Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel Page B

one on the left.
    “You coming?” Tony called. “Assembly will start without us.”
    No, I decided. I most definitely did not want his blood.
    I stood and jogged to catch up. When I reached Tony’s side, he smiled at me and we continued up the path. Tony’s breezy attitude made it easy for me to hide my vampire instincts. He didn’t seem to mind when I acted strangely. I ran my tongue over my front teeth before speaking. I had to make sure…
    “Are you from Lovers Bay originally?” I asked, trying to distract myself from what just happened.
    “Yep.” Tony sighed. “My parents live right on the border of Lovers Bay, in the really, um, interesting part of town.”
    “Interesting?” I asked.
    “Let me put it to you this way: You’d be scared just looking down the street.”
    I smirked. Right…
    “So how’d you score a professor’s dorm residence?” Tony asked. “Everyone else has to live in regular dorm rooms.”
    “My dad rented it for the two years I’ll be going to school here,” I explained.
    “Wow,” Tony said, raising his eyebrows. He navigated through the pathways toward Hopper building. As we walked the twists and turns of the walkways, I glanced at Tony’s face. He held his jaw loosely but smiled in a happy, relaxed way. Tony’s disposition was gentle, and I could feel his energy. Vampires can feel human energy and pick up on the emotional intentions of those around them. Tony had never in his life hurt someone as I had, nor had he felt unrelenting fear. I wanted to protect him in any way that I could and before I knew what was happening, my hand was reaching for his. I dropped it back at my side and pretended like nothing happened. Luckily, he didn’t notice.
    Outside dorms, in walkways, and on the lawns, more students flung themselves at one another, crying in happiness and taking pictures of one another on cell phones.
    Tony held out his arm toward me. He used his index finger to pretend he was snapping a photo.
    “Oh, my God!” he cried, and grasped his hand to his heart. “I have to take your picture because, like, I haven’t seen you in five minutes. Pose!”
    I placed my right hand on my hip and smiled genuinely. Tony dropped his arms by his side, and his face fell. “You can pose better than that!”
    “How should I pose?” I asked, not sure which kind of pose was acceptable in this century.
    “Forget it, Lenah,” he said, laughing.
    Tony grabbed my hand and led me back toward the path. I let him pull me, and I smiled at his fingers grasped around mine. But his fingers had no age. Black smudges of paint dotted his hands and fingers. They were soft, without wear, and I realized that Rhode was the last person to hold me that way. I let go of Tony’s hand.
    “I was in Switzerland for two months!” a younger girl shrieked next to us while grasping her friend in a tight hug. “And your hair is so blond!”
    Tony looked at me from the corner of his eye and then stifled a laugh.
    My extrasensory perception was a bit like a radio signal; it kept picking up the emotional reads from the people around me. There were so many: excitement, longing, shame, anxiety—I could list a whole host of emotions.
    The walkway we were on snaked in front of Quartz dorm. I couldn’t help but peek at Justin’s window. It was dark, though the window was open and a coffee mug sat on the windowsill.
    As I kept stride with Tony, I obsessed over the students interacting with one another. If I was supposed to be one of them, I had to act as one of them. They wore bejeweled rings, expensive silver or gold watches, and accessories of every kind. A lot of the girls held their hair back with elaborate tortoiseshell clips. Perhaps I could find some for me in the clothing stores. I almost forgot Tony’s promise to teach me how to drive. With the introduction of my new job and my fascination with how-to manuals, I hadn’t taken Tony up on his promise.
    “I got a job,” I said while we waited in the line