Page 51 of Shadows of Nightshade
I was surprised. Not that I had anything against vegans, but this was a fascinating learning opportunity. I’d heard girls at school talking about vegan substitutes, and I wondered if they lived up to the hype. Now I might finally know.
“Vegetarian,” Damen corrected. “Julian would be a terrible vegan—he loves cheese.” He answered my question without knowing. He continued to watch Titus over his glasses. “And she can be whatever she wants to be.” Then he frowned, considering, before adding, “Except a cannibal. That would be very bad.” His mouth quirked. “Sorry, baby girl, but a line must be drawn somewhere. Don’t worry. The same rules apply to all of us.” He paused, shooting Titus an appraising look. “Within reason.”
I covered my mouth to stifle my laughter but wasn’t able to hold back completely. Damen and Titus, who seemed ready to argue, froze and stared at me. Their faces were twin expressions of an unfamiliar type of observation, and the heat rose in my face.
Slowly, they blinked simultaneously and glanced at each other. I wasn’t certain what kind of eye-speech was going on now, but apparently, they reached some sort of mutual agreement. Titus crossed his arms and glanced to the side, and Damen pulled out his phone again.
When he spoke, his voice was gruff. “I’ll tell them to get all of the popular dishes,includingthe sweet and sour chicken.”
“Just limit the tofu.” Titus sighed, defeated. “I can’t go through that again.”
“No one is going to make you eat it this time,” Damen consoled, but Titus only groaned in response.
“What do you think?”Miles asked as he lightly elbowed me. “Isn’t the beef and broccoli better than the sweet and sour chicken?”
Titus, who sat at my other side, glared at him. “Don’t influence her decision!”
“I’m doing nothing more than what you’ve already done,” Miles retorted. “She needs to be exposed todifferenttypes of foods, not only the things you like. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you piling your favorites on her plate.”
Julian and Damen ignored the conversation. Instead, they serenely ate their own meals at the other side of the round table while Miles and Titus bickered.
Between this and how Miles and Titus had acted outside of Professor Hamway’s house, I imagined that this type of interaction might be a frequent occurrence.
But, despite Titus’s attempt to feed me more, I was stuffed. And we had so many leftovers.
“Hey.” Damen pushed his foot against mine, and I looked at him. He grinned. “What do you want to do first for our slumber party?”
Miles, who’d been drinking his water, began to cough.
“Miles?” I ignored Damen, even though his question had caused my heart to race. I had to keep my priorities in line. I reached over and weakly pounded on Miles’s back. “Are you okay?”
He stopped coughing as he waved off my concern and stared at Damen with watery eyes. “What are you—”
“I told you we’re having a slumber party,” Damen replied sternly. “It’s just like every other time we get together.”
Miles clearly didn’t understand. “Sure…” he agreed anyway, looking at me. “What did you want to do?”
I thought this was a regular occurrence. “Haven’t you ever been to a slumber party before?”
“I forgot,” Miles replied. His good nature was returning. “What do you usually do at slumber parties?”
Interesting. Perhaps there were things that I could teach them after all. And just how sad was that?
“All right.” I pushed away my half-eaten plate of food. There was no time to waste. “It’s decided then.” I glanced around the room—ignoring their bemused expressions—until my gaze landed on Damen’s clipboard.
“Can I use that?” I pointed. “I need to make a list.”
Damen removed some papers and handed me the clipboard. Meanwhile, the others stared at him, shocked, as he responded, “Here you go.”
I hesitated, somewhat alarmed at their behavior. Something odd was going on here, and it was beginning to annoy me.
But whatever, I had a mission. I reached for the board, picked up the pen, and contemplated where to begin.
It was so much easier to make plans with lists. And considering this was our first slumber party, I didn’t want to forget anything. I had to stay organized.
Of course, there were some activities that wouldn’t work, like manicures. I didn’t have any polish with me, and unless there was some hidden somewhere here, we were out of luck. It was a shame, but there was always next time. Or we could bake cookies, but the obligatory flour party and food fight that would follow would destroy my clothing.
That was a thought… Maybe weshouldmake cookies.
