Better Off Red (31 page)

It was easier to sneak texts in a crowded lecture hall than it was at a

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reBekah WeatherspOOn

small table, but it wouldn’t hurt if I took the ten minutes to call her.

I stood to make a break for the door, but Greg was on his feet at the same time, an expectant look on his face.

“You want to go for a walk?” he asked.

Damn it. “Yeah, sure.”

He nodded toward the stacks and I followed.

“Marshall gave me a skeleton key to the whole campus,” he whispered, pulling a golden key from his pocket. My mind went right to the gutter. I bit my tongue because the only thing I wanted to ask him was what he had to do to get that key. Greg was cool and all, but he was not up for that kind of making fun. I just nodded back.

I imagined there were plenty of neat nooks and forbidden places all over campus. I found the most important space under a certain sorority house. I didn’t feel the need to go searching for more. Greg was probably still looking.

He led me to a door in a spooky, quiet corner in the back of the building. The corner was a perfect make-out spot. It was dark and lined with stacks filled with books that looked like they hadn’t been checked out since the late seventies. He checked behind us before opening the heavy door. Then he ushered me onto the dark landing.

I looked around as he closed us in. I’d seen the stairwell from the outside every day, and every day, I’d ignored it.

“Okay,” I said quietly, trying to avoid an echo. “This is cool.”

The fourth floor of the library was just like every other building on campus, beige and blue with white walls and wood trim. The brick encased stairwell was made of a dusty concrete that ran the height of the building against its rear. Every landing had a large window that looked out over the campus. The lights were out, and the ventilation was crappy, but the air was cool. I peeked over the railing and looked down the white, rectangular spiral to the first floor. I had to high five Greg. This was the perfect study break spot to hide in.

“Come on. The stadium looks awesome from there.” He pointed up. We ran to the top floor, taking the steps two at a time.

When I reached the top, I was laughing breathlessly.

Greg was right. You could see the whole campus, including the football stadium that was lit up for a night practice. I couldn’t

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stop myself from thinking of Camila and the night we’d spent in her penthouse only a few short weeks before. I was over the mishaps of that morning after. She was caught up on her sleep. I didn’t see why we couldn’t spend another night downtown with our toys and an alarm clock, just in case.

“So how’s it going?”

I turned around. Greg was leaning against the brick wall.

“Pretty good, I guess. I want to get this test over with, but everything else is good. How are things with you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow to him.

“Better. I mean, same shit, but better.”

“How’s everything with the guys and stuff?”

His throat contracted as he swallowed and straightened up against the wall. “It’s cool. I—I’m not gay.”

“Greg, I know. You’re with Samantha, remember? How are things with her?” Great job, Ginger. Bring up the girlfriend, not all the anal sex you know he’s having and maybe loving. I figured he would appreciate that, but he just grunted and shrugged.

“She’s all right.”

“I thought things were going pretty well with you guys. She missed curfew twice because of you.” I tried to tease him.

“Yeah, well, I heard you got promoted to like Most Important Freshman or some shit.”

I snorted, instantly annoyed. Here I was trying to talk to Greg, trying to see if he was the type to go mental and snap Samantha’s neck in a fit of sexually confused rage. I was looking out for her, and her nosy, big-mouthed ass was talking about me and Camila behind my back.

“Is that what Samantha told you?”

“She said you’re dating the head bi—” He caught himself right before I punched him in the nuts. “Sam said things had actually gotten serious with you and the sister-queen Camila. You guys are actually dating.”

“We are. And I wouldn’t refer to her as a bitch, Greg. Rodrick answers to her. And she is my girlfriend.”

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“I know. My bad. I just…” he said. “I’m sorry. For real.” He took my silence as a cue to keep his mouth shut while I cooled down. I knew he was confused and going through a rough time, but manners were manners and casual name-calling, especially in this case, was not okay. He didn’t know Camila, and he obviously didn’t know what she meant to me.

“So you can do that, like, date them?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. His question reminded me how clueless he was to my situation. “I mean we just clicked, I guess. Dating them isn’t off-limits; it’s just not the norm.”

“What happens when you graduate or if you want to break up with her? Not afraid she won’t suck you dry in a fit of vampire madness?”

“No. I’m not,” I replied, shaking my head. “It’s been ten minutes. Let’s go back.”

“Okay. So you’re a lesbian now or what? You’re done screwing dudes?” he asked as we started back down.

I didn’t know how to explain things to him so he would understand, because he wouldn’t. I had no desire to be with a guy, but then I had no desire to be with anyone but Camila.

My throat ran dry at the thought. I didn’t want to be with anyone but her, ever. And here was Greg, casually playing off his relationship with Samantha who did walk around campus, hanging off his arm like she was the head bitch. All the while he’s taking to his secret sex life with an aggression that was making vampires nervous. He wouldn’t get a simple explanation of love that saw past whatever was between Camila’s legs and right to her amazing heart and her immortal soul. Greg didn’t deserve an explanation.

He accepted the silent treatment I gave him, keeping any other questions he had to himself. I pushed open the door, grateful it didn’t make a sound, and marched back toward our group.

Samantha was standing next to our table talking to Alison.

“Hey,” she whisper-shouted when she saw Greg. She scowled when she saw me. I rolled my eyes right back at her. As if I would mack on her pig of a boyfriend. “Hey,” she muttered at me.

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“Hi, Sam,” I said, taking my seat next to Judd. Greg leaned down and let Samantha kiss him. Her face lit up all over again.

“How’d you find me?” Greg asked.

“Your hat.” His Cubs hat was sitting on the table. I wanted to burn that hat. “Is there room for me?”

“Yeah,” I said. I ignored Judd’s frozen shock and started packing up my books. “I’m going to go.”

“We haven’t started chapter four yet,” Alison whined. Her eyes were begging me to stay, but I couldn’t. Judd offered to cram with me the night before the test if I was still up for it. I told him I’d let him know. For now, I had to get the hell away from Samantha before I slapped her or Greg. Or stabbed one of them with a pencil.

I grumbled my good-byes and headed for the stairs.

“I don’t know what the fuck her problem is,” I heard Samantha mutter as I went. I almost reconsidered the pencil. And the slap.

I stepped out of the library and got a few feet closer to the engineering building before I realized I hadn’t called for an escort.

It was dark and windy and there was no one around. Perfect setting for me to get mugged by some transient passing through campus.

I was so pissed, I didn’t know who to call. I didn’t want to bother the OBA boys. Micah was busy with Anna-Jade, and I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with Cleo’s comedy hour.

I pulled out my phone and stared at my list of recent contacts.

I called Camila.

“Miss me already, baby?” she said as she answered. I felt terrible for not being in a playful mood, but a sudden sob bubbled from my chest.

“Red, what’s wrong?”

“I’m at the library. Can you come get me?” I walked back toward the entrance and hid behind one of the marble pillars.

“I’ll be right there.” She hung up, and not four seconds later she was there, gently holding my cheeks in her hands. She still spent most of her time in her apartment in her underwear, but she’d thrown on some jeans and she was wearing my black ABO hoodie with my name stitched into the arm. She looked like another college student, minus the fangs.

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reBekah WeatherspOOn

“
Querida
, what’s the matter?” she said. She still only whipped out her Spanish when she was really upset. I looked into her eyes and just burst out crying. She took my hand and led me over to a small bench on the side of the building. Two guys came walking from the direction of the cafeteria. They didn’t notice us, which was good. I felt like enough of a complete fool for crying in the middle of campus. I didn’t need people pointing and laughing.

I took a few deep breaths, trying to flush out the irrational tears.

I couldn’t believe I’d let something Greg said and then Samantha, make me cry. I swallowed and wiped my face with the back of my hand.“Greg—he. God, he’s such an asshole.”

Her gentle expression fell. “What did he do?”

“Nothing, he was just asking me about you and then he called you a bitch.” I sniffed and huffed some more before I kept going.

“Well, he started to, but he stopped himself. And then Sam showed up and the two of them were acting like I’m the one who had the problem.”

She laughed gently, pulling me toward her. “Aw, baby. Don’t let them bother you.”

“You’re not mad?”

“No,” she said, stroking my cheek gently. “Between myself and Greg, I’m pretty sure I know who would win in a fight. And Samantha is just Samantha. Ignore them.”

“I—the way he was talking about you. I love you,” I said. “I don’t want anyone talking shit about you.”

“I love you, too. And I’m not worried about anything Greg has to say. You should have heard Tokyo when I banned her from bringing her feeders down to Moreland’s. She called me a lot worse.”

“She did?” I gasped. “What did you do?”

“I punched her across the room. But we’ve gotten along great ever since,” she said with a fangy grin.

“Greg said Sam told him that I got ‘promoted’ to most important freshman or some crap just because I’m dating you. You know I don’t even give a crap about all this Greek stuff or being popular. I just—I just want to be with you. And pass chem.”

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“Come on.” She stood and took my hand. “I’m taking you home. I’ll help you study for your test and then we can have sex, okay?” she said, playfully pouting her way through the last bit. I laughed, sniffling one last time, and stood beside her.

“Are you just going to vanish us back to the house?”

“No,” she said as we started walking.

“Why not?”

“Because we can only travel with inanimate objects. If I poofed you back to the house with me, your heart would stop, and that’s if the stroke didn’t kill you first.”

“Nice night for a walk isn’t it.” I smiled cheerfully.

Camila’s middle finger tickled my palm. “It’s just what I had in mind.”

• 235 •

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Better Off red

We walked slowly back to her place, hand in hand. I was happy just to be with her, and by the time we got back to her apartment beneath the ABO house, I had almost completely forgotten about my stupid lab partner and his stupid girlfriend.

Camila and I crawled into her bed and she helped me review my chem notes. And then as she promised, she sexed me perfectly to sleep. She was dozing peacefully beside me the next morning, and as I looked at her beautiful face I couldn’t believe I had let Greg and Samantha get under my skin. The two of them were so screwed up and in a way, so perfect for each other. If Greg’s refusal to deal with what was going on in his head got Samantha hurt, well, that would be awful, but that didn’t mean I had to care what they thought about things that were so clearly not their business.

I kissed my sleeping beauty on her soft lips and smiled as she shifted closer to me under the sheets. I had the most amazing girlfriend in the world. She was intelligent, sweet, funny, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous, immortal, and mutant strong. And she loved me. I had made some great friends in Alpha Beta Omega, plus I had my ever-perky roommate, but Camila was the most important person in the world to me. Her happiness mattered, not the stupid things the likes of Greg and Samantha had to say.

Camila’s eyes fluttered open when I kissed her again. And as she greeted me with her own hello and special brand of good

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morning, I made up my mind I wasn’t going to care anymore about people who meant so little to me.

The first thing Greg did the next time I saw him was apologize.

He pulled me aside a couple days later on our way out of class and said a bunch of crap about being out of line and understanding just how important Camila was to all of us, how much she cared about all of us. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but it wasn’t worth it. I accepted his apology and made a point to keep a cordial distance from him for a few weeks.

Things eased, because I’m just that nice of a person, and Greg wasn’t so bad when he watched his mouth. I had no idea what was going on over at the OBA house in terms of his “feeding aggression,”

but Rodrick and Camila never brought it up again, so I figured he’d finally mellowed out.

I followed Camila’s advice and flat out ignored Samantha. I wasn’t mean to her or anything, but I stayed away from unnecessary small talk, and I never mentioned Camila in front of her. Camila was that special to me. If someone couldn’t respect what we had, then they had no right to hear any of the amazing things I had to say about her. Unfortunately, Sam wasn’t the real problem.

As the weeks passed, more people started to openly—in that sneaky gossipy sort of way—speculate about what exactly was going on between Camila and me. I’d been in such a love-induced sex haze when we first started dating I hadn’t noticed the shifty looks I was getting from some other members of Alpha Beta Omega.