Story Title: Vampire (Ch 1 Sc 1)
Jessie groaned, scrunching up her face in protest as Erin turned on the lights and then flipping up her dark hood as shelter. Squinting, she stood to collect popcorn bowls and empty pop cans from the basement coffee table. They’d been watching Lord of the Rings.
“Oh, come on!” Erin teased. “It’s not even the overhead lights!” She stooped to remove the disk from the Blu-ray player and begin shutting down the system. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re not really a vampire.” It was a running joke between them, born the moment Erin realized how much Jessie disliked light once she became sleepy. Evenings. Earlier mornings. Or after watching a movie.
Erin was the incorrigibly gregarious one of the two, perennially cheerful and incredibly social. Jessie was not. Jessie was easy-going. Jessie enjoyed socializing with the right sort but didn’t like people in general. These two were the closest friends and the best roommates you could imagine, for all their differences. They’d been living together for three years now. Erin had needed a roommate to help them pay the lease on this duplex, and Jessie had moved to town for university and didn’t know anyone.
“I’m not a vampire, I’m a pumpkin,” Jessie grumped (mostly) playfully, still squinting and physically shying away from the light. “You know I turn into a pumpkin at midnight.”
“It’s only ten o’clock!”
“Fine, I turn into a pumpkin at ten o’clock. That’s normal for morning-people, right?”
“Morning people aren’t normal to begin with!” Erin stuck out her tongue with a grin as she closed the media cabinet.
Jessie only harrumphed and began to cautiously navigate the narrow stairs, her arms too occupied with dishes to allow her to use the railing, so she leaned on the wall with her hip instead. Erin was close behind, turning off the last of the lights and carrying the colourful knit afghan that usually lived in the sitting room upstairs.
“Gosh it’s cold,” Jessie complained as she sorted her armful. Cans in the recycle bin. Unpopped kernels into the garbage. Bowls beside the sink. She slouched deeper into the sweatshirt, hands balled up in the pocket and hood pulled as far forward as possible and then leaned sleepily against the kitchen counter.
“It’s still 20 degrees in here!” Erin tossed the afghan at Jessie. “I’m planning to open the windows yet and let some lovely autumn air in for the night, so if you’re already cold you’ll need layers.”
Jessie was yawning but managed to catch the blanket with the left side of her body and stall it long enough to pull her hands from the pocket of her bunnyhug. “Oof, thanks!” She wrapped the afghan around her. “I’m going to head to bed. G‘night!”
“Sleep well!”
