"I was wondering what kind of girl could have botched up a rescue attempt so badly. Now that I know it was you all along, everything makes sense."
"Go away."
Rome runs his nose down the side of my face, smiling at the way I shiver. "After all thes...
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JADE AND RUBY ARE THE TWO CATS WHO GUARD OVER THE CURRENT GENERATION OF MY FAMILY. Jade, with eyes that glow green during the night, sits at the end of the couch. Ruby, whose coat is in colors of copper brown and sunset orange, stretches across the rug of my parents living room. In a similar fashion, I lie across the couch and stroke Jade with the back of my hand.
The fan above me spins in a lazy circle. It does nothing to take away the heat on this summer day. My sister, Tamala, sits on the puffy armchair. She switches through the channels on TV with no purpose in mind. We both jerk as we hear my name.
"...Winifred Hart, along with her mate Rome Abernathy, went to the SAVE Academy," A man chuckles, eyes hollow and dead. "As news of this broke out, many forums online have begun to question why the two of them had not mated sooner..."
I cover my eyes with my arm.
"It's been a week and they're still going on about this," Tamala groans. "What's so special about you that they can't shut up?"
"It's Rome that they're interested in," I point out. "Not me."
"All they do is talk about you though. Check," She turns up the volume. "They've even got people at your high school talking about you."
I drop my arm to check out the TV. A girl with twin ponytails an enlarged smile beams at the camera, talking all about the ways Rome and I interacted in the library. How we kept glancing at each other out of the corner of our eyes and there was some secret connection between us even back then.
"I've never even seen her before," I grumble.
"You should go online and tell everybody the truth."
"...I can't. Delacruz would crush me."
"Poor darling Winnie. If things keep going on like this, you're going to be reduced to nothing but trophy wife material. And you're not even pretty to be considered a trophy wife-status - ouch," She adds as I hit her with a pillow.
Jade perks up, as he always does when he senses a fight.
"Chill out," I tell him and give his fur a playful ruffle.
"Are y'all still watching this trash?" Mom comes inside from a basket full of herbs she picked from the community garden. Both the cats rise to their feet to greet her. "Don't you two have something better to do with your time?"
"It's all Winifred's fault. This is all the news reports on these days," Tamala complains, but changes the TV to a home design show anyways. "Besides, you should see one of those celebrity gossip channels. All they're discussing is how far along the mating process Rome and Winnie have gotten into -"
"Okay," I interrupt, peeling myself off the couch. "I'm going to go take a shower."
"No more than fifteen minutes," Mom calls. "That's how long it'll take for dinner to be ready."
