For the last few days, the impending winter formal had at least distracted the collective attention. With signs littering the hallways and student council members recruiting volunteers to help with turning the gym into an indoor winterscape, it was the first time it felt like any normal college, save for the armed guards and bars on the windows.
Iron, I was pretty sure. That was another thing I looked for whenever I entered a room now, and I didn’t see it changing any time soon.
It didn’t seem like an accident that most classes had some form of exam coming up the day before the formal. Guess they figured we weren’t to be trusted around too much merriment without a sufficient distraction.
If it hadn’t been for Alistair’s tutoring, I doubted I’d be anywhere near prepared for my exam at the end of the week. Even then, short of uploading the information to my brain, there wasn’t much he could do.
It had been nice to have an excuse to spend some one-on-one time with him. Unlike Dean, he hadn’t tried to make a move, which I appreciated on the one hand, and on the other… I couldn’t help but wonder if he meant what he’d originally said about imprinting not being romantic. Maybe it wasn’t for vampires, or at least not for him. There were times when I’d catch a glimmer of desire in his gaze and think he felt the same feelings that were growing stronger within me every day, but then I’d dismiss it, telling myself it was probably just some predatory longing rather than anything romantic.
I hadn’t seen much of him or Dean for the last couple of days. We’d been sharing a bed ever since that first night, and while they both made it a point to keep as much physical distance between them as possible, they had kept their truce.
At lunch, I found the usual spot I sat at with Maddie, and sometimes Dean. I hadn’t actually seen Alistair in the cafeteria since the day we’d met. When I approached the table and saw only Maddie sitting there, I realized Dean was still preoccupied. Usually he had texted me a few times by midday, but the last message in our thread was just a wolf emoji from the other day. He really liked that one.
“Hey,” I said, sitting across from Maddie. “Guess it’s just us today.”
“Gee, thanks,” she said wryly.
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.” As I remembered our last conversation, a smile spread across my lips. “So, did he ever text?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, running one of her crinkly fries through a stream of ketchup.
“Mhm, sure,” I said, opening my soda. “I saw him staring at you in class this morning. I know it’s on his mind.”
“He was not,” she mumbled, turning pink.
“So you do know who I’m talking about.”
Her face went blank as she realized she’d been caught, then she shot me a half-hearted glare and lobbed a fry at me. “He hasn’t said anything. If he was going to ask, he would have done it by now.”
“Maybe,” I agreed, thinking of the shy ghoul who was obviously into my friend, judging from the big brown puppy eyes he gave her whenever he thought she wasn’t looking. “Dr. Price is pretty reserved, though. Maybe it’s just a ghoul thing.”
“Maybe. But that doesn’t get me a date to the formal.”
“You could always ask him.”
She gave me a look. “We’ve been over this.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I sighed. “You’re traditional.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Since you’re so forward-thinking, why haven’t you asked one of your boy toys?”
“They’re not my boy toys,” I muttered. I should’ve known I’d come to regret telling her I was sharing a bed with them. She didnotbelieve all we were doing was sleeping, either. If only my love life was as active as she gave it credit for being. “And no, I haven’t. They’ve both been crazy busy, and I know bringing it up would just reignite the rivalry between them.”
“Oh, right, they’re playing nice,” she said knowingly. “I’m surprised that’s lasted this long.”
“Your optimism is greatly appreciated.”
She just grinned.
“We could always go together,” I suggested. “Who says we even need dates?”
“Uh, no one, except all the people who’ll be making fun of us if we show up with each other.”
“We could be dating,” I pointed out.
“No offense, but you’re not my type. You’re hot and all, but if I was gonna date a girl, it would probably be one like the gym teacher.”
I snorted. “No offense taken.”
