Castle de la Rosé

Chapter Sixteen

I strode down the hall from my room where I had left Schuyler. The cafeteria was all the way down on the first floor of the school. I hadn't expected to meet many people on the way, even as late as it was this morning. There aren't that many people on the 7th floor where Schuyler and I stay. It's usually only for the people who've been here a long time. I guess it was getting a little crowded downstairs because Schuyler ended up in my room.

Just as I was passing Corey's room, his door opened and he slumped out, looking exhausted. Or at least he did until he saw me. "You bastard." he snapped.

"Fuck you." I replied, unperturbed by his rudeness.

"I got a new roommate. The school's apparently hoping we'll all be perfect little angels like you now." Corey continued, after giving me a withering look. "So like I said, you are a bastard."

"Perfect little angel?" I asked, suppressing a snort of laughter. "You must not have met me before. Hi, I'm Elian and if you call me that again, I'll make you puke your spleen."

"You haven't almost ended up in prison, or visited a counselor in over a week. You've been doing your homework, haven't you? …Oh, wait," he smirked. "You already do that."

I punched him in the side, casually, and continued my walk. "Can I assume that because you're mocking me, that you're done having a bitch fit? Did you end up ripping your new roommate's throat out yet?"

"Not yet," Corey said, catching up to me and rubbing his side. "He's already afraid of me, so I can tolerate him for awhile. Apparently, someone caught him and told him about you and I. Wouldn't even come into the room! I didn't think he was going to show up until I headed out for dinner and found him sleeping outside the door. Want a cigarette? I asked new guy for one and he gave me the whole pack this morning." Corey fished the pack out of his sweatshirt pocket and passed me the offered cigarette.

"Lighter?" I asked.

"Impatient fucker," Corey grumbled, lighting his own cigarette before passing the lighter to me. "Where are we going anyway?"

"I'm going to the cafeteria to get food for-" I paused to glare at Corey. "Schuyler."

"You're his bitch," Corey said cheerfully, diving out of range of my fists.

"Says the douchebag running away from me," I replied, feeling too lazy to chase my idiot friend down. Besides, I couldn't beat him up with a cigarette in my hand and I wasn't willing to give up a perfectly good chance to smoke. "Maybe the people running this place are right. You need a roommate. Maybe even the teachers think you'd be less annoying if you got laid once in awhile."

"Fuck you," he grumbled, but he turned around and walked back to walk next to me.

"What is the new guy?" I asked, taking a long drag and blowing the smoke into Corey's face.

Corey responded by blowing the smoke back in my face and said, "Werewolf, I think. At least, he smells like a dog."

"Schuyler doesn't smell like a dog," I said without thinking.

"Maybe because your werewolf takes a bath every once in awhile. New guy is covered in about 10 layers of dirt. I've thought about making him take a shower, but I figured it wouldn't improve our relationship."

"Besides, the fact that he already thinks you'll drink his blood and feast on his soul," I said, laughing.

"Feast on his soul? What the fuck?" Corey laughed. "I forgot all about that. That was your first roommate who said that, wasn't it?"

"Yep, because that's what demons do apparently."

"What did he think fairies do?" Corey asked.

I shrugged. "'Don’t think he knew. Most people can't tell, just from looking at me."

Corey nodded. "People can definitely tell I'm half and half, but then it's no big deal to be both a vampire and a demon. Your case is probably a bit different."

"You mean my deep internal struggle as to whether I should be in jail for 20 to life or be Mary fucking Poppins?" I asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"Yeah, I can obviously see that struggle," Corey laughed.

We finally got to the cafeteria and I piled a mountain of food onto a tray. "I'm a growing teenager. Fuck off, " I said, in response to Corey's amusement.

"Yeah, you're growing as big as a bus." Corey said, grabbing a hamburger. "By the way, do you not own a shirt?"

"I do, but I didn't want to deprive anyone of my gorgeous body," I responded, after flipping Corey off.

We started heading through the cafeteria when the doors were thrown open and a group of people walked in: 4 guys and 2 girls. Normally, I wouldn't have given two fucks who they were, but from the way the guy in front's eyes lit up, I knew we were in for a fight.

"You seeing what I'm seeing?" Corey muttered under his breath to me.

"If you're seeing Luke Connolly and his friends picking a fight with us then, yeah, we're seeing the same thing," I said.

I set my food down on the table and walked toward them, not needing to look back to know that Corey was right behind me. "You two need to fuck off." I told the two girls.

"Don’t tell me to fuck off. You fuck off." one of the girls said in the whiny voice that some girls insist on using.

"If you want to be in the middle of this, fine, but I don't want to hear you bitching when you get hurt." I said. Her friend grabbed the first girls arm and pulled her out of the way.

Luke and his friends didn't so much as look at the girls during our entire exchange. He just stared at me, obviously expecting me to speak first. I wasn't going to do any such thing.

Finally, after an awkwardly long pause, Luke spoke. "It's time for you to stop thinking you're top dog around here. You need to be put in your place."

"Top dog? Did you rehearse that?" Corey laughed.

"You think you can take us?" Luke snarled, growing angry just like Corey had meant for him to do.

I dropped the butt of my cigarette on the ground and crushed it with the toe of my shoe. "I don't know," I said, pretending to think about it. "Doesn't it seem a little unmatched. 4 to 2? Are you sure you don't want to get a couple more guys on your side? Even the odds a little? I don't want to kick your ass too quickly."

Without another moment's hesitation, Luke threw the first punch. I caught his fist and shoved it to the side, before throwing my own punch. My last thought before losing myself in the fight was that Schuyler was sure to be pissed.