Chapter 7 Tess #2
He stood up from the bed and she stared up at him, attempting to look determined.
She pursed her lips, but he only leaned down and kissed her gently, before heading off to the bathroom.
“Not telling but if you’re not done with work by six, I’ll be carrying you away from it whether you like it or not. ”
“Is that a promise?” She called after him.
Tess dallied a little and once he was gone, she cleaned up and got dressed.
She eyed her laptop longingly. But there was one thing she wanted to do before she began work.
She just wanted to do it out of Kal’s sight.
In case it was nothing, she didn’t want to get his hopes up. She had a strong suspicion, he would.
Tess ran out the back of the dorm and came around the side, heading off to the inventory shed where Crystal stocked miscellaneous supplies that came in handy.
It functioned like a kind of general store but since most people didn’t have actual money they traded and if their need was great and they had nothing to trade, they did some work for the item.
They had a full-time staffer working a counter at the shed and Tess took a deep breath.
The guy was Vampyren and his name was Jaquil.
Tess had only talked to him a couple of times.
He wasn’t quite as assimilated into human life as Kal but he wasn’t like your average Vampyren soldier either.
“Good morning,” Tess said, feeling stupidly nervous.
Jaquil nodded. He wore a casual style of Vampyren clothing; a leather vest and the thick, tight-fitting pants that Mark sometimes wore. His long braid was neat and tidy. He was not smiling, but he was leaning on the counter, a detailed spreadsheet on a clipboard in front of him.
“I need… something,” Tess muttered.
Jaquil waited for her to continue, glaring at her. Finally, when she didn’t say anything further, he said, “ What? What do you need?”
“A preg… a pregnancy test,” she said. She felt as if she were choking on the words. She still wasn’t completely sure what result she wanted. “Please.”
“Oh,” Jaquil said flatly. He didn’t react even a little and immediately turned on his heel to find a test among the supplies pack into the shelves from floor to ceiling of the big shed. Finally he came back with a small pink box and Tess swallowed. She hadn’t bought anything to trade.
“I could… work for it,” she said, still feeling somewhat mortified.
Jaquil actually laughed at that and he didn’t look like the sort of person who laughed very often. “What, running Free the Children isn’t enough? Free. For you. But besides that, it’s on a list of supplies Crystal doesn’t require payment or trade for.”
“Oh.” Tess nodded, taking the box with some trepidation. “Thank you.”
Jaquil only grunted in response and Tess tucked the box under her sweater, not wanting anyone else to see it.
The campus was terrible with gossip. If one person saw her with it, it would soon be all over that she was definitely pregnant, the concept of atestimmediately forgotten.
She ran all the way back to her dorm, drank a lot of water, and then went to work while she waited for nature to take its course.
Waiting for the result was the most insufferable part.
It was even worse than obtaining a pregnancy test from a stone-faced vamp.
Tess looked at the clock and paced around and tried to work and couldn’t.
When ten minutes had finally and painstakingly passed, she rushed to the bathroom to read the little white stick that would potentially determine her entire future. Positive. Positive.
Tess had not known how she would feel and now she felt a slow smile spreading across her face as tears welled up in her eyes. She told herself, time and time again, that if she didn’t want the baby, there were still people to go to. But now she found the idea of bearing Kal’s child to be fantastic.
“Okay,” she whispered. She got to her feet and rubbed her belly, smiling softly to herself. Whatever surprise awaited her tonight, apparently it would not involve alcohol but it would involve some big news.
* * *
Six in theevening came before she knew it. She managed to eat lunch but had missed breakfast and put off dinner. She’d opted to work offline in her room most of the day and she was about to head down and steal some food when Kal came barging in. Tess’s mouth dropped open. Kal lookedgood.
He was wearing his hair up in a loose bun again. She liked that look on him. He had on skinny black pants and a clingy gray t-shirt and a leather jacket. She wanted to eat him alive but now he looked at her expectantly and tapped his foot.
“Get dressed,” he said, nodding at her. “Ten minutes.”
Tess frowned down at her coffee-stained baggy t-shirt she’d worn two days in a row and the baggy jeans she found in the pile of secondhand campus clothes. “I’m dressed,” she said, feeling a little defensive.
Kal just shook his head and rooted through the giant pile of clothes she picked outfits from in the corner.
She waited, arms crossed, feeling good-naturedly amused as he muttered to himself and sorted through garments, occasionally sighing.
Finally, he tossed her some clothes and made his way back to the door.
“Ten minutes,” he said. “Cafeteria. Be there.”
With that, he shut the door behind him and she snorted.
She laid out the clothes and found herself more than a little surprised at how well he’d chosen the outfit given how little there was to work with.
He’d put together a tight, black knit skirt, a white cami (that was probably meant for pajamas) and a moto jacket.
She’d have to shave her legs with his razor and some gritty soap, which would definitely take more than ten minutes.
But it would do. They had found, in one of the storage rooms on campus, an old boombox and some CDs and batteries.
Tess put on the Salt-N-Pepa CD from the pile she’d lugged upstairs with the boombox and found herself enjoying getting ready for a boy for the first time in a few years.
It felt good to shave her legs and fuss with her hair (it had grown out a little but she played with styling her bangs in a cute little wave that fell over her eye).
She had a tiny stash of makeup. It was a pastime among the breeders and other women who lived on campus to trade makeup they had found.
Tess put on dark vampy lipstick and some eyeliner and mascara and dabbed some glitter on her eyelids for fun.
Her boots looked cute with the skirt, she decided, and she finally jogged downstairs and headed to the cafeteria.
Everyone was heading to the cafeteria, she discovered as she made her way there.
For a moment, she felt a thrill of fear in her fingertips and her breath quicken.
Surely, something hadhappened? But then she noticed that everyone looked cheerful and there was an air of fun about.
There were also candles sitting on stones along the curved walkway that led to the cafeteria.
They appeared to be purely decorative. She finally noticed that everyone was made up and dressed to go out on the town too, even if their clothes, like hers, were clearly worn and grabbed from some miscellaneous pile.
People were hooting and laughing and walking with their arms around each other.
Crystal and Kiera came running up to her looking happy, followed by Mindy and Cassie.
Tess hadn’t had much chance to get to know Mindy and Cassie much but she noticed Cassie looked more relaxed than usual and Mindy looked absolutely exuberant.
“You ready to party?” Crystal said, throwing her arm around Tess’s neck and hugging her. “Woohoo!”
“Party?” Tess said. She had not known what to expect, perhaps some special dinner (although how a Vampyren would know how to cook she couldn’t guess) but even the word “party” seemed somehow alien now, which was sad. “What party?”
“It was Kal’s idea!” Kiera said, coming beside her.
“Thought it would boost morale before we have to go fighting the entire Vampyren military or whatever.” The five of them naturally formed a group; Tess, Crystal, Kiera, Mindy, and Cassie.
Tess had a warm feeling in her chest and she smiled to herself both at the idea that Kal had organized a party to surprise her and that when she was around these women, she felt like they were good friends even though she hadn’t known them long.
Mindy announced, “My goal for the night is to get Alek drunk! He’sadorablewhen he’s drunk!”
“I think that should be all of our goals,” Crystal said. “Team Get the Vampyren Boyfriends Drunk. Go, team!”
“Here here!” Cassie said, laughing.
As they made their way down the candlelit path and the thumping bass of blasting music neared, Tess felt like maybe these women could be a home for her as much as Kal was. The thought was a comforting one.
They walked into the cafeteria and Tess cried out in surprise, her eyes big as she took it all in.
The place was completely transformed. Crystal had scrounged up some lights, and they flashed around and strobed, giving the place a real club atmosphere.
Most of the tables had been removed and the ones remaining were pushed to the side with some chairs to create more space for milling around and dancing.
The girls scattered to find their guys and Tess found herself a punch, tasting it first to make sure it wasn’t alcoholic.
She bobbed her head to the music, which wasn’t exactly contemporary (if there was such a thing as contemporary music anymore) but was familiar and brought her back to her younger days before the invasion.
“Hey.” Kal's soft growl of a voice in her ear made Tess smile, and she set her punch on the refreshments table, turning around in the circle of Kal’s arms to look at him.
She had to stand on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and he lifted her off the ground to kiss her. “Do you like your surprise?”