The buzzing of her cellphone broke her out of her reverie. Sarah glanced at the call ID. Ruthven.
“Hello?”
“Buff.”
He called her ‘Buff’ or sometimes ‘Buffy.’
“‘Buffy?’” She had asked the first time.
“Yeah. I’m a vampire, and you slay me.”
“Ugh.”
Inside it secretly delighted her. She pretended to find the reference offensive. How dare he relate her in any way to some fakey Hollywood type! But on the other hand Sarah Michelle Gellar was someone who boys thought of as ‘hot’ – and being thought of in any way as ‘hot’, even so tangentially, made her happy though she wouldn’t dare show it.
“Stop it. Where are you?”
“Downstairs. Door is locked.”
“Can you blame them with misanthropes like you stalking about?”
“Come down, let me in.”
#
Sarah’s father didn’t get in her way when she wanted to go to University. In turn she had agreed to go to one of the Universities in Vancouver so that she wouldn’t be more than a few hours away, even in bad traffic. She stayed in residence, but came back home to Fort Fraser most weekends. Reading breaks were a regular negotiation. Now in her third year, this was her fifth. It was only the second she was spending on campus, and the first one that she’d spend the weekends of on campus as well.
#
“Is it a boy?” Her father had teased.
“No. I just really have a lot of lab work to get done.” She lied. “They really pile the work on in the advanced courses.”
“I figured it was something like that. Make sure you call if you want a break though. If you want some company or something.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ll be fine.”
“If it was a boy, you’d be careful, right?”
“It’s not a boy, Dad!”
“Of course.” He meant it. That hurt.
She’d never done that before. She’d never lied to her father. It must have been how she had got away with it, he didn’t know what to look for.
He deserved it. “Of Course!?” Of course it’s not a boy? Thanks Dad. Thanks a lot. But guess what, you’re wrong. Your terminally ill daughter actually IS attractive to boys. At least to Ruthven.
#
“Have you found anything good?”
“Some stuff on some sites that ought to be fun.”
“I don’t want fun,” said Ruthven. “I want something unique. Maybe a bit scary for the newbs, but something new. Something even the elders won’t have seen.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what you’ve done before.” Said Sarah, defensively.
“Okay, look. This is my chance to impress Hathandra. I could get raised to the elder’s circle if I host a ceremony like no one else has ever done.”
Sarah didn’t really understand what he was talking about, but the context was clear enough. Of all the websites she had found, one had been particularly dense in its content. She wasn’t even sure it was about vampires, but if it in fact was, it was truly for the hardcore fan.
Don’t ever let him know you think of him as a ‘fan’.
Ruthven was much more than just a ‘fan.’ He liked to think of himself as a vampire. Sarah suspected that he had even tried drinking blood.
#
University had been a revelation for Sarah. She’d always lived on the fringe of the big city, both literally and figuratively. But when she went to University things changed. The shift that she had expected when she moved into the public system in senior high as everyone had to re-establish their positions in the social order was absolutely present at University. She was well aware that she wasn’t the only one who took the opportunity to reinvent herself.
While Fort Fraser was effectively part of the sprawl that made up Vancouver, it was also, in effect a small town. The single senior high-school was evidence enough of that. It shared the attitudes of many small towns, despite its proximity to a larger cultural centre. There were no Goths in Fort Fraser Senior High. She was aware of the culture from television and books, but she was never truly exposed to it. Most of what she’d seen was in fact poking fun. Goths were an easy target for television sketch comedy. And that shooting in Colorado - she had been a kid, she couldn’t recall the school’s name – if anything that had made her wary of the kids with their dyed-black hair and black clothing.
At University though, Sarah found that they gravitated to her. It didn’t take much for her to put her finger on why. Her dark hair, her pale complexion and her sickly thinness naturally made her what so many of them strove to be with cosmetic assistance. Her wardrobe needed a quick overhaul, but before long she fit right in.
Ruthven had arrived at UBC this year - a college transfer student in anthropology. They’d met through mutual friends. Sarah hadn’t explored the vampire sub-culture, but when Ruthven started taking interest in her, she started to brush up her knowledge. He’d kissed her at a party hosted by the SCA two weeks ago. No boy had ever kissed her before. He knew she was a virgin. He didn’t seem to care and wasn’t rushing her much. Which was good, ‘cause she wasn’t sure how she’d address the truth about her condition and all that followed, but she knew it was only a matter of time before it became an issue. After all, he was a boy.Chapter 5
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