27. Zair
Zair
I Saw the Spine, and It Opened Up My Eyes
I’m beyond full as I lay in my bed. I know I’m going to regret the half a cake I ate during my game tomorrow. Thea told me she’d come watch me play. I need to be rested if I’m going to impress her.
Soccer wouldn’t impress her.
Footsteps I recognize sound in the hallway and I hope they’re going across the hall, but no. They knock. I ignore it. They knock again.
“I can smell that you’re in there,” Dylan calls through the door.
“That’s creepy,” I call back. Slowly, I climb out of bed and unlock the door. Benson and Dylan come inside and shut it behind them as they sit down.
“You’re not answering your phone,” Benson says.
“What if I was with someone?” I challenge.
“You don’t have sex the night before matches,” Dylan points out. “And I smelled for Thea on the stairs.”
“I’m not sleeping with Thea,” I tell them pointedly.
“Why not?” Dylan asks taking a seat on my desk. “And don’t give me your BS I don’t touch witches lie, because you touch her.”
He wouldn’t understand.
“I don’t like her.” My chest tightens painfully at the lie.
“I smell bullshit,” Dylan jokes. “You ditched the party to study with her.”
“Actually we ate an entire birthday cake.” I smile at the memory and pat my bulging stomach proudly. “You guys like Thea, right?”
“We would be having a different intervention if we didn’t.”
“But you’re not attracted to her.”
“You don’t like her because she isn’t pretty enough?” Benson asks, appalled. I said that wrong. But whatever.
“She’s plenty pretty for the right guy,” I tell them. “But that’s not me.”
As much as I wish that it was.
“You witches are seriously shallow,” Benson snaps. “Rejecting a woman because she isn’t the most beautiful woman in the world.”
He leaves, his door opening and slamming shut across the hallway.
I should correct him, both that I’m full of shit and that Thea is in fact, the most beautiful woman in the world.
“Huh,” Dylan says as he stares at Benson’s door.
I should ignore it.
“What?”
“I’ve never heard Benson refer to a witch as a woman,” he says.
My head tilts as I think about it. He’s right.
“That’s just because he knows her.”
“He doesn’t call you a man,” he points out. “And women are cherished in goblin communities. He wouldn’t make that mistake.”
We both look towards his closed door.
“Come on, let’s go to the party,” Dylan says.
“Did I not mention I ate half a chocolate cake. If I drink, I’ll become a chocolate fountain.”
“Gross. Let’s test it.” He grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet. Dragging me to a party at one of the nightblind sororities.
I last exactly five minutes before Anita tries to sit on my lap.
“I said no, Anita,” I raise my voice. Something I never do.
“Zair,” she looks like I hit her.
“I told you I’m not interested. Stop trying to climb into my lap. It is never going to happen.” I stand and walk towards the door. Head held high.
Anita and the whole school now know exactly where she stands.
What took me so long?
I know exactly what.
Thank you.
For what?
Reminding me to have a spine.
You didn’t!
She sends me a picture of Anita on the floor and me standing over her. GhostChat really catches everything. I open mine and the messages scroll by, all happy someone finally put her in her place.
I did.
Because of you.
I get back to my door and collapse onto my bed. I’m asleep in minutes, my conscious clean for the first time in a long time.