*****
Tanya brushed out my short hair, and then she curled it and pinned it all up at the back, leaving a few strands free to frame my face. When she was done, I looked in the mirror and saw a stunning look that belonged to elegant people attending fancy dinner parties with famous people, not a birthday party with friends.
Tanya hugged me around the shoulders. “Well, you’re all ready to stun the guys at your party. Are you gonna tell me what upset you earlier, or do I have to sit here and drag it out of you?”
I sighed. “I had an argument with one of the girls in the bathroom.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t even know her name. She’s got really long, natural red hair and–”
“Brittney. She’s a nymph. They generally tend to avoid confrontation, but those girls are raised in isolated communities. Brittney’s too much like a spoiled American brat, and she likes to start fights, especially over boys.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, I get it now. You two had a fight over Finn, didn’t you?”
I shrugged and lowered my eyes. “It wasn’t really a fight. It was pretty one-sided to be called that. She bitched and I listened.”
“What did she bitch about?”
“You know how Finn kissed my forehead after I woke up?” She nodded eagerly. She’d taken every instance to mention it that she could, and I was getting tired of hearing about it. “Well, apparently it didn’t mean anything to him, because she was bragging to me about how they had sex earlier today. She called it an hour long workout and she told me that Finn would never be mine, because I’m not his type. He goes for beautiful girls.”
“You’re beautiful,” she said, forcing me to look in the mirror. “Look at that girl. You’re a knockout, and you’ll wow Finn tonight. He’ll be so amazed at how beautiful you look, he won’t even remember Brittney’s name, let alone choose her over you.”
I pulled away from Tanya. “Maybe I don’t want Finn. I don’t want a guy that I have to worry about constantly. I just don’t. Even if he and I did develop real feelings for each other, there’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t cheat on me with someone like Brittney.”
“If you two develop real feelings for each other?” Tanya laughed, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Oh, honey, you both have got it bad for each other. And anyone can see that. Ezra, Holly, and I talk about it all the time. We all agree that there’s something between the two of you. I know he doesn’t show it, but he cares about you, Ronnie. Maybe more than he’s cared about a girl ever before.”
“If he cared about me, he wouldn’t go from kissing me to jumping into bed with Brittney,” I said, scowling at the thought of her and her obvious and stunning beauty. My kind of beauty only seemed to come out with lots of help from people like Tanya, who had expensive clothes and plenty of practice at being girly. “If he cared about me, he would sit me down and tell me, instead of sleeping with everything that has a pulse. It’s disgusting. He’s probably disease ridden and–”
“Werewolves don’t get diseases like that,” Tanya said, interrupting me. “They can smell any infectious diseases that a person might have, and they avoid those people. Generally. Finn is gross, but he’s at least smart about it. You don’t have to worry about getting herpes or something equally gross.”
I snorted. “There is no way someone like Brittney doesn’t have something. There’s just no way. I knew girls like her at school. Girls that slept with guys because they were either bored, or they wanted to be liked, and they either end up pregnant or infected.”
Tanya raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got a pretty uptight view on sex, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “I guess. I just don’t see the need for people our age to be having sex with so many people. There are better things to do with your time, like studying or working. I mean, you can’t tell me that a fourteen year old girl is going to be with her boyfriend forever. If she was smart, she’d wait until she was older, when it would mean more, and be with someone she’d wanna remember for the rest of her life. I guess my views on sex are outdated now though.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that. I agree with what you just said, but I think that’s because I’m not a normal girl. Most supernaturals find one person to be with forever, or at least a very long time. We’ll spend a hundred years with the same person. It’s hard, and a lot of times it doesn’t work out, but that’s just the way we are. Love is different to us than to others. That’s why you think the way you do. Even if you didn’t know it until recently, you’ve been a supernatural being all your life.”
“So what you’re saying is that I think like a sixty year old woman because I’m a necromancer.”
She laughed. “You don’t think like you’re sixty. You just have more morals than the people you used to know. Now, let’s head on down to the cafeteria, where everyone will be waiting for you.”