“Henry has a cousin that attends here. He’s in his junior year, but we take German together. He cornered me after class the day after you got here and told me to stay away or he’d beat my ass unconscious and leave me to drown in the storage shed under the pier.”
Drown, huh? I guess that was how they explained away the snacks the Old One made of trespassers. No way was I letting this buffoon feed my friend to the Old One — not no way, not no how.
“Did he say why?”
“Just that a schollie kid had zero business hanging out with a legacy kid. That there was no use in trying to cozy up to you to get into your pants because someone suitable would be arranged for you. Hell, I didn’t even know you were gay.”
I barked out a short, harsh laugh. “Yeah, no. No one is arranging anyone for me. And yes, I’m very, very gay and out. This prick can go take a jump off the pier at high tide as far as I’m concerned. I’ll have a word with Henry, tell him I want his cuz to mind his own fucking business. And no offense, you’re good looking and all, but I’m just out of a relationship and not looking right now.”
Shannon rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m bi and I think you’re hot. I’m not ashamed to admit that. But honestly, you seemed like you needed a friend and I wanted to be that for you. No ulterior motives at all, I swear.”
I gave him a crooked grin. “You think I’m hot?” I teased.
He snorted. “That’s what you took away from that? Yeah, you’re hot, but I hear you’re not so good at math, so I dunno…”
“Ass,” I said, shaking my head as I walked past him to take a seat at the desk. “Okay, now we have that all aired out, how about you come and make me better at math? “I waggled my eyebrows. “All the hot guys go for math nerds these days, I hear.”
The rest of the tension in his body left him then as he began chuckling. “Uh huh. Totally go for us brainy types. It’s why I’m still single,” he joked.
Oh, if he were Family, I’d be so tempted. I was mourning Michael, but in all honesty, I’d grieved his impending death for so long now, the pain was already dulling. I wished I could say that I wasn’t filled with relief at not being left alone to wallow, to have the excuse to move on without guilt. But he wasn’t Family and even if I took him into my confidence with family permission, he’d remain mortal and die. I doubted permission would be forthcoming now, anyway, no matter how much I might want it. I was high society now and the connections I’d make as River would strengthen the Family’s position. I’d be expected to choose from aiming extended Family or a mortal who was in a position that would greatly benefit our kind. An average guy who was to become an architect who’d have to claw himself a place in his field without the benefits of social and professional connections? Yeah, I had no illusions about that. Still, I could protect him from members of the Family who thought they could hurt him.
I might not be allowed to love him, but Shannon was mine, and you didn’t mess with what I laid claim to.
8
If I ever had any lingering doubts as to the purity of Shannon’s heart, they were dispelled by the end of our tutoring session. He had a way of explaining the concepts in a way that made me feel less stupid at not grasping the idea right away, the way it seemed all of my classmates did. I knew that wasn’t true; not everyone was a whiz kid. Some of them were no doubt merely muddling through with a solid C. I hoped to be able to count myself among them soon, especially once the next weekly test came up. Having it open book was going to really save my bacon. I had to figure out a way to bring my grade in that class up even further, though. A C was not going to cut it when it came to my overall GPA. I’d be in serious shit if it kept me from being able to transfer to a prestigious medical school after graduation, not to mention I’d be very disappointed in myself for not being as good as I should be.
Shannon wouldn’t come to dinner with me, which disappointed me to no end. I didn’t press him, though, as it gave me the perfect opportunity to hook up with Henry and Rusty. We needed to have a serious talk. I wasn’t looking forward to it. Our friendship was still new and, therefore, fragile. Even so, I’d toss them to the Old One myself along with Henry’s cousin if it meant keeping Shannon safe.
Was I being overprotective? Maybe, but if I couldn’t use my new status to protect someone who was a fundamentally decent human being, what was the point of it? Just helping garner more wealth and allow more human Family members to become liches wasn’t enough, not anymore. That’s what I told myself, anyway, ignoring the fact that every time I thought of Shannon since our tutoring session this afternoon, I saw him smiling at me saying he thought I was hot.
I stopped outside of Rusty’s room as he was the dominant half of the pair. Find Rusty and you found Henry. They’d be rooming together, as well as taking most of the same classes, except all room allocations were done randomly, to encourage making new connections within various branches of the Family. Scholarship recipients were roomed on the ground floor, with other scholarship kids and fee-paying non-Family human students.
I knocked and Henry answered. “Oh, hey. What’s up?”
“I had a tutoring session during my afternoon study period,” I told him.
“Oh, yeah, I heard you got asked to stay after class. So that was what Lockwood wanted, huh?” Rusty asked, coming up behind Henry.
“Yeah,” I replied. “He’d already assigned me a tutor and booked a study room and everything.”
“Oh, man, you must have bombed your last test!” Rusty exclaimed. Henry elbowed him. “What?” he demanded, rubbing the spot on his ribs where Henry poked him. Henry gave him a pointed look, then looked meaningfully at my head. “Oh, shit! Your accident made you forget a lot of stuff, huh? Even stuff like math.”
“And let it never been said that Rusty here isn’t sensitive to others’ feelings,” Henry joked.
“Anyways,” I said. “I thought I’d stop by to see if you guys were ready to go eat?”
Henry’s face brightened. During the three short weeks I’d known him, I’d come to learn that he never turned down a good meal or a tasty snack, if either were on offer. “It’s meatloaf night!” he said, bouncing on his toes. “With mashed potatoes and gravy. They usually have apple strudel on meatloaf night!”
“Every Wednesday is meatloaf night,” Rusty reminded him, rolling his eyes. “But yeah, I could eat. Just let me get my key.” He disappeared back inside, reappearing moments later wearing a jacket he was stuffing his room key into a pocket of. “Okay, Let’s go.” He stepped out into the hall, Henry right behind him. The door shut with an audible snick, but he tugged on the handle anyway to make sure it latched correctly. The doors had one of those automatic locks on them, but if they weren’t pulled all the way to properly, they didn’t latch quite right and a good jiggle might give someone entry.
We started down the hallway and I tried to figure out how to ask my friends about the Shannon situation without causing a ruckus. I wanted to avoid one if I could. If it was a mere misunderstanding or if Henry’s cousin was acting out on his own, I didn’t want to end up on the outs with my buddies because I’d come across as confrontational. But I also wanted to let them know I wouldn’t stand for any bullshit, especially where Shannon was concerned. He’d made himself my first friend here, the very day we met.
“So, Henry, I understand you have a cousin here that’s an upperclassman.”
Henry looked surprised at my choice of conversation topic but blinked and answered me anyway. “Yeah, Roy. He’s a right asshole, though. I try to avoid him. He didn’t care that I was his cousin and the heir. He used to give me swirlies when we both attended prep here, and before that, he’d break my toys when he and his parents visited. Why? He done something?” Henry’s voice sounded resigned.
“You could say that. The day I arrived I was assigned a guide, a sophomore named Shannon Lockwood. Real nice guy, friendly. I told him I was worried about my math classes and he offered to tutor me, only the next day, he started ghosting me. Then today, he was the guy Professor Lambert assigned to help me and I asked him why he was avoiding me. He said your cousin accused him of being a poor scholarship gold digger of a guy out to seduce a wealthy Legacy and threatened to beat him up and stuff him into the storage building under the boardwalk to drown.”
