Never Bite a Boy on the First Date (15 page)

I
dove into the closet, which I realized right away was a mistake because (a) what a totally obvious place to hide, and (b) boys’ clothes smell something
awful
. I guessed I was knee-deep in dirty laundry, but I didn’t have time to find a better spot. I could hear the footsteps coming down the hall, straight toward Tex’s room.

I crouched down and pulled the closet door almost all the way shut, leaving myself only a tiny crack to peer out of.

The bedroom door opened. A figure stood silhouetted in the light from the hall for a brief moment. Then whoever it was stepped into the room and shut the door. Like me, he or she didn’t turn on the light. Like me, the newcomer stood there for a long moment, staring around the room. I could see only a faint outline of the
person’s shape in the glow from the computer monitor.

The computer! I’d forgotten to turn the screensaver back on! That would have taken too long anyway. Did this person know that there should be sexy Angelina Jolie pictures spinning across the screen right now?

There was an excruciatingly long pause. I was very glad I didn’t have a heartbeat, because I was sure it would be hammering fit to wake the dead. As it was, I had to clutch my hands together to keep from shaking.

Was it someone who lived here? His mom or dad? How would I ever explain what I was doing in their son’s bedroom? I wondered what happened to vampires in prison. Was there an underground blood network to keep me alive?

Or was it Tex’s killer, come to erase evidence like I had just done? What would he do if he found me in here…and knew that I’d seen him?

The figure took a step forward. The pale blue light from the computer illuminated his face.

I couldn’t help it. I gasped.

He whipped around with a startled expression
as I threw open the closet door.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Me?”
Daniel said indignantly. “What are
you
doing here?”

“
I
am solving a murder,” I said. “
You
are obviously up to no good.”

“No,
I’m
solving a murder,” he said. “And this is looking very fishy for you, young lady.”

“Nuh-uh!” I cried. “You’re the fishy one! Skulking about, giving people heart attacks!”

“Well, if you weren’t
lurking
in the dark where you’re not supposed to be, then you wouldn’t be so easily frightened, would you?” he said. “And I wasn’t
skulking
.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t
lurking
.”

We glared at each other for a moment, nose to nose…well, technically nose to really nice pecs, since he was substantially taller than me. I was pleased to see he was wearing another button-down shirt with most of the buttons undone. I don’t know a lot of guys who wander around dressed like that, but on Daniel it was a look I didn’t mind. At all.

Distracted? Who, me?

I stared up into his perfect, dark brown eyes,
which were flashing with anger. His breathing was quick and shallow, and his hands were trembling a little bit. What was he thinking? Did he suspect I was the murderer? Or was
he
really the murderer, and he’d realized he was busted? Was he about to pop out a pair of fangs and try to bite me?

I decided the best way to distract him was to kiss him. Or maybe I just really wanted to.

Perhaps he had the same idea at the same time, because it seemed like he grabbed my arms and pulled me to him just as I was leaning up toward his lips.

This wasn’t the sweet, elegant kiss he’d given me in the school hallway. This was passion and fire. I ran my hands up his back under his shirt, and he made a tiny sound deep in his throat.

For a moment I thought about throwing him down on the bed and having my way with him right there, but then I was like,
Wow, that would be inappropriate
. Plus who knows when was the last time Tex changed the sheets, and just imagine his parents walking in on
that
, and surely there’s somewhere more romantic we could—

Daniel pushed me away from him. “This is a dangerous game,” he said, pointing at me. No fangs had magically appeared, I was disappointed to note. Of course, I was much better at controlling mine by this point, so my face also gave nothing away. If he was a vampire, that just meant he’d had experience with this—but I didn’t like that thought either.

“What game?” I said, adjusting my dress. That motion seemed to get his attention in a different way. He blinked at my tall boots like he was trying hard not to look at my cleavage. “I’m not playing any games,” I continued. “All I see here is you messing up my murder investigation.”

“What?” he exploded. “You’re the one who’s messing up
my
—” He stopped and pressed his fingers to his forehead. “Why are you trying to solve this?” he asked slowly.

Yeah, right. You can tell me the truth first, mister
. “Because I’m plucky?” I tried with a winning smile. “I’m just a crime-fighting kind of gal?”

He glared at me.

“Okay, I’ll be honest,” I said. “It’s because I’ve watched every episode of
Veronica Mars,
like, three hundred times, and I totally want to be her.”

He looked at his watch. “We don’t have time for this. We have to get out of here soon.”

“How did you get in?” I asked curiously.

“The back door was unlocked,” he said. He tilted his head at me. “Isn’t that how you got in?”

This conversation sounded familiar. Only this time I felt a lot more silly. I hadn’t even tried the doorknob. I was an absolute moron.

“Er…no,” I admitted. “I went through the cat flap.”

Daniel hid a smile.

“Don’t you dare say, ‘That explains the hair,’” I said fiercely.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, and glanced around. “Well, did you find anything?”

“No,” I lied. “I’d only been here a couple minutes when I heard you.” I nodded at the computer screen. Daniel sat down in the chair and studied Tex’s inbox. I watched over his shoulder as he tapped a couple of keys.

A box popped up with Tex’s last IM conversation in it.

“Hmmm,” Daniel said. “Do you know who
Pire-O-Maniac66 is?”

“No,” I said, leaning in to read the chat. It seemed pretty innocuous.

Tex had written:
Hey, man. I’m bored. You?

Pire-O-Maniac66:
Same
.

Tex:
Want to play basketball?

Pire-O-Maniac66:
Yeah, sure
.

Tex:
Awesome. Meet me at the school in thirty
.

“Riveting,” I said. “The life of Tex Harrison was full of novelty and excitement.”

“But that was the afternoon before the murder,” Daniel pointed out. “Maybe he had a fight with the guy while they were playing basketball.”

Or maybe they were both standing in front of a mirror afterward…in the guys’ locker room?

“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “Although you’d have to be pretty psycho to kill a guy for scoring more goals than you.”

Daniel just looked at me.

“What?” I said. “Is that not the phrase? Scoring more hoops?”

Daniel shook his head and closed the chat window. “I don’t see anything else,” he said. “We’d better go.”

I wondered if he planned to sneak back again
sometime without me, but I didn’t care. I’d already found a
way
better clue than he would.
Take that, Mr. Amateur Detective
.

We hurried down the stairs and slipped out the back door, checking that the coast was clear before we darted around to the sidewalk in front of the house.

As we walked away down the street, I saw a car drive past with three people in it—people I recognized from the photos in Tex’s house.

“Whew,” Daniel said as he spotted them, too. He pulled out a handkerchief—a real handkerchief!—and dabbed at his forehead, just like a guy in a Jane Austen movie. “That was close.”

“So,” I said, patting my hair into place and smiling up at him, “does this date still include dinner?”

B
elieve it or not, Daniel and I managed to have a very civilized date after that. You might think it’d be a little awkward, each of us being so very suspicious and all, but we just avoided the topics of murder and amateur sleuthing, and everything went surprisingly well. I think the slinky minidress helped cheer him up. Plus he took me to a steakhouse, which is a pretty direct route to my heart now that I’m a hardcore carnivore.

Of course I spent the whole time wondering why Daniel was investigating the murder. But I knew bringing it up would make Daniel ask me questions, too…the kind I wasn’t about to answer.

I stayed up the rest of the night organizing and reorganizing my clue sheets, in the hope that
staring at them in different ways would give me the answer I was looking for. I fell asleep shortly before dawn.

Which is why I was not entirely thrilled when Zach banged on my bedroom door six hours later, at eleven in the morning.

“GO AWAY!” I yelled from under the covers.

“What’s that?” he called through the door.

“Leave me alone, Zach!”

“All right,” he said with a note of glee in his voice. “I’ll just tell him you don’t want to see him.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled into my pillow. A moment later, I sat bolt upright in bed. “Wait,
who?
” I bellowed. “Him WHO?”

I knew he could hear me, because I could still hear him, humming smugly as he trotted off down the stairs. But he didn’t respond.

Dadblasted
…

I jumped out of bed and ran to my dresser. I sleep in a tank top and boxer shorts, and there’s no “him” I could think of that I’d want to see me like that. But I had to get downstairs quickly, so I had a critical choice to
make: (a) find a sweatshirt, (b) brush my hair, or (c) put on pants. If you’d ever seen me first thing in the morning, you’d understand why I picked (b). I ran a brush quickly through my hair, flung open the door, and raced downstairs after Zach.

“Sorry,” Zach was saying as he swung the front door shut. I seized the handle and yanked it out of his grasp.

Milo was standing on the front step, looking disgustingly perky and rugged and gorgeous and awake for that hour of the morning.

“Uh-oh,” he said when he saw me.

“You better believe ‘uh-oh’!” I cried. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Almost noon?” he said with an apologetic smile.

“
Not even
noon!” I said. “I’m afraid this relationship is doomed.”

“Would it help if I said you look really cute in your pajamas?” Milo said. I glanced down at the penguins snoozing in sunglasses on my boxer shorts. My black tank top said
Wake me when there’s pancakes
in white letters across the chest.

“No, because I’m pretty sure you’d be lying,” I said.

“I’m not!” Milo protested. “I think they’re adorable.”

“AHEM.” Behind me, Zach cleared his throat pointedly. “If you guys are done making everybody sick, could we close the door, please? Milo, dude, either come in or go away.”

I glared at Zach. Talk about not knowing your antivampire protocol! My
one
chance to find out if Milo needed an invitation into the house, and Zach blew it.

Milo gave me puppy-dog eyes. “Is it okay? Can I come in?” he asked. He held up a paper bag. “Would muffins help?”

“Hmm,” I said. “Depends. What kind?”

“Banana chocolate chip.”

“Ooooh, in
that
case,” I said, holding the door open. As Milo came in, I glanced past him and saw his car in the driveway. Why was he awake in the middle of the day? Did that mean he definitely wasn’t a vampire—or was he just trying to act like a regular human for my benefit?

Zach followed us into the kitchen with a
sullen look on his face. “So why are you here?” he growled at Milo.

“Zach, don’t you have a calculus test to finish?” I said pointedly.

“I’m done with it,” he said, hopping onto one of the kitchen stools with a definite
I’m not going anywhere
attitude.

“Sorry about my
brother
,” I said to Milo. Zach scowled even more at the b-word.

“No worries, Zach is cool,” Milo said, giving Zach a smile that was not returned. See, if there was any question that something was wrong with Zach, this had just answered it. It’s simply unnatural to resist a smile like Milo’s.

Crystal poked her blond head around the door. “Did I hear someone say muffins?” she asked. I knew she must have been asleep when he said it, but Crystal is like me—she can sense food from a mile away, and will even get up in the middle of the day for it.

“Milo, this is my sister, Crystal,” I said. “I should warn you this is a house full of ravening wolves, so I hope you brought enough muffins to save yourself.”

“Let’s find out,” he said, opening the bag. I handed him a plate and he shook about a dozen muffins onto it. My mouth dropped open.

“Did you
make
those?”

“Um…yeah,” he said. “Is that weird? Do you think I’m less manly now?”

“Yes,” growled Zach.

“Mmmblvvttwsmph,” Crystal said around a mouthful of muffin. She’d practically used vampire super-speed to dive on them.

“I think you’re the manliest, most attractive muffin-maker I’ve ever met,” I said, slipping my arms around Milo’s waist and giving him a hug. Zach looked like he was about to throw up.

“I can never find muffins that are both banana and chocolate chip,” Milo explained, putting his arm around my shoulders, “so I figure I have to make them myself.”

“Okay, all is forgiven,” I said. “I can learn to love a muffin man, even if he does keep crazy hours.”

Milo and Crystal laughed. Zach, not so much.

“Have you guys seen Bert?” Crystal asked,
nibbling the edges of her muffin. “I woke up and he was gone.”

“Nope, sorry,” I said. Zach shook his head.

“So weird,” she said. “I checked all the rooms. He must be out somewhere.”

“That’s Crystal’s husband,” I explained to Milo as she wandered out of the kitchen.

“Where are your parents?” Milo asked.

“Slee—” Zach started.

“Out,” I said, kicking him hard under the table. What kind of normal grown-ups would be asleep at nearly noon on a Sunday? “So what are we doing today, now that someone has so rudely awakened me and everything?”

“Well,” Milo said, “how do you feel about the beach?”

My face must have revealed my true feelings before I could speak, because immediately he went, “Because I think it’s terrible. Blech, who likes the beach, am I right? I hate the beach. Totally hate it. Yuck.”

I laughed. “Besides, a beach in Massachusetts in early October?”

“Yeah, okay, worst idea ever,” Milo said agreeably. “You know what is good, though,
is…going to the mall?” My nose had barely wrinkled before he said, “Just kidding! I hate the mall, too. Worst place ever.”

I used to like the mall, but you have no idea how many mirrors there are in your average mall until suddenly your life depends upon avoiding them. This is the one thing Vivi and I argue about, because she thinks it’s fundamentally un-American to hate malls. She keeps saying to me, “But you dress so well! You
must
love shopping! I don’t understand!”

Sadly, nowadays I do all my clothes shopping online. It is a freaking nuisance.

“Hey, Milo,” Zach interrupted. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Shoot,” Milo said, taking one of the muffins. I was already on my second, if you’re curious.

“I was just wondering,” Zach said with studied casualness, “what it was you and Tex were arguing about on Monday in the weight room.”

Milo’s hand froze with the muffin halfway to his mouth. I stared at Zach, whose eyes were fixed on Milo.

Milo carefully put the muffin down. “I didn’t
know there was anyone else there,” he said slowly.

“I was nearby,” Zach said. “I have pretty good hearing. But I didn’t catch what it was about.”

Milo was avoiding my eyes. On the one hand, if what Zach had said was true—and it sure seemed to be—then he might have just given me an important clue. On the other hand, Milo now looked really sad and uncomfortable, and it kind of made me want to slug Zach in the nose. I sidled closer to Milo and let my arm brush against his in a sympathetic way. Maybe also in an
Oooh, your arms are sexy
way.

“It was nothing,” Milo said with a shrug. He gave me a half smile and touched my free hand lightly. “Just a stupid fight. I feel bad about it now.”

“It didn’t sound like nothing,” Zach pressed. “Didn’t I hear you say something about that creepy senior?”

My ears perked up. “Creepy senior?”

“The one who never talks to anyone,” Zach said. “He’s always taking pictures or scribbling in that notebook. What’s his name, Milo?”

“Rowan something,” Milo said. “Rowan Cantor, I think. Yeah, it was about him.”

Now my senses were on full alert. “Tex and Rowan knew each other?”

“Barely,” Milo said, wincing. “That was part of the problem.” He sighed. “Tex decided that it was his job as captain to recruit new members of the basketball team, since they lost so badly last year. He noticed that Rowan was tall, which was good enough for him.”

“I thought Tex was all about football,” I said.

“He did any sport he could fit into his schedule,” Milo said. “Basketball, too.”

“I can’t really picture Rowan playing basketball,” I said.

“Exactly,” Milo agreed. “I mean, I don’t really know the guy, but as far as I can tell, he just wants to be left alone.”

“Is that what you were arguing about?” Zach interjected nosily.

“Sort of.” Milo rubbed his head. “I thought Tex was kind of harassing him. Like, getting really into his space, you know? Guys on the swim team told me that Tex would throw
basketballs at Rowan during gym class and follow him down the hall, badgering him about how the team needed him and stuff. I figured I knew Tex well enough to tell him I thought he should step off. He thought otherwise. He kept saying he thought Rowan was finally getting interested.” He glanced at me. “How terrible is that, fighting with a guy the day before he dies? I didn’t want to say anything because it’s not like I thought Tex was a bad guy. He was just…overly enthusiastic, sometimes.”

“Sure,” I said, nodding. A million things were going through my head. Clicking things. Probably not the things Zach was hoping were going through my head, though.

“You know what we could do?” Milo said to me hopefully, clearly trying to change the subject. “There’s this park not far from here that has an amazing hiking trail—the leaves are starting to change and it’s not too strenuous and the views are great. Or…um…do we hate hiking, too?”

Zach snorted. “You’d have better luck getting her to a football game.” There was a note of bitterness there; I’d skipped most of Zach’s
football games when we were dating. I know—it was bad of me. I wanted to be a supportive girlfriend, but (a) boring, (b) cold, (c) confusing, and (d)
mad crazy boring
.

“Hey, shut up,” I said. “I can hike. I’d love to go hiking.”

“Really?” Milo brightened.

Well, no. Not usually. But for Milo, I was willing to make an exception, even if it meant a truckload of vampire sunscreen and a migraine for the next three days.

“I’ll go change,” I said. Zach was full-on glaring at me now. I didn’t particularly want to leave him alone with Milo. “How about you wait for me in the car?” I said sweetly.

“Okay,” he said, his eyes shifting to Zach, so I knew he had the same thought.

“Take some of the muffins,” I said as I headed out of the kitchen. “I’ll need as many chocolate chips as possible to get me up a hiking trail.”

I’ve always hated putting on sunscreen, but it’s a lot more motivating when you imagine bursting into flames than it is when all you have to worry about is maybe skin cancer someday. Yeah, Olympia says the fire thing
won’t happen, but I’ve seen too many
Buffy
episodes to feel one hundred percent safe out there. So I slathered the smelly stuff all over my face and arms and hands before putting on khaki cargo pants, an indigo blue T-shirt, and a light blue hoodie.

Zach was standing at the front door when I got downstairs, his arms folded and a deep frown on his face. “So, are you, like, dating that guy or what?” he demanded.

“It’s none of your business if I am,” I said. “Tell Olympia where I went and that I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“I can’t believe you’re going hiking with him,” Zach growled. “You never did anything outdoors during the day with me…back when I could, I mean.”

“Chill out, Zach,” I said. “He’s part of my murder investigation, all right? Go back to sleep.” I pushed past him and ran out to the car, where Milo was waiting for me in his way-too-cute sunglasses.

Despite what I’d said to Zach, as Milo and I climbed the trail I didn’t bring up Tex or the
murder. Bright orange and gold leaves whirled around us, and the wind tugged at my hair. Halfway along, Milo took my hand to help me over a fallen tree and then didn’t let go. It was sweet and comfortable, walking with him like that, with sunshine sparkling down through the trees. It was really easy to forget for a while that I was a vampire. Oh, and that maybe he was, too, only with slightly more murderous tendencies than me.

But I hadn’t had any blood that morning—hello, cute boy in my kitchen! Plus it totally doesn’t go with banana muffins. So I was feeling sort of faint by the time we got to the top ridge. The bright sunshine up there didn’t help either. I sat down on a large boulder in the biggest patch of shade I could find.

“You okay?” Milo asked, handing me a bottle of water.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. I tried to give him a reassuring smile. “You’re right, it’s really pretty up here.”

He sat down next to me and put his arm around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder.
The trees rustled overhead, and a star-shaped red leaf drifted down to land on my knee.

“This is kind of weird for me,” he said after a long moment.

“What is?”

“Being with a girl.” He touched my hair gently. “Falling for someone, I mean, just like that.” He chuckled. “I’m not very good at playing it cool, am I?”