by Sara Dailey
I guess I was healing faster than a normal human would, too.
Mom handed me a pill and cup of water. I tried, I honestly tried to smile and thank her, but I couldn’t. The only thing I saw when I looked at her was betrayal. It was hard to smile at someone who’d been lying to you for your entire life.
“Why don’t you come downstairs and visit with us for a while?” Mom asked.
“Nah, I’m good here.”
“Aiden, we miss you. You haven’t come out of this room since we got back. Not really. It will do you some good to get out of this bed,” she pleaded.
“Mom, I know you’re trying to make this all okay, but I need you to back off. I need some time. Everyone just needs to leave me alone for a while.”
She put the cup of water on my nightstand and backed toward my door. Just before she left she looked down and said, “When you’re ready to talk… Aiden, I really thought I was protecting you from everything I ran away from. I didn’t know it would all turn out like this.”
Then she turned and headed outside and down the hallway. I didn’t have time to respond. Not that I would have known what to say.
6.
Teagan
“Hey, Teagan, wait up!”
It was Alli Wright. She was yelling from across the school parking lot, headed my way with Cade Walker. Close behind were a few other choice members of The Beautiful People: Cami Moore, Becca Sumner, Shari Jones, Luke Stanton, Sammy Cook. All people I could definitely live without. They could usually do without me, too.
Against my better judgment I stopped and waited. I mean, I love Alli, I really do. Even though we only met a month or so ago, she’s been a great friend, always nice, never intrusive, but the crowd that she hangs with now is, well…they’re hateful-ass douche bags, and that’s putting it nicely. I especially didn’t want the day ruined by Cade, a.k.a. the Evil One’s boy toy. What was Alli doing walking with him anyway? At least Kendall was nowhere to be seen. Last year, Kendall Stuart and her crew had made my first week at Red Ridge High a nightmare, and all I’d done was introduce myself to her in class. I had to endure a week of horror simply because I said, “Hi, my name is Teagan.”
Yes, I would have expected Kendall on Cade’s arm, ruling the school as Queen Bitch of Red Ridge’s cultish group of beautiful people, but instead it was Alli hurrying my way with Kendall’s man. Weird.
While Alli and Cade stopped to chat, the rest of their crew thankfully continued into the school. “Hey, Alli. How was your Thanksgiving?” I asked, giving her an awkward hug.
She glanced at Cade before answering. “Interesting, to say the least. What about yours?”
“It was okay.” I didn’t want to discuss the home situation, and there wasn’t much else to say. Also, I might not have known Alli for long, but I could read her face and knew that I was going to hear a really juicy story in first period. There was no point in competing.
Cade slipped his hand into Alli’s. Then, before my brain could register what my eyes were seeing, Alli said it, the absolute last thing I expected to hear, not to mention the absolute last thing I wanted to hear.
“Teagan, this is my boyfriend Cade.”
This couldn’t be happening. The douche bags had taken over the only nice person in their strange, exclusive little clique?
I took a short breath before I said anything I’d regret, planted a friendly smile on my face and said, “Hi, Cade. I think we might have met before.”
He held out his hand to shake mine. “Well, it’s nice to meet you again, Teagan.” Then he turned to Alli, gave her a sweet peck on the cheek and politely left us to catch up. Either that, or he could only stand to be around someone like me for short bursts of time. As if my boring normalness might rub off on him.
I knew I was being a jerk about it, but Cade was one of them, a freakishly beautiful, freakishly exclusive asshole, and it kind of pissed me off that the one person I actually liked in this hellhole of a school was now the girlfriend of its King Jackass. I wondered what the hell had happened with Kendall, anyway. I had a feeling I would soon find out.
Alli and I chatted on the way to first period, but it was nothing more than small talk: the weather, the dreaded upcoming semester exams, and Christmas shopping. Both of us seemed to be skirting what had happened over holiday break. I was dodging because I knew Alli didn’t want to hear that my dad was a drunken bastard who found a way to ruin anything and everything around him. She didn’t want to hear how the day we’re supposed to give thanks had ended with him ranting again about my mother’s mysterious disappearance, how my mother would have never left us. How he liked to use me as a punching bag because he was so drunk and angry that he didn’t know what else to do. How he would finally pass out and then act like nothing had happened the next morning—that was, until he drank his fill and it started all over again. No, that wasn’t really the usual how-was-your-holiday conversation, and I figured Alli could give it a miss. But I was growing more and more curious to hear how and why Alli had ended up with Cade Walker as her boyfriend.
As she and I took our seats she finally said, “Okay, Teagan. I can totally tell you’re weirded out about the whole Cade thing.”
Thank heavens! I’d started to think that she wasn’t going to spill the story.
“No, not at all,” I said. Damn. Sarcasm was dripping from my lips. Though I’d known I had to choose my words carefully, I hadn’t been able to help myself.
Alli just smiled and sighed. “I knew you would react this way.” She didn’t say it like she was mad, though; more like she was trying to comfort me. I almost expected her to reach out and grab my hand like we were in a counseling session. Thankfully, she didn’t. That would have been kind of creeper-esque.
“Okay, here’s the deal. Cade was the mystery guy I’ve been talking about for the last few weeks. I know you think I’m crazy, Teagan, but he is really great and Kendall is totally out of the picture now. In fact, she left town and we never have to see her again.”
What? Kendall left town? That was awesome.
About the rest, though…well, I wasn’t sure what to think. I mean, it wasn’t like Alli and I were lifelong friends or that who she dated was any of my business at all. My opinion shouldn’t have even mattered. So, why was Alli sitting there looking at me like she needed my approval?
I wasn’t getting any answers by sitting silent, so I finally responded with, “Well, that’s the first good news I’ve heard in a long time. No more Kendall Stuart? Hallelujah! Praise the good Lord above.”
Alli laughed, and the tension in the air seemed to lessen. A bit.
Okay, I decided, so what if my friend was dating Cade Walker, head jackass of the school and the king of Red Ridge’s Beautiful People clique? A true friend would think something like, As long as she is happy, I am happy. And she was clearly trying to be a true friend to me. I tried my hand at being the same.
“I think it’s great, Alli. You and Cade, I mean. You seem really happy.”
She seemed to sense my wariness. “They aren’t all bad, Teagan. Really, they aren’t. I know how it seems, but some of them are really nice and normal.”
I just gave her a doubting look. I couldn’t help it.
“Seriously, Teagan! I mean it. Just sit with us at lunch today. You’ll see. Things are different now. Promise.”
Did she really expect me to sit with those people? Kendall might be gone, but Becca, Shari, and Cami were still around. I’d seen them gathered at Shari’s locker earlier, so it was only a matter of time until one of them took over Kendall’s reign as Queen Bitch. Kendall might have been the lead mean-girl, but they’d all had a hand in treating me like a worthless piece of shit when I moved here and the only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t going to get involved with them. Ever. My dad might be crap, but he taught me one thing: A tiger can’t change its stripes. That means people are who they are, and those people—Cade’s people—were assholes.
Ms. Wallace came in to start class, whic
h was something of a reprieve for me. I leaned over and whispered, “Thanks for the invite, but I have some work to do in the library during lunch. I promised my friend Sean that I would tutor him in French. Maybe some other time.”
But I think we both knew that it would never happen.
*****
At lunchtime, I hurried down the crowded hall toward the library, as I really was supposed to meet Sean outside. He and I had been friends since the day I moved to Red Ridge, but only school friends, nothing more. He’s one of the only guys I know who is capable of being just-friends with a girl. It’s not that he’s not boyfriend material or anything; I’d just never had those kinds of feelings for him. Plus, if he was the least bit interested in being more than a friend, he’d never done anything to show it. Which was just fine with me. That would only make things awkward.
Maybe he’s gay. Either way, I count myself lucky to have a guy like him around.
He was standing outside the library, eyeing me with his typical thank-God-you’re-here-to-save-me smile. As I walked up, he reinforced the sentiment.
“So, I’m flunking French. Like, really, really flunking.”
Poor Sean. He’d never been the brightest crayon in the box, but he played football and soccer, and he was the lead in almost all the school’s musicals so he could usually squeak by with a passing grade in his classes; it was kind of an unspoken rule to take it easy on the top athletes. Unfortunately for him, Ms. Jones our French teacher was relentless. She wouldn’t hesitate to fail you by one measly point and smirk while she did it. Students lovingly referred to her as the devil incarnate.
I supposed I would have to try to pry him out of her grasp.
7.
Aiden
My fears of humiliation were unfounded. With all the attention I was getting, you would have thought I’d just saved the world from alien invaders who wanted to jab giant straws up our noses and suck out our brains. The attention didn’t stop when I told everyone that I hadn’t gotten hurt saving the world but skiing, either.
I was used to attention from the ladies, to be honest. Back in Houston, I pretty much had my choice of any girl I wanted, and trust me, I took full advantage. But since I got here, it’s been different. Maybe this whole werewolf thing has thrown me off my game. But this level of attention was crazy.
It started as soon as I got out of the car that morning, and it hadn’t stopped since. On the way to school I’d been feeling a little self-conscious because the bruises and cuts on my face hadn’t healed completely. I was healing faster than a regular human, but I still looked like shit. Interestingly enough, the girls didn’t seem to mind. Especially Becca, one of Kendall Stuart’s old friends and one of the hotter, more popular girls from the werewolf enclave.
“Omigod! Aiden, your poor face!” she exclaimed as she walked up, interrupting Ashley, who was just about to give me her number—you know, just in case I needed anything. With Nurse Ashley brushed aside, Becca hugged me gently, careful not to hurt my shoulder.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I said.
“You can’t lie to me, sweetie,” she whispered. “I have a sixth sense about these things.”
“No, really. I’m doing better. The doc gave me some painkillers, but they aren’t too helpful. So, yeah, I guess it still hurts a little.”
Becca smiled and took my arm. I didn’t remember offering it, but what the hell, I just went along with her, not sure what else to do. But as we made our way down the school hallway I noticed scowls on the faces of the girls who had flirted with me earlier that morning. Not that I was interested in anyone at the moment, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I’m not a total asshole.
I tried breaking free of Becca, but she wouldn’t have it; the girl literally had a death grip on my arm. Which was strange. Up until this morning she’d just been a friend. I’d been fine with that, and from what I’d been able to tell, so was she. So, I couldn’t help but wonder what had changed her mind. What had she heard or decided over break?
“This is me,” she said, slowing to a stop and nodding to a science classroom. Then she stood on her toes and whispered in my ear, “Meet me after?” She didn’t wait for a response, either. Turning, she walked into class like what she’d done was the most normal thing in the world, like I was hers for the taking.
I fought back annoyance. Was this all a way of marking her territory? Becca might as well have peed on my leg. For that matter, all the pack girls were acting strange. Why? What had they heard? The additional attention from them that had previously been kind of cool was now just annoying.
I didn’t need Becca using me as arm candy, so I decided not to meet her after class and pretty much hid from her for the rest of the morning. She needed to realize that I didn’t belong to anyone, especially not her.
Just before lunch, Alli tracked me down. “Hey, Ad, how you holding up?” Of course Cade was with her. Like always.
I was happy for my sister, really. It was just a bit weird. She didn’t date anyone for almost a year, and then at seventeen years old she finds herself the happy victim of a werewolf thing and suddenly “mated for life” to my newly discovered biological half-brother? All of those things just sounded…wrong. Their relationship really messed with my head. I was trying to be supportive and— Well, I was trying at least not to vomit. Alli and Cade weren’t blood-related in any way, but still. No matter how you spun the whole my-sister-is-dating-my-half-brother situation, it still sounded disgustingly incestuous.
“I hate to admit it,” I told Alli, careful not to draw the attention of any students passing by, “but maybe you and Mom were right. I really want to be at home in bed.”
Cade kind of chuckled and pulled me aside. He leaned in, making sure no one else could hear as he whispered, “A little overwhelming, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The attention,” he said, looking around. He was trying not to laugh. “Sorry, man, I should have had Allison warn you that it would be like this. There’s just something about girls and wounded animals. Females—wolf or human—they just can’t seem to help themselves. It’s like they can smell it on you.” Then Cade did chuckle.
Really? They could smell it, or was he just screwing with me? Surely, that couldn’t be true, but I didn’t want to ask and sound like even more of a dumbass. God, I totally sucked at being a werewolf. If only I could run outside and go roll around in some mud, just in case. Maybe then I’d get some peace.
“Look, why don’t you go find a quiet spot in the library to hide out for a while?” Cade offered. “Alli and I will bring you something to eat.”
“Nah, I’m not hungry,” I said. “But I think I will go hang in the library for a while. None of the girls will be in there. Thanks, man.”
From where she stood, just a few feet away, my sister gave a weak little smile like she felt sorry for me then turned to leave with Cade. I started to walk away, myself, but stopped and made sure they wouldn’t mind keeping my location a complete secret. The last thing I needed was to have them think Becca or any of the other girls had special clearance or anything. Nothing sounded better than being alone.
Walking to the library, I kept my head down and tried really hard not to bring any attention to myself. I could feel the girls’ searing eyes on me as I passed, but I refused to look up, hoping they would all just keep going. Most did, but a few said hi. Some even touched my arm as they passed. I gave them each a small smile, just so as not to be a total ass, but otherwise I kept going, hoping none of them would actually follow me. I ducked into the bathroom to lose any who considered it.
I could feel myself relax as soon as I entered the library, turned and saw that I was still alone. The tension in my neck and back dissipated, and even my shoulder felt a bit better. The space here was warm, quiet, and nearly empty. All I needed now was a comfy couch and it would be lights out.
I walked over to a large old recliner and all but collapsed into it. Instead of
taking my much needed nap, however, I reached into my backpack for my copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God that I needed to finish for Ms. Watson’s class. While I usually enjoy reading, this book was work, and I hadn’t gotten a chance over break so now I was way behind. I forced myself to stay awake and at least try to get some of it read, but only one chapter later my head popped up and I looked around, searching for…I wasn’t quite sure what.
Suddenly, time seemed to freeze. Something overcame me, something so beautiful, so oddly familiar and overwhelming at the same time. It was a scent like no other, and it was pouring off of the girl who’d just sat down at one of the tables across from me.
8.
Teagan
Sean was making his way toward the comfy couch and chairs when I stopped him.
“Uh, I don’t think so, Sean. Let’s sit over here so we can actually get something done,” I suggested as I led him to a nearby table. As we settled in I assured him, “No worries. We’ll get you caught up. We always do. Did you go by your locker and get all of your missing assignments?”
Sean pulled a stack of papers from his binder and grinned.
“Nice,” I said. “You do realize that in order to pass a class you have to turn in your work, don’t you? No wonder you’re ‘like, really, really flunking.’”
His face fell. “I know. I just hate Ms. Jones. And I don’t get her instructions, especially since she’s speaking French the whole time. How the hell am I supposed to know what to do when I don’t speak French?”
Suppressing a laugh, I said, “L'immersion est la seule manière d’apprendre vraiment une langue.” In response, Sean made a huge production of huffing and shooting me dirty looks, so I reminded him, in English this time, that Ms. Jones firmly believed that immersion was the only way to truly learn a new language. Of course, her methodology didn’t take into account those who might completely drown during the process. Like Sean. Poor Sean.