Read The Awesome for Free Online Page B

wouldn’t hide behind a veritable stranger to save my hide. Or maybe it was that people who didn’t seek out monsters didn’t have to deal with them. Everyone knows monsters exist, of course, and are aware of the dangers they can present, but monsters keep to themselves. If they didn’t, the DoPR (and by association the hunters) would be after them. Terrorizing norms flew in the face of a very basic self-preservation tenet.
    Whatever the case, I slept like a fat drunken baby, waking up feeling pretty good in spite of the previous night’s antics. I tried rolling over to get out of bed, but a long wiry arm held me tight, anchored around my waist. A bare leg, all furry and full of boy cooties, rested between my calves.
    “Wake up. I need to leave,” I said, deciding I no longer needed to be polite. Ian failed his quest to do me, and that meant instead of impressing him, I could be more of an ass. Well, more me-like anyway, which tended to be ass-like.
    His answer was to mumble and nuzzle at the back of my neck.
    “No, really. I have to pee. I could pee in your bed if you want.”
    It was amazing how the threat of rampant urination got people moving. “Don’t have to scream, Melissa. M’right here.”
    My breath caught in my throat. I shouldn’t have cared that he’d called me his ex-girlfriend’s name. It wasn’t like I hadn’t used him, or tried to use him, when he was drunk and vulnerable after a break up. Of course, he’d climbed into bed with the first girl that threw herself at him, so that didn’t make him a champion of all that was rainbows and unicorn sparkles, either.
    “Maggie.”
    “Mag... oh shit. Right. I... shit. I’m sorry.” He lurched upright behind me. I craned my head over my shoulder to peer at him. He looked like he’d been shot at and missed, shit at and hit. His carefully-gelled spikes were limp atop his head. Plum-colored circles shadowed his eyes, his skin washed out and sickly green. “I’m really... really sorry. Like, I don’t... I usually don’t do this so...”
    “I bet you say that to all the girls.” I scooted down to the foot of his bed to search for my panties. Somehow, they’d ended up hanging from the front of his dresser, and I snagged them from the knob, wiggling into them as discretely as possible.
    “No. I don’t fuck people I don’t know. I’ve only... there was only Melissa so I... “
    “You don’t owe me any explanations.” I grabbed my pants from the floor and tugged them on, uncaring that I was pointed butt first in his direction. After someone’s played around with your no-no parts, ass shots didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. “And we didn’t fuck so much as pretend we were going to and then you passed out on me, so... yeah.”
    It was cruel to say it like that, and by his near-pathetic groan, I knew I’d struck a nerve. It’s what I’d wanted, to let him know exactly how badly he failed me, so then why did I feel like such a dick for saying it? “Sorry. I more mean it’s cool, we didn’t get that far so you’re off the hook.”
    “I don’t want to be off the hook. This sucks.”
    He watched me shrug into my shirt, a frown pasted across his mouth. I paid no attention to the buttons and thus misaligned the sides, but by the time I noticed I’d ventured into wardrobe malfunction territory, I couldn’t bring myself to care. It felt weird in here now, awkward and tense, and I wanted to rouse Julie so I could go home. The sooner I could put this mini-disaster behind me, the better.
    “You know, we should hang some time. Like, go out for reals, you know? You can give me your number and... “
    “I don’t have a phone,” I said. He made another gurgling groany noise, and again I felt like a jerk. I sighed and approached his mirror, licking my thumb to dab at the mascara smudges under my eyes. I wanted to play it cool, distant and chill like I was a frost queen, but I couldn’t stop myself from stealing a glance at him in our