Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel Read Free Book Online Page B

He was ahead of me, leading the way up the circular staircase. “I like your British accent,” he said. I didn’t respond, but a tingle crept through my chest and I knew that I liked the compliment.
    At the top floor, we reached the art studio.
    “Like I said, this is where you can find me almost any time,” Tony said, and placed his own bookstore bag onto the floor.
    Small, rectangular, castle-like windows lined the circular, stone walls. Easels were peppered about, though they were without artwork as the school year hadn’t started yet. Papier-mâché masks dangled from the ceiling by thin wires. Some were made to look like bulls with horns, others like human faces. Paintbrushes and black charcoal stubs lay in metal and plastic bins, and ten wooden desks circled the room, each with their own particularly unique splatter of paint. The room held a vibration, one of promise and creativity. I could tell, no, I could feel, that wonderful moments had been experienced in that room. As a vampire, this would have enraged me.
    How odd, I thought.
    “I’m not a spectator to happiness anymore,” I said while running a hand across the top of an easel.
    “What’d you say?” Tony asked.
    “Oh, nothing.” I spun around to face Tony.
    “You like Wickham?” Tony paused. “I’m here on an art scholarship.”
    “What does that mean?” I examined a painting of a vase of flowers to the right of a window.
    “It means I’m too poor to pay for this place, so they let me go to school for free. As long as I produce quality artwork. What about you?”
    “I’m not on scholarship,” I said, watching Tony carefully to see if this would matter to him.
    He shrugged. “It’s cool. Just promise me you’re not one of those rich girls who only dates guys who play lacrosse or football and drive really nice cars.”
    I had no idea what half of that even meant.
    “I think I promise,” I said.
    “I live in Quartz. We passed it on the way here. It’s one of the guys’ dorms,” Tony said. “I have to live with all the jocks.”
    “Justin Enos?” I offered with a sly smile.
    “Yeah,” Tony said, rolling his eyes. But in my mind, Justin was bronzed and beautiful, pushing his way out of the ocean.
    I turned to Tony. “Well, don’t worry. I won’t be one of those girls circling around Justin, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    “His girlfriend? Tracy Sutton? Her and her two best friends are in this like, group. They call each other the Three-Piece.”
    “Three-Piece?”
    Yep, it’s as stupid as it sounds. They each date an Enos brother and they hang out in the dorms in this annoying group. They’re always together, and always making everyone around them want to poke their eyeballs out.”
    “The Three-Piece’s eyeballs?”
    “No, their own.”
    I laughed at first, but after a moment, the sheer familiarity of what Tony was talking about echoed in my mind. My fingers grazed the crisp, dried hairs of the paintbrush as my eyes fell out of focus. That sounded familiar—too familiar.
    “I was like that. At my old school.” I looked up at Tony, who was listening politely. “I wasn’t part of the group. I was the group.” I shook my head quickly, to clear out the crazy thoughts. “Anyway,” I said, “I won’t be like that.”
    “Can I paint you sometime?” Tony asked. This was a new twist. “Paint…me?”
    I had my portrait painted in the early 1700s, but nothing since, only photographs.
    “Yeah,” he said, and leaned back against the wooden shelf that lined the circumference of the room. Above his head was one of the small, narrow windows. Outside, I could see the clouds darkening. “Portraits are kind of my thing. I’m good, too. I’m going to apply to Rhode Island School of Design next year.”
    Tony was a good-looking Japanese boy, though the only face that I could see was Song’s, a vampire in my coven. Altogether there were five in the coven, including myself, Song was the second-youngest man