by M.E. Timmons
Chapter 14
It was a good thing Mr. Ramirez was there, because his shield was the only thing that kept me from being killed. The large wolf hit the shield, which sparked with blue light at the contact, and he fell to the ground, momentarily stunned. I was a little stunned as well, but I moved toward him anyway.
It took him only a few seconds to get back to his feet. He snarled at me, but then he stopped. Some change came over him, like he was waking up from a dream. He stopped snarling and he backed away from me, back through the door to his room. I followed, and he growled at me, but I didn't stop until I was kneeling in front of him. He was backed into a corner, so he had nowhere to go unless he went at me again, but I could tell he didn't want to. He had recognized me.
I went back to the door and closed it, but there was no way to lock it from the inside. Mr. Ramirez's face appeared in the window and I thought he would open the door and force me to leave, but he just shook his head and walked away. I then went back to Adrian, who was still cowering in the corner. There were pieces of debris scattered around the room that were covered in claw and teeth marks which I had to step over.
His eyes met mine, and I reached forward to feel his fur. He didn't move at all, but he continued to watch me. I ran my hand down the fur on his side, which was coarse and long, and then I moved my hand to his head. The fur there was much softer.
"See? It's not so bad," I said. "You can handle being around me."
He shook his head and got up and paced back and forth across the room. He stopped to look at me, but only for a second before resuming his pacing. He did not like being in there with me.
I ended up staying the whole night. I hadn't really intended to, and I was surprised that Mr. Ramirez hadn't kicked me out. I guess when he saw that Adrian was done trying to kill me he decided that I would be safe. Adrian and I ended up sitting next to each other, and I was leaning against his warm body. I don't even remember falling asleep, but I woke up in the morning and was still there. I knew it was morning because Adrian was sleeping next to me, and he was no longer a wolf. He was also completely naked, which I tried to ignore. I elbowed him to wake him up.
"Good morning," I said when he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times before his expression changed.
"I don't think 'good' is the word I would use to describe it," he replied. I could tell by his tone that he was angry. I didn't even need to see the swirly torrent of color around him, which was good, because I was avoiding looking at him.
"It's the weekend; of course it's good."
"You're insane. I almost killed you last night, and you're acting like nothing happened."
"Well, the way I see it, you didn't kill me. Of course, I don't have you to thank for that. You should try looking before you attack. Or maybe you should try not attacking at all."
Adrian was really angry now, and almost shouting. "You don't know what it's like! I wasn't really myself, and you came out of nowhere. It was instinct. You should never have come here in the first place." He got up and left, completely ignoring his nakedness.
When he was gone I stood up, and I realized that I still had the rose in my pocket. I pulled it out gently, but it was already crumpled. The petals fell off in my hand, and some of them fell slowly to the floor. It made me sad to see such a magnificent flower ruined, but when I held it up to my nose, it still smelled beautiful. When I closed my eyes I could imagine that it was still whole. I opened my eyes and it was still a mess, so I laid it on the floor, not wanting to look at it.
I snuck out to get back to my room. Mr. Ramirez was helping the werewolves get some clothes, so he didn't notice my escape. A few of the students did and they eyed me with interest, but they didn't say anything to me. I was glad that I didn't see Jack, though he'd probably hear about my being there from someone else anyway. He definitely wouldn't be happy about it.
I thought for the rest of the day that Mr. Ramirez was going to come find me and get me expelled or something, but it didn't happen. The next time I was in his class I stayed afterward to ask him why he hadn't reported me. He told me that there weren't actually any rules related to what I had done, other than being out of bed at night, so I hadn't broken any that were important. Apparently no one had ever tried to sneak in to see a werewolf during a full moon before.
Adrian stayed mad, though I didn't think he was mad at me, even though what I had done wasn't exactly smart. He seemed to be mad at himself. I saw fear when he was around me, which grew to be less often. He stopped sitting by me in Calculus, which was pretty much the only time I saw him anyway. It hurt me, but I didn't let him see that. I hoped things would change, but a part of me knew things wouldn't go back to the way they were.
If Jack had heard about me being down in the rooms that night, he didn't say anything to me. He acted completely normal, so I figured he hadn't heard. It bothered me to be keeping so much from him, since I never really had before. It was one thing to do it to protect him, but this time I was doing it for myself, and I felt guilty.