My Blood Approves (29 page)

“
So you’re out all night
having sex with a boy that’s way, way too old for you, and I’m just
supposed to turn a blind eye to that?” As she spoke, her words kept
getting louder and louder until she was shouting by the end of the
sentence.

“
Yeah,” I replied
blankly.

There would be no way I could soothe her
anger, so I didn’t even bother trying. Milo looked at me
questioningly, although I’m not sure if he was questioning my
suicidal tendencies or if I’d actually had sex with Jack. Knowing
him, it was probably both.

“
Alice!” Mom got to her
feet, pointing her finger at me. “Go get changed and get ready for
school!”

“
No!” I protested. “I’m
tired! I’m going to bed!”

“
Alice, I really think you
should listen to her,” Milo whispered plaintively.

“
I’m tired, too, but I had
to wait up for you! And if you think that you can go gallivanting
around just because you finally found a boyfriend, then you are
sorely mistaken! When you’re under my roof, you abide by my rules!”
Her eyes were so angry they were bulging from her skull, but after
what I’d seen in the past few days, she no longer seemed all that
scary.

“
Fine. Then I just won’t
live under your roof,” I shrugged.

It was only a matter of time until I moved
in with Jack’s family or died, so I didn’t really need to keep this
address anyway. I was hardly ever home anymore. I hadn’t actually
consulted Jack or Mae about this, so I wasn’t really sure how the
idea would go over, but I plowed ahead with it anyway.

“
Alice!” Milo
hissed.

“
You are still under
eighteen, missy!” Mom didn’t even miss a beat. “You are not going
anywhere, and if you even think about, I’ll have your little
boyfriend turned in for statutory rape.”

“
It won’t stick,” I said.
“Why do you even want me here? I’m gone all the time, and I just
cost you money. I mean, you only saw me for like five minutes all
of last week. What exactly do you want me around for?”

“
You’ve got it all figured
out then, do you?” Mom shrugged at me. “You got a boyfriend with a
little bit of money? He’s gonna take care of you now? Is that what
you think? Yeah, well maybe you’ve forgotten, but I had a boyfriend
like that once. You know what I got? Two ungrateful kids and not a
damn cent from him! So don’t try and tell me things you know
nothing about!”

“
I’m not trying to tell you
anything! I’m just saying that I’m a burden to you! You don’t want
me here, I don’t wanna be here, so why am I here?” I asked her
emphatically.

She looked hurt at that, but nothing I had
said wasn’t true. We barely saw each other, and she didn’t know
anything about me. The only one that would be hurt was Milo, and
I’d still see him.

“
Go. Go ahead,” Mom said
evenly. I started walking towards my room, and she held up her
hand. “Don’t even think about! That room is full of my stuff. You
never paid for a damn thing in your life. So when you leave, you
take what you got on your back, and that’s all.”

“
Fine, whatever.” I tried
to act like it didn’t bother me that I’d be leaving all my personal
belongings behind. Like CD’s, diaries, underwear, and everything I
had ever owned. But I had made up my mind, and that was it. “I’ll
see you… maybe never.” Then I turned and waltzed out of the
apartment.

“
Alice!” Milo burst out of
the apartment after me before the elevator even came. He dragged
his half unzipped backpack and raced towards me. “Why did you do
that?”

“
It just seemed really
pointless to stay there any longer.” I tried not to look over at
him, so I wouldn’t have to see the pained expression his face.
Leaving home meant that I was leaving him, too.

“
You’re really gonna go
live with Jack?” He sounded simultaneously surprised and resigned
by the idea.

“
I don’t see what choice I
have.” The elevator doors opened and there were several passengers
on it, which I was kinda grateful for. Milo would be less likely to
press me for answered, so it’d be easier for me leave details
out.

“
You definitely have a
choice!” Milo insisted, ignoring the crowd in the elevator. “I know
Jack and his family are super amazing, but you haven’t really known
him that long. I mean, they’re almost too good to be true. There’s
got to be a dark secret hidden there.”

“
You just might be
right.”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling, and I
realized with the surprise that it didn’t hurt. Running my tongue
along my bottom lip, I searched for any bump or scratch from when I
had bit it earlier, but there was none. Jack’s saliva must’ve
healed it.

“
Come on, Alice,” Milo
pleaded when the doors opened. “Be reasonable.”

“
When have you ever known
me to be reasonable?” I shot him a look while stepping out of the
elevator, and he just rolled his eyes.

We walked outside into the cold, and I
wrapped my sweater more tightly around me. All I had on me were the
clothes on my back and my cell phone in my pocket, and there was a
very good chance that my only rides anywhere were a pair of
vampires that had just gone to bed.

“
So what?” Milo was walking
to the bus stop, and since I had nothing better to do, I walked
with him. “This is it? This is like the last time I’ll see
you?”

“
No, of course
not!”

“
Be serious.” He had pulled
his bag onto into his back, and he readjusted the straps. “You’re
going to move in with him and have all these fabulous adventures
and completely forget about me.”

“
You’re my brother, Milo. I
can never forget about you.” And I wouldn’t, but I had a sinking
suspicion that he probably wasn’t that far from the truth. “Look,
I’m not saying things won’t be different or that I won’t see you
less. But that doesn’t mean things will be bad.”

“
Maybe you can just stay
there for a night or something,” Milo suggested hopefully. “Give
Mom a chance to cool down, and then you can come home.

“
But she’s not completely
off base, Alice. You have school and you stayed out until seven in
the morning. I don’t care what you were or weren’t doing with Jack
– well, okay, I do, and you’ll totally have to tell me later. But
it doesn’t matter. You’re still in high school. You should be
coming home before the sun comes up and getting an
education.”

“
I am way too tired for you
to lecture me about school, okay?” I groaned.

“
Just think about it,
alright?” Milo asked as the bus came towards us. I didn’t want the
bus driver to try to make me get on, so I started backing away from
him. “And turn your phone on! If you don’t come home tonight, maybe
you could at least get some of your things while Mom’s at
work.”

“
Okay!” I waved at him,
then turned and walked down the block, away from my apartment, away
from my brother, away from my life.

- 19 -

For a long time, I just walked around the
tree lined streets. Spring edged ever closer, with warm
temperatures and longer days. The nights would get shorter, too,
and I wondered how Jack contended with that.

I was definitely cold and tired, but I was
way too wired up from everything that had happened. My lips still
tingled from kissing him, and I wondered dully if I’d ever be able
to kiss him again.

Moving out of my mother’s had been rash,
I’ll admit it, and she was justified in her anger. I just didn’t
have the strength to deal with stuff that didn’t matter
anymore.

Maybe I would’ve reacted a little better if
I hadn’t had the reminder of Jack’s nearly-forgotten words ringing
in my mind. When I asked what it was like to bite a vampire, he’d
responded with, “You’ll understand when you’re a vampire.”

It would only be natural that I eventually
segued into vampirism. Even if I didn’t move in with them today, I
would some day. They were welcoming me into their folds for a
reason, and as Jack had so ominously pointed out before I
understood what they were, they wanted me to be one of them.

I sat down on a bench and pulled my knees up
to my chest. The sun spilled over the buildings, warming my
frightfully cold skin, and I wondered how much longer I’d be able
to enjoy the sun like this.

Being with them would mean missing a lot of
things, but it didn’t really feel like it. There would be so much
more I’d be getting in return.

Pulling out my phone, I hoped that Jack
would still be awake. My exhaustion and temperature were starting
to wear me down.

“
Hello?” Jack answered
groggily.

“
Sorry. Did I wake
you?”

“
Nah, I’m just about to go
to bed, though. Why? What do you need?” He still sounded awfully
tired, and he yawned into the phone.

“
I was just… wondering if I
could stay with you for awhile.” I grimaced at my own question.
Maybe I asked too much from them. Maybe I should go home and try to
make amends with my mother before she changed the locks.

“
Yeah, sure. What’s wrong
with your place?” Jack replied without even thinking about
it.

“
I got in a fight with my
mom about coming home so late, and I’m not exactly welcome there
anymore.”

“
Oh, man, I’m sorry,” Jack
apologized. “Yeah. Sure. You can stay here as long as you want. Do
you need a ride right now?”

“
It would be nice, but it’s
not necessary.” I still didn’t completely understand his deal with
sun, and I wasn’t sure if he could drive out in it to come get
me.

“
Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll be
there in like five minutes.” He yawned again and I heard a rustle
of movement as he got up, meaning that he’d already been in
bed.

“
I’m not at home, though.
I’m on a bench a couple blocks away.” I looked around for a street
sign so I could tell him what intersection I was at for sure, but
he could always find me.

“
Cool. Hang tight.” He
clicked off the phone, and I shoved my phone back in my
pocket.

I felt better knowing that I wouldn’t be
stuck on this bench all day like a homeless person, but it was
still hard to know if I was doing the right thing.

Nothing in my life had prepared me to deal
with situations like this. Up until now, my life consisted of
sitting at home with Milo, shopping/partying/hating myself with
Jane, and that’s about it.

I’d barely even kissed a boy, I’d never
driven a car, or been out of the tri-state area. My father left
before I was two, and my mother spent my whole life working
continuously so we’d have just enough to survive.

I knew nothing about life, and here I was,
preparing to give it up in exchange for something I didn’t truly
understand.

Jack pulled up in front within six minutes
of me making the phone call, and I didn’t understand how he could
possibly get around that fast. But here he was, grinning at me
tiredly behind gigantic sunglasses. I hopped in the car and decided
that I was too tired to question anything. I just wanted to get to
his house and take a nice, long sleep.

When we got to his house, Jack showed me to
my room. It was the guest room at the end of the hall upstairs, the
bedroom in the turret. I felt like Juliet or Rapunzel.

The walls were rounded and there was a
balcony in the back. It’d been painted a soft lilac that eerily
matched the walls of my own room, and the four-post bed had been
made at in all white, luxurious comforters. Mae had even left satin
pajamas on the bed.

“
Wow, this is really
perfect.” I touched the blankets and admiring the room. “It’s
exactly like me.”

“
It should be.” Jack stood
in the doorway, leaning on the frame to make sure that I had
everything, and he yawned. “Mae did it for you.”

“
Like just now? I called
and she painted the room?” I furrowed my brow in confusion and
disbelief.

“
No,” he laughed, shaking
his head. “Originally, she kind of thought you’d just be staying in
Peter’s room, but when that started seeming like less of an option,
she did up this room for you. You were gonna end up here
eventually, right?”

“
Yeah.” I nodded, but it
felt weird knowing that someone had been preparing for me before I
even knew I’d be here.

“
Mae likes to nest.” Jack
noticed my unease and smiled to settle me down. “It’s her thing.
This was just her way of nesting. She doesn’t get to decorate for
girls very often, you know.”

“
Yeah, I guess
not.”

“
Alright, well, I’m gonna
get some sleep. But I’ll be right next door if you need me.” He
took a step backwards and grinned mischievously. “But don’t you get
any ideas.”

“
Yeah, I’ll try not to.” I
was being sarcastic, but I knew that I’d really have to try not
to.

Jack laughed and walked into his room, which
was just one thin wall away from mine. Peter was gone, and Mae was
downstairs. It would be almost too easy to just go next door and
start what we’d finished earlier…

But thankfully, my body decided to remember
exactly how tired it was. I shut the bedroom door, put on my
borrowed pajamas, and almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I
was asleep.

Milo hugged me like a hundred times, and his
eyes welled with tears when I picked up clothes from him. Jack
waited in the kitchen for me while I packed my things. I’d that his
presence would somehow cheer Milo up, but it had the opposite
effect. It reminded him that not only would he be seeing less of
me, he’d be seeing less of Jack as well.