over the course of one hundred and eighty-eight years, max had gone through the collegiate cycle no less than thirty times. he had degrees ranging from neuroscience to agricultural accounting. anything that mildly interested the immortal from cork, he had no shortage of time to pursue. yet, somehow, every time the inevitable acceptance letter came from whichever university he’d chosen, siobhan was as excited as any mother. she’d spend a small fortune on supplies and clothes despite knowing max was more than capable to provide those things for himself. you’d think after a while the novelty of it would wear off, but siobhan was nothing short of intense– in stature & emotions.
over the countless hours spent in class rooms, the tens of thousands of classmates he’d been in close contact with, max had all but mastered his ability to suppress the thirst… until about a month ago. a man in his class, jay, had tested his reserve to the point of breaking. max had always made it a point to never hunt where he lived and applied that rule to universities as well. but this one… there was something about him, about his scent, that made him want to rip the boy’s throat out. yet he found jay so immeasurably beautiful that the thought of killing him felt like a crime beyond murder, of which max was a thousand times guilty of.
he’d taken a short sabbatical to france, hunting profusely in the countryside with henri & yvette. they urged him to just kill jay and not deal with the thirst but max refused to take this life. part of him knew that if he killed jay, his face would haunt him for the rest of his eternal days. he knew it would be better for him to just drop out and go to any other university in the world, but he couldn’t bare the thought of not seeing him, not being cradled by the scent of him. he’d have to push through, for as long as he could, for his own sanity.
after he felt he’d been properly sated, he made the journey back to dublin and returned to class. he arrived late and wandered into the lecture that had already begun. before his eyes landed on the man who’d caused him so much stress, max could smell him & the fire burned painfully in the back of his throat. despite the struggle, max climbed the steps carefully until he was seated next to jay. his mind poured over the different ways to instigate a conversation with him but each one seemed more inadequate than the last. the audible ticking of the clock finally forced his hand and max swallowed deeply before letting his gaze turn to jay. “have I missed anything exciting since I left?”
