Page 37 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
Nat1
You super can’t know that.
The one that killed my mentor didn’t look capable of it either.
I just can’t lose my only friend too, okay.
And take it from me, it’s better not to risk falling for someone you know you shouldn’t. (Because otherwise when you realize maybe you should end things, it’ll be so late that you’ll know it’ll kill you, so you don’t, even when the sex isn’t good anymore and he’s talking about other humans more than he’s talking to you, and you’ve already said you’re fine with him fucking around but you don’t want that to mean he treats you less like you’re his world in the process.)
Shane-anigans
So have you told your boyfriend all this?
Nat1
What if he breaks up with me.
Shane could more than acknowledge her fear—he could feel it himself.What if:What if she was right, and this ended in heartbreak? There were so many things he didn’t know and so many ways it could all crumble down.
And that didn’t mean it wasn’t all worth it.
But it meantsomething.
Shane-anigans
Then you can come eat ice cream on my couch and we’ll get really drunk and I’ll tell you how I would totally fuck you if you had fangs… By which I mean, I’m so sorry, you deserve better than this. Whatever you choose to do, I’m here for you.
Nat1
You’re incredible and I love you. /platonic
And I might take you up on that night sometime ;)
Did you want to talk about your problem?
Shane-anigans
It’s really not a big deal lol
And honestly, you’ve given me a lot to think about. /grateful
And she had. He just wasn’t sure what he was going to do about it.
A new text came through, flaring across the top of his screen like a light at the end of a tunnel. It left him giddy regardless of how many others he’d gotten that day already.
Andres
The truth: do you ever think two people were destined to meet? (Not to be together, necessarily, just to fall into each other, as many times as it takes.)
Shane couldn’t help the instinctive smile that loosened his face. The warmth that had been flaring low in his pelvis was replaced by a bright, joyous blaze in his chest. It turned quickly to a knot. This was the relationship he needed. Something real, and normal, and healthy. His memories of Andres were buried in dim colors and loud music, but he could still recall that they’d looked so lovely even with their makeup running, an intensity to their gaze and a softness to their lips.
They had both fallen into each other, hadn’t they?
And if Shane hadn’t felt what it was like to have his vampire’s breath on his neck and his whispers ofyou’re mine, he was certain he would be letting himself fall fully for Andres too.
Shane
With all the free-will-ruining implications of destiny, I’m not sure how firmly I can trust in it.
