"Hey, suicidal human, it's Tesia, hehe."
The message came with a sticker of a tiny chibi vampire smiling while showing off her fangs.
Jean stared at the screen.
"That…"
He looked at the sticker again.
It was a tiny blonde vampire with red eyes and an exaggeratedly cute expression.
Jean narrowed his eyes.
"She actually looks like her."
It had only been a few hours since he had exchanged numbers with that strange woman on the rooftop, and now he had his first message from her.
Jean had just gotten back to his apartment. He had taken a shower and was ready for bed, so he dropped onto the mattress while drying his hair with a towel.
He looked at the message again.
I have a new friend...
He wasn't really sure what he had been thinking when he said "but we can be friends…"
He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.
"I guess with that cute face, I couldn't exactly tell her I'm not interested in getting involved with any woman..."
He picked up his phone.
"Hey. Did you make it home? Or… do vampires live in trees like bats?"
The reply came barely three seconds later.
"HAHAHA dummy."
Jean's eyes widened.
"No way."
It hadn't even been three seconds.
"That was fast…"
His phone vibrated again.
"I live in a normal house, just like you or any human, silly."
Another message appeared.
"What are you doing? Did you shower already? :3"
Jean looked at the conversation.
Then at his TV, which was playing some random game show. Somehow, every contestant on the screen had Tesia's face.
Then back at the conversation.
"This woman texts fast and a lot."
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Actually, it was pretty nice.
He was just used to conversations where one person took hours to respond, answered with one-word replies, or simply let the conversation die.
Tesia seemed to be the complete opposite.
She replied quickly.
She asked questions.
And apparently, she really wanted to talk.
Jean smiled slightly.
"She's weird."
He still had his phone in his hand as his eyes slowly began to close. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, while the TV in the background continued playing that ridiculous game show...
"GOOD MORNING, SLEEPYHEAD!!!!"
Jean opened his eyes.
He grabbed his phone half-asleep and looked at the message.
"What time is it…?"
He looked at the clock.
"Oh, shit!"
He was already late.
He tossed his phone onto the bed, quickly showered, changed clothes, and rushed out of his apartment.
A few minutes later, he was already in his car, trying to get to work as quickly as possible.
Jean worked as a fiction writer for a weekly magazine. It was one of those magazines that published a little bit of everything: funny stories, strange articles, weird theories, and pretty much anything else that might interest their target readers.
It wasn't exactly his dream job, but it wasn't bad either.
Once he arrived at the office, he dropped his things off and sat down in front of his computer.
Then he remembered the message and picked up his phone.
"Good morning, little bat."
He sent it.
She'll probably laugh.
He waited.
Nothing.
Jean went back to work.
A few minutes passed.
Nothing.
He looked at his phone again.
Nothing.
///
He checked again.
Nothing.
Jean started feeling a little uncomfortable.
Maybe his reply had been too dry.
Maybe she expected him to keep the conversation going.
Or maybe…
What if I'm boring her?
Jean frowned.
What if she thinks I'm boring?
He remembered all those times when he had replied quickly to messages from his previous girlfriends and tried to force a conversation when the other person clearly wasn't interested, only to end up waiting hours for a dry response.
Oh my God… am I really this damn boring?
That feeling of staring at your phone.
Waiting.
Wondering if you had said something wrong.
Wait...
He thought that by simply saying good morning, he was being just as inconsiderate as the people who replied to him with short, uninterested messages, so he figured he should try to keep the conversation going.
Jean picked up his phone again.
"What are you doing? What do vampires do in the morning?"
He waited.
Nothing again.
///
He decided to focus on work.
He opened the document in front of him.
The article he had to finish was about a fictional story of a guy who found a friendly woman ghost he had been trying to complete for the past few days.
He wrote one line.
Deleted it.
Wrote another.
Deleted two more.
"I can't think of anything."
He looked at his phone again.
Nothing.
Jean sighed.
"I'm trying to write an article and… I've got nothing. I can't think of anything."
He sent the message.
Several minutes passed.
Nothing.
Jean started worrying again.
He looked at the conversation.
What if she already realized I'm really boring?
Then another possibility occurred to him.
"Wait…"
Jean's eyes widened.
"What if she's mad?"
He looked at the message he had sent.
Little bat.
He froze.
"Is that an insult to her kind?"
Jean put both hands on his head.
"No, no, no!"
He started imagining the scene.
Tesia looking at her phone.
Reading the message.
Frowning.
"Little bat? What does this damn monkey think he's doing?"
And then:
"Bip. Ignore."
Jean sank into his chair.
"I screwed up."
He stared at the screen.
"What if calling a vampire a bat is like… I don't know, calling a human a monkey?"
He covered his face.
"I'm an idiot."
A couple of hours passed, Jean tried to work but he couldn't.
At two in the afternoon, he went out for lunch and, while walking, grabbed his phone.
He was determined to apologize so he opened the conversation and started typing.
"Hey, about the whole little bat thing…"
Then his phone vibrated.
Jean stopped walking.
A new message.
"HAHAHAHAHA little bat! Dummy. I was sleeping, I just woke up, hehe."
Jean blinked.
Another message arrived immediately.
"Sorry for not replying."
And then she started answering all the messages Jean had sent throughout the morning.
Jean stared at the screen with a completely blank expression.
Poker face.
All that worrying.
That entire imaginary scenario he had created in his head.
She was sleeping.
Jean sighed.
For some reason, he felt incredibly relieved.
He smiled slightly.
Thank God.
He started typing.
"Aren't you a little lazy for waking up this late? Don't vampires have jobs?"
He stared at the message before sending it.
Then he stopped.
Wait.
He looked at Tesia's name contact again.
She's a vampire...
Jean started thinking.
Maybe they really can only stay awake at night and maybe daytime is basically nighttime for them.
I shouldn't be inconsiderate.
He deleted the message.
He typed another one.
"So, do vampires sleep during the day and stay awake at night? Is that how it works? I… apologize for sending you messages while you were sleeping."
The reply came almost immediately.
"Actually, our schedules are pretty much the same as humans. I just woke up late because I stayed up all night watching TikToks, hehe! :P"
Jean stared at his phone.
His expression went completely flat.
"Seriously?… Lazy vampire…"
Another message.
"What time do you get off work?"
Jean blinked a couple of times and raised his fingers to type, but before he could answer, another message came in.
"Want me to pick you up from work?"
And then:
"Let's go get something to eat!"
Jean froze.
He stared at the screen.
Read the message again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
"Huh?"
He felt his cheeks getting a little warm.
He didn't know why cause she was just a friend.
His new friend.
A friend who happened to be a vampire, whom he had met only last night, and who had suddenly offered to pick him up from work so they could have lunch together.
Jean slowly put his phone away.
Why am I nervous…?