Chapter 44 Vicky´s eyes
I yell into my pillow since slamming doors didn’t quite alleviate the anger that my father’s stubbornness flared alive inside of me. Thinking back to the fight just frustrates me all over again. Despite having perfect grades throughout high school and now community college, my father refuses to let me transfer to Mythic University, the four-year university that caters to young, gifted people. He claims that everyone going to MU is only looking for a mate and not serious about their education, which is complete bullshit. Plenty of my high-school friends attend MU, and they’ve told me about how hard the classes are. You don’t go to MU just to party, but that stubborn old coot refuses to let me transfer!
“My house, my rules,” I mimic his mantra in a high-pitched voice. “Unless you want to take out student loans and be in debt for the foreseeable future, you stay at the local college. I’m not paying for some four-year party.” He’s given me the speech so many times that I can recall the words verbatim. “UGH!” I punch my pillow in anger before breaking down into tears and sobbing into the abused fabric.
Soon I drift off to sleep, still sniffling.
“Hey, Vicky, over here!” I hear a familiar voice shout as I leave my Advanced Calculus II class.
I look around and grin when I spot a wildly waving Serafina, dressed from head to toe in black and sporting bright blue hair. I jog up and give her a bone-crushing hug.
“Sera! How have you been? I haven’t seen you since you transferred to MU!” I take her by the shoulders and push her back a little to inspect her. Her excessive eyeliner and short skirt make me smile. “Still rockin’ the goth thing, eh?” Her tinkling laugh fills me with joy.
“You know how it is, gotta rock the whole vamp/fae hybrid thing. You shifters tend to pop us in a box, so I can’t disappoint,” she says with a sardonic grin, making me laugh.
“Oh, come on, not all shifters think that way.”
“True, girl, but you’re in the minority. And we both know your dad thinks I’m bad news,” she smirks.
I can’t help but smack my face in exasperation. “Dad is … something else. I’d say he’s probably more biased than most shifters, given what happened to Mom.”
“True, true. I do understand where he’s coming from. Having your lifemate ripped from you by the less scrupulous members of my community can’t have been easy.” She frowns and shakes her head. “On the bright side, they did catch the assholes, and the council took great pleasure in making their punishment public to the vamp community. I doubt any of the faction’s stragglers will try for a repeat.”
I give Sera a shaky smile and let her lead me away. She hooks her elbow in mine and begins telling me about all of the happenings of MU.
“Okay, okay, okay, slow down, Sera. What I really want to know…” I look around to make
sure nobody is listening, “is what’s the student and faculty body like? Are they all gifted? How diverse is the population? Do you have to hide?” Sera shakes her head and tugs me down into her cherry red Chevy Camaro.
“So diverse, Ames. Every gifted community is represented. Vamps, fae, shifters, witches, and more, and every subclass of each community, just about.”
“Wow.”
“And no, we don’t have to hide. The campus has some major wards that keep normies out. Lets us be free. No hiding fangs or furs or anything else,” she says with a smirk.
I sigh and plop back into her bucket seats. “Dad will never let me go. As long as he has the purse strings, I’m stuck doing what he says.”
“Don’t you have that job? Can’t you pay your own tuition?”
“No,” I say with a grimace. “I barely make minimum wage there, and the tips are crap. More than anything, I was hoping that working would show him that I’m responsible enough to go to MU, but so far, he’s just been even more angry than before.”
“Bummer,” she says, nibbling on her lip as we pull into the local burger joint. “Let’s get some burgers. Maya and Jae are meeting us here.”
“Cool, I haven’t seen them in ages.”
“I know,” she says, smiling at me over her shoulder.
“OH. MY. GODS. VICKY!” I hear the high-pitched squeal seconds before a ball of color barrels into me. Laughing, I detangle Maya’s long limbs from around me and take in my friend’s appearance. As always, she has paint smeared all over her clothes, colorful makeup, and rainbow hair. She’s wearing loose overalls and has hand-painted Converse, untied of course, on her feet.
Jae’s slightly less excited, but still grinning, form approaches from behind Maya. None of them have changed a bit. Jae is all leather and spice, decked out in typical biker gear with various patches on his jacket.
“Vicky, it’s good to see you again.”
“You too, Jae. It’s been, what, two years?” He smiles and nods before leading us to a corner
booth.
“We ordered some drinks but weren’t sure what either of you wanted to eat,” Maya says with a
flip of her rainbow hair. Serafina and I slide into the booth and peruse the menu. It doesn’t take us long to decide what we want, and soon we’re chatting about all of the happenings at Eastside Community College—ECC—and MU.
By the time we finish our food and pay the bill, the sun is setting outside. Sera turns to me and wiggles her eyebrows.
“What’s that look for?” I ask suspiciously.
“Wellllll … if you can sneak away from dear old dad tonight, there’s a party over at one of the
MU frats. It’s going to be lit. Sort of the last hurrah before summer semester gets rolling.”
I chew on my lip. “I’d love to go, but honestly, I doubt I’ll be able to. Dad is still being his usual surly self, so I suspect that he won’t bite.”
“You can at least ask. I get that you don’t want to go behind his back with anything, but maybe he’ll have a change of heart about how strict he is, ya know?”
“Okay, sure,” I relent. “I’ll ask him when I get home, but don’t hold your breath.”
“Well, we have to get going. I still have a couple of finals to study for before the party tonight,” Maya says, pushing Jae from the booth.
“See you, Vicky. It was nice getting a chance to hang out today,” Jae says, giving me a one- armed side hug.
“You too, Jae. Thanks for this, guys.” I stand from the booth and hug Maya. “I missed the gang,” Once the two of them are gone, Sera looks at me. “Do you want a ride home?”
I smile at her. “Well, I was planning on calling a rideshare since Bo borrowed my car today,
but if you’re willing, I won’t say no.”
“Anytime, honey,” she says and gestures for me to follow her to her car.
The drive to my house only takes about 20 minutes, and soon, I find myself waving to Sera with a promise to text her before 9 about whether or not I can attend the MU party. After watching her drive away, I turn to face the front door and take a deep breath. Thankfully, Dad’s not home yet, so I decide to make one of his favorite dinners as a sort of a bribe.
As I pull the lasagna out of the oven, the front door opens and closes. Setting the lasagna on the counter, I glance toward the door to see Dad and Bo slipping off their shoes.
“Welcome home, y’all. How was work?” I ask them conversationally as I pull out three plates and cut a chunk of the lasagna to place on each.
“Good,” Bo says with a grunt. Dad nods in agreement before crossing to the kitchen and washing his hands. He kisses my forehead and takes his seat at the head of the table while I finish setting the plates, cups, and utensils at the appropriate seats. Once Bo has washed his hands and taken his seat, I join them at the table, nervously avoiding Dad’s gaze while we eat in relative silence.
“Thanks, Ames. This was delicious,” he says as he goes for a second serving. Bo glances at me with a quirked eyebrow while Dad is in the kitchen grabbing more lasagna.
“What are you up to?” he whispers conspiratorially.
I shove a bite of the cheesy goodness into my mouth and shake my head slightly at Bo, who shrugs and continues eating as our father returns to the table. I wait a moment for Dad to resume eating before setting my fork down and clearing my throat nervously. Bo watches me in amusement. Dad looks up.
“So, Dad. I was thinking …” I pause and take a sip of my water. Dad watches me patiently, waiting for me to continue speaking. “There’s this end-of-year get together tonight. As you know, the