And realized he’d forgotten about his cheek.
“Oh my god,what happened?!”Cassie shouted.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Luis said immediately, turning that cheek away from the camera. Shame made his face hot.
“Luis,” she said so softly it almost broke his heart. “Did she…?”
“Please, just–could you talk? About anything that’s not this. I just need–I need to not be here right now,” Luis said.
Cassie stared at him through the phone and then nodded. God, he loved her. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.”
Luis grabbed his toothbrush as Cassie started talking.
She began by telling him about her new ‘mortal enemy’ in the lab–a woman doing similar research to Cassie, who continued to use her equipment and book all the same hours in the lab so Cassie couldn’t work in peace. It was a whole thing.
Luis listened as he brushed his teeth, washed his face, and detangled his curls. Her voice faded into a soothing background sound that kept his thoughts from wandering.
He was so, so grateful for her.
##
Julien:Do you have plans next weekend?
The text came Tuesday evening just after sundown.
Luis:I don’t.
Julien:We’d like to see you.
Luis:I’m taking you to the bar on Friday?
Julien:We were thinking of something additional.
Additional? A separate text came in, from Karim.
Karim:we’re asking you to hang out next weekend, Julien can’t just get to the point.
Luis snorted.
Luis:I’m free, what do you have in mind?
Julien:Karim and I thought we might invite you over for the whole weekend, if you were free. You could stay in one of our guest rooms.
The whole weekend? That… was different.
Luis’s heart was suddenly pounding.
Luis:All weekend?
Karim:like a sleepover except classier because Julien won’t let us have a naked pillow fight.
Luis choked.
Julien:Ignore him. But yes, an extended social call.
Luis shouldn’t. He shouldn’t get more involved with vampires. It would only make his mom angrier.
But–but his mother wasn’t talking to him currently. Maybe she never would again.
