Page 83 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

“Hey, so . . .” I followed him in, letting the door close behind me. “I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a party going on downstairs, and its star isn’t there. He kinda invited me, so . . .you coming down?”

“Maybe.”

I was definitely getting solemn vibes. I set my wine glass down on a sideboard and ambled closer. “You okay?”

“Like you care, pool boy. You just work here.”

Alright then. We’d found the tone, so at least I knew where I stood. “Huh . . . I guess.” He didn’t want me here. That was fine. I played with the ring on my finger. Jay’s ring. Yes, I stole it after saying I’d turned over a new leaf and was good Owen now. I was borrowing it. “I can . . . I’ll go, then, if you like.”

“No, dumbass.” He snorted. “I’m being a bitch because you’re an easy target and I’m in a mood. Get that cute ass over here.”

I didn’t move until he turned his head and smiled, softening his hard tone. Damn, Theo confused me. Did he want me here or not? We’d kissed, and now I was getting iced out, but my ass was cute. What was any of this anyway? Did he want company? Did he want me gone so he could brood? I wanted to be here. I’d come back after seeing insane things. That had to say something, didn’t it?

I made my way over to the window and stopped on the side opposite him. We looked down at the pool and the fifty or so people crowded around it. Some were in the water, in shorts and bikinis, wine glasses held aloft. Very Miami.

“Is the pool safe?” Theo asked.

“Probably.” I should have been back to check it, but I’d been avoiding the house. And Theo’s calls. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be here,” I said softly, keeping my eyes on the pool.

He looked over, silently reading me. He did that a lot. Thinking too fast behind those eyes. I wasn’t sure what he saw in me, but whatever it was, he returned his gaze to the pool and the smiley people. “Most everyone down there is a shade of gray. People do good and bad shit. I see it all now, Owen, brighter than before. I judge them before they’ve even opened their mouth, I can’t help it. I see their souls like neon signs. At least one person in that crowd has done something most people would consider vile. No wonder these are mother’s people.”

I didn’t want to ask, but felt as though he was leading me into it. “What’s my neon sign say?”

He didn’t answer or look over, and that was worse. It had to be bad, for him not to laugh it off. Oh heck, I was psychopath. A bunny-boiling Ted Bundy. I might as well hand myself in and get it over with.

“You’re not as bad as you think,” he said, keeping his voice level and his gaze on the crowd. “But you’ve got some shit going on.”

It didn’t help, knowing he could see my sins. Or maybe it did? Maybe it was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t hide from Theo, even if I wanted to. But he was still here. Still talking to me. Still thought I had a cute ass.

“I don’t care, by the way.” Now he looked over. A little curl of dark hair flopped over his eye. “It’s just . . . it’s a lot. Not you. All of it. I mean, I knew it was all bullshit, the front people put on, but the people I thought I knew, I see them differently now. I don’t want to know them like this. And then there’s the hunger. You saw it by the pool after we dealt with Jeremy. I can’t ignore it. It’s behind everything I do. I didn’t like who I was then, and now I really don’t like who I am.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “I don’t know if I can do this, Owen. I don’t think I can be everything everyone else wants me to be. I’ll suffocate, or drown, or something.”

I wasn’t going to tell him everything would be fine. I wasn’t that kind of person. “Yeah . . . I know that feeling.”

We fell quiet for a few minutes, both of us thinking.

“Thank you, for doing what you did. Saving me,” he said.

“No worries.”

“You did also transition me, which kinda sucks, honestly, but here we are.”

“What was I supposed to do, let you drown?”

He shrugged, as though that had been an option.

No. There was that denial again. Fierce and cold. “Hey.” I stepped a little closer. “That’s not the answer, you know that, right? Don’t give up.”

“Why? I hate all of this. I hate what I’m becoming, hate my place in . . . things . . .”

Things? What things? Now wasn’t the time. It might never be the time with me. But I couldn’t let him get himself down when he was probably the best person here. The best of a bad bunch, anyway.

“Hey, so . . .” I chewed on my lip because what I was about to say was a truth I didn’t want to share, but I’d done a lot of thinking over the past few days, and here it was. “When I saw you fall into the pool, and I went in after you, there was a second there, a few seconds actually, that I thought you were gone. And those were the worst few seconds of my life. And well, I’ve had a few really, really bad days, so . . .”

His eyes widened as my meaning sunk in.

“Forget everyone else, they don’t know you. I think I’m getting to know you, and it would be a real shame if that Theo—” I poked him in his chest, his real firm chest. “Wasn’t around anymore, is all I’m sayin’.”

“I won’t age. This is me. Hot mess party boy forever. Forever is a long fucking time to be Theo Witherborne.”