“What?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
He frowned at me. “Don’t you remember this morning when Abel told you you could sleep over at our place?”
Actually, I had forgotten all about it. Abel had claimed there was plenty of room and no one would mind my staying there. I didn’t think I wanted to spend the night at Tyson’s house. I wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping over there.
“Your Uncle-” I started.
“No, no, no.” He held up his hands, his palms pressed out towards me as if to ward off my words. “Uncle Quint won’t care if you sleep over. In fact, when he finds out you’re going to be in your house all by yourself til God knows when he’ll insist on you staying with us. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him to call Mr. Cole and tell him you can stay with us. Quint is utterly ruthless and he will do whatever he feels necessary to get what he wants. You shouldn’t waste your breath arguing, you should just pack and come over.”
“I don’t get it,” I told him honestly. “He doesn’t even know me. Why would he care if I was all alone? And, let’s be honest here, I never actually came out and said I didn’t want to be alone. It was you who said it. Not me.”
He gave me a look that this deserved. Alright, so we both knew I didn’t want to be alone. Didn’t mean I’d be admitting it out loud any time soon.
“Quint cares about you, we all do. I told you, he’s protective of you.”
Yeah, I didn’t understand this either.
“Why?” I asked bluntly.
“Because you’re you.”
Oookay.
“Try again,” I told him. “And this time give me a real answer. One that’s not full of bullshit.”
He sighed loudly. “Go home and pack a bag, Ariel. Then come to my house. We’ll get you settled in and I’ll try to explain everything to you.”
“Everything?” I asked. What all did he think needed to be explained?
“Everything,” He agreed.
I wanted to know what everything meant. I needed to learn how to quit while I was ahead. Here he was agreeing to give me more than I was asking for and still I wanted to push it.
“Alright, alright,” I grumbled. “I’ll pack a bag.” I hoped I wouldn’t end up regretting this decision later.
He grinned at me, not a full, blinding smile, but it was definitely still nice to look at.
I asked a question I was really curious about. “Are the rest of them going to be there?”
“You mean the one’s from last night?” He asked. When I nodded, he continued. “I never know. Those three don’t tell me shit and they do whatever Quint tells them to do. But if they do show up and you don’t want to be around them we can stick to my room or the twins room.”
I studied his serious face and I had more questions than I had a minute before.
“Go pack, sweetheart.” He nudged me on the shoulder. “Then head on over to my place.”
He could be very bossy at times, I was learning. I was also learning that I didn’t entirely mind. I could see it getting on my nerves eventually, but for now I’d let it slide.
“Fine, fine,” I grumbled as I opened the car door and climbed out. I hauled my backpack up off the floor and slung it over my shoulder. I heard his car door shut quietly as I walked away.
The stupid alarm beep, beep, beeped at me from its place on the wall as I locked the dead bolt. I punched in the code then rearmed the damn thing.
I dragged my backpack up the stairs behind me. There wasn’t anything breakable in there. I couldn’t remember if I had learned anything in my classes before lunch but if I had I couldn’t remember. Did I have homework? Did I care?
Could I really spend the night at Tyson’s house? Would he expect me to sleep in his bed with him? Last night had been the first time I had ever slept beside a boy before. I realized I wanted to do it again.
But I couldn’t think on that at the moment, I had more important things to worry about. Like potentially coughing up blood. Magic and being claimed (whatever the fuck that meant). Waking up with my girl bits pressed up tight against Tyson. Wanting him to put his tongue in my mouth. And, worse, wanting a few other people to maybe put their tongues in my mouth, too. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder, would the twins still be built exactly the same if you took all their clothes off?
And on top of all the crazy inside my head I still needed to pack a bag. Did I have cute pajamas to sleep in? This was a bad idea.