“Anderson 360,” Bobby replied absently. “It’s for school.”
“How is it for school?” I raised an eyebrow. “And I didn’t think you were even still going to school.”
“I go to school during the day, when you’re sleeping. A whole lot of things happen during the day that you don’t even know about,” Bobby said. Still staring at the TV, he started sketching furtively on the pad. A box of charcoals lay next to him on the floor, and he had the sleeves pushed up in his shirt, so he was getting black smudge marks all over his tattoos. “I’m supposed to watch the news for an hour and draw how it makes me feel.”
“How does it make you feel?” I asked.
“Like the whole world is coming to an end.” Surprisingly, he didn’t sound that upset by it. I sat up straighter, trying to see what he was drawing, but I was at the wrong angle to really see his sketch pad, so I flopped back on the couch.
The TV, I could see, so I watched it to see what had Bobby worrying about the apocalypse about.
There were two boxes on the TV. The smaller one had news correspondent Anderson Cooper trying to explain the story, which was taking place in the big box. It showed a giant boat, like an ocean liner or a tanker or something, and it appeared to have crashed into the shore. While I couldn’t get a good perspective of it, the boat looked absolutely massive and titled to the side. Helicopters and boats and clean up crews swarmed around it. The bottom of the screen said “Cape Spear, Newfoundland,” but other than that, I didn’t really understand what I was looking at.
“So what’s going on?” I asked Bobby. I could just listen to Anderson Cooper explain, but it was easier just having him tell me.
“An oil tanker crashed in Canada,” Bobby nodded to the screen. “The hull was ruptured, but hardly any of the oil leaked out. They’re saying it’s a miracle, because if it had it would’ve been like four times as worse as the Exxon Valdez cause this boat is much bigger.”
“I don’t know what that is.” It sounded familiar to me, and considering the context of the conversation, I should’ve put in perspective, but sometimes things alluded me.
“It was an oil tanker that crashed by Alaska in 1989.” Bobby glanced back at me. “I didn’t really know that off the top of my head. They were just talking about it on TV a lot.”
“But there isn’t an oil spill, is there? Not really?” I squinted at the TV, trying to see if I could see a sheen on the water around the tanker. It was dark, there, so I couldn’t make out much but what the helicopter lights flashed on, but still, I couldn’t see much of an oil spill in the ocean. “So what’s the big deal? How does that make you feel like the end of the world?”
“Because of why the tanker crashed.” He stopped sketching and stared at the TV in kind of amazement. “The whole crew died.”
“What do you mean?” I sat up more. “Like when they the hit land?”
“No, no, they were all dead before that. Nobody was driving it, and they just crashed. The radio transmissions they were getting from them weren’t right, and they sent boats out to check up on them, but nobody knows what happened. Finally, two days ago, they lost all contact with them, and then boom! It drove right into the island,” Bobby nodded at the screen. “It’s the creepiest, most bizarre thing I ever heard of, like in Aliens when they go to rescue that deserted ship or whatever. But real.”
“What are you talking about? How did the crew all die? Did they run out of food or oxygen or had massive mutiny or something?”
“They didn’t run of oxygen. They’re on Earth. You don’t run of oxygen,” Bobby rolled his eyes at me.
“But the thing is, nobody knows why they’re dead. Some of the crew is still unaccounted for, but both the lifeboats are still attached, so they don’t know they could’ve gotten off. Officials are trying to keep it under wraps, but rumor has it that they were all mutilated. Like really gory, horror movie stuff.
Throats ripped out and all that. Anderson was talking to a guy that had been there, and he was just about puking talking about it.”
“Holy hell. Really?” I leaned forward, staring more intently at the TV. “No way. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life. I mean, a lot of the crew is missing. Maybe they had something to do with it.”
“Maybe, but they’re not counting on having any survivors at this point,” Bobby said. “They had a crew of thirty, but only twenty-four bodies.”
“That’s pretty messed up.” A chill ran down my spine and I shook my head. “It’s really creepy.”
“Yeah, I know,” Bobby agreed somberly.
“Where was the tanker coming from?”
“I don’t know,” Bobby shrugged. “I think like Europe or Russia or something.”
“Okay, so be honest,” Milo said, walking into the living room and breaking up our intense fascination with the television. “How does my hair look?” He ran a hand through his dark brown hair and did a little twirl, but really, it didn’t look that much different than before. Mae had mostly just done a trim on his hair.
“Sexy, as always,” Bobby grinned at him. He set his sketch pad aside, momentarily to forgetting about his homework assignment to pay attention to Milo. Milo sat down the floor next to him, and in between kissing and flirting, they started talking about the tanker crash on the television.
Personally, it was creeping me out too much, so I decided to go outside and play with Matilda. I had to bribe with three dog treats to get her to leave Jack’s side, and I was starting to think maybe she loved him even more than I did. The stone patio out back was slick from a slushy snow thing that was coming down. It was November, and this was the first snow of the season, so I knew it wouldn’t last long.
Matilda skidded through it, but she didn’t seem to mind. Very little in life seemed to upset her, other than Jack’s absence. I couldn’t shake the news story, and I was really starting to regret going into the living room. I glanced back through the French doors at Mae and Jane talking and laughing, and spending time with them might’ve been almost as creepy as hearing more about the dead crew. I let the snow flakes melt in my hair and tried to forget all about it.
Chapter 23
Jack went back to sleeping in the den, but he woke me up while it was still light to see if I wanted to go apartment hunting with him. I knew that I should, but daylight was still really hard on me.
Besides that, I didn’t really want to. The thought of moving still didn’t exactly thrill me, but I pretended like it did. I told him to take lots of pictures for me and fell back to sleep the instant he left.
My sleep was incredibly restless, though. I kept having dreams about the oil tanker crash in Canada.
An unseen monster was slaughtering them, tearing them apart with claws and teeth that came from some invisible figure. Everything was splattered with blood and viscera, but there was nothing appetizing about it. It was horrendous, I wanted to scream and throw up. The crew members were crying and pleading for the lives, but nobody listened. Nothing they did to save themselves could help. After all the crew was dead, there was a total silent blackness on the ship. For some reason, that turned into an image: huge brown eyes, my brother’s Milo’s eyes.
I woke up and I still wanted to scream, even though the last thing I had seen hadn’t really been scary.
It freaked me out, though, in the worst way. As I tried to catch my breath and remind myself that everything was okay, I thought about how weird it was that vampires had dreams. The Lost Boys had not prepared me for this. In fact, I was starting to think that whoever wrote it had never met a vampire in his life.
Since I couldn’t shake the dream myself, I got up to enlist some assistance. I considered Jane, but if she was sleeping, she really did need her rest. Besides that, Mae was probably in her room as well, and for some reason, I didn’t feel like talking to her. So I went next door, to Milo’s room, and I went in without knocking. Of course, I made sure to listen in first, and Bobby wasn’t there, so I knew it was okay to intrude.
“Why?” Milo mumbled, his face buried in his pillow.
“Cause.” I jumped on the bed next to him harder than I needed to, making it bounce him up.
“Why are you even up? You’re never up before me,” Milo grumbled, rolling onto his back so he could face me. “What time is it?”
“It’s six. It’s not that early,” I shrugged. “Where’s Bobby?”
“School,” Milo yawned. “Where’s your better half?”
“He’s… out,” I answered vaguely. Milo didn’t even notice that I was trying to be secretive, but I decided that I couldn’t keep anything from him anyway. “Okay. If I tell you something, you promise not to tell anyone?”
“No.” Milo still wasn’t intrigued by the prospect of a secret, and I hated him for it. This happened all the time growing up. I wanted to tell him a secret, but he never cared, so he never had to agree to any provisions. His apathy was pretty tricky.
“No, you actually do wanna this, but you seriously can’t tell anyone. Not yet. I’m just not ready for people to know.” I wasn’t sure how Mae would react, and I didn’t want to see what Peter did. I hadn’t talked to him since Jack came back, and that was probably just as well.
“I’m still telling Bobby,” Milo said, stifling a yawn.
“Fine! Tell Bobby!” I sighed. “But come on! You have to pretend to be excited about this!”
“Why?” Milo raised an eyebrow. “I can’t imagine what you’d tell me that was exciting. My room is right next to yours, and I know that you slept alone last night, so… it can’t be that good.”
“Ugh!” I groaned. “Good. Now I’m glad that we’re moving out. I’m sick of your attitude.”
“You’re what?” That got him. He sat up, propping himself up with his arms, and looked at me hard.
“What did you say?”
“Jack wants us to move out,” I lowered my voice so Mae wouldn’t be able to overhear.
“He’s out looking at apartments right now.”
“When you say ‘us’ you mean….” Milo waited for me to fill in the blank.
“Me and him, and you and Bobby, if you want to.” Then I tilted my head. “Does Bobby actually live here? Or does he have a residence somewhere else?”
“He technically lives in a dorm, but he hasn’t spent the night there since we met,” Milo shrugged.
“Don’t you think you’re moving a bit fast?” I asked. “You’re incredibly young to be living with a boyfriend.”
“Did you really say that to me with a straight face?” Milo raised an eyebrow at me.
“You’re younger than I am.” I thought about trying to make some kind of point about his situation was different than mine, and then I just forgot about it. If we were normal kids living a normal life and going to high school and living with our mom, yeah, this would probably be weird and wrong. But we’re not.
“Never mind. That wasn’t the point.”
“So you’re really moving out?” Milo asked.
“I don’t know. Jack really wants to, and he has a lot of good points.” I knew that Jack was probably right about moving out, but it still felt weird to me. “This house is getting too small for all us, as crazy as that sounds, and neither of us should be living under the same roof as Peter.”
“Yeah but… you want us to move with you?” Milo sounded nervous.
“Yeah, only if you want to.” I probably sounded a little hopeful. I really wanted him to live with us.
“Jack’s looking for places in the area that would be big enough for all of us.”
“But… what about you?” He looked at me very seriously. “I know that you’re still having problems getting your bloodlust under control, and you obviously don’t trust yourself enough yet to even sleep with him. How is that gonna work living together? Without Ezra to fix everything if something goes wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I’ve thought of that too. But I don’t know what else we can really do.”
“Not move out,” Milo suggested.
“I just don’t see how staying here could really work.” I was starting to resign myself to moving out even though I wasn’t sure that’s what I really wanted. It just didn’t make sense to do anything else.
Milo lay back in bed and didn’t say anything for a bit. He was always better at coming up with logical solutions to things than I was. My actions were based more on my heart and temper, which is probably how he managed to more success as a vampire than I did. It was still pretty surprising to me that he had been the one that nearly killed his boyfriend, and not me. That was actually because he was so much more in control than I was, that everyone had given him too much credit. The fact that I had no impulse control had inadvertently helped save me from murdering Jack.
“No, I do not require your assistance,” Peter groaned wearily from out in the hallway, and I heard his bedroom close a second later. “Jane, I suggest you just back to the room and rest.” I glanced over at Milo, and from his expression, I could tell he was listening to them as well.
“I don’t need anymore rest. I’m bored,” Jane put on her baby talk voice that vacillated between slutty and whiny. Peter must’ve gone to his room to get something, and Jane had followed him out, much to his dismay.
“Try reading one of my books,” Peter said. “Or, if you cannot read, you can try one of Jack’s movies.
Or perhaps you can pester one of the six other people living in this how to entertain you.”
“Come on, I bet you know plenty of ways of entertain me.” Jane was outside of a shut bedroom door, so I couldn’t actually see her, but I had enough experience with her to know that was touching Peter in some way. Running her fingers down his arm or putting her hand on his chest. I’d love to see his reaction to that.
“I can assure that I am no good at entertain anyone,” Peter had started sounding uncomfortable, and Milo smirked.
“Well, maybe I can entertain you.” Her voice had gotten even lower and sultrier. She had it really bad for him, and I wished that I had some advice for her, but Peter was a hard thing to ignore.
“That’s why I got a book. I can entertain myself,” Peter said, his words clipped. His patience with her was very rapidly running out.
“Don’t you get sick of entertaining yourself?” Yep, Jane was still working the sexual innuendos.
“Jane, just go back to your room,” Peter sighed. That was it. He was done with her. If she was touching him, he had just taken her hand away.
“Not unless you join me,” Jane said coyly, clearly oblivious to his rebuff.
“No, I most certainly will not,” Peter snapped. “This slutty little girl act may work for some people, but I can’t see how. You are so filthy and dirty that I wouldn’t bite you if I was starving to death. The only reason I am tolerating and allowing you into my room is because of how much you mean to Alice, although, for the life of me I can’t see why. You are insipid and vain beyond what I had understood humans were capable of, and it would serve you well just to steer clear of me.”
“Jeez,” Milo whispered, shocked by how much he had torn her apart.
Jane didn’t say anything, but I heard the door open, and she had started crying before she shut the door behind her. Peter stood outside the bedroom for a minute, but when he started walking away, I decided that I had to give him a piece of my mind. I probably should’ve gone out and defended her earlier, but I didn’t think he was going to go off on her like that.
“Peter!” I snapped quietly, so Jane wouldn’t overhear. She didn’t have as good as hearing as I did, but she wasn’t deaf either. Sighing heavily, Peter reluctantly turned to look at me. “Don’t you think th
at was a little harsh?”
“Not really, no,” Peter said, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I heard the shower turn on in Jane’s bathroom, her attempt to cure her crying, so I walked over to him to yell at him. “I didn’t mean for you to overhear that.”
“I don’t know how that makes it okay.” I crossed my arms on my chest and glared up at him. “Jane is annoying, but she’s harmless. And she’s recovering. We’re supposed to be helping her and encouraging her, not bringing her down.”
“I didn’t want to bring her down,” Peter rubbed his eye. “But you didn’t see how she was around me!
It was constant and more than annoying.”
“God forbid someone have a crush on you, Peter!” I rolled my eyes. “You were such a dick to me when I was into you, too. You just can’t handle anyone flirting with you and gawking at you for like five seconds?”
“No, I can! I handle it all the time!” Peter retorted defensively. “Everyone I meet is like that, and I have to tolerate it!”
“Oh, what a rough life!” I scoffed. “You know, Jane isn’t the only one that’s vain and egotistical.” It was Peter’s turn to roll his eyes at me. “So you’re saying that your curse in life is that everyone in the whole world finds you irresistible?”
“If I say yes, I sound like an ass, but it’s true!” He rubbed his temple and shook his head. “I am sorry if I am not doing well with tolerating her. She just won’t stop staring at me, constantly, and… you won’t even look at me.”
“You’re punishing Jane because you’re mad at me?” I raised my eyebrow at him. “That’s not even remotely fair!”
“Life isn’t fair, Alice!” Peter looked at me intensely, his eyes glowing green. “If life were fair, you wouldn’t be with Jack!”
“No! You don’t get to be mad at me for that!” I shook my head. “You had your chance! I wanted you first, and you wouldn’t have anything to do with me!”
“I never had a chance!” Peter insisted. “You always wanted him! I saw you in the hot tub with him!”
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