Milo’d tried to spin this as a trip in celebration of my eighteenth birthday last week, and in a way, it kinda was. Mae threw a little party for me, with a cake that only Bobby could eat. She gave me a lovely dress, and Daisy made me a card.

I got in the shower, and the cold water did wonders for me, but I couldn’t shake the trepidation. Something was off, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I thought about calling Jack back in the States, but I hardly ever got any reception. Besides, I didn’t want to alarm him. He’d been convinced that this trip was a horrible idea, but it hadn’t been that bad. A little dull, maybe. Jack’s real fear, of course, was Peter.

When I got out of the shower, I went over to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. Amongst my bras and underwear, I’d hidden Peter’s present to me. A beautiful diamond encrusted heart-shaped locket. I loved it, but I had no idea how to explain it to Jack.

Nothing was overtly wrong with Peter giving it to me, but Jack wouldn’t approve. For my birthday, Jack had a Muppet specially made to look like me and had taken me scuba diving with the sharks at the aquarium. They were pretty awesome gifts and I loved them, but they weren’t the same caliber as expensive jewelry.

Then again, Jack had also given me immortality, so he kinda had Peter beat.

“Is it cooler in here?” Milo opened my bedroom door without knocking, and I dropped the necklace in the drawer and slammed it shut.

“Um, I don’t know,” I said, taking a step away from the dresser.

“I think it’s hotter in here,” Milo groaned but walked into my room anyway. Like Peter, he had decided that shirtless was the way to go. “It’s got to be at least a hundred degrees here!”

“Have you tried the pool?” I asked.

“Yeah, right.” Milo wrinkled his nose and flopped back on my bed. “The sun’s still out, and even if it wasn’t, you’ve seen the pool.”

Something was wrong with the filtration system, so skeavy green moss covered the pool. There seemed to be something wrong with everything in the house. Apparently, it had been even more rundown when they bought it, but Peter and Mae were fixing it up. But the pool didn’t work, the air went out, the wrap-around porch sagged, and the roof needed replacing.

I went over and pulled back the heavy curtains, looking outside. The sun stung my eyes, and I stared out at the emptiness. They didn’t have a neighbor for miles, and everything looked dry and faded. I slid open the window and a hot breeze wafted in, but at least it was better than nothing.

“I’m starting to think this was a bad idea,” Milo said wearily.

“It’s not that bad. I mean, other than the heat.” I sat on the bed next to him. Beads of sweat stood out on his chest, and he looked up at me, his big brown eyes dejected. “You’ve had fun seeing Mae, right?”

“Kinda,” he shrugged and looked away.

Milo had been the baby, the one that had garnered all of Mae’s attention until Daisy came along, and she required a lot more than he did. He wasn’t a real jealous person, but this struck a nerve with him. Being ignored by our real mother had been bad enough, let alone her replacement. 

“What’s Bobby doing?” I asked, hoping to cheer him up by talking about his boyfriend.

They’d been together for four months, and they weren’t “meant for each other,” not the way vampires are, but there was still something there. Bobby made Milo happy, and he was a good guy.

Bobby mostly lived with us back in Minneapolis, and despite my initial hatred of him, he’d really grown on me. Some of that probably had to do with the fact that I’d bitten him, bonding us together slightly. It tended to drive Milo nuts, but we couldn’t do anything about it.

“He’s sitting in front of a fan in our room,” Milo said, scratching absently at his arm. The spiders here were crazy about him. The bites didn’t really hurt him, but they left irritating, itching bumps for hours. “Even the heat is getting to him, so you know it has to be bad.”

“He’s probably just used to living in our climate,” I yawned. We hated being hot, and we constantly kept our house at frigid temperatures. Plus, we had just come from winter in Minnesota. “Ugh! It’s too hot sleep!”

“Tell me about it.” Milo looked up at me. “What time is it back home? Maybe Jack’s up.”

“I don’t understand the time difference. You tell me.”

“I don’t know what time it is here,” he said and made no effort to find out. “Have you talked to Jack lately?”

“The other day. The reception here is so shoddy, it’s hard for me to get through.”

My heart ached at the thought of him. I was bonded with Jack, so it was painful to be away from him. It had lessened a bit over the last few months, but it still wasn’t anything where I’d enjoy not being around him.

“How are things there?” Milo asked.

“The same, I guess. Ezra is moping around the house, and Jack can’t wait for us to get back.”

“I still can’t believe that Ezra hasn’t talked to Mae,” Milo looked a little wide eyed over it, and I felt the same way.

No matter how mad or frustrated I might get with Jack, I couldn’t imagine going months without talking to him. It would be like going months without eating.

Bobby shrieked from his bedroom down the hall, but Milo and I were slow to react. Spiders had been infesting their room since we arrived, and Bobby screamed like a girl every time he saw one. Admittedly, some of them could actually kill him, but most of the time, he’d already stomped on them by the time Milo or I came to the rescue.