Boys That Bite by Mari Mancusi Read Free Book Online Page A

and play on the varsity field hockey team. So I highly doubt I'd be top of the list for the Populars to pick on. Besides, Jake seems deadly serious. "I just thought, if you weren't going with anyone, that you might, uh, want to go with, um, me," he continues, stammering. "I mean, if you wanted to. I understand if you don't. Obviously you've probably got like three million guys asking you." I nearly fall backward into a dead faint for real this time. As it is, I'm not quite sure my heart is still beating. Jake Wilder has just asked me to the prom. Jake Wilder! "Uh, yeah. Sure. That's cool," I say with a shrug, awarding myself major brownie points for not jumping up and down and doing cartwheels down the auditorium aisle. "Why not?" He breaks out into his amazing smile, looking oh-so-relieved. "Great," he says. "Really great. Thank you. I'll um, see you around then." "Uh, sure. Okay," I say at a loss for more intellectual conversation. Real suave, Sunny. He smiles at me again—that infamous brilliant flash of Jake Wilder pearly whites—then turns and bolts out of the auditorium. I stare after him, confused as anything. Jake Wilder has just asked me to the prom. And I said yes. Before today I would have bet anything that he didn't even know my name. Now I'm suddenly his prom date? "Hey, Sunny, how you feeling?" I turn around. Rayne's entered the auditorium. "Rayne!" I cry. "You'll never guess! Jake Wilder asked me to the prom. Isn't that so amazing? I mean, Jake Wilder! Can you believe it? I'm freaking out here!" Rayne smiles her favorite patronizing smile. "Ah, the Vampire Scent is already kicking in, huh?" I screw up my face. "Vampire Scent?" What the hell is she talking about? And what does that have to do with Jake asking me to the prom? "Yeah, you know. Like pheromones. Vampires give off a scent that drives mere mortals crazy with desire. They can't resist it. It's actually very useful when talking your way out of speeding tickets or scoring an aisle seat on an airplane. Though the old lady the next seat over talking to you about her grandchildren the whole flight can be an unfortunate side effect." My heart sinks. To my toes. So evidently Jake Wilder hasn't lusted after me for years and only now gotten up the courage to approach me. "Damn." I kick the auditorium seat in frustration. "And here I thought he had some secret crush on me or something." I sigh. I knew it was too good to be true. "Jeez, Sunny, don't act so disappointed. I mean, didn't you read about all this in my blog last night?" Uh-oh. "I, uh, didn't finish reading the whole thing. I mean, it was pretty long." Rayne stares at me. "The pheromone thing is like the third entry down." "Yeah, but," I can feel my face heating up. "There were these links and ..." "Links?" "Yeah, to really good stories about Spike and Angel..." "So let me get this straight," Rayne says, crossing her arms over her chest, looking very unhappy. "Instead of catching up on the vital information you need to know about your impending vampire transformation, you instead chose to read Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic?" Okay, when she puts it that way, it does seem like a bad decision on my part. But some of those stories were way juicy and . . . "You know, you shouldn't have links on your Web site if you don't want people to click on them," I say in my defense. Rayne sighs. Deeply. "You know, I really hope that Lucifent has a way to turn you back into a human. 'Cause you're going to totally suck as a vampire." I start laughing. I can't help it. I'm going to suck as a vampire? Ha! "What?" Rayne demands. Then she realizes her unintentional pun. "Oh." She tries to frown, but I can see the corners of her mouth turn up. "This is serious, Sunny." "I know!" I cry, still howling with laughter. The whole situation's suddenly struck me as so absurd that I can't help it. "I'm going to be a SUCKY vampire!" Rayne bursts into laughter. "Talk about a Freudian slip! I can't believe I said that." "Yeah, well