“The [bowling] ball flew out jerkily, sailed about four feet, hit the lane with a loud crack, and then promptly entered the gutter. Roman walked up beside me, and we silently watched the ball complete its journey.'Are you always that rough with balls?' he asked finally.'Most men don't complain.”

“I don't suppose you offered to help?""Sage," Adrian declared. "These hands don't do manual labor." He knocked another ball into a hole. "You want to play?""What? With you?""No, with Clarence." He sighed at my dumbfounded look. "Yes, of course with me.”

“Oh," he said, knocking a red ball into a hole. "It's you.""You were expecting someone else?" I asked. "Am I interrupting your social calender?" I made a big show of glancing around the empty room. "I don't want to keep you from the mob of fans beating down your door.""Hey, a guy can hope. I mean, it's not impossible that a car full of scantily clad sorority girls might break down outside and need my help.”

“You approve?" I asked, spinning around.He slipped an arm around my waist. "Unfortunately, yes. I was hoping you'd show up in something a lot sluttier. Something that would scandalize my parents." "Sometimes it's like you don't even care about me as a person," I observed as we walked inside. "It's like you're just using me for shock value." "It's both, little dhampir. I care about you, and I'm using you for shock value.”

“The other problem in my life is Dimitri. He's the one who killed Natalie, and he's a total badass. He's also pretty good-looking. Okay-more than good-looking. He's hot-like, the kind of hot that makes you stop walking on the street and get hit by traffic. But, like I said, he's my instructor. And he's twenty-four. Both of those are reasons why I shouldn't have fallen for him. But, honestly, the most important reason is that he and I will be Lissa's guardian when she graduates. If he and I are checking each other out, then that means we aren't looking out for her.”

“He exhaled loudly and raked a hand through the sable brown hair he always kept stylishly messy. "Look, Rose. You don’t have to keep up with the hard-to-get thing. You’ve already got me.”

“Do you know anythingabout silent films?”“Sure,” I said. “The first ones were developed in the latenineteenth century and sometimes had live musicalaccompaniment, though it wasn’t until the 1920s that soundbecome truly incorporated into films, eventually makingsilent ones obsolete in cinema.”Bryan gaped, as though that was more than he’d beenexpecting. “Oh. Okay. Well, um, there’s a silent film festivaldowntown next week. Do you think you’d want to go?”I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. I respect it as anart form but really don’t get much out of watching them.”“Huh. Okay.” He smoothed his hair back again, and Icould almost see him groping for thoughts. Why on earthwas he asking me about silent films? “What about Starship30? It opens Friday. Do you want to see that?”“I don’t really like sci-fi either,” I said. It was true, I found itcompletely implausible.Bryan looked ready to rip that shaggy hair out. “Is thereany movie out there you want to see?”I ran through a mental list of current entertainment. “No.Not really.” The bell rang, and with a shake of his head,Bryan slunk back to his desk. “That was weird,” I muttered.“He has bad taste in movies.” Glancing beside me, I wasstartled to see Julia with her head down on her desk whileshe shook with silent laughter. “What?”“That,” she gasped. “That was hilarious.”“What?” I said again. “Why?”“Sydney, he was asking you out!”I replayed the conversation. “No, he wasn’t. He wasasking me about cinema.”She was laughing so hard that she had to wipe away atear. “So he could find out what you wanted to see and takeyou out!”“Well, why didn’t he just say that?”“You are so adorably oblivious,” she said. “I hope I’maround the day you actually notice someone is interested inyou.” I continued to be mystified, and she spent the rest ofclass bursting out with spontaneous giggles.”