by Amy McClung
Taking a deep breath, I started by telling her the truth about me because I figured that would be easier for her to handle. The story of how I became a werewolf was pretty easy to tell, considering. First, she started laughing uncontrollably and then she started repeatedly smacking my arm telling me to stop lying to her and tell her what is really going on. I wasn’t laughing, in fact I was shaking and she finally noticed. She stopped laughing, slowly sat back down on the bed and her mouth dropped open. I stood up and started to leave. “Wait, Parker, don’t go.” Jackie said at last. Startled I said, “But aren’t you scared of me, don’t you want to call your parents and turn me in or something?” Jackie was a bit surprised, “why would I want to do that, you are my best friend, practically my sister. I mean it isn’t your fault that you got turned into a werewolf. Actually, I had already considered it as the reason you left each month. I was watching a movie about werewolves and the full moon and the days of shifting. I put the pieces together when I looked over the calendar and realized that you were always gone during the full moon. I had to keep track of the dates in case something came up later about it. Truthfully though, I laughed at myself for believing something so crazy and just decided to wait until you were ready to share with me. So, basically, I suspected you were a werewolf all along, it’s just a little different hearing it confirmed.” This was better than I could have ever imagined, she took the news so easily that I smiled and jumped on top of her hugging her and laughing. “I wasted 2 years being terrified of telling you this and it was so easy!” So, we spent the afternoon with her asking me all kinds of questions about what it’s like, what I eat, who all knows my secret, etc. Yep, when it got to the question of who knows, I knew I would have to tell her why Quinn knew before she did.
“Jackie, Mitchell isn’t cheating on you, he’s a vampire. So he has been pulling away from you so that he doesn’t rip your throat out and drink your blood.” Ok, even saying that in my mind sounds totally crazy and terrifying. “Quinn is a vampire, I’m in love with him and he turned your boyfriend into one too, isn’t that awesome! Now if I turn you into a werewolf we can all be together and happy!!” Whoa, I’m in love with Quinn. Weird how that is the part of the conversation, in my head of course, that sticks out to me. I had over 2 years to figure out how to tell Jackie I was a werewolf but only a few minutes to figure out how to tell her that the boy she has loved since she was 5 is now a vampire.
“Jackie, there is something you need to know, you thought werewolves were a myth, well there is another myth that is actually true as well. Vampires exist.” This time I spoke it out loud. “Besides the fact they exist, both Quinn and Mitchell are vampires. Quinn turned Mitchell a few weeks ago, it was not his fault, it just takes you over and you can’t control yourself when the hunger is so intense. But not all vampires are bad.” Jackie didn’t look shocked, at all. It was weird how quiet she was and I started to believe that maybe she had already figured it out somehow, “Um, did you already know this?” I asked. Then I realized, I said too much, she didn’t look shocked, she was IN shock. Shaking her wasn’t working and then I decided to keep talking and explaining what happened and what vampires were about and how Quinn was a good guy and obviously Mitchell is too. She still sat quietly, staring at the wall. I started to worry when her cell phone rang and she didn’t flinch. “Hello…hey, can you please come over here, Jackie needs you…like now, thanks.” I said and then hung up. I sat and put my arms around Jackie trying to comfort her and bring her back to reality.
Mitchell burst in the room seconds later and stopped when he saw the catatonic Jackie and the panicked look on my face as I held her and begged her to come back to me. He looked at me worriedly, “What the hell is wrong with her?” I told him that she knew everything and he looked distraught to say the least. He sat down beside Jackie and as soon as he put his hand on her she whipped around and saw his face and screamed. Mrs. Martin is going to have a heart attack thanks to me. I went running out of the room to calm Jackie’s mom and found a note that she had gone to the store. Thank goodness for small miracles. Mitchell was still in the same place when I got back to the room, but Jackie was crouched in a corner blubbering. I went to her and tried to calm her in the best way I could. “Jackie, honey, Mitchell is still the same guy nothing has changed. Look at him, he still loves you, he is still the guy you fell in love with so many years ago. Please don’t be scared, it’s ok sweetie.” I took her face in my hands and looked her in the eyes, “Would I lie to you?”
Jackie started to calm down and she looked over at Mitchell. “Mishy, why didn’t you tell me?” she cried. Mishy? Wonder if I will ever have a weird term of endearment for Quinn, like Q-Q or Quinny-bear, QuinnQuinn. Oh barf, those are all too weird to even think about anymore. Besides, I left Quinn standing in the middle of the street after he trusted me with a secret that I am sure was difficult to admit to. Actually that would be the second time he confided in me and I ran off on him, there may be no terms of endearment in our future. One thing I have found I am good at, running off from Quinn each time he trusts me with a deep dark secret, that is a great way to be in a relationship.
Back to Jackie and…Mishy. Eww. Mitchell went slowly to Jackie and knelt in front of her, he took her hand from me and started to rub it with his and then kissed it. She didn’t pull back, that’s a good sign. She looked at him and a sad half smile came over her face and he leaned down and kissed her. “I love you Jackie, I was scared of losing you and that is why I hadn’t told you myself, but I would NEVER hurt you, I promise you that, “said Mitchell. They hugged and I felt a wave of relief, I was afraid I destroyed my best friends life today.
Chapter Eight
Backing my way out of the room I softly shut the door. They didn’t even remember I was there truthfully. I thought it was best to leave the two lovebirds alone to work things out, it’s not every day that you find out your soul mate is a blood thirsty demon. Although around this town, it was becoming more common. It was a beautiful day, about sixty degrees and the sky was bright blue. I love these kinds of days. I started walking toward my house and then change direction and went to the park. There was an open swing so I grabbed it. After sitting there for a few minutes someone walked up behind me and gave me a push. I beamed, I knew it had to be Quinn and he wasn’t mad, that was a good sign. He kept pushing me and neither of us spoke for the next few minutes. I started to slow down and he grabbed my waist helped me come to a stop. I closed my eyes, leaned back and puckered my lips and he kissed me. It tasted different this time. It was not the same passion as before. When he pulled back I opened my eyes and yelped. It was Will. He just smirked at me.
“What the hell are you doing??” I yelled hopping out of the swing and turning to face him. He chuckled, “You practically asked me to kiss you, you leaned back and puckered your lips, what did you want me to do?” I rolled my eyes, “You know I thought you were Quinn, I know you know that!” He shrugged and said, “Prove it. I didn’t give you any reason to think I was Quinn so you can’t blame me if you go around asking guys to kiss you.” I gave him a disgusted look and started stomping off. I was so mad I could spit. I was mad at Will and I was mad that I let myself think he was Quinn. I just needed to go home and start again tomorrow. This day has not been a great one. My boyfriend tells me that he turned one of my friends into a vampire and then I broke my best friend’s heart and had to bring her back from insanity and now I kissed another guy. Wait…did I just refer to Quinn as my boyfriend? Why does my mind always wander off to the most selfish minute thoughts?
That night I couldn’t go to sleep without trying to reach Quinn, so I texted him. Hope you are ok, I am so sorry I ran off, I had to get to Jackie. Everything is ok now. CU2morrow?—Parker. A few minutes went by before he texted me back so I thought it would be longer, but all it said was Ok—Quinn. Maybe I woke him up, who knows. Anxious for a new day and the opportunity to see Quinn and make things right between us, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
&nb
sp; At school the next morning I saw Quinn standing by his locker so I hurried over to him. He turned and looked my way, I waved and smiled and he slammed the locker and walked in the other direction. Ouch, that stung. Calling his name out didn’t even cause him to flinch, I know he heard me, Vampires have excellent hearing. Well he can’t ignore me forever, and why is he mad at me? He is the one who turned my best friend’s boyfriend into a vampire! I was just worried about my friend! This is ridiculous and for a 76 year old he is acting mighty childish. Ugh, boys. When I walked into class, I noticed Quinn had managed to switch seats with someone so that there were no open seats around him and he was sitting beside…Christine! And she was flirting with him and he was acting like he enjoyed the fact that she was touching him so much. Jerk. I glared at him for a moment and he wouldn’t make eye contact with me, so I sat by Mitchell instead.
Leaning over I whispered to Mitchell asking if Jackie was ok. He smiled and gave me thumbs up. At least someone was still happy together. When the bell rang I thought I would have another shot but Quinn took off like a bat out of hell to his next class. Every class up till lunch was like that. At lunch, I found him at a table, he tried to ignore me but I took my tray to his table and slammed it down. He growled. He actually growled at me, what a douche. “Why are you mad at me?” I demanded of him. He looked away and back at his food. “Hello! You are going to have to tell me eventually! I’m sorry I ran off on you but you really can’t blame me for being worried about my best friend!” He slammed his fork down stabbing it into the table and I jumped back,”Oh yeah, you seemed real torn up kid. Did you enjoy swinging at the park yesterday?” He asked. Weird, I didn’t realize he knew I had gone swinging at the park. “Uh, sure, I guess it was a good stress reliever” I responded. He scoffed, “Sure looked like you were relieving some stress. Glad you had Will to help you with that.” Duh, I’m such an idiot! He saw Will kiss me, actually, he saw me ask Will to kiss me. At least that is what it would look like to anyone else. Crap! No wonder he is mad, that had to look like a romantic moment between us. Crap, Crap, Crap!
Sitting down, I started to explain what happened from the time I ran off from him until the incident in the park, but before I could even get to the part about the park, Quinn stopped me. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, sweetheart.” That time he put so much anger into the word that it was the first time it didn’t make me swoon when he called me that. “We don’t mean anything to each other, right? You actually did me a favor, now I don’t have to pretend to care and we can be the natural enemies we are supposed to be. It’s obvious that you feel that way already, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you don’t trust me because of what I am, so I am just going to make this easier on both of us.” And he plunges the knife straight into my heart, metaphorically of course. I was too shocked to speak and he took advantage of the opportunity to get up and leave me sitting there. Just as he walked away, the tears started to pour out of my eyes. I don’t know why I thought he actually cared about me. It is obvious that he was using me to stay alive. He knew that if I found out what he was that I would kill him so he got close to me and made me fall for him. I hate him. And now, I will have to kill him, once my heart stops breaking.
My first instinct was to call Jackie but I was blubbering so hard by the time she picked up that she didn’t know what I was saying. Eventually I was able to enunciate bathroom enough for her. She came in and found me in a stall and I spilled everything that happened, the misunderstanding with Will that lead to the truth about Quinn’s feelings for me and my heart being shattered into tiny fractions. She made every attempt to calm me and when I finally was able to stop crying she told me that I needed to talk to Quinn. She believes he said that because he was hurt and afraid of the truth, afraid I was going to tell him I was in love with Will because of what we had in common, she had to be vague in case anyone was around. My response was to tell her she watches too many soap operas. We both started laughing.
She took my hand and as I was leaving the bathroom I noticed my face was a mess. She grabbed a paper towel, wet it, and started cleaning my face as a mother would do for a child. Mitchell was waiting outside the door and wanted to know if I was ok. Jackie asked him if they could meet up later and said she wanted to walk me home. Reluctantly I insisted Mitchell could come with us because I could see he was disappointed. So, the happy couple and the third wheel, me, walked home. Thankfully we didn’t talk about Quinn. Actually they talked about everything but him. When we made it to the house I thanked them both and told Jackie to go be with Mitchell, that I would be ok and just wanted to lie down and get a nap.
The house was empty; I barely made it to my room before collapsing on the bed in tears. I ended up sobbing myself to sleep. Out of pure exhaustion I slept till morning. When I awoke there was a text on my phone, it was from Quinn, Mitchell said you were crying yesterday, I wanted to make sure you are ok.—Quinn. I replied by saying, Mitchell shouldn’t have told you that, it’s not like you care, you made that clear. Just leave me the hell alone and I will do the same for you. –Parker. No response.
Forcing myself out of bed I get in the shower, my head was pounding and my eyes were pretty raw from crying. The memory of the day before hit me like a ton of bricks and I sat against the wall of the shower and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I had my knees pulled up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. My eyes were burning, they were so dry and I had cried myself dry of tears it seemed, it felt like my heart was breaking all over again but I could not release the pain. It kept replaying in my head, over and over, Quinn stating that he never cared about me, that I meant nothing to him. It baffled me why I was so destroyed over this boy I barely knew. It almost scared me how deflated I felt now, how empty. The water started to run cold and was able to bring me out of my trance. I turned the water off, grabbed a towel, dried off and wrapped my hair in another towel.
After showering, I headed downstairs in my robe and started making breakfast for my parents, the thought of food made me sick to my stomach personally but it was something to do to feel a sense of normalcy and take my mind off things. They came down, made small talk, ate breakfast and left for work. I must have looked a hot mess because my mom had no problem calling the school and telling them I was sick and wouldn’t be in today, it was even her suggestion to do so. It wasn’t a lie that I was sick my headache had formed into a migraine.
I went back up to my room and got on my computer, time to update my Facebook status with some quip about how much life sucks and men are evil. Except that I didn’t, instead I wrote. ‘Feel like crap today.’ That sums it up. I plopped down on the bed and went back to sleep. Next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake by Jackie. “Hey girl, I was worried about you. Look, don’t be mad but I explained everything to Quinn about what happened. He is stubborn” and in an annoyed tone, “not unlike you actually,” and then continued with concern, “he didn’t want to listen but when I was finished he felt horrible and he wants to see you. He said he didn’t mean what he said.” Looking up at her I said with distaste, “He just feels bad because he made a girl cry, he doesn’t care about me he never did.” Jackie shook her head in disagreement. “Give him a chance Park, you should have seen his face. Actually you should have seen how mad he was when he saw Will, I’ve never seen someone so angry, I could not hold him back, Mitchell had to do it with his super strength, and I thought for sure the secret would be out.” I sat up abruptly. “He didn’t hurt anyone did he?” Jackie shook her head no. Thank goodness, I thought.
Laying back down I rolled over to stare out the window. “Jackie, I just want to be alone today. I will think about talking to Quinn but right now my head hurts so bad that I just want to focus on getting rid of that.” Of course that wasn’t the only thing that hurt but I don’t need everyone to think I am suicidal or anything drastic. In a few days I am sure I will feel better…I hope. She stayed for a little bit, she got me a cold rag for my head and tried this trick she know
s for headaches which worked somewhat. Once I was feeling a little better I hugged her and thanked her for being so great just as she was leaving.
My phone had been buzzing all day long, Quinn would call and then text, the same text over and over. Please call me, I do care, we need to talk, I need to see you—Quinn. I couldn’t answer them, even if he didn’t mean it he still said it and it hurt too badly right now. I needed time to think, time to clear my head of the memory of those damaging words. Fresh air was just what I needed, I grabbed a book off the shelf and was going to go sit on the porch swing and read. Setting my book on the swing, I walked down to get the mail and inside the box there was a white rose and a note that said I love you—Quinn. He made my heart stop again but this time it was in a good way. I lifted the rose and breathed it in, I love the smell of roses and white are my favorite, but I don’t remember telling him that. An odd feeling came over me like he was nearby, like I could feel his presence. Just a short ways down the road he was waiting to see me. He lifted his hand and slightly waved it. Standing still, in a state of shock almost, I didn’t motion back and then he dropped his head and turned to walk away. “Wait” I barely spoke and he turned around and in vampire speed he was at my side. A giggle escaped me and it made him smile. My arms extended outward to him and he moved in close to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I nestled my head into his chest and he rested his head on mine and held me tightly. We stood there holding each other for what seemed like an eternity. Our body temperatures just seemed to perfectly meld together, his cold and my warmth made for a comfortable feeling between us, a feeling I didn’t want to lose. Pulling back from the hug, I took his hand and he followed me into the house.