The afternoon sun filtered through the curtains in my room, painting golden stripes on the bed where Caleb and I had lain. My parents had left, leaving the house silent, a silence now filled with the rapid beat of my heart. Caleb was beside me, his large, warm body occupying the space as if it had always belonged there. His ebony skin glowed in the light, a beautiful contrast to my pale skin, like the night enveloping the moon. Since the night before, when he found me in the break room after my transformation, something had changed between us. His concern, his tenderness in caring for me, had deepened the bond that united us, a bond that wasn't like the one I played math with Ethan—forced and painful—but free, passionate, a fire that consumed me without burning me.
"You're thoughtful," Ca
