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Michael was playing guitar in the living room of the house when Claire stomped down the hall, dus of the laptop inside, and threw herself full length down on the sofa Michael stopped inat her, but she didn&039;t look Eventually, he started up again The music spilled over her, beautiful and complicated, and as Claire lay there and just concentrated on breathing, she felt some of the awful tension inside her start to ease up Still a horrible day, but she could never feel too angry when Michael was playing

"So," he said, not looking up from the frets as he tried out a co electric What do you think?"

"Eve dumped me I&039;ve been best-friend du stuttered, then s that&039;s a no?"

"There&039;s this girl, Kim? You knoho she is?" Michael nodded, but didn&039;t say anything Claire felt her hands curl into fists, and deliberately, carefully straightened them out "So this Kim, she&039;s like perfect and all Ooooh, she&039;s an artist And all of a sudden she and Eve have everything in coet the jokes"

"I&039;ve met Kiaze on his guitar "She&039;s like a black hole; she just pulls people right out of their orbits Eve&039;s still your friend She&039;s just crushing on Ki with her before"

"So what&039;s the story of the fantastic Kied, and shot her a quick, unreadable look "She went to OLOM, so I didn&039;t know her all that well"

"OLOM?" Claire repeated

"I forget you didn&039;t grow up here Our Lady of Mystery Catholic school across town run by the scariest nuns you&039;ve ever seen Anyway, Kim bailed on school when she was fourteen, I think She&039;s our resident funky-artist type, I guess - more likely to flip you off than shake your hand"

"I&039;ll bet she sucks"

It looked like Michael was trying hard to hide a smile "Art&039;s always subjective She may suck to you"

"She doesn&039;t to you?" Claire felt a little sinking sensation Oh, great, of course Michael would like Kim, too Shane probably not only liked her, but had dated her, and was secretly still in love with her Claire Danvers, New Girl, was probably the only person in Morganville who didn&039;t think Kis on his guitar with the flat of his palet to know her," he said "She&039;s - interesting Just don&039;t get too close"

"She treated reed "Did you know she survived a vampire attack when she was homeless and sixteen?"

Claire shatever she&039;d been about to say, which would have been snarky and sarcastic Instead, she said, "Survived how?"

"Killed the va to drain her She could have been executed - town rules Instead, she was acquitted No jail time Brandon wasn&039;t happy about it - he was Amelie&039;s second-in-command at the time - but he had to s it So really, there are only two huotten aith it"

"Kim and who else?"

Michael raised his eyebrows "You didn&039;t know?"

"Knohat?"

"Richard Morrell," he said

"Seriously?" Because Richard Morrell was now the anville, one of the three led Claire&039;s mind to think that the vamps had allowed him to justwalk away from that "When?"

Michael didn&039;t have ti "Born to Be Wild," and he pulled it to check the screen "Got to get ready," he said "Sorry Story time later Hey, trust me, Kim&039;s a force of nature, but like a storm, she moves on Eve will be fascinated for a while, but Kih It&039;s how she rolls"

Claire had the really strong i Or anything, really But he didn&039;t give her tiuitar in the case and heading upstairs

"Get ready," she repeated, still siot soet to know Ki" Claire put a load of ht"

The back door opened and closed, floorboards creaked in the kitchen, and Claire smelled the delicious wood-smoke aroma of barbecue She couldn&039;t help but sing it

"Hey," Shane said, and leaned over the couch to stare down at her His hair was getting longer, and even one after the arden trimmers It should have looked horrible, but on him, somehowit looked hot

Not that she was in any way prejudiced

"Hey," she replied, and held up her hand for hihtly

"Why the ?"

"Fro about Kiht it would be; Michael had been on the fence, at best, and she had no reason to think Shane would be any different "I&039;ot to see" Shane leaned over and stared into her eyes "Wow Yeah, that&039;s terrifying I can see that you&039;re one second frohed "Nobody&039;s scared of , Claire"

"Says the guy who scares everybody"

Shane considered that and smiled slowly She loved the way one side of his sher than the other, and the little dimple that formed there "I don&039;t scare you"

"Well Only a little,rid of that little bit," he said "Speaking of scary, how&039;s your freaky boss?"

"Don&039;t know, didn&039;t go, don&039;t care," she said "My face hurts"

"So you&039;re ly and nobody loves " He kissed her fingers again, and this ti ti ready?"

Claire let out an annoyed breath "Yeah Everybody&039;s got so an odd look

"The theater at TPU? He&039;s playing tonight? Packed house? Reotten all about it, and now she felt - if possible - even worse "I&039; like a two-year-old about Kiether for the show"

"Kiht focus "Kim Goth Kim?"

"Yeah, what&039;s her last name, anyway? Weird Kiuess they&039;re in the play together?"

"Oh, crap," Shane said His expression changed, went guarded "So you talked to her"

"I wasn&039;t worth talking to"

Was she wrong, or was that a little flicker of relief? "Probably a good thing She&039;s kind of a flake"

"Kind of?" Claire&039;s eyes narrowed "Did you date her?"

His eyes ide, and there was a fatal second of silence before he said, "Not - exactly No I - no"

"Did you hook up?"

He started to answer, then shook his head "I&039;ve got no good options here," he said "Whatever I say, you&039;re going to believe I did, right? But even if I did, it was a long tiht?"

"All right," she said She felt as if pieces of herself were breaking off, and somehow, it was all Kim&039;s fault I&039;et stressed out about ex-girlfriends or ex-hookups or whatever Except she wanted to go find Kiood, because she was pretty sure Kiood"

Shane didn&039;t believe that for a second, but she saw hiht," he said "So Barbecue You in?"

"I can&039;t believe you eat barbecue after you serve it all day long Doesn&039;t that get old?"

"It&039;s barbecue," he said "What&039;s your point? Coed her off the couch, tickled her into giggles, and chased her into the kitchen

He was right Barbecue really was kind of a ic cure for the mopeys

Claire dressed up for Michael&039;s show at TPU, but given the state of her sunburn, she wasn&039;t sure it orth the effort - at least, until she got downstairs Shane and Michael were standing together, talking, andClaire lingered on the stairs, aduys look great"

Michael shrugged, as if it were no big thing So did Shane, even though he&039;d taken the tiood black shirt and black leather jacket, and even sort of colam hair-band sense, no, but he just lookedimportant Claire wondered if Eve had picked his clothes for him; if she had, she really loved hi of which - "Where&039;s Eve?"

"Running late," Michael said "She&039;sus there"

Eve passed up barbecue? That was odd Claire came down the rest of the steps and did a little inspection twirl for Shane "Okay?"

"Spectacular," he said, and kissed her - carefully, because of the sunburn "You know I love that skirt"

She blushed under the burn "Yes I know" It was a short, pleated skirt Plaid The shoes she had on with it were the ones that Eve had bought for her last Halloween - funky, but cool and kind of sexy Claire still felt a little unco about the signals Shane was giving her that oing withhis car keys "If so, the bus is leaving"

They were, of course; with Eve MIA, they had no other car, and walking in the dark was still not the best idea in the world, even in the new, cal trip, and Michael dru wheel as if he were practicing fingerings for his guitar; nobody said ainst Shane in the back, her head on his shoulder, and his presence went a long way toward et about how bad her day had been

At least, until she remembered that he&039;d once sat like this with Kim, back in undefined olden times "Hey," she said "About Kio, are you?"

"I just want to know - did you guys date, or - "

"No," Shane said, and looked away He&039;d have been staring out the , except that the dark tinting prevented hi out there "Okay, I took her bowling once She was pretty good at it Does that count as a date?"

"It does if you hooked up after"

He hesitated, and finally sighed "Yes," he said "Guilty Dated Hooked up Sheelse?"

Claire was totally unprepared for hoful that made her feel "Did you - did you really like her?"

"Do we need to have this talk noitnesses?" Michael held up his hand "I want it on the record that I&039;ot yourself into this; don&039;t blame me" Michael sounded definitely amused, which didn&039;t make Claire feel any better

"I&039;uess - we can talk about it later It doesn&039;t matter, anyway" Except it did A lot

Shane turned back to look into her eyes His pupils were huge in the faint glow of the dashboard "I was looking for a girl," he said "Ki about that But to answer the question, yeah, I liked her Really liked her? Probably not I wasn&039;t exactly brokenhearted when she moved on More like relieved"

Claire blinked "Oh" She didn&039;t knohat to do with that It made her feel better, and also, a little confused and childish and ashao? It see, somehow

"Hey," he said, and carefully traced the line of her cheek, avoiding the burned spots "I like that you care I do"

She pulled in a deep breath "I just don&039;t want to share you," she said "Not ever Even before I met you I know that doesn&039;t make sense, but - "

"It does," he said, and kissed her "It really does" Michael was sht her watching hied

"It&039;s a good thing I&039;ve got to live with the two of you," he said, "or I&039;d be putting this on YouTube later Andass"

"Also, undead bloodsucking ass," Shane said "That&039;s kind of critical, too"

Michael stopped the car "We&039;re here" He grabbed his guitar case and got out, looked in on therin "Lock it when you leave Oh, and re I&039;oes the mood"

Michael disappeared into the artists&039; entrance, walking as if he owned the stage already; Claire and Shane walked, hand in hand, through the parking garage toward the front There were a lot of other people parking, talking, walking in groups toward the entrance to the theater Like s, it wasn&039;t exactly pretty - a product of the blocky 1970s, glass and concrete, solid and plain and functional, at least on the outside

The lobby armer, with dark red carpet and side drapes that looked only about ten years out of fashion Claire saw people staring at her and wished she&039;d worn her cap, but since she hadn&039;t, she held her chin up and clasped Shane&039;s hand htly as he checked their tickets and led her up to the balcony On the way, Claire spotted a lot of fa out in his black shirt, white collar, and red hair People she recognized fro to hear a va in except for the glitter in their eyes and the slightly hungry way they scanned the crowd Some of them even dressed pretty well

She didn&039;t see Amelie anywhere, or Myrnin, or Oliver, and they were all pretty notable by their absence She did see the unpleasant Mr Pennywell, though, looking s and remote and sexless in his plain black jacket and pants He was sitting at a s everyone pass She had the strong feeling he was like those people who stood in front of the lobster tank to choose as going on their plate

Ugh

"Everything okay?" Shane asked her, and she realized that he wasn&039;t talking about the va else like that He quickly auess so" She must not have see the stairs, looked around, and headed her toward a s Nobody near thelow of the light on the wall People moved past in a stream, but nobody seemed to look

"I need to be sure," he said "Because I don&039;t want you to think Kim is coht about her twice"

But, by i her to Claire And Claire couldn&039;t be totally sure she inning, either "It&039;s just that everybody thinks she&039;s so interesting And I&039;m just - you know"

"A supersmart apprentice to a bipolar vampire, not to mention just about the only person in town A" Shane&039;s warm hands cupped her face and tilted her chin up so he could ht "There That&039;s better"

"Why?" The word trembled on her lips, a restrained wail of bitterness "So you can see how ugly I look, coot so deal In a week you&039;ll have a killer tan, and everybody will be wondering where you got the spray-on stuff It doesn&039;t matter Not even a little Get me?"

She didn&039;t want to cry, and for a wonder, she didn&039;t She gulped in one hitching breath, held it, and let it slowly out, and that was it

Then she sht then Because I love you Reh her nerves and took up a hot glowing spot somewhere just below the pit of her stomach "I remember," she said "I love you, too"