Page 10 of Five to Love Him
“Okay. It’s just that you’re staring.”
Tate and Ezra were staring too, but not to admire my face. They were above us on the escalator and both of them observed with unabashed curiosity.
Finally, the escalator arrived, and we stepped off.
“You go to school here?” one of the hivelings asked. He was looking around at the arrival room. It had benches like a bus station and information screens that showed school news and student announcements—a digital student newspaper of sorts.
While the one hiveling looked, the three remaining ones stared at me expectantly.
“I’m in the Cultural Awareness Program. I accidentally saw a salinian getting it on in the back seat of a cab.”
“Ah,” the four of them echoed. “They venture far on land when the mating instinct takes them, and Newstaten is a popular spot for it.”
“We should probably head home,” Ezra said. “Come on, Tate.”
“What? No, of course we should stay,” Tate said, and I was glad to have befriended him. Tate was definitely the kind of guy who would make sure everyone got home okay, who’d take off your shoes before dumping your drunk ass in bed. Not that I was anywhere near that drunk, although maybe that would have made everything easier.
“No. Nope, we should leave. I mean, sorry, hive, we really don’t want to interrupt you getting to know your…can I say mate?”
I saw the one closest to Ezra shrug. “We have no preference. We don’t mind you staying. Whichever Leo prefers.”
“Okay, cool, then—” Tate started, but Ezra, the fucking traitor, clamped a hand over Tate’s mouth.
“Oh, no. We wouldn’t want to be in the way like that. I mean, we’re friends of Leo’s. Friends, nothing more, you know. Tate here attends class with him, that’s how they first met.” Tate grumbled and glared at Ezra, who was keeping his hand in place. “We’re heading out now, but you guys should definitely talk at the Moonlight Diner. Ow! Fuck, stop biting me, Tate.”
“But—”
“Shut it and move. Trust me. It’s a hive, Leo’s good. Leo, bye! See you around!”
Ezra was practically dragging Tate out of there, which left me awkwardly getting stared at by four identical sets of eyes.
“They’re weird, huh.”
“The oceanic wanted to make sure we understand you are not involved with them,” one of them said. “He might be afraid we’d get jealous.”
I nodded. “Right. Sure. Sure. Oh, fuck, you mean involved as in fucking, and jealous as in murder them?”
At least two of them took a step toward me. “We would murder for you, but only if someone meant to hurt you.”
“Hah! That’s funny.” Not a one of them laughed. “Right?” Not a one. “So, the Moonlight Diner. I could really go for food. You know, food after a few drinks is so nice, and I haven’t really had dinner, just Principal Farrow’s fucking scones, and I ask of you, who eats scones in this day and age?”
“We’ve never had scones,” one of them said. He stepped up on my left as the lot of us moved toward the exit, or rather, the hallways of St. Auguste. “We don’t bake much, but we are a decent cook,” said another one who came up on my right. That one smiled, sort of looking shy doing it, and looked at my hand. “Can we touch you?”
“You mean you want to hold my hand?”
“Yes,” it echoed from four mouths.
“I mean—” Yeah, I’d been about to give them the go-ahead, but then it hit me. I stopped in the middle of the hallway, close to the cafeteria, which was still open for some unfathomable reason, except no, not unfathomable. This was a school for supernatural creatures, and some were exclusively nocturnal. In fact, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a kind of wispy glimmer from the outside, a tendril-fine limb of someone who was bioluminescent and enjoying the night air. Distracted by all these wonders, I had become complacent. “You know what? No, no thank you. And also, I’m not up to going out again tonight. I think I need my beauty sleep.”
“But, Leo,” one of them said though all of them were suddenly there, right in my face.
“Don’t even try.” I heaved a sigh. “Look, I’m not trying to be an asshole, okay? I had a few drinks, and I’m wondering whether I’m set up to make good decisions. I don’t understand what is happening here. Like, at all.”
“You are gleaming,” one of them said. “That’s the way in which we know. In which our kind has always known,” said another. “We see the one we are meant to be with, and they shine. It’s something only we can see, and when we see it, everything becomes clear,” said a third. The one on my left tapped my shoulder lightly. “You shine, Leo.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “I shine. That makes total sense. We should talk about this some other time though. I need—I can’t deal with this now.” I pointed at them all. “It’s like seeing double, and I really didn’t have that much to drink, you know? And I don’t mean there’s anything wrong with you being you. It’s just that I wasn’t prepared for this. I need a hot second.”
A crestfallen expression washed over their faces, the black fringes of their hair falling into their eyes as they stood there like puppies drenched in ice water.
