praying that it would work, I strode over to it.

The back of my neck started prickling and I stopped. Glancing around nervously, I rubbed my neck and told myself it was nothing. I continued on to the phone, but I never reached it.