Flutter (My Blood Approves 3)
- 16 -
“I was gonna get something to eat,” Bobby said, zipping up his hoodie. He didn’t do it all the way to the top, but from what I could tell about his penchant for low V-neck shirts, he was a big fan of showing off his chest tattoos.
Not that I blamed him really. Bobby was actually very attractive. If I was still human and didn’t have Jack and didn’t know that he was shagging my brother, I’d probably think he was hot.
“I wasn’t, but that’s probably better for you.” I was kind of joking, but I was also trying to sound kinda threatening. Just as a reminder that if he hurt my brother, I could totally kill him.
“Right.” He gave a small laugh and went downstairs. I went with him, because really, I had nothing better to do. “So… do you ever miss food?”
“Not really,” I shrugged, following him into the kitchen. “It’s hard to explain. I remember the way food tasted, and I kinda crave it. But when I think about eating it, I feel nauseous. Besides that, blood tastes a million times better than any food ever could.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Bobby crinkled his nose at the thought of drinking blood, which I found distasteful. I knew he let Milo drink his blood, and he enjoyed it. It seemed kind of hypocritical.
“Whatever.” I pulled a stool up to the kitchen island and sat down while he rummaged around in the fridge.
“I’ve always been partial to a bagel with cream cheese.” He got said foods out of the fridge and popped the bagel in a toaster. “I don’t think I could ever give it up, so I guess being a vampire is out for me.”
He was trying to make a joke, I’m sure, but it sounded like a stupid thing to be a deal breaker for immortality, especially considering that eternity would be with Milo.
Bobby leaned against the counter, waiting for the bagel to pop up, and an uncomfortable silence settled over us. I was thinking my day would be much better spent watching the newest season of Dexter on DVD in Jack’s room. I had been slowly working my way through the whole series since Jack constantly raved about it.
“So… you don’t really like me,” Bobby said after his bagel popped up. He spread cream cheese thick all over it and didn’t look at me. “I don’t blame you.”
“Why? Low self-esteem?” I said flippantly.
“Kinda, but that’s not what I meant.” He took a big bite of his bagel and turned to face me. He swallowed it before continuing. “I get it. Milo is your little brother, and he’s pretty young and inexperienced. And I’m older, and I do kinda have that bad boy vibe, even though I am clearly not a bad boy.”
With the tattoos and dark features, Bobby did have a rebel without a cause thing going on, but after the way I had seen him cowering around Milo in the club last night, I could say with complete certainty that Bobby was not a bad boy in any real sense of the word.
“Those things are true,” I said carefully.
“And I am human, which is dangerous in a way for vampires,” Bobby said. “I mean, he’s stronger and more powerful than I am, but I complicate things for him in a lot of different ways, and I know that.”
“If you know that then why are you with him?” I asked, not unkindly.
“That’s a good question.” It was such a good question that he had to finish the entire bagel so he could think it over. Finally, he swallowed the last bite and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “I don’t want to tell you.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” I warned him icily.
“No, it’s not…” He shook his head. “You’ll think I’m just under the spell, that one that vampires put humans under, and it’s not that.” He paused a second. “It sounds cheesy and like an easy excuse and everything… but we’re in love.”
“He’s sixteen! What does he know about love?” I don’t know why that was my go-to argument, and it was Bobby’s turn to think that I was hypocrite. “Okay, yeah, I get that I’m not much older than Milo, but…”
“You understand where we’re coming from,” Bobby said with a wry smile, and I shook my head, unwilling to admit defeat. “The situation is difficult, but the heart wants what it wants.”
“What a stupid thing to say,” I scoffed. “My stomach wants what it wants, too, but you don’t see me ripping out your throat to get it, Bobby.” He shrugged, unfazed by my veiled threat, and I wasn’t sure if it made me hate Bobby more or less. “What is that about?”
“What?”
“You’re like twenty-one, and people call you Bobby. Isn’t that a little boy name?” I wrinkled my nose, and he laughed.
“People called Robert Kennedy ‘Bobby’ his entire life.”
“And look at how well that turned out for him,” I countered, referring to his untimely assassination.
“Maybe. But my name actually is ‘Bobby,’ not ‘Robert’ or ‘Bob’ or anything,” he shrugged. “So it’s just what I go by, since it is legally my name.”
“Was your mother like a hippie or something?” I asked.
“Something like that.”
“Okay, so fine, you and my brother are crazy in love,” I said, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth just playing devil’s advocate. “Let’s say that I buy that. How did you two meet? And how did you come to know our particular lifestyle?”
Lifestyle wasn’t exactly the right word, because it implied that there was a choice in this. I had chosen to become a vampire, but I could never choose not to be one, not unless I died. Even then, I’d just be a dead vampire.
“Um… well…” Bobby fidgeted with the zipper on his hoodie. “I used to frequent the gay clubs, especially right after I turned 18. I wasn’t a slut, exactly, but I wasn’t… not a slut, either.
“One of the gentlemen pursuing me turned out to be a vampire. We ‘dated’ for awhile, but I’m using the term loosely. We’d just fool around, and he’d bite me. But it took some time before I figured out what was going on. I mean, even after I realized that he was physically biting me, it was still a hard concept to buy that he was a vampire.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said. The supernatural could be a very hard pill to swallow. Sometimes, I still found it hard to believe in vampires, and I was one.