“Um, yeah,” Jack nodded, going along with the lie I had told her earlier.
“Did you do a lot of swimming?” Mom was undoubtedly picturing him in a swim trunks, and I wanted to gag.
Milo made an almost inaudible sound, and Jack suddenly stepped forward, closer to him. When he tensed up, I tensed up, and that would be a horrible thing to do right now. If my heart sped up, Milo would notice it, and it would make it even harder not to kill us all.
“We did tons of swimming. It was fantastic,” I blurted out randomly. “But Mom, Milo really needs to talk to you. He, uh, has something major to tell you.”
“Oh?” Mom struggled to pull her gaze from Jack to Milo, but fortunately, her eyes didn’t have to travel far. Jack had moved even closer to Milo, and I knew things were not going as well as everyone had promised they would.
“Yeah, it’s really great news,” Jack added enthusiastically in an attempt to sway her towards our way of thinking.
“Here.” Milo thrust his hand forward, holding out a crumpled letter in his hand. His voice had taken on an icy tone that made him sound nothing like himself, and if Jack hadn’t been there to distract Mom, there was no way she would’ve bought any of this.
“What are you shoving at me?” Mom sounded irritated and made no attempt to get up and retrieve the letter from him.
“It’s a letter.” Carefully, Jack pried the letter that Ezra had worked so hard on from Milo’s fingers and walked over to her. When he handed it to her, their fingers briefly touched, and Milo made that inaudible sound again.
“A letter?” Mom peered down at the paper once she had recovered from touching Jack. She attempted smooth out the paper, but the dim light and her poor eyesight made it almost impossible for her to read, I’m sure. “Well, what’s this about?” She looked back up at Milo. “Just spit it out.”
“I’ve been accepted to a boarding school in New York,” Milo answered stiffly. “Thanks to my grades, I’ve received a full scholarship. The semester stars in a week, and they want me to get there early. So. I’m going to leave tomorrow.”
“What?” Mom looked skeptical and concerned. Milo was the good one, and she wasn’t used to him not making any sense. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
“I just found out about it for sure a few weeks, and I was waiting for the right time to tell you,” Milo said.
“That’s why we want to the vacation house,” Jack smiled a little too broadly. “As one last hoorah before he goes.”
“What?” Mom repeated. Jack had gone a long way towards convincing her, but there was still more left to go. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me about this.”
“I was afraid you’d be angry about me leaving.” Milo didn’t sound afraid or apologetic, though. He sounded like a robot.
“Why would I be angry? I’ll ever done is stress how important a good education is for you kids, so you don’t end up like me.” Mom softened a bit and looked down at the letter, trying to read it in the darkness. “So you’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“How are you getting there?” Mom looked back up at him.
“Plane. Jack bought the tickets for me.” Milo gestured towards him, and Jack smiled back at her.
“Oh.” Mom swallowed, and looked at me for the first time. “You knew about this?”
“Um, yeah,” I shrugged.
“And you didn’t tell me?” Mom snapped.
“No. I didn’t. Neither did Milo. But thanks for getting angry with me,” I grumbled.
“Oh, never mind.” She glanced at the clock and then quickly downed the rest of her brandy. “I don’t really have time for this.” She stood up, brushing her back from her forehead. “But you’re leaving tomorrow, right? So I’ll have a chance to say a proper good-bye to you tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Milo lied. He was leaving tonight, and she wouldn’t realize it was too late. The plan was for him to leave a note explaining that the plane left before she woke up or something. Whatever fit, so he would never have to see her again.
“Alright then.” Mom nodded once and put out her cigarette in an ashtray. She grabbed her oversized purse from the table, and she headed over to the shadows where Milo hid by the door.
“Have a good time tonight,” Jack interjected, carefully putting himself between her and Milo. She was going to go in for a hug, and it was still too soon for Milo to handle something like that.
“Oh, I will.” Mom gingerly touched her hair, taken back by Jack’s interruption, and unable to figure out how to rectify it. She smiled at him, and then turned to me, returning to her usual scowl. “You.
We’ll talk later.”
“Looking forward to it,” I lied.
“Yeah, I’m sure you are,” Mom muttered, and then walked out of the apartment.
After she was gone, I tried not to think about how tremendously sad that was. That was the last time Milo was ever going to see his mother, and he couldn’t even hug her good-bye. She hadn’t always been the greatest mom and spent most of her time anywhere but home, but she was still our mother. She loved us the best she could, and she deserved a better good-bye than that.
“Oh, hell,” Jack exhaled shakily once she had left, and I saw his whole body relax. “You’ve gotta get that under control.”
“I’m trying!” Milo insisted. “But it wasn’t my fault! You saw the way she as fawning all over you-” His voice turned into a low snarl, and Jack held up a hand to stop him.
“Yeah, I was there, but seriously!” He shook his head in disbelief. “Milo! You can’t be like that!”
“Be like what?” I asked, confused. I had assumed that tension had been all about Milo being hungry and unable to control bloodlust, but I didn’t understand why it would be solely directed at our mother. That was a little disgusting, actually.
“Nothing,” Milo mumbled sheepishly.
“Go pack up the rest of your stuff.” Jack gestured too his room tiredly. “Let’s get out of here before you do something really stupid.”
“Sorry,” Milo apologized and slunk off to his room.
Once he was gone, I whirled on Jack, and whispered fiercely, “What was that about? What’s going on?”
“Remember how things were complicated before?” Jack asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Milo was out of earshot. “Well, they just got a whole lot worse.”
“What are you talking about?” I narrowed my eyes at him, trying imagine how things could get any worse than they already had.
“Milo is jealous,” Jack explained quietly.
“Of what?” I shook my head, uncomprehending.
“Well…” Jack scratched the back of his head and sighed. “Everyone who interacts with me.”
“What?” I leaned back and tried to put it together.
“Okay see… the thing is, vampires bond with whoever turns them,” Jack elaborated, his blue eyes swimming with apologies. “I told you about how close I was to Peter and Ezra because we shared the same blood. We’re part of the same person, almost. Well… so now since Milo drank my blood, we’re really bonded.
And it’s a little different than it was with Peter or Ezra because… apparently, Milo had a crush on me before he turned. And with the bonding, that’s suddenly intensified.”