Page 17 of Fallen Wolf
I finally had somewhere to sit at lunch with nice people who treated me as if I was one of them. Not just some annoying girl sitting at their table, because one of their friends was dating hers. I didn’t want to mess this up, I have never been happier to go to school until now.
I looked out the window at all the party goers. There were girls in tiny bikinis splashing in the pool and a few guys wore jeans and no shirts. Which was a little distracting, but weren’t they cold? Lexi looked out the window with me, I was assuming she was watching her new boyfriends. When she hissed “Oh fuck,” under her breath. I looked over to where she was…
“Oh my God, is that Mr Donovani lurking over there?” He looked creepy as all hell. It definitely looked just like him, but what the hell would he be doing at a Lovell party? He was our history teacher, well not my history teacher, but he took history. I was pretty sure Lexi was in his history class. As were most the girls at school. There was something special about him, that made you feel drawn in by him.
He was lurking near the forest edge, where the wolf that had scared Lexi was only two weeks ago.
“Yeah, he's friends with the family,” Lexi explained. Huh? I guess that made sense. Maybe? Why would he be lurking around at a party for teenagers. Was he a creep?
I adverted my eyes and noticed Saint. The butterflies in my belly took flight immediately. Oh, why does Saint make me feel like this? He was talking with Maverick; Raff and I think that was Noah. Noah was usually easy to spot, he was the biggest of all the Kiba boys. He was wearing a white tank and shorts. He seemed to wear that a lot.
“Oh man, do you think Saint is single still? I wantsomeof him.” Lexi laughed at me, but I was being truthful. I had truly wanted to know if he was single, because I was going to flirt and try to get his attention. I could do this.
Lexi put her hands on my shoulders and she smiled at me, “You'll have to go ask him yourself.” I didn't want to ask him myself, I wanted to know so I could gauge whether he might or not be interested in me.
Shit, I felt so out of place, “Do you think I look nice?” the girls down there were dressed to perfection and some wore just tiny swimsuits. Me? I looked nothing like them. Lexi must've known I was feeling a bit out of place and she hugged me. It made me smile.
“You look gorgeous and I'm sure one of the guys out there will think so too. And they will find out that you're a beautiful person on the inside and ask you on a date.” I giggled at her words. They were so sweet and made me feel a lot better about myself. I was ready.
“Let's go. You have three sexy boys out there waiting for you and you've got to kiss them. Show those girls which guys are yours and that they will need to back the fuck off.”
Lexi grinned and grabbed her leather jacket, I think she might be feeling a little nervous about tonight also. She’d said that it was going to be the night that she openly kissed all three of them, in front of everyone. I felt nervous for her, but I knew no one would say anything. Well not to her face at least. I would shut anyone down who said anything bad about her.
Hopefully Olivia won't be here tonight, she would be the only one that had a problem with Lexi putting her mark on all three guys.
As soon as the cool air of the night hit me along with the magnitude of how many people were here, I decided I needed to have a drink first and not just water.
“Hey so I'm just going to get myself a little bit of liquid courage.” Lexi patted my shoulder and nodded in understanding. She looked over to the guys and then back to me and I nodded for her to go ahead.
I’d started to pour myself some vodka and orange juice, when Noah approached.
“Hey there stranger,” he said grinning down at me. I chuckled, I'd been sitting with him every day this week for lunch. He always had a spare spot next to him ready for me when I got in there. He even bought me my wrap and water yesterday, as I was running late.
Everything about him was perfect boyfriend material. Except for the fact that he was so much younger than me. Looking at him I wouldn't have guessed he was only fifteen. He was huge, like a full-grown man, grows facial hair huge. But when you spoke to him you could tell he was a teenager. He made me laugh, and he seemed to like talking to me. So, when I was with him, I felt comfortable. I felt safe.
“Do you come to these parties much?” I wasn't too sure if I'd seen him at the last one. Not that I knew him then.
“Yeah, I was here 2 weeks ago, I spoke to you actually.” I did a double take. Noah spoke to me last time? Like before the whole Lexi dating Ranger and living here thing. He nodded and my eyebrows raised. Was he joking with me? When he didn't say anything further I started to think back to the party. Saint left me there after the snail story, Callum was creepy and…
“Oh my God, you did. I didn't even look at you. I’m sorry.” I didn't know it was because I really didn’t look at him, the big shadow. I thought he was another guy trying to get Lexi’s attention.
“Yeah, that was me, so memorable.” He gave me a crooked playful grin, as he ran his hand through his blond hair. I playfully slapped his arm.
“I'm so sorry. I was kind of rude, but everyone kept coming up to me to talk about Lexi. Trust me, you’re not forgettable.”
He shook his head, but the grin remained. His eyes darted to where Saint was standing and I looked over to see Lexi chatting with them.
“You don't need to apologise, you're talking to me now.” I smiled and turned back to speak but he leant in closer and whispered. “And for the record, I didn't want to talk to you about Lexi.”
My mouth went dry and the butterflies from seeing Saint had doubled. I felt flushed. The way Noah looked down at me made me feel like I needed a fan to cool myself down. Was… was he flirting with me? He was giving me this hopeful, almost puppy dog look with his big eyes. He glanced down to my lips and I licked them unconsciously. I saw his jaw tick and his eyes met mine again.
“Did—” his voice croaked a little, “— did you want go for a walk with me?” He raised a brow and rubbed the back of his neck. Wow those arms of his were so muscular.
I…huh?Walk? With Noah?
I looked over to where Lexi was now wrapped in Raff’s arms and Maverick was stroking her back. Oh god, that was the sweetest. Saint was still there, I saw him laughing along with them. Then his eyes darted to mine and took me in. It made my heart race. I took a deep breath; I could do this. I could be normal and not say anything weird to Saint. I can’t be taking walks with Noah, I was starting to sense that he liked to flirt with me a lot. But he was too young for me to be going on “walks” with. I knew what that meant, I was inexperienced, not naïve.
“Actually, I better go over to Lexi. I told her I would be over in a moment.” Noah nodded and turned to pour himself another drink. I left him too it and walked over towards Lexi. I held on to my red cup tightly, the liquid courage had not kicked in yet. I think I should have started drinking hours ago. Lexi smiled at me encouragingly when she saw me come closer. She was so confident in herself, I was not.
