My name is Mike. I am twenty-eight years old. I live in Austin, Texas. I am gay. And I am a vampire. Yes, I can hear you now. You are sighing and probably rolling your eyes too. I can assure you, however, that this is the truth. I am a real-life, breathing, thinking, blood-sucking child of the night. But I wasn't always that way. I used to be normal, just like you. Well, to be honest, you are probably better off than I ever was as a human.
One year ago, I was human. I was one hundred pounds overweight with bad hair, bad skin, glasses and a bad job. I worked as a technical support representative for a number of national internet service providers. You know those people you call and scream at when your internet goes down? That was me.
I hated my job. Technical support is probably one of the worst jobs you could ever have. You sit in a cubicle all day long and get yelled at by old people. Ninety percent of the time they refuse to troubleshoot the problem and instead drag out what could be a simple ten minute call into an hour long ordeal. It was supremely awful.
There was one thing that made it all worthwhile. His name was Scott Green and he was one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. I was literally obsessed with this man. I used to choose my cubicle entirely based upon its proximity to Scott. I would sit and watch him all day long. The way his shoulder length hair would fall into his eyes sometimes and the way he lifted one perfect hand to push it behind his ear again. My favorite thing about Scott was his smile. He seemed to radiate warmth with it. Not to mention the fact that his teeth couldn't have been whiter.
My friend Cheryl would constantly tell me that I should talk with him. But I never would have had the courage. I was a loser. Or at least, I thought I was at the time. There has always been one person who didn't think I was a loser. His name was Jessie. He adored me. I didn't deserve it and still to this day I have no idea why he was so taken with me.
Jessie was a tall latino with the most beautiful eyes and a great sense of humor. I enjoyed being around him. He didn't mind my obsession with video games and movies. I didn't mind his endless chatter about comic books. Jessie was always more driven than I was. He already had the first five years of his comic book series plotted out. He would spend hours working on a piece of art for the comic, making sure everything was exactly as it should be. I was lucky to have Jessie. He wasn't my boyfriend but the only reason that had not happened was because he lived six hours away.
The only other person who ever truly treated me like I was worth something was my best friend Dustin. I felt about Dustin, almost the same way I felt about Jessie. He was too good for me. He was tall, handsome, funny and smart. He was the kind of gay man that other men lust after but he never even noticed. Instead, he was always very hard on himself. But for some reason, he and I really hit it off. We had been best friends for a couple years and even now, I love him like a brother.
So although my social life was anything but exciting, I did have some good things in my life. I was thankful to have those things and I would do anything to hold onto them. My family all lived across state and so Dustin, Jessie and Cheryl really became my family away from home. I would never say that I was completely happy with my life. In fact, most of the time I felt powerless over my life. So, no, I wasn't happy. But I was content. And then, one day, everything changed.
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