Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
All the girls at my school are in love with him.
Which is nothing new because every girl at Bardstown High loved him too.
And his dark magic is still alive at St. Mary’s School for Troubled Teenagers.
They are in love with him, with his Mustang.
His sparkling vampire skin and his long dark hair. They think his gunmetal gray eyes are so cool, and the way he walks with long, effortless steps makes them swoon.
Even though they watch us with giggling eyes and snickering lips. Even more so now than before because my belly’s showing. And well, I’ve had to make uniform adjustments. Meaning, I don’t wear one because those skirts are not made for expanding bellies.
Anyway, I know they love it that he drops me off and picks me up from school. I heard a bunch of them talking during lunch one day.
My girls especially love that. That he waits.
“Oh look, our gorgeous villain is here,” Poe sing-songs. “Waiting for his Fae.”
My breath catches in my throat. Because I was talking to Wyn about our English lit homework as we were climbing down the steps after finishing for the day and I hadn’t seen him yet.
Although to be honest, I should’ve known.
He’s somehow never late, even though he comes straight from work.
I narrow my eyes at Poe though. “Don’t make me regret telling you that.”
I don’t even know why I did.
Since I don’t live with them anymore, we try to catch up as much as we can during lunch and any other free time that we get. And since Reed Roman Jackson is such a big topic, all our conversations circle around him, and since I’m an idiot, I let it slip one day that he calls me Fae.
And well, since then they haven’t let it go.
Poe sticks her tongue out at me and I do the same in return.
While Salem, our doomed-in-love turned happy-in-love friend, sighs. “I’m so jealous. Like, it’s so cute I wanna die. You know what? I’m going to make Arrow write me another poem next time he calls. Just to make up for all this cuteness.”
Arrow and Salem are still going strong. Not that I ever doubted that they would.
He’s crazy about her. Every visitation weekend, he makes sure to fly over from California, where he lives to visit Salem. The rest of the time, they talk on the phone on Saturdays, email each other. Even write love letters.
I don’t know what she’s complaining about because her thing is beyond cute.
I raise my eyebrows at Salem. “Make him?”
She raises hers back, smiling slyly. “Yeah. I can make him do things.”
Poe jumps in. “What kind of things?”
Salem shrugs. “Things your virgin ears won’t be able to hear without blushing.”
“I don’t blush. Ever.” She throws us a coy smile then. “And who says I’m a virgin?”
“Poe, you are a virgin, okay?” I tell her, rolling my eyes. “We know that. So stop trying to be all mysterious.”
“Fine. I’m a virgin.” She sticks her tongue out at me again and I do the same. “And I hate you. I hate both of you for having sex before me. I want to have sex too. And you know why I haven’t had sex yet?”
“We know,” Salem says.
“You do?”
“Yes,” I reply. “It’s because of your tweed-jacket-with-elbow-patches-wearing guardian. Who sent you here.”
As expected, Poe’s face scrunches up with fury.
“Exactly. Everything wrong in my life is because of him. Everything. Ugh. I can’t wait to kill him and dance on his grave and then have sex with the first guy I meet.
” She turns to Salem then. “Until then you’re gonna have to tell me everything. So I can live vicariously through you.”
As Poe harasses Salem to give up all the dirty details, I turn to Wyn, who I realize hasn’t spoken a word in all of this. And the reason for that is that she’s staring at something with a slight frown.
Wyn has always been the quietest of us all but these days she’s been quieter than usual. And I hate that I don’t share a room with her or I’d prod for every single detail during our midnight chats.
I miss her so much. Her and her dream man stories.
Anyway, when I follow her gaze, I see nothing that’s worth much attention though.
There’s a group of girls, wearing mustard-colored sweaters and blazers, sitting on the concrete benches under the late February sun before the light goes out in the winter sky.
Oh, and there’s a group of teachers right behind them that includes my brother, Conrad.
Who’s been the new soccer coach since last November.
Since I sit out soccer games because of my condition, I haven’t had much of a chance to be coached by my legendary soccer coach brother.
But he does check in with me a couple of times during the day, including lunch, when he brings me all the fried stuff that I’ve been craving ever since I got my appetite back.
Ugh, and right by my brother stands our history teacher, Miss Halsey, who has made no secret that she’s in love with him and would do anything to have him.
Even now, she’s almost draped on his arm, looking up at Con like he’s the most amazing man she’s ever met.
I mean, he is — he’s the best man and brother ever — but I hate that Miss Halsey thinks so too. I never liked her before and I don’t like her now.
But that’s not the point.
My friend needs me so I look away and bump her shoulder. “Hey, what’s up?”
She blinks as if waking up. “What?”
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” she says quickly.
I frown. “Are you sure? You were staring pretty hard at something.”
She ducks her head and tucks her hair behind her ears. “Uh, no. I was just… thinking about something.”
“About what?” I prod. “You know, you’ve been pretty quiet these days. Is something going on, Wyn? You can tell me, you know that, right? I mean, you have to know that. I love you.”
She smiles at me but sadness still lingers in her eyes. “I know. It’s just I’m stressing about art school applications. It’s end of February now and I haven’t heard anything back. So I don’t know if they liked my sketches or not.”
I get her nerves. I haven’t heard back from Juilliard myself but she has to know that she’s beyond talented and hard working and she’ll get in.
“Are you crazy? You’re the best artist I know.” I grab her shoulders. “Wyn, you’re so talented. So, so, so talented. You make me cry with your talent, okay? Cry.”
She chuckles. “But you’re pregnant. You cry at everything.”
“Ha. Ha. I’ve always cried at your sketches. Because they’re awesome. And everyone will love them. You’ll see. You’ll hear back from them, trust me.”
Salem and Poe say the same thing before hugging me goodbye and telling me yet again — Wyn joins in this time — how amazing it is that my gorgeous villain is waiting for me in his Mustang.
So my girls are definitely in love with him.
And although I wouldn’t ever say that my brothers are in love with him, they too have somewhat warmed up. Stellan doesn’t glare at him all that much and Shepard doesn’t respond to everything that Reed does with sarcasm.
Last week Conrad even gave him a short nod through the black gates when Reed came to pick me up after school.
Even Ledger isn’t always biting Reed’s head off. And vice versa.
Last weekend it was my brothers’ turn to bring groceries and Ledger brought tons.
Reed was also there because he came around to fix the gutter up on the roof. Because when it had rained a couple of days ago, the water didn’t go down smoothly, whatever that meant.
When I told him that I didn’t notice anything and that he was crazy to worry about the littlest things and that he should relax and enjoy things like rain because it’s pretty and cozy to watch from the glass house, he shot me a flat look.
Then he said that I should let him handle things beyond my ken.
“Beyond my ken. That’s offensive, Reed.”
He set the ladder against the siding of the house and murmured, without glancing at me, “Yeah? I hadn’t noticed.”
I put my hands on my hips. “It’s not only offensive, it’s also misogynistic to imply that women don’t know anything about house maintenance.”
“Well, they don’t if they think rainwater clogging on the roof is cause for celebration.”
“You’re —”
“Are you bothering my sister?” Ledger asked, appearing out of nowhere.
Reed threw him an irritated look. “I’d be happy to start something with you but I’m a little busy here.”
“Yeah, with what?”
I jumped in before Reed could make matters worse.
“He’s cleaning the gutters or whatever. And when I told him he shouldn’t bother because everything was fine and that he should enjoy things in life like pretty rain instead of worrying about everything, he said I didn’t know anything about house maintenance. ”
Ledger turned to me. “Pretty?”
“Yes. That’s all. Relax.”
Ledger frowned at me before turning to Reed. “She tell you that it was pretty?”
“Also cozy.”
They both looked at each other, sporting the same look. The look that said I was crazy, that all women in the world are crazy for suggesting that rain is pretty.
Ledger turned back to me. “Callie, it’s not going to be pretty or cozy or whatever the fuck when your roof starts leaking and there’s water damage.
Let him do his thing.” And then, just to annoy me — I know it — he added, “You should go inside and bake cookies instead and see if the purple leprechauns that live under your bed want some.”
My eyes went wide. “You moron. I can’t believe you said that. Especially when you know that I’m pregnant and my hormones are all messed up.”
They are.
Along with making me cry, they make me angry and hot and just… so irritated.
So much so that I punched my brother in the chest that day, which only made him snicker. And when I noticed that Reed’s lips were twitching, I punched him too.
“You know what, I am going to make cookies. Oatmeal raisin, Ledger. But you don’t get any.”
“Hey!” Ledger protested. “Now, that’s a little hasty. Who loves you the most, huh?”
“Not you.” Then I turned to Reed who was watching me with amused eyes and declared, “You too. I know you like them too. But you don’t get to have any either.”
So yeah.