“Matt.”
“Hey.” I say walking into the kitchen where Thera’s sitting.
I want to die, just completely disappear.
Marcus hadn’t said a word to me after the kiss.
I don’t know if he was ignoring me or giving me some space.
“Did you have dinner yet?”
“Yeah. I ate over at John’s.”
I walk over to the fridge and grab a can of soda.
“Can we talk?”
“Yeah.”
I sit down across from her.
“I talked with Marcus.”
“Oh?”
I sit up straighter.
“He told me about your new vampire friend.”
I sigh and slump over my soda.
“Oh. I mean, he’s not exactly my friend.”
“I know that you’ve become very attached to your vampire family.”
I got a bad feeling in my gut as soon as she said those words. Nothing good could come after them.
“But I think that maybe it’s time for you to take a break.”
“A break?”
“Get away from them for a while.”
“Why?”
“It seems that more and more you’re dedicating your time and your mind to being with them. I don’t mind, I love them too. But I’m starting to worry that maybe you have forgotten how to be normal.”
“Because I’m not normal.”
“You’re still human.”
“Maybe.”
“Not maybe. You are human Matt, at least partially.”
“So?”
“Think about it. You’ve never asked a girl out on a date, you didn’t go to prom. You don’t even celebrate your birthday. You’ve never kissed a girl let alone gotten your sexual life going. You spend all you time with John or Marcus. And if you’re here, all you think about is what they are doing and what things you’re missing out on because you’re not there. You don’t want to go to school and get a career. I know that you like art but to tell you the truth. You don’t seem that enthused about your life. At least, not this part of it. I worry that if you don’t separate yourself from the vampires, you’ll want to be like them.”
“I’m a werewolf, not a vampire.”
“You’re neither right now. You’re a twenty-three year old man who should be out hanging out with friends and going to parties. Have you ever even thought about your future?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Are you married? Do you have children?”
“Okay. No I haven’t thought about my future. I happen to be very preoccupied with this whole ‘turning into a wolf any day now’ thing. But so what if I don’t get married? You haven’t.”
“No, I didn’t. But there is more to life than being a wolf.”
“I know that. But to be honest here, that’s all I happen to care about at the moment.”
