Page 46 of The Gargoyle in the College

Mckur puts my glass of drink on the table, which I didn’t remember to take with me. He sits next to me. “Look, something’s wrong, huh?”

I don’t want to talk about that. I take a sip of my drink, willing the pain in my chest to be gone.

He remains by my side and doesn’t even care about my silence. He should know better than stay here, but he keeps thinking everyone likes him and wants his presence in the room.

I close my eyes when the burn from the alcohol surges in me. I need more of that to keep myself sane. This may not be the best way to flee from my trouble, but I’m doing what helps.

He chuckles. “Don’t choke from drinking too quickly.”

I grunt but almost choke doing that.

He sighs and shakes his head, but a faint smile remains on his face. I hiss at him. “Just shut up and leave me alone.”

“What happened? It has been a while since I saw you this dejected. Is that with your new friend?”

“I don’t have a new friend.”

He leans closer to me as if he’s sniffing me once again. “But you do, right? Or did.”

I grit my teeth, resisting the urge to punch him in the face. Despite my fist aching to do just that, I know better than that.

He pats my shoulder. “Tell me, what did she say?”

“Why must you insist that she even exists?”

“Who are we fooling? Don’t you forget I watched almost everyone grow up? Since you were a small gargoyle, I’ve been taking care of you. There was that time--”

“Fine, fine...” I roll my eyes so hard that my eyeballs may fall out of their sockets. I don’t need a dose of my embarrassing past, which Mckur seems to remember, while I don’t. Maybe I was too young to have memories of those times, but I still don’t need the reminder.

He smiles. “Then you get my point.”

I down the rest of the drink, letting the heat linger in my throat. “She said... she doesn’t want to date a gargoyle.”

He scowls. “Why? What’s she? A human?”

I nod. “Yeah... A human female. I mean... I don’t think I can, or should convince her to give a gargoyle a try, so...”

He hisses and rubs his hands together. “No way. We’re gargoyles and we are awesome. Who doesn’t like wings and strong arms that are sturdy like stones?”

“She’s free to think whatever she wants.”

“Not wrong, but she should give you a chance and get to know how amazing you are.”

I shrug. Maybe I don’t really hate him, it’s just...

He stands and sends the chair squeaking. “We have to show her how amazing—“

“No, leave her alone.”

“But it’s not fair to you. She can say you’re an ass and that’ll be a better reason to reject you over you being a gargoyle. Now that I think about it, as a gargoyle myself, I have to fix that.”

“Stop that... You know that humans don’t know a lot about us. She doesn’t even know we exist until a short while ago. I think...” I run my finger along the glass, wiping away the water droplets on it. “Maybe I scared her. maybe she thinks that gargoyles are scary.”

“Well... I can’t say for others, but you surely can be intimidating.”

I hiss. “You know that I’m only intimidating against our enemies.”

He sighs. “Yeah, not wrong.”

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