Page 25 of The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends
“Honestly, Brennan, I needed a little bit of hospitality and you have more than provided.” He pulled the blanket more firmly around his shoulders in illustration. The lilt of his accent was thicker around the edges.
“I only did what you do for, what, eight people a day?”
“That’s my job,” Cole said. “And it’s far less often than that.”
“Then it’s my job to make you your shitty cocoa and let you rant if you need to.”
“You didn’t come here to deal with me being like this. You must have your own stuff going on, you had the vampire support-group meeting this weekend, right?”
“Oh my god, Cole, just let me take care of you!”
Cole’s jaw clamped shut and he gave a wide-eyed blink. Brennan startled at his own exclamation, and then they both started, in the most sophisticated and composed way possible, giggling.
“Sorry,” Brennan said, “That was weird. It’s been a long day.”
“It’s been a long week,” Cole agreed. “And it’s not weird. It’s sweet. You’re sweet.”
Brennan pushed down the warmth that was flooding his chest and face and melting his insides. Inexplicably, he said, “Well, shucks, me?”
Cole snorted. “Yeah, you’re pretty… good, for a vampire.”
“That’s the goal, I guess,” Brennan said, picking at a thread on his jeans.
Then he flickered back into problem-solving mode.
“Now, you mentioned an essay due at midnight?” Brennan checked his phone for the time.
“You could bang something out in two hours, or at least ask for an extension. I can handle a little shelving if you need to work on that.”
Cole blinked up at him from inside the burrito of his puppy blanket. It was unbearably adorable. Brennan averted his gaze and eyed a cart of books by the door, sizing it up.
“Or, I mean, depending on your stance on academic integrity, you can handle the stacks and I can tackle the essay,” Brennan joked.
Cole grabbed a nearby stuffed animal and chucked it at Brennan. He ducked swiftly, because, well, vampire instincts.
“I doubt you’ve ever lacked academic integrity in your life,” Cole accused.
“Yeah, I don’t know why I joked about that, I don’t play around with plagiarism.”
“Then I guess you should get stacking.”
Brennan turned to leave but the sound of shuffling made him turn.
Cole had tripped over himself trying to get up while still wrapped in his blanket, but he managed to cross the small space and wrap a warm hand around Brennan’s wrist. After not seeing him for two weeks, having Cole this close was making Brennan dizzy.
“And hey,” Cole said. “Thank you.”
brENNAN’S JOURNAL, THE BACK PAGE
Cole writing an essay next to me
Restless. In between bouts of typing, stares down the screen while a fidget spinner goes in the other hand. He’s in some sort of zone.
Oral fixation. Sipping cocoa. Chewing his pens. Biting his lip. Licking his lips. I think they’re chapped. Maybe I should stop looking at his lips.
Even when we’re doing our own things, it’s comforting to be in his orbit. Is that pathetic? Am I pathetic?
He glanced over at me and smiled and, can confirm, I am completely pathetic.
After Brennan finished shelving the books—a methodical process he honestly enjoyed, since it let his brain go on autopilot for a bit—he sat on the floor next to Cole, writing in his journal while Cole finished fast-drafting his essay.
He’d started out with some sort of goal, but somewhere along the lines ended up in the back pages, one elbow-brush away from doodling Cole’s name in hearts like a third grader.
Their knees pressed together. Cole’s foot tapped incessantly.
Brennan was still scribbling out notes when Cole finally slammed his laptop shut with a long sigh, slumped over sideways until his head was on Brennan’s shoulder, and said, “Done.”
Brennan closed his notebook to shield it from Cole’s view, and then held his breath to not move the new weight on his shoulders. Cole’s hair smelled like coconut. The wild curls tickled Brennan’s chin. He wanted to smooth them down. Brennan ignored his warming cheeks.
After a moment, Cole said, “We’re having a party this Friday for Mari’s birthday, before Thanksgiving break. You should come.”
“A party invite? I’m honored.”
“Shut up,” Cole said. “Say yes. You can invite your friends, too.”
“I don’t have a lot of friends, except the vampires.”
Cole arched his brow.
“Seriously?” Brennan said.
“It’d be super dope to meet them, honestly.”
Brennan’s brain raced through a thousand reasons why that was a terrible idea, but his mouth ignored them all and said, “I can ask them.”
Really, Cole could have invited him to a back-alley drug deal, and Brennan would leap to accept.
Cole smiled. The tears and stress from earlier were gone, leaving behind the bright-eyed enthusiasm Brennan had missed.
“Dope,” Cole said, and Brennan wanted to kiss the terrible word out of his mouth. “Either way, you owe me some vampire gossip. I feel way out of the loop!”
Brennan surged with gratitude and said, sly, “You ever imagine laser tag with a bunch of vampires?”
“Shut up!” Cole said, then, “Say more right now!”
And Brennan told him the whole story, but when he told it like this, all overdramatic and trying too hard to make Cole laugh, it didn’t feel so scary.
In hindsight, it was funny, hanging out with old and powerful vampires who cared too much about arcade games and social media.
His life seemed unfathomable to his own eyes, but in the library at night, he almost felt normal.
Brennan returned home late to Tony waiting up on the couch in his pajamas with his arms crossed like a concerned mother whose child had stayed out past curfew.
“Uh,” Brennan said, kicking his shoes off. “Hi?”
“What were you doing out so late?” Tony asked.
Brennan stopped in his normal getting-home movements, slowly hanging up his jacket and turning toward Tony.
“I was at the library with Cole,” Brennan said cautiously. Was this a confrontation? What did Tony know?
“I wanted to talk to you,” Tony said. He stood up from the couch and crossed until he could face Brennan, who was frozen and debating the merits of flight versus fight.
“Sure,” Brennan said. His voice came out surprisingly even.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” Tony said. Brennan dug his fingernails into his palm. Tony exhaled a sigh. “So I’ll just say it.”
Brennan waited a beat before Tony spoke again.
“I want to shoot my shot with Mari.”
The words hovered in the air like static for a long moment before the relief registered and Brennan’s body slackened from the tension that had gripped him.
“You want to ask Mari out?” Brennan laughed. “Awesome. Congrats. What, do you need my blessing, or something?”
Tony’s brows furrowed. “Are you sure? I mean, Bro Code is, like, super important to me. And I know you’re always, like, awkward whenever she and Cole come over.”
“I’m awkward all the time,” Brennan defended.
“Yeah, but especially then.”
“Wait,” Brennan said, brain catching up with the rest of Tony’s words. “You think I like Mari?”
“Don’t you?” Tony almost seemed offended that Brennan didn’t.
“Oh my god. No. I don’t have a crush on her. Ask her out. Seriously, go for it.” He must have suffered some sort of stroke, because he tacked on a “bro” and then lightly punched Tony’s shoulder. He immediately wished he hadn’t.
Tony laughed, then squinted at Brennan for a long few seconds before it dawned on him.
“Wait, Cole ? I didn’t realize you were…”
He trailed off and Brennan prickled with worry that Tony would be weird about this.
Tony held out his fist for Brennan to bump. “Right on,” Tony said. Cautiously, Brennan returned the gesture. “Sexuality and gender are spectrums or whatever. You do you.”
Somehow, coming from Tony, that meant a lot.
“Right,” said Brennan. “Thanks. And good luck with Mari.”
“Same to you with Cole, bro,” Tony said. “I won’t lie, I thought you were gonna be a weirdo when we were first figuring out housing. And you kind of are a weirdo. But you’re a good dude.”
Brennan was certain Tony intended it as a compliment, but he couldn’t help feeling slightly insulted. He appreciated the gesture, though, and respected that this, for Tony, was friendship. He slipped around Tony and crept toward his room.
“Have a good night, Tony.”