Page 33 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

“You think my family’s fucked up, don’t you?” he said.

“I mean . . . yeah.” I shrugged. “It kinda is.”

He snorted. “And you don’t even know the half of it.” He leaned back, so his shoulders touched the glass, and dropped his head back. Then he drank some more, like that—posed, gaze on the ceiling, drowning himself in alcohol.

I felt bad for him, I really did. Vampire or not, everyone deserved to feel loved. The people who didn’t know love deserved it the most.

He tilted his head my way, keeping it resting against the glass, and gave me that careless smirk. “Tell me some shit about your life so I don’t feel like a hot mess in front of you. You can’t be this perfect golden boy you show the world. I know you got secrets.”

He did this, switched the topic onto someone else when the conversation got uncomfortable. He was good at it too. The tactic had probably served him well in public when he’d needed to avoid being too honest. I saw it for what it was—avoiding the painful stuff. Look somewhere else, don’t look at me while I drown.

I smiled and looked around us, at the pool, the big house, the fancy room behind me, not really seeing any of it. “You don’t want to hear my drama.”

“Then tell me you’re not perfect, it’ll make me feel better.”

“Fine.” I leaned a shoulder against the door frame next to him. “So . . . there was a guy.”

“A guy, huh?” he teased, taking another drink.

“Yeah, a guy.” He’d be passed out again soon from the alcohol, and would probably forget all of this by morning anyway. “Despite the million red flags, I fell hard.”

“You like ’em bad?” he purred, teasing.

I ignored him and stared out the window at the serene play of light on the pool’s surface. “He uh . . . Well, I found out he wasn’t who I thought he was. By then, I was in too deep.” I didn’t want to look up and see Theo’s smirk. “I did some things for him, should have known better. Things I regret.”

Theo fell quiet for a little while, his smile fading.

“Did karma get him?” he asked quietly.

I did that thing where you smile even though there’s nothing to smile about. “Ha, no. Karma came for me instead.”

I waited for the spiral, the one my therapist had drilled into me. “You made mistakes. Mistakes aren’t who you are. You did your time. The guilt’s allowed to be there, you just don’t have to hand it the wheel.” I’d written it on an index card. Read it at red lights. Some days I almost believed it.

“Fuck karma, then,” he said.

“Yeah,” I snorted.

“I’ll be your karma.”

His voice had dropped, going all low and slow, and a little trickle of something dark and dangerous traveled all the way down my spine to places that wanted to be touched. “I’ll be your karma.” I heard the tone behind it as “I’ll do bad things for you.”

I glanced over and saw the truth of the offer in his shrewd eyes. Was he offering to get revenge for me, and if he was, why was that so hot?

“Ah, no, I’m good.” I cleared my throat, trying to smooth the soreness Bentley’s hand had left me with. “It’s a bit late for that, honestly.”

He sighed and took a pull of straight vodka. “See, we have shit in common. We’re both idiot screwups.”

“Go, us,” I said dryly.

Theo laughed. I liked the sound of that laugh, when it was soft and real and not laced with sarcasm or showiness.

We both stayed there a while, him leaning back against the glass, me against the doorframe, looking at the pool and the orange-tinted stars silently pinpricking the sky above. I needed to get home soon but didn’t much feel like leaving. For all Theo’s outgoing sassiness, I was beginning to understand how his every day was a battle for survival.

“What happened while I was out?” Theo asked.

I told him about the two maintenance guys and my bluffing, which had him laughing.

“Shit, I am sorry, Owen.” He chuckled. “Just don’t leak blood around me in future, then I promise not to pass out at the worst times. But if you’re gonna start randomly bleeding, you gotta warn me.”