Chapter 5 Lora 2

"You have bruises."

I looked down "Oh yeah, I skinned my knee."

Felix sighed in exasperation and ran a hand through his grey spiked hair. Nothing had fallen off yet but his skin had already started to change colour. It looked waxen and unhealthy. Even so, with his carefully spiked hair and sense of style he still looked cooler than all the other guys at the school. I was sitting at the end of the stone stairs of the library.

Felix was casually resting his back against the wall beside me. I chewed my lip piercing, a nervous habit of mine.

"What was it? That you were fighting, I mean."

I looked away from those pale green eyes of his. I knew that his new condition may cause his skin to rot and fall off one day, but nothing would hinder the piercing beauty of those eyes.

"Just a stupid werewolf, hopped up on some kind of magic steroids."

"Heh. Didn't you say you battled a horde of zombies and a witch the other day without getting so much as a scratch?"

"I dropped my glasses." I admitted shamefully. "Plus I had other things on my mind. I dropped my phone too. It was in my pocket when I flipped and well..." I felt a flash of resentment towards my mother for buying me the expensive and delicate iPhone for Christmas instead of the knife set I asked for. "If that had been my old Nokia that fell... oh well, at least my glasses were cheap enough not to break."

When Felix went silent I looked up to see he was staring at me "What is it?"

"Nothing." He said calmly and looked away.

I followed his line of vision and noticed that my best friend Cody was running over.

"Lora!" He yelled before he even got here. I smiled widely and stood. I wondered if Felix noticed the slight sadness tainting my wide smile as he observed me silently.

"Hey Cody."

"You didn't call." He sounded disappointed.

"My phone got smashed, sorry."

Felix started rubbing his shoulder as he spoke "Didn't you tell me earlier that you were grounded? It's a bit late to be getting back into your rebellious teenage phase now." He told me in that unconcerned voice of his. Cody only seemed to have become aware of Felix's presence now.

His wide-eyed look of surprise held no antagonism. Of course not.

"Oh hi, Felix." After staring at him for a moment longer his brown eyes widened further. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Feeling a bit lifeless at the moment, actually." He replied after turning away and then trudged off with his hands in his pockets. I knew Cody had been alerted to the unhealthy tinge of Felix's skin. Not everybody was aware of what had happened to him yet.

After I explained it to him he looked horribly guilty.

"Oh no. I shouldn't have said anything. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings."

"Felix isn't a sensitive guy." I assured him.

I didn't love him anymore but I certainly admired him. Most kids would have dropped out of school if they were in his shoes but he more or less shrugged it off. Not to mention the fact that unlike most kids Felix had had smarts, looks and a promising future.

He sure did like to act the strong and silent type, even when he was alive. I was sure he was suffering more than he led on. Even if he was proud, he was hurting and I wanted to be there for him.

I looked back at Cody after gathering my thoughts "Would it be okay if Felix sat with us at lunch?"

He stared at me blankly for a short while "Sure."

The cafeteria was one of the newer buildings at Stonehall High. The floor was checkered with large black and white squares and rows of metal bench tables with mismatched chairs lined the room. Felix lined up with me and Cody as we went to buy food.

There was a lot of noise and chatter. Mostly it came from the popular guys' table; I noticed Michael and Dylan laughing raucously among the other douches. When we sat down Felix stared off into space and only vaguely listened when Cody launched into his story.

He told me all about Dylan's glove and what Kaitlyn had said about it being an ogre's. He talked about all the things Dylan said to him the other day and when he met him behind the library earlier this morning. It definitely sounded suspicious to me.

I didn't like that Felix was so uninvolved. I had invited him here so he wouldn't have to be alone but it wasn't like he contributed anyway. He did speak eventually, after Cody had finished talking.

"Why do you care anyway? Unless you're crushing on Dylan or something?" Cody instantly blushed, but being him it was impossible to know whether it was embarrassment because it was true or embarrassment because Felix had said it.

"No I'm not!"

Felix raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"I wouldn't blame you if you are. There sure is a lot of bicuriosity in this beloved school of ours. Even I kissed boys before, when I was alive. Never actually went the whole way with any of them though, just wasn't my style." He added coolly. I frowned towards the popular table.

"I wouldn't blame you either." I muttered. "The only thing I'd be angry about is if you actually wanted to be with a tool like him." Cody seemed to be getting quieter, like he was really regretting saying anything at all.

Felix piped up "Well of course you wouldn't blame him for liking a boy, rumors have it you've slept with more girls than guys." He smiled slyly. I ignored him and changed the subject.

"To be honest I'm surprised that Kaitlyn didn't try to flirt with you, if it was just you and her in our house."

Cody's blush deepened. Oh my God. I mentally cursed my younger sister. Bad enough she wears my clothes but she wants to sleep with my ex-boyfriends as well? I silently fumed but didn't say anything more. I didn't want to make Cody more uncomfortable than he already was.

When the bell went Felix hopped up and strode off with a casual 'see ya'. Me and Cody had English together but I told him to go ahead of me. I wanted to find out what Felix's deal was. I hurried out of the building after him and called for him to stop.

"What is it? Can't you just tell me later, you'll be late for class."

"I want you to tell me what's wrong." I demanded. He finally looked at me, his face was expressionless. "We're friends aren't we?"

"That's not how you feel." He looked away again. I stared.

"Excuse me?"

"You know it's true."

"I'm sorry if you've misunderstood, but I do not-"

"It's in your eyes." His stare was intense and it made me stop. "I'm not human anymore, I'm a monster. You're a hunter. You know this but the more time you spend with me the more you're recognizing the old human parts of me. The parts of me that you used to love." I remained quiet. "That's why you're so desperate for me to open up to you, it's your way of showing me you care."

My voice was hollow "Do you... still care?"

He turned away from me again.

"Do you still care about Cody?" My eyes widened. "It's the same thing. You know you're not good enough for him so you don't want him, you want him to be happy because you feel guilty. Even I can tell he's a nice guy, and very naive. You can tell that he still cares about you, but you won't be with him because you know inside you're not right for him. Even if you have started to like him again, just a little."

"Just what are you trying to say?" My voice was quieter than I intended. He glanced over his shoulder at me.

"It's the same with me. I'm not good enough for you, I may have not realized that if I was still human but I'm realizing it now. We're both just bad people trying to do a little right."

With that he left me behind, standing there with a blank expression on my face.