“You’re just skipping school today?” Mom asked.

“Guess so. I’m sick.” I hit at the air above my head, shooing her away.

“If you’re not up by this afternoon, I’m taking you to the doctor,” Mom relented and stood up. “And I’m having them test you for every drug known to man. Is that clear?”

“Crystal,” I muttered into my pillow.

Once she left, I rolled over and tried to clear the fog from my head. I really, really wanted to go back to sleep, but I blamed that on the counteractive effect of the Red Bull. I forced myself to do too much yesterday, and my body completely shut down.

Something about Jack was making my heart panic, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. He hadn’t talked to me yesterday, and then I had gone to bed, and then…

And then Peter.

I touched at my neck, feeling for bite marks, but there weren’t any, not that that really meant anything. Very little of last night remained clear to me. Just Peter’s green eyes and the strange fog in my room. But there couldn’t be fog in my room. That’s not even possible.

And he had spit my blood on my floor. Mom would’ve freaked out if she saw the floor covered in blood. I rolled over, checking the floor just to be sure, but other than a few pieces of dirty clothing, it was clean.

I lay back down and touched my neck again. What had happened last night? My head still felt fuzzy. Maybe… maybe it had just been a dream.

As tired as I had been lately, it didn’t seem likely that I would wake up to any noise. Besides that, Peter moved in almost total silence. I doubted I’d even be able to hear him come in.

It was probably just a bad dream as a result of my own obsessive paranoia, my exhaustion, and too much caffeine all rolled up together.

Just be completely safe, I called Milo anyway. If Peter was in town, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a heads up, and if he wasn’t, it would give me a piece of mind.

Milo didn’t answer when I called but that was reassuring. If Peter had stopped by, they’d all be awake. In fact, they’d call me to make sure I was safe. But Milo not answering meant that he was still sleeping, and everything was okay.

“Hey, Milo, it’s just me,” I tiredly told his voicemail. “I just had the weirdest dream and I wanted to make sure you all were okay and what not. Just give me a call later, okay? Okay. Bye.”

I made sure to set the ringer to loud on my phone, just in case there was trouble, and set it on the nightstand. In the meantime, I was tired as hell. Pulling the blankets over me, I snuggled deeper into the bed and passed out.

I forced myself out of bed at seven o’clock, before my mother went to work, to prove to her that I was still alive and okay. I was feeling better, but not as good as I pretended to be.

Once she left, I took the pills Mae had given me, then downed another Red Bull, and crashed on the couch. While I hadn’t the best experience with too much caffeine last night, I figured that a little could probably help take the edge off the fatigue.

Milo came over, disrupting my plans to just fall back to sleep on the couch. He looked amazing, as usual, so it was safe to assume that nobody had attacked him in the night. Leaning on the back of the couch, he looked down at me.

“You look terrible,” Milo said, and that was probably true.

I’d pretty much been sleeping the last couple days. The last time I showered was before school yesterday, and I hadn’t brushed my hair in just as long. My skin was ashen, even for me, and I hadn’t eaten or changed out of my pajamas since the day before. So yeah, I’m pretty sure I looked terrible. I felt terrible.

“Thanks,” I replied off-handedly. “So what brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“I came to check on you.” He pushed some of my hair out of my face. “You sounded weird on the phone, and Mae thought I should see how you’re recovering. Did you go to school today?”

“I overslept,” I shrugged.

“Alice, you need to stay on track for graduation.”

“Oh, like you are?” I considered sticking out my tongue but decided against it.

His expression only got more disapproving. Too bad. He only wanted what was best for me, and right now, what was best for me was lying down and resting, not worrying about school. Graduation seemed pointless, even if I didn’t inherit a fortune from Jack’s family like Milo had.

“Have you eaten today?” Milo changed the subject. He glanced over at the kitchen, which was devoid of dirty dishes or any other relics of eating, aside from several empty Red Bull cans. “Hey. You stopped recycling since I moved out.”

“You’re not here to make the rules anymore.”

“So? Doesn’t the state of the world seem a little more prudent to you now that you’ll be living forever?” Milo walked into the kitchen to sort out the aluminum cans and empty Fruity Pebbles box.

“As of right now, I’ll be lucky if I make it to next year, let alone forever,” I sighed.

“You’re so melodramatic,” Milo scoffed.

I couldn’t see him, but I heard him puttering around in the kitchen, and my stomach grumbled. I was like Pavlov’s dog. The sound of Milo with cookware made me salivate.

“Are you making me something?” I poked my head over the top of the couch again to see what he was up to.

“Yeah. Mae said you need some red meat.” He rooted through the freezer, looking for some of the groceries he’d recently bought me. “Why don’t you go take a shower and get yourself cleaned up, and I’ll make you supper. Sound good?”