Chapter 12
Twelve
Honestly, he’s giving Landon vibes. . . is the first thing I hear when Jullia approaches me. I’m leaning against the doorway to the training arena. The massive room looks like three warehouses connected with a loft styled upstairs holding every piece of gym machinery you could need.
Downstairs are padded sections for one on one combat and so many other things I can’t fully concentrate on because Asher is facing off against Thorne and both look pissed.
Jullia blocks my view and in the back of my mind I remember her approaching me and saying something. She said a name. . . Landon?
“Who’s Landon?” I ask. Tilting my head to peer over her shoulder to watch as Asher lunges first. Neither of them have weapons and the fight is supposed to be purely self-defense, but Thorne delivers a solid left hook and I’m surprised Jullia is being so calm about this.
She slaps my shoulder and it was hard enough to sting. Giving her my full attention, I glare. She glares right back.
“Your boyfriend is getting pummeled and you don’t seem bothered,” I say dryly.
She tenses a bit before taking a deep breath and dismissing my comment. “They’re not allowed to use any abilities so he’ll be fine. Now, how did the interview go?”
Right. The whole reason I’m here.
“Fine. They said I can start tonight after this session is finished.” Done paying attention to the fight I fully survey the arena.
There was a position for the cleaning crew for the school and while there are no students on it with only staff, the advisor seemed like she was tired of seeing my face every other day and said I could work on probation for this first week to see how it goes.
The head of the cleaning crew didn’t seem to care that I was a vampire, but he did say since I was new I was on gym duty.
“That’s awesome,” Jullia gushes. She turns around and steps back so she’s beside me now as her smile tightens watching the fight. “And Thorne is Landon. Landon King.”
“Huh?”
She smirks and then sobers. “I’ll lend you my book, God of Ruin. Landon is the main male character and Thorne gives his vibes. Though Thorne isn’t so much a narcissist and psycho. I could also see Kai Mori vibes too.” She hums. “I have to remember to reread that series when October hits.”
My eye twitches as I side-eye her. “I would prefer not to read a sex book where Thorne is more or less the main character, thank you.”
Someone chokes and we both turn to both Asher and Thorne staring at us. Well that’s just fucking great.
The former gives a cocky smirk to his girlfriend who’s face is bright red. The latter burns dark red eyes at me while taking his hand and wiping the corners of his mouth. His abs and biceps flex with the movement and I flex my own abs hidden under my shirt to keep from moving.
Slowly turning away from me he starts making his way to the edge of the mat where bottles of water are. The muscles in his back ripple as he bends down to pick a bottle up to chug.
“Well,” Jullia whispers, “I wouldn’t judge – “
Before she can finish whatever it is she was going to say I push off the wall and circle her to exit through the hall.
There’s a staff common room at the end of the hall with lockers for those that work in this area of the university.
There should be a coverall jumpsuit for me in one of them and the training class should be about done by now.
Jullia’s light chuckle echoes after me but she doesn’t follow. Entering the code to the room that the head of the cleaning crew gave me, I enter to find it empty. Good. I need to change out of my uniform and there isn’t a bathroom in here.
I don’t have anything to wear under the coverall unless I want to wear my uniform, but I’m just going to have to deal with it until I can get paid.
Going to my locker – number four – I twist the notch on the lock to the numbers the head of the cleaning crew also gave me and open it on the first try.
Inside the locker is a dingy brown long sleeve jumpsuit that looks similar to what mechanics wear.
On the floor of the locker is a pair of black boots that should be my size and a cap sitting on top of them. With a backwards glance at the door, I begin undressing. Hanging my blazer on the only other hook in the locker, I toe off my flats and then slip the thigh high socks off.
My skin pebbles being exposed to the cool air and I’m sure if there was hair on my legs every strand would be raised.
Cordellia had said on multiple occasions I was lucky I didn’t have to shave or use creams to get rid of the hair on my body – since I don’t have any.
Most of the time I’d just dismiss her comment but every once in a while I would remind her that I may not have hair on my body, but that’s due to the poison in my blood and I still have scars covering every other inch.
I didn’t tend to remind her because she usually forgot about them as a whole.
She – and most of the girls at the brothel – didn’t pay any mind to them.
Even when they were exposed, when I would wear my little dresses or a t-shirt and shorts, it was as if I didn’t have them. I never had to cover up around them.
Yet another reason I miss home. Clothing rubbing over the scars always feels like they’re getting irritated. Even though they’ve long been healed. It’s fine in the winter because they don’t ache as much in the cold, but especially when it’s warm or I get sweaty they sting.
Taking one of the socks off, I replace it with a leg of the jumpsuit so my skin it’s exposed for longer than it needs to. The last thing I need is someone walking in and seeing the scars.
When I have both legs in I button the jumpsuit up to my hips and then undo my skirt to pull over my head.
Half-way done. Undoing the buttons of my shirt, I keep my back towards the door and pull the jumpsuit up over my shoulders before shimmying out of my school shirt and pulling it out from its trapped position between my back and the jumpsuit.
Once that’s done I shove my hands through the sleeves of the jumpsuit and finish buttoning the rest of the buttons. The top one stops right beneath where my collarbones are. Barefoot, I walk over to the full length mirror beside the lockers and stare at myself.
My hair is already tied up in a messy low bun so I just need my shoes and cap and then I’ll be done. The only problem is that one of the bitemarks is very clearly visible just over the neckline of the jumpsuit.
Motherfucker.
I need this job. I can’t not work and it’s required to wear the jumpsuit. I could wear my school shirt but. . .
Grabbing the boots and hat, I slap the locker shut and shove my feet into the shoes.
I cringe at not wearing socks, but I only have the thigh high ones and I’m not wearing those.
After lacing them up I click the lock in place, pull the hat over my head, and go over to the chart on the wall to sign my name.
It’ll let whoever comes in here know I’m out with a cart full of all the cleaning supplies I’ll need.
Wheeling it out I exit the room and pull the neckline up with one hand while I steer the cart with another. Hopefully – I’ve been saying that too much recently – but hopefully no one wants to stay after to keep practicing.
Jullia is still near the doorway and she jumps as I stop beside her with the cart.
“Holy goddesses! Don’t sneak up on a girl.”
Rolling my eyes, Asher skips over to us without a scratch or bruise on him. He cocks his head at me and his eyes glance down to where my hand is clutching the neckline.
“I see you got the job. . . you gonna be good?”
I don’t see Thorne or anyone else behind him so I drop my hand for a moment and rub at my face. I can feel Jullia stiffen next to me but she just hums quietly to herself.
“I’ll be fine. I used to clean all the time in all sorts of unpleasant places. Is there anyone going to be staying after?”
I grip and pull the neckline back up as I look past Asher again.
There’s still a few guys working out upstairs but that doesn’t bother me.
Most of them look like they have earbuds or headphones on.
Hopefully – there I go with that damn word again – it’s like the gyms in America and people don’t give two shits about who’s next to them.
“No, there’s more parties tonight so everyone’s cutting their after training workouts. The place should be empty in about thirty more minutes.”
I nod. Good. I’ll start in the back where there’s nobody and work my way here. I’ll do upstairs last in case there’s any stragglers left.
“Well,” I announce in a burst of energy, “you guys have fun tonight.”
Jullia smiles at me and then holds up her hands. She has them cupped together so I’m assuming there’s something in them and I really hope she isn’t going to give me something.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she grumbles.
Opening her hand she reveals wired earbuds and what looks like a small mp3 player.
“So you can at least listen to something while you work. I downloaded the songs you’ve saved on your tablet to it so you can listen to your music and I downloaded that list of songs you wrote down too.
The one of all the songs from Earth. I have a universal converter which allows me to download songs, shows, and movies from Earth so I can play them here. ”
Warmth from both gratitude and guilt invade my chest. She’s told me that before. It’s how she’s able to watch all her anime shows and read all her e-books. Jullia thrusts the device into my chest and gives me no choice but to take it.
“Don’t even think about giving it back. It’s an old thing I don’t use anymore so you might as well put it to use.”
Unwrapping the wire I click on the screen and it’s more or less like an mp3 player. The screen lights up with a playlist titled Mavyn’s Essentials.
Needles prick at my nose and my eyes burn as I mumble out, “Thank you.”