My Blood Approves Read online

Page 7


  “So are you gonna be at home tonight or not?” He had one of his hands on my locker door, and he swung it back and forth, just enough to make it squeak.

  “Of course I’m gonna be there. I live there.” I continued fiddling around with something in my bag, but mostly I was trying to look busy.

  “I meant, are you gonna hang out with Jack?” His tone was icy, and I didn’t understand what he found so offensive about me being with Jack. Even if he was having some kind of jealousy, shouldn’t he be trying to cover it up better?

  “Yeah, probably,” I shrugged.

  We hadn’t actually talked yet, but Jack had said that he would see me today, and I didn’t have any reason to doubt him. Well, except for the fact that he was hiding something major.

  “So are you guys like dating or what?” Milo asked, dripping with angry sarcasm.

  “No. It’s not like that.” I slung my bag over my shoulder, and he just narrowed his eyes at me.

  Suddenly, it pissed me off that I had to explain myself to him. We weren’t dating, but it shouldn’t matter to him anyway. It wasn’t my fault that Jack’s abnormal attractiveness had made his sexual orientation even more confusing. If he had told me he was having issues with it, I wouldn’t have brought Jack around.

  “Whatever,” Milo muttered.

  “What exactly are you accusing me of?” I slammed my locker door shut. He let his hands fall to the sides, looking startled. “Even if I am dating Jack, so what? I can do that. There’s nothing wrong with being friends with him or dating him or whatever it is I decide to do with him. He’s a nice guy and it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do.”

  “Whatever you say,” Milo said, but he wasn’t as confident or angry.

  “Milo, this is stupid.” I readjusted the strap over my shoulder and looked at him softly. “I get it, okay? I saw the way that you looked at Jack.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He flushed and averted his eyes, shifting uncomfortably.

  Outing him in the middle of the hall at school probably wasn’t the best idea, but I just couldn’t take his indifference to me anymore. He normally told me everything, and it looked like he wasn’t going to talk to me about this unless I got the ball rolling.

  “It’s okay.” I lowered my voice so other people wouldn’t overhear. “If you’re gay. It’s okay. I understand.”

  “You don’t understand anything!” Milo shouted.

  When he looked up at me, tears filled his eyes, and I realized that I had made a terrible mistake. I couldn’t force him to come to terms with anything, and if he wasn’t ready to talk about it with me, I should’ve respected that.

  “Milo-” I started to say something, but I didn’t really have anything to follow it up.

  He didn’t wait around for it anyway. He just turned and stormed off down the hall, leaving me alone to think about what an ass I was.

  When I got on the bus after school, he made sure to sit on the opposite side. On the way to our house from the bus stop, he jogged on ahead of me. I tried to hurry and catch up, but by the time I made it inside, he’d already slammed the door to his bedroom.

  He must’ve been really upset if he risked the wrath of our mother just to show me how angry he was. I sighed and flopped on the couch, wondering how he had managed to put up with me for so long.

  I had made it through two full episodes of Judge Judy while lying sprawled out on the couch without any word from Jack or Milo, and I was starting to think that maybe the whole world had ostracized me. The only time that Jane had talked to me all day was during lunch, and then it was just a list of how much she drank and who she had sex with over the break.

  I just wanted to curl up on the couch and completely give up on life, but then I heard the familiar ring of “Time Warp” and I quickly snatched up my phone.

  Are you done with school yet? Jack text messaged, making me wonder how long it had been since he went to school.

  Yeah. I’ve been done for like two hours. Why? I replied.

  Good. Ready to hang out? He hadn’t really answered my question, but hey, what’s new?

  Yeah. Sure. What did you have in mind? I messaged him.

  I’ll pick you up in 15.

  And that was that. My clothes from school were fine (I’d gone with jeans, a long shirt, and a cute little black vest), but most of my makeup had worn off, so I rushed to the bathroom to reapply and run a brush through my hair.

  I started heading towards the front door, but decided against it. Exhaling nervously, I knocked on Milo’s door.

  “Milo?” I said cautiously. He didn’t respond, but I continued anyway. “I know you’re mad at me, and I don’t blame you. I did a stupid, stupid thing. But um…” I sighed, and tried to figure out what I wanted to say. “You can talk to me if you want to. But I just thought I’d let you know that I’m going to go hang out with Jack. But you can call me if you want to. Okay?”

  He still didn’t answer, but I waited a minute just to be sure. Then since I’d already spent too much time getting ready, I hurried out to meet Jack.

  I stepped outside, feeling like the worst sister in the world, just in time to see Jack pull up. I trudged over to the red Lamborghini and fell into the seat heavily.

  The Ramones blared out the speakers, and he turned them down quickly, looking at me with a mischievous grin. Even though my sour mood had to be obvious, he was oblivious to it, so it soon faded away.

  “What?” I asked. He bit his lip, as if he couldn’t decide whether to tell me or not. “What’s going on?”

  “I think that its time you met my family.” He sounded wildly excited by the idea, but also a tad nervous. Whatever made him nervous tended to terrify me, so I gulped. “No, it’s a good thing. Yeah.” Then he nodded, more to himself than me. “Yeah. It’s good.”

  - 7 -

  He had thrown the car into gear, and we were flying down the street and turning on the highway before I could even really protest, not that I would’ve anyway. Meeting families was usually my least favorite thing in the world, but a family that spawned Jack intrigued me.

  “After what happened last night, I think it’s time,” Jack explained, but I had no idea what his family could possibly have to do with a rabid dog. Unless his family were dog breeders or something.

  Then I remembered what happened and looked over at Jack’s arm, which was bare thanks to his return to his tee shirt uniform. (He wore one today that read “Frankie Says Relax.”)

  I leaned in closer to inspect both his arms, thinking I must’ve looked at the wrong one. But neither one of them had a scratch or a mark or even a scar.

  He noticed me looking and immediately chastised me. “No. Don’t even think about it.”

  “What?” I leaned back in my seat, still staring at his arms. “You mean asking how you magically got rid any trace of the dog bite so quickly?”

  “Precisely. Don’t ask any questions about anything like that, not about me, not about anyone else,” Jack warned me.

  “They’re like you, aren’t they?” By now, nothing should come as a shock, but I still looked at him in disbelief. Every time I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, they did.

  “I want you to meet them, but you can’t be like this. You have to act completely oblivious.” His tone was light, but he was being firm. “I mean it, Alice. My family. My rules.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it.” I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the world speeding past us out the window. “Where do you live anyway?”

  “In St. Louis Park, by a lake,” he said. “It’s not that far.”

  I didn’t know tons about that area, but what I had heard is that there were lots of nice, expensive homes. So it would make sense that Jack lived there, since we were cruising down the highway in a bright red Lamborghini.

  “Don’t worry,” he attempted to reassure me. “They’ll like you. I think. Well, Ezra isn’t there. So it’s just Mae and Peter. That should make it easier.”


  “Where’s Ezra?”

  For some reason, knowing one of his brothers would be gone made me more nervous. Maybe Jack knew Ezra wouldn’t like me, and that’s why he was bringing me over when he wasn’t around.

  “Business thing,” Jack shrugged. “He’s gone a lot with stuff.”

  “Well, the Lamborghini doesn’t pay for itself.”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s true.” He looked over at me, and then laughed at my nervous fidgeting. I had started chewing on my nails, which was an awful habit that I kept vowing to quit. “Seriously, you’ll be fine. They’ll like you. I mean, I like you so… they’ll like you.”

  “Yeah, cause everything in life is really that simple,” I sighed.

  “This one thing might actually be,” he smiled confidently.

  The car started slowing down, and he turned off the road, meaning we were getting closer, and my heart thudded painfully. When he pulled up to his house, I cringed.

  Incredibly, beautiful and massive, it was more of a mansion or a castle than a house. There was a five stall garage at the end of a short, winding driveway. The whole place had been done in some kind of pale sandstone.

  The front door entered right into a rounded tower. There was a large rectangular window above it, covered in rod-iron bars. The tower flowed into what would otherwise be a rather conventional square house, if not for the gorgeous black iron balcony coming out of a second story window underneath a weeping willow.

  “Oh my gosh,” I gasped as we pulled into the garage. “You live here?”

  “Yeah.” He heard the awed tone in my voice and chuckled. “It’s just a house.”

  “Nothing is ‘just’ anything with you,” I said under my breath.

  He laughed harder and started getting out of the car, and I followed suit, but much slower. I had never felt so intimidated in my entire life. Everything about me suddenly seemed plain and dreary, and I felt totally ashamed that I had let him see the inside of my disgustingly tiny apartment.

  “You know I didn’t buy this, right?” Jack turned to look back at me as we walked past the four other vehicles in the garage (Mae’s black Jetta, a green Jeep Wrangler with a canvas top, a black Lexus LS, and a shiny silver Audi TT Roadster). Then he gestured to the impressive collection of cars. “I didn’t buy any of this. None of its really mine.”

  “Then who did buy it?”

  “Ezra, mostly. And Peter.” We had reached the huge wooden door that presumably led into the house, and he turned back to grin at me. “Mae and I are just eye candy.”

  Jack threw open the door, shouting hello. I had barely crept in the house behind him when a giant mass of white fur flung itself at him.

  It caused a mild flashback to the night before and I almost yelped, but Jack was scratching the dog and telling her how pretty she was, and I realized that it was just his gigantic Great Pyrenees.

  “Matilda!” A warm voice with a soft, British accent filtered through the house, and then I saw her rushing in to greet us.

  She was beautiful, probably in an unconventional sense, but that almost made her more stunning. Her long, light brown waves of hair had been clipped back to keep it out of her honey colored eyes. Her skin looked like white porcelain, but warmth came off her in comforting waves.

  She went over to the dog, pushing her down off of Jack with ease, and in a slightly scolding tone, she said, “Oh, Matilda, do be a good girl. Please.”

  “Ah, she’s alright.” Jack crouched down to continue scratching the dog’s head. Watching him play with her, I realized for the first time how hard it must’ve been for him to kill that dog.

  “I’m so sorry,” she apologized breathlessly, putting her hand over her heart to show how sincere she was. She looked at me for the first time and smiled. “Matilda’s still a puppy.”

  “Mattie’s always a good girl, aren’t you?” Jack’s voice was verging on baby-talk, and Matilda licked his face appreciatively.

  “Well, look at you!” Her smile grew broader and warmer. “You’re lovely!”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment. She was far more beautiful than I could ever hope to be, and I didn’t know really how to respond to her open affection.

  “Oh, sorry.” Jack gave the dog one final pat before standing up. “Alice, this is Mae. Mae, this is Alice.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I floundered.

  Something about her made me feel safe and oddly loved, but it was so unexpected that I didn’t really have time to collect my thoughts and respond.

  “The pleasure is all mine!” Mae gushed, placing her hand over her heart again. “You really have no idea.”

  “What have you been saying about me?” I gave Jack a sidelong glance, wondering what he possibly could’ve said to get her so excited over me. He was the one with all the magical powers. I just argued with him and got myself in ridiculous situations.

  “Not that much,” Jack shrugged, but he didn’t seem embarrassed or surprised by Mae at all.

  “Shall I give you the grand tour?” Mae asked, looping her arm through mine. Then she looked over at Jack. “Would that be alright with you?”

  “Yeah, go ahead.” He had already started playing with the dog again, seemingly contented to let Mae kidnap me and do as she pleased.

  “This is the entryway, obviously,” Mae gestured to the vaulted ceilings and marble floors around us, and the rings on her fingers flashed in the light.

  Then she started to lead me into an adjoining room, which appeared to be some kind of expansive living room. The rest of the house had dark golden oak wood floors and cream colored walls. Somehow, it managed to combine a warm modern motif with touches of a castle. It was beautiful and perfect and really, so utterly Mae.

  “Here’s the living room. Windows, fireplace, etc.” Before I could even really take it all in, she started leading me into the kitchen. The tiles were granite in natural neutral colors and the cupboards matched the hardwood floors.

  Off the back of the kitchen, giant windows and glass French doors revealed a beautiful view of the lake. A massive stone patio sat right outside the doors, leading down to the lake.

  “This is the kitchen, and the view.”

  “That is truly breathtaking.” I pulled away from her just enough so I could peer out the window. It was dark out, so I couldn’t fully appreciate it, but several large lights lit the backyard and I got a glimpse of it.

  “That’s why Ezra chose this place.” Mae put her hand on my arm when she returned to my side, and I noticed that her skin felt the same as Jack’s – silky soft, but completely temperatureless, like touching a doll. “This land, anyway. He built the house.”

  “He designed it and everything?” I know I sounded surprised, which made me feel embarrassed.

  Of course her husband had built this amazing piece of architecture. They were obviously superior to everyone in every way, and I'd better start getting used to it.

  “Well, I helped, a little.” Mae smiled modestly at me, and I realized that I was already falling in love with her. Not sexually or anything lesbian like that, but they were just so inviting and charismatic, I couldn’t help it.

  That’s when I realized that I was a little bit in love with Jack. He was impossibly wonderful, and I couldn’t stand to be away from him. I had started craning my head to look around for him when Mae pulled onto the next room.

  “This is a really fast tour you’re giving me,” I commented as she went through the grand dining room connected to the kitchen. We had just started down a hall and she laughed.

  “Well, you’ll see the house enough, I’m sure.” Her eyes sparkled at me, and I knew that she was implying that I’d be hanging out there more, which suited me just fine. “I really just wanted a chance to get acquainted with you, and this seemed like the perfect way.”

  “Oh.” I nodded as if I really understood.

  “There’s the lou if you need it,” Mae gestured to a gorgeous bathroom, and then vague
ly pointed to two rooms at the end of the hall. “That’s Ezra’s office at the end, and our bedroom next to it. They’re not that exciting, really.”

  “Somehow, I doubt that,” I said, but I let her pull me onward and up the stairs. She claimed that she wanted to get acquainted with me, but I didn’t understand how she really meant to do that when she as rushing me through the house.

  “Here’s Jack’s room,” Mae pointed to an open door at the top of the stairs, and I took a moment to peek in.

  The walls were dark blue, as he had told me they were, and the bed was massive and laid out in black silk blankets. A giant flat screen television hung on the wall, and tons of gaming gear and videogames filling the built-in entertainment center in the wall. Some clothes were strewn about the room, but really, it was exactly as I expected it would be.

  “There’s a guest room, with another bathroom, at the end of the hall,” Mae explained, then looked a little perplexed. “I don’t know why there’s another bathroom up here. Each bedroom has its own attached bathroom, and its own fireplace. I think someone must’ve suggested it to Ezra that it was a good resale point.”

  “This house is all bathrooms and fireplaces,” a velvety voice grumbled, and my heart stopped at the sound. It was coming from the bedroom across the hall from Jack’s room, and completely unabashed, I took a step towards it.

  This room had been styled much closer to the rest of the house, with wood floors, and a four-poster bed made with white linens. There was a large white rug in the center of the room, and the French doors leading out to the balcony were open, letting the cool breeze ruffle the thick curtains.

  Books lined the walls, and someone sat in the white chair in the corner. An aged copy of a German book covered his face from me, but just the sound of his voice had already mesmerized me. He wore faded jeans and a close fitting sweater.

  His slender fingers were deeply tanned, but they seemed to be gripping the book unnaturally tight. I wondered if I was irritating him in some way, so I took a step back, trying to sneak out of his room, but I bumped right into Mae.