Beautiful Monster(59)

              “Uh,” Porsche replied, sitting on the bed and rotating both her ankles with her hands. I heard her joints pop from across the room and gave her a look.  “Because Shannon is a helpless liar who will say anything to get her way and you know it? I swear, if she didn’t have so much power, I would never even look at her again.”
              “Porsche…” My worst fear, looking into her face, was that she would do something incredibly stupid, which I knew she was capable of. She wanted to be human, I understood that. But insisting on waiting until her dying breath to be changed into a vampire was one of the stupidest moves she could make. We weren’t always together. We couldn’t be and I feared that one day, something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. “What do you know?”
              “I know that all dancers age out and I’m jet-lagged, running on about an hour’s sleep. So you need to stop worrying. Now, did they want Amy?”
              “They did,” I said, pulling on a shirt. “For a chorus role though. Rehearsals start soon, and then the show is on tour, so she certainly won’t have another year here. But Shannon is willing to do a partnership agreement. It’s an amazing boost for the school. It could help give us what we need to actually rank as top in the world.”
              “And you won’t have to awkwardly stare at each other in class,” she pointed out, standing up. “Industry break ups are always awkward.”
              “It’s not awkward,” I snapped, turning to distract myself. “She’ll stop looking at me like a lost puppy dog, and the school will get a boost. Win.”
              “Except killing herself at rehearsal there, when she has a lead role here too, to just play a chorus girl and possibly get stuck there forever, isn’t the best advice in the world.” Porsche went to her purse, rummaging around for what I assumed were her pills. “Did you think of that?”
              “I can’t hold their hands!” I protested, turning back to her. “I got her the audition, I got her the contact, and the rest is up to her. I need this for the school … whether she’s stuck in the chorus forever or not.”
              “She’s better than that.” The dancer replied, quietly. “And she doesn’t have a lot of time to waste in the chorus.”
              “That’s not really my concern.” I said, trying to ignore the look she was giving me. Porsche met my eyes, reading my face without even trying.
              “You don’t want her to go, do you?” She asked, not seeming surprised at all. I scoffed at it.
              “Of course I want her to go. Why exactly do I want a judgemental clingy teenager hanging around here?” I asked, and Porsche smiled slightly.
              “You don’t remember when I found out about you? Shields aren’t supposed to ally themselves with anyone. We’re brought up to believe vampires are terrible evil creatures. It took me awhile to get over my prejudices and beliefs about you too.”
              “You didn’t run screaming from the room in terror, either.” I said. “Making me feel like I was some sort of monster.”
              “We’re all some sort of monster.” She pointed out, and we fell into silence a moment, locking eyes. Eventually, I looked away, not wanting to address the fact that she could read me like an open book.
              “Now, are you going to teach for me today, since you’re taking up space?”
              Porsche rolled her eyes, swallowing the antiretroviral meds without water, and rising, heading to the shower herself.