Insider (Outsider Series)

by Micalea Smeltzer

I let my arms drop back down. “How do you know?”

  “I came to check on you last night and found this bed empty but another one suspiciously full.”

  I hung my head and shoved my long hair out of my face. “I can’t sleep without him anymore not since-”

  “Say no more,” she held up a hand. “Just don’t keep things from me Sophie, kay?”

  “Okay,” I nodded. “Sorry mom.”

  “Get dressed, I’ll make breakfast.”

  She closed the door behind her and I let out a big breath before flopping back on my bed. That went way better than I could’ve ever expected.

  I made the bed that I hadn’t even slept in, and dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt.

  I knocked on Caeden’s door and he opened it, pulling on a t-shirt over his baggy basketball shorts.

  “What?” he asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and then ruffling his wavy hair.

  “My mom knows where I slept last night.”

  He glanced down the hallway and then back at me before whispering, “Should I expect to be hung from a tree in your backyard?”

  I laughed. “No, she understands.”

  “Phew, that’s good,” he rubbed neck. “I don’t think a hanging would be very pleasant.”

  “I don’t think it’s meant to be. Mom’s making breakfast,” I nodded my head down the hall.

  He yawned. “Good, I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving,” I said.

  “Especially since you ate my dinner,” he said with a grin.

  I smacked his side. “It was a little piece of chicken, you baby, and that hardly constitutes dinner.”

  He laughed and danced down the hallway, his feet thwacking on the tile. “Just don’t eat my breakfast.”

  I shook my head at his antics.

  I took the time to stop and admire the pictures mom had hung in the hallway. The beige paint hardly peeked through, the wall was so covered. There was a picture of me on my bike without training wheels, and then one taken only a few moments after the one before it of me crying my eyes out over my skinned knee. There was one of me as a baby sleeping on my dad’s chest, me with missing teeth, school pictures. The whole hallway was basically devoted to pictures of my childhood. It brought tears to my eyes.

  “Sweetie?” mom said.

  “Yeah?” I turned to her and wiped away a tear.

  “Are you crying?” she asked and concern etched her face.

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Why honey?” she asked and wrapped her arms around me in one of her warm hugs. Her distinct scent of freesia nearly knocked me over. Several months after my transformation most things, like my new sense of smell and sight, seemed normal but every once in a while something would threaten to overwhelm me.

  “I just miss you guys,” I said. “Most kids think they don’t need their parents but I do. I need you mommy.”

  “Aww baby girl you’re breaking my heart,” she said and suddenly her southern accent was thick. It usually got that way when she was concerned. I hugged her for a good five minutes before I pulled away. I never wanted to let go.

  “Sorry, I needed that,” I said.

  She smiled. “We always need our mothers pretty girl,” she said and wiped my wet cheeks. “Come on,” she tilted her head down the hall, “breakfast is getting cold.”

  I giggled. “If dad and Caeden haven’t eaten it all by now.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “That’s very true.” She patted my shoulder before leading me to the kitchen and practically shoving me into a chair.

  Dad and Caeden were sitting at the table waiting patiently for breakfast. Thank the lord they hadn’t started eating or it would all be gone. Mom handed us each a plate.

  “Homemade chocolate chip waffles? Am I in heaven?” Caeden asked as he looked at his plate with wide blue eyes. “Sophie I don’t think we’re ever going home.”

  I laughed. “Your mom can cook.”

  Caeden shrugged. “Yeah, but lately she’s on this health food craze. If she makes me eat one more bowl of organic spaghetti I’m gonna go all Alpha on her ass.” He looked up at my parents and blushed. “Butt I meant butt.”

  “That’s not what you said,” my dad grinned and slapped Caeden on the back. He sipped his orange juice before saying, “You kids should do something fun today. Explore the town.”

  I shrugged. “Sounds like fun.”

  * * *

  It was raining. No, raining was an understatement. This was a torrential downpour. I turned to Caeden. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”

  “Me neither,” he said and took my hand. He pulled me to the couch and down beside him. “It’s too bad cause I kinda wanted to check out the town.” He scratched the back of his neck.

  I stretched out and laid my head in his lap. “Maybe we can go out tomorrow.”

  He threw one of his arms across the back of the couch and then played with my hair with the other.

  “If you keep doing that,” I yawned, “I’m going to fall asleep.”

  He chuckled. “Please don’t fall asleep. I’ll be bored out of my mind if you do.”

  I sat up and rested my head on his shoulder. I nuzzled his neck and soaked in his unique smell. Pine, cinnamon, citrus, and wood. It was the best smell in the whole world.

  “What should we do then?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Do you think your parents have any board games?”

  “I’m sure they do,” I said. “Let me ask.”

  I hopped up from the couch and bounced into the kitchen where mom was cleaning up from breakfast.

  “Mom?”

  “Oh!” she jumped and put a hand to her chest. “I thought you two had left. You startled me.”

  No dip. Her reaction totally hadn’t clued me into the whole startled thing.

  “It’s raining wolfs and panthers out there so we decided to put off exploring until tomorrow. Do you have any board games?”

  Were board games named board games because most of the time you played them when you were bored? Hmm.

  “I don’t know. You know we usually don’t pack that kind of stuff when we move. If there are any they’ll be in the right drawer of the entertainment center.”

  “Thanks,” I said and kissed her cheek.

  She smiled and swatted my backside with a dishtowel. I danced away and into the living room.

  Caeden was leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. He brightened when he saw me.

  “She said if there were any they’d be in here,” I said and bent down on my knees to open the drawer. The tiles were hard against my knee. Mom had covered the white tiled floors in a fuzzy rug to add some softness. Too bad the rug didn’t cover the whole room.

  I yanked the drawer open and went sprawling on my backside. “Ow,” I said and rubbed the spot.

  Caeden cackled.

  Old DVDs, magazines, and instructions to various items littered the drawer. I lifted them out and sorted them into neat little piles. At the bottom of the drawer was an ouijia board. I pulled it out and looked at Caeden. “I guess this is it. You game?”

  “I’m not going to die if I mess with it right? A ghost isn’t going to attack me? I don’t do paranormal.”

  I laughed so hard that I had to wipe tears from my eyes. “You don’t do paranormal? For lord’s sake Caeden you turn into a wolf. If that’s not paranormal then I don’t know what is.”

  I set the ouijia board down on the floor.

  “Sophie, put that thing away. I am not communicating with spirits. Nuh-uh. Not happening. Ever,” he said and slashed his arms back in forth in a no gesture.

  “Fine,” I sighed and put it back in the bottom of the drawer. “No ouijia board.” I packed the other various items back on top. I placed my hands on my thighs and said, “What do you propose we do then?”

  “Watch a movie and snuggle?” he grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

  I laughed. “For someone that was dead-set a
gainst not touching or kissing me while we’re here you’ve really changed.”

  “What can I say? You’re parents love me. I’m just so full of awesome sauce.”

  I laughed and then launched myself at him so that we ended up a tangled mess of legs and arms. He kissed my nose before untangling us. He sat me down on the couch and then crawled over to the entertainment center. He shuffled through the movies and looked at me with a quirked brow.

  “Looks like it’s either Despicable Me or Up? Unless you wanna watch these?” he held up a boxed set of movies on the Civil War.

  “Despicable Me,” I said and sat Indian style on the couch and flipped my hair over my shoulder so it would be out of my way. “I am not in the mood to watch a grumpy old man with a penchant for balloons.”

  Caeden laughed. “Little weird green men it is.”

  He popped the DVD in and settled beside me on the couch. He shucked his shoes before stretching out and pulling me against his warm body.

  Caeden skipped the previews and pressed play. His hand gently rubbed my back in an up and down motion. His warmth felt so good and I loved the feel of my cheek against his chest. I sighed in pleasure and snuggled even closer to him.

  Mom poked her head in the doorway. “Do you want some popcorn? Cookies?”

  “Both please,” Caeden said.

  “No problem,” she twirled around and entered the kitchen.

  I stifled another yawn and Caeden chuckled. “You act like you didn’t get any sleep last night.”

  “I think I’m jetlagged and you know I hate planes so that whole traumatizing experience has probably added to my exhaustion.”

  He laughed. “Or a flirty redhead.”

  I smacked his chest as hard as I could.

  “Ow,” he said and rubbed the spot where I had hit him.

  “Do not bring up that whore-monkey again. She’s lucky I didn’t claw out her eyes.”

  “Whore-monkey?” he laughed.

  “It was the first thing that came to mind,” I snapped which only made him laugh harder. I was tempted to hit him again just for the fun of it.

  Mom came into the living room with a big bowl of popcorn and two bottles of water. “Here you go,” she handed the popcorn to Caeden. “It will be a little while on the cookies. I decided to make them homemade.”

  “You didn’t need to do that mommy,” I said.

  She smiled. “I know baby girl but I wanted to. I don’t have you here much longer and I just want your stay to be special.”

  “I’m just happy to see you guys. Homemade cookies are just a bonus.”

  She started to leave but turned at the doorway. “And they’re snicker doodle,” she winked.

  “I love you mommy! You’re the best!” I called after her. I turned back to Caeden, the movie being the last thing on my mind. “I swear, when I was still living with them she hardly ever cooked. Now she cooks all the time. I think she’s hoping I’ll never leave.”

  Caeden played with my hair as a chuckle rumbled through his chest. “She misses you.”

  “Who wouldn’t miss me?” I scoffed and feigned outrage.

  Caeden wrapped his arms tightly around me and pulled me up so that I was lying on top of his chest instead of beside him. He framed my face with his hands so I had no choice but to stare into his cerulean blue orbs. “Those days-” he swallowed, “while you were gone. It was the worst kind of miss anyone can ever experience. I’ve never missed someone so much in my life. Now, when you’re gone for a room, for not even a minute, I miss you.”

  Just moments ago we had been joking but now his eyes were nothing but serious.

  “Caeden-” I started.

  He shook his head. “Don’t say anything.”

  And so I didn’t.

  four.

  The next morning the weather had cleared so Caeden and I went out to explore the town. We strolled hand in hand while he swung our arms back and forth like little kids tended to do.

  “Caeden, you’re going to rip my arm right out of the socket,” I snapped.

  He laughed. “Come on, let me have some fun.”

  “Can you have fun that doesn’t include ripping my arm off?”

  “Sure, sure,” he said and stopped swinging our arms.

  The sky was gray and so covered with clouds that it was impossible for the sun to peek through. Luckily it wasn’t raining. Despite the dreary weather Lübeck was bustling. Boats zoomed around the port and people bustled in and out of the quaint little shops. All the buildings were centuries old and spires soared straight up into the sky. Several things that resembled castle turrets dotted the sky. Courtyards seemed to be on every corner their grass an insanely bright green. I would’ve enjoyed taking the time to explore the courtyards but everything was so wet that I didn’t want to bother.

  “Let’s go in here,” Caeden pointed to a store full of clothes.

  I shrugged. “Why not.”

  The store was full of cozy looking sweaters that were hand-made on site. An older man sat in the back working on one. He spoke a little English and tried his best to describe the process to us. I was fascinated.

  After we finished speaking to the man we walked around the store. Caeden picked up a large cable knit cream sweater. He held it up to himself.

  “Do you like it?”

  “It would look great on you,” I fingered the soft fabric. “It’ll make all the ladies go wild,” I looked up and met his eye.

  “All the ladies? There’s only one lady that I want to make go wild,” he grinned. His brown hair flopped over his forehead and he flicked it out of his eyes.

  I giggled. “It would look great on you.”

  “I’m going to buy it then. You want anything?”

  “No,” I looked around. “It’s kind of an engrained habit not to buy needless items. I always had to get rid of so much stuff when we moved that I just learned not to buy anything,” I shrugged and stuck my hands in my pockets, following him to pay the man.

  “I’m going to have to change that,” he winked.

  From there we ended up going in and out of the different little shops that lined the port.

  As the day wore on the wind picked up and I found myself wrapping my jacket tighter around me as my teeth chattered. It wouldn’t be long until my jaw fell off.

  “Cold?” Caeden asked as he threw his arm over me.

  “Y-ye-ah,” came out of my mouth.

  He smiled. “Let’s get you back then. I don’t want your parents to think I’m not taking care of you.”

  “He-av-en for-or-b-b-id,” I chattered.

  As we started the trek back to my parents’ house it started raining. I forced the hood of my jacket over my head and Caeden did the same. He took my hand and said, “Run!”

  My converse sneakers quickly became soaked as we splashed through puddles of water. I’d be lucky if I didn’t end up with frostbite and an amputated toe or two. We reached the back door and plowed into the house. Caeden shook his head and raindrops went everywhere.

  “Caeden,” I giggled, “you look like a dog when you do that.”

  He gave me a crooked grin and my heart skipped a beat. “Stop looking at me and get in a warm shower.”

  “Okay, okay, bossy pants,” I said and put my hands in the air.

  I took a quick but hot shower and the cold instantly seeped out of my bones. A normal human would be sneezing their brains out by now but with my freaky wolf mojo I couldn’t get sick. I pulled on plaid pajama pants, a t-shirt, and a pullover sweatshirt. This was supposed to be spring break but instead I was bundling up like it was Christmas break.

  By the time I came out of the guest room Caeden was in the shower. I could hear the clinking of glasses coming from the kitchen so I headed there.

  With her back to me, mom said, “I thought you might enjoy some hot chocolate.”

  Yeah, this definitely didn’t feel like spring break.

  “That will be great,” I sat down at the table. It was no time before
she was sliding a steaming mug in front of me. Before taking a sip I studied the familiar purple mug with a Rhino on it. Rainforest Café was emblazoned along the side. It was cracked and chipped in places and should’ve probably seen the trashcan years ago but I had always loved it. “I can’t believe you still have this.” I took a sip.