Hidden (House of Night #10)(66)

"All right, yeah, sounds good, but I have no idea where they might be. Do you? Is that one of the gifts you have?" Shaylin asked.

"Goddess, you are brain damaged. No, I don't have a GPS inside my head. I do have a brain inside it, though. It tells me that if Erin and Dallas are doing the nasty, it makes sense to start looking for them in Erin's dorm room-the dorm room she doesn't share with Shaunee anymore."

"Oh. Yeah. That does make sense." Shaylin hesitated. "But I don't know which dorm room is hers."

"Third floor, number thirty-six. When they shared a brain, they used to say it stood for their chest size. I said it was their combined IQ."

"Of course you did," Shaylin said.

"See, you do understand me!" Aphrodite said with fake enthusiasm. "I'll meet you back at the bus. Soon." Aphrodite started to walk away, paused and added, "Please."

Shaylin's eyes widened.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, obviously preparing to say something hateful. Then she stopped, stared above her for one long moment, before glancing at Shaylin and saying, "Looks like you're getting your wish. The rainclouds are clearing." Then Aphrodite tossed her hair and twitched off.

Shaylin shook her head. "Total nutjob," she muttered to herself as she made her way to the girls' dorm. "Nyx, I don't know you very well, and I don't want you to think I'm rude or blasphemous or anything like that, but Aphrodite as your Prophetess? Why?"

"No one knows, and I think that includes Aphrodite herself."

Shaylin jumped in surprise as Erik Night stepped from the shadows of a nearby oak tree.

"Erik! What are you doing out here?" Shaylin's hand went to her throat. She imagined Erik could see how hard her pulse pounded there, and not just because he'd startled her. Her first view of him was always the same-his absolute, total, tall/dark/handsomeness was obvious and distracting. But then she got a glimpse of his colors and they weren't nearly as attractive. Shaylin had decided he was like one of those gorgeously painted pieces of pottery that you'd like to use to toss a salad in or whatever, but if you flipped the piece over you'd see the WARNING: DO NOT USE TO SERVE FOOD label.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm out here procrastinating." His smile was a zillion-watt lightbulb. Shaylin could see why almost one hundred percent of the fledgling girls were in love with him. The problem was, she could also see more than his gorgeousness.

"I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'll let you get back to your procrastination. See ya."

"Hey." He touched her arm, just for a moment as she walked past him, coaxing her to pause. "I thought we were friends."

Shaylin studied him. When Erik had Marked her his colors were mostly made up of an indecisive, pea green that overshadowed the bright flashes of something that might have been golden, like the rays of the sun, but were too fleeting for her to be sure. Other than that he'd just been kinda foggy and wishy-washy. She hadn't paid much attention to his colors the past few days, so when she focused, Shaylin was surprised to see that, even though his green was still there, it had lightened and now it didn't bring to mind mushy peas. Instead it reminded her of turquoise, like pretty sea foam green turquoise. And all around the green-blue the foggy mishmash of gray had lifted, revealing a solid tan, like the sand of a beautiful, untouched beach. Feeling a little like she'd fallen into deep water, Shaylin tried not to look nervous and blurted, "Yeah, we are friends, but that's all."

"I didn't ask for anything else, did I?"

Shaylin met his eyes. They were bright and blue, and spent way too much time wandering south to her boobs. Of course, saying something like "you totally want to be friends with benefits" sounded way too much like something Aphrodite would say. So instead she chose a nicer answer. "No, you haven't asked for anything else."

He smiled again. "So, we can be friends?"

It was hard not to smile back at him, and truthfully, she couldn't think of a reason not to. Shaylin grinned and nodded. "Yep, friends."

"Awesome! How about I walk you to wherever you're going? I can procrastinate just as well with you as I can by myself."

"What are you procrastinating about?" Shaylin avoided the question of where she was going and just kinda meandered in the general direction of the dorms. Slowly.

"Lesson plans," he said with a sigh. "I really hate writing them. You know, I never meant to be a professor."

"Yeah, everyone knows that. You were meant to be a movie star," Shaylin said. She spoke in an offhand manner. She hadn't meant to be patronizing or sarcastic, but the hurt in his blue eyes said she'd probably sounded both.

"Yeah," he repeated in a clipped voice, turning his gaze away from her and stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Everyone knows that."

"Hey, but this Tracker thing is just a little speed bump in the road to Hollywood, right? What are you, twenty-one?"

"Nineteen. I just completed the Change a few months ago. Why? Do I look old?"

Shaylin laughed. "Twenty-one isn't old."

"It is if you have to add four years onto it, and I've just started a four-year Tracker job."

"Does being a Tracker mean you have to stay at the House of Night in Tulsa?"