Bad Luck

My essentials are: my clothes, my chargers, my headphones, my tablet, two pairs of shoes, my sleeping mask, my favorite pillow, my stash of favorite candies for the road and my cologne just in case.

I leave our room when I'm ready and I walk down the stairs very carefully.

Alex is still here, talking to our parents and saying goodbye. I wait a couple of minutes until he leaves the house and then I go down. My mom is waiting for me with her arms crossed on her chest.

"Are you seriously going to do this?" she asks, ignoring my outstretched hand waiting for her keys, “Are you going to survive?”

"Yes, Mom. I will survive. Give me your keys, please," I ask with little patience. She doesn't budge. My dad is the one who sighs and hands me his own keys.

"Take my car. I recommend you don't let Alex know you're following him, he won't take it well," he warns and I nod because I already know that. I grab his keys and catch his tiny body in my arms to hug him with all my might, "Please be careful, pup. Be smart. Take care of yourself."

"Of course, dad. I will take care of both of us," I reply and when I let go, my mom pulls me in for a hug too.

"Focus only on your brother, that's your assignment. Don't try to play around with the humans, don't get involved with them in any way. Never shift while you’re there. And don't do anything suspicious," she orders me. Alex's car starts, so she releases me, "Call me as soon as you find out where Alex is going. And if you get in trouble, I’ll go help you."

"I love you both, we'll be back soon. And I won't get in any trouble, so don't worry," I assure and run outside to jump into my dad's little car. I toss my backpack aside and drive off to go after my brother.

➿➿➿➿

Alex drives straight to a human city called Vaughton. We've been driving for over three hours at this point. I already ate all my candy so I'm starving and I also have to pee urgently, but I can't stop and let him out of my sight.

The city is fine, I guess. There are lots of buildings and humans walking everywhere. I roll down the window to catch the scent of this place but I have to roll it back up, it smells like sewage and other disgusting stuff. Yuck.

I'm so distracted by the disgusting scents that I lose sight of my brother and I freak out, looking everywhere for his car. When I finally see him making a left turn I speed up and try to follow him even though the light is red.

That was a very bad idea.

Before I know what's happening, a damn truck hits my car and my whole body crashes into the door, my head making direct contact with the glass so hard it cracks it.

Damn, that hurt. And from the intensity of the crash, the car is completely fucked. I know that even before I get out of the car, but the worst part is that thanks to this little accident I now totally lost my brother.

"Fuck!" I groan, managing to get out of the car to look at the damage. The whole left side is completely damaged, including the tires.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" someone asks, touching my arm. A human. I step aside to make him stop touching me, "Come, sit down. We need to call an ambulance."

"No, there's no need," I tell him and consider for a moment running off to follow Alex by foot. But I would have to maintain a normal speed by human standards, so I don't think it's useful anyway, "Damn it."

"You're bleeding," the human says, trying to get my attention again and looking nervous, "You might have a concussion."

My head hurt way more that time Laurie accidentally knocked me out. This is nothing.

"Nah, I was already bleeding before the crash," I lie and try to smile at the other people that approach, trying to calm them down too, I need them to leave me alone, "I have an emergency, I have to go."

"We have to call insurance, at least. Your car is fücked," he grumbles with a grimace, grabbing my arm again, "Don't feel bad for me, the truck is from my workplace. They'll pay for everything."

"There’s no need, okay?" I repeat, starting to lose patience with this pushy little human, "I just have to move fast. Do you know of any mechanics who can fix the car?"

"N-no," he replies, swallowing and looking around, "We can call a tow truck and ask them to..."

"God, I don't have all your damn time," I explode, unable to pretend to be patient anymore, he’s pissing me the fuck off. The human steps back in fear and I have to force myself to take a deep breath, "Your truck looks fine, doesn't it? Get in it and go away. I'll take care of my own car."

The human looks like he wants to say something else, but he doesn't have the balls to do it so he just nods and gets back in his truck. People slowly stop paying so much attention to us, but the traffic is at a standstill because of me, so as soon as the truck leaves, I get behind my dad's car and I start pushing it.

"Oh, shit,” Someone exclaims, stopping his car beside me to look at me, "Do you need help, man? That looks heavy.”

"No! Leave me alone!" I growl. This human is smarter than the other one so he immediately drives away. Good.

I keep pushing the car until I get it out of the middle of the damn street. I stand on the sidewalk and I can see that several people are still looking at me. I just pushed a damn small car, what's their problem? I try to ignore them and look around, thinking about my next move.

After a quick check, I notice there is a mechanic garage a couple of blocks ahead so I immediately move there. I get in front of the car this time and pull on it, pretending it's difficult and refusing help from other nosy humans who want to help me.

I reach the mechanic a few minutes later.

"Hey, can you help me? I need this car fixed as fast as possible," I say to the first man in uniform I see around the garage. The man looks from me to the car as if I'm asking for something impossible, like this is not literally his job.

"It won't be fast. I have a whole list of..."

"Put me at the top of the list, then," I order, using alpha power behind my words, it’s not like he’ll recognize it anyway. The old man swallows and takes a step back, but he has to nod, "I'll pay you well for your service, just make sure the car can run. If you can do it in a couple of hours that would be better."

"I’ll try my best," he replies in a small voice and I leave my details for him to call me when he's ready before grabbing my backpack and heading back out onto the street aimlessly.

I don’t know where to go or what to do at this point. I just walk to the first restaurant I see to use the bathroom, wash the blood off my face and get something to eat before I pass out.

I want to call Laurie to tell him everything that just happened to me, but I remember he has a lot of things to worry about right now and I can't bother him, he’s also asleep already. And my brother is obviously not available either, not only does he hate me now but he left his old phone at home.

This is a complete mess. I've only been stalking my brother for a few hours and I've already lost him, I completely suck at this and I don't know how I'll ever find him.

I eat slowly like a lonely loser while thinking about what the fuck I can do. I have no plan... as usual.