“Oh, hi Amanda.” Melli looked up, giving her a weak smile. “It’s, uh, nice to see you again. We’re just shopping.”
“You’ve been shopping, all right. Is all this for you?” Amanda eyed the huge pile of food disapprovingly. “There’s an awful lot of empty carbs here, Melli. Don’t you think you ought to be cutting back, rather than beefing up?”
Melli felt her whole face get hot. It was just like high school again, when Amanda and the popular crowd would come by her table at lunch and criticize whatever she happened to be eating.
Melli had almost developed an eating disorder because of them. Until after the Junior Prom, that was—after that she’d lost her appetite for nearly a year and the weight had come off. Now, in college, she’d started to work past some issues and the pounds had come back. Not all of them, but she wasn’t quite as thin as she’d been at graduation, she had to admit.
“It’s not all for me,” she said quickly. “I would never, uh, eat all this stuff. We’re just trying some new things—that’s all.”
“I see. But who is ‘we’?” Amanda eyed Liosh with open and undisguised admiration.
“Oh, sorry—this is Liosh,” Melli said. “Liosh, this is Amanda Brannigan.”
“Well, Liosh—nice to meet you.” Amanda stuck out a hand with perfectly manicured nails.
The big Kindred took the offered hand with a notable lack of enthusiasm, shook it exactly once, and let go.
“It’s agreeable to meet you,” he said, not quite sounding like he meant it.
But Amanda Brannigan wasn’t put off in the least. She was used to wrapping any guy she wanted around her little finger and it was clear she considered Liosh prime meat.
“Well it’s agreeable to meet you, too,” she purred, sliding one hand over his thick bicep appreciatively. “My, you’re a big boy, aren’t you? Are you Melli’s tutor or something? She always was hopeless in school. Why, she nearly failed our junior year!” She laughed nastily and rolled her eyes as though Melli was some kind of an idiot.
Melli felt her stomach clench miserably. There was a damn good reason she’d nearly failed her junior year of high school—a damn good reason she hadn’t been able to think or study or concentrate on anything but the awful turmoil churning inside her.
“No, Liosh isn’t my tutor,” she said woodenly, wishing Amanda would just go away. “He’s my, uh…”
She paused for a moment—what could she call Liosh? She couldn’t admit he was her Kindred guard because then she would have to tell why she needed a guard in the first place.
Amanda loved gossip—the more salacious the better and she would spread it everywhere. Melli might as well post a video to the school YouTube channel explaining how the Earth was under the threat of alien invasion and she, Melinda Erickson, was being targeted specifically so she had to have a Kindred warrior to protect her.
“I’m her boyfriend,” Liosh said, unexpectedly. He put an arm around Melli, as though to prove the point, and Melli happily snuggled close. Just being near the big Kindred made her feel instantly better. He smelled so good—that warm fresh scent of his was both comforting and encouraging somehow.
“You’re Melli’s boyfriend?” The disbelief was clear in Amanda’s voice and the set of her sharp brown eyes. “But I mean…what is someone like you doing with someone like Melli-the-belly?”
“If you’re referring to my female’s luscious curves, then please use a less derogatory tone or I’ll be forced to think you’re insulting her.” Liosh’s voice had dropped to a growl and his pale blue eyes were ice cold as he stared at Amanda. “And as for what I am doing with her, I am with Melinda because she is beautiful—both inside and out—agreeable to be with, humorous, intelligent, and kind to others. Which is unfortunately an attribute some females seem to lack.”
“Well…” Amanda’s big brown eyes widened—she didn’t seem to know what to say to this. “You…you must not have known her for long,” she came up with, at last.
Liosh only looked pointedly at Amanda’s perfectly manicured fingers, still splayed possessively on his shoulder.
“Would you mind removing your hand? I am exclusively with Melinda and I do not desire the touch of any other female.”
At last Amanda seemed to take his not-so-subtle hint. Her brown eyes narrowed and she snatched her hand away as though she’d been burned.
“I hope you enjoy your lunch, Melli,” she spat, glaring at her. “You might as well pack on a few more pounds since your new boyfriend seems to be a chubby chaser!”
Then she flounced off, her bouncy auburn hair waving like an angry flag with every step.
Melli watched her go with feelings of mingled triumph and shame. It was nice that Liosh had put the awful Amanda in her place, but it sucked that he’d had to hear all the terrible things the other girl had to say about her. Melli felt fat and ugly and adolescent all over again—she just wanted to crawl into her shell and hide.