Monsters Are Forever

21. Rumors

 Zev walked into class still looking a little pale, but at least he wasn't staggering anymore. Mia tried to be glad about that. She was just happy Carmine had gone over to help him. As he sat down in his seat across the aisle, he gave her a small nod. Obviously, he wasn't feeling quite back to normal yet.

She watched him all period out of the corner of her eye, trying to gauge how he was actually doing. It was hard to say, but he didn't look all that great. At least he looked better by the end of class. As soon as the bell rang, she came over to him.

"Are you ok?" Mia asked as they walked out of the room together.

She was almost too embarrassed to face what she'd done, but she knew she had to ask. Besides, what kind of girlfriend would she be if she didn't even check on him? Especially the way he'd barely made it out of the cafeteria like that. And she knew it had been all her fault. She wanted to apologize, but she wasn't quite able to admit what she'd done.

"Yeah, I'm fine – I feel a lot better now at least." Zev told her. "Don't know what happened there at lunch."

"You don't?"

Mia would have thought it'd be pretty obvious to him. Or was it actually possible he'd never been around mistletoe that long before?

Zev looked at her sideways for a minute and Mia suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"Should I?" he asked finally.

"Well...I mean...I just thought..." Mia faltered before deciding to change the subject altogether – this one wasn't working out so well for her anyway. "So why is everyone acting so weird?"

Maybe if she got him thinking about something else – like how Anna barely seemed to want to be seen at lunch with the rest of them – that would get his attention off her for sure. And get his mind off of what she'd done today.

"I'm not." Zev told her, looking surprised. "I mean, ok – I got kinda sick at lunch. But that doesn't mean I'm acting weird."

"No, I didn't mean you." Mia told him.

He'd sounded defensive, and it surprised her. Maybe he really did have an idea as to what happened at lunch after all. Suddenly, Mia almost wished they were the kind of couple who talked about things like this. Then maybe she could tell him what was going on with her and Rudi. And why she'd practically poisoned him at lunch.

"So what'd you mean then?" he asked.

"Well, I guess I was thinking about Rudi mostly. And even Summer keeps staring at me." Mia told him, trying to ease her way into it. Zev sighed.

"It's nothing – just a rumor." he told her. "Just ignore them, and it'll stop eventually."

"Eventually?" Mia couldn't believe he'd just said that. Did he really not know how dangerous rumors could be to someone like her?

"It doesn't really have to do with you – don't worry." Zev said, trying to be reassuring. "I'll take care of it."

"What rumor?" Mia asked, not comforted in the least.

If there was even a chance that there was some sort of rumor going around about her, she wanted to know exactly what it was. When he didn't seem particularly interested in telling her, she decided maybe she should remind him of exactly how serious this was for her.

"Rumors about me were the reason I had to leave Japan in the first place." she told him.

Zev raised his eyebrows at her, and Mia caught herself wondering if she'd ever mentioned that little fact to him. If she were really honest with herself, it seemed like something she would have left out; she didn't particularly like thinking about it.