Sometimes, They Aren't Always Bad.

The wind was knocked out of me as we made our way into our first hour class. The bell still hadn't rung yet but most of the kids were still in their seats, talking or on their phones. He was there sitting in the back of the class with a sketchpad in front of him on the lab table. Bob was waving to us and he was right in front of the vampire.

'Damn it, Bob.' I said cursing him for sitting directly in front of the vampire. It's not like he knew or anything. We sit in front, next to, and behind vampires everyday. But, did it have to be this vampire.

Each lab table sat at least two people. Ray noticed that there was only two seats left, one next to Bob and one next to the vampire. Ray carefully weighed the options in his head and walked quickly to the open seat next to Bob. Ray was desperately afraid of vampires and I don't think Bob would let me sit there either way. He liked Ray. I sighed and made my way to the back of the class, pulling myself into the stool next to the vampire.

"Sorry." Ray mouthed as I walked past and I waved him off smiling. Nobody was mean to Ray, even if he had wronged you it was literally impossible. He had this aura that always screamed 'Please don't hurt me!' or 'Please forgive me!' He was literally impossible to hate, unless you were a vampire.

I set my bag on the floor next to the table and looked up at the board. It read : 'Watching movie today. KEEP QUIET!' Really? A movie on the first day. Teachers these days need to get their shit together. The keep quiet meant kids would be talking all over the place. I scanned the classroom seeing the one person I really didn't want to see.

Bert.

He was staring back at me furiously. I began to not regret my decision to sit next to nice vampire. Not that I had a choice but it was still comforting. Would he protect me again if he had to? Probably not. Humans aren't worth it anymore. But they keep some of us alive so we can make more humans to eat. I've heard that they had a human mill out in the south where they literally breed us and then kill off the parents. I wouldn't doubt it.

He kept staring so I just finished my sweep of the class, landing on the vampire next to me. He was doodling in his sketchpad but I couldn't see what. His strokes were so light that I could barely see them. A distraction would be lovely right about now and he wasn't providing it. I could still feel Bert's angry stare at me and I wanted something to take it away. There was still a few minutes till the bell and that meant that the lights would stay on until then, letting Bert stare at me all he wanted. I turned away from the vampire looking at ray and Bob talk instead. I couldn't hear what they were saying because the lab table was too far away even though they were right in front of me. They separated them so people couldn't talk I guess. They were probably talking about something stupid anyway.

"Hey, you're that kid from before." The vampire said next to me. I jumped and turned my gaze back to him.

"M-me?" I asked looking back at Ray and Bob. He snickered and began to tap his pencil on the table top.

"Yes you. You're the one Bert wants to eat." He said smiling, his tiny teeth poking out beneath his light pink lips. His lips were full and pretty, they looked very kissable. I stopped myself before I could think anymore.

"Eat me?" I asked mortified. He nodded and shook his head.

"Sometimes he can be such a dick. He thinks began he ran into that you think you're better," The vampire said rolling his eyes. "He has a dominance issue." He said frowning.

"I'm sorry. I-I'm not better and I d-don't think I am. I pr-promise." I stuttered out putting my hands up to my chest, offering my surrender. It was second nature to fall in line behind a vampire. I've learned the hard way not to disrespect them.

"You don't have to apologize to me," He said smiling. "You don't even have to apologize to Bert. I'm not going to hurt you." He said patting my shoulder. I tensed up under his touch and I think he noticed. "I'm not going to hurt you okay?" He asked looking into my eyes. The calm hazel gaze made me relax significantly. I nodded tentatively and he let go of my shoulder.

"Okay." I said silently. Even when he said that I still was afraid of him. He could lose control and vampires do things that they don't mean when they get angry. I heard of a vampire killing his wife and kids after a fight that they had. He killed them and fed from them. Of course he went to prison but it still didn't change what he did. He killed himself because of the guilt and sadness.

"What's your name kid." the vampire asked turning back to his sketchbook. His pencil was back on the page but it didn't move. It was like he was waiting for me.His head was quirked to the side to hear my response. Everyone Knew that vampires had excellent hearing so I guess he was doing it to show that he was listening and waiting.

"F-Frank." I said stuttering again. I really couldn't help myself. I was nearly shitting myself sitting next to him. Our thighs were almost touching under the table due to the close proximity of the chairs and it made me very uncomfortable. They had been bolted into the floor because last year a fight had broken out and somebody hit somebody and hospital visits ensued.

"Nice to meet you Frank. I'm Gerard," He said holding out a hand for me to shake. I slowly pulled my hand away from my chest to meet his. He grasped my shaking hand lightly and shook it before flipping it over caressing my skin. "Please don't be scared of me." Gerard said with a pleading voice. The way he held my hand made me feel weird. If a human had been doing this to me I would have pulled away and smacked or punched them in the face. Especially if they were male.

"I-I'm sorry. I really am." I said my voice shaking with fear. I had forgotten Bert's stare and I looked over trying to get away from Gerard's touch on my hand. Bert's eyes were now red with anger and it scared the shit out of me. I looked back at Gerard with scared eyes. He was looking at my face with concern and he was still rubbing my hand.

"It's okay. And don't worry about him. He's such a bully. I won't let him touch you." Gerard said smiling. His words calmed me and I realised Bert scared me way more than any vampire I had ever met in my life. Bert was hungry and a hungry vampire meant a dead human, no matter if it was me or someone else. Dead bodies were always found close to school grounds or in the parking lot.

"Okay." I said much more sure now. Gerard had gently let go of my hand and scribbled something down in his sketchpad and put his pencil down. The bell rang and the teacher got up from her desk, shut the door, locked it, and shut the lights off.

"Please try your best to pay attention. You'll be having partner work for a project based on the movie." The teacher said before pressing play on the computer that was hooked to the projector. The movie began to play and almost everyone began to speak. I saw this movie last ear so I already knew what it was about. I pulled out my phone and began to scroll through the various apps, finding literally nothing to do.

"So Frank, tell em about yourself." Gerard said only taking his eyes away from his paper only to look at me for a brief second. Everybody was talking and laughing so loud that the movie was a second thought for everybody, and the teacher was too busy painting her nails to even care.

"Um, my name's Frank. There's nothing that special about me I guess." I said playing with my fingernails which, were pretty much dead.

"Oh, come on. There's got to be something that you like to do. For example, I like to draw." Gerard said pointing to his sketchpad with his pencil. I nodded and thought hard for a second.

"I like to play guitar I guess." I said silently cracking my knuckles.

"Cool! You should play for me sometime," Gerard said chuckling. That wasn't happening. Like, ever. I would never let a vampire into Ray's house. There would never be a situation where I would willingly let them into his house. I nodded anyways, not wanting to piss him off. He was being nice to me after all. "So Frank, you got a girlfriend? Boyfriend?" He asked glancing at me, tucking his black hair behind his ear so it was out of his way.

"No." I said shaking my head with wide eyes. He thought I was gay? Oh hell no!

"Hm, how is it that a pretty boy like yourself doesn't have a date?" Gerard said filling in a section of whatever he was drawing. He had flipped to a new page but he put up an arm as a barricade so I could only see half of the page.

"U-um I guess no one s-seems to like me?" I guessed shrugging my shoulders. He called me pretty. Fuck, Gerard why.

'I'm not gay! I'm not gay! I'm not g-'

"Well that's a shame. You seem very sweet." Gerard purred smirking. He looked over and saw my confused and horrified expression. The last phrase made it sound like he was talking about my blood, him being a vampire after all.

"Calm down. I'm not going to eat you." He said laughing. He gave a playful snort and covered his mouth, still laughing. My expression went from horrified and confused to gleeful at the sound of his snort. I let out a chuckle and I quickly covered it up, not wanting him to think that I was laughing at him. He looked at me and stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to laugh it-"

"It's okay to laugh. Just be yourself around me. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not going to hurt you." Gerard said putting a comforting hand on my knee. I don't know if it was fear or something else but his touch caused a shiver to run up my spine.

"Okay," I said nodding. "I'm sorry it's just second nature to be.." I cut myself off, not wanting to offend him any further if I already have.

"Afraid?" He offered and I nodded. "It sucks that vampires have to be such dicks. My brother and I were raised to treat everybody equally even though we aren't all equal. Regular vampires have to ruin the image of us good ones so I don't blame you for being scared." Gerard said taking his hand off my knee to cover his drawing again. During this whole conversation about vampires being dicks and him bashing his own kind he left his page open for everyone to see and I never took the time to look over and see it. I was too busy looking into his beautiful hazel eyes.

We talked for the rest of the movie and I became less and less afraid of him. He told me about his mom and dad and brother. How he doesn't drink human blood a lot and how it's only a "special treat" as he phrased it. His family seemed like fairly decent vampires, probably the nicest of them all.

"Lights." the teacher said a few seconds and the few seconds gave us enough time to cover our eyes. The bright fluorescent lights hit the back of my hand and I slowly pulled it away. My eyes stung from being the dark for so long but it didn't bother me once my eyes adjusted. Gerard had blinked a couple times and then he was used to it. He continued drawing and talking to me about his life while I listened. He was so passionate about his life and things that made him who he is. He took his hand away from the page to make a gesture to show some kind emotion.

"I can't wait for you to meet Mikey. You kind of remind me of him. He's a freshman this year. I hope he's doing okay, he's a major dork but I think he won't get picked on." Gerard smiling.

"So I've decided to make things easier for myself and for you guys. Your partner for this assignment will be the person sitting at your lab table. If you are in a group find someone quickly," Some kids exchanged seat and girl squealed in their groups and found partners. "Your assignment will be to create a representation of the movie through pictures or words. It's due Friday." That gave us five days to work on our presentation.

"My house?" Gerard said tearing out the page in his sketchbook. He scribbled something down on it and flipped it over, looking at the clock.

"Sure." I said a second before the bell rang. He slid the page over and got up from his seat.

"See you later, Frank." He smiled and waved goodbye, disappearing in the sea of bodies. He didn't give me a chance to say yes or no or even wave back so I just shrugged. I flipped over the page and my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. There on the page stood a drawing of me, completely shaded and everything. In the corner in messy writing said: 'Call me' and his number.

"Hey, sorry I made you sit by the vampire." Ray said walking up to me as I made my way out of the class.

"His name's Gerard and it's no problem. He's not as bad as you would think." I said carefully slipping the piece of paper in my bag neatly.

"Oh? Are you beginning to like him?" Ray said raising an eyebrow.

"Hey you may be gay but I am not." I said securing my bag on my shoulder. Ray just laughed and shook his head.

"Okay." Ray said still chuckling. We all talked in the hallways waiting for the first bell to ring so we could go to our second class of the day which was English. I needed a distraction when it came to this class because it was so damn boring.

I got what I wished for. And I was more happy than the first time.

Notes