Page 165 of The Last Vampire
“I’m going to class,” says Trevor, and I get the impression he’s eager to get away from us. As if we’ve let him down.
After he’s gone, Salma and I don’t move. It feels like we have unfinished business. “Where’s William?” she asks. “And who was that woman?”
I don’t answer her because something else is bothering me. “Why did Tiffany call you a liar?”
“Because I backed up your lie.”
“You didn’t lie. You chose your words carefully.”
“Are you not going to answer me?” asks Salma, rolling back the sleeves of her blazer like she’s getting frustrated, and I glimpse an ugly bruise on her non-cast arm.
“What isthat?” I ask, reaching for her hand to take a closer look—
“I’m serious!” She crosses her arms. “Tell me what happened!”
“Only if you tell me what the fuck is going on with you.”
“You first.”
I roll my eyes. “That woman is another vampire, and she came to inform William that the vampires know where he is, and they’re coming for him in two days.” With every word, my best friend’s face grows more horrified.
“To theschool?” she asks, breathless.
“They won’t make it here,” I assure her. “William and Fabiana have a plan to intercept them. He’s going to do whatever they want in exchange for our protection, which means that he’s leaving soon. It’s done.Your turn.”
My eyes burn, but I don’t have the luxury of crying. We still have a whole day of classes.
Salma’s shoulders sag like she’s overcome with exhaustion, and she leans against the wall as she slides down to the cold floor. I join her there, folding my knees into my chest while I wait for her to explain what’s going on.
“You remember that time when we were nine, and our families went on that ski trip to Boulder?” she asks after a long while, and there’s a raw quality to her voice that makes her sound younger.
It fucking terrifies me.
“I remember you convincing me to sneak up to the hotel rooftop in the middle of the night to see if we could see stars,” I say. I can still picture the twinkling lights poking through velvety black space, like tiny glittering eyes watching us from across the solar system.
“You remember how I got so sick after that trip that I missed the rest of third grade? That’s when you became friends with Aurora.”
I nod and glance again at the purplish bruises on her skin, afraid of where she’s going with this.
“I’m not coming back to school after winter vacation,” she says.
“Because of thevampires—?”
“The doctors ran some tests over break.”
Seven words. And they’re worse than anything Fabiana said.
“I have it,” she says, tears welling in her eyes. “What Mom had. And it’s very advanced.”
No no no no no.
I can accept that vampires are real and that William has to live among them. But losing Salma? This can’t be real life.
“My doctor didn’t want me coming back to school at all. He wanted me to start on a treatment plan, but you saw what that did to Ma. It crushed her faster than the disease. I won’t spend my last months with machines and needles and tubes and all that shit.”
It feels like it consumes all my energy just to summon my voice.
“Then… what?”
