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booksabakingThursday
To say Arturo ambushed her in the kitchen would be an exaggeration, but not by much. She'd been filling up a bowl with cereal all on her lonesome, only to turn around and find him standing by the table, a folder in hand and a grim look of determination fixated on her.
"Good morning?"
"Do you have a moment?"
A laugh escaped Jayla, nerves fighting with how overly dramatic this face-off had to look. "Sure. Is this the weirdly serious confession conversation that Vivian's been foreshadowing?"
Arturo hovered by the table until she took a seat. He gave off huge 'panicking during a job interview'-vibes which got Jayla's adrenaline pumping out of pure empathy. He opened the folder without preamble.
"You going to tell me what I'm looking at or am I supposed to guess?"
Around them the house was eerily silent even for a Thursday morning. Had Arturo waited for everyone to leave before talking to her? Combined with his keyed-up energy this could have been downright threatening, if he hadn't looked close to vomiting from stress. Jayla got the impulse to take his hand or hug him but kept herself from doing either. He'd never come across as the touchy-feely type. He might scratch her like a cornered cat if she tried to reach for him for all she knew.
After two false starts, Arturo said, "I have violated your privacy and I am deeply sorry to have done so."
"Uhm, what?"
Arturo's explanation rushed out in a barely understandable flood of noise: "When Melissa turned you, I wrongfully suspected you of putting yourself in the way of a bite, with the aim to infiltrate our home. I therefore dug through all available data on you that I could get my hands on. I have since then deleted everything I downloaded, but I printed out and summarized what I learned before I did. So you'd know."
He pulled two pages out of the folder. While the top one had been mostly text that she hadn't the focus to skim through, these two had the occasional picture thrown in; photographs of her from her driver's license and from school photo days. She stared at the papers, then at Arturo, in pure disbelief.
"I am well aware that this invasion is unforgivable. In spite of this, I hope you feel safe enough to live here and interact with the rest of the pack. They had no knowledge of what I planned to do and voiced their clear disapproval when they found out what I'd done, after the fact."
Jayla numbly flipped through the handful of pages before her. Place and date of birth. Notes on her family. Her school. A confirmation that she didn't turn up in any criminal databases. Her old, abandoned Facebook account. Her fandom accounts.
"This is..." She scrambled for anything to say. Is this what getting hit by lightning feels like?
"I preserved this information in paper form so you'd know what I'd read. I'm the only one in the house who's read this information. If you can think of any way I can begin to make amends for this, please inform the others and I'll attempt to accommodate you. I have of course already begun working on the agreed upon Alzheimer's Research Project's online presence. I will not be counting that toward compensating you."
This was getting out of hand, quick.
"Okay, let me get this straight." Jayla closed the folder, giving Arturo her full attention. "You did a background check on me, to make sure I wasn't working for one the superpowered serial killer cults you're very aware are real and out there?"
"Which you evidently weren't."
"That's besides the point." She tried to weight her chaotic emotions against each other, figuring out which way they leaned. "If you'd gone looking for this information about me with no good reason, I'd be beyond pissed, but..."
"There's no excuse for this." Arturo waved at the folder as if it were a dead rat.
"Shouldn't I be the one who has the final say about that?"
Arturo's lips got paler as he pressed them together into a painful line. She waited and downed a few spoons of cereal despite her stomach twisting itself into knots of anger, stress and sympathy, all battling it out inside her Hunger Games style. She genuinely couldn't decide how she felt about what he'd done. She wasn't fine with it, not by a long shot, but there's a difference between being angry with someone who'd kicked you to hurt you and being upset with someone who'd kicked you believing you were the person who'd bullied their little sister. That was the closest parallel she could come up with from personal experience.
"Then what do you propose I do?" Arturo held all the tension of a rubber band extended to its maximum length. Again, it would have been threatening if he wasn't looking at her like she were twice his size and ready to punch him. "I am open to all suggestions."
She tried to place his tone. Other than terrified. Did he actually think she was about to hit him? If so, he looked to be bracing for it rather than preparing to dodge.
Jayla stared down into her remaining cereal, growing ever soggier in its milk bath. What would be the fairest way to deal with this? She had zero desire to punch or slap the man. If she'd stumbled upon this info being kept from her, she might have, on pure impulse. Yes, he'd obviously been keeping this from her for a while, but they'd been busy dealing with other problems and Vivian claimed to have been hounding him about it for days. Meaning he must have told the pack immediately after realizing she wasn't a threat. Therefore, he hadn't tried to get away with it, simply put off this confrontation. She could relate to that.
Also, it wasn't even 9 am yet, she'd seen this man beat half to hell yesterday, she had a D&D character planned out and a job to panic about. Among the mess of her emotions, one eventually won out.
"Tell me about yourself."
She might as well have slapped him, with the face he made. "I'm sorry?"
"I know you are, so tell me about you." She leaned back in her chair, scooped up more soggy cereal, let herself accept how bone-tired she was. "You know a scary amount about me now. Seems fair I should know more about you."
Arturo merely stared at her.
"If you do that, and give me all your character's magical items when we play next Sunday, I'll consider us square. Deal?" Please say deal!
Unexpectedly, Arturo's reaction was a slow, serious nod.
"Wow. Honestly didn't expect you to be on board with my 'plan'."
"To quote you, you should have the final say in this. I will not deny you that. Your proposal is a fair one. More than fair." He absentmindedly began to rip the folder pages into thin strips. "At what point in my life do you wish for me to begin?"
"Hmm..."
Jayla spent the rest of her breakfast learning where Arturo had grown up (various towns in the south of Texas), who his favorite relative had been (his grandmother on his father's side), what he'd been working as for most of his life (more or less legal programming jobs) and when he'd had his first kiss (with a boy named Marcus behind the bleachers after gym class in 8th grade), among other bonding info.
Of course she couldn't keep the conversation one-sided. After three bowls of cereal and a burnt attempt at toast, Arturo knew a fair deal about her previous relationships, her reasons for leaving high school without graduating, and where she'd been considering asking Isha out on a date to. The one topic they both avoided was Jesse, without either of them saying why out loud.
Somewhere around them sharing their high school experiences, Arturo had unearthed a bottle of whiskey from a cabinet and wordlessly poured both of them a glass. Jayla hesitated for less than a second. She was a werewolf. It was Thursday. She didn't have work until Monday.
Neither did her vampire companion, it seemed, with how he was drinking.
"I envy you."
"You'd rather be a werewolf than a vampire?"
"No, I wish I'd had the guts to up and leave a home I wasn't comfortable in." Arturo knocked back his fourth shot of whiskey. "I stayed in my shit hole of a hometown until, well..."
The way he gestured at himself said enough.
Jayla toasted him, only on her second shot but close to pleasantly tipsy. Strong stuff. "We ended up in the same place anyways. Something roads something Rome?"
Carla sure had influenced her mental library of quotes. Wonder how hanging around with the pack would shift how she talked? She looked forward to finding out.
Arturo snorted, which was the most human noise he'd let out since she'd gotten to know him. "You have a point. Would have preferred your way though."
"Are we interrupting?"
Arturo shot out of his seat, then stopped dead, one hand on the back of his chair to prevent it from toppling over. Jayla would have pinged him for terrified if it hadn't been for the color his face turned.
Jesse, with Vivian gleefully hovering behind him, pushed off the kitchen doorway to stand as straight as he ever did. How long had they been waiting there?
"I'll send you a list of relevant items my paladin has acquired across the campaign." Arturo's curt and stern nod goodbye was undermined by him being red as a beet and trying to keep his back to the kitchen door while at the same time edging toward it.
Jesse took a respectful step aside as Arturo moved to exit the room, earning him an equally curt nod and a lingering, telling look. Vivian remained in the way, which rewarded her a death glare and an even redder vampire. Though Jayla suspected the red would have kept on increasing with or without Vivian playing barricade.
"See you later!" she decided to come to the rescue, gesturing at Vivian to let Arturo leave. "And thanks for sharing!"
Arturo didn't leave the room at his top speed but he did power walk. Vivian's grin remained wide and delighted as she watched him go.
When Arturo was out of sight she whirled to face Jesse. "You have revealed to me that Arturo can blush like a champ. I thank you from the bottom of my soul. I will use this knowledge for evil."
"I wish you luck in your future nefarious endeavors."
Jesse pulled up a chair and downed the remains of Arturo's would-have-been-fifth whiskey shot as Vivian walked away cackling. Jayla eyed him for a moment in an effort to gauge his mood. The man had a stupidly solid poker face.
"Things between you and Arturo are pretty good then?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jesse said with utmost innocence. "But I'm glad you and the vampire have found such camaraderie. Everything all right?"
"Better than all right. I'm getting to start our game next Sunday with magical items!"
Jesse let out an exaggerated whistle. "Either you make friends fast or you're excellent at blackmail. Whichever is the case, I respect you."
Jayla gave him a mock bow. "Glad to have finally earned your respect."
She was pleased to earn a proper eye roll from him with that line.
"Ready to get working on our Halloween costumes?"
"You bet!"
A break from revelations, big and small, was most welcome.
Thursday, still
"How are you doing?"
"Surprisingly well." Arturo continued working as he spoke. Lisa did the same when he popped into her lab and he saw no reason to change their routine, despite the looming topic at hand.
Lisa stayed near the door though she'd shut it behind her. She had her arms crossed, but she signaled concern rather than demand or discontent.
"Will you and our newest addition be all right?"
"She seems set on it and I for one am not going to work against her good will."
"So your talk went well."
"Yes." He paused in his typing, considered telling her exactly what he'd shared with Jayla. Decided not to. "As well as it could have."
Lisa stepped away from the door. The hand she put on his shoulder was a welcome source of warmth, as much as he refused to visibly or verbally acknowledge that. He could sense the incoming change of topic. He had to stay neutral during this. He wanted her to be sure he said what he truly meant and not simply what she wanted to hear.
"Do you-"
"Regret it? No. I wish things could be different, yes, but this..." How to put it? "This is workable."
"Good, but I'm hoping we can get you someplace even better than 'workable'."
Arturo shrugged. His current food situation was already far beyond his wildest hopes. But thinking on it too closely led his thoughts to Jesse and blood in a terrifyingly tantalizing combination. Better to not linger.
"If Jayla hasn't notified you yet, her character will take possession of all paraphernalia mine has accumulated when she's introduced to our group."
"That sure is one manner in which to repay invading her privacy. It's fortunate Melissa bit a fellow appreciator of the fine art of tabletop roleplay."
That chapter still didn't feel closed but Arturo had chosen to live with it. For now. He'd find ways to make up for his mistakes, bit by bit. They had time.
"What about Jesse?"
Speaking of things he had to live with. "What about him?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Artie. Please. It's been a hell of a week."
An understatement, to be sure.
"Jesse and I completed our peace talk. He isn't a threat." He hadn't gotten that background check going yet, and not purely because he had lingering guilt over what he'd done to Jayla. Looking through her social media had been bad. Researching someone by their deadname felt like twice the violation. Jesse being willing to submit both to a search and sharing his former name spoke volumes about his trustworthiness.
"I'm not a threat to him, either." He hoped. Pandora's box had been well and truly opened in the blood drinking department. He feared where that road could lead him.
Lisa squeezed his shoulder. "Never thought you were."
Arturo didn't argue. Lisa always thought far too well of him.
"In fact, my default assumption is that neither of you are a threat to anyone. That's not what I'm actually asking and you know it."
Arturo took his time formulating a reply. A quick one would make Lisa suspicious of its voracity, as she should be. Talking about emotions with someone other than his dear abuela had never come easy to him. The decade of friendship with Lisa bolstered him, allowed him the restraint necessary to sort through his own thoughts before speaking.
On a practical level keeping well with Jesse, and thus keeping himself healthy, had multiple benefits besides the most important one: cleaning his blood of his Maker's influence. He had more energy than he remembered having since he was a kid. He could eat regular food without the constant faint trace of nausea he'd gotten used to. He'd lost the headache that had been his companion for literal years.
He couldn't go back to starving himself.
But the risks still bothered him. With the previous week's chaos over and done with, and with Jesse proving again and again his willingness to sacrifice life and limb for the sake of others, the fact that the man was ridiculously attractive had come back to haunt Arturo with a vengeance. The flirting hadn't returned, blatant or otherwise. Knowing that this presumably was out of respect for Arturo's wishes rather than the original seduction attempt having been a lie, only further underlined Jesse's attractive qualities, which made being in the same room as him challenging. Attraction and hunger could surely be a deadly combination if left unchecked.
That was his emotional mess to deal with. Jesse and the pack deserved to enjoy each other's company. He'd just have to keep working on his balancing act. He'd managed thus far, under far worse conditions.
"I'm not meddling, unless you ask me to. But I won't tell the others to back off if they feel so inclined."
Good. Asking this group of people to not meddle would be a surefire way to get them started. "Thank you."
"Wherever this ends up going, I'm glad you've found an eating process that works for you. Seeing you healthy is a considerable comfort." She gave his shoulder a final pat. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes."
"Brilliant. Melissa's idea?"
"Vivian's actually. Melissa requested this particular aesthetic."
"It's cute."
Arturo didn't preen. Not openly at least. "I've tried to live up to her wishes. Any request for you own theme?"
"You know what I like. I'll leave you to it."
Arturo thus spent the rest of the afternoon adding a metal theme to his period/moon tracker and definitely didn't dwell on the shapeshifter staying for dinner.
He may also have used work as an excuse to miss said dinner.
Friday
"Please tell me to shut up if I'm making you uncomfortable."
Isha bit her tongue not to laugh. "Guess I've lost my air of intimidation now that you know me better."
Jayla made a face caught halfway from cringing to smiling. "In my defense, you did hang out with scary people when we first met."
"I will give you that."
Shifting her weight from leg to leg in a nervous little jig, Jayla opened her mouth a few times, as if losing her words the second they reached the tip of her tongue. It was disarmingly charming, in Isha's opinion.
"I know we were both pretty out of it when we last talked about this, but, uhm, are you still up for me asking you out on a date?"
Isha basked in the normality of this. They were sitting in a room that was hers, on a bed that was hers, awkwardly flirting, and there would be no dead bodies involved in either their near or distant future (if she could help it).
Turns out some teenage experiences worked fine to catch up with as an adult.
She had enough empathy with how intense asking someone out had to be to not keep Jayla waiting for more than a second or two. Even though silently fretting was a cute look on her.
"Yes, I am very much up for it."
"Date tomorrow? Go see a movie? My treat!"
With Jayla close to vibrating with excitement, how could she say no?
"You pick the movie, I'll buy us dinner." She had a bit of money put aside, the emergency cash all hunters had in their packs in case they got split up from their fellows. No real money, but enough for this.
"It's a date!"
Isha mirrored Jayla's smile, then winced as a loud whoop of victorious joy came from the hallway outside. Of course.
"My brother is not invited to join us."
Saturday
"Something the matter?"
Arturo looked up from his mangled omelet and gave Dorothy an apologetic shake of the head. He hoped he didn't have too much of a deer in headlights look going.
"More salt?" Dorothy held out the salt shaker to him with such a knowing smile he had to cover his face with his hands.
Over in the study room, far too close by and with doors open for all to listen in, Lisa continued her interview. With Jayla out at the movies with Isha, Arturo had assumed Jesse would not be visiting. He'd emerged to eat a quick dinner in the kitchen, aiming to stop the pointed comments he'd been catching about hiding in the basement, without running into the reason he'd been keeping away. But no such luck.
"So you're saying all shapeshifters' default form change over time?"
"Maybe not as drastically as mine has, but as far as I know, yes."
"Fascinating!" Few people could say that word without edging toward sarcasm but Lisa was all enthusiasm. "I must admit I'm a little envious. Then again, I do have a talented witch to see to my hormonal needs."
Arturo could picture Vivian mouthing 'In more ways than one, eh?' at him and she wasn't even in the house.
"Shapeshifting has its advantages. Just wish it came with a new ID."
Arturo cursed himself for perking up like a dog at that, because Dorothy was still very much in the kitchen with him and had eyes as keen as her nose.
"Ah."
"Yeah."
"That has to make life rather challenging in some day to day aspects."
"It is what it is. I've made do."
A week ago, Arturo would have taken that flippant comment at face value, or at least assumed it a verbal trap ready to spring on him at a later time. Now it sounded like a deflection, like Jesse hadn't meant to bring it up and wished to move on to another topic before this one got too personal or painful.
Or maybe Arturo was reading too much into a conversation he shouldn't be listening to in the first place.
Wrestling with this had him zoned out during Lisa's explanation of how Sledge's magical medical aid network was set up and expanding. An idea had begun to form and he hoped it wasn't an awful one. With his recent fuck-ups speaking against him, he trusted himself about as far as he could throw a tank.
He'd better wait for Vivian to come home from work before exploring this idea further.
Saturday, continued
"Okay. So. Okay."
Jayla did her best stop freaking out and give Isha space to finish what she meant to say, even though she seemed stuck in a loop at the moment. Fuck, I thought things were going well! They'd had a nice dinner, watched a fun if stupid movie, and found a coffee shop with a encouraging rainbow sticker on the door to hole up in while they waited for Vivian to come pick them up. Body language and conversation had both been pointing toward a successful date as far as Jayla had been able to tell. But maybe I actually am 'abysmal' at reading other people, thanks for that feedback Brandon - no, not thinking about my ex on a date with a new person, argh!
"Okay, here I go." Isha sat up straighter and took a deep breath. She reached across the table and cradled one of Jayla's hands in both of hers.
Here it comes. Time to get let down gently. At least my phone call with mom went well, that's something happy to cling to. Don't cry.
"I really want to kiss you, but I've never kissed anyone before and I'm worried I'll be terrible at it, and I'm kind of embarrassed at having literally no experience. So. There."
Jayla had to pause and think through each word Isha had said to understand their meaning, it had all rushed out of Isha so fast.
"I'm sorry."
Fighting back the relieved laugh that wanted to fly out of her mouth, Jayla replaced it with: "You have nothing to be sorry for!"
She thought about going off on a tangent of reassurance. Considered going all self-deprecating about how she clearly hadn't gotten anyone to stick around with her yet, so who was to say she was good at kissing despite experience. Even pondered asking a barrage of questions about how comfortable Isha was with physical intimacy in the first place, besides kissing.
Instead she leaned forward and closed her eyes.
It was a soft kiss. It was the best one Jayla could remember.
Sunday
"Are you sure this outfit will work?"
Jesse nodded and took the jacket from her. "I know Mrs Rogers. She'll be happy as long as you show up looking comfortable and clean. You look amazing so you're already knocking it out of the park."
Jayla bit back a groan of both frustration and panic.
"I'm not lying to keep you calm. You look great, you'll do fine."
"What if I mess up and spill coffee everywhere? Hell, what if I mess up and change into a wolf?"
Jesse shrugged. "Even if you did, people's memories will play tricks on them. Don't ask me why but only fellow 'preternaturals' can retain memories of magical goings on. It's how we've all stayed hidden from the general public, other than the occasional myth."
"Oh. Is that the 'curse' you mentioned the other day?"
"The one and the same."
"I could still spill coffee everywhere."
"Then you'll clean it up. Want to change the subject?"
"Yeah let's, before I talk myself into quitting without giving this job a try." Her hands darted here and there, fiddling with anything in their reach. "How are we doing with our costume plans?"
Jesse produced a plastic bag full of long, pinkish-purple tresses. "Ta-dah. Rhoda came through, as expected."
"Sweet! Check out what I made for Ginger."
Ginger didn't resist being scooped up and put on her dresser, nor did he put up a fuss about the head-decoration
"Most dashing!" Jesse gave the paper coin on Ginger's headband a light boop, which Ginger suffered without complaint. "By the way, this is just a theory of mine, but did you name him Ginger because he has the himbo personality of a stereotypical ginger cat?"
It was as if a fist around Jayla's guts unclenched. Saying she felt seen was a bit dramatic yet true. "You get me on a spiritual level."
"I'll leave the physical level up to Isha."
She threw a pillow at him, but she did so laughing.
Monday
"Fuuuuuuuuuck!"
"You'll do great."
"I think I might throw up."
"No you won't. I'll pick you up at the game store after my shift is done, if you don't feel like walking home. Text me when you're done."
"Thanks, Vivian. Wish me luck!"
"You won't need it, but sure. Go kick that coffee's ass!"
Tuesday
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Be my guest."
"If you have a job, how come you hang out here so often, in the middle of the day?"
"Tattoo artistry allows for flexible hours. Especially for those of us not exactly on the tax-paying list of employees."
"Do you have advice for other people trying to get a job without too many legal ties? My collection of IDs likely won't hold up to much scrutiny and neither will Isha's."
"I do believe I do."
Wednesday
"Will it be okay if I play a human? It's not too boring?"
"Your character is yours to decide. If human seems like the best fit for you that is what you should choose. What class were you thinking of going with?"
"Rogue."
"And you, Isha?"
"Remind me, which one was it that could build robots?"
Thursday once more
"Dinner's ready."
"I already ate."
"The shapeshifter isn't here tonight, you can come out of hiding."
"Vivian, please mind your own business."
"Yessss, blush number three! All the way to the hairline, impressive!"
"Is that a scoring card?"
"Yup! I made one for Melissa too."
"You're a menace. What's for dinner?"
One more Friday
"This is so bizarre."
Isha looked up from her costume project to merely look at her brother. His comment deserved no verbal response.
"But it is!" He waved both his hands at his own work, lying across his lap in a semi-finished state. He'd always been quicker with a needle and thread. "Isn't it?"
Sighing would do no good. Isha still did it.
"You're dating a werewolf."
"Thank you for noticing."
"I'm signed up for online magic courses."
"Yes." That had been a trip to find out about. A whole university course available via the dark, unsearchable side of the internet.
"We're making Mario and Luigi costumes for a Halloween party."
"Yes."
"We're going to a party."
Rahul's voice broke on the last syllable. Isha got to her feet, dropping her less than half-finished costume to the floor. She pulled him into a tight hug, cuddling close to him on the bed that now was his.
"I'm sorry, I'm being stupid."
"No, you're being normal." He hadn't started crying. Isha took that as a win. She was getting better at anticipating these hitches, both in him and in herself. "Remember what Ava said? Your brain knows it's safe now, so it's taking the chance to have a meltdown in peace. It happens to everyone when they've been through the wringer like we have."
"Not to you."
She kept her breakdowns out of her brother's sight, but this wasn't the time to reveal that. "I'm your older sister."
They both left it at that. She held him close until he stopped shaking.
A knock came at the door
"Come in!" Isha called once Rahul had uncurled from around her and gotten his costume back in his lap.
Vivian peeked in. "Just wanted to give you a heads-up that we're filming in the kitchen for the next hour or so. Don't go wandering in there unless you want to be on camera."
"Filming?"
Vivian grinned. She did that a lot and Isha found it endearing. Not beautiful, like Jayla's, but pleasant and disarming.
"When we moved here, I convinced Dorothy to start one of those 'clean with me' channels. It's pretty popular. I suspect Art gave the algorithm a helpful nudge back when we stared out." She made a vague gesture at the hallway behind her. "Dorothy is more than happy to have the rest of us wander in and out of shots, but not everyone wants their five minutes of online video fame. This is your advance warning."
"Is it," Rahul began, stopped to worry at his lower lip with his teeth, then continued. "Is it like a cleaning lesson? If I wander in, like, could I help?" He stole a glance at Isha, suddenly guilty. "No. No, that'd be a stupid idea, sorry."
"Didn't sound stupid to me."
Isha nodded in agreement with Vivian, having an inclination of what worried her brother. "The hunters already know where we are. You getting to be in a video won't risk anything. Go, I'll finish up the buttons."
"You sure?"
"Would I take a chance with our safety?." She waved him off, all but pushing him off the bed. "Go have fun, you weirdo clean-freak."
Rahul hesitated, but only for a second. Isha watched him go with something akin to relief combined with guilt. She hoped he didn't think she was getting rid of him to avoid him. They both needed things to do or they'd spiral out of control thinking up catastrophe scenarios.
"Thank you for distracting him."
"Healthy distraction is Dorothy's main skill, not mine. I'm just the messenger." Vivian picked up Rahul's fallen costume and gave it a nod of approval then carefully placed it back on the bed. "She's been through something similar to what you're dealing with now. If you need someone to vent to she's your best bet. I, on the other hand, am likely to get angry and want to punch someone, which I know isn't helpful."
"It could be plenty helpful. Dangerous people may decide to come after us."
Vivian's grin took on an edge of violence. Before she could say anything else, the door to the hallway creaked open further. Jesse stood in the doorway, dressed as if to go out clubbing despite the relatively early hour.
"Put on your most intimidating outfits and follow me. Jayla needs help."
Isha bolted to her feet. "Why? What's happened?"
"She's having a rough day at work." The fact that Jesse hadn't come running and didn't look like lives were on the line kept Isha from immediately rushing for the door. "Melissa is studying at the café and just called for help. Dorothy will hold the fort while we get to be the cavalry."
At work. Jayla was at work. Not even angry hunters would be stupid enough to start a fight in a coffee shop in the middle of the day. They had time to prepare. Vivian seemed to be thinking the same, having put a calming hand on Isha's arm.
"Got any more info on the situation?"
"I'll explain on the way and help out with dressing up, should either of you need it. Let's move, people!"
Having had no opportunity to invest in new clothing, and with nothing her size that screamed 'intimidation' available to borrow, Isha focused on arming herself instead.
Hopefully three knives would be enough.
Friday, just before the lunch rush
The week had been going so well. She'd gotten through all the previous four days at work without embarrassing herself, she'd bonded with two of her coworkers, and tomorrow was the big Halloween bash.
Clearly that had been too many positive things too close together. Murphy's Law loomed over her.
It began when she came out of the back with a refill for the espresso machine and spotted a man at the counter. He ordered for himself and a group of five others who'd come in and sat down while she'd been out of sight. Nothing strange there. It wasn't until she'd written down the man's requests for drinks and snacks that she took a closer look at the group he'd arrived with, simply to remember where to take the order. And her mind went blank.
Brandon. Right there, looking right at her, with recognition in his eyes but no surprise.
She'd excepted this to happen eventually. Merrihollow wasn't that big. But this soon, looking at her as if he'd expected her here? That didn't spell coincidence.
Her eyes immediately darted over to Melissa. She sat all but buried behind notes and thick tomes on anatomy, and had already started on her second coffee. Jayla couldn't bother her. Not over this. Nothing had happened! Brandon might have taken people to lunch here to show off how much he didn't care about her being around. Wouldn't be the first time he'd done that after a break-up.
This being their third. Or was it their fourth break-up? Damn. Should probably talk to someone about that whole mess or I'll carrying a truck full of baggage into whatever Isha and I have going on.
As sobering thoughts went, that one sent her heart doing a mixed sort of flutter. The kind that combined the thrill and joy of a new relationship with the terror of ruining it.
"Are you okay?"
Jayla bit back a startled shout and turned to stare at Melissa. When had she moved over to the counter?
"What?"
"Your heart is beating a mile a minute."
Melissa's expression hovered somewhere between concern and terror. Jayla felt like she'd accidentally kicked a puppy.
"It's nothing." As that didn't come out with conviction, Jayla added, "My ex is here, that's all. Totally mundane, silly and unnecessary heart-racing. No hunters. No serial killers. Just an awfully boring dude I'd rather not talk to. Need a refill?"
Melissa continued to give her that long, worried look, but in the end took the offering of more coffee and returned to her seat.
Thankfully the lunch rush chose that moment to start and Jayla could lose herself in her customer service persona for about an hour. She almost forgot about Brandon and his little gang over in their corner. But that only lasted until the rush died down. Then it turned into one of those stupid nightmares you got when you hadn't slept enough and had been stressed about one thing too many. Time moved like a slow soup, as mixed up and unreliable as when she forgot to take her meds. Constantly looking at the wall clock wasn't an option if she wanted to look like she enjoyed her job - and she had, until Brandon showed up - so she had to grin and bear the feeling of being lost in time.
Her heart had set its sights on hammering a tunnel through her breastbone and out into the open air. Cold sweat dampened her new work clothes.
A few more orders came in. Jayla put extra effort into being cheerful and attentive. She only got one of the orders wrong, which she thankfully caught before she could serve it. She redid it. She smiled at the next customer. She felt stupider and stupider because her panic kept on growing. Over her ex having lunch near her. Pathetic.
Eventually her far too good hearing (not at full werewolf at the moment, but still keen due to adrenaline) caught:
"You go ahead." Brandon's voice, likely speaking to his...coworkers? Friends? "I saw someone I know. I'll catch up."
Fuck. She couldn't hide now. That would be too obvious.
Better turn around and face the music.
Up close, Brandon looked the same as ever. By his own confession, he dressed to blend in, giving him an anonymous vibe she'd once found soothing. She'd envied his ability to fit in and only draw attention when he wanted it.
He walked up to the counter, no hesitation. She couldn't read his expression. Maybe she'd never been able to.
"Hello, Jayla. We need to talk."
"I'm working."
Mrs Rogers, bless her heart, stuck her head out of the kitchen and found this moment to be unfortunately kind and helpful.
"It's alright, sweetie, you can take a break. I have to get up on my feet for a bit or my legs will start complaining." She gestured at one of the rare empty tables, close to the back of the café. The only empty window seat, freshly vacated, with cups waiting for pick-up and cleaning. "You go catch up. I'll give you a wave when I need you back."
Jayla hoped that wave would be quick in coming.
Melissa tried to catch her eye as she and Brandon passed by her table, to which Jayla put on a smile. Knowing a friend would be a handful of tables away grounded her a little.
Why couldn't she calm down? She was just going to talk to an ex. Not fight someone. Nothing to get all worked up about. They'd have a short, awkward conversation, and then they could both get on with their lives. Simple. Easy. They were in a new place, living new lives. This would be closure and then they could avoid thinking of each other ever again.
"What in God's name have you done to your hair?"
Jayla froze in her seat. Braced herself. "It's called hair-dye. Nice to see you too."
Brandon sat straight-backed on his side of the table, making the cozy café booth look stiff and uncomfortable. He had his hands on the table, folded, as if he was the 'good cop' sent in to interrogate a suspect. It was an all too familiar look on him.
"What did you want to talk about?" Jayla hedged, unable to look at his scowl for too long. She let her eyes dart back to the counter. Mrs Rogers looked discouragingly busy. "I can't chat long. Need to get back to work soon."
"Your mother's worried about you."
Jayla tore her focus from the wall clock and openly stared at Brandon. Was he still in touch with her mother? Creepy, whether that was true or a lie.
"Is she? 'Cause I talked to her yesterday and she seemed fine."
Brandon's shoulders grew more and more square, as if he was preparing to read her the riot act or flip over the table. It was likely the former rather than the latter. She'd never seen Brandon do anything that required physical effort outside of approved activities at the gym. Wouldn't do to make a scene. He'd always been very set against making scenes.
"Jayla, go home. Let your parents take care of you."
Of all the things he could have said, that was easily both the weirdest and most insulting.
"Excuse me?"
"I know you're trying to impress me, and it's sort of endearing, but it's time for us both to move on." He straightened his tie, as if to underline his point. "I won't put up with you stalking me."
"Stalking you?" What in the actual fuck?
"I may be exaggerating, yes, but please don't play dumb, no matter how easy that is for you. We both know you didn't move to Merrihollow for its fantastic barista opportunities."
Jayla felt herself slipping. Not that she was about to faint or have a breakdown, but that subtler, insidious shift that happened when you were left in a room with people who'd known you since childhood. People who assumed they knew you and who your brain in turn assumed it knew, but without the proper updates installed, so to speak. She could all but hear her thoughts creak as they threatened to regress to worn out and fruitless patterns. She needed to get out of this.
"I-"
"We're not going to get back together." The 'this time' hung heavy in the air. Brandon pinched his lips together so hard they paled with loss of blood flow. "I'm doing well here. I don't need you to complicate things for me. And you're clearly not well."
Jayla's whole body went numb.
"You have to go back home. There's nothing for you here."
"But," she managed. She didn't get further. This was too surreal a situation, which was saying something with the month she'd had.
Brandon pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Strange how she'd once thought that looked cute.
"I am not here to argue with you. Don't make a scene. Just promise you'll go back to your family so they can keep an eye on you."
Keep an eye on me? What did he think she was, a teenager?
While she struggled to form a reply to such a weird and patronizing piece of dialog, Brandon cleared his throat and pulled a slip of paper from his breast pocket.
"You leave tomorrow at eight. I'll pay for your taxi to the airport and arrange for your family to come pick you up. No need to thank me."
Jayla's mouth fell open and stayed that way. A plane ticket. An honest to god plane ticket. How did he in any way think this was okay to do? Did he copy my driver's license or something?
"You can't be serious."
"I wouldn't have to be if you'd stayed home and not followed me here." He pushed the ticket across the table. "This is best for the both of us. I'll even help you resign from this 'job' you have. It'll all be fine."
The bell above the café door chimed. It would have blended in with the general background noise of the place, if it hadn't been followed by a familiar voice loudly proclaiming:
"Mrs Rogers, how wonderful to see you! I love your earrings, they're gorgeous." What was Jesse doing here this early? "Where have you stashed Jayla? We'd hoped to surprise her at work."
"Stop pretending you can't hear me."
Jayla blinked away her distraction and refocused on Brandon. She hadn't heard whatever he'd said, but telling him that would be pointless. It had been the most common thing they'd fought about. Brandon had never fully grasped what 'ADHD' meant.
"Brandon, I'm not getting on a plane because you told me to. This is crazy."
"You have no right to call what I do crazy after following me halfway across the country."
"I don't even know where you live!"
"Very believable acting. You should have gone to Los Angles and become a starving actress instead of a starving barista."
"Mrs Rogers actually pays her workers far above minimum wage, which is why I recommended Jayla get a job here."
Brandon jumped in his seat. Not high, but the Brandon equivalent of shouting out loud and clutching at your chest. Jayla stifled a noise. Whether it would have been a laugh or a gasp is anyone's guess.
As if the situation couldn't get more surreal she now had Jesse, Vivian and Isha standing next to the table, with Melissa waving and giving a double thumbs up in the background. Isha wore her regular clothes, but Vivian and Jesse had more makeup and leather on between them to outfit four people, and they made it look good.
"Mind if we join you?"
Jesse didn't wait for an answer. He gestured for Vivian to take the lead. She took a seat in the booth next to Jayla, on the window side. While Vivian proceeded to all but draped herself against Jayla's right-hand side, Isha sat down on Jayla's left, arms crossed over her chest in a bodyguard-ish pose that caused the best kind of heart flutters. Jesse, to Jayla's delighted surprise and amusement, sat down straight in her lap.
Brandon gaped at the three of them, giving Jayla a childish sense of satisfaction. He'd had the presence of mind to pull the plane ticket back toward himself as the new arrivals took their seats, but that looked to be the end of his ideas on what to do.
"This is the ex, huh?" Jesse's head bobbed up and down in a quick once-over of Brandon. "So it's you I have to thank for finally getting Jayla to move out here."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I've been nagging Jayla for years to get away from home, see the world. Specifically to move into our commune. Way I heard it, your latest break-up clinched the deal, for which I'm eternally grateful."
Jesse, you beautiful liar you. I'm almost believing this bullshit.
Next to her, both Vivian and Isha loomed without moving. Jayla caught Brandon's eyes flickering to them, his eyebrows climbing down from his hairline into a judgmental frown. As if he could will them away with passive aggressive body language.
Brandon straightened his jacket like a cowboy would put a hand on his gun holster. "Who are you, exactly?"
"Jesse. Though you probably haven't heard her call me that. We've mostly hung out online and not on Facebook. You know how it is."
"I'm sure I don't."
"Ah, it's the ex who wasn't into roleplaying. I see." Jesse shrugged as if this was only to be expected, then leaned back toward Vivian so he could make eye-contact with Jayla. "Jayla, love, how much longer is your shift? We've got a lot to prep for tomorrow. We could use a hand back home, before Dorothy works herself into a tizzy."
Jayla snorted. "A tizzy?"
"You know how Dorothy is. Is there any other person on this here green Earth you'd associate with that word?"
"You've got me there."
Jayla had expected Vivian to chime with a comment, but her attention remained on Brandon, as did Isha's. Apparently they'd decided to act the silent, stoic bodyguards. Well, Isha was pulling off stoic. Vivian instead had a smile going that shifted from taunting to threatening.
Brandon studied the four of them with the quiet distaste she'd seen him reserve for tattoo parlors and church sermons.
"So that's how it is." He spoke as if he'd come to some great revelation that disappointed him.
"That's how what is?"
"All this time, you've been seeing someone else behind my back." Brandon all but spat. "That's a new low for you, Jayla."
Okay, from stalker to cheater. Did I hit my head going into work? Did he?
"Brandon, are you high?"
"I'm not the one with a man in a skirt on my lap!"
Brandon choked back whatever he'd meant to follow that outburst with. He'd gotten all eyes in the café on them. The regular conversations died down to quiet whispers and Mrs Rogers sent a look of suspicion their way, but she dug it into the back of Brandon's head, so hopefully Jayla still had a job.
"Does the skirt bother you, Brandon?" Jesse asked, all false sweetness, unbothered by the attention they were getting. "Impressive jump to the worst possible assumption there. I can tell why things didn't last between you two. Not very physically affectionate, are you?"
"How dare you!"
Jesse ignored this outburst. "Jayla darling, I'm thankful you've developed better taste than this. Speaking of which." He gave Isha's leg a playful poke with one of his boots, as if activating a hidden switch.
"You have some nerve," Isha ground out from barely unclenched teeth, "showing up at Jayla's workplace and accusing her of cheating on you, her former boyfriend, based on absolutely no evidence beyond your own sick prejudices. Melissa, what else has this poor excuse of a man done?"
"He called her a stalker too," Melissa shouted from her table. They definitely had all eyes in the café on them still. "Which I thought was weird because she's been helping us out ever since she got here. When could she have had the chance to stalk anyone?"
"Very weird. Sounds like you're projecting, buddy." Vivian didn't have fangs currently but she might as well have. "I'm a regular here and I haven't seen you around before. You new in town?"
Brandon, to his credit, hadn't turned in his seat when Melissa spoke. He met the others' eyes one by one, head on, business-like, and answered Vivian with, "Fairly new. Jayla got here before me."
As if he'd given her a date to arrive and she'd ignored it. Wow. Had he always been this condescending?
"Clearly you have a whole heap of issues you need to deal with." Jesse gestured at Brandon, encompassing pretty much all of him in one hand-wave. "However, Jayla is not your therapist. She's a most excellent barista, among other things, but what she is not, is responsible for your feelings."
"This isn't any business of yours."
"My friends' safety and happiness is always my business."
"What he said." Vivian placed her hands on the table in what Jayla had come to recognize as her about-to-start-some-shit tell.
"You had your chance at dating her and you made a mess of it. It's someone else's turn now."
Out of the corner of her eye, Jayla saw Isha turn tomato red. This being a sign of shyness was deftly hidden by the murderous scowl she had going. To someone who didn't know her she probably looked ready to tear Brandon's arms off.
Jesse twisted in Jayla's lap to rest both his elbows on the table and his chin on his now clasped hands. Brandon's face told Jayla all she needed to know about the look on Jesse's.
"You should think about finding another lunch spot if you can't behave like a decent human being," Jesse said, calm as you please. "Ambushing her at work to accuse her of stalking you and cheating on you? Really?"
"That's honestly pretty fucked up, friendo." Vivian cracked her knuckles.
Around them, the entire café had gone dead quiet.
Brandon barely flinched, but that was his scared face, no doubt about it. When you'd known him long enough you learned to see the cracks in his poker face. Right now the cracks were multiplying, even as he bore his eyes into hers, glaring.
"Jayla, are you in some kind of cult?"
Jayla's burst of incredulous laughter punched a hole in the tense atmosphere and let conversation flow back into the café. People went back to their coffees and cinnamon buns, whispering to each other and sneaking glances, the spell of silence broken. Jayla leaned more against Isha and slung an arm over Vivian's shoulders. That sense of slipping, of being back in an old rut she couldn't claw her way out of, faded.
Why should she pay Brandon any mind? The man had bought her a plane ticket without asking her and told her to quit her job. Seriously, who did he think he was?
"That's for me to know and you to go back to work wondering about. Goodbye, Brandon."
"I'm going to call your mother."
"You do that." Jayla straightened up in her seat, Jesse easily shifting with her. "When you do, tell her I'm still working on deciding my plus one for Thato's wedding, but that it definitely won't be you."
"Jayla-"
"Young man." Mrs Rogers had strode out from behind the counter and over to their booth, coffee pot in hand like a drawn banner of war. "I do believe my employee is trying to politely ask you to leave this establishment. You should listen to that request. Kindly take your leave."
Brandon got out of his seat. Jayla would've bet money on him fearing a café ban far worse than any cults or stalkers he could dream up.
"Bye Brandon," Jesse said, all smiles. "Have a nice life!"
The chime when Brandon left made a noise kinda like victory.
Jayla had intended to thank her friends with words. Instead she ended up pulling Vivian and Jesse into a tight hug and pressed her leg against Isha's. They hugged her back with no hesitation. She had to brush tears away with the edge of her sleeve.
"I should get back behind the counter. Sorry for that, Mrs Rogers!"
Mrs Rogers rolled her eyes. "No need to apologize for men being idiots, dearie, or we'd do nothing else all day. You ready to get back to work?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Thankfully they got no standing ovation or other awkward acknowledgment of their drama. As fun as that could have been in theory, in reality Jayla had no desire to be gawked at where she worked. If the current customers could brush this aside as a 'that sure was weird'-moment and then not think about it much, that would suit her perfectly.
"We'll hang out here," Jesse said when he'd gotten off her lap. "I hear they've got excellent service.
"Haha. What can I get you?"
"Hot chocolate for all three of us. My treat!"
"Three hot chocolates, coming right up!"
Isha shadowed her back to the counter which had Jayla's heart skipping a beat and doing a ridiculous little twirl.
"Still want to date me?" She'd not meant to ask that, but too late now.
"Yes."
"It's usually a red flag when someone isn't on friendly terms with their ex."
"I don't think anyone could be on friendly terms with that man. If anything-," Isha said, then cut herself short and blushed harder.
"What?"
"Nothing, it's stupid."
"I doubt it, but I'll allow you your secrets. Whipped cream on yours?"
Isha nodded, then shook her head.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Yes to cream. No to keeping secrets." Isha leaned across the counter and whispered, "I want you to know that, whatever happens between the two of us, I'd never speak to you the way he did. Ever. You don't deserve that. I'm sure he must have seemed like a good person, once, but at his core he's a huge asshole."
Jayla didn't know how to reply to that, so she stuck to blushing and putting the tray with the hot chocolates on the counter.
Isha took her hand and kissed the back of it. Like a knight.
It was a good thing Jayla had put the tray down. The wolf whistles Jesse and Vivian directed their way at least drowned out her gasp.
Isha blushed and smiled as much as Jayla, then picked up the tray and hurried away with the chocolate. If Jayla spent the rest of her shift wearing a goofy grin, no one called her on it.
Saturday, Halloween edition
"Do not trust that girl to tell you what's good to drink! I've seen her down six Red Bull and a coke in less than ten minutes."
Melissa returned the friendly ribbing with some manner of in-joke Arturo hadn't the faintest idea how to parse. That, combined with her expression, told him he didn't need to intervene. It was a huge relief to see her smile and relax again.
What wasn't a relief was the noise level inside the house. Had the pack invited the whole neighborhood?
"Thanks for making an effort, Art."
He raised an eyebrow at Lisa as she passed him by. While she wore a full witch outfit with pointed hat, broom and toy cat, he'd opted for a pair of very fake cat ears on a headband. In his experience, going for a ridiculous costume eased people's comments about it also being a lazy one.
He spotted Ava in the living room, sporting a full-body wolf outfit, and raised his other eyebrow.
"We've leveled up to couples costumes," Lisa said, pleased as punch. "Have to compete with Seong-Jin and his thespian boyfriend somehow. Try to have fun tonight, all right?"
"I'll do my best."
She walked off with a snort; an amused one, not mocking. Good to be back to trading friendly barbs instead of pointed ones. Good to have the house open and full of people (even if they were loud) without having to worry who might have entered. Good to have new wards and... Well, fine, good to have a body that didn't constantly ache and leave one's mind fuzzy. For the moment, he could delude himself he was no danger to anyone.
He could almost imagine himself finding Seong-Jin and having a talk, vampire to more experienced vampire. Almost. Maybe in a few more years.
Arturo allowed himself to drift around the party, mostly observing. People he didn't know - which admittedly was most of the guest list - gave him nods of greeting when they locked eyes with him, and the handful of others were already tied up in conversation, party games, or karaoke.
Combined with the delicious snacks Dorothy had gone all out with it was a party workable for someone who preferred to exclusively hang out with close friends. Arturo should have been content to find a corner to lurk in and spend his night candy eating and people watching.
But no. Instead, he ended up mainly watching one person, with a worrisome laser focus.
He tried to not be obvious with where his eyes wandered. He spoke to the occasional passersby, drank soda, briefly joined an impromptu video game tournament. But he kept returning to his corner and his eyes kept wandering back to the room's only shapeshifter.
Jesse and Jayla had a matching costume thing going on that required Ginger to have a comically over-sized paper coin fastened to his head (which he magnanimously put up with). Arturo recognized the cartoon they'd dressed up from with fond nostalgia. That did not help his moth-to-flame situation. Nor did the fact that, while Jesse had kept his promise to not flirting with Arturo, he had plenty of flirting to go around for everyone else. Jesse complimented people left and right on their outfits, their hair, their smiles, their jokes. He fluttered from one group to the next, entering and exiting conversations with enviable ease. Jayla stayed close by for the first part of the evening, but when Isha got separated from her brother by Melissa's university friends needing a fourth player for a card game, Jesse shepherded Jayla to keep Isha company and darted off on his own over to the unofficial karaoke corner. From then on, the flirting got more blatant.
Before long, Jesse had a dozen blushing people following his path around the room with interest in their eyes. He didn't stay long with any of them though, handing out compliments like candy, then waltzing off to whatever caught his attention next. Despite knowing it was his own damned fault, Arturo felt a pang of hurt at being the single unattached adult in the room Jesse failed to give the time of day.
Vivian, decked out in full cyborg glory, plopped down next to him two minutes past midnight.
"Urgh, I can't believe someone invited Trevor. I need a break. How are you feeling about all this?"
"All of what?"
Vivian rolled her eyes in a theatrical manner that looked like it almost hurt. "Come on! Don't pretend you haven't been lurking over here watching the show all night."
"No I haven't," Arturo lied terribly. Having friends who could hear changes in your pulse did little to help you develop a talent for subterfuge. "Shouldn't you be over by the karaoke machine, yelling yourself hoarse to ABBA?"
"I can do that later. First, I'm gonna wingman for you, 'cause you're floundering."
"I don't need a wingman. I need to get drunk and sleep for a week." Not a complete lie. More sleep would be welcome. It would hopefully ease the dread that ebbed and flowed through him every time he found his interest wandering toward Jesse. Surely that interest couldn't last forever.
Vivian elbowed his ribs none too gently.
"Art, I know you. I know what you're like when someone flirts with you and you don't want them to. Remember that northern witch Ava brought along last year?"
Arturo winced. Not his finest moment. "Yes."
"You shut her down cold. I'm still impressed she didn't up and bolt from the house, because you destroyed that poor woman."
"Thank you for reminding me," he said with the least gratitude he'd ever felt.
"You're welcome. Now, what are you going to do?"
Arturo held his tongue. Across the room, Jesse had let himself get crowded against the wall by three people whose names Arturo didn't know. He found he was memorizing their faces, just in case.
"Hello? Earth to Arturo."
"I'm not going to do anything. He's made clear that ship has sailed." And it wouldn't be safe. For Jesse.
"Do you mean the speech he gave you about how bad he felt for flirting so aggressively with you?" Vivian sighed. "Okay, I get that things are weird between you two, but it's not like you..." This time, she cursed. "Art, did I miss something? Were you being subtle again? 'Cause you know I suck at subtle. Do I need to beat him up?"
"No!" That luckily came out as a whisper rather than a shout. "No, he didn't do anything. He was panicking and he saw me as an in to get accepted by a safe group. That's all."
"Oh. So he's told you it was all play-pretend?"
"Not exactly."
"Then what exactly was it?"
"Vivian..."
"Artie."
"Fine! He said he thought the flirting and the blood drinking would be a..." Arturo floundered as he tried to rephrase how Jesse had put it. "A bonus. Then he apologized for the flirting, said he'd thought we had a mutual interest in each other, and that I'd been loud and clear in my rejection. The reason he went out into the yard and ended up kidnapped was because of how harshly I turned him down the last time he offered me blood."
It should have been more satisfying to render Vivian speechless. He wished he'd found a less messed up way to do it.
Once she stopped staring at him, she grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him out into the hallway and downstairs. She slammed the door to his room shut behind them.
"I don't know who I should be punching. You, Jesse, or both. Probably both."
"Please don't start a fight on my account."
"No, it'd be on my account, for putting up with you and your ridiculous repressed emotions! I should slap some sense into you. But I won't, because violence shouldn't be the first option, and I hate Dorothy for teaching me that."
"No you don't."
"Fine, no I don't." She began pacing back and forth, a worryingly thoughtful frown marring her forehead. "But what are we going to do with you?"
"We aren't going to do anything."
"Right, I'll get to do all the work. How fun."
"Vivian, don't-"
"No, I am not going to put up with you brooding and pining over a guy we're about to let into our D&D party. That'll be a disaster!"
Arturo's face burned. Having fresher blood in his system continued to have its downsides. "I'm not going to be pining! I'm not some bosom-heaving harlequin protagonist."
"Don't lie to me, you're definitely pining." Vivian planted her hands on either side of him and leaned in, her nose an inch from his. "Please explain to me, in less than a hundred words, why you can't go make out with the guy you think is hot, who also thinks you're hot."
"Are you giving me a homework assignment?" he blurted out because discussing the fine line between lust and bloodlust with Vivian was not happening.
"No, I'm trying to prevent you from talking in circles about something that should be easy and straightforward. He likes you, you like him. Sure, you had a rocky start, but I think you've both proved to each other that you're decent people. So, go make out with him."
"What, just grab him?"
"Based on how he chose to flirt with you, I think he'd approve of that."
Arturo tried to get his mouth to form a reply, but the mental images Vivian's less than subtle subtext conjured up was beyond distracting.
"Vivian 10, Arturo 0. Thanks for playing, go make out with the shapeshifter."
"Vivian!"
She'd already turned her back on him and headed for the door, whistling an out of tune victory melody. He would have gone after her and continued the argument if she hadn't been so infuriatingly right about everything she'd said. Trying to talk back to her would only lead to further humiliation. So. Tactical retreat.
He couldn't follow her suggestion. No matter how tempting. There were risks. Also the last thing his and Jesse's 'situation' needed were more mixed signals.
But he did need to do something.
Two hours and sadly no drinks later, Arturo found himself back in the emptying living room. He stepped past those of Melissa's university friends who'd decided to crash haphazardly on the furniture rather than stagger home and made a beeline for the dwindling crowd by the karaoke machine.
Jesse greeted him with a raised eyebrow, but extracted himself from an arm slung over his shoulder with grace and sans questions, and followed Arturo to the dining room. Arturo did not recognize the arm's owner, only had a vague memory of seeing her around the house during the party's earlier hours, and struggled to not think ill of her. Being sober helped.
Jesse took up position against the wall, leaving Arturo plenty of space. Arturo pointedly didn't put the table between them.
"Saw Vivian drag you off earlier. Something wrong?"
"No," Arturo replied, hating how quickly Jesse had gone from relaxed and flirty to reserved with undertones of worry. "It was a misunderstanding. We cleared it up."
"Ah. Party-secrets?"
"Excuse me?"
"For tomorrow." Jesse flashed a smirk. "You're trying to figure out what you should and shouldn't tell your new party members, aren't you?"
Arturo hesitated. Maybe he should do this tomorrow, when Jesse had sobered up. When the house wasn't full of strangers. When he'd checked again with Vivian if this was a good idea. When he wasn't getting between Jesse and the crowd of people he clearly enjoyed socializing with.
He might have listened to those nagging doubts if Jesse's half-lidded eyes and racing heartbeat had signaled anything akin to fear.
Before he could second-guess himself, Arturo stepped closer and offered Jesse the card he'd been working on, testing his self-control as much as offering the gift. Jesse stared down at it as if he couldn't focus his eyes on the card's text or make out the face in the photo.
"I overheard that you've had trouble with your ID." Adding 'since it has your deadname on it' didn't seem the best thing, so he skipped to, "I thought I'd fix that for you."
He held his breath. Jesse had agreed to a background check, but this? Not exactly in the terms of agreement.
The ID card stayed in Arturo's hand under slack-jawed scrutiny from Jesse until Arturo began to consider running back downstairs. The knowledge that he'd have to face this man again, repeatedly and among friends, kept him rooted to the spot, card held out in silent offering. He couldn't hear the other's heartbeat anymore, drowned out by his own racing one.
Jesse threw his arms around Arturo's shoulders and kissed him.
Not on the mouth. His lips landed on Arturo's cheek, quick and soft, then retreated just as swiftly.
Arturo could have cried with relief. The dreaded urge to bite had failed to rear its ugly head. There had been a number of other urges rushing to the surface of his mind - among them a desire to grab Jesse and hold him close - but there was no compulsion to break his neck and drink him dry like a juice box. The fangs hadn't even deigned to make an appearance. Only an increase in body temperature and suspiciously butterfly-esque flutters in Arturo's chest region confirmed that he hadn't imagined the kiss.
That...that changed a lot. A lot that he didn't know if he was in the right frame of mind to fully process.
Speechless, Arturo watched Jesse back away, sliding along the wall with one hand planted over his mouth, as if he'd slipped up and said something rude. He had the ID card in his other hand, cradled like a fabergé egg. His expression held both awe and regret.
"Aww fuck, sorry. I'm drunk. Feel free to slap me."
"Only if you want me to."
That startled a laugh out of Jesse, which staved off the blush threatening to reclaim Arturo's previously so well-kept poker face.
"Thank you." Jesse worried at his mouth and chin with his hand, lingering. "Honestly. This is beyond nice. Hell, 'nice' doesn't even begin to cover it."
Arturo had intended to say 'Don't mention it.' What came out instead was, "You deserve it."
To Arturo's surprise, that got an honest and clear blush from Jesse. "Right. Eh, thanks. Again."
Flustered and blushing Jesse was both endearing and hot. That was something Arturo should deal with when they were both sober. But he couldn't leave it at this. More mixed signals was indeed that last thing they needed and Jesse might be drunk, but not the level of drunk that would mess with your memory.
Time to take a gamble.
Arturo closed the gap between them, placing his left hand on the wall, inches from Jesse. Jesse froze, but based on his widening pupils and the heat he radiated it was a stillness rooted in anticipation, not fear. Arturo gently placed his free hand under Jesse's chin and titled his head up, telegraphic what he was about to do as obviously as possible.
Jesse's lips parted in invitation.
Arturo kept the kiss as brief as Jesse's had been. Anything more would have felt wrong, no matter how enjoyable it would have been in the moment.
Jesse leaned forward as Arturo pulled back, eyes closed, his chin pressing into Arturo's hand like a cat looking for more attention. It was euphoric to rest his fingers against Jesse's skin and take in the extremely attractive picture this made devoid of the urge to go for the man's throat. Well, other than to leave hickies. Lust without bloodlust, who would have thought?
Awkwardness sadly sneaked back in while he stood there. Feeling more than a little silly, he pulled his hand back and stiffly said, "Good night."
Jesse opened his eyes. The smile he gave now had a far gentler touch to it, though contained no less heat. "Night. See you tomorrow."
Arturo didn't run from the room. It was a near thing, but he didn't.
Luckily he was too exhausted for the second-guesses to keep him up all night. He fell asleep with a sense of dreadful and wonderful accomplishment.
[For your own sake, return to us. Repent and you shall be forgiven.]
Isha clicked out of the text and back to her phone's lock screen. For the third time. She glared at the damned thing, wishing she could shift reality through pure force of will; make it so she'd never received the text, have the evening remain as carefree and lovely as it had been up to that point.
She unlocked her phone. Checked the text again. Same message.
"Fuck."
"I don't think I'll ever be drunk enough to do that in public."
Isha jumped, automatically locking her phone. She took the offered drink from Jayla with what she hoped was more of an awkward smile than a guilty one.
"Thanks."
"Come dance with me?" Jayla reached a hand out for Isha to take, swaying her hips in an exaggerated fashion and along with them the ridiculously long pink wig she had on.
"Absolutely. Just let me run to the bathroom first."
"Don't take too long! I can't be held responsible for the havoc I wreak if left unsupervised on the dance floor."
Isha hid a smile. Jayla was a really cute drunk. She was really cute in general. Just. Wonderful.
Maybe she'd had a little too much to drink.
A familiar floating feeling wrapped itself around her. She waved absently at her brother, half-asleep on the living room couch yet doing his best to cheer on the finale of a video game tournament. By the time she reached her and her brother's shared bathroom, the soft fuzz of alcohol had receded somewhat, leaving her mind all too clear. John Woxell was not a man to give up something he'd set his sights on. This would not end simply because she wanted it to. But...
She pulled the text back up.
She stared at the it, thumb inching toward the reply button. She hesitated.
She pressed 'delete'.
(Chapter 12) - (Epilogue)
