Bloodline

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

"And then I told him, uh, no, sir, you don't call me honey. I ain't nobody's honey."

I smiled at Amenti's story as we walked through town, headed to the bar where we planned to meet with Holly, Keros, and a couple more of the infamous cousins. I was really excited to see Keros again. A part of me ached to be near him again, ached for another kiss. It was such an odd sensation, to want, to need. To lust. To... love? Maybe? Was that what this was? Was that where this was going?

It blew my fucking mind.

Just like the stories Amenti fed us of her daily life as a barista at her dad's coffee shop in town. What should be a boring mundane life was so lively and full of color when listening to Amenti talk about it. You met so many new people, some good, some bad. You learned how to make different drinks, the different components, things I'd never thought of before when it came to coffee. And of course, this all explained why Amenti herself smelled like roasted coffee beans.

"I'm a walking Starbucks," Amenti exclaimed laughingly. I had no idea what that was, but I guess it had to do with the coffee smell. It was pleasant. Amenti was pleasant. She was friendly and outgoing, super nice and accepting. She was just easy to be around.

Lumen was growing on me quickly too. She was also friendly and warm, and while Amenti did most of the talking, Lumen did a lot of listening and asking questions to continue Amenti's stories. She was curious and made hilarious jokes. I liked Lumen.

Hadrian... he was another story. I wasn't sure how I felt about him just yet. He was certainly weird. He did a lot of listening too, I think. It was hard to tell when he showed about as many facial expressions as a brick wall. When he did speak, it almost sounded rehearsed, like he practiced in front of the mirror a few times before he came back with it. Other times, his responses were just plain fucking rude, but Lumen and Amenti took them in stride.

My... cousins were a weird bunch, and I had a feeling it was only going to get weirder from here on out.

We finally reached the bar after about an hour and a half. It was what I expected from a bar, according to textbooks. It was a little hazy, thumping with music so people had to yell over it to be heard. The brick walls were painted bright green with dark red booths to contrast, wooden paneling on some of the walls, the smell of fried food and smoke filtering through the air. There were a lot of people too, so we had to kind of squeeze our way through the crowd with Amenti leading our group.

She took us to a booth in the corner of the bar, nice and spacious with drinks already lined up for us. Holly was the only one there and the moment she saw us, she squealed and leapt to her feet. She did a running jump into Amenti's arms, wrapping her legs around her waist and hanging onto her. Amenti spun her around for a moment before placing her on her feet again and they did a kiss thing on each of their cheeks.

"Hey, baby," Amenti greeted warmly, "Looks like you got started without us." Holly barked a laugh.

"If I tried to drink all these, I would actually die," she assured, getting a laugh from Amenti and Lumen, "Nah, I ordered all of our usuals. Ah, except I didn't know what to order for you, Sev, so I got you a mojito to start out. It's a popular Atlantean cocktail." I blinked, caught off guard by A) the nickname, and B) that she ordered me a drink too.

"Thanks," I said, then looked around, "Where's Keros?"

"He's on his way from work," Holly replied, then gave me a coy smile, "Don't worry, your boyfriend will be here soon." Amenti's eyes widened.

"I didn't know you two were dating," she said, turning to look at me. Heat climbed into my face.

"Ah, I..." I didn't know what to say. It felt wrong to say no we weren't dating, because... I mean, we'd gone on a couple dates, right? Did that make us boyfriends? Or was that rushing it? How the fuck did dating work and why did everyone have to know except me?