The summer night was stiflingly humid, and the air hung so heavy that it was difficult to breathe. Except for the few glimpses of distant lightning, the night was still. Still in an eery way, as if the earth itself were waiting for the sky to open and a deluge of rain would pour down. But this was the kind of night I needed as I sat here silently in my hiding place.
  He would come for me when the storm finally let loose. There could be no chance of someone seeing us steal away into the night, never to return to this horrible little town. If they knew the truth, nothing would ever be the same, and we could never be together.
~*~
  I knew Tyler Greyson was different the moment I met him. Normally my existence in the world was just a background shadow to people’s everyday lives. Invisible to the passing eyes of strangers and neighbors alike, I wasn’t someone you’d pick out of the crowd. I just wasn’t noticeable in your normal teenage girl way. But Tyler had seen me right away. I had been sitting on a park bench watching couples and families frolic around, sketching a few of them in my notebook. But some noise had caught my attention, and I lifted my eyes from the pencil and paper in my hand, and there he was. He was standing on the other side of the grassy lawn, intently staring at me. I wasn’t used to someone looking at me rather than through me, so I looked over my shoulder to see if somebody was behind me. Nobody was there. I tentatively looked back in his direction, and sure enough, his eyes were still fixed upon me. I thought I caught a faint smirk on his perfect face, but it was quickly gone. I wasn’t sure how I should react, so I slowly waved at him with a weak smile.
  I was thoroughly surprised when he returned my wave and began to walk over to me. He introduced himself in a formal, but friendly manner and asked to sit with me. I knew I was gone from the first elegantly accented word he uttered.
~*~
   And here I sat in the park once again, but this time I wasn’t out in the open on one of the benches. Rather I was farther into the south end than I normally ventured, beyond the limits of the playgrounds and picnic tables. But sheltered behind a few pine trees was a small outcropping of rocks that left a shallow overhang. This was where I was sitting now. It hid me from sight of the occasional late night straggler, and would keep me dry from the rain. My backpack was stashed behind me, so all I had to do was bide my time until he came to get me. This left me with plenty of time to think over the past few weeks, and how my life had suddenly changed the day Tyler sat with me.
~*~
  I learned a lot that month. The first thing was that I had a big soft spot for Australian accents, especially ones that were spoken from lips that looked as if they belonged in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And secondly, you can fall head over heels in love with someone, even if they are different from anything you ever imagined was real.
  He learned to trust me the first few times we went anywhere together. We usually went to an inconspicuous place, but nothing so deserted that I would feel uncomfortable. He just seemed to be a loner. One of those quiet types like myself, but sensitive and sophisticated. We would talk for hours getting to know one another. Everything felt right, and it was easy to find common interests and topics to talk about. It didn’t take me long to fall hard for him. And it was all going perfectly until he told me his secret.
~*~
  With a sudden crack of thunder that vibrated the ground, the sky let loose with a  torrential downpour. I couldn’t see more than a few feet out past the outcropping under which I sat. But a storm like this was more than the rocks could protect me from. It was only moments before water began to pour into my hidden spot, forcing me to sit on my haunches, holding my backpack. It couldn’t be long until he arrived now. Nobody else would stay out in a rain this heavy, casting a wandering eye in our direction. So as miserable as the conditions were, they were necessary.
~*~
  The day he shared his secret, he took me to a beautiful lakeside cottage situated deep in the New York countryside. He explained that he needed to leave in a week, and he wouldn’t be coming back. And he wanted me to go with him. But there was one very big thing he needed to tell me, and he wanted me to seriously think it over before I made my decision.
  He started by saying that we felt so right together, and he didn’t want this to end. And that he would never hurt me, no matter what I thought of his particular situation. But he needed me to know… he was a vampire.
  This of course through me for a complete loop. How was this possible? Vampires weren’t supposed to actually be real. They were just myths, characters in novels that sent teenage girls across the world swooning. But here I had someone sitting right in from of me, claiming that this wasn’t fiction, and that in fact he was one. I guess there were signs there that I could have missed. But he went out with me in the daylight, and he didn’t burn up or sparkle in the sun. Nor did he attack me in a bloodthirsty rage, or even ever look at me in a cynical way. But something in the way he said it made me believe him.
  It wasn’t just his stunningly good looks, or graceful manner. Rather it was something about him that wasn’t quite tangible, just something you knew in your heart when you loved someone and spent such wonderful times together. His very air was something that could not be duplicated in a modern society where we are raised with such loosely knitted culture.
  He said he would give me a few days to think it over, but when I even considered what my life would be like without him, I knew my decision was made. I didn’t want to go back to a life of obscurity, where I was lonely and on my own, and I really did love him. And I could feel it in my heart that he was telling the truth when he said he would never hurt me.
~*~
  So with that decision to run away together, that is what led to me waiting in this storm. At that very moment, he came into my view, partially shrouded by the downpour. Our eyes locked, and he wrapped me in a tender embrace. Gingerly, he tipped my face up to his, and our lips met in a delicate kiss.
  Yes, this was the right choice. He took me by the hand and we walked into the night. Within hours, any sign that we had ever been here would be erased by the rain. You would never know my name, or where we had gone, and you would never see me again. But this was the life I had chosen, and I would be happy. We could live out our lives, unexposed to the harsh realities of the world where such things were not excepted. But this was what fairy tales were made of, and it was finally mine.