Jesse suddenly became interested in the corner of the ceiling. “Neverletmyself feel that way. It’s hard to be happy if you won’t let yourself try it, if every time you think you see a chance, you hurry up and run the other way or push it away. You’re the only one I kept pulling closer and when I let you in all the way,” his voice broke and he coughed to cover it, “I screwed it up and chased you off. I’m sorry.”
“I came back,” Sophie said simply.
He nodded, face closed over, and chest tensed as if struggling under the weight of hoping she’d stay.
“You probably don’t want to be with me,” Sophie whispered, her voice emotionless. “It makes sense now. I’ll age and you won’t.”
“I don’t care about that anymore,” Jesse said thickly. “You know... some people only get a couple of years together anyway. Accidents happen. Demons happen, especially in Pine Ridge.”
His dark humor still made her smile. Slowly, that grin was replaced by a confused frown. “Jesse?”
“Mhm?”
“You thought I was a vampire?”
“I was wrong, I’m sorry. Please don’t be angry.Moreangry.”
“Why? Because I’m pale like you?” Sophie repeated his words from earlier, her arm held out beside his.
He swallowed. “I don’t want to go into all of this now.”
Sophie shifted back to the other side of the couch, eyes steady but not unkind. “I do. I— I never felt this way, either. I want to be happy. I don’t think we can do that with secrets. Not big secrets.”
“Okay. Right. You said you’re adopted?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Again, not wanting to upset you, but I wonder if your birth parents weren’t something a little bit extra.”
“Like what?” Sophie felt a sudden bolt of heat in her chest. “I’m monster spawn?” All those bullies were right? I’m a ghost, I’m a vampire? ‘Hey, Goth Girl, don’t you know Halloween is over?’”
“Sweetheart,” Jesse’s voice was soft and easy. “Look at your hands.”
Sophie looked down, eyes widening. Her dead white skin was still white as the thick frost that lay across campus, but from under nail beds came a reddish glow.
EIGHT
It faded instantly, but the bewilderment lasted longer. “I— it had to be a trick of the light.”
Jesse said nothing.
“I’m alive! I can’t be— what you are.”
“I know that.”
