Page 9 of This Blood That Binds Us
“Strange?” His jaw clenched, highlighting the strong bone structure along his face. “Well, I hope things are better for you now. Your notes helped, by the way...You’re very thorough. Mrs. Castilla talks fast. I have a hard time keeping up.”
“That’s what I like about her. She is extremely smart, and I love listening to her talk,” I said.
The smile on his lips grew. “Listen, would you want to go get some coffee with me after practice? I can bring you back your notes.” He propped himself up against the wall with one arm overhead. “I promise fun, interesting conversation.”
I snorted. The nineteen-year-old girl in me couldn’t help but be a little excited. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome, with the infamous chiseled jaw, was essentially asking me out, but boys were the last thing on my mind. Well, other than one in particular, who, thankfully, I’d managed to stay clear of.
“I, uh . . . I can’t. I’ve got to study, so . . .”
He was unbothered, as if he was expecting that answer. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
William leaned down, pulling up his bag easily with one arm, the trim of his shirt hugging his biceps. He waved before walking toward the pool.
My phone vibrated in my hand and kick-started my heart. I quickly checked for messages. Chris had managed to dodge my calls but sent a text message to me at three in the morning, stating he’d give me a call that day. I could finally talk to Chris and tell him about everything that happened. I could let go of everything I’d been holding in and have someone help me decipher my mess. I had it all planned out. I’d start with small talk, a little back-and-forth to catch up, then I’d deliver the news and show him the bite on my shoulder.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. Chris was a practical person. He never believed in things like Santa Claus or the Easter bunny, even as kids. Once, when I had lost a tooth and did my usual ritual for the tooth fairy, he devised a plan to keep me awake all night, so I could see that our guardian, whose name I’d long forgotten, was putting the change under my pillow.
But this would be different. What I was going to show him was actually real.
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. The text was a coupon for five percent off at my local grocery store. It was helpful but not what I had hoped. The anxiety was getting to me. How much longer could I stand hiding in my room?
The walls of the gym were starting to close in around me. The weight of my secret threatened to pull me onto the sweaty mat flooring. I stopped just short of the front desk, looking back at the pool. William had just left the locker room—shirtless, with compression briefs. Maybe a coffee wouldn’t kill me. It might actually be nice to get my mind off things for a minute.
I walked up to the glass doors and waved him over before chickening out. He left his huddle and waddled over to the doorway.
“Yes, madam?” His eyes glowed with expectation.
“Want to meet at Roomies later? Maybe three o’clock?”
He smiled from ear to ear. “I thought you’d never ask.”
The morning sunmade me want to puke. Vampires couldn’t get hangovers, but I swear my biological clock was still ticking somewhere inside my undead body, telling me it was morning and that I needed to be in bed.
“Look, Aaron, these are handmade banana muffins!” Luke, the eldest by two whole minutes, thrust a fat, fluffy muffin right on my empty plate. “You used to love those, remember?”
I did remember. How could I forget when he dragged me and the rest of my brothers into the cafeteria every single morning to keep up with appearances? We’d walk through the same double doors, bicker, note the menu on the smudged white board against the podium, bicker some more, then scan our school IDs to get a mostly empty plate.
Luke towered over everyone else in line. Not only was he the tallest of our group, but he was the bulkiest. His arms were thesize of my head. I knew that because he loved flexing them in my face.
“Hey, Peggy! How are the kids?” Luke said, stopping at the end of the line to talk to one of the cafeteria workers. The edges of the hairs on his neck curled into a mullet, a ridiculous hairstyle he’d started growing since we left home, along with his beard.
Presley, the youngest, grinned and waved a pancake in my face. “Dude, pass me the syrup!”
“No, you’re just going to waste it.” I sighed and took another step forward, still waiting for Luke to stop holding up the line.
Presley leaned around me. He forced me into the bar, and his curly blonde hair grazed my shoulder. “S’cuse me. Don’t need that type of negativity in my life.”
He proceeded to pour three different syrups all over his plate.
Zach groaned behind me and bounced impatiently on each foot, an empty cafeteria tray in one hand and the other shoved into the pocket of his sweatpants. He was wearing his black sunglasses inside, which told me he was still a little drunk from the night before. It didn’t matter. Vampire or not, Zach and I were dead men walking when it came to mornings.
Growing up, our mornings were chaotic. Lots of cereal and lots of arguing. Once Zach and Luke had graduated high school and moved out, I missed our mornings together. But under the circumstances, it wasn’t exactly feeling like the good ol’ days.
Zach pinched the bridge of his nose, speaking in a whisper only we could hear. “Luke, please, for the love of God. Can we go sit?”
“I second that notion,” I whispered, grabbing a few pieces of bacon and moving them to my tray. I’d been sneaking them to the campus mascot—a big, fluffy Great Pyrenees named Pretzel.
Luke said his spirited goodbyes, and we searched for an empty table. The lunchroom was on the second floor, withwide windows spanning the entire dining hall. Beige. Everything except the warm wood around the windows was beige—at least that’s what it looked like to me. The sun made it hard to see across the room, but a small table next to the window was open.
