His hand came around my back, pulling his body against mine. “Oliver’s good. I’ll bring him with me. You stay with Cole. Don’t let anyone see him. Okay?”
I nodded, feeling the roughness of his face against my cheek before I pulled away, gave him what I hoped was an alluring smile, and took off, trying to look happy in spite of everything, in spite of Bernice’s clenched teeth and not knowing what I’d find in the choir room.
Cole was still there, but his head lolled back in his chair while his arms had fallen limply at his sides. I closed the door behind me, leaning against it for just a second before I crossed the room to kneel in front of him. His eyes were closed and the blue veins had spread across his face.
I should have made him go to a doctor or told Sean about it, something. I hadn’t wanted to think about it, to worry about it, to face the fact that there was something in the lake and something had to be done about it.
The door opened and Oliver entered followed closely by Sean. I pulled back from Cole when Oliver approached, opening his backpack as he crossed the floor. He checked Cole’s vital statsitics while I hovered, fighting the need to be close to Oliver, like we needed that.
“Genevieve, I don’t need any distractions while I help your friend. Could you give me some space?”
I nodded and made myself leave, finding Sean where he stood beside the door like a burly guard.
“I’m sorry. I was stupid. I should have told…”
“You’re not stupid. You don’t trust me. I’m sorry that you couldn’t come to me before this.”
He pulled me into a hug and the desperation for Oliver clogging my throat disappeared. I leaned against his chest while the fear and worry melted away.
“I need a jar or some kind of large container,” Oliver said, his voice filling my brain for a second, confusing my body. Why would I hear Oliver and feel Sean?
Sean pulled a water bottle out of his pack and drank it until it was empty then threw it across the room to Oliver who caught it with barely a glance in our direction. I stayed where I was, with my back against Sean while I watched Oliver and Cole.
So, I was definitely not going to be a doctor. Oliver punched holes into Cole’s arm then the blood came out, well, not blood because it was blue, and blood is red, well, once it hits oxygen it’s red. Oliver started swabbing his arm all over with something that smelled like pumpkin pie. I would probably never eat it again. Cole started twitching, which I hoped was a good sign. It wasn’t long after the arm hole punching that Cole’s face started to look normal. He was sitting up, annoying Oliver who kept telling him to hold still.
I exhaled, realizing that I hadn’t been breathing much and felt Sean’s hands on my shoulders, squeezing out tension. So weird. After that Oliver helped Cole up, telling him that he would take him home.
That left me and Sean with seven minutes left until the next class. I stared at the clock for a few seconds, still standing closer to him than I had to.
“So, do you want to talk about it?” he said as I forced myself to edge away from him.
“New Year’s Eve, after you dropped me off…”
“Actually, I meant about how you feel.”
I turned to stare at him, but it was the same cold nonhuman with no possible interest in my feelings. “And you care, why?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’re about to go into shock, cold clammy skin, pale, you mentioned that you’d rather I didn’t give you CPR again.”
I rolled my eyes. “I feel sick. Half from the blood, or whatever that blue stuff was, and half from Oliver. I wish I’d known he was coming back. If you hadn’t come when you had… And Bernice hates me. But Cole. I feel so guilty about everything. I knew there was a monster in the lake, I saw it, but then, on New Year’s Eve when he was on top of me and wouldn’t get off, I heard the hissing.” I had to stop so that I could take deep breaths. “It was a blob with these weird seaweed whips, and that’s what got Cole. I should have taken him to the hospital or something. I didn’t want to talk to you any more that night, not after everything… It was too much. The monster was too much. I kind of shut down and did nothing. Like usual. All day yesterday I stayed in bed and tried not to think. I didn’t talk to anyone, not Flop, my dad, because what am I supposed to say? Either I’m crazy or the rest of the world is. So, yeah. I’m a little bit freaked out.”
“Hmm,” he said noncommittally.
“Do you know what’s in the lake?” I asked, studying his perfectly chiseled face for clues.
“To me the injury looked similar to a sting ray or jelly fish, something that attacks the nervous system. I suppose I might as well tell you, the Vashni have some creatures they’ve bred with tentacles that could do that kind of damage: ripping open the skin and injecting it with venom.”
“Venom. Vashni. Your mother…” I would have fallen over if he hadn’t grabbed me around the waist, holding me against his not at all cold body. “Your mother knew about my mother. What if she put the monster in the lake, or at least knew about it? What if the monster dragged my mother under the water?” My voice was barely audible with my face smashed against his chest between his pectorals.
“It’s an interesting theory,” Sean said. “It had to get there somehow. It didn’t seem to be breathing air, did it?” I shook my head, still against his chest. “So the questions are, how long has it been there, who put it there and why, and of course, what exactly it is.”
“So,” I said, pushing away from him so I could be like him, rational, analytical, cold. “How do we find out?”
He frowned. “The easy way? Capture it and dissect it. The more difficult way would be to ask my dad.”
“Your dad…”
“It’s time for class, Gen. Do you want me to walk you?”
I opened my mouth to say no, but then shrugged instead. Not being his girlfriend at that point would be stupid, particularly when I still felt dizzy and stuff.
At lunch Sean sat beside me before anyone else joined my table. I stared at him, waiting for him to talk about his dad, or Cole, something like that.
“Have you heard of Messleraim?” I blinked at him while Junie sat down, trying to look like she was cool with Sean being at our table. He pulled out his iPod and slid it to me. “Most people hate it. It can get discordant.”
I put his buds in my ears then slid mine over to him because you know, music manners were all about sharing, so long as you weren’t file sharing, because that was unethical, like competing in swimming with gills. The music was something like metallic orchestra but had weird moments of other that sounded ambient, like underwater echoes before the screaming guitars took over again. It sounded like a battle, an epic fight with blood, gore, timpani, all underwater. It was long, but I didn’t mind because I could stab my cauliflower in time to the swelling violence while Sean listened to my playlist.
Maybe it took fifteen minutes to finish the song, and then I hit pause and pulled out the buds.
“Wow, Sean. This is weird.” I meant it as a compliment. He smiled, only a little bit but that probably meant it was genuine. Like I knew.
“Thanks. I liked your ‘Egotistical Jerks’ list. Everyone’s got to have one of those.”
I blinked at him while I tried not to blush. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“It’s almost as good as your, ‘Stupidly Obsessed’ list.”
“I do not have a ‘Stupidly Obsessed’ list,” I said, grabbing back my iPod. There, right above ‘Egotistical Jerks’ was ‘Stupidly Obsessed’, just like he’d said. I stared at him. “You made me a list.”
“Everyone’s got to have one of those.” He smiled at me, a full smile that showed his teeth. For some reason it reminded me that he wasn’t quite human and also that the rest of the table was listening to every word we said.
“So, what’s on your too-weird-to-be-human list?” I asked him, forcing my own smile.
“The same thing that’s on yours,” he said easily, sitting back.
; “Wow, you guys are so romantic,” Flop said, staring at me like ‘what are you doing?’ “Matching playlists, huh? That’s a fun idea, don’t you think so, Logan?” She elbowed him and he nodded, like a puppet doll.
“Awesome.”
“So, Sean,” Junie said, ignoring the whole romantic playlist debate. “Thanks for that email. I applied for the internship. I’ve never heard of that company, but it’s huge. I really hope that I get it.”
Sean nodded.
“It’s during band camp, right?” Tuba asked, looking a little nervous, like maybe he shouldn’t bring up whether or not their schedules were compatible, like it would be too controlling or something.
She beamed at him and held his hand, knotting her fingers in his. “Yes. The session I signed up for is during your yearly trek to marching madness. Like I would miss spending the summer with you outside of the penitentiary, I mean, educational facility.”
The way they smiled at each other, not obsessed, ‘I need you or I’m going to die,’ but just so freaking cute and perfect, like how did it take them so long to figure this out when it seemed obvious afterwards. I grabbed Sean’s hand and squeezed. He squeezed back and I sat there, encased in cold steel that slowly eased all life out of my fingertips.
It wasn’t the most pleasant lunch, but I didn’t think about Oliver or Cole very much at all. Some things were more important than pleasant.
It was in the parking lot after school that I almost died. Sharky might have felt bad afterwards, but when it came to me on my bike, she simply ignored us, making me get out of the way. That was usually fine, but with the icy January weather, I barely got out of the way of her car, swerving then completely losing it, sliding across the ground with my bike on top of me.
Sean pulled up in his car while I sat there, trying to ignore the people staring at me. “Nice bike weather. I’m willing to give you both a ride home.”
“You’re willing? Wow. How could I possibly refuse such a generous offer?”
“I have no idea. It would probably take a stronger soul than you. Do you need help getting it in the trunk?” he asked the last bit with a kind of sigh.
I stared at him while the ice melted and soaked into my pants and underwear. If I sat in his car, I’d probably get it wet. I smiled at him and got up. “No, I’m fine. Just pop it open,” I called shoving my bike towards the back. It took me a little bit of fiddling to get the whole thing in. Sean ended up coming to see what I was doing, and slipped it in as easily as if he carried my bike around all the time. Whatever. “Thanks,” I said with as big a smile as would fit on my face. “You’re such an amazing boyfriend.” I reached up and put my hands around his neck, staring deeply into his blue eyes. “I could stand here with you all day, but I’m going to try and get at least some of my Biology homework done tonight.” At the thought of Biology, I couldn’t fake my bliss.
“Do you have work?” he asked as we got in. He didn’t try and open my door for me or anything. I settled back in his seat, perfectly content with whatever mess I left behind.
“Tomorrow and Saturday. After Holidays are slow, not much hours. Where is your music?” I asked after he pulled out and there was still silence.
“You actually have an egotistical jerks playlist.”
I frowned at him. Where had that come from? “You want to listen to it in stereo? ‘I’m too sexy’ would definitely get me in the mood for homework.”
“Why do you have it?”
I felt myself blushing. “None of your business.”
“You’re saying that it doesn’t refer specifically to me?”
I closed my eyes and tried to think how to say it. “Yes, it does. Okay? You’re the hot jerk, and I’m the weird idiot. So, I made a playlist. It’s what I do.”
“I suppose since you allow me to be hot that I shouldn’t mind the jerk.”
“I wouldn’t think you’d care enough to mind anything at all.”
That shut him up for a few minutes. “Just because I don’t get close to humans doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
“Then you should act like it. Maybe you are acting like it.” I shrugged. “So, Sean, what does caring look like to you?”
His glance was a frown. “I think that the problem is that the caring and being a jerk go together for me. I don’t tell other people that they’re idiots. You should feel special. I also don’t let other people hug me.”
“Let me hug you…” I sighed. “Right. I feel totally special. The only girl you’ve shown your gills to, or taken to meet your mother, I mean, wow. I’m the specialest girl in the whole world.”
He made that sound, the choking that was probably a laugh. “I’m not the only thing that finds you special.” I got chills when he said that. When I looked over his face was serious. “The thing in the lake, it’s you that it comes for.”
“Can we go back to talking about how you’re such a jerk?”
“How about we talk about how to keep you alive?”
“I’m open to ideas.”
He nodded then pulled up to my house. My dad’s car was in the driveway so he was home. “I could help you with your homework.”
I froze mid door opening. “What? How would that keep me alive?”
“While working on that problem, I could help you pass your classes. Biology fascinates me. I might be able to explain things in a way that you found accessible.”
“Don’t you have things to do?”
He shrugged. “I have homework too.”
We stared at each other until I realized that I had to say something. “Sure.” I’d half expected myself to make excuses, but I felt kind of lame after the playlist. Lame enough to invite Sean into my cramped, messy house.
What I didn’t expect was my dad freaking out. When he saw me and that I’d brought someone in, at first he smiled and was all, hi, how you doing, then he saw that it was Sean and it was like someone flipped on the lethal assassin button and my dad was stalking towards Sean like he was an armed intruder or something.
I jumped back, keeping between my dad and Sean.
“Hi, Mr. Castle,” Sean said, extending his hand like my dad wasn’t glaring at him.
My dad glared at the hand, then glanced at me. I mouthed, ‘dad, what’s with you,’ and he kind of frowning took Sean’s hand in a firm grip that he didn’t release.
“You’re father is Reeve Fielding. Aren’t you a little old for my daughter?”
Sean blinked. Apparently being disliked by parents was new for him. “I’m a senior and she’s a junior, but it’s hardly…”
“You’re eighteen, and she’s underage. It doesn’t matter what grade she’s in.” I wanted somebody to kill me. First he was encouraging me to go partying, then he tried to bust Sean for accosting a minor. Awesome.
“Dad, we’re going to do homework,” I said, wrapping my hands around his arm. He had a lot of muscle for an old guy. “Next time, we’ll go to his house, where you won’t be able to supervise with your overprotective paranoia.”
“Next time?”
“Sean is my boyfriend,” I said, glaring at my dad. I wanted to glare at Sean too, but whatever. “That means that you’ll be seeing a lot of him whether you like it or not.”
Sean and my dad stared at me like I was the one with gills. My dad’s face got red and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head, but then with a deep breath, it was all gone and he smiled at Sean then stepped back without ripping Sean’s arm out of its socket.
“Well, that changes things.” My dad’s voice was not friendly, not really in spite of the smile. He glanced at me. “I guess it’s too late to forbid you to grow up and date.”
I laughed, or tried to, but it came out like one of Sean’s. “Yeah, so, we’ll be in the kitchen,” I said, dragging Sean with me.
Homework wasn’t the world’s most romantic thing, particularly at my house, at the kitchen table where there were still dishes from breakfast. Crap.
“We really should have done th
is at your house,” I said shoving things into the dishwasher.
“You saw my room.” He said while he helped with the dishes like there was nothing embarrassing about being a complete slob. He turned on the radio. The only stations that came in were cheesy country. We listened to it until the kitchen was as good as the peeling linoleum would let it be, and we could sit down to homework.
I opened my book and immediately wanted to shut it. He leaned over and started explaining stuff. At first it made no sense, but as he kept talking it was like that time in the pool, where the rest of the world drifted away and I could focus on his words. A few things clicked, which was good for me. After I had enough comprehension that I could do my assignment, we spent the next three hours in deep contemplative silence with the radio a low background noise.
My dad kept coming in, to get stuff, but how many drinks did he need? It was so embarrassing. On the positive side, I couldn’t remember the last time I did all of my homework. Whatever else Sean was, human or not, he was definitely good for my grades.
Chapter 29
Days fell into a pattern, Sean in the morning, Sean at lunch, Sean in the evening, or earlier if I didn't have work or choir and he didn't have swim stuff. I had a really great time embracing him in public and feeling him stiffen up when he didn’t expect it. I especially enjoyed calling him, ‘baby’. He hated it more than anything, except for when I made him cookies. I didn’t really cook, so my cookies were the kind from the frozen section where you stick them on a pan and into the oven. Sean forced himself to eat one when I brought him a stack. I didn’t have to fake my joy when I gave him those.
The second time I did it, he took one with a sigh as other girls watched with obvious jealousy. Oh to be the girl who gave Sean cookies. “You might be taking this girlfriend thing a little too seriously.”
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