The Loners Ch. 02

I didn't expect such immediate and positive feedback for my first submission in Ch. 01, and I thank the kind opinions so far.

A note on this chapter, it's much shorter than the first one, well, simply because that's just how it happened, and again, nothing of the explicit nature happens here, I promise, that's all going to Ch. 03.

So, enjoy, and all comments are accepted, good or bad.

*

And there it is. That despicable alarm clock. I groaned as I rose.

"Geez, could you make that thing any more annoying? And I was having a nice dream too." A beautiful voice said, causing me to gasp and jump up.

I turned to see the lump of a person lying next to me, and then I remembered. Rachel, the exquisite vampire who abruptly entered my life the night before, had been sleeping next to me. Not anymore.

"Sorry, but I need to get up, I have to go to work." I said, rising out of bed. I heard some mumbling from her as I went to the bathroom and got ready for the day, although today, I had brought my clothes to the bathroom to change into. However, before I left, I had another strange experience. I turned to Rachel's figure, which was covered almost completely.

"Well, I'll see you later." I said. More mumbles emerged from her, and I didn't quite catch what she said. If it weren't for the predicament, I would almost say that we were saying good-bye like a normal couple. I shook my head at the thought. Yeah, okay.

The morning started off normal enough. I got to work, began doing some meager tasks as usual. However, while I was working on moving some things with Carl, a co-worker, Rachel suddenly appeared, causing me to jump yet again. I was about to yell at her when Carl had turned to me.

"Alan? You allright?" He asked. Rachel, of course, was laughing.

"That's not going to get old for a little while." She said in between laughs.

"Uh, yeah, I thought I saw a spider." I said to Carl, almost forgetting that he can't see her.

"I know what you mean, spiders freak me out too." Carl agreed.

If you think that's bad, try having a female vampire randomly jump out at you on a regular basis. This of course, I kept to myself. Eventually, Carl and I parted for the time being to work on other things, giving me a chance to quietly talk to Rachel as I worked.

"Would you stop doing that!?" I said in a hushed voice. No point in letting all of the customers in the area think I'm completely crazy. Rachel's laughter had died down at this point.

"Sorry, but it is funny. I can't scare other vampires like that, and you're the first human I've interacted with since I've turned." Rachel responded.

"Yeah well, it's not that funny." I responded.

"Oh try being a good sport, if you were in my shoes, you would think it was funny too." She shot back. I actually took the time to think about it. I guess it would be funny if I could freak out Dave in the same way.

"Fine." I sighed. "What are you doing here anyways? Do you really have nothing else to do?" I asked.

"Nope." Was all she said. We had ended up in the clothing aisle, and she was eyeing some dresses.

"Oooh, some of these are nice, please tell me you can get me some?" She asked.

"No, I just started working here, besides, why would I want dresses? It's not like I wear them or have a girlfriend to give them too, and you don't exist." I responded.

"Fine." She pouted, and continued to accompany me as I did my work. I found that her company actually made the day go by easier, even though I was the only one who could see and interact with her. Just having her presence made everything seem better in some way.

Of course, the day still couldn't end fast enough, and I was relieved to be going home.

"Finally, we can start watching that show that you've got me hooked on, I want to see what happens to that crazy girl." Rachel said as she appeared in the seat next to me as I got in my car.

"Elfen Lied, and the crazy girl's name is Lucy." I lightly informed her.

Rachel nodded, then stopped. "Lucy? That's weird."

I turned to her. "How is that weird?"

"Well, I used to watch I Love Lucy, so for someone named Lucy to play such a role is odd." Rachel responded.

My eyebrow rose. "Just how old are you?" I asked.

She shook her head and turned to me. "Don't you know it's rude to ask a girl about her age?" She responded.

I threw my hands in the air. "Whatever." I said as I started the car and pulled away.

"Besides, we may not get the chance anyways, Dave is off today as well, though he goes back to work tomorrow." I added.

"Aww, maybe we can find a way to kick him out or something." She pouted.

I chuckled a little. "Don't start getting funny ideas."

To Rachel's dismay, we found that Dave was home, due to his car in the driveway, along with another familiar car.

"Whose car is that?" Rachel asked.

"Ashley's, Dave's girlfriend." I responded.

Rachel turned to me. "Any other random visitors I should be expecting?" She asked.

"What's it matter to you? You can just make yourself invisible anyways. And the answer to your question is no."

Rachel huffed and turned away from me. "You don't have to be so rude to me, you know. I just might have to suck you dry after all, and I don't mean that in a good way."

Now that I think about it, when did we get to the point where we can playfully banter like this? I've never had that before either. And damn, she got me before I could poke fun at the comment.

We pulled up in the driveway, and entered the house to find, as usual, Dave and Ashley curled up on the couch, watching what appeared to be...The Godfather.

"What's up Dave, Ashley." I greeted as I approached.

"The Godfather...what made you guys want to watch this?" I asked.

"Ashley's never seen it before, so I'm showing her what a good movie it is." Dave responded.

"I love The Godfather, such a great movie!" I heard Rachel exclaim behind me.

I figured, what the hell, might as well sit and watch this great movie for a while, and sat down on the nearby chair. I saw Rachel attempt to look for an open spot on the couch, but, after a few moments, shrugged, and sat in my lap.

"Shh." She said quickly, bringing a finger to my mouth before I could say something. "I can't exactly ask them to move over can I?" She explained, then rested herself on me. "And I am definitely not going to stand this entire movie, it is way too long." She finished.

Instead, I quietly sat and bounced thoughts around in my head. Why is she so comfortable with me like this? Wouldn't normal people just find another place to sit down? Why sit here, in my lap? I shook my head. Maybe I was thinking too hard. There wasn't another nearby chair for Rachel to sit in, and she just wanted to watch the movie, and she was right, it was a really long movie.

However, a problem began developing, and my body became aware of the fact that a very attractive woman was sitting on me, and I began to feel the familiar stirrings. Now I was in quite the position all right. I couldn't exactly push her off, for that would look very peculiar to Dave and Ashley, nor could I warn her of what was going on. I tried to fight it, but what happens when you try and fight it? That's right, it gets worse and more pronounced.

I'm sure she could feel it by now, for a could feel my erection pressing into her butt. She wiggled her butt in response, and turned to me, an amused smile on her face. "Well, well, well, what do we have here, hmmm?" She asked me.

Bitch! She was enjoying this. "Poor, poor Alan. All worked up and can't do anything about it."

My phone, thankfully, chose to ring, providing a nice distraction as I reached for it. It was my mother.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi honey, I was just calling to let you know that I'm making meatloaf tonight, and if you want to come over and have some, you're more than welcome to." Yes! I love mom's meatloaf.

My face lit up. "Sure! When?" I asked eagerly.

"In about an hour or so." Mom replied.

"Awesome! I'll be there."

"Okay, see you then, love you."

"Love you too."

I hung up. I turned to Dave and Ashley. "Mom's making meatloaf, so I'll be taking off in a little while, I'm going to go change." I said, discreetly telling Rachel that I needed to get up.

Thankfully, she did as I heard "Allright" from Dave.

"Perhaps you should take care of something else while you're at it." Rachel said with a wink as she sat back down on the chair.

I shook my head in annoyance as I walked away, and proceeded to change out of my work clothes and into something more suitable. I decided there that, rather than get dragged into a movie as gripping as The Godfather, I'll play a quick round of Call of Duty. It didn't last too long, and when it was time to leave, I stepped out.

"Later guys." I said, waving my hand as I walked out. I heard a "bye" from both Dave and Ashley, obviously sucked in at this point and not really paying attention to anything outside of the movie, as was Rachel.

I was, of course, wrong, for a soon as I sat in my car, she appeared next to me. I still jumped, but not as bad as before.

"Damn, it's starting to wear off already." She said.

"Well, how many times have you ambushed me now?" I asked in return. "I thought you were watching The Godfather anyway?" I added.

"I've seen The Godfather lots of times, but I've never seen your mother, I'm curious on what she's like?" She mused. Well, my mother could be summed up into one word.

"Crazy."

"That's not a nice way to refer to your mother!"

"You haven't met her yet. Besides, she calls herself crazy on a regular basis, I could write a book on all of the craziness she's done, but let's not go there right now." I explained as we pulled out of the driveway and headed to my mother's house.

Currently, my mother, Trish, currently has a stable secretary job at a law firm she's been working at for quite a few years, though she was a little unstable for a while after she and dad went through a rather ugly divorce. She's remarried though since then, to another equally crazy individual named Bob Jacobs, which, surprisingly, worked out well, despite quite a few rough patches.

We pulled up to my mother's small, two story house a little while later, and went inside, with Rachel close behind. "Hello?" "In the kitchen, the meatloaf's almost ready." She called out. Both mom and Bob were in the kitchen, readying the food, and were arguing, as usual. "Bob! I told you not to put so much fucking ketchup! God, just...step away, get, go away." She was shoving him aside.

"Hi guys." I said as I entered. Bob offered his hand. "Hey, what's up?" I shook it.

"Your mother is fucking killing me over here, I keep trying to help and she keeps shooting me down."

"That's because you're an asshole, go have a beer and shut up."

"Hey! Why am I the bad guy here!? All I'm doing is trying to help."

"And you're not helping at all! Just go sit down!"

I had sat down at this point and eyed Rachel, giving her a 'see what I mean?' look.

Mom turned her head. "Hi honey, good to see you, give me a moment here, just finishing up." She turned back to the task at hand as Bob sat across from me.

"So, how are you?" Bob asked. Rachel had sat down on one of the empty chairs.

I shrugged. "Allright, I guess."

Mom, finished at last, cleaned her hands and came and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Dinner's ready, make yourself a plate."

As mom and Bob both went to make their plates, I gave Rachel a quick, pitiful glance. I felt bad that we were about to eat right in front of her, but she returned a look that said she didn't mind. Oops, I forgot, the whole vampire thing. That's another strange thing. The way she interacted with me, you would never guess that she's a vampire that feeds on human blood. Then again, I haven't seen her interact with anyone else either.

Since we were the kind of family that ate first and talked later, the food vanished in relative silence. I was the first one done and put my dishes away, and sat back down. Mom was done next, and began firing questions.

"So, how's the job so far?"

"Eh, it's allright." I shrugged.

"Anything new in your life at all?"

Uh, aside from this vampire that's sitting right in this room that you can't see? Let me think. "No."

Mom's eyes narrowed. "Alan?" She inquired. How the fuck could she know I was lying!?

I shook my head. "I'm serious, there's nothing going on." I repeated.

Rachel was giggling. "Mothers always know." She said, annoying me.

Mom eyed me for a few moments, before dropping it. "Have you thought about what major in school you're going for?"

I shook my head. "I still have no idea, I really can't decide."

"Do you at least have some idea?"

I shrugged again. "I guess, history, maybe, but I don't know where I could go with that."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"I don't know, I feel like I really won't know until I start." I responded.

"That's fine too, some people don't figure out their majors until their second year or so." She added.

"Yeah, but I don't want to end up switching my majors multiple times while in school, I'd rather have an idea beforehand."

Luckily, the conversation remained meek, and Rachel didn't have to witness my mother's crazy side. Mom made me a to go plate and Rachel and got in the car.

"Aside from the two of them arguing, your mom doesn't seem to be as bad as you put it." Rachel surmised.

"Oh really? That same nice woman you just met? What if I told you that she blew up on a bunch of guys at a bar for being too rowdy, and successfully intimidated them?"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, I was there, and her voice is almost powerful enough to make my ears bleed. I still cringe whenever she really gets going, the earlier yelling was just a mere pitiful sample compared to the real thing." I explained, feeling Rachel's incredulous stare.

We soon pulled into the driveway, and I found Dave and Ashley exactly where I last left them, cuddled on the couch and still watching The Godfather.

"Hey guys." I greeted.

"Hey." I heard. This time though, I just went to my room. I really didn't feel like watching the movie. Rachel had also chosen to follow me.

"Okay, time to pick up on where we left off, what was it? Uh...Elf something?"

"Elfen Lied."

"Right."

Rachel got comfortable on the bed as I set everything up, and we began watching the next episode, once again, a comfortable space separating the two of us. It made me curious. Just what was going on in her mind? What did she make of all of this? For me, it wouldn't be the first time that I met a highly flirtatious woman who, in the end, had zero interest in me. Was she just simply enjoying herself, flirting and teasing me the way she did? Did she consider me anything at all other than just the next stepping stone of her life, soon to be forgotten when she left?

And what was I thinking!? Once again, I'm being stupid. I'm reading way too far into all of this. Of course I didn't mean anything to her. She was a vampire! I was just a mere human. Someone of her caliber and beauty could easily find someone far more suitable for her. What could my loser ass possible offer her? A laugh or two, maybe? Someone to poke fun at, at best.

"Alan?" Her voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned to her. She was looking at me with that serious, and curious stare again.

"What's bothering you?" She asked. I turned away.

"Nothing."

"Oh no, you may be able to fool your mother, but you can't fool me that easily."

"Really, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"I don't think so, not that easily, we vampires are more sensitive to the moods of others, I know something big is on your mind right now, and I want to know what."

I still didn't face her. "It's stupid, I'm just dwelling on something retarded."

"Then look at me and say that." Rachel challenged.

I turned to her once more, and found that concern was on her face. Genuine concern, something I've almost never seen outside of my family. Her brown eyes once again seemed to pierce me, and I just couldn't lie to them. I turned away.

"Alan?" She asked again.

Finally, I stood up. "Look, it doesn't matter! It won't matter! Why do you care anyway, you're just going to walk right out of my life like all of the others! So what if I'm falling for you!? It's like you said, you planned on leaving anyways, and I'll go right back to being alone once again!" I shouted.

Rachel stood. "Oh, good, go ahead and assume that you know everything! You don't think I care!? You think this is some big joke to me!? That I'm just playing around with you for shits and giggles!? I didn't mean for any of this! How was I supposed to know that only after two days that not only you started to become attached, that I would become attached as well!" Rachel shouted back.

What!?

Rachel blinked, apparently realizing what she just admitted to. "Look, it's just not possible anyway. You and I...just can't be. Vampires aren't even supposed to interact with humans, much less..." She didn't finish this time. She then turned away. "I'm sorry." She said, and vanished.

Just like that, the greatest thing that has ever happened to me just disappeared. Again.

"Great. Way to fuck that one up Alan." I admonished myself, turning to see the credits of the episode that we had been watching. Even though she told me this was going to happen, I still couldn't help but feel that this was my fault...again.

I didn't even bother turning the TV off. I just simply fell face first into my bed, fighting back my tears of regret.