The Housemates

Cleaning and Killing

Chapter Fifteen

Cleaning and Killing

A month flew by, filled with renovations and bonding. The living room was finished and it looked fantastic, only serving to highlight how bad the rest of the place looked. Desmond had used a little magic to speed things up and to repair the things they didn’t know how to fix. The full moon passed in a fashion very similar to the last one. Nothing disastrous happened. Elli wasn’t sure Blake was still in town. Kate had only wailed once since Elli’s encounter with the vampire and neither werewolf had encountered him after fleeing the house for a few hours. Noah had gotten a job at the local coffee shop and was enjoying the excuse to get out of the house. Elli knew she needed to get a job sooner or later, for something to do if for no other purpose.

Desmond and Elli were cleaning out the attic. There were boxes full of crap everywhere, but Addy had informed them it wasn’t hers. It all belonged to the previous owner, so they were free to toss out the junk, keep whatever interested them, and sell anything valuable. They started from the tops of the piles and worked their way down. Desmond used magic and floated up to get the boxes that they would normally need a ladder to reach. Elli had given up on lecturing him about his magic use. It was like once he had started, he couldn’t stop. Nothing she said mattered, so she didn’t bother anymore.

There was lots of junk in the boxes. Elli stumbled upon a nice stained glass table lamp that she decided to keep and Desmond found a set of Shakespeare books. There was some jewelry that might be worth something and a painting they decided to have a professional look at.

“Talked to Jasper at all?” he asked her as they sorted through their twelfth box.

“Once. Addy was going shopping with him and Peter and she invited me and Kate. She wanted to have some girls go with her. Kate turned the offer down; she had a test to study for. I went, because well, Jasper. We talked a little then, but it wasn’t much. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even know I exist. It sucks.”

“I’m sorry,” he answered, looking genuinely sad for her.

“What about your love life? It’s been a while since you’ve had a hot date,” she teased. To her surprise, he sighed in response.

“Remember that whole, ‘Don’t shit where you eat’ thing?”

She nodded. It was a very memorable word choice and an accurate one. Not that she and Noah got much of a choice in the matter. At least Jasper didn’t live there. At the same time, though, she rarely got to see him because he didn’t.

“Yeah, well, I screwed myself over. I’m interested in Kate. Like, really interested in her. I thought it would just go away, because sure, she’s attractive, but I know better than to date someone I live with. But nope. I want to ask her out but I know it’s a terrible idea. Hopefully it just goes away, but I don’t think it will.”

“Why not ask her out?” she wondered. Obviously there was the whole awkward living together and being broken up thing, but other than that, she didn’t know what the problem would be. And who said they had to break up?

He just looked at her like she was blonde, which she was but she wasn’t usually mentally so. “You all know about my reputation. I can’t just ask her out. She’ll assume that I’ll want nothing more than a one night stand and either she’ll be okay with that and want nothing more or she won’t be and she’ll turn me down. Either way, I lose and things are weird between us.”

“Do you want more than that?” she questioned, surprised.

He nodded. “I think so. I mean, it could be that I want that because I don’t think I can have it, but I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted a relationship.”