Academy of Blood and Magic

12🖤

I giggled as my friend, Eve Nichols, thrust yet another dress into my arms. Eve and I had been friends since my freshman year at our high school and the only human friend that I had.

At Arlington Falls, both humans and supernaturals went there. Supernaturals and humans just cliqued with each other and didn't socialize with each other that often, but Eve didn't care if someone was a supernatural or not; if she liked you and thought you were a cool person, then she'd become your friend in the blink of an eye. There were humans there that were either scared of supernaturals or hated them with a passion while most felt indifferent and kept away from us (us meaning supernaturals).

I'd called Eve and a few of my other friends to come shopping with me. I hadn't had the chance to talk or hang out with them much since I'd started studying to get into East Haven and hadn't checked in on them as I should've. Basically, I'd been a pretty sucky friend but they'd been understanding, fortunately, that I'd been busy and were miraculously still friends with me even though I definitely did not deserve it.

My other friends either had something else planned for the day or already bought their dresses. Eve had been the only one available to go shopping with me. She'd picked out her dress earlier - a gorgeous, velvet, sleeveless, silky dress that cascaded past her ankles and draped across the floor along with a necklace and heels to go with it - and now was intent on helping me find the purple dress. We'd been here for almost three hours and we still hadn't found the right dress for me. I could tell from the glares that were getting from the employees at the store that we were annoying them, but they'd be alright. We were having so much fun and it felt good to be hanging out with one of my friends and to be carefree and not have to worry about anything.

She placed a short pink dress on the already huge pile I was holding and I nearly dropped them.

"Eve, man, I'm about to drop these," I grunted, dangerously close to letting the dresses drop to the filthy floor. "I think I should just go ahead and try these on. I can't hold anymore."

"Just one more -"

"Eve."

"Okay, okay," she said with a laugh. "Let's go try them on."

I followed her to the dressing rooms. She walked away for a second to drag a scowling employee over to unlock one of the rooms for me. The employee rolled her eyes at us before stalking away. Eve opened one of the doors for me and I stumbled in, my arms trembling with effort. I dropped the dresses on the bench in relief then closed and locked the door behind me.

I had a total of twelve dresses to try on - Eve and I may have gotten a little carried away - and we had to make sure this was perfect. I didn't know why, but this homecoming felt special, that this was meaningful and that it had to be important. My first homecoming with Brandon had been pretty important, but for some reason, this one felt different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it felt like I needed to have the best time of my life.

My phone buzzed again with another text from Dad asking if I was okay despite asking me five minutes ago. I rolled my eyes and texted him back that yes, I was okay, and yes, I was still Eve, and yes, we were going home as soon as we finished shopping. It took forever for me to get out of the house. Mom and Dad made me keep promising them that I will be safe and stay with Eve at all times and to never leave her side. You'd have thought they were sending me off to war or something. Yes, I knew there was a murder near my school, but it wasn't like I was going out of town or something. The mall we were shopping in was only ten minutes away from our house and I wouldn't be walking home or anything.

Fortunately, things were starting to relax at my house. Now that Mom and Dad were finally going to give Brandon a chance - a real chance - I didn't feel so tense around them, didn't feel like I had to watch what I said around them without causing an argument or fight.