The Purity of Blood: Volume I (46 page)

Again looking
around the table, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
 
I should be too.
 
I’m young and away at college.
 
I should be sowing my wild oats or something,
shouldn’t I?

“So, I don’t
remember seeing you in here before,” Steve said.
 
He touched my arm, distracting me from my
thoughts.

“That’s because
I’ve never been here.”

“You should
stick around.
 
After ten thirty they
close off that side for a dance floor and the place goes crazy with the loudest
music.
 
The DJ is really good.”

“I’m not much of
a dancer.”

“You don’t need
to be.
 
You just feel the music and do
what you want.
 
It’s great.”

I glanced over
at Tabitha.
 
The guy next to her was
obviously hitting on her and she was beginning to look more than a little
uncomfortable.

“So how often do
you do this?” I said in her ear as I leaned her way.

“Two or three
times a semester at most.
 
Just enough to
keep them off my back.”
 
She indicated
towards her friends.
 
“I have to live
with them if you can believe it.”

“Would you hate
me if I said I was ready to go?”

“No,” she
laughed.
 
“If you can hang on another
half hour, I’ll have fulfilled my quota with them and I’ll walk back with
you.”
 

I nodded in
agreement and turned back to Steve who was now talking to the bubbly blonde
who’d answered the door for me before.
 

Picking up the
drink, I tried another sip wondering if it would grow on me, but upon second
inspection that didn’t seem to be the case.
 
Deciding I’d had enough, I put it back down on the sticky table and
decided to go to the bathroom to kill a few minutes.

On my way back
to the table I was waved over to the bar by two guys who sat by me in psychology.
 
They always seemed friendly so I strolled
over to say hello.
 
As soon as I joined
them they poured a beer from their pitcher and handed it to me.
 
I looked at it warily and took a sip.
 
It was better than the other thing I’d tried,
but I still wasn’t sure about it.
 
I
talked to them for a while about what they thought of our class and in turn
they asked me many of the same questions Steve previously had.
 
I sipped on the beer and did a better job of
pretending to be interested in their small talk, but it was difficult
considering that the music kept getting louder.
 
Over the pounding beat coming from the huge speakers I could barely hear
a word they were saying.
 
But I guess I
didn’t really care.

A few minutes
later Tabitha came up behind me and grabbed hold of my elbow.
 
Without a word she took the half empty glass
out of my hand, placed it on the bar and practically dragged me out the
door.
 
Confused by her behavior, I waved
over my shoulder and hastily said my goodbyes as she yanked me forward towards
the exit.

“What was that
about?” I asked when we gained the sidewalk.

“My friend
started getting a little grabby so it was time to go.
 
I see you made some new friends.
 
They were kind of cute,” she said as we
started the walk down South Chestnut Street back towards campus.

“I know them
from one of my classes.
 
They’re nice
enough.”

We continued
walking for a minute and as we passed the windows in front of Bacchus, another
restaurant / bar, a couple of guys inside tapped on the glass to get our attention.
 
I stopped and looked up at them for a
moment.
 
As they waved for me to come
join them, I must have looked like I was considering it because Tabitha grabbed
me by the arm again and started pulling me along.

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night,” she
said, trying not to laugh as I fell into step beside her.

When I finally got back to my
room it was late for a school night and I went straight to bed.
 
Before settling in, I downed a couple of
aspirin and a bottle of water hoping to stave off the headache I could feel
beginning to form behind my eyes.
 
A few
minutes after I’d turned out the lights, the phone rang.

“Did I wake
you?”
 
Daniel’s voice said softly.

“No, I just got
home a few minutes ago.”

“Where were
you?
 
Kind of late isn’t it?”

“I went to a
place called The Gryffon in town with some girls.”

“I’m only gone
one day and you’re already hanging out at the seediest pickup joint in town?”

“Tabitha dragged
me along.
 
She was dragged by her
roommates.
 
Is that what it is, a pick up
joint?”

“It’s a tawdry
college bar.
 
They pretty much all are,”
he said, sounding a little irritated.

“I can’t say
much for the drinks they serve either.
 
So when are you coming home?”

“I’m not sure –
soon.
 
Things here are a little
complicated to go into on the phone.”
 

He sounded
evasive again and I was willing to let it drop until I heard a high pitched
female laugh echoing in the background.

“Complicated,
huh?” I said sarcastically.

“I’ll explain
when I get back.
 
Get some sleep.”

I was about to say
I
love you
when he abruptly said “Goodnight,” and hung up.

In the morning I had class with
Professor Walker and for the second time, I wasn’t looking forward to it.
 
His tone of voice on the phone still echoed
in my ears with a humiliating ring.
 
When
he walked into class he seemed like he was in a better mood than usual and I
hoped he’d forgotten about our brief but all too embarrassing conversation.

“I’ve decided to
shake things up a little this semester, and attempt to broaden your horizons a
bit more than usual.
 
Each of you will be
completing a project with a partner.”
 

Immediately
people started looking at their neighbors to begin pairing off.
 

“Before you get
ahead of yourselves, you will not be partnered with a person in this
class.
 
Each of you will be paired with a
student in one of my history classes.
 
Together you will write a paper on the artist I assign.
 
In it you will tell how that artist was
influenced by the history of his time and how he himself influenced the times
he lived in.
 
It will allow the History
students to view history from a more artistic point of view, and for you to
view the artist in a broader historical context.
 
Rodney will be posting the names that I have
paired off on the bulletin board, so please check the board on your way out to
get the name of your partner and your artist.”

When class ended
there was a rush up the stairs to the bulletin board.
 
Hoping the crowd would thin out before we got
there, Tabitha and I took our time packing up our things.
 
When we got to the top of the stairs I picked
up the flyer with all the particulars of the assignment from a side table then
walked over to find my name on the list.
 
It sounded like an interesting assignment.
 
Of course I had to imagine the success or
failure of it all depended on who you got for a partner.

“You’re not
going to believe this,” I said to Tabitha who was still looking for her name.

“What?
 
Who’d you get?” she asked.

“Ben.”

“Seriously?
 
What are
the odds?
 
That’s great though, he’s
super smart.
 
I got some girl I’ve never
heard of before.
 
Hopefully she won’t
turn out to be some kind of flake.”

I ran into Mike on the way into
the dining hall later that evening.

“Where’s your
better half?” I asked with a smile.
 
I’d
been making an effort all day to forget how my conversation with Daniel had
ended last night and how he hadn’t called me at all today.

“Oh, she’ll be
along in a while.
 
She got held up trying
to track down some girl she has to do a project with, so she sent me on
ahead.
 
So what looks good for dinner?”
he asked as we started down the cafeteria line with our trays.
 

After we paid
and took seats at our usual table, Ryan joined us.
 
He seemed in a better mood today.
 
I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if that
had anything to do with the speed bump I’d hit with Daniel.
  
I hoped not.
 
Maybe I gave him too much credit, but I was under the impression Ryan
was a better man than that.

After Tabitha joined
us Mike turned to me.

“So I hear you
hit the bars with Tabitha last night.”

“What?”
 
Ryan’s ears perked up.

“Well, one of
them,” I answered. “But I wasn’t that impressed.”

“I’d have been
surprised if you were.
 
There are only
four or five bars that the college kids go to and they don’t have much
incentive to fix them up.
 
Not enough
competition.”

“You should have
called me.
 
I’d have gone with you,” Ryan
complained.

“It was ladies
night, Ryan,” Tabitha said with her sarcastic humor.

“I like ladies,”
he smiled back.

“We know,
Ryan.
 
We know,” Mike added, doing his
best to stifle a laugh.

Just then Ben
strode up to the table and sat down across from me.

“So, it looks
like we’re partners now,” he said as he smiled my way with those heavenly
chocolate brown eyes.

“Partners in
what?” Ryan asked.

“Crime,” I
answered sarcastically.
 
Ryan really was the
nosy one this evening.

Suppressing a
laugh, Ben answered “A joint History/Art History Class project.
 
We got paired up together.”
 
He turned back to me.
 
“Did you look at the details?
 
Looks like we only have a couple of weeks to
work on it.
 
It’s a lot of research to do
in a short period of time along with our other course work.
 
I think we should probably start as soon as
possible so we’re not in a hurry to get it finished on time.”
 

I agreed and we
made a date to meet in the library the next morning to see how far we could
get.
 
Since Daniel was out of town I
figured I might as well fill my time up.
 
Besides, I knew he wasn’t going to be happy that I would be spending
time with Ben so it was best to do it while he was out of town.

Eating dinner, I
tried to hide my disappointment that Daniel wasn’t back yet.
 
It seemed like we spent the biggest bulk of
our time together on Saturdays and I was beginning to think it wasn’t likely
that I’d see him at all tomorrow.
  
All
of a sudden, I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes and turned my head to the
side as I tried to dash them away as inconspicuously as possible.
 

Why couldn’t Daniel love me like I loved
him?
 

But the answer
seemed obvious even to me.
  

As I finished my dinner and pushed my tray away, Ben caught
my eye.
 
He smiled as if he was trying to
cheer me up.
 
I guess I must have looked
sad.
 
I know that’s how I felt on the
inside.
 
I did my best to return his
cheerful smile and sighed.
 
I did feel
better when I looked into his eyes.
 
Strange, I wonder why.

Right on time Ben showed up in
the front of the library.
 
I’d been early
as I hadn’t slept very well last night.
 
Truth was I hadn’t slept much over the past few nights.
 
When we walked inside I instinctually headed
to my usual spot upstairs in the genealogy section.
 
As it turned out, it was convenient for our
project as the majority of the books we wanted were all on the same floor.

We’d been assigned
Gustav Klimt as our artist.
 
I was
vaguely familiar with his work but not a whole lot.
 
We pulled all the books that we thought we
might want and piled them in the middle of the table.
 
After dividing up some of the work, we dived
right in.
 

A while later, I
went online and started scrolling through images of his work.
 
Klimt liked women, that much was for
certain.
 
His pictures always seemed to
have a sensuousness about them, even his landscapes if that was possible.
 

I peered up at
Ben over the top of my screen.
 
He was
leaning back in his chair with his nose in a book, his brown eyes and thick
eyelashes fixed on the pages of whatever it was he was reading.