A Grave Problem

33. Apology

Mia spent the whole night thinking about the conversation she'd heard between Zev and Luke. As much as she tried to push the feelings aside, she couldn't help but feel just a little guilty. After all, if Zev hadn't actually been trying to hurt her, she might have overreacted just a bit. Besides, she'd known him for over a year; if he was actually dangerous, she would have picked up on it by now, right?

She'd been so focused on the fact that she knew they were werewolves that she'd almost forgotten they were people too. And not just any people - they were her friends. The more she thought about it, the worse Mia felt; as soon as she'd realized what her friends really were, she'd immediately stopped talking to them. Even worse was the fact that she'd seriously considered getting everyone else she knew to stop talking to them too.

Mia found herself thinking back to the times in her own life that people had found out what she was - back in Japan and again last year. Obviously things hadn't gone well in Japan. So when Anna had confronted her last year, all Mia could think was that she was going to have a repeat of that first experience. And when Carmine told her that she knew - Mia couldn't even begin to describe how relieved she'd been at how that turned out. Carmine wasn't even a vampire, but she'd been ok with Mia being one; she was the first human Mia had ever met who'd felt that way. Carmine had given her a real chance, and Mia had been grateful. She knew it couldn't be easy to have not just one, but both of her best friends being vampires.

Mia would have liked to say she'd have done the same thing. She wanted to believe that her friends' personalities and how they treated her were more important to her than anything else about them. But the way she'd treated Zev and Luke proved that just wasn't the case.

Slowly, it started to sink in that she really was going to have to talk to Zev; she owed it to him. Mia couldn't help but think about how much easier her life would have been if anyone in her hometown had given her the chance to explain. So why hadn't she given it to him?

Mia was still lost in thought when her mom knocked on her door almost an hour later.

"I'm going to start dinner at seven, so be ready about seven-thirty, ok?" she said as she opened the door and leaned into Mia's room.

"Ok, mom." Mia said, barely listening.

"And this came for you in the mail the day before yesterday. I put it on the table, but you must not have seen it." Her mom held out a thick, white envelope.

"Thanks." Mia said, setting it next to her on the bed. Her mom left, and Mia was alone with her thoughts once again. She wasn't sure she was ready to apologize just yet, but what else could she do? Deciding she needed a distraction, Mia picked up the envelope and tore it open.

She wasn't sure what she expected, but pictures were still about the last thing on her list. She pulled the biggest ones out by hand before turning the envelope upside down and dumping the smaller ones out, scattering them halfway across the bed. Staring up at her were four different sizes of the picture she'd taken with Zev at the dance. With her hand on his chest and her head leaning in towards his, she looked so happy.

Mia picked up one of the pictures and looked at it, remembering how enjoyable that dance had been. Even though she was normally a pretty bad dancer, she didn't remember it being that hard. Maybe she was just forgetting all the bad parts, but she remembered it actually being kind of fun. And of course, how could Mia forget that kiss?

Mia had thought she couldn't feel any worse, but staring at that picture, she realized she was wrong. Not only had she stopped talking to someone in a way she'd swore she'd never do, but she'd thrown out a perfectly good relationship without even bothering to check all the facts. What was she thinking?