One More Song

Chapter Nineteen

One of the benefits of a few cups of vampire blood was apparently a little more resilience. Nathan had warned her that it wouldn't last, but Mariel was fairly grateful for it as she shoved the heavy milk crate off of her foot and hopped, cursing.

"Did you break a toe?!" Briar set down the bulging trash bag--plushies and pillows weren't too heavy for her bony body to manage--and hurried over, pale eyes wide.

"No, fuck!" Almost laughing, Mariel hopped backwards and leaned against the brick wall, trying to rub her foot through the top of her thin canvas sneaker. "Just hurts like a motherfucker. I didn't realize my damn gaming books were that heavy."

Squinting against the late afternoon sunlight, Briar looked up at the building. "You probably could've moved your things over all at once if you'd just waited for the semester to end. Waiting for someone to empty out their apartment while you're moving your stuff in is a hassle."

"I know, but the offer wasn't going to be around for long. I didn't want to miss it." Flexing her foot, she grimaced and hopped a step before picking the crate back up, hefting it onto her hip.

"This is a nice place, and you get what, half off your rent for managing the building's wifi?"

Mariel chuckled, holding the front door open for Briar to precede her. "And for handling the landlord's books. Luckily they're all on Excel so I won't have to actually do any math. Just some coding and stuff."

"How'd you even find out about this?" Briar paused to look at the shiny brass mailboxes in the entryway. "Ground floor, too. That's nice."

"Fewer stairs. It's just down the hall." Juggling the crate, Mariel got her passcard out of her pocket and swiped it to open the inner door, heavy glass and polished wood trim. "Nathan told me about it. After Amanda threw that fit about me being gone for a few days and started up with the 'I can't live like this anymore,' I told him I had to get out of the dorms. So he budgeted everything out and found this."

Briar paused, letting the trash bag drop from her shoulder to the floor. Looking back at Mariel, she smiled. Carefully. Oh so carefully. "I'm glad he's not a real jackass, Mariel."

"Yes he is." Laughing, Mariel worked her keys out of her pocket. It would've been easier if Briar could've just reached in and gotten them to unlock the door, but Mariel could count on one hand the times she'd seen Briar voluntarily make physical contact with anyone. "He's just a tolerable jackass."

The apartment was a palace of square footage compared to the dorm rooms she'd been living in for years. Every time Mariel stepped through the door, she felt like running around the living room, bolting into the kitchen, dancing in the novelty of her own bathroom.

Briar moved through the living room to the bedroom, dragging the trash bag behind her. "When do you start your new job, anyway?"

"Next Monday. Thirty hours a week of fixing all the computer fuckups everyone makes." Mariel shook her head, setting the crate down by the cinder block-plank bookcase and straightened, flexing her foot carefully. "But now I'm all moved in here so at least I won't have to keep running back and forth every five seconds."

Cream walls were already half-covered with her posters and the secondhand furniture that she'd been able to scrounge up were camouflaged by brightly patterned throw blankets. Mariel hadn't realized just how many of the damn things she'd collected until it'd come time to pack. Central air and heating meant she wouldn't have to wrap up to survive every winter and having control of the thermostat was still a reason to grin.