Page 60 of Dryad, Try Again
Tanner gives me a sheepish smile as they sit next to him. “Uh, Kovi, these are my uh, friends.” He cranes his neck to them. “Friends, meet my uh…”
The one dude rolls his eyes. “You can say boyfriend,” he mutters.
The girl next to him shoves his shoulder. “Be nice!” she chides. “I’m Rachel, I remember you from the bonfire,” she says after she turns to me.
“Owen,” the dude says.
“And I’m Shonda, in case you forgot. I’m thrilled you two worked it out.” The girl closest to Tanner shakes his shoulder in happiness.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” I smile and wave, and I chat with Shonda for a few minutes more. We spend some time actually paying attention to the water polo game, like good students. I wrap my arm around Tanner most of the evening, and all feels right in the world.
When the clock is winding down, Tanner pulls me up. “I’m starving, and we’ve got this victory in the bag. Food anyone?”
“Sure,” Shonda says with a smile. “Unless you don’t want us coming?”
“We’d love to have you, the more the merrier,” I reply.
“You’re a keeper,” she says with a cheeky grin.
Tanner winces at his friend’s funny remark, and I squeeze his hand while the others laugh. “I’m down,” Rachel says. “Monster-rella sticks are calling my name. Come on, Owen.”
“In a minute…I suddenly find sports…fascinating…” Owen readjusts his glasses and stares at the players in the pool. I guess humans falling for monsters is a common occurrence this year.
“Alright, hurry it up, loverboy,” Rachel mutters, motioning him forward.
A minute later, the five of us begin the trek from the Athletics Center to the dining hall. I hold Tanner’s hand as we walk through the quad. My boyfriend laughs at some inside joke his friends bring up about Intro to Monsterkind. I can’t help but admire how relaxed Tanner is.
“What?” he asks with a smile.
“Nothing, I’m just…glad you found your people. Being surrounded by friendship looks good on you.”
He grins. “You know what looks even better on me?”
“Sunburn?” I ask with a smirk.
He shoves my shoulder and I laugh. “No, you doofus dryad. Try again,” he says with a smile.
“Um…a monster boyfriend like me?” I ask, blinking at him.
He kisses my cheek. “Bingo.”
25
KOVI
A chill runsdown my spine as I sit on a bench in front of several campus trees, and it has nothing to do with the cold, December air. I tap my toes in nervousness, gazing at the doors of the far-off lecture hall building. If I fixate on them, maybe he’ll show up faster.Everything has to be okay, it has to be…
“I always wondered if you felt pain in the winter.” Niko’s voice breaks me out of my train of thought. He sits next to me holding a stray orange leaf. “With the trees dying for the season, I wondered if you, like, die too. Which is weird now that I say it out loud.” When he wags the leaf, I look up; indeed, the trees above us are mostly barren.
“I’m…fine.”
“You don’t seem fine,” he says, sipping his coffee.
“Well, it has nothing to do with the trees. This is their natural life cycle; the roots are alive, and the leaves will be back. Besides, some trees are evergreen, so there’s that.” I shrug and look back out at the lecture hall—no Tanner in sight.
“Then why are you so jumpy?” he asks, readjusting his cap filled with snakes.
“I’m not jumpy, I’m just…nervous.”
