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Chapter 1

“SoulBook: Because You’d Sell Your Soul to Be in Our Top Ten.”  Those were the words that Claire saw emblazoned across the top of Nathaniel’s web browser as Claire sat down at his computer.  She clicked on the tab titled “Welcome to SoulBook.” 

There was a simple webpage with Nate’s picture on it and a couple of columns with the usual inane subjects like interests, favorite movies, and music.  She jumped when the page started playing one of Nate’s favorite songs.  Man, she hated web pages with music!  What caught her eye was the list of friends.  At the very top of his friends’ pictures was a photograph of, quite possibly, the sexiest man she’d ever seen.  Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes scanned the picture.  His hair was all one length around his cheeks.  It looked like it was made of dark spun gold with coppery highlights, and his eyes were golden too.  He must have had contacts in.  No one had eyes that color naturally. The name underneath it said Gabe. 

Claire jumped like she’d been caught looking at porn when she heard Nate’s voice behind her.   “What are you up to, Claire?”

She tilted her chin up and grinned at him.  “Who’s this guy?” 

Nate gently shooed her hand away from the mouse and clicked on his picture bringing up another profile that seemed to belong to Gabe.  It took every bit of her self control not to click on the little link below his picture that promised more views of this lovely man.  “I dunno.”

“What do you mean?  He’s one of your friends.”

“Yeah, but he and Cal are on everyone’s friend’s lists by default when you join.  I think they like own the company or something.”

“He’s yummy!”

Nate made an irritated sound, and Claire closed the window.  She couldn’t believe that Nate still had a crush on her.  She’d been making it clear for months that she wasn’t interested in anything but a friendship with him.  She really did love Nate.  It was just that she thought of him as a brother, so the thought of anything romantic totally squicked her out.

“Why aren’t you in your room anyway?”  Nate was folding the clothes he had just gotten out of the dryer.

“I forgot some dishes under my desk, and it stinks in there.  I’m waiting for it to air out.”

“God, Claire, you’re so disgusting sometimes!  And why did you forget them again?”

She turned her eyes to the ceiling and whistled, but he gave her a look and she laughed.  “We were raiding, and I lost track of time.”  Claire played an online role-playing game that she absolutely loved.  She was a cute, little elf fighter and could kick some major booty. 

“You’re such a nerd!”

“No, I’m not! I’m a geek, thank you very much.” 

“Well, you’re the hottest geek I know.”

Claire hopped up and quickly steered the subject to a new course.  “So let’s go out to eat and then go dancing.”

“Don’t you have classes tomorrow?”

She groaned and rolled her eyes.  He was as bad as her mother!  “Yes, but only one day of classes then it’s the weekend.”

Nate laughed, and she knew the day was won.  “Fine, but only if we get to have sushi for dinner.”

“Yay, sushi!”  Claire bounced and gave him a kiss on the cheek.  “I’ll just go get dressed.”

            When she emerged from her room, she was wearing a short black mini, fishnet stockings, and a blood red bustier laced with a black satin ribbon.  Nate gave her the once over.  “You look like a vampire.”

            She winked at him.  “Perfect.”  Her hair was dyed a lovely shade of deep black and cropped short so that it fell in layers around her cheeks, and it stood out against her pale skin.  She even had on a pair of burgundy contacts that blended with the blue underneath to give her eyes an almost purple tint.  They were so much fun that she almost never left the house without them.

            Their dinner was scrumptious.  Oh, how she adored her California Rolls!  They spent hours after they ate at The Violets, a local Goth club, dancing and drinking just a little too much.  When they stumbled out of the taxi and up to the apartment they shared, Nate stopped her at the door, and before she knew it, he had her pressed up against the door with his tongue in her mouth.  She shoved him back and pushed past him into the apartment before turning on a very disappointed-looking Nate.

            “Jeez, Nate!  How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t want to have that kind of relationship with you?”  Her voice was loud enough that one of the neighbors on the other side of the paper-thin wall must have gotten irritated because two loud bangs interrupted the silence that followed her words.

            He looked absolutely furious.  The tone of his voice when he finally spoke made her take a step back.  “Well, what the hell do you expect, Claire?  You shake your ass in front of me all night, and I’m not supposed to react.  You’re such a tease!”

            She felt like someone had just thrown a bucket of scalding water on her head.  “A tease?  I was just dancing, Nate.  It wasn’t like I had grab here tattooed on my boobs!”

            He threw up his hands in irritation and retreated to his room, slamming the door behind him.  Within seconds she heard the song that he’d had playing on his SoulBook page and heard his fingers clicking away at the keyboard. 

            Claire stomped to her own room.  How dare he make her feel guilty!  She wasn’t a tease.  She hadn’t done anything to give him the impression that she was interested.  All she’d done was dance.  Why did he always have to misinterpret everything? 

            She ignored the flashing message on her computer letting her know that there was new mail waiting for her and collapsed on the bed without even bothering to undress.  Within moments she’d fallen into a restless sleep.

             Claire didn’t wake up until the sun coming in the windows roused her the next morning.  Something seemed off in the apartment, but she couldn’t place what it was.  She padded barefoot from her room to the coffeemaker.  That was it.  There was no coffee.  Nate always made the coffee in the mornings.  He was as much of a caffeine addict as she was.  Suddenly she wondered if he was even more angry than she’d thought.  Maybe he’d gone over to a friend’s so he didn’t have to see her.

            She groaned, walking to his bedroom door, and when she got there she could hear the loud whir of his computer’s fan.  He never left his computer on.  He was so much against it that he would lecture her for hours about leaving hers on all the time.  Claire got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and it took everything she had to reach for the doorknob.

What she saw on the other side of the door took her breath away.  There was a bottle of the painkillers that Nate had gotten when he sprained his back lying next to his keyboard completely empty.  She knew he hadn’t taken many of them when he was hurt.  He never liked taking medicine even when he really needed it.

Nate was lying on his bed with his back to her.  She watched for a long time, but couldn’t see any movement whatsoever.  Her body seemed to go into autopilot as she crossed the room to his side.  When she saw his eyes, she crumpled to the floor.  His usually clear brown eyes were glazed over and staring back at her completely devoid of life.