“Umm, yep,” I say, remembering only now that Kendra takes his class as well and will know what I do—that the test got pushed back to next week.
“That test isn’t until next Tuesday,” she says, and I cringe inwardly as she flops down on the bed next to me.
Busted.
“Right,” I say, floundering for my excuse. “But I’m not doing as well in that class as I want to be, so I need to get some extra studying in.”
Kendra gives me the side-eye, knowing me well enough to know that I’m doing fine in econ. I’m doing well in all my classes. Since I barely have a social life, by necessity not desire, I have all the time in the world to study and do homework.
Gah. I’m so boring I put myself to sleep sometimes.
“Come on,” Kendra says, playfully nudging my shoulders. “You never go out. I think you’ll have fun.”
We’re in Tate’s room in the small apartment she and Kendra share. I told her I’d come over to help her with her outfit for the costume party she and Kendra are going to tonight. Apparently, some frat on campus didn’t get the memo that it’s well into November, and they’re throwing a late Halloween party. Tate says it’s their yearly tradition, but my guess is that they were too lazy to take down their decorations.
Kendra and Tate asked me to come with them to the party last week, and I already said “No,” so I didn’t anticipate them teaming up against me like this.
“Yeah. Come on. Live a little,” Tate pipes up, and what was intended as a good-natured rib hits a little harder than it should.
That’s all I’m trying to do. Live.
Or maybe more specifically, not die.
The truth is I’d love to go to the party with them. I’m itching to get out and live a little. A wild night for most people my age usually ends with a dash of regret, a headache, and a vow to never drink again.
For me, it could end with a gravestone.
Or at least that’s what my parents have ground into me since birth.
Stay hidden. Stay alive.
That’s how I’ve lived life for the past nineteen years.
Going to college was something I never thought I’d be able to do. When I told my parents I wanted to attend, you would have thought I told them I was getting a face tattoo in order to join a cult.
Actually, that may have been preferable for them—as long as the cult was a secretive one.
I eventually wore them down though. They allowed me to attend with a few stipulations: the university couldn’t be in a major city, and I would still have to live with them.
So yeah, I live off campus with my parents, while Tate and Kendra get to share this too-small, probably mold-infested, definitely sketchy-as-heck, but in my eyes perfect little apartment together. They’re having the normal college experience with not only classes, but with parties and friends and an actual life.
Besides class and the two of them, I don’t have any of that.
And I hate it.
Because if I had control of my life—if I wasn’t hiding from a fanatical group of creatures bent on using me to bring about the apocalypse—I wouldn’t just be at that party tonight. I’d own it.
I duck my head, hiding my gaze from both my friends because I’m sure they’ll be able to read the lie on my face. “My parents want me home early tonight. You know how they can be.”
I glance up just in time to see Tate and Kendra share a look. A familiar one I’ve seen from them before. They think my parents are controlling and . . . they wouldn’t be wrong. But it’s for a reason, and it’s kept me alive all these years. So I can’t blame them for it . . . much.
“Look,” Kendra starts, and I already know they aren’t going to let this go. Not this time. “We’ve been talking, and we’re worried about you.”
“Me?” I laugh lightly, the sound a touch too forced. “Why? I’m fine.”
“But are you?” Tate asks as she plops down next to me.
“We’ve noticed that you seem unhappy.” There’s such raw sincerity in Kendra’s gaze that my own eyes sting.
