Page 78 of Blood Lovers

Anyway, on this day I was just going to get a drink from the fountain and this took me past Myer and his crew.

It wasn’t even planned. Not the way the other girls did it. I think every girl in our class had made that same walk to the drinking fountain, hoping to get a smile out of Myer. And they knew this, so they were smirking at me. And I wasn’t even doing it to make Myer look. I was just… thirsty. And didn’t even think about how he would take it.

They didn’t say anything rude. No one really talked to me, except for Zusi. But I could hear them quietly laughing.

I wasn’t paying any attention to them, just focused on walking. But then my eye caught his and I did a double-take. One of those Holy shit, is he looking at me? kind of looks.

Then he smiled and I quickly looked away and kept going to the drinking fountain. But my heart was racing inside my chest.

He was cute. Very handsome. And rich. He came from a good family. All his friends did. None of them had any reason to even acknowledge I existed, let alone smile at me.

No one was mean to me. No one bullied me. They simply ignored me.

Zusi came from a lower-class family and I’m pretty sure some—or maybe all—of her tuition was paid for because she was assigned the role of my best friend.

But we got along great. Like two peas in a pod.

“So what do you think it means?” Younger me is sitting up a little in bed now, hand propping up her chin. “Do you think he likes me?”

“Of course he likes you. Who wouldn’t like you?”

Both of me smile when she says this. Because even though she knew I wasn’t one of them and didn’t belong in the Guild school, she never accepted it.

That’s why it took me so long to understand.

That’s why, when Myer slipped a note into my hand as I was walking out of the library a couple days later, asking me to meet him that evening at at the dock, I went.

We did kiss. And it was nice for about five minutes. But then his hands were all over me.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t really object, I was just surprised. And this was my first experience with a boy. I was stupidly thinking we’d go somewhere and have a coffee or something.

He wanted to have sex and we would’ve too. I wasn’t going to say no. Not because I was particularly ready for this moment, more because I just didn’t know how to get out of it once his hand was between my legs.

But we got caught. An officer came out of nowhere, yelling for Myer to get away from me.

At the time, it almost felt like a rescue. But looking back now, I don’t think the officer was saving me.

I think he was saving Myer.

“How did you not notice?”

I look to my left and there’s Paul. We’re shoulder to shoulder, staring into each other’s eyes as the purple haze slithers up the walls of the dorm room.

“Notice what?”

“That you were ostracized.” He almost laughs these words out.

I huff. “Ostracized? That’s a joke. I wasn’t ostracized. I just wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t take a lot of their classes. And I think most of them went out of their way to make sure I didn’t feel ostracized.”

“Or perhaps you went out of your way to remain ignorant.” He’s not laughing now. He’s completely serious.

“So? What’s your point?”

He turns his body to face me, then reaches up and places a hand on my cheek, touching me tenderly as I stare into those ice-blue eyes of his. “My point is, they’re not what you think, Syrsee.”

“And let me guess, you’re not what I think, either.”

“Oh, I’m exactly what you think. I’m not lying to you. And if you think I come to you in this beautiful body because I want to trick you, you’re wrong. You know what I really look like. I came to you like that first, so you’d know who I was. And there would be no pretenses between us for what comes next.”