Rise of the Moon (Moonlit Series Book 1) (13 page)

Keegan was, in fact, a psychotic maniac. There was a time when we lived in a suburban area, and when the neighbours left their boys at our house while they had to run out for a family emergency, Keegan tied them up in our basement and hung them upside down from the rafters –then proceeded to blame me. We were ten. And I had never been hit so hard by Carlos’s father before in my life.

Keegan had been dropped off on the doorstep a week after I had been –a fact that, when we were alone together, he never let me forget. He may have been abandoned, too, but in the end our real parents had chosen him over me. Then again, he may have been psychotic, but
I
was the monster. For whatever reason, I had been able to shift from human to wolf since birth –sporadically, since I had no control over anything my body did at such an age. Carlos had helped with that. By the age of six, so long as I didn’t get riled up, I was fine. Still, better safe than sorry, I’d been homeschooled until I was eight. Carlos was scared I would become too introverted.

Not that it really made a difference in the long run –I still preferred to be on my own instead of mingling with humans and supernaturals outside my Pack. With the sole exception of Evelyn.

The school bell rang, and Evelyn looked up in surprise. “That’s the end of last period.”

“Which means –”

“This is the end of our date,” she finished my sentence as she started cleaning our garbage up, slipping me a half-hearted smile. “Man, I ate too much. Remind me to limit the Oreo intake –I can’t believe you let me eat two rows.”

“There have been days where I just sit, play video games and eat a whole box to myself –so believe me, this is nothing,” I reassured her, following her as she tossed everything in the trash.

“I assume you have one last question to ask me,” she said, clasping her hands behind her back as we headed back towards the school.

“Do you let a boy kiss you on the first date?”

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them –and I was damn glad Jason wasn’t around. He wouldn’t have let me live that down for the rest of my life.

Her cheeks flushed red from the unexpected question. But she recovered, and slowly answered –“No… You’ll have to wait for the third date.”

I grinned. Grinned and grinned until I felt like a fool.

“Eight,” she said. She held up her thumb and index finger in front of her face; “Just barely though.”

Eight, nine, ten –I didn’t care what she rated me. I was just happy I got a second date.

October

Chapter 17: Maddie

September gave way to October before Evelyn apologized. A whole week and a half –and that was a long time for Evelyn to not talk to me.

There were times where I had debated apologizing to her first. Part of me felt like I should take it as a compliment that she was worried about me capturing Shayne’s attention. More than that, though, I was offended that she thought I would even think about stealing a guy she likes.

That being said, I wasn’t surprised to see her leaning against my locker on Thursday after fourth period ended –I had expected it sooner, but still expected it, nonetheless.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“I know,” I replied.

We stared at each other before simultaneously cracking grins. She moved aside to let me into my locker.

“So what’s been new in the last week?” she asked me.

“Absolutely nothing,” –except the dreams had continued. I wouldn’t call that new though, so it was okay not to tell her, right? “What about you? How are your new best friends?”

“I don’t have a new –”

“I’m talking about Blake and Jason,” I told her bluntly.

“They’ve been supporting me in my rough times without you,” she told me with a smile. “And just so you can’t get mad at me –Blake and I are going on a date.”

My left hand twitched, and I clenched the pen that I held tight as I forced a smile. I wouldn’t say I was jealous. I wasn’t. Blake and Jason were definitely attractive, but they were so not my type. But if what Kristy said was true about Shayne, then Evelyn was having all these handsome guys flock to her. It was strange only because they usually flocked to me. When had the attention shifted?

“Ah-ha!” I exclaimed. “I knew you’d fall for his charms. When’s this going down?”

“Next Tuesday. At the fair,” she pushed her hair behind her ear as I closed my locker. We began walking down the hall, making our way to the buses –or so I presumed. Evelyn hadn’t been taking the bus lately. “Well… I say date, but Jason, Dante and Kaya are coming along, too.”

“So it’s this weird group thing?” I asked.

“I guess so,” she shrugged helplessly. “I’m still looking forward to it.”

“I bet you are,” I murmured.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I kept myself from wiping a hand over my face for two reasons: one, it would mess up my makeup and, two, it would show a little of my bitterness. And I wasn’t a bitter person –Evelyn knew this. I just… I don’t know what was coming over me. Maybe the dreams and sleepless nights were taking more out of me than I’d initially thought.

“I mean Blake’s attractive,” I nudged her, giggling slightly. “Go get’em, tiger.”

“Thanks,” she eased up as we headed downstairs. “I think I’m more comfortable with Blake than I was with Shayne. It just… Blake makes me angry –a lot –but he’s… he’s something else. Last week he took me on a sixty minute date. A picnic. We went to the store and bought cookies and fruits and ate in the park. It was the sweetest thing, Maddie.”

That did sound sweet. If I wasn’t jealous before, I might have been a teensy bit jealous now. I wanted a cute picnic in the park. Not that any guy at this high school had any game like that.

“Lucky you,” I teased. At the bottom of the staircase, we pushed our ways out of the exit doors and made our way onto the sidewalk. She stopped, not getting on the bus. “Working today?”

“Ah, no,” she said, rubbing her arm. “Blake’s going to drive me home. Did you want a lift, too? I mean, we all live in the same direction. He’s been picking me up in the mornings, too.”

“I couldn’t impose on the two of you,” I told her, adjusting my bag.

“Jason will be there, so I wouldn’t really call it imposing,” Evelyn said.

“The two of
them
don’t like anybody, so I would still call it imposing,” I retorted. “I’m going to take the bus.”

“If you’re sure,” she said slowly.

“Maybe another time,” I said.

“Call me when you get home. We’ll hang out this weekend.”

“Definitely,” I nodded.

We parted, and I got on the bus. Philip was already at the back of the bus, but Cole wasn’t around yet. Perfect –since I didn’t really care for his attitude. Philip waved me over, and I went and sat down beside him. He grinned a half-hearted smile that made me wonder how Evelyn could have ever been mad at him. He and Evan were definitely two of the sweetest guys in school.

“How’re things with Evelyn?” he asked. “You guys are clearly on speaking terms again.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll be back to normal in no time. It takes a lot to shake us up,” I answered, watching with a slight frown as Cole got on the bus.

“She, Blake and Jason are getting along well,” he mentioned.

“Yeah, according to her, they’re pretty cool guys,” I shrugged.

“Kinda assholes though,” Philip pointed out.

“I guess. I don’t really know them, and Jason’s not such a bad guy.” I mean, he listened to me and Kristy during biology with no complaints –at least, none that I’d heard.

“I hate both of them,” Cole said as he sat down. When he was met with silence he went on –“You’re talking about Blake and Jason, right? They’re pretty arrogant.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” I muttered. I pulled out my water bottle from my bag.

“Speaking of those two,” Cole ignored me. “I just saw Evelyn getting into their truck. One minute she’s at the movies with one guy, the next she’s keeping the company of
two
guys.”

“Just what do you think you’re implying?” I glared at him as I unscrewed the lid.

“Your best friend had more in her than I thought. Who knew she’d turn out to be the village wh– Ah! Hey!”

With all my water emptied onto Cole’s lap, I put the lid back on and tossed it back into my bag. That, admittedly, was more satisfying that quenching my thirst.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed.

“Oops?” I cocked my head to the side and lifted my hands up helplessly.

“Bullshit, you filthy little –”

“Just shut
up
, Cole,” Philip said. “For Christ’s sake. Let’s go, Maddie.”

Philip pushed me to my feet, and we relocated to the middle of the bus.

“I’m sorry about him. God, no wonder Evelyn hates me. I really should disassociate myself from the likes of Cole.”

“It’s true,” I glanced back. Cole was clearly fuming. Served him right though. No matter what terms I was on with Evelyn,
no one
had any right to say anything bad about her. “You and Evan both.”

“Evan’s already started distancing himself,” Philip said.

“Oh?” I asked.

“He doesn’t like being on Evelyn’s bad side,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I think that ship’s sailing,” I sighed. “I really did want to see the two of them end up together. But a part of me feels like she and Blake look good together.”

“In a weird way, huh?” Philip agreed.

“No,” I said slowly, hating to admit it, really. “In the right way.”

Chapter 18: Evelyn

“Cole was such a jerk on the bus yesterday,” Maddie told me at lunch. We sat in the cafeteria. It’d been raining most of the morning, so the grass was still wet. It meant our first indoor gym class –and not the last, with winter coming slowly, but surely. The sun was shining now though. It began peeking its head out near the end of Music. If it hadn’t, Chantelle and Maegan wouldn’t have decided to walk to Subway. So it was just me and Maddie sitting there, since Kristy was home sick.

“What else is new?” I muttered.

“He was talking rudely about you,” she said. “He was calling you a whore for hanging out with Blake and Jason.”

“If I cared what Cole thought, I’d be crying myself to sleep every night. Since I’m not, I feel like I’m being the bigger person, and he’s wasting his life away obsessing over me,” I unwrapped the sandwich I’d packed this morning. It was simply salami on buttered bread, but it was better than nothing. I was trying to get back in the habit of bringing a lunch at least three times a week –though it was hard when you slept in until the last minute possibly most times. It was easy math –five dollar lunches at the cafeteria, five days a week for, I don’t know, forty weeks equaled out to about a thousand dollars. That was a thousand dollars I could be using to buy my own car.

“I dumped water all over his lap.”

I nearly choked on the first bite. Did I hear that right? “What?”

“I dumped the contents of my water bottle on Cole’s lap,” she repeated, wiping an apple off on the hem of her shirt before taking a bite. She chewed and swallowed before she went on, “It was probably the single most satisfying thing I have ever done in my life. You should have seen the look on his face.”

“I wish I did,” I said.

“He seems to dissect conversations, looking for instances to put you down. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got off to thoughts of you doing other guys. Twisted jerk.”

“I’m going to use that as a comeback the next time I see him,” I said thoughtfully. “Well, supposing the conversation sets me up for it.”

“It’s a good one,” she laughed. “He’ll get so angry.”

“He’s
always
angry,” I retorted. “At least Marissa leaves me alone for the majority of the day. Cole goes out of his way to put me down.”

“She’s still a bitch though,” Maddie said.

“That’s a given,” I said.

“Are you hanging out with Blake later?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, we spend fourth period finishing our English homework. Or we just talk.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know. Things.” I said.

“We used to talk about things,” she sighed dramatically. “Am I so easily replaced?”

“You? Replaceable? Not in this lifetime,” I nudged her with my shoulder.

She smiled, “You’re right. I’m one of a kind. Well, we’ve got time to kill before class. Let’s go wander the halls. Maybe you can use that comeback on Cole today.”

“Maybe,” I replied. But I doubted it.

*              *              *

“So you moved a lot as a kid?”

“I guess,” Blake shrugged in reply to my question. We sat outside in the sunlight, leaning against the brick exterior of the school. Ever since our sixty-minute date, it was just natural to spend fourth block spare with him. “I never thought much of it. It was normal. At least… it felt that way.”

“No wonder you’re so not into making friends,” I teased.

“I have Jason, Dante and Kaya –there’s not really much need for anyone else.”

“Then I’ll just be on my merry way,” I told him, pushing myself to my feet. He wrapped his hand gently around my wrist, pulling me back down beside him. I laughed.

“You’re cool. You’re different,” he told me.

“I can’t say those words have ever been used to describe me outside the mouth of my little sister,” I told him.

“I call bullshit. From what I’ve seen of your little sister, she’d never say those words to you,” he grinned.

“You caught me,” I sighed dramatically. “She thinks it, though. Right?”

“Oh, definitely,” he answered. “At least, she thinks you’re different.”

“But cool?”

“No one thinks you’re cool,” he told me.

“You just said –”

“I don’t remember saying anything.”

“Well… I think I’m cool.”

“That’s the first sign to knowing someone is uncool,” Blake looked at me as if he pitied me, and I punched his shoulder.

“You’re an ass.”

“Now
that
is a word often used to describe me by… just about everyone,” he said.

I just nodded.

“You’re supposed to deny it,” he mock whispered.

“I’ve never been one to lie bluntly to someone’s face,” I patted his shoulder as I got to my feet. For the past ten minutes, my bladder had been reaching its limit. Laughing wasn’t helping. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

“I might not be here when you get back,” he warned.

Bullshit, I thought, heading for the nearest entrance. It was a stairwell entrance, and I debated for an instant going upstairs to the bathroom, since it may have been just a tiny bit closer than the first floor bathroom. But, not feeling like climbing the stairs if I didn’t have to, I made my way down the hall.

Like all the washrooms in the school, and basically public washroom setup across the world, the girls’ washroom was next to the boys’. That being said, the likelihood that a boy was going to exit the bathroom at the same time a girl did was pretty slim during class. Even slimmer that the boy, who exited at the same time as me, was Cole.

The first thought that crossed my mind was that I hoped that he washed his hands.

“I’m surprised your lapdogs aren’t with you,” Cole said, wiping his hands on his jeans. They left a light wet spot. I guess for all that Cole was, at least he wasn’t unclean.

“Lapdogs?” I raised an eyebrow.

“The two dopes that are at your beck and call?” he said it as if it should have served as a reminder. When I made no move to acknowledge he was talking about Blake and Jason, he sighed. “The two I assume you’re screwing so that they continue to keep you company at school.”

This was it. The opportunity to use the comeback had come a hell of a lot sooner than I had ever imagined it would. I almost shouted it in his face –this was so exciting. For once I wouldn’t be thinking of clever retorts long after the moment had passed me by.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever Cole. If that’s what helps you jerk off at night.” I turned and began walking away. Man, that felt good. I’d have to tell Maddie about this. Feeling confident, I added, “Dickhead.”

Cole grabbed my arm, shoving me against the locker. The sound echoed through the halls, and the two of us were silent, waiting for a classroom to stir, or a teacher to react. Nothing. Cole still had hold of my arm, his grip tight as he continued to keep me pressed against the locker. My heart was beating quickly, surprised that he had reacted at all. We’d been verbally at each other’s throats for the past three years, but this was the first time he’d ever taken action.

In a low voice he snarled, “You should really start watching what you say to me. I’m getting real sick of your shit.”

“And you should back the hell off,” I said through grinding teeth, jerking my arm from his grasp and pushing him away. “Don’t you ever touch me again. Freaking douchebag.”

Unclean or clean, the guy disgusted me. I was halfway down the hall before I glanced back. Thankfully, he was gone. I rubbed my arm; the grip he’d held me with had been surprisingly strong. My heart was still beating rapidly from the surprise of the moment as I hurried back outside to find Blake.

He, despite his words, was exactly where I left him. He smiled when he first saw me, which I found oddly comforting. But it faded quickly as I reached him.

“Are you okay?” as he asked the question he sat up straight.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him, sitting down. “Just Cole being a jerk.”

“What’d he do?” Blake persisted.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I inhaled deeply, letting the breath leave me slowly. “So, what were we talking about?”

“Your arm’s red,” he ignored my attempt at changing the subject. A direct contrast to Cole’s grip, Blake took my arm gently, looking at the red skin.

“Allergic reaction to the soap. I always forget I’m allergic to that stuff. This happens so often,” I looked down at it and shrugged.

“You washed your arm and not your hands?”

Well, he got me there. And here I thought I was being clever.

“What happened?”

“He grabbed me. But it’s fine. Like I said, Blake, it’s nothing I can’t handle. I’ve been fighting these battles since long before you came. I’ll be fighting them long after you leave.”

“You expect me to leave?”

“You’re the one who moves all the time,” I reminded him.

“My father’s promised we aren’t moving for a long time. I’m not going anywhere. I have the muscle, Evelyn. I’ll fight your battles if you need the extra support.”

“When I need it, I’ll let you know,” I said. “But, for now, can we drop it? I’m good –so what does it matter, really?”

“Fine,” he resigned, leaning back against the wall.

We sat there, staring at our feet, unsure of what to say but accepting the silence. In the distance, a swan chased some idiot that didn’t know what a bastard the beautiful creature was –the swan, after all, was notorious for snapping and biting people on occasion. I watched the white-feathered bird slow down, its wings still spread defensively until the culprit who’d pissed it off was a satisfying ways away. Slowly its wings settled back down by its side, and it just sat down on the spot.

“Want to go get something from the cafeteria?” Blake asked after a moment. The silence had dissipated whatever anger that had been forming due to his persistence. Had he been watching the bird, too?

“What time is it?”

He checked his watch. “Two thirty.”

“Cafeteria’s closed.”

“Damn.”

Damn, indeed.