Too bad it couldn’t help me face what was really bothering me.
Still talking about his Shopping Quest, Damien led me though the main room of the dorm. I waved at the various clumps of girls clustered around the pods of flat-screen TVs as we headed to the little side room that served as a computer lab and library. Damien opened the door and my friends broke into a totally off-key chorus of “Happy Birthday to You.” I heard Nala hiss and from the edge of my vision watched her back from the doorway and trot away down the hall. Coward, I thought, even though I wished I could escape with her.
Song over (thankfully), my gang swarmed me.
“Happy-happy!” said the Twins together. Okay—they’re not genetically twins. Erin Bates is a very white girl from Tulsa and Shaunee Cole is a lovely caramel-colored girl of Jamaican-American descent who grew up in Connecticut, but the two are so freakishly alike that skin tone and region make absolutely no difference. They’re soul twins, which is way closer than mere biology.
“Happy birthday, Z,” said a deep, sexy voice I knew very, very well. I stepped out of the twin sandwich and walked into the arms of my boyfriend, Erik. Well, technically, Erik is one of my two boyfriends, but the other is Heath, a human teenager I dated before I was Marked and I’m not supposed to be dating him now, but I kinda sorta accidentally sucked his blood and now we’re Imprinted and so he’s my boyfriend by default. Yes, it’s confusing. Yes, it makes Erik mad. Yes, I expect him to dump me any day because of it.
“Thanks,” I murmured looking up at him and getting trapped all over again in his incredible eyes. Erik is tall and hot, with Superman dark hair and incredibly blue eyes. I relaxed in his arms, a treat I hadn’t allowed myself much of during the past month, and temporarily basked in his yummy smell and the sense of security I felt when I was close to him. He met my gaze and, just like in the movies, for a second everyone else went away and it was just us. When I didn’t move out of his arms his smile was slow and a little surprised, which made my heart hurt. I’d been putting the kid through way too much—and he didn’t even really understand why. Impulsively, I tiptoed and kissed him, much to the general merriment of my friends.
“Hey, Erik, why don’t you spread some of that birthday sugar around?” Shaunee wagged her eyebrows at my grinning boyfriend.
“Yeah, sweet thang,” Erin said, and in typical twin fashion mirrored Shaunee’s eye waggle. “How about a little b-day kiss over here.”
I rolled my eyes at the twins. “Uh, it’s not his birthday. You only get to kiss the birthday boy or girl.”
“Damn,” Shaunee said. “I lurve ya, Z, but I don’t want to kiss ya.”
“Just please with the same-sex kissing,” Erin said, then she grinned at Damien (who was gazing adoringly at Erik). “I’ll leave that to Damien.”
“Huh?” Damien said, clearly paying more attention to Erik’s cuteness than the Twins.
“Again, we say—” Shaunee started.
“Wrong team!” and Erin finished.
Erik laughed good-naturedly, gave Damien a very guy-like punch on the arm, and said, “Hey, if I ever decide to change teams, you’ll be the first to know.” (Yet another reason why I adore him. He’s mega-cool and popular, but he accepts people how they are and never gets an I’m-all-that attitude.)
“Uh, I hope I’ll be the first to know if you change teams,” I said.
Erik laughed and hugged me, whispering, “Not something you ever need to worry about,” in my ear.
While I was seriously considering sneaking another Erik kiss, a mini-whirlwind in the form of Damien’s boyfriend, Jack Twist, burst into the room.
“Yea! She hasn’t opened her presents yet. Happy birthday, Zoey!” Jack threw his arms around us (yes, Damien and me) and gave us a big hug.
“I told you that you needed to hurry up,” Damien said, as we untangled.
“I know, but I had to make sure it was wrapped just right,” Jack said. With a flourish that only a gay boy can pull off, he reached into the man purse looped over his arm and lifted out a box wrapped in red foil with a green sparkly bow on it that was so big it practically swallowed the package. “I made the bow myself.”
“Jack’s really good at crafts,” Erik said. “He’s just not good at cleaning up the crafts.”
“Sorry,” Jack said sweetly. “I promise I’ll clean up right after the party.”
Erik and Jack are roommates, further proving Erik’s coolness. He’s a fifth former (in normal language that’s a junior) and he’s also easily the most popular guy at school. Jack is a third former (a freshman), a new kid, cute but kinda dorky, and definitely gay. Erik could have made a big deal about being stuck with a queer and could have gotten out of rooming with him, and made Jack’s life hell at the House of Night. Instead he totally took him under his wing and treats him like a little brother, a treatment he extends to Damien, who has been officially going out with Jack for two point five weeks as of today. (We all know because Damien is ridiculously romantic and he celebrates the half-week anniversaries as well as the weekly ones. Yes, it makes the rest of us gag. In a nice way.)
“Hello! Speaking of presents!” Shaunee said.
“Yeah, bring that overbowed box over here to the present table and let Zoey get to opening,” Erin said.
I heard Jack whisper to Damien, “Overbowed?” and caught Damien’s help look, as he assured Jack, “No, it’s perfect!”
“I’ll carry it over to the table and open it first.” I snatched the package from him, hurried to the table, and started to carefully extract the ginormous green sparkly bow from the red foil saying, “I think I’m going to save this bow because it’s so cool.” Damien gave me a thank-you wink. I heard Erik and Shaunee snickering and managed to kick one of them, which shut both of them up. Putting the bow aside I unwrapped and opened the little box and pulled out . . .
Oh, jeesh.
“A snow globe,” I said, trying to sound happy. “With a snowman inside it.” Okay, a snowman snow globe is not a birthday present. It’s a Christmas decoration. A cheesy Christmas decoration at that.
“Yeah! Yeah! And listen to what it plays!” Jack said, practically hopping up and down in excitement as he took the globe from me and wound a knob in its base so that “Frosty the Snowman” started tinkling out around us in painfully cheap and off-key notes.
“Thank you, Jack. It’s really pretty,” I lied.
“Glad you like it,” Jack said. “It’s kinda a theme for your birthday.” Then he shot his eyes over to Erik and Damien. The three of them grinned at each other like bad little boys.
I planted a smile on my face. “Oh, well, good. Then I’d better open the next present.”
“Mine’s next!” Damien handed me a long, soft box.
Smile wedged in place, I started to open the box, though I couldn’t help wishing I could turn into a cat and hiss and run from the room.
Copyright © 2008 by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. All rights reserved.
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