– I didn't realize I was doing that» Misha said thoughtfully.

I was surprised by her calmness: it turned out that she still knew how to talk normally, without hysterics and without raising her voice, but before her behavior claimed the opposite.

– I know why: I like to lie on my left side when I surf the Internet» she said suddenly, and then looked at the pink bicycle again. – If that's the case, I'll take this disgusting pink thing to match your opinion and the opinion of others, but I won't ride it, I'll give it to Mary. You'll fix up my blue one for me. Deal?

I grinned: how stubborn!

– Okay, then wait for him tonight» I said, pleasantly surprised by her calm demeanor. – You lifted your shoulder again. Keep an eye on it. You know, you're not like yourself today: too calm.

The girl looked at me resentfully.

– You think I can only yell? Well keep thinking, I don't care at all.

Misha came to the pink bicycle, rolled it to the side of the road, sat down and left, and I looked at her with surprise: she rode slowly, very smoothly, beautifully, and her hair tied in a long ponytail fluttered in the wind. At that moment she seemed to me very fragile.

«I should have known how old she was» I realized.

After watching the girl disappear around the nearest corner, I tied the blue bicycle to the roof of my Mustang with a rope and drove home to get it repaired. I kept my promise: I smoothed out the warped iron, replaced the bent wheel with a new one, tightened all the bolts, which were already considerably loose, and wondered how Misha could ride this half-decayed piece of iron. In the evening I brought the bike to her house, but it wasn't Misha who took it, but her girlfriend, who was once again in homemade clothes, and now I was finally convinced that this mortal lived with the young vampire under the same roof. Misha herself not only didn't come out to me, she didn't say a word.

After that day, we didn't see each other for over a month.

I didn't want to impose my society on Misha, because I understood perfectly well that she was determined against me and communication with me. Well, one problem less.

***

An exciting, painful October had passed, and a surprisingly mild, sunny November had arrived, which was a great surprise for Oxford: I loved the sunshine, but I knew that the English weather was rather monotonous and rainy.

I had been living with Mary for over a month now, away from my parents: in the intervening time I had received a few more «humanitarian aid» from them, still eating the same meals at night, in the darkness of the kitchen, while Mary slept. One time she took me by surprise, but fortunately not for another blood draw: I was bored in the middle of the night and went into the kitchen to read Chateaubriand, when a sleepy Mary appeared before me. She was very surprised that I was reading in the dark, but I found myself saying that I had terrible insomnia and that the lantern light was good for reading. Mary yawned and went to bed.

As for the tomatoes and cucumbers, I would buy them and, under the guise of eating them, give them to the homeless shelter while Mary was at work. This system of innocent deception worked like clockwork, and my neighbor was satisfied that I wasn't starving.

The big man with the slicked-back hair kept pestering me with vanilla phrases and florid compliments, boasting of his family lineage (he said he was a distant relative of the royal family), but I only pushed him away with a sneer: he annoyed me, thinking I would fall at his feet, falling madly in love with him. He was a tedious type – self-righteous and narcissistic.