Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 60

Morning classes went pretty well, and I spent my breaks hanging at the coffee bar at the University centre, where Eve barista'd her way through the day. Eve was good at it calm, efficient, seemingly impervious to the prissy demands and bitchiness of a lot of students.

I had figured out the rude ones are mostly protected, so it was a class thing; Eve had elected not to sign up with a vampire for protection, and those who had looked down on her.

Or else they were just bitchy. Which was equally possible. People didn't have to have a vampire connection to be arrogant jerks.

Eve was working today with another girl, somebody I didn't know; she had long, straight brown hair that shimmered like a curtain when she moved. She wore it loose around her shoulders, which I guess was okay because she wasn't working directly with the drinks or anything, just taking orders in cash. The nametag said Amy, and she looked cheerful and sweet. She and Eve were talking like friends, which was good; Eve needed that. I killed time between courses by skimming through my English lit and reading a book I checked out from the library on advanced string theory. I like the whole idea of vibrating strings being the basis of everything, but there are all kinds of services that vibrated. It made the world more exciting. Always in motion,

My watch beeped to let me know I was going to be late for class if I didn't hurry, so I packed up waved to Amy and Eve and jogged out of the UC and into the warm afternoon sunshine.

As I was blinking in the glare, I ran into monica. Literally, as Monica was coming up the steps that I was going down. I automatically reached out to steady the other girl when she waivered, and then thought, what am I doing? Because Monica had once laughed as I tumbled down the stairs and cracked my head halfway open.

"Hey, watch it, bitch!" Monica snapped, and then did a double take. "Ana? Oh, hi. Cute shirt!"

I look down at myself, mystified. It wasn't. I didn't really own any clothes I classified as cute, and even the best of them would never match Monica's standards which were much higher.

"You on your way to class?" Monica continued too brightly. "Too bad, I'd buy you a Mocha or something"

"I uh, yeah...I've got class" I edged around and tried to descend the steps, then Monica got in my way. Monica's smile was friendly, but it didn't really warm up her big, pretty eyes. "I'll be late"

"One thing" Monica said, and lowered her voice. It occurred to me that this was almost the first time I'd seen Monica alone, not flanked by Gina and Jennifer, not trailing an entourage of the popular. "I'm having a party on Friday night. Can you come? It's at my parents house. Here's the address" before I could react, Monica pressed a slip of paper into my hand. "Keep it quiet, all right? I'm asking only the best people. Oh, and wear something nice; it's formal"

And then Monica was gone, breezing by me up the steps, where she fell in with a group of girls and went into the UC's glass atrium, chatting and laughing.

The best people? I eyed the slip of paper, thought about throwing it away, and then shoved it into my pocket.

Maybe this was a golden opportunity to convince Monica that I wasn't ever going to be anything like a friend.

I headed out for class, moving quickly, but keeping my eyes peeled. When I spotted the guys I was looking for, I veered off the sidewalk and onto the grass.

Gamers, nerds, they sat around outside most the afternoon moving counters around on complicated looking boards and rolling dice. I've seen them every day for weeks and in all that time I've never seen any kind of girl with them, or even approach them. In fact, when I cleared my throat they stared at me as if they thought I was an alien.