Page 4 of Fallen Wolf
But he broke my heart and it had moved on to having a huge stupid crush on Saint Wood instead, which was just as bad. Huxley wasn’t in any of my classes anymore and I didn’t really see him in the halls, so it was easy to get over him… kind of.
By the look on his face, I think he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I guess that he was technically a Rawlins boy, so would make sense he would have a part time job in his hometown. But why he looked surprised that I was here to pick up pizza beat me. Maybe he didn’t want others to know he worked here.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I grabbed the pizza boxes from him, but he didn’t let go. My eyes flicked up to meet his dark ones. He had the most beautiful eyes, like a dark night with browns and little hints of green, and to be fair he was better looking now that he was older. Ugh, why did he get hotter, why did all the guys I like never like me back? Was I that horrible?
I swore I saw his eyes glow… no, I blinked a few times, that wasn’t possible. He shook his head and let go of the boxes just as he stormed off, pushing past a few other workers there who were all watching me now. I quickly adverted my eyes and turned as fast as I could to get out of there. How embarrassing, he couldn’t even stand being near me… but why did he hold onto the box? That was really strange.
I felt someone watching me as I made my way into my car, I put the pizzas down on the passenger seat and when I looked up, I saw all of the guys in the pizza shop—minus Huxley— staring at me. My chest felt tight and I suddenly felt sick. What the hell just happened? My windscreen started to fog up with the steam from the pizzas, so I started the car and drove on home.
Next time I will ask for it to be delivered.
5
Ada
I had wokenup to a text from Destiny. Telling me to have lunch with Lexi and well… I was going too. I would eat in the cafeteria today and ask her to sit with me.
I had some weird dreams last night, seeing Huxley and the way he’d reacted to me had really messed with my head. I’d dreamt of wolves fighting outside of school and that was how Huxley got that scar on his face. I knew his scar was something he tried to hide behind his long curls, so I’d never asked him about it. Not that it was my business too. Just it wasn’t something you could miss, when he smiled it pulled at the corner of his lip. You could tell whatever it was had missed his eye and gone down his cheek cutting deep and into his upper lip, but even so, whatever had happened affected him. Inside and out.
I just thought he would be different to the others, I had seen guys teasing him. Calling him scar face. I thought we understood each other, being different… like an outcast. But he had the Rawlins boys whereas I only had my sister and her friends.
When I got to school, something was up. All the Kiba boys were acting… well strange. It wasn’t until English that I really noticed the effects. Lexi came in and sat down beside me. But today there were no Kenneally boys shoving themselves through the door, they gave her side eye glances and then turned their noses up at her.
What the hell did I miss? I knew I wasn’t in the “know” about most the stuff that went down at school, but I must have missed something big.
I didn’t know what to say to her at first, she wore this look on her face like something bad had happened. Should I ask her if she was okay? Would that be rude to ask? In the end I decided to pretend nothing was wrong. In case she didn’t want to talk about it
“Did you know that wolves have two-hundred million scent cells, whereas humans only have like five million? And they can smell other animals more than a mile away.” I had no idea why I was spouting off random wolf facts, I think maybe it was because I had dreamt about them all night and I couldn’t get them out of my head. Lexi smiled and nodded, although she didn’t talk much, she seemed to like me. She didn’t tell me to shut up or try and ignore me, so I felt like I was doing well.
I sat through class in total silence and my legs were restless. I hardly heard the teacher, because I was too focused on what I should say to her next. How did I ask her to sit with me at lunch? When the bell rang I turned to her, she looked over at me with a small smile on her face. She had these unusual copper-colored eyes. She had put all her books in her backpack. Huh… maybe she didn’t have a locker.
“Don’t you have a locker?” I tilted my head to her bag. It was a small high school, but I was sure they had spare lockers for new students. It seemed a little mean making her carry around all her books like that. That would be heavy.
“I have one.” She muttered back, but she seemed distracted as she got up and left. I just stood there as the students for the next class started pouring into the classroom. I realized that all that worrying on how to ask her to sit with me at lunch, had been pointless. And I went and said something stupid… and I was pretty sure I had offended her.Fuck. Well at least I’d lasted all class before totally alienating myself from the one chance I had at a friend.
The weekend cameand went without anything interesting happening, like always. Mom took me to the café in Watson and we had lunch there Saturday, and on Sunday I stayed home, and binge watched the whole first season ofTeen Wolf. I was in a wolf mood, plus, “hello Stiles.”
But somewhere between Friday and Monday morning, mom and Destiny had somehow ganged up on me. I didn’t know how she could do that when she was so far away, but she managed to do it via texts and calls. And through mom.
“You were just worried about her, so stop beating yourself up. I don’t think she was upset with you. You said it yourself, everyone was acting weird towards her at school. I think you can go in today and she will have forgotten all about it.” Mom hugged me and I leant into her embrace. I had dressed in jeans and a dark blue hoodie; I would like to say I picked them out, but mom and Destiny did it for me. And mom curled my hair a little and gave it some bounce.
I drove into school and parked in a different spot than usual. I was trying to force myself to eat in the cafeteria today, and everyone would see me if I sat in my car from here. I took a deep breath and smiled. I’ve got this, I felt good. I can talk to Lexi and have lunch with her.
I walked down the halls and noticed everyone was acting the same as always, ignoring me, oh everyone except Olivia. As I walked past her, she shoved me forward and hissed out “nerd,” under her breath. But I didn’t let that shake me, I kept up my pace and didn’t go to my locker. Instead, I went straight to class with my backpack. To show Lexi that bringing all my stuff to class with me was normal. That I wasn’t trying to be rude.
In class she sat beside me once again and I didn’t give it a second thought, I just opened my mouth and all the practiced words and conversations I had came pouring out. I didn’t think I could talk that much, but I got nervous when she didn’t speak so I kept on talking to fill in the blanks.
By the time the bell rang for the next class, Mrs. Jeffery had called me up to speak to her about the group project that she had announced. She knew that I had a hard time with others and wanted to know if I wanted to do it alone still or if I would like to ask Lexi since she was new. I told her I would love to partner with Lexi, but when I turned around Lexi was already gone. I’d forgotten to ask her about lunch again too.Fuck.
It was loud in the cafeteria, I was stuck in a long line, and I could see Lexi was up ahead. She had grabbed some water and a wrap, it looked good so I decided I might get the same. I called out to her, but she didn’t turn, it was loud, so she probably didn’t hear me. She started walking towards the doors and I saw Ranger and the rest of the Kiba boys all watching her.
They must have said something she didn’t like because she turned around and walked quickly out the door and into the hallway. The look on Ranger’s face was priceless, I didn’t think the guy had ever been turned down before, and he looked confused. I chuckled a little and the guy in front of me turned around and glared at me.
“I wasn’t laughing at you.” I told him, he mumbled something under his breath, but I didn’t care, all I cared about was catching up to Lexi. Shit, this line was taking forever. I needed to catch up to her before she got too far away.
By the time I had my wrap, a bottle of water and I’d made it into the hallway, I couldn’t see Lexi. I returned to the cafeteria and watched Ranger and his twin Maverick who were now arguing with each other at the Kiba boys’ table.
I looked around at all the other tables, hoping to see a friendly face, someone who wouldn’t mind if I sat with them. Olivia sat with her friends, flicking their hair over their shoulders as they ate salads. I could see Parker Tolson with the Kenneally boys, they were watching the twins’ heated argument. I scanned until I saw those beautiful eyes… I sucked in a breath; Huxley was watching me. Shit. I panicked and left. I didn’t know where to go at first. Then I guess I could help out in the library, return books to the shelves and eat secretly in there. Miss Bennett didn’t allow food, but she turned a blind eye if it was me. I’d helped her a lot over the years.
