I decided to play some Seth Macfarlane in the background while he's being dramatic. For some reason, Austin reminds me of easy listening jazz songs that you can't help but sway your body to, even if you're not a fan of the genre. Sometimes you just catch yourself humming to the tune even if you've just heard it once.

"What are you gonna do with this information?" Austin asked after he's got enough of sulking. I've been ignoring him as he sprawled on Champion's bed and I pretended to study so he'd snap out of it.

"Hmm? What information?" I asked, intentionally trying to sound indifferent pretending to be distracted by a slideshow presentation in my laptop. I had my back on him but I can imagine him peeking at me like a guilty child.

"That I wear fake bo-boobs---"

"That you're a crossdressing guy?" I asked, cutting him off and immediately regretted it when a heavy slipper hit the back of my head. Fuck Champion and his enormous feet. I swiveled around so I'd know when the next bullet was coming. "What's wrong with you, getting violent all of a sudden?!"

"You're making fun of me!" he whined while holding the other pair of Champion's slippers.

"Hey, wait just a minute. I'm the one who has a more pressing problem here. My secret's way more shocking than yours!" I complained but he just rolled his eyes, as if he's been having tea parties with a lot of vampires in his free time.

"What's so shocking about being a vampire? The world knows a lot about vampires so you're not that special."

"Like who? Keanu Reeves?"

"Duh? Edward Cullen! Selene. Daemon. Yuki Anzai from Devil's Line. . ." he trailed while he tried to remember some more made-up characters. 

"You can't be serious! Those are fictional characters!"

"They influence our lives so they're real, ya hear?!"

When he's worked up his brusque side slips out and he's not even aware of it. 

"Are you a vampire nerd?" I narrowed my eyes at him but he quickly turned away from me as he pretended to arrange Champion's drawing materials. But his ears were turning red.

"Hmm, okay, so just tell me the truth then. Why are you living a big lie, Austin?"

He flinched. Maybe my question stung but I don't feel the need to tiptoe around him any longer. We're basically partners in crime. Like an old married couple but only in my imagination.

"My mom. . . you saw her right?"

I nodded, staring at him intently to encourage him to go on.

"Her first child was premature and for some reason she didn't survive no matter how much my parents were willing to spend so she could live. My mother really wanted a girl because she grew up with seven brothers," he paused to suck in a deep breath. "When I was born, she wouldn't let me near her until my father and the nurses insisted that I was a baby girl. You know she's aware of the truth but she refuses to face it, so she stays in that little bubble of hers where she's a lucky mother to a pretty little princess."

It all seemed so ridiculous that I was speechless. His mother was way more twisted than I had initially thought. 

"My father loves her so much that he's willing to do everything just to 'keep her sane' and happy. He even brought me to the doctor to get prescribed with hormone pills when I was too young to even think about my gender."

The way he told me his truth, it sounded like he's just retelling a story of somebody else and that it doesn't involve him directly. Maybe he has repeated this to his doctors so many times that the whole story lost its meaning and his emotions finally detached from those experiences. Or maybe he's just so good at pretending that it doesn't hurt him.

"I-I'm. . ." I pushed myself up from my chair but he held up a hand to stop me from approaching him.

"No. Don't say it, Magno. You've been apologizing to me too much, I'm starting to get the hang of it. Let's not waste its meaning on trivial things, shall we?"

"How about what you really want?" I asked, frustrated that he's not letting me near him.

"I don't know what I want. Plus, a lot of girls and gays are jealous because they can't achieve the face I naturally have. Isn't it fun? They try so hard and they still look like a bunch of evil step-sisters."

"But when we kiss? Do you feel repulsed by the idea of kissing another guy?"

"Do you? You're the only guy here and you look straight to me," he smirked and gave me a piercing gaze. "If I guessed correctly, you were just paying attention to me because you thought I was a pretty little girl."

"Is this how you push people away?"

"Well, I'm a liar myself, so I absolutely hate to have another liar pretending to be concerned about me."

"Ahhh. My goodness, Austin. Will you just quit trying to get rid of me?"

He sighed and hugged Champ's pillow as if he's protecting himself from me.

"No. I can't. This is how my mind works, Genesis. Please understand that no matter how much I want people to stay, I don't have the right words to keep them from getting tired of all the crap that came out from my mouth," he said and looked up to me with pleading eyes. "All you have to do is try harder. If I'm worth your time, please try harder and convince me that I can trust you to never leave me. I know I sound conceited and I'm sorry, I don't mean to."

"I understand. Really, I do."

The usual quiet followed again and we sat there, silently and trying to achieve a positive conclusion. There's never a dull moment with Austin and I appreciate his presence more than he would ever know.

He sniffed Champ's pillow and giggled like a little girl. It was his way of avoiding certain topics so I guess he doesn't want to talk about it any longer.

"Oh gosh, Champ is like, my biggest crush on the campus!" he said dreamily while squeezing the heck out of my roommate's huge pillow.

I laughed, glad that he's being silly again.

"I thought it was me?"

"Ew. I thought you weren't the assuming type."

We laughed. He stared at me for a long time that my cheeks grew colder.

"You look alive now. Damn you, Genesis! You were the first one to taste my groin and you didn't even thank me for the privilege!"

"I enjoyed the meal, thank you very much!"

"That was weird. It felt really good, you know. The pain went numb and then I was inexplicably happy. I was, until the effect wore off and I became light-headed for losing too much blood."

His confession amazed me. Nurgis kind of told me about the effect of a vampire's saliva to the victims but it was even more unbelievable coming from Austin's mouth.

"Ugh, thank you very much for slapping me back to reality, Miss Ramirez!" I shouted with my eyes closed tight.

"Ugh, so noisy---" he complained. He was about to say something else but immediately froze when the door opened and Champ's already standing by the doorway. He flashed a wide grin at me, looking like a proud parent.

"Gen's brought a girl home! Hey, dear neighbors, listen to this! Gen's finally got a girl!" Champion said like I've just hit the jackpot. Austin's face was bright red when he got up, threw the pillow on my grinning face and rushed past Champion to get away from the teasing.

"You monkey," I said and threw a slipper at my roommate but his reflexes were too quick he just swatted it away like brushing off a bad thought.

"Bad time?"

"Nah, she's just shy because you're her biggest crush."

"Whaaat?! And you're okay with that?!"

I laughed out loud. If Austin likes Champion more than me then I would willingly step down and let the two of them be happy. Champion's the best guy a girl could ever ask for and Austin deserves the best. If it's him, nothing could ever go wrong.

"Don't tell her I told you that, okay? She'll kill me," I told Champion and he nodded, wide-eyed, like I'd just told him the secret formula to the Krusty Krabs' Krabby Patty.

It's amazing how I naturally shift gears when referring to Austin in front of somebody else who doesn't know she's a he. I didn't even have to pep talk myself into it.

It took me until the next day, under the shower, to realize that Champion completely caught us off-guard.