Page 22 of Just One Bite

Chapter Sixteen

Parker

"How much longer?" she asks.

"Soon," I whisper into her hairline. I'm not in a hurry. I've waited a long time for this.

The sun beats down on me as I make my way back toward the castle for class.

Doxlothia’s academics work differently than other universities, and those who play sports or who are in special programs spend the majority of their time perfecting those talents.

However, there are a few classes we’re all required to take.

I don’t mind. They’re interesting subjects that aren’t available at other schools like the History of Interspecies Cooperation, and Potions and Elixirs for Healing Modalities.

My gaze lingers on the dance hall. I haven’t talked to Olivia since this morning, and it feels like too long.

We've spent the whole week together and I'm getting used to her in my routine. I pull out my phone to text her, then spot a familiar head of blonde curls across the path, and her sweet scent makes her a decent beacon. Olivia’s sister Evangeline is sitting on a bench with her head in her hands, sobbing.

I hurry to plop down next to her, slow and quiet.

“Hey.” I start small.

I have a little sister, though she’s way younger than I am. Evangeline is likely my age. I’ve learned to be calm and offer my sister anything she asks for in a crisis.

She startles, moving her hands from her face, revealing red eyes and smeared makeup. I halfheartedly offer her a dry towel from my bag as a way of telling her. She says nothing and breaks into another sob.

“Evangeline, right?” Olivia mentioned only her sisters call her Eva. “I know you don’t know me very well, but … uh … you know, I’m a brother … so like, I get it … well … I don’t get it. But I could. I mean. Fuck. Do you want to talk about it?”

A slight wave of protectiveness has me wanting to hide her from everyone walking by whispering, then typing into their phones. Anything could be bothering her. What if it’s a girl thing? Oh, I’m in way over my head. I should probably just call Olivia. Or do I just want to hear her voice again?

“My boyfriend hates me.”

Okay, now we got something to work with.

“Boyfriend, huh? Why would he hate you?”

“He hates that I came here. I don’t even know why I’m here.

I’m not good at anything. You’ve seen Olivia and Emma.

They’re good at things. Olivia has ballet, and Emma can cook and bake.

And I have nothing. There’s no reason for me to be here.

I don’t know why they even accepted me other than my father and mother being legacies. ”

“That’s how everyone gets in here. Don’t worry.”

“But most of them have talent! Something to show that required hard work and practice.”

She’s pouring her soul as if we’ve had more than just passing casual conversation. I lean in.

“You feel like a fraud?”

“Yes! I’m a fraud, and my boyfriend knows it. Everyone knows it. This is just so …”

“Terrible.”

“It is terrible.” Her rant is concluded as she wipes her eyes.

“You know … I feel like that all the time.”

She opens her mouth to protest.

“Hold it. Let me finish. Even people like Emma, Olivia … me. We don’t feel like we belong here.

And everyone is trying to convince the world they do.

So what? Your boyfriend is kinda mean”— Fuck him — “and you haven’t found that thing you like doing yet, it doesn’t matter.

You’re in the perfect place to find it. Give it time.

” I shrug, not entirely certain I’m being helpful, but she doesn’t start crying again.

She simply nods as if she’s processing it and the fact she’s sitting on a bench where everyone is staring at us.

“If anything, do you want me to escort you back to your house? You know, where there are less people.”

“Ugh, I don’t care. My life is terrible anyway, who cares what everyone else thinks.”

“That’s that Osborne spunk I’m coming to know and love.”

She smiles and blows her nose into my towel, then wipes her eyes with the clean side.

“You can keep that,” I say.

“I’m sorry. I’m such a mess. Everything I touch turns to ash. Sometimes literally.”

“You sound like my brother.”

“You have a brother?”

“Yeah, my older stepbrother. We don’t get along that well because he’s really moody.”

And a vampire. And an asshole. Still love him though, I guess.

She laughs. I’m happy I’m able to help a little.

“There’s a reason you’re here. You’ll figure it out in time. And your boyfriend … Well, do you want me to beat him up? Because I will. That’s about the only thing I’m able to help with there.”

“No. No. We’ll work it out. It’s fine. Thank you.” Evangeline’s nose is red, and she sniffles, but a little bit of her smile is back.

“Eva!” Emma comes running toward us. “Is Jared making you cry again? Get up, woman.”

She hauls her from the bench, wiping her skirt and plucking rouge petals from her sleeves. Doxlothia has a plethora of trees with different flowers that bloom almost all times of year except winter. Right now, there is a mix of purple and red.

Her momentum stops as if I had been some invisible pole that suddenly smacked her upside the head. Or a branch.

“Parker.”

“I was just going. I’ve got Potions in like two minutes. ”

“You’re all … bloody.” Her nose crinkles as she eyes the closed gash on my forehead that Zant so lovingly gave me as payback for earlier this week. I hadn’t had time to clean off the dried blood.

“You’ll get used to that here.”