The tension on Julien’s face eased. “Alright,” he said. “Well Karim, you still haven’t eaten. Are we… going out?”
Luis nodded. “Yeah, I’m good to go,” Luis said, and he meant it. He didn’t want Karim to suffer through a bottle of blood if he could help him get something better.
“Great,” Karim said, throwing an arm over Luis’s shoulders. “I’mstarved.”
The last word felt like it was pressed into his ear, and it took everything in Luis not to shiver in reaction.
Just another Friday night.
Chapter Thirteen
The unreturned phone calls from Mom were stacking up. She wanted to come over, she wanted to take him out for dinner, she wanted him to fix her TV remote that kept unpairing.
And Luis… couldn’t find the fucks to give about any of it. He silenced every call and replied to texts with excuses about being busy. Her response texts edged up from annoyance to anger, and her phone calls came one after another until Luis changed her ringtone to silent.
It was a ticking time bomb, but Luis was finding it hard to care. He was preoccupied, instead, with the coming Friday. With the swirling anticipation of what was to come.
Julien’s bite had lowered his levels, but one bite every other week wasn’t enough. Luis was thinking about… more.
On Tuesday, Karim played the word SWEAT in Words with Friends. Luis gave it a day before returning with QUELL off his ‘E’, and getting bonus points on the ‘Q’. That evening he finished work, watched the movie of the week–a 1933 film that featured a happily-ever-after romantic triad–and forced himself not to read into either thing any deeper.
Luis woke Thursday to Karim playing PIQUE off Luis's ‘Q’. He reminded himself that words played in an app game didn’t mean anything.
Thursday evening Luis opened up a browser on his phone and looked up ‘vampire bite haze’.
The first page was entirely porn.
He closed the browser and abandoned his phone for his guitar. He ran through some songs he knew by heart, playing until his hands began to ache.
When the thoughts were still looming that evening in bed, Luis texted the group chat asking if they could help with his treatment Friday.
Julien:Of course, come early for dinner
Karim:Do you like sushi?
There was a stupid, excited smile on his face as he replied that yes, he liked sushi.
On Friday, when Luis finished work, there was a wall of texts from his mother, two more missed calls and voicemail. He swiped all of it away, making his way through a shower and getting dressed with anticipation brimming in his veins.
Cassie called him right as he grabbed his keys to head out, and Luis silenced that one too. He’d been skirting around what was going on in their calls, and Cassie, who knew him better than anyone, knew something was up.
Tomorrow, he promised himself as he locked up and headed down to the car. Tomorrow, he’d call her back and finally tell her everything.
Because maybe tomorrow, he’d have a better sense of what it all meant.
Half an hour later, Luis stood on the doorstep for almost a minute before the door opened.
It was Karim.
“Don’t you have a key?” Karim asked, in lieu of a greeting.
“Uh. Yeah?” Luis did have their housekey on his keyring, but he’d only ever used it that one morning to lock up.
Karim stared at him. “So next time just let yourself in. It’s a big house; we don’t always hear the door. This ancient doorbell Julien had to have only works like half the time.”
“I thought vampire hearing was excellent,” Luis said.
Karim snorted. “Sure, but I insulated this place myself. Nobody’s hearing is good enough to hear the front door from the upstairs bedroom.”
