I craned my ear toward the stage. I had maybe two pages before my entrance. Why was Alec explaining this to me in person when we’d already discussed most of this last night and anything new could be sent to me over text?
“I will do everything in my power to protect you, Emery, but it has come to my attention that you are dragging your heels. When facing potential death, as well as graduation, which some might argue is far worse—not that I can speak from personal experience, mind you; education in my time was quite diff—”
“Alec,” I said, twisting my face in frustration.
“Right.” The T-shirt beneath his jacket caught my attention—Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure with the words ‘Be Excellent to Each Other’—but my eyes snapped up to his when he said, “Your infatuation with Connor isn’t going to handle itself. You could be dead next week.”
“I…” The flush to my face made my cheeks feel heavy, so all I managed after that was, “What?”
Half a page left before my cue; I had to get back into position.
“Desire for him outside of blood. Friends for years, finish each other’s sentences types. All the mopey, dopey, doe-eyed nonsense, ‘oh I might hurt him’, can’t go anywhere without him—goodness. Anyone could tell. If you’re waiting for your libido to catch up with your heart, dear boy, he’s not bad looking. Not my type obviously—”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know his type. “Alec—”
“Yes, yes, time to go on stage,” he said, gripping my shoulders and spinning me around with a swift shove that nearly toppled me over into the flat partially blocking my path. Then his voice was right at the side of my face, whispering near my ear, devoid of any humor, just like the night he killed the other vampire. “Try not to think about what you’ve become, what’s after you, or what comes next. Think about now and how you feel, and if that all points to the same person, only a fool would sit back and do nothing. Off you go now!” he finished brightly, and shoved me forward again.
I tripped over to the door, since I still had to hobble with pants at my ankles. When I glanced back before making my entrance, Alec was gone.
~
Connor
Connor watched from his curtain cocoon as Emery played out the remainder of Act I. Emery seemed flustered when he reentered with his pants down, but then, that was part of the role, maybe he was just really into his character tonight. Personal issues didn’t usually affect Emery’s stage performance; he immersed himself when acting. But Connor knew him better than anyone, and something was definitely off.
It made sense he would be distracted, distant. He had been bombarded by everyone at school. But he also kept shying away from the simplest act of even looking Connor in the eyes.
Maybe he had given himself away when Emery fed from him after the attack. Maybe he’d seemed too eager, admitted too readily how much he enjoyed the give and take of being Emery’s retainer. He wanted to confess his feelings, but first he wanted to be sure things could still be normal between them. Having known and loved Emery all his life, he should never doubt that his friend would always be there for him, but he needed a reminder, something simple to prove that despite everything, the two of them, friends forever, would never change.
After getting off the walkie talkies with Emery the night before, Connor had stayed up well into the wee hours searching every online shopping site he could find. He knew just how to put a real smile back on his friend’s face.
During the ride home, he asked if Emery would come over, assuming their parents agreed, since it was barely10PM.
“What’s up?” Emery asked once they were safely alone in Connor’s room. He scratched the back of his neck, glancing away. This was worse than Connor had thought. “Did Wendy or Alec send you a message or something?”
“Sit,” Connor said, shoving Emery onto the edge of his bed, which made Emery laugh with an unfamiliar awkwardness that Connor did not understand but didn’t think meant his friend had grown to hate him. “Dude, we have plans to make. Check this out.” He sat himself at his desk, close enough to the bed for Emery to see his computer screen as he pulled up the windows with all of the items he had found for Prom.
“Whoa, that burgundy suit is perfect,” Emery leapt up to hover over Connor instead, one hand on his shoulder as if no uncomfortable strangeness had ever existed.
“Wait ‘til you see the ties. This is going to be epic.”
To pull off their outfits for Prom’s theme of Elements, portraying The Flash and Captain Cold from DC Comics, Connor had found Emery a burgundy suit, dark red button down shirt, yellow tie, and a red vest with yellow lightning bolts. For himself, he’d found a navy suit, black button down, and an ice blue tie and matching vest with snowflakes.
“Ice and Lighting, baby—geek edition,” Connor announced after showing off his finds, which all in all didn’t amount to too much coming out of their respective bank accounts. “We have to order like pronto to get everything in time, but it’s doable if you’re in.”
“Send me the links,” Emery said, and dropped back onto the bed. “You so need to turn the Rocket-Punch arm into a fake cold gun. It’s already blue! Can you imagine? I mean, I know we’re short on time…”
“I can make it work. Doctor it up with some icicles and snowflakes, get the hand to unhinge open—yes please. I can even make it fire, like a water gun or something! I don’t even care that Aurora will kill me if she sees it near her dress.”
Emery laughed, full out like Connor hadn’t seen in days, maybe weeks. “And you need some sweet shades for his goggles! Or were you going to wear regular goggles?”
“I considered it, but then I’d get that line around my eyes. Shades it is. So…we’ll do the whole walk and pictures and everything?” He turned back to his computer, punching in a search for blue tinged sunglasses, though he mostly turned away so his hopeful expression wouldn’t make him look too eager.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t we?”
Something happy and light blossomed in Connor’s chest, and he grinned at the computer screen wider than he would ever let Emery see. “Oh, check out these!” he said as he enlarged a photo of a pair of silver-framed sunglasses with blue lenses that looked like a costume prop out of RoboCop.
“Yes. Those.”
“We have a winner.” Connor spun back around in his chair, fully prepared to make the full purchase for every single item for his outfit later that night. He spun away from his desk, pushing off with such force that he moved the roller chair slightly across the carpet and accidentally knocked his knees into Emery’s.
Emery’s hands shot forward to grip his thighs and stop any further forward momentum. Connor chuckled, choked off into a strangled cough, and held the edges of his chair to keep from instinctually reaching for Emery’s hands instead. Emery’s eyes looked so, so green this close. They’d grown brighter since he became a vampire, and not only when he vamped out.
Slowly, Emery withdrew his hands and his right jerked up to scratch at his neck again. “I didn’t think you cared about going to Prom.”
“I didn’t, it’s just—” he hadn’t had a reason to go until he had the chance to go with Emery, “—the theme. It’s pretty cool, right? We’ll knock everyone dead. And Michael will finally get off my back for wanting to ditch. ‘Every high school experience should include Prom’,” he rattled off, trying to impersonate some winning speech Michael had made at some point. “And, ya know, everyone else will be there. Might have to hijack someone’s house if we want any after party shenanigans, but it should be fun. Just promise me that, if at any point, you see my dateless-wonder-ass sitting on the sidelines like some lame wallflower, you’ll drag me back onto the dance floor.”
Emery’s hand dropped, and he looked up to meet Connor’s eyes with the warmest, brightest, white-toothed smile. His dimples stretched whenever he smil
ed like that, eyes crinkling like his dad’s. Connor melted in the wake of it like facing down the heat of a blazing summer day.
“Of course, Connor. Wouldn’t want to leave my date without a dance partner.”
All rational thought flew from Connor’s brain. Because Emery was kidding, teasing, he had to be, but then his cheeks flushed with color like he hadn’t realized what he’d said until it left him.
“I just mean—”
“Right. Platonic dates, I know—”
“Unless…”
“Unless?”
The air sucked out of the room. Connor didn’t dare blink and lose the connection of their eyes on each other at risk of imploding.
“Sweetie, did you boys want anything?” Connor’s mother called as she entered the room, still in her scrubs from that day. He would have chucked the nearest object from his desk at her if he’d been able to do more than gape in horror.
“Uh, we’re fine, George. Actually, I…I should probably head home.”
“Wait,” Connor stood up in a panic, reaching for Emery’s arm, and then flinching back, not wanting to push. “Everything…I mean, it isn’t…I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine, Connor,” Emery said, looking back at him with that smile again, and maybe more of that flush to his face that—shit, was Emery blushing? At him? “I have to order my outfit for Prom, right? See you tomorrow.”
“Uh…y-yeah. Tomorrow. Night, Em.”
His mom raised an eyebrow at him after Emery breezed past her.
“Night, Mom,” he said pointedly, in his best ‘so not telling you right now’ voice.
She shrugged and shut the door behind her.
Connor dropped back onto his bed, arms spread, legs dangling off at the knees. He had no idea what the hell had just happened, but it was a good thing, a definite good thing. He had over a week before Prom. Plenty of time to confess.
Tomorrow. He’d tell him tomorrow.
Chapter 23
Connor
Connor did not confess his feelings to Emery that morning during their carpool. He choked the second he saw him, that smile, the way Emery avoided looking at Connor for an entirely different reason now—maybe this had always been the reason. At least he thought so, hoped so.
Connor felt like he was living in one of his fantasies, sharing these little moments, furtive glances, not quite obvious flirtations, but then the occasional, very blatant one that tripped one or both of them up, and wow, they were terrible at this, only it was also kind of fun.
He didn’t fear the rejection he’d always been prepared for. Nothing was guaranteed, they were still going to Prom as friends, but they were going to Prom. Together. In complimentary outfits. And whatever Emery had been about to say last night, it hung around them like a wonderful cloud, keeping everything else at bay. Even the random passerby at school still trying to pester Emery about the shooting was dismissed without any of the tension from yesterday.
Connor was still grinning to himself when he and Jules finished their AP Calculus test early and were given leave to hit up the Home-Ec class for cookies. Every day, without fail, the students in Home-Ec baked the meltiest, gooiest chocolate chip and monster cookies imaginable, sold in pairs for only twenty-five cents. Jules insisted she had a constant extra five pounds to her figure during the school year because she couldn’t go a day without them.
They found a corner in the hallway that connected Home-Ec to the gym and weight rooms—the worst/best idea the school ever had, considering anyone taking part in weightlifting warm-ups had to walk past and suppress the temptation to buy cookies. Connor had seen more than a few people shoveling chocolate chip delights into their mouths before returning to class.
Sitting with their bought and treasured treats, Jules pulled out her DS. “Pokémon? I owe your Vileplume a rematch.”
“Bring it,” Connor said.
It took six turns before his Pokémon fainted, and he blamed his almost laughable concentration on wondering what Emery might be doing at that moment.
“Ha! Pwned,” Jules mocked him. If he was being honest, he could probably count on one hand the amount of times he’d actually beaten her in a match, yet he never got tired of trying. “So…Mavus is, like, invincible now, huh?”
Connor glanced up from his screen to see her eyeing him as they brought out other characters to battle. “We explained the other night—all the usual vampire tropes apply. Except he can be in the sun, as long as—”
“He feeds regularly,” she finished, “which he’s been doing on you?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“And that’s not weird for you?”
“Weird how? Weird…scary? No. Painful? Not at all. He can do this whole thing where he makes it—makes me think, anyway—that it feels good.”
Jules made a sound like scoffing a laugh. “Aha. That explains the even more love-struck than usual expression you were wearing while he sucked on your neck.”
Connor nearly dropped his DS to the floor, which wouldn’t have hurt it too badly, since they were sitting cross-legged. “That obvious, huh?”
“Even to him eventually, if you’re not careful.”
“Yeah, actually…I think he knows.”
Jules stopped playing mid-fight and dramatically set her DS on the floor between them. “Mavus has been Captain Oblivious since all eternity, Connor. Explain.”
He did, as best as he could, though saying it all out loud made the sequence of events and his subsequent conclusion sound completely moronic, like he was reading way too much into simple glances and fumbling sentences between them.
“Oh god, I’m way off base. He doesn’t know. I just want him to know and be interested back so badly, I’m hallucinating.”
“Connor,” Jules rolled her eyes at him, though it never carried the same bite as when Aurora did it, “first of all, you’re nutso, he clearly has been acting funny around you, and not just ‘I’m a vampire and recently nearly died’ funny. And second? Who freaking cares?” she said loudly, leaning forward right into his face.
Connor leaned back from the sheer momentum.
“He knows, you know he knows, you both maybe sorta feel the same way. Oh my god, it is all so middle school! Can you just confess already that you want to go to Prom as dates, real romantic make-out on the dance floor dates, and stop guessing at implied meaning? You need to get this over with. Right now.”
“Right…now?” Connor nearly dropped his DS again, and had a momentary surge in his limbs of fight or flight.
“He’s coming out of Psych next, right? You can sideline him in the social sciences hallway before everyone meets up for lunch.”
“What? I can’t. Not now, not like…during school.” Not that he’d considered when he would do the confessing, only that he should, though he’d already psyched himself out not to.
“Connor…”
“Jules!” Anne Bitker rushed at them from the direction of the weight room, clad in her gym clothes and looking several shades of panicked. “Thank god, do you…” she glanced at Connor, dropping her voice to a whisper, “…do you have any werewolf repellent?”
Jules nodded stoically, reaching into her backpack. “Gotcha covered.” She produced a small pocket book in bright red with a zipper, and cross-stitched on the front were an assortment of colored flowers and the actual words ‘Werewolf Repellent’.
“Thank you! I’ll give it back during 5th period. You are a life saver,” Anne gushed, and raced back in the direction she had come from.
Connor blinked dumbly down the hall after her, then at Jules. “What just happened?”
“Werewolf repellent.”
“Which is?”
Jules cocked an eyebrow at him. “Something you only need during a certain time of the month.”
<
br /> Connor opened his mouth, closed it. “Clever,” he nodded in approval.
“No derailing, Connor. Don’t make me get all Aurora-esque tough with you. She might hit harder, but I hold grudges longer.”
“You’re going to hold a grudge over me if I don’t confess my undying love to Em right this second?” He was indeed stalling for time, but his stomach felt so tight, he didn’t think he could stand.
“I am going to Prom with my best friend because of lacking viable options,” Jules said slowly, deliberately. “You have the chance to go with your best friend as actual boyfriends. Do not interfere with my ability to live vicariously through you.”
The tension in Connor’s stomach twisted to snapping point. He fought for something to say as the bell beeped over the intercom to signal it was time to switch classes. “So you wish you and Aurora were going as girlfriends?” he said lamely—he knew that wasn’t the case.
Jules didn’t have an angry expression so much as a dumbfounded one, that made him feel supremely inadequate. She scooped up her DS and stood. “Like a Band-Aid, Connor. One motion and it’ll be done. That awful feeling in the pit of your stomach? That’s not going away, in fact, it’ll only get worse every day until you finally do something about it or drive yourself crazy. Do you really want to start feeling this way every time you see him? Because I guarantee you, seeing him in his tux for Prom, walking in together, taking pictures, that isn’t going to be fun with this confession hanging over your head, it’s going to royally suck. Okay?”
She touched him gently on the shoulder, then pushed as hard as she could, nearly toppling him down the single step that led further down the hall toward the main commons and the labyrinth of other hallways to the Psych room. If he hurried now, he might still catch Emery before they got corralled and surrounded by the rest of their friends for lunch.
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