Covet (Clann)

windsuit.
    Then she tugged the band from her hair, letting it fall to her shoulders.
    More noise as Ron came in behind her. He tugged on a piece of her hair, and she turned to smile at him and say something that was lost beneath the thumping beat of the music. A few seconds later, Anne, Carrie and Michelle joined them in the entrance area, followed by a handful of trick-or-treaters. Savannah grabbed a big orange plastic bowl from the side table and held it out so the kids could take handfuls of candy. She put the bowl back on the side table, said something to her friends and boyfriend, and they all went in separate directions.
    Alone at the front door, Savannah started to drop her bag by the side table, then froze, her eyes widening.
    I’d seen her freeze like that countless times before. It meant she knew I was here somewhere.
    She looked to the left, scanning the packed room then the equally stuffed room to her right. Frowning, she toed off her sneakers and carried them with her as she ran up the stairs and down the landing toward the right. She opened the last door, ducked inside and shut it.
    I should go. She was probably hiding now that she knew I was here. Besides, Emily would be looking for me soon.
    I stood there for several minutes, torn between what I should do and what I needed.
    Eventually my feet carried me up the stairs and down the landing to her door.
    At my knock, there was a long hesitation before she called out, “Yes?”
    I opened the door and stepped inside.
    Seated in front of a vanity, Savannah’s hand froze in the act of brushing her hair. “Tristan. What are you doing here?”
    “Sorry. Thought this was the bathroom.” I didn’t bother trying to sound convincing.
    “What are you doing at my house? Are you crazy?” she muttered. “There’s a vamp council member here tonight. If he sees you…”
    I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Does he regularly come up to inspect your room?”
    She made a face. “No.”
    “Then how will he know I’m in here with you?” She opened her mouth to argue. “And don’t even say vamp hearing, because there’s no way he can hear us over all the noise downstairs.”
    She sighed.
    I slowly walked around the room, looking at the shelf filled with glass ballerinas and pictures of her friends and the Charmers. No pictures of me anywhere, of course. Then I saw the snow globe I’d given her last year for Christmas and had to keep my back turned to hide my smile.
    Yeah, she still thought about me.
    I looked down at my feet. “Nice hardwood. Pretty good for dancing?”
    “I don’t dance anymore.”
    “Since when?”
    Shrugging, she finished pulling her hair up into a bun. She’d changed into a pink leotard and tights with a glittery blue tutu.
    I stated the obvious. “You don’t dance anymore, but you’re going as a ballerina this year?”
    “No. A fairy. Just gotta add these.” She picked up a set of see-through, glittery wings I hadn’t noticed from her bed and crisscrossed the ribbons over her chest then down and back. But the ribbons weren’t long enough to wrap all the way around her back and to the front again to be tied. She must have planned on having Anne help her tie them. Or maybe Ron.
    “Here.” I closed the distance between us, took the ribbons from her shaking fingertips and tied the satin at her back. I was tempted to let my fingers touch her skin, but I didn’t. It was a miracle that she hadn’t kicked me out of her room as it was.
    “Thanks,” she murmured. She sat down on the bed to pull on her slippers, glancing up at me in the process. “So what’s with you crashing the party? Curious to see how the local vamps are living nowadays?”
    I stared at her, silently letting her know how much I didn’t appreciate the vamp humor. She knew better than to believe I would ever think that way about her.
    She ducked her head to focus on tying the ribbons from her slippers around her calves.
    “So I’ve been hearing some interesting things about you and your new boyfriend.” Crap. I hadn’t meant to bring him up.
    “Who?”
    “Ron Abernathy.”
    She made a face and stood up to check herself in the full-length mirror that hung on the wall beside her open closet door. “I’m not dating him. He’s Anne’s ex.”
    “And yet you’re still seeing him. Does Anne know about the two of you?”
    She sighed. “Whatever you think you heard about us, you heard wrong. Ron and I are just study partners. I would never date my