House Of Night Chosen | Page 4

his arms his smile was slow and a little
surprised, which made my heart hurt. I'd been putting the kid
through way too much—and he didn't even really understand why.
Impulsively, I tiptoed and kissed him, much to the general
merriment of my friends.

"Hey, Erik, why don't you spread some of that birthday
sugar around?" Shaunee wagged her eyebrows at my grinning
boyfriend.

"Yeah, sweet thang," Erin said, and in typical twin fashion Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

mirrored Shaunee's eye waggle. "How about a little b-day kiss over
here."

I rolled my eyes at the twins. "Uh, it's not his birthday. You
only get to kiss the birthday boy or girl."

"Damn," Shaunee said. "I lurve ya, Z, but I don't want to
kiss ya."

"Just please with the same-sex kissing," Erin said, then she
grinned at Damien (who was gazing adoringly at Erik). "I'll leave
that to Damien."

"Huh?" Damien said, clearly paying more attention to Erik's
cuteness than the Twins.

"Again, we say—" Shaunee started.

"Wrong team!" and Erin finished.

Erik laughed good-naturedly, gave Damien a very guy-like
punch on the arm, and said, "Hey, if I ever decide to change teams,
you'll be the first to know." (Yet another reason why I adore him.
He's mega-cool and popular, but he accepts people how they are and
never gets an I'm-all-that attitude.)

"Uh, I hope I'll be the first to know if you change teams," I
said.

Erik laughed and hugged me, whispering, "Not something
you ever need to worry about," in my ear.

While I was seriously considering sneaking another Erik
kiss, a mini-whirlwind in the form of Damien's boyfriend, Jack
Twist, burst into the room.

"Yea! She hasn't opened her presents yet. Happy birthday,
Zoey!" Jack threw his arms around us (yes, Damien and me) and
gave us a big hug.

"I told you that you needed to hurry up," Damien said, as we
untangled.

"I know, but I had to make sure it was wrapped just right,"
Jack said. With a flourish that only a gay boy can pull off, he
reached into the man purse looped over his arm and lifted out a box
wrapped in red foil with a green sparkly bow on it that was so big it
practically swallowed the package. "I made the bow myself."

"Jack's really good at crafts," Erik said. "He's just not good
at cleaning up the crafts."

"Sorry," Jack said sweetly. "I promise I'll clean up right after
the party." Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

Erik and Jack are roommates, further proving Erik's
coolness. He's a fifth former (in normal language that's a junior) and
he's also easily the most popular guy at school. Jack is a third
former (a freshman), a new kid, cute but kinda dorky, and definitely
gay. Erik could have made a big deal about being stuck with a queer
and could have gotten out of rooming with him, and made Jack's
life hell at the House of Night. Instead he totally took him under his
wing and treats him like a little brother, a treatment he extends to
Damien, who has been officially going out with Jack for two point
five weeks as of today. (We all know because Damien is
ridiculously romantic and he celebrates the half-week anniversaries
as well as the weekly ones. Yes, it makes the rest of us gag. In a nice
way.)

"Hello! Speaking of presents!" Shaunee said.

"Yeah, bring that overbowed box over here to the present
table and let Zoey get to opening," Erin said.

I heard Jack whisper to Damien, "Overbowed?" and caught
Damien's help look, as he assured Jack, "No, it's perfect!"

"I'll carry it over to the table and open it first." I snatched the
package from him, hurried to the table, and started to carefully
extract the ginormous green sparkly bow from the red foil saying, "I
think I'm going to save this bow because it's so cool." Damien gave
me a thank-you wink. I heard Erik and Shaunee snickering and
managed to kick one of them, which shut both of them up. Putting
the bow aside I unwrapped and opened the little box and