Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series) (3 page)

She stopped looking at Joseph for a moment and turned back to Hannah and Eric. They were both staring at her expectantly.

“Well, Taylor? What’s your major?” Eric asked.

“Oh sorry,” she replied. “Biology.”

“Hey, me too!” he said eagerly. “I’m pre-med!”

“I thought you just told Hannah you were undeclared.”

“Well yeah, I didn’t want you to think I was a science nerd the first time you met me, would I?”

“Or maybe you just made that up right now?” Hannah offered.

Eric ignored her.

“Give me your phone,” he said, holding his hand out to Taylor.

Taylor didn’t budge.

“What for?” she asked.

“So I can give you my number, silly. Now hand it over.”

Taylor handed the phone over to Eric. Hannah did not take her eyes off the phone as he entered his number, flipped the phone around, raised an eyebrow and the opposing corner of his mouth in a smirk/smile, and then took a picture.

“There you go,” he said, handing the phone back. “No need to be so cautious. Your phone is safe and sound!”

“Thanks. That was a close one,” Taylor joked.

Just then, the door slammed behind them. Taylor turned to see an older man standing just a few feet from the door. He had thick dark hair, shoulder length and unkempt, and a comically thick mustache. Taylor guessed from his sports coat and tie that he was a professor.

He stood quietly for a moment, arms crossed tightly across his chest as he scanned the room with a sour expression. The room fell to a hush in his presence. Even Eric, for once, was quiet.

"Good evening, boys and girls," he finally spoke, his voice dry and impatient sounding. "It is my unfortunate responsibility to welcome you to our esteemed campus. Though since you little orphan Annies are clearly the motley crew of the freshman class, I can't be bothered to pretend to care that you are here. I can't imagine that any of you are here on anything but government assistance anyway."

"Now wait a second," Eric began to interrupt.

"MANNERS!" the man shouted while knocking over a chair. The unexpected outburst caught everyone off guard and Eric seemed too surprised to continue.

"So congratulations on being a drain to society," the old man continued. "Perhaps we can do something about that here, but I'm not optimistic. Do avail yourself of the freshman orientation activities. I'm sure that while these activities are an onerous drain on our university's resources, you will find them quite... tolerable."

The room was completely silent.

"And do partake of the free food. No need to put off for tomorrow what can begin today, someone of some importance said at some point, I'm sure. So best get started on the freshman fifteen right away, ladies. At least then you can achieve
something
while you are here. Good day."

With that, he left as abruptly as he had arrived. The room was still quiet for a moment, as if everyone were anticipating that he could barge in again at any moment, but slowly conversation began to resume around the room, though considerably more muted in enthusiasm.

"So, who was that?" Taylor asked.

"Don't know," said Hannah.

"And what is the freshman fifteen?"

"It's the fifteen pounds of weight everyone gains freshman year," said Eric.

"Well, that's rude," replied Taylor. "I hope whomever he is, he's not someone we have to see again."

“I’ll say,” said Eric. “Well, big day tomorrow, so I’m going to turn in. It was nice talking to you both.”

“Yeah, you too,” said Taylor.

Hannah didn’t say a word, but Eric didn't seem to be paying attention to her anyway. He gave an exaggerated wave goodbye and then stepped outside. Taylor hadn’t noticed Joseph move, but he was right behind his brother as they left.

“So really, you don’t like him,” Taylor said once the door closed behind them.

“What’s to like?” replied Hannah.

“Well, I don’t know yet.”

“Me neither. You ready to head up?” Hannah said, standing.

“So ready. I could use some sleep.”

“Yeah me too.”

-3-

Taylor woke up to a pitch black room. For a brief moment she couldn’t remember where she was or why the surroundings seemed so foreign. Then she remembered her new home, her new roommate, and the new people she had met yesterday.

Recalling Eric, Taylor pulled out her cellphone. The light burned her eyes, so she held it back and squinted. No messages. She opened up her contact list and pulled up his name. Just Eric, no last name. She considered sending him a text, but the time was 5:45 AM. She cut off the phone and stared up at the ceiling, the lingering light from the cellphone still dancing across her vision.

She tried to fall asleep again, but the unfamiliarity of the surroundings combined with all of the new things she had experienced in the last 24 hours kept her mind active. After attempting to sleep for what she was convinced was at least an hour, she looked at her phone again. 5:52. Not even ten minutes had passed.

At 5:58, she gave up and shoved her phone into the pockets of her pajama bottom pants, grabbed the tank top she had tossed next to the bed, managed to orient it correctly after a few moments of fumbling in the dark, and then stepped gingerly onto the carpet. She inched along slowly dragging her feet until she found a pair of tennis shoes and slid them on.

She stepped out of the room, careful to close the door quietly behind her. Though she was not violating any rules that she was aware of, she still had a feeling that she shouldn’t be caught walking around this early. Taylor reminded herself that this was her home. Besides, she told herself, 6:00 AM wasn’t going to seem that early when classes started and normal sleeping schedules disappeared.

She proceeded to the end of the hall and pushed through the exit doors to an open air stairwell. She stepped up to the railing of the third floor landing and looked out over campus. The view from the landing was mostly alleyway and brick, but she could make out the tops of a few buildings and she gazed at them trying to imagine what classes would be like in those buildings.

Taylor was so lost in thoughts of the future that when she felt a hand tap on her shoulder she lost her balance for a moment and nearly fell. The hand lingered on her shoulder and steadied her. She turned around to see Joseph, dressed as he was yesterday, standing on the landing with her.

Taylor had not heard him climb the stairs and this made her even more uneasy about being approached alone in the dark.

“How did you get up here?” Taylor asked, backing up to the edge of the rail as far as she could go.

Joseph looked down to the ground below and then back up to Taylor.

“I walked,” he said.

“Then why didn’t I hear you?”

“I walked quietly,” he replied, without any indication that he was anything but serious.

“Okay, well, I gotta head in,” Taylor said, turning towards the door.

“Wait,” Joseph said and stepped between her and the door.

His demeanor was nonthreatening but the suddenness and unusual circumstances of the meeting kept Taylor on edge.

Taylor made note of her position relative to the stairs and moved slightly closer to them in case she needed to escape.

“Okay...” Taylor responded, hesitantly.

“I just wanted to talk to you,” Joseph said, not moving from his spot by the door.

“Well here we are. What do you want?”

She tried to control her voice so that she sounded relaxed, as if this was routine for her and she was commonly surprised into conversations with stealthy young men on third-story fire escapes. The effect, she decided, was probably not entirely convincing.

“To talk. I just said that,” Joseph replied, sounding annoyed.

The hint of a belligerent tone in his voice made Taylor even more nervous. She scanned for another way out of this confrontation, but there were only the door behind Joseph and the stairs leading down below her.

“Look, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

Taylor’s eyes widened and Joseph seemed to realize that this was probably not the right thing to say.

“Hurt me?” she said. "I didn’t realize that was on the table.”

Joseph’s expression softened.

“It’s not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything. You just... you look terrified. I didn’t mean to do that. I guess I’m not used to people responding to me this way.”

If Joseph said that to make Taylor feel guilty about fearing him, it did not have the intended effect.

“Well how do girls normally feel when you sneak up on them in the dark?” Taylor asked.

“Depends on the girl,” he said without a hint of humor.

“Okay, I’ve really got to go now. Hannah is probably wondering about me,” Taylor said, inching closer to the stairs.

Joseph looked disappointed.

“Okay,” he said, looking down at his feet. “I just thought this would go differently.”

“This?”

“Yeah, look, I just wanted to warn you about Eric.”

The mention of Eric caused Taylor to momentarily forget her escape path.

“Oh yeah?” she asked, trying to sound indifferent. “What about him?”

“He’s dangerous. Just stay away."

“Dangerous how? Is he a drug dealer? A carjacker? What?”

“For your sake, I would assume all of the above."

Taylor sighed and looked away from Joseph over her shoulder towards Harris Hall.

"Well then, shouldn’t you be talking to the police instead of me?” she asked.

Joseph didn’t respond.

Taylor turned back towards him, but he was no longer there. She looked around frantically, peered over the edge of the stairwell, and looked into the hallway. There was no sight or sound of him anywhere.

Shaken, Taylor hurried inside and back towards her room. She could see from the strip of light at the bottom of the door that Hannah was awake.

“Oh hi there,” Hannah said cheerfully as Taylor opened the door.

“Hey.”

“So you’re a morning person, huh?” Hannah asked.

“Not really. I guess I just don’t sleep well in new places.”

“Well, that just means that we can make the morning tour!”

Hannah paused a moment for a reaction but Taylor was quiet.

“You still haven’t looked at the schedule yet, have you?"
Hannah
continued. "There’s two campus tours today, one at 9:00 and one at 2:00. We’ve got plenty of time to catch the first one!”

Taylor wondered if neither was an option, but didn't feel like arguing.

“We can do 9:00,” Taylor agreed.

“Great! I’m going to go take a shower! Need anything?”

“From the shower?”

Hannah laughed.

“Fair enough! If you need anything from the shower, you’re on your own. See you in a minute,” Hannah said and then left to get ready.

When Hannah returned from the shower fifteen minutes later she was already fully dressed with her hair done and her make-up in place. She wore a crisp white blouse with a sweater over it, this time bright blue, and traded her khaki slacks for a blue and green plaid pleated skirt. The outfit already looked like a grade school uniform and Hannah contributed to this by wearing knee-high white stockings. Whereas her outfit the prior day had made her look older, this had the opposite effect.

When Taylor and Hannah left the dormitory to meet for the campus tour they were greeted at the door by Addison, who was carrying a clipboard and wearing a scowl. Unfazed by Addison’s prickly demeanor, Hannah walked directly up to Addison and smiled warmly.

“Hi, I’m Hannah Cohen,” she said, hand outstretched.

Addison did not look up from her clipboard.

“Room number?”

“304,” Hannah answered.

Addison silently made a mark on her clipboard and then lifted her head and looked past Hannah to Taylor.

“Next,” she said.

Hannah, beginning to realize that Addison had no intention of returning her handshake, slowly lowered her hand.

“Same,” Taylor replied softly.

“Do you have a name, Same?” Addison asked with a smirk.

“Oh, sorry. Taylor Bain.”

Addison made another mark on her clipboard and then moved on to the next student without another word.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Hannah leaned over to Taylor and whispered, “Well, she’s pleasant, isn’t she?”

Taylor shrugged.

“I guess you can be that way when you’re leggy and blonde,” Hannah continued. “Good thing we’re not like that!”

“I dunno. I could deal with being leggy and blonde.”

“Too bad. Guess you’ll have to settle for being leggy and brunette!”

“Well, you got brunette right.”

“Well, he doesn’t seem to mind looking at you,” Hannah replied, pointing behind her.