Chosen (2 page)

“Yeah, but it'd be one of her
mama's favorite recipes
.” I gave my best exaggerated Okie twang as I mimicked Stevie Rae's countrified
voice, which made me smile through my own tears, and I thought how weird it was that now that I was letting Damien see how upset I really felt—and why I felt that way—my smile actually reached my eyes.

“And the Twins and I would have been pissed because she would have insisted we all wear those pointed birthday hats with the elastic string that pinches your chin.” He shuddered in not-so-pretended horror. “God, they're so unattractive.”

I laughed and felt a little of the tightness in my chest begin to loosen. “There's just something about Stevie Rae that makes me feel good.” I didn't realize that I'd used the present tense until Damien's teary smile faltered.

“Yeah, she
was
great,” he said, with an extra emphasis on the
was
while he looked at me like he was worried about my sanity.

If only he knew the whole truth. If only I could tell him.

But I couldn't. If I did it would get either Stevie Rae or me, or both of us, killed. For good this time.

So instead I grabbed my obviously worried friend's arm and started pulling him toward the stairs that would lead us down to the public rooms of the girls' dorm and my waiting friends (and their dorky presents).

“Let's go. I'm feeling the need to open presents,” I lied enthusiastically.

“Ohmygod! I can
not
wait for you to open mine!” Damien gushed. “I shopped for it forevah!”

I smiled and nodded appropriately as Damien went on and on about his Quest for the Perfect Present. Usually he isn't so overtly gay. Not that the fabulous Damien Maslin isn't actually gay. He totally is. But he's also a tall, brown-haired, big-eyed cutie who
looks like he'd be excellent boyfriend material (which he is—if you're a boy). He's not a fluttery-acting gay kid, but get the boy talking about shopping and he definitely shows some girlish tendencies. Not that I don't like that about him. I think he looks cute when he gushes about the importance of buying really good shoes, and right then his babbling was soothing. It was helping me to get ready to face the bad presents that (sadly) waited for me.

Too bad it couldn't help me face what was really bothering me.

Still talking about his Shopping Quest, Damien led me though the main room of the dorm. I waved at the various clumps of girls clustered around the pods of flat-screen TVs as we headed to the little side room that served as a computer lab and library. Damien opened the door and my friends broke into a totally off-key chorus of “Happy Birthday to You.” I heard Nala hiss and from the edge of my vision watched her back from the doorway and trot away down the hall.
Coward,
I thought, even though I wished I could escape with her.

Song over (thankfully), my gang swarmed me.

“Happy-happy!” said the Twins together. Okay—they're not genetically twins. Erin Bates is a very white girl from Tulsa and Shaunee Cole is a lovely caramel-colored girl of Jamaican-American descent who grew up in Connecticut, but the two are so freakishly alike that skin tone and region make absolutely no difference. They're soul twins, which is way closer than mere biology.

“Happy birthday, Z,” said a deep, sexy voice I knew very, very well. I stepped out of the twin sandwich and walked into the arms of my boyfriend, Erik. Well, technically, Erik is one of my two
boyfriends, but the other is Heath, a human teenager I dated before I was Marked and I'm not supposed to be dating him now, but I kinda sorta accidentally sucked his blood and now we're Imprinted and so he's my boyfriend by default. Yes, it's confusing. Yes, it makes Erik mad. Yes, I expect him to dump me any day because of it.

“Thanks,” I murmured looking up at him and getting trapped all over again in his incredible eyes. Erik is tall and hot, with Superman dark hair and incredibly blue eyes. I relaxed in his arms, a treat I hadn't allowed myself much of during the past month, and temporarily basked in his yummy smell and the sense of security I felt when I was close to him. He met my gaze and, just like in the movies, for a second everyone else went away and it was just us. When I didn't move out of his arms his smile was slow and a little surprised, which made my heart hurt. I'd been putting the kid through way too much—and he didn't even really understand why. Impulsively, I tiptoed and kissed him, much to the general merriment of my friends.

“Hey, Erik, why don't you spread some of that birthday sugar around?” Shaunee wagged her eyebrows at my grinning boyfriend.

“Yeah, sweet thang,” Erin said, and in typical twin fashion mirrored Shaunee's eye waggle. “How about a little b-day kiss over here.”

I rolled my eyes at the twins. “Uh, it's not
his
birthday. You only get to kiss the birthday boy or girl.”

“Damn,” Shaunee said. “I lurve ya, Z, but I don't want to kiss ya.”

“Just please with the same-sex kissing,” Erin said, then she
grinned at Damien (who was gazing adoringly at Erik). “I'll leave that to Damien.”

“Huh?” Damien said, clearly paying more attention to Erik's cuteness than the Twins.

“Again, we say—” Shaunee started.

“Wrong team!” and Erin finished.

Erik laughed good-naturedly, gave Damien a very guy-like punch on the arm, and said, “Hey, if I ever decide to change teams, you'll be the first to know.” (Yet another reason why I adore him. He's mega-cool and popular, but he accepts people how they are and never gets an I'm-all-that attitude.)

“Uh, I hope I'll be the first to know if you change teams,” I said.

Erik laughed and hugged me, whispering, “Not something you ever need to worry about,” in my ear.

While I was seriously considering sneaking another Erik kiss, a mini-whirlwind in the form of Damien's boyfriend, Jack Twist, burst into the room.

“Yea! She hasn't opened her presents yet. Happy birthday, Zoey!” Jack threw his arms around us (yes, Damien and me) and gave us a big hug.

“I told you that you needed to hurry up,” Damien said, as we untangled.

“I know, but I had to make sure it was wrapped
just right,
” Jack said. With a flourish that only a gay boy can pull off, he reached into the man purse looped over his arm and lifted out a box wrapped in red foil with a green sparkly bow on it that was so big it practically swallowed the package. “I made the bow myself.”

“Jack's really good at crafts,” Erik said. “He's just not good at cleaning up the crafts.”

“Sorry,” Jack said sweetly. “I promise I'll clean up right after the party.”

Erik and Jack are roommates, further proving Erik's coolness. He's a fifth former (in normal language that's a junior) and he's also easily the most popular guy at school. Jack is a third former (a freshman), a new kid, cute but kinda dorky, and definitely gay. Erik could have made a big deal about being stuck with a queer and could have gotten out of rooming with him, and made Jack's life hell at the House of Night. Instead he totally took him under his wing and treats him like a little brother, a treatment he extends to Damien, who has been officially going out with Jack for two point five weeks as of today. (We all know because Damien is ridiculously romantic and he celebrates the half-week anniversaries as well as the weekly ones. Yes, it makes the rest of us gag. In a nice way.)

“Hello! Speaking of presents!” Shaunee said.

“Yeah, bring that overbowed box over here to the present table and let Zoey get to opening,” Erin said.

I heard Jack whisper to Damien, “Overbowed?” and caught Damien's
help
look, as he assured Jack, “No, it's perfect!”

“I'll carry it over to the table and open it first.” I snatched the package from him, hurried to the table, and started to carefully extract the ginormous green sparkly bow from the red foil saying, “I think I'm going to save this bow because it's so cool.” Damien gave me a thank-you wink. I heard Erik and Shaunee snickering and managed to kick one of them, which shut both of them up. Putting the bow aside I unwrapped and opened the little box and pulled out . . .

Oh, jeesh.

“A snow globe,” I said, trying to sound happy. “With a snowman inside it.” Okay, a snowman snow globe is
not
a birthday present. It's a Christmas decoration. A cheesy Christmas decoration at that.

“Yeah! Yeah! And listen to what it plays!” Jack said, practically hopping up and down in excitement as he took the globe from me and wound a knob in its base so that “Frosty the Snowman” started tinkling out around us in painfully cheap and off-key notes.

“Thank you, Jack. It's really pretty,” I lied.

“Glad you like it,” Jack said. “It's kinda a theme for your birthday.” Then he shot his eyes over to Erik and Damien. The three of them grinned at each other like bad little boys.

I planted a smile on my face. “Oh, well, good. Then I'd better open the next present.”

“Mine's next!” Damien handed me a long, soft box.

Smile wedged in place, I started to open the box, though I couldn't help wishing I could turn into a cat and hiss and run from the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oooh, it's beautiful!” I stroked my hand over the folded material of the scarf, thoroughly shocked that I'd actually gotten a cool gift.

“It's cashmere,” Damien said smugly.

I lifted it from the box, thrilled that it was a chic, shimmery cream color instead of the red or green birthmas presents I usually get. Then I froze, realizing I'd been thrilled too soon.

“See the snowmen embroidered on the ends?” Damien said. “Aren't they adorable?”

“Yep, adorable,” I said. Sure—
for Christmas
they're adorable. For a birthday present, uh, not so much.

“Okay, we're next,” Shaunee said, passing me a big box haphazardly wrapped in green Christmas-tree foil.

“And we didn't follow the snowman theme,” Erin said, frowning at Damien.

“Yeah, no one told us,” Shaunee frowned at Damien, too.

“That's okay!” I said a little too quickly and enthusiastically, and then tore into their package. Inside was a pair of black leather stiletto boots that would have been utterly cool and chic
and fabulous . . . had it not been for the Christmas trees, complete with red and gold ornaments, that were stitched in full color on the side of each boot. This. Can. Only. Be. Worn. At. Christmas. Which makes it definitely a lame birthmas present.

“Oh, thanks.” I tried to gush.

“They're really cute.”

“Took us forever to find them,” Erin said.

“Yeah, plain boots would not do for Ms. Born-on-the-Twenty-Fourth,” Shaunee said.

“No indeedy. Plain old black leather stiletto boots would never do,” I said, feeling like crying.

“Hey, there's another present left.”

Erik's voice pulled me out of the black hole of my birthmas-present depression. “Oh, something else?” I hoped it was only to my ears that my tone said, “Oh, yet another tragic nonpresent present?”

“Yeah, one more something else.” Almost shyly, he handed me a very small rectangular shaped box. “I really hope you like it.”

I glanced down at the box before I took it and almost squeed in happy surprise. Erik was holding a silver and gold wrapped present with a Moody's Fine Jewelry sticker plastered classily in the middle of it. (I swear I heard the “Hallelujah Chorus” crescendo somewhere in the background.)

“It's from Moody's!” I sounded breathless, but I couldn't help myself.

“I hope you like it,” Erik repeated, lifting his hand and offering the little silver and gold box like a shining treasure.

I ripped through the lovely wrapping to expose a black velvet box. Velvet. I swear. Real velvet. I bit my lip to keep from giggling, held my breath, and opened it.

The first thing I saw was the gleaming platinum chain. Speechless with happiness my eyes followed the chain down to the beautiful pearls that were nestled into the plush velvet. Velvet! Platinum! Pearls! I sucked in air so that I could begin my gushing
ohmygodthankyouErikyou'rethebestboyfriendever
when I realized that the pearls were oddly shaped. Were they defective? Had the fabulously exclusive and amazingly expensive Moody's Fine Jewelry Store ripped off my boyfriend? And then I realized what I was seeing.

The pearls were shaped into a snowman.

“Do you like it?” Erik asked. “When I saw it, it just screamed Zoey's birthday at me, and I had to get it for you.”

“Yeah. I like it. It's, uh, unique.” I managed.

“It's Erik who came up with the snowman theme!” Jack cried happily.

“Well, it wasn't really a theme,” Erik said, his cheeks getting a little pink. “I just thought it was different, not like those typical hearts and such that everyone gets.”

“Yep, hearts and such would be so ordinarily birthday-fied. Who would want that?” I said.

“Let me put it on you,” Erik said.

There was nothing else to do but pull my hair out of the way and let Erik step back to clasp the delicate chain around my throat. I could feel the snowman hanging heavy and disgustingly festive just above my cleavage.

“It's cute,” Shaunee said.

“And very expensive,” Erin said. Both Twins gave mirrored nods of approval.

“It matches my scarf perfectly,” Damien said.

“And my snow globe!” Jack added.

“It's definitely a Christmas birthday theme,” Erik said, giving the Twins a sheepish look, which they responded to with forgiving grins.

“Yes, yes, it certainly is a Christmas birthday theme,” I said, fingering the pearl snowman. Then I beamed to everyone a very bright, very painted-on smile. “Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate all the time and effort it took y'all to find such special gifts. I mean it.” And I did mean it. I may loathe the gifts, but the thoughts behind them were a totally different thing.