My Blood Approves (3 page)

“
That’s very unlike her to
end a night without vodka or sex,” he commented.

“
Life is full of
surprises.” I had eaten all my cereal, so I drank the rainbowed
milk from the bowl and hoped that Milo would let the subject drop.
“What are you up to today?”

“
This,” he shrugged.
“You?”

“
Same.” I
set my bowl down on the coffee table and settled back on the couch.
“There’s a movie about a sex addict on
Lifetime
. Care to
watch?”

“
Sure.” He got up from the
kitchen chair that sat in front of the computer desk and planted
himself at the end of the couch.

I stretched out, resting my battered feet on
his lap. He started to say something about the state of them, but
then answered his own question by simply saying Jane. We both
agreed that she was the source of all my life’s problems.

We spent the rest of the
afternoon camped out on the couch watching a
Lifetime
movie marathon. Mom got up,
showered, and left for work early, citing overtime, but I was never
sure if I believed that or not.

Sometimes, I think she just didn’t like
being in the apartment. At this point, it had become more like Milo
and I lived on our own. We even did all the grocery shopping,
cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. (By “we,” I mostly mean him. But I
did help. Sometimes.)

Around nine, I finally decided that I ought
to shower. When I went into my room to gather my clothes, I noticed
my cell phone flashing on the table. I had ignored it all day
because I had wanted to ignore Jane, but I knew that eventually I’d
have to deal with her.

Much to my surprise, buried underneath the
mass of texts from her, I found a text message from Jack.

Motion City Soundtrack tomorrow. First Ave.
Seven o’clock. I’m buying. You in?

He’d been paying attention last night when I
just casually mentioned liking the band Motion City Soundtrack, and
he’d invited me to a concert. First Ave. was a rather historic
little venue downtown, not far off from where he found us.

I knew that if Milo heard about it, his
paranoia would kick in, and he'd do everything but forbid me from
going. Despite that, I couldn’t feel that way. Sure, Jack was too
old for me, but we weren’t dating, and I didn’t really feel like
that would become an issue.

I sighed, then quickly
responded with,
That’s too much $. I
already owe you too much.

Oh be quiet. Money doesn’t
matter. Are you in or not?
Jack replied
within seconds.

Yeah. But don’t get in the
habit of buying me things.
I messaged him
back.

Don’t get in the habit of protesting when I
buy you things. ;)

Funny
. I replied, hoping it sounded as droll as I wanted it
to.

I’ll pick you up at
six-thirty. Sound good?
That was cutting
it awfully close to the time the show started, but he was inviting
me, so I’d play by his rules.

Yeah. See you then. :)

I decided instantly that I couldn’t tell
Jane about this. If hanging out with Jack became a regular thing, I
knew I’d have to tell her. And Milo.

But for now, I thought it’d be best if I
kept it to myself. I couldn’t keep anyone’s secrets, not even my
own, so I couldn’t really explain what compelled me to keep this to
myself.

I spent the next twenty-four hours avoiding
Jane and hedging Milo’s questions. He had a sixth sense when
something was up with me, and it was nearly impossible to keep
anything hidden from him.

When I was getting ready to go out, he knew
there was a guy involved. I don’t know how. All I had put on was a
slim-fitting hoodie and a pair of jeans, so I don’t understand what
that would give away.

Every time I left Milo home alone at night,
I felt terrible. Sure, he was fifteen, and we’d spent most of our
lives alone, but it still never felt right to me.

He didn’t really want me
to go because he didn’t know what I was up to, but he assured me
that he’d be fine playing
World of
Warcraft
on the computer and he’d barely
even notice I was gone.

Jack arrived promptly at six-thirty, washing
away any feelings of guilt or trepidation. As soon as I saw him, I
just felt at ease and vaguely contented.

“
Hey,” Jack smiled broadly
when I hopped into his car.

“
Thanks,” I said. “For all
this.”

“
All what?” Jack looked
confused as we pulled away from my building, speeding towards First
Ave.

“
The ride, the tickets,
saving my life,” I elaborated.

“
Oh, that,” he laughed.
“It’s really not a problem. Trust me.”

“
Just because it wasn’t a
problem for you doesn’t me that I’m not grateful,” I pointed
out.

“
Fair enough,” he allowed.
“Well, you’re welcome then.”

Parking downtown should’ve been impossible,
but he managed to find a spot half a block away. It was obvious
that he could walk much faster than I could, but he kept his pace
to match mine, making me feel guilty for holding him up.

It was almost seven when we reached the
door, and I knew part of the problem was because I slowed us down.
I started to apologize, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

By the time I saw all the kids inside, I had
already resigned myself to standing in the back, unable to catch
sight of the band onstage. Jack took my hand to weave us through
the crowd, and there was something very odd about his touch.

His skin was neither hot nor cold. It just
felt… temperature-less. Although his skin was tremendously soft, it
reminded me of a lizard. The way they can’t regulate their
temperature at all, so they’re always whatever temperature the room
is or whatever’s touching them.

We made our way up close to the stage, but
thanks to my height, it did me little good. When the band came out
and the crowd rushed forward, I ended up with my head smooshed into
the back of the guy in front of me.

Jack managed to stand his ground, creating a
little pocket of unmashedness. He noticed my predicament, and
rather deftly, he scooped me up and dropped me on his shoulders, so
my legs were straddling his neck.

I became very conscious of the fact that I
weighed something over a hundred pounds (the exact amount is
irrelevant) and that had to be heavy. Hell, fifty pounds sounded
heavy when it’s sitting on your shoulders.

“
Let me know if I get too
heavy,” I shouted over the music.

“
You won’t!” Jack yelled
back, and I knew that was true.

Throughout the entire show (which was
spectacular), he never faltered or even hinted at putting me down.
When the crowd started to disperse, I was still on his shoulders,
and I thought he might carry me out. Instead, he lifted me up off
his shoulders and set me on the ground.

“
Holy cow!” I said after
he’d put me down. “You must eat like a double dose of Wheaties
every day!”

“
What are you talking
about?” Jack asked, looking at me like I was insane.

“
You’re super strong!”
Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed his bicep, trying to
feel some massive amounts of hidden muscle, but honestly, it felt
pretty ordinary.

“
You’re just really light.”
Jack started walking away, attempting to end that line of
conversation, but I hurried after him.

“
What’s your angle?” I
asked, trying to sound more playful than demanding.

“
Isosceles,” Jack
quipped.

“
What?” If Milo had been
there, he probably would’ve understood the reference, but geometry
wasn’t my thing.

“
You asked me what my angle
was, so I said isosceles,” Jack explained, looking down at me to
make sure that he wasn’t losing me in the crowd. “It’s a type of a
triangle with two equal sides. I suppose that’s not really an
angle, and I would’ve said something like acute or obtuse, but I
thought that would either sound like I was hitting on you or
calling you stupid. I should’ve said oblique. That would’ve been
good. Damn! I’m gonna remember that for next time.”

“
You’re the most cryptic
person I’ve ever met,” I sighed.

We stepped outside into the night air, and I
pulled my sweatshirt tighter to me, flipping the hood up over my
head. Normally, the night air felt refreshing after being all
sweaty and crammed with other people on the floor, but since I’d
been on Jack’s shoulders, I hadn’t gotten hot at all.

He didn’t look sweaty from fighting off the
mosh pit, and the cold didn’t seem to affect him either. I was
tempted to reach out and take his hand to see what the temperature
felt like, but it felt too awkward.

“
So, did you have fun?”
Jack asked me as we strolled to his car.

“
I did,” I smiled at him.
“Did you?”

“
Of course.”

There was always this wonderful rush after a
good concert, like adrenaline but less panicky. So when they let
out, I usually talked a mile a minute about the show, the people,
just anything, and everything.

Tonight, though, I fell silent. There were
millions of things running through my mind that I wanted to talk
about, but very little had to do with the performance I had seen,
so I kept my mouth shut.

“
I don’t mean to be
cryptic,” Jack said at length.

We were almost to his car, but he stopped
walking and kept his gaze focused on some point straight ahead. His
hands were shoved deep in the pocket of his Dickies shorts, and he
sighed.

“
I don’t have an angle.
Just…” He looked over at me, as if to make sure that I was still
listening. I peered up at him from underneath my hood, and he
smirked a little. “You’re cold. We should get in the
car.”

“
No! Tell me what you were
going to say first!” I demanded, sounding more forceful than I
meant to, but Jack only laughed. Then he went back to staring
straight ahead, and his expression went somber.

“
I don’t want you to think
that I’m completely egotistical, cause I’m not. I’m just
realistic.”

“
You’re talking about the
way all the girls look at you?”

“
Yeah,”
Jack said sheepishly. “Everyone kind of…
reacts
to me a certain way. And you
don’t. It’s refreshing. So that’s what I’m doing here. With
you.”

“
Wait, wait, wait.” I waved
my hands at him, feeling a wave of disappointment. “What about the
way other people react to you? Why do they do that?”

“
I don’t know.” Jack
shifted slightly, and I knew he was lying. He knew exactly what was
going on, but he wasn’t going to tell me.

“
That’s not
fair!”

“
See?” Jack smiled. “This
is refreshing. Do you know how many other people argue with me,
about anything?”

“
If you think this is
refreshing, just wait.” I tried to glower at him, but his smile was
just too damn infectious.

“
Come on,” Jack started
walking towards the car again. “You’re gonna freeze to
death.”

“
Jack!” I protested but
hurried after him. “What is it? Is it something in the way you
smell that I’m just not getting?” He got a look of total surprise
and made a clicking sound with his tongue. “What?”

“
Well, yeah, that’s
actually pretty much it,” Jack admitted. He unlocked his car and
then walked around to the other side, still looking a little
stunned. I hopped into the car and he continued, “It’s a pheromone
or something like that.”

“
So, wait. Is that a
medical condition or something?”

“
Yeah, I guess.” Jack
nodded, as if that answer was sufficient.

“
What kind of medical
condition?” I pressed, oblivious to the fact that that kind of
information was really personal. Something about Jack made me lose
any sense of formality.

“
A rare one,” Jack replied
flippantly and started the car.

“
Well, why don’t I react to
it?”

I started to wonder if maybe there was
something very wrong with me. Everyone reacted to him, except for
me. Maybe I had a seriously botched sense of smell or a brain tumor
or something equally horrible.

“
That is a very good
question.” Jack pulled out of the parking lot, slipping easily into
an opening in the traffic.

“
You don’t actually know
why, do you?” I asked. “You don’t know why I’m different then
everyone else.”

“
I do not,” Jack admitted,
then looked over at me. “But look, Alice, I don’t want you to get
hung up on this thing. It’s too hard to explain and… for our
purposes, it doesn’t even matter at all.”

“
What purposes?” I narrowed
my eyes at him.

“
In order for this
friendship to work, you’re just going to have to accept that there
are certain things that I’m not gonna tell you,” Jack said firmly.
“I’m not trying to be a dick about this but that’s just the way it
is.”

“
And what if I can’t accept
that?”

“
Then we can’t hang out
anymore.” He tried to sound matter-of-fact about it, but I could
hear the sadness in his voice.