2. Reese’s Version

Well, the years start coming and they don’t stop coming
Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running
Didn’t make sense not to live for fun
Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb
So much to do, so much to see
So what’s wrong with taking the back streets?
You’ll never know if you don’t go
You’ll never shine if you don’t glow.

— Smash Mouth

🎶

To the average person, Reese was… well, he was already more than just an average guy.

In many ways, he really wasn’t anything special. But the one thing that distinguished him from, he thought it was safe to say, everyone else, was also right there for everyone to see.

He wasn’t a vampire, exactly. Or, well, he guessed that for the most part, he was. Had many of the powers of a vampire. The immortality. The unfortunate blood lust (eating normal, human foods was just so much easier). He just wasn’t entirely vampire, he guessed.

And it showed.

Now, Reese would have you believe he was as tough as he looked. If he were any side of his face, he were the right side. He would have you believe he was smooth and charming and as outgoing and sociable as anyone.

And he had proof.

See? And, wait… he had even more.

And, hey, let’s not forget this one!

That had to be by far his most special moment… for as long as he remembered it, that was.

***

But was Reese really a sociable guy? Was he really charming or, in any way, smooth? As much as he would like for others to believe that he was, he wasn’t.

Not really.

Instead, he was awkward…

…Dramatic…

…Petulant…

…And, truth be told, he didn’t even really know his vampiric powers as well as he figured a 56-year-old vampire should.

Even before Reese’s life was thrown around completely, he found himself spending most of his time at his mother Maricela’s house in Brindleton Bay. Sure, he could be… a bit much.

But he really wasn’t all useless. He helped her around the house… sometimes…

And in the end, Maricela really wouldn’t have it any other way, because she loved her son more than anything.

***

So when he woke up one morning with a child that seemed – and had to be – his on his doorstep and absolutely no memory of how the hell he could have gotten the boy…

The first thing he did was to call his mother.

She was happier than he had figured she would be – even tried to convince him this may just be a good thing.

Reese smiled, but he didn’t see it just yet. Over the course of the next weeks, Reese’s life really didn’t change that much. He still spent most of his time playing games and looking after himself. The only thing that had changed was that Maricela was now over almost constantly while he did.

Then, one faithful morning, Maricela stood facing him, her hands on her hips.

“I refuse to act like Maxen’s sole caregiver, Reese,” she told him sternly. “I will gladly help with his upbringing, but he’s still your son.”

And so Reese forced himself to interact with the boy. Problem was, that really wasn’t so easy for him. The whole socializing thing had never come quite natural to him.

But he tried – and Maricela was glad to see that he did.

And the more Reese tried, the more he found – to his surprise – it becoming easier and easier. In fact, he may even have started to experience this strange feeling of happiness whenever he looked at Maxen.

Sure, he had no idea where he had come from. No idea who the mother could be. No idea how – even if there seemed to be no doubt possible on that part – he could possibly be his father.

But somehow, someway, it still felt right.

That, and he finally had a real excuse to officially move back in with his mom. The whole apartment life had never really appealed to him, anyway. He didn’t have nearly enough space for a guy who spent most of his life indoors, as far away from people as possible.

He was entirely ensured of the fact that without his mother, he would not have managed with all this. He would have just stayed the same Mekhi Reese he had spent his entire life being: an awkward and aloof recluse who would occasionally try out the whole sociable thing or the whole romantic thing, only to decide once more with even more feeling that it just wasn’t the life for him no matter how much society expected it (it wasn’t as though he belonged in society as it was, so why even try?), and crawl back into his own space. And that would’ve been OK. But this, this was even better.

Because the reclusive lifestyle did, sometimes, get a little lonely.

You really don’t have to comply with the standards on sociability and romance and sex that society laid out for you. Reese realized that now. In the end, all that mattered was that he was happy…

…That he felt – for himself, mind you, not for others – like he had some purpose in this world…

…And, most of all, that he had a place in it. And not just some place that society – and he himself – forced on him…

…But a real, proper place. A place where he actually belonged.

In the end, Reese found, that was really all that mattered.