Roomate from Hell: chapter two by Julie Steimle (good book recommendations .TXT) 📖

/> Dawn strolled around, looking at Star’s things that had a slight acid rock bend to them and then over at Lisa’s end of the room full of sports stuff. Lisa watched my sister and then blinked at me as if she was honestly surprised that I would have a Goth girl for a sister.

“You two are so different.”

Dawn turned with a smile. “Thanks.”

I rolled my eyes then walked to the closet to get my dress.

“So, you’re going to come clubbing with us?” Lisa asked my sister.

The dress wasn’t hung up or anything. I had brought it because I figured there could probably be something like homecoming I’d want a dress for, but it was too skimpy for something to wear on a regular basis.

“Been counting on it,” Dawn replied.

The shoes were also buried. I had to dig them out from the back of the top shelf. I took them down then turned.

“Good,” Lisa said, casting me a glance. “Maybe you can loosen her up for us.”

Dawn laughed. “Eve? Oh, good luck on that. Back home they call her goody-goody Eve.”

Lisa turned with a look at me. “I thought you said they called you a monster.”

“You told her that?” Dawn huffed, making a face as if I had betrayed her.

With a cringe, I set the shoes down on the study desk I would be using and started to undress right there. “They’re my roommates. It’s not like I could hide stuff from them.”

Dawn kicked the back of my knee making me collapse forward. “How much did you tell them?”

I braced against the desk, casting a glare back at her as I tried to get my shirt off again. “Don’t get paranoid. I showed them my eyes and the sunscreen. Jeeze.”

I heard Dawn groan though I could tell from her imps that she was relieved. Their wicked propositions were milder as if they were being curbed from suggesting mean punishments. I heard Dawn say to Lisa, “Yeah, they called her monster too. But don’t you believe it. Eve wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

It was best not to contradict her though I knew I was capable of hurting flies, mosquitoes, and the occasional cockroach, besides people who really irritated me, including witches and demons. But what she really meant by it was the truth, that my roommates were safer with me than with most people in the world.

“Does she really surf?” Lisa asked. “Or is that board just for show?”

Dawn broke into a more sincere laugh, starting to change her clothes also.

“Oh, Eve surfs. She’s way big on it.” Then Dawn cast me a mischievous look and added, “She also was our school majorette three years in a row. She can twirl three flaming batons at the same time, and she was on our flag team along with the Celtic dance group.”

“Our,” I emphasized, zipping up the back of my dress. I then took Dawn’s tank top from her hand and dropped it onto my bed. “Lisa, don’t let Dawn fool you. She’s just as into flags and more into dancing than I am. In fact, I still think she ought to go into dance as her major. She’s really good at it.”

Dawn blushed, turning as she zipped up her dress back. “Eh! Eve! No fair! That was a secret!”

“From whom? Mom?” I gave a laugh. “Don’t worry. Mom’s not around to overhear.”

As Lisa watched us bicker, her grin spread across her face. It was exactly the effect I wanted. I needed someone to see that Dawn and I were normal girls. I needed someone to see that I was a normal girl.

“I’m still undecided,” Dawn said again, though it was new for Lisa. Dawn then stuck her head up and shook out her hair as if to toss off the argument as a memory.

Star came in after that, and all of us finished getting ready to go to the club.

As the four of us hurried out of the dorms to the parking lot that evening I felt Star poke me on the back.

“You little pretender.” She broke into a giggle, jingling her car keys. “You have a tattoo.”

I glanced over my shoulder and smirked. “Oh that’s not a—”

But Dawn slapped a hand over my mouth, grinning broadly. “Cool, huh? The both of us were going to get them, but our parents caught us before I could get mine. They’ve had a sharp eye on me ever since.”

Star laughed with a nod, leading the way. “That’s like my dad. I’m an army brat, so I’m sure you know how strict our house was. When I got my tattoo, he went ballistic.”

I glanced over to where she was pointing, Dawn with me. The butterfly wasn’t much to balk at. My dad certainly had given a glance at it when he has met my roommates and shook his head. But in all honestly I’m not so sure he would have freaked if Dawn had gotten a tattoo. I think he had always expected her to get one out of rebellion.

“So, you’re both into creepy stuff,” Star said grinning at Dawn whom she had hit it off with a little too well.

Dawn merely laughed though I shook my head.

“No, her tattoo was meant as prank,” Dawn said at last. She poked my back also. “I made the tattoo artist put that one on, and Dad said she had to keep it to remember never to get a tattoo again. Eve hates creepy.”

It was all a lie, of course. They were birthmarks where my real wings came out. I knew Dawn was making all that stuff up to deflect their suspicions to more earthly reasons. Star merely gave me a look as if she did not believe Dawn any more than she did that I was as innocent as I first came across.

Star unlocked the car door and then pressed the power locks off to let the rest of us in. She and Lisa climbed into the front seat, Dawn and I in the back, and with the engine on, us going in reverse, we were on our way out for our first taste of college night life.


Ok, the nightclub. How can I put it?

I’ve had more fun flying in the sky at night with the bats and owls than I had in that crowded, drunk-filled, smoky room, music blaring in my ear. Yeah, Dawn and I danced like crazy. And yeah, a lot of hot looking guys hit on us. But it was trial trying to keep Dawn from sneaking sips of beer from the other girls’ bottles and glasses, and the shouts of imps all around me made the music sound off-kilter. I just couldn’t enjoy it.

Star and Lisa were plastered near halfway through, and even Dawn had gotten drunk enough for me to want to slap her. I was tired, glad in a way that I didn’t like the smell of alcohol to even be tempted to try it though several guys there offered to buy me a drink.

I rested my feet after a lot of dancing, shoes off, as Lisa made out with some guy in a corner and Star danced like a maniac with one of the guys from our college. Dawn konked out with her head on the table. I was trying to ignore the impish suggestions irrelevant to my sister and me, hoping both my roommates would get tired soon.

“A drink for the pretty lady?” I heard said behind me.

I looked up to see the source, feeling a certain oldness and experience to the voice that I had not heard in a long time. Before me was a man, youngish, yet still much older than I was—perhaps in his thirties. He had a serene smile, closed lipped, with a strong yet somewhat boyish chin. But his eyes were recognizably intense in that way that said he witnessed centuries of time.

“I’m underage,” I replied, watching him sit down at my table where Dawn started to quietly snore. He set his glass and the one he was offering me on the table.

His smile spread somewhat. He lifted his chin, hardly looking at Dawn as he said to me, “Are you really?”

I nodded. “It is my first time clubbing. And with the way it has turned out, it may be my last.”

“Ah, that’s a shame,” he said. I watched him lift his glass to his lips, take a sip, then set it down again. “You dance very well, and you are astonishingly beautiful. I was hoping to see you around the night scene more often.”

Normally I didn’t blush, but the effect of his words was titillating, and worse, familiarly so. I peered at his face and made a guess, nodding to myself. He had no imps. I had to be careful with this one.

“I’m just here to keep my sister out of trouble,” I said, giving the glass of beer he was offering me a nudge away. “Places like these draw in dangerous folk, those that prey on the innocent.”

He started to laugh. It was a mild laugh, yet in it I could tell his amusement was more in that I was resisting him extremely well.

“I see,” he said. “Though that girl doesn’t exude innocence as much as you do.”

I scratched the side of my forehead, smirking. “No. But she is a great deal more innocent than I am. Appearances can be deceiving.”

The man leaned closer as if to test that, whispering. “Really? You sitting here guarding her only makes you look—”

“I know how it makes me look,” I said, clenching my teeth. He had set his hand on mine as if to lead me off, his blue-eyed gaze peering into mine to draw me in. “But I am the older sister. I promised my parents I would watch out for her.”

“I’m not interested in her,” he said, his fingers now gently closing around mine to lead me from that room.

But I didn’t move. In fact, I jerked my hand from his and rose, leaning towards his ear with a hiss. “You can’t have either of us.”

He lifted his face with surprise, staring at me with a suddenly inquisitive look. Straightening up, he said to me as frankly as one would to another, “You aren’t interested at all? Not even the slightest bit?”

I shook my head, deciding to be equally frank. “No. I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone part of the Order of Blood.”

The man hopped to his feet. He took a step back from me. “Are you from the SRA ?”

I shook my head again, not taking my eyes off of him. “No.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Then how do you know about the Order of Blood? Are you a hunter?”

Moving so that I was between Dawn and him, I shook my head once more. “No. I’m no hunter. I’m just a girl trying to go to school.”

But I could tell he did not believe I was just a girl. I was not convincing enough, and how could I be? Only a few people knew about the Order of Blood—the vampiric order my birthfather was from.

He walked back,