Caleb sighed likeIwas the one being stupid. “Because the author refused. He said he wasn’t doing it for the money, anyway, but the art of it.”
“Sounds like a pretentious prick,” I said.
Caleb grinned. “Well, heisan author. You know how they are.”
I shot him a wry grin. “Are all the teenage girls obsessed with it?”
“Shut up, Benji.” He weakly shouldered me and I pretended to get knocked back before rolling back around. “Anyway, just because teenage girls like it doesn’t mean it’s bad. You are such a misogynist.”
I groaned. “Caleb, it’s aboutvampires, for god’s sake. They’re not even real. How good can it be?”
“Why do they have to be real?” Caleb countered. “That’s why it’s called fiction, duh. And by the way, when was the last time you actually read a book again? Like, high school?”
“Enough about me,” I said, waving my hand. “Tell me about Dracula or whatever.”
Caleb’s eyes sparkled. “Okay, first of all, the main guy isnotcalled Dracula. His name is Bartholomew ‘Mew’ Woodcourt. And the other guy - ”
“Wait,” I interrupted, genuinely surprised. “The other guy? It’s a gay book?”
“Yes!” Caleb cried in exasperation. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Mew is the alpha. The other guy, the omega, his name is Hayden Foster.”
I scrunched up my brow. “Weird. That’sourlast name, and we’re both omegas. Maybe he’s our long-lost brother or something.” I fake gasped. “Maybe we should sue.”
Caleb rolled his eyes again. “Anyway, yeah, it’s a gay romance. They apparently changed a lot in the TV series, so I’m excited to read the original source.”
My heart felt light and airy. It overjoyed me to see Caleb so happy with something as simple as a pile of books.
Caleb hesitated before asking, “Were they expensive?”
I decided not to tell him the whole truth, about how the only physical copies available online were hardcover, and that only some obscure store with ridiculous shipping rates sold them, and instead said, “Nah.”
Caleb didn’t seem convinced. “Benji…”
I crossed my arms. “Yes, but they were worth it.”
Suddenly Caleb didn’t look as thrilled about the books anymore. He set it down in his lap. The air turned colder.
“You know we can’t afford anything expensive,” Caleb mumbled.
“They weren’t that expensive,” I insisted, lying through my teeth. But it didn’t matter. Caleb saw through my lie and it ruined his mood - the one thing I’d worked so hard to try and improve. As usual, I ended up just making things worse.
“Caleb, it was worth it. Listen, I just put it on my credit card,” I told him. “A little debt now to make you happy and keep you occupied isn’t so bad.”
“I don’twantyou to take on debt for me,” Caleb argued. “It’s bad enough the surgery is so expensive that we can’t afford it.”
There it was. The words crushed me every time. My stomach turned to lead, sinking dreadfully. My grip on the edge of the hospital bed railing tightened.
Caleb looked away. “Sorry. I’m just trying to be realistic.”
“I know.”
Cold silence settled on the room, broken up by the sounds of miscellaneous machines beeping. A wave of anger hit me and I wanted to rip Caleb away from the drugs and machines and everything in this stupid hospital that did nothing but keep him alive with no cure in sight unless we dropped a huge sum of money that we couldn’t afford.
“Benji?” Caleb asked in concern. He pointed to the bed frame, which I was close to ripping off.
“Sorry,” I muttered, withdrawing my hands.
Caleb tried to grin. “That’d just be one more expense, if you broke that.”
