I make my way over to Joanna's, more cautiously as soon as my eyes train on Felix's door. I half expect him to pop out, because it seems the likely thing to happen to me, but after standing a few minutes in front of Jo's door with nothing happening I let that go. I realize a moment later that Joanna has her music really loud and I can hear her singing along to a familiar 90's rock tune. I laugh to myself and knock on her door. I have to knock and even kick the door several times before she realizes. When she opens the door, she sings the chorus to me for a bit with a huge smile before letting me in. The girl is dressed in very short, torn shorts and an old Nirvana t-shirt where she has torn the sleeves off.

Jo has been painting, which is an easy deduction to make considering she's got paint all over and her easel is out with a painting in the works. She makes me sing out loud to the next song on her playlist while she shows me what she has thus far. I realize while I'm belting out and looking at her art that she has started painting a portrait, a bust of someone that looks oddly familiar. It takes me about twenty seconds to realize the woman is painting none other than Felix, of all the gosh darn people in the entire universe. I go and turn down the music and then round on her, though I'm not sure if I'm upset about this or not or if I am, why I should be?

"It's Felix, isn't it?"

She gives me an odd look but then just smiles and continues to sway to the music as she makes her way toward the easel again. "Yup!" She grins a bit cheeky for my liking, and adds some paint to his hair. "Pretty good likeness so far, huh?"

"Why?" I demand, ignoring her last bit. Even though, yes, it's a lot like him though he's not completely done. However, no surprise there considering Joanna is an amazing artist.

"Why what, hun?" She says a bit distractedly as she continues to work on the painting, still wiggling a bit to the music.

"Why are you painting Felix, Joanna?!" I cross my arms and stare at her very intensely.

"Whoa there, tiger, what's the big deal?" She looks over at me and then puts down her brush to walk over to the kitchen. I follow her. I say nothing only look at her poignantly till she explains. She sighs as she opens the fridge, "Well, I did what I said I was going to do and went over there asking for sugar. He didn't have any and wouldn't let me check but as soon as he found out I knew you, we had a nice little chat."

I drop my arms and I'm sure my face is all surprise. "You told him that you know me?!"

"Yeah, sorry, it slipped out," she says with a shrug and gives me a sheepish, "apology" smile. She also pulls out a tub of chocolate chip, peanut butter ice cream and grins at me. "Want to make milkshakes?"

We get distracted from the Felix topic and turn up the music again and make very delicious milkshakes. We are sitting at her breakfast bar enjoying them when I bring up the subject again. I'm swirling the contents of my milkshake with a bright pink silly straw when I ask, "So what did you guys chat about?" I give her a side-glance.

She slurps up some milkshake, and licks whip cream off the top before she speaks. "Well, we mostly talked about you, sugar plum." She winks at me with a shit-eating grin. I raise an eyebrow and wait for her to continue. Why did they talk about me? "I'm telling you, Colin, vampire or not, that guy is so into you," she says and drinks some more while I nearly choke on my own milkshake.

"What?!" I feel like I am exclaiming everything I say today. I mean I know she's just teasing me. She has to be teasing me about this.

She laughs hysterically, even flopping the upper half of her body onto the counter. I think she might even have tears in her eyes. "Oh god! Your face! Priceless, Collie, priceless. Oh goodness, I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist. I mean, I'm only half-teasing, but he did ask a lot of questions about you." She sits up finally and sips her milk shake, scooping her finger in what's left of her whip cream. She licks her fingers, letting me continue to stew on this. "Its too bad he's into dudes, because I would totally hit that."

I roll my eyes at her. She has to have misinterpreted his interest. I mean...I mean I don't even...well, to be honest, I don't know what I am into but I am almost positive he's not into me. "I'm way too young anyway, a minor technically, and he's got to be at least your age or older. So no way is he into me," I state, shaking my head and consume more milkshake.

She's supporting her head with her hand and playing with her milkshake. "True, but maybe he likes them young and supple?" She wiggles her eyebrows and I shove her, gently of course, but she still almost falls off the stool. It makes me laugh though but she changes the subject because she knows I'm a little uncomfortable with it.

It's not till we are sitting on her sofa and I'm on her laptop about to search for Vampire lore that I remember she hasn't told me about the painting. "Why is it again you are painting him?"

"Oh, right! Well, he seemed to think it was cool that I was an artist and we had a nice discussion about our favorite artists. And so I asked if he wanted to pose for me this evening, but apparently he was busy so I got a picture of him instead," she says while scrolling to the picture on her phone. I look and then glance at the laptop again. He photographs, so he can't be a vampire, right?

"Why isn't he wearing a shirt?" I blurt out without meaning to. I feel my cheeks warm up a bit.

"He was like that already, I think I woke him from a nap or something. He was kind of groggy too at first," she supplies while flipping through other pictures idly on her phone. After about five minutes of silence, I get her interested in what I'm researching and together we dive into Vampire mysteries and lore. There is a lot of content and Mrs. Cunningham wasn't joking about there being versions of this mythic creature in cultures all over the world. There are a lot of different characteristics, though blood seems to largely be the main theme between them all. Though I did discover some that drained energy instead of blood, which I thought was curious and nicer to think about than bodily fluids. Eventually though, we get a bit bored and decide to watch movies starting with The Prince Groom.

                                                        ---

I am awoken on Jo's couch but an alarming cacophony of sound. It takes me a moment to realize it's the fire alarm. I sit up quickly, toss the throw blanket off me and I am up like my ass is the one on fire. Only a few seconds later, Joanna is out of her bedroom in just an oversized t-shirt and slippers making her way to the door. She seems to remember I was also there and spins around towards me to grab me by the wrist and drag me out. I stumble a bit but with no other choice I follow behind her still a bit dazed from sleep.

We take the stairs of course, with several people from the building. Soon enough most of the tenants who were at home and asleep are out on the sidewalk and street, wondering if the place is really on fire or not. It's dark out of course, but I wonder what time it is. My mom finds us after a few minutes and she hugs me and asks if I was okay and so on. After I've calmed her down, I find myself subconsciously looking for Felix. As if he knew I was, I suddenly spot him near the alley next to our building. He's looking at me directly which throws me off for a second, but while my mother and Joanna are talking I find myself walking towards him. I cross my arms as I do so and surprisingly I find myself rather more calm than usual when confronting this guy.

He's barefoot, for the millionth time, but no surprise there. His clothes are black still, but his pants are loose and cotton and he's wearing a tank with oddly, a leather jacket. I'm reminded again of how tall he is as I stop next to him turning to stare at the other people of our building with him. Except I think he might be looking at me again, which is very irksome but thankfully I'm not getting all those weird chills and vibes again. One blessing.

I'm the first to speak. "Hello," I say. "Joanna told me she talked with you."

"Indeed," he replies in that same warm, deep voice. "She is quite a character, I see why you gravitate towards her."

I glance at him and then back at the crowd. The fire alarm must have been a false one because there doesn't seem to be any flames or even smoke. "Yeah, she's great and you're portrait is coming along nicely, if you were wondering." Did he get closer to me?

"Hmm," his voice sounds really close. "So you like it? I am looking forward to seeing it when it's done. Haven't had a painting done of me in a very long...while."

For a second, I feel ridiculously brave and turn towards him realizing we are barely a few inches apart. I look up straight into those violet eyes and open my mouth to ask, "Are you a-?" He is looking at me very intensely but I never get to finish my question, which is probably another blessing because my mom shouts for me that everyone is going back inside since it seems there really was no fire. I shout my agreement and turn back to Felix, only to find nothing but the alley. He's gone. Okay, what the heck? How could he have disappeared without me knowing? I shiver a bit and linger for a minute before wandering back to my mom and going inside. I can't believe I almost asked him if he is a vampire.

What is wrong with you, Colin? Your over-imaginative brain, apparently.