Today, I’d like to introduce you to another character from Midnight Bites, Luna. You met Eugene a few weeks ago. Luna is seventeen going on twenty-seven (despite her age, Midnight Bites is not Young Adult novel) and she’s in her first year at the University of Texas. The novel takes place pre-COVID. Luna is ready to take on the world, just not the world she’s planned on taking on.
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I love being in college! Just one more year, and Mamma says I can move into a dorm. Marcus says it’s stupid for me to live in a dorm when we already live so close to campus, but he’s such an old man. You’d never guess he’s only two years older than me if you met him.
My friend, Scarlett, thinks Marcus is hot, but I don’t see. Scarlett knows absolutely everybody. She took me to this bar the other night. Awesome! I met this guy, Thad, so handsome. He smart and plays sports and is mega popular. Scarlett says Thad like me, too. He thought I was a junior like him. Can’t wait to see him at the party next week. Now, I just figure out a way to get out of having to work that night.
Mamma opened this coffee shop/cafe. I hate working there. It’s so not fair! None of my friends have to work. Every night in class, someone sits next to me and says I smell like coffee. I hate smelling like coffee. I never even used to drink it. Now I drink it all the time.
And the carbs! OMG! Mamma partnered with this chef who bought half the cafe. He makes the absolute best croissants I’ve ever had. And he bakes all these other pastries that I can’t even pronounce. Well, I say Max bakes all these things, but it’s really Flo who does the work. She’s a trip. She loves baking: Why? I don’t know. She’s always covered with sweat and flour.
Anyway, I was saying going to tell you about the chef, Max. Weird guy. Hardly ever see him around, and when he is here, he sits in the back and that one table that’s always in the dark, and these people are always coming in to talk to him. Flo says he comes in super early and bakes, but she gets there at like o’dark-thirty. How much earlier can he get here? I think he’s a gangster. Mamma says that’s silly. I have to admit, CC, the red-headed woman who comes in to see him is pretty cool. Nothing like I would have expected for a gangsters girl-friend, but then she’s married or maybe living with this guy, who a little off, if you know what I mean.
All this I could handle, but the nightmares have come back. Even at the coffee shop, when it’s very quiet, and it’s very late, I look outside and I see those yellow eyes just watching me, just like they did when Tony disappeared- I mean, when he died. That’s when everything changed. I just wish the yellow eyes would go away, then I wouldn’t be afraid anymore.
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Hello, Luna.