Affinity

Chapter 16: Blades and Fangs

Returning to school Monday felt surreal after the crazy weekend Nastia had. It seemed pretending to be just a normal teenage girl was not in the cards for her at all. She didn't want to even try anymore. She held out on killing AJ for Pam. Now she had to stay in control, or she'd find herself on the wrong side of a literal wooden stake.

At lunch, Nastia looked around seeing Reina's classmates were seated but Reina was not in sight. Pam asked the question before she could. "Where's Reina?"

"Oh. I think she is still mad at you two for ditching her at the dance," Savannah answered.

"Ditching her? We didn't ditch her," Nastia said. Yeah, they left without saying goodbye but that's beside the point. "I thought Austin was picking her up?"

"Yeah, apparently that didn't happen. She thinks he was with that girl he works with again. She wanted to go catch him in the act, but my parents were not letting me go back out after Ryan took me home. And you two had disappeared and were not answering your phones."

"Oh... right. Our phones had died that night," Pam said. "I knew I missed a couple of calls, but she didn't send me a text or anything, so I didn't think of calling her back." She looked to Nastia for confirmation, and she just shrugged. She had missed calls, too, but like Pam, didn't think anything of it.

"Don't let her make you feel bad, Pam. It's not our fault her boyfriend is probably cheating on her... again," Nastia said. "It's her fault for still being with him after he has already done it before." Suddenly, being a normal teenage girl seemed very exhausting and overrated to the vampire.

"So what? She is just going to not eat lunch?" Pam asked.

"I guess."

Anastasia walked to class with her phone in hand. She typed out a text to Reina only to backspace it again and again. She had nothing to apologize for. Maybe she could say sorry for not saying goodbye, but she knew Reina well enough to know she'll have an attitude whether Nastia says anything or not. Putting away her phone, she decided it was best to do nothing at this point. Reina would come around when she was ready and then Anastasia will apologize for whatever if she feels the need.

Her musings were interrupted by the beats of laughter from boys. Teen boys found everything hilarious. AJ's own chuckling raised goosebumps on her arm.

Centered in the group of athletes by his locker, AJ was easy to spot and not just because of his good looks that demanded the gaze of every starry-eyed freshman girl who dared gaze upon his lean, muscular figure. Amidst the adolescent boys, he was different. The same commanding presence he had since grade school only grew with his height. It was something she didn't quite understand growing up, the adulation of his followers.

She was about to look away when his eyes snared hers catching her admiring him like one of his sheep. He gave her a smile and bid goodbye to his friends to fall in step beside her. The boys swiftly dispersed now that their leader had taken his leave.

"Hey! It's been a minute," he said matching his stride to hers.

"It has."

He ran a hand through his hair, and she used the pause to slightly turn her head and cough as the bloodlust suddenly had her in an unexpected chokehold.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," she lied. I just feel like snorting peppermints. She increased her speed, gripping her binder to her chest. That sage had allowed her to be close enough to train with him, but it seems to have also weakened her own defenses. "I should get to class."

The pace did nothing to deter him, their steps staying in synchrony. "Wait. I'm sorry about Ivy. She was just surprised to see new people at HeadLight."