Boundaries

Conor: the park

                  

{Conor}

I slept in Grant's room like usual, but Tish didn't wake me in the morning. I woke up on my own and dressed before crossing the hall and rapping on her door. Tish's room was unlocked, but her bed was made, and it didn't smell like she had been in there all night.

Frowning, I wandered into the cafeteria, pondering where Tish could be. She wasn't here in the cafeteria. She could have vanished to get some other surprise; she did that often enough that I wasn't concerned, yet. Still, it was odd to have not seen her yesterday.

Boyd gave me a friendly wave as he passed me in the cafeteria.

"Where's Tish?" he asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "I don't have her number or I would text her."

"You can sit with me if you want," he recommended. "No sense in going hungry because Tish is yelling at Gayle or whatever she is up to."

"Only if you're sure," I told him.

He nodded and set his tray down on an empty table. I went through cafeteria quickly, not paying much mind to what I was eating so long as it wasn't chocolate. I got a glass of milk instead of tea since I wasn't sure what kind of tea Tish usually picked out for me and didn't want to feel weird all day. I made a note to ask her when I saw her next.

"Does Ralph not eat with you?" Boyd inquired.

I shook my head. "He's on a special diet, trying to lose weight. He doesn't find that as easy as I do."

"You do seem to eat a lot," Boyd noted. "We had been wondering where you put it."

"We?" I questioned.

"You know, the other hunters," Boyd waved around the room vaguely. There weren't many people up at this hour.

"They could ask me themselves," I told him. "I don't know why I've developed this reputation, but I'm mostly harmless."

"Are you really dating Stefa?" he scoffed. "Because the company you keep is hardly 'harmless.'"

"I was," I admitted, bending the truth some. "But then she dumped me back home and went to fight a vampire war. So I imagine we're through. And hearing all the things she's done, I'm not keen to pick that relationship back up."

"You mean you didn't know before? Come on, someone must have said something."

"I thought she was doing what she had to," I told him. "You haven't seen how they treat werewolves and vampires at the research facilities. Humans were actively trying to kill me in that place, and I hadn't done anything more wrong than be picked up by police for a murder I hadn't committed. I was in a collar that kept me from being able to talk, to groan, to make a single sound without shocking me. Stefa had to threaten other vampires to keep me alive. Maybe Stefa's morality is skewed. But don't think for a second that the hunters are any better than she is."

My voice had a bite to it that I hadn't expected. Boyd had stopped eating for a moment to stare at me.

"Then why are you here?" he asked. "You clearly don't trust us any more than we trust you."

"Because my alpha needed medical treatment and we couldn't go to a hospital," I said. "Hunters want my blood for Grant. It worked out fine, but I cannot wait to leave."

I focused on my breakfast, being done with this conversation.

"Fair enough," he agreed. "So are you and Tish a thing? You two kind of act like you're dating, but you turned her, so I didn't know if it was some sort of weird werewolf thing."