Never Bite a Boy on the First Date (10 page)

I
’d heard that Luna High had an indoor pool somewhere (an outdoor pool in Massachusetts wouldn’t be the most useful thing), but I hadn’t seen it yet. My plan was only going to work if there were no mirrors there and nobody else was around, so I had to get there before Mr. Smiley did.

I left him as he said goodbye to his friends, and I hurried down the long hallway to the gym, passing the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms. Luna High is much too big, if you ask me, but Olympia likes to live in places where we fade into the crowd. The gym is enormous, with a fitness center and a climbing wall and tennis courts and all kinds of nonsense that would have just added to my suffering when I was a regular teenager. Having vampire strength does
make P.E. a lot more bearable.

Apparently most of the after-school sports today had been canceled in honor of Tex. There were a few students in the gym, but nobody paid any attention to me as I slipped by and headed down the stairs to the pool area. Big windows overlooked the pool from the gym, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would be looking down at it today. A sign on the door said that regular pool hours were canceled as well.

I was relieved to find the pool deserted. Perfect turquoise-blue water stretched out in front of me, divided into six lanes. Clean white equipment was stacked around the pool, and the bleachers waited blankly. It was very quiet, with only a few noises filtering down from the cars and people outside.

No mirrors, and the only windows were high in the ceiling, so the room was bright but no direct sunshine hit the pool or the ground around it. A perfect place for athletic vampires.
I should tell Zach about this
, I thought. He missed being a high school jock, and most sports were kind of out due to the high sunshine factor. Maybe he could join the swim team.
If he ever
stops being a jerk, I’ll mention it
.

Two doors on either side of the stairwell led to the changing rooms. I dropped my book bag by the stairs and pressed my ear to the door that said BOYS.

After a while, I heard footsteps inside. As I’d hoped, Mr. Smiley had gone through the boys’ locker room…assuming it was him. I really
hoped
it was him. I didn’t want to waste this extremely cute meeting on some random guy.

Somewhere inside, a locker slammed. He’d be coming out soon.

I hurried over to the pool, finger-combing my hair. Alas, my poor outfit. This had better be worth it. I started walking along the edge of the pool, glancing down at the clear blue water. I could see straight down to the gleaming white tiles at the bottom.

The changing room door creaked open behind me.

“Oh, excuse me—hello?” It was exactly the cute accent I’d been waiting for.

I whirled around with a little yelp of surprise, saw him standing in the doorway, and promptly toppled into the pool.

It was
much colder
than I’d expected. I completely forgot about the guy for a minute as my entire body shrieked, “OH, MY GOD! FREEZING!” I flailed my arms and went under as water flooded up my nose. Vampires can’t drown—we don’t even need to breathe, although most of us still do, instinctively. But we can still, apparently, get water up our noses. Somehow this was not as romantic as I’d been hoping.

Until suddenly…there was another splash, and then a pair of strong brown arms wrapped around me. I felt myself pressed to his warm, bare chest as he kicked up to the surface. I put my arms around his neck and held on, my face
thisclose
to the curve of his collarbone.

We bobbed to the surface next to the wall. He kept one arm around my waist and grabbed the wall with his other hand. Reluctantly, I let go with one hand and did the same. Now we were facing each other, hanging on to the wall with our other arms still around each other. His lips were only a few inches from mine, and now he was giving me the adorable smile I’d had in my head since yesterday.

Apart from the fact that I was now freezing and my clothes were all wet, this was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I nodded. “J-j-just b-b-b-brrrrr—” Okay, maybe the teeth chattering wasn’t precisely part of the plan.

“There’s a ladder over here,” he said, taking my hand and towing me a few feet down the wall. He guided me onto the rungs and I climbed out, shivering. He hopped out right behind me and ran over to a stack of red and gold towels by the wall. Grabbing a few of them, he ran back to me. I was trying to smooth my wet hair back into something presentable when he came up behind me and wrapped a towel around my shoulders. Somehow
he
still felt warm. I wished he’d keep his arms around me, but he moved his hands to my arms and rubbed them through the towel…which was okay, too.

“You’ll feel better in a minute,” he said. “That was absolutely spectacular.”

“Oh, good,” I said, returning his smile. “Spectacular is what I was going for.” He guided
me over to a bench and we sat down, but he kept rubbing my arms. It was, frankly, the nicest feeling I’d had since the early days with Zach.

“Yeah, I’d give you a nine-point-five,” he said. “I have to deduct half a point for missing the diving board completely, of course.”

“Well, I owe it all to my great coach,” I said with a pointed look. “His method involves scaring the living daylights out of me.”

“Sorry,” he said, looking guilty. “I didn’t think there’d be anyone else in here. You’re not supposed to swim without a lifeguard, you know.”

“I wasn’t
going
to swim,” I said. “That was most definitely
not
on my agenda.” I waved a hand at my sad, dripping clothes. “You look like
you
were about to break that rule, though.”

He was wearing dark red swimming trunks and nothing else. This was definitely a good way to meet him…and his arms…and his shoulders…and his pecs….

“Busted,” he said, toweling off his hair with a sheepish grin. “I figured a few laps wouldn’t hurt, even though the regular lifeguard wouldn’t be here. On a day like today, the coaches have
bigger things to worry about.”

“I’m Kira,” I said.

“Milo,” he said, offering me his hand. He wasn’t very tall—only a few inches taller than me—but his hands were surprisingly big and very strong.
Milo
, I thought as his fingers wrapped around mine.
Finally a name to go with the smile
.

“Are you new here?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “We just moved up from Florida this summer. I figured I’d check out the pool while there was no one around, but I didn’t intend to give it quite such a close inspection.”

He grinned. “Well, next time remember to wear your water wings.”

“Hey!” I said indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’m actually a very good swimmer.”

“Oh, clearly,” he teased.

“Hello, boots!” I said, pointing to them. “Also, I was startled!” He started laughing and I smacked his shoulder. “You should be begging my forgiveness, not making fun of me.”

“I do beg your forgiveness,” Milo said. “How will you
ever
forgive me?”

“Well, the heroic rescue helped,” I said,
pulling off my boots and pouring the water out of them. “If there’s any way you can get me dry so I can head home, that’d give you some brownie points, too.”

“I have an extra shirt in my locker,” Milo said. “I wore it yesterday, though—do you mind?”

“Not if it’s drier than this one,” I said, lifting the bottom of my shirt and squeezing it out. Rivulets of water streamed to the ground. I totally spotted him noticing my belly button ring. “I can probably squeak home in these,” I said, nudging my boots. “It’s only a twenty-minute walk,” I added with a forlorn sigh.

“No way!” Milo said, just as I’d hoped. “Let me drive you. I have a car.”

“You have a car?” I said, pretending to swoon. “
And
a dry shirt? Where have you been hiding all my life?”

He laughed. “Probably in the pool. Let’s get my shirt. There’s no one in the guys’ changing room, don’t worry.” He stood up and offered me his hand. I took it, feeling warm and fuzzy, and not just from the fluffy towel wrapped around my shoulders. We walked down the length of the pool to the changing room doors. I wondered
if he could feel my smile radiating throughout my whole body. This was silly. I’d only just met the guy. And I had Daniel and Rowan to think about. So why did I think Milo was so very cute? Just because he made me laugh?

As we pushed through the door into the changing room, something made me glance back at the windows overlooking the pool, and a shiver ran down my spine.

I couldn’t be sure—but for a moment I thought I caught a glimpse of someone standing up in the windows, watching the pool.

Watching
us
.

T
he door swung shut behind us before I could tell who had been standing above the pool, or even if I’d really seen what I thought I had. If I was right, it was someone tall—a guy, I was pretty sure. I hoped it wasn’t Zach stalking me around school again. On the other hand, at least I was used to that…. Someone else stalking me would be way more creepy.

“Welcome to our secret lair,” Milo said with a grin, waving at the green-tiled walls around us. “I promise not to tell anyone you were in here if you promise not to reveal our nefarious secrets.”

“Such as the fact that your changing room looks exactly like ours?” I joked. “Except our lockers are yellow.” The lockers in here were red. I could see the door at the other end, leading to
the main guys’ locker room. I did an instinctive check—no mirrors. There was a mirror in the girls’ changing room, but apparently boys didn’t need to check their bathing suits obsessively the way we did. At least, whoever had built the place thought so.

Milo spun the combination on his locker and pulled out a pale orange T-shirt. It was as soft as a teddy bear and it smelled like him—cinnamon and sunshine and tangerines and clean laundry.

“There are these, too, if you’re not too horrified to wear them,” he said, pulling out a pair of giant red flip-flops bearing the school’s LHS logo in gold.

“I think being able to walk is worth a little fashion crisis,” I said.

Milo chivalrously turned around and covered his eyes while I wiggled out of my wet tights and shirt. The flip-flops were enormous on my feet, but better than going barefoot. The shirt was also really big on me, but cozy and comfortable.

“Okay,” I said when it was safe for him to turn around again. He hid a smile and I wrinkled my
nose at him. “You can’t laugh at me; these are
your
clothes.”

“That shirt looks much better on you than it does on me,” he said gallantly (and, I’m sure, inaccurately). He reached to brush my hair back off my shoulder and then stopped. He picked up a lock of my hair and squinted at it. “Is your hair green?”

“No!” I said, sounding shocked. “Wow, the chlorine in your pool must be really strong!”

He looked so worried, I nearly fell over laughing.

“You goof,” he said, poking my arm. “I’ve never met anyone with green hair before.”

I shrugged. “I figured, new school, new me.” I gathered my wet clothes and boots into a plastic bag while Milo got dressed.

“I know what you mean,” he said. “Last time I moved was when I decided to go out for swimming. Before that I was really into playing the guitar, and before that, tae kwon do.” We headed for the exit, back through the pool room.

“Wow, really?” I said. “And you just left those
behind each time you moved?”
Is that a vampire thing? I could do that, too…at the next school, try out for the school play…at the one after that, become an ice skater…. I could try out a whole bunch of different lives and see which one I like best. Although, if it means reliving high school over and over again, then never mind
.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I kept the really important things, like my comic book collection.” He winced and slapped his forehead. “Now
that’s
on the top ten things not to tell a cute girl when you first meet her, isn’t it?”

I beamed. “You can if you tell her she’s cute at the same time.”

He looked like he couldn’t stop smiling any more than I could. I grabbed my book bag as we went up the stairs and out through the empty gym into the parking lot. If someone really had been watching us earlier, he was gone now.

Milo’s car was this tiny, beat-up black thing with stuff scattered all over the seats. In the backseat I spied crumpled papers and several science fiction books, including one with a pair
of fangs on the cover. Research on his own kind, or just one of the recent wave of vampire novels?

Milo dove into the passenger seat and started tossing things into the back. I noticed there weren’t any food wrappers, which was nice—Zach’s car used to be full of crumpled McDonald’s bags. Milo just had a lot of water bottles, most of them half full. He flung a pair of goggles and a beach towel in the back and stood aside.

“Sorry about the mess,” he said ruefully.

“That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe I should sit on that towel, actually—my skirt’s still pretty wet.”

“What care I for upholstery,” he declared, “when milady is beside me?”

I giggled. “All right, I’ll get it.” I leaned over the seat and grabbed the towel, giving Milo a very intentional view of my legs as I did. I hoped it wasn’t my imagination that he looked a little more bedazzled when I turned around.

He closed the door gently behind me and hurried around to the driver’s side. I told him
my address as he started the car.

“Ooo, the spooky part of town,” he said.

“There’s a spooky part?” I said.

“What’s more important, there’s a non-spooky part,” he said. “Can I buy you an ice cream before I take you home? I feel like it’s the least I can do after scaring your shirt off.” He paused. “That came out wrong.”

“I will never say no to ice cream,” I said with a grin. “If you really don’t mind being seen with me like this.”

“Not at all,” he said. “Hang on a minute.” He leaned into the back and grabbed a notebook and pen. Turning to a blank page, he put on a studious look and wrote, murmuring:
Never says no to ice cream
.

“Oh, we’re taking notes on me now?” I said, laughing. “Here, let me help.” I took the pen and notebook out of his hand and added
Likes very expensive jewelry
to the list as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Let me guess,” he said. “Jade and emerald especially?”

“Oh, no, am I totally predictable?” I said.

“Hardly,” he said. “I can just tell that green is your color.”

“What tipped you off?” I asked. “The toenail polish?”

He gave my feet that cute smile. “Man, it’s nice to hang out with someone who isn’t all doom and gloom today,” he said.

I stopped smiling. “I’m sorry—I didn’t even think. Were you friends with Tex?”

“Not really.” He shook his head. “We played basketball together sometimes, and we were on the swim team together last year, but he quit this year. He said he wanted to focus on football, which is kind of dumb since the seasons don’t overlap, but it didn’t bother the rest of us. Not to speak disrespectfully of the dead, but Tex wasn’t the greatest swimmer.” He whispered the last part, then glanced over at me. “All my friends have been moping around all day…. I just want to forget about it for a while.”

“Okay,” I said. “It’s such a freaky thing. I’d never seen a dead body before.”

“I have,” Milo said, and for the first time I heard something serious and steely in his voice. He glanced at me again. “Sorry, I don’t want
to freak you out. Really, this is a great town. You’ll love it here. Please don’t ever leave.” He grinned.

“You saw another dead body
here
?” I said.

He made a face. “A couple years ago. It was my welcome to a new town, too—I guess we have that in common.”

“Was it also a murder?” I asked.

“Everyone thinks so,” he said. “But it was never solved. The victim was just a random guy in a dark alley. Whoever did it didn’t even take his wallet.”

I wanted to know if that was a vampire attack, too, but how exactly would I ask that?
Notice any bite marks?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.

“I’m making a great impression, aren’t I?” Milo said. “Don’t think about it. I’m sure all small towns have mysterious murders hidden in their pasts. Think about me instead! Doesn’t my presence make up for a little blood and gore?”

“I guess it does,” I said, “if there’s really ice cream at the end of this trip. But it sounds like you move a lot. How do I know you’re going to stick around?”

“We’ll be here for a while, I think,” Milo said.
“My dad’s involved in this never-ending project.”
Literally never-ending?
I wondered.
Like, in a vampire way?
“Why did you guys move here?” he asked.

“The weather,” I said.

He shot me a look. “You’ve
got
to be kidding. Do you know what Massachusetts winters are like?”

“My mom missed the seasons,” I said, lifting my shoulders. “My parents both work from home, so we can live wherever.” But I really didn’t want to talk about
my
family. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, it’s just me and my dad,” he said. “You?”

Yeah, that change of subject went well
. “My older sister, Crystal, and her husband live with us,” I said. It’s funny how easy the lies were now; in Georgia I nearly messed up a hundred times. “And my brother, Zach, is a year older than me.” Well, sort of.

“Zach,” Milo said, his brow furrowing. “I met a new guy named Zach last week in P.E., but he doesn’t look anything like you.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t, luckily for me,” I said. “I’m adopted.” To put it mildly.

“Wow,” said Milo. “Do you know anything about your birth parents? Is that a rude question?”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I don’t.” That was certainly the easiest answer.

“Oh,” he said, turning into a small parking lot. There was a barn at one end with a counter sticking out of it, and tables were arranged under a shady overhang. Only one other couple was there, a pair of senior citizens sharing a cup of chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. They looked sweet together.

Milo noticed the direction of my gaze. “Maybe that’ll be us in eighty years,” he said. So cute.

That’ll never be me
, I realized.
I’m never going to grow old with someone. People will look at me and always see an obnoxious teenager
.

“Wow, it’s nice to know this date is going somewhere,” I joked.

He blushed.

Uh-oh. Did I just say “date”?

“You’re not like other girls,” he observed, turning off the car.

That is…really true
.

“Sure, I am,” I said, batting my eyelashes at him. “For instance, I really, seriously love ice cream.”

Although, to be fair, I can eat a lot more ice cream than other girls can. Milo’s eyebrows went up when he saw the triple-scoop chocolate, banana, and peanut butter ice cream I ordered. With chocolate sprinkles on top, of course.

“Don’t be alarmed,” I said with a wicked smile. “My metabolism can handle it.”

“I’m not alarmed, I’m impressed,” he said. His solitary scoop of blackberry chocolate chip looked lonely next to my cup. I scooped some sprinkles onto his dish, and he stole some of my peanut butter ice cream, laughing when I fended him off with my spoon.

I couldn’t believe I was on a date. A real date, with a boy much funnier and smarter and cuter than Zach, and therefore the best date I’d had since dying. I didn’t care if my investigation went nowhere right now. Maybe I’d only imagined the look Milo had given Tex’s body. I
figured I could investigate Rowan and Daniel later; at that moment it was fine with me if Milo had nothing to do with blood and corpses. I mean, maybe it would be convenient for me if he happened to be a vampire, too, but I’d rather not find out if he had a predilection for eating football players.

Just as I was thinking that, he leaned forward to steal some more of my ice cream, and under his shirt collar I saw the necklace that I had spotted yesterday. The black leather rope held a small silver pendant with an unfamiliar symbol carved on it. But that wasn’t all.

There were red beads knotted into the necklace…and one of them was missing.