Midnight Bites (The Morganville Vampires)(14)
Monica followed. “That’s it? You’re just going to walk away?” Her voice carried so well she really should have been a drama queen. “So you get me to do all those awful things and then you pretend like it never happened?”
“Make up your mind, Monica—either I’m a perv hookup artist or I’m gay,” Shane said, and kept walking. “Pick one.”
“You’re a walking social disease. I don’t have to pick anything!”
“Certainly don’t have to pick me,” he said, and flashed her a grin and a finger on the way into his classroom. “Not interested.”
And he figured, in his innocence, that it probably would blow over by the end of school.
Wrong.
? ? ?
There was no sign of Monica, or any of her posse, lurking around for Shane when school ended, which he figured was a good thing. Michael had headed off to practice guitar, as he did pretty much every day; Shane, on the other hand, was all about the slacking off, preferably someplace not his own house, but in a pinch that would do. Today, he thought he’d walk his sister, Alyssa, as far as the front door—because he was a good brother, mostly—and then see what kind of trouble he could find in one of the game shops, preferably the one that let him play for free, as long as he bought a game once in a while. His mom would gripe, because he probably wouldn’t show for dinner; his dad wouldn’t much care, because, like on most nights, he’d probably wind up at the bar and end up not caring about much.
Alyssa would care, but she was a big girl now, and she’d just have to get over it, the way Shane had gotten over all of the crap that came along with being a Morganville inmate.
He loitered outside the junior high gym until his sister came out—a leggy, willowy girl with a face that was going to be beautiful when it finally gave up the baby fat. For now, she looked . . . sweet.
And deeply amused.
“What?” Shane stayed slumped against the concrete wall. She slumped next to him and crossed her arms. Out on the grass field, the Morganville High Vipers football team was making an effort to look tough. Not very successfully.
“You,” Alyssa said, and laughed. She had a nice laugh, when it wasn’t directed at him. “I hear you got all up Monica’s nose today.”
“She did it first,” Shane said. “She was all over me in the hall. I guess you heard that, too.”
“Hands down your pants?”
“What? No!” His ears were turning red. He didn’t even want to have this conversation with his kid sister. “It wasn’t like that.”
“So what was it like? Did she kiss you?”
Yes. “Kinda.”
“Tongue kiss?”
“Shut up, Lyss.”
“Because tongue kissing Monica would probably give you some dire germs.”
“I’m not kidding—shut up!”
Alyssa made a rude noise, but she let it go, pushed off the wall, and started walking with long, easy strides. She was wearing gym clothes—gray shorts, a T-shirt Shane personally felt was too tight, and cross-trainers with little footie socks. She was sweet, and shy with everybody but Shane, it seemed like. “So, after the thing we won’t discuss, I heard you punched her.”
“Do you really think I’d punch a girl?”
“Well, it’s Monica.”
“No. I pushed her off me, that’s all. Then she—”
“Wait,” Alyssa said, and turned backward as she walked, facing him. She was basically the only person Shane had ever seen who could walk backward as fast as forward. It was weird. “Let me guess. She said—uh—you were gay?”
Huh. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s her go-to insult for anybody who doesn’t drool over her like a total perv. Did she go to level two?”
“You tell me.”
“Did she Myspace bomb you yet?”
Shane blinked. “No.”
“Wow. Bet she did. Bet everybody who owes her a favor has gone out and trashed your page.” Alyssa executed a perfect twirl and fell back in step, walking forward. “Next thing she’ll try to get her big brother to arrest you or something.”
Richard Morrell was newly hired on at the Morganville Police Department. Shane didn’t know him well, but any Morrell was bound to be worse than he expected. “Great,” he said. “Just what I need, a record.”
“Tough guy,” Alyssa said, and sent him a brilliant, sly grin. “Race you.”
“I’m a tough guy. I don’t run.”
“Loser!” She stuck her tongue out at him and set off, long legs flying, her long brown hair whipping like a flag behind her. It was hot still in Morganville—fall wasn’t making itself felt yet—and heat shimmering off the pavement made it look like she was running through water.
“Crap,” he sighed, and kicked it up to a jog, just to keep her in sight.
Today was a fairly typical day—nobody on the streets, doors and windows closed even during the day. And nobody lurking, at least visibly, to snatch Alyssa off the street. Shane didn’t worry so much about pervs in Morganville—although he was pretty sure they existed—as about vampires.
Because it was just a fact of life. Morganville had vampires. And he and Alyssa were both wearing bracelets—leather, with an embossed symbol—that identified them as being minors under the Protection of a vampire named Sullivan. Not that Sullivan was worth much. For a vamp, he did a crappy job of intimidating people, or taking care of them, or even just showing up when he was supposed to. Maybe he was a drunk, like Shane’s dad was. Who knew?