Page 81 of White Hot Kiss
“Yeah, I think I’m just coming down with something.” I forced a smile. “No big deal.”
The bell rang, forcing our conversation and my need to tell her the truth to end. We gathered up our trash, and as we headed out, Stacey stopped me outside the cafeteria. I swallowed thickly. Souls—souls were everywhere.
Then I noticed the blush crawling across Stacey’s face. She never blushed. Never. “What’s up?” I asked.
She fiddled with the strap on her bag, exhaling. The puff of air lifted her bangs for a moment. “You really think Sam likes me?”
In spite of everything, I smiled. “Yeah, I do.”
Stacey nodded, focusing on the stream of students. “He’s not bad-looking.”
“No.”
“And he’s not a jackass,” she continued. “He’s not like Gareth or any other guy who just wants to get in a girl’s pants.”
“He’s so much better than Gareth,” I agreed.
“He is,” she said, pausing. A troubled look pulled at her features. “Layla, do you think I hurt his feelings? I didn’t mean to.”
I grabbed her hand, squeezing. “I know. And I think Sam knows that, too.”
She squeezed my hand back and then slipped free. Turning around, she grinned as she headed down the hallway backward. “Well. This is an interesting development.”
I grinned. “It is. What are you going to do about it?”
Stacey shrugged, but her eyes were shining. “Who knows? I’ll call you later, okay?”
We broke apart after that, heading in different directions. I spent the rest of the day looking over my shoulder, expecting Roth to pop up. He never did, and the gnawing in my stomach expanded until I could barely concentrate in class, or later that day on the conversation at the dinner table. None of the Wardens spoke of catching any Upper Level demons, but they didn’t typically let me in on that kind of stuff.
Abbot didn’t address the clothing issue either or even broach the topic of Petr’s attack and the subsequent demonic involvement. Waiting for him to say something, to confront my lies, was driving me insane. In my own home, with all these secrets building between everyone, I felt like an outsider and uneasy in my own skin.
Not to mention I was trying to keep myself from freaking out. Knowing there were demons out to either use me in some kind of bizarre incantation or kill me made me jumpy. What also didn’t help was the fact that Elijah was still out there. When it was quiet, my imagination got the best of me.
Thursday morning, I’d officially decided that the craziest thing to happen over the past couple of weeks had nothing to do with learning I was the child of the Lilith or that I could somehow raise a horde of soul-eating demons. Or that there was more than a crap ton of demons who wanted me dead. Nope. The craziest thing was Stacey.
She was acting weird and surprisingly subdued. She didn’t talk about sex or boys within the first five seconds of a conversation. In English on Wednesday, after the lunch fallout with Sam, she’d laughed at everything he said, which was awkward to watch. Sam kept sending me looks, and I tried to ignore them. I had a feeling it had to do with her newfound knowledge of his crush on her.
Not that she’d admit to it.
Grabbing her bio text, she kicked her locker door shut. “You still look sick. You should go see a doctor, Layla.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t change the subject. You’ve been acting like a weirdo since lunch yesterday.”
Stacey turned around, leaning against the locker as she looked at me with raised brows. “You’re weird every day. You disappear when you’re supposed to meet up with us. You hang out with the hottest guy on the planet and say ‘it’s not like that.’ Hello. You’re the weird friend here.”
I winced. All of that was true. “Whatever.”
She pushed off the locker, linking her arm through mine. “I just don’t want Sam to think I’m...one of those girls anymore.”
“But you are one of those girls,” I said slowly. The steady stream of shimmery souls demanded my attention, but I focused. “And Sam likes you for who you are.”
“Obviously he doesn’t.”
I hip-bumped her. “You’re being silly.”
She opened her mouth, but stopped as a tall body crossed our path. I knew before looking up that it was Roth. That sweet, musky scent could belong to no one else.
“Hey there,” Stacey said, recovering. “We thought you’d died or something.”