Don't Fall For Him

-Corrine-

He was her older brother?

What?

I looked at Eva and Andrew in turn. They didn’t look alike at all. And one of the most striking things was that Andrew was clearly a werewolf and Eva was just a human.

“Should I give special treatment to people who never even come home to meet his family?” Eva replied.

She folded her arms across her chest and lifted her chin, showing defiance towards her brother.

I wanted to pull Eva away from Andrew because I was afraid Andrew would do something terrible to her. Because he seemed to have a penchant for violence.

Andrew raised a hand and extended it towards Eva. And I, who had been standing in an alert position, quickly grabbed Eva’s hand and pulled her towards me. Eva was so surprised that she jerked the air from her lips while Andrew’s hand hung in the air and he glanced at me, then he smiled crookedly.

“What do you think I will do to my sister? Hmm?” he asked me.

I glared in panic. I didn’t think my actions would attract his attention.

“Uh—” I stuttered. My lips wouldn’t cooperate and my legs were shaking.

Normally, I wouldn’t be this cowardly, but from the moment I saw him, the alarm inside me had been ringing. And I don’t know why. Trevor’s words were echoing in my head, warning me not to get into trouble.

I firmly believed the boy before me was trouble, but another side of me, the deeper and darker side, felt an irresistible attraction towards him.

He was dangerous, I knew that. But the more I looked into his face, the more I wanted to know about him.

“Don’t talk to my friend,” Eva warned while glaring fiercely at Andrew. “Get away from me and play with your friends.”

His crooked smile returned, which made my knees weak, and after that, he reached out and ruffled Eva’s hair. “Never accept a drink from any boy,” he said flatly. He glanced at me one more time, then walked away towards his friends who were dancing in front of the small stage where the DJ was.

“He’s your brother?” I asked, doubtfully.

“Stepbrother,” Eva corrected. We both still looked at him. “And I can count on my fingers how many times we meet. He hasn’t been home much since his father died.”

“Your stepfather?” I guessed.

“Yes. And they’re both freaks alike, though they’ve been very nice to me and my mom.”

“Freaks like what?”

“They often go out together in the middle of the night and only come back the next day. I complained about that to my mom once, and she seemed to know what my father and Andrew were doing, but she wouldn’t tell me.”

I think I knew what his dad and Andrew do every night. Maybe they were on patrol, guarding their pack’s territory.

But it was almost impossible if Eva lived in the pack's territory and didn’t realize that she was surrounded by werewolves.

And the thing that bothered me the most was how could Andrew’s father, who was a werewolf, end up with Eva’s mother, who was an ordinary human? I had never heard of a werewolf marrying a human.

“You don’t like him?” I asked. Eva frowned and gave me a confused look, then I quickly added, “Liking him as an older brother, I mean. You know what I mean?”

Eva sighed. “He’s a good brother,” she said. “But I always felt that there was a distance between us, and I couldn’t cross over to his place.”

“But he seems to care about you.” I didn’t want to sound like I was defending Andrew, the one who kindled a cautionary warning in me, but I sounded like that now.

Luckily, Eva was not offended by what I said. “Yes, he is,” she admitted. “But he—” Eva pointed at Andrew and his gang with one hand open. “As you can see… I don’t like his friends.”

“Does your mother know?”

“I don’t know. But even if she knew, I knew there was nothing she could do. Andrew is a grownup after all.”

“He studied here?”

“Already graduated two years ago.” Then Eva looked at me. “Now he is 23.” When I couldn’t take my eyes off Andrew, Eva said again. “You’re not attracted to him, are you?”

Eva’s question took me by surprise. I flinched and turned to her with a glare. “What? No! Of course, not!”

“That scream in your answer makes everything even more suspicious,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

There were cheers from the stage. I looked over there and saw some members of Andrew’s gang and his girls jumping into the pool and drinking straight from the bottle.

“He’s indeed attractive,” Eva mumbled. “Even my high school friends desperately wanted to attract his attention. But he was just toying with them.” Then she gave me a meaningful look. “He was never serious with anyone.”

After that, she patted my arm and said, “Since I like you as a friend, I will give you some precious advice.”

“What?”

“Don’t fall in love with him.”

I blinked. “I’m not-“

“Don’t be attracted to him. And don’t even try to get close to him. He will destroy you and your feelings. That’s what he’s been doing to my friends.”

The warning from Eva sounded serious enough to make me wary. I nodded confidently. “Sure."

The commotion created by Andrew and his friends attracted the attention of the students who were in the house. They flocked out into the backyard and the place became packed. Eva and I pushed to the edge of the pool.

Because of Andrew’s appearance, I forgot the initial reason why I was looking for Eva. I widened my eyes when I saw Daniel and Kasey walking out of the house hand in hand.

I patted Eva’s arm. “I have to go!” I called out to her, trying to beat the noise and thumping music.

“Why?! The party has just started!” she replied.

“I’ll explain it to you later!”

I was in such a rush to get out of there that I didn’t pay attention to my step. As I spun to find my way out, I slipped on the slippery floor and before I could scream, gravity pulled me tumbling into the swimming pool.

The pool was quite deep, and I wasn’t ready to swim up. As a result, I was just flailing around in the water like an idiot, and that’s when someone came out of nowhere and hugged me by the waist, then lifted me to the surface.

I opened my mouth and sucked in the air greedily. After that, I rubbed my face to get rid of the water so I could open my eyes.

I was stunned to find Andrew was the one who saved me. His hands were still around my waist.

We locked eyes.

His wet hair fell around his face and when he brushed it up, his other hand was still holding me, he looked so fucking hot.

Damn, that dirty thought that just crossed my head.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“I thought you could swim,” he said.

“Well, I do,” I defended.

“Then why were you just like someone who was drowning?” He tilted his head. A few drops of water ran down the sides of his face and I wanted to reach up to wipe them away.

“My leg cramps,” I lied.

Andrew seemed to know that I was lying, but he didn’t say anything. He lifted me effortlessly to the edge of the pool as if I were as light as a feather. I sat there, my feet still in the water.

Then he called a friend and his friend came up to us carrying a jacket.

“Thanks,” he said to his friend. He gave the jacket to me. “Wear this.”

“I don’t need-“

“It’s my favorite jacket. So you have to give it back to me.”

“I said I don’t-“

“See you.” And before I could say anything else, he swam away from me.

He did it on purpose; I thought. But why was he like that? Did he want something from me?

Eva came over to me and crouched beside me. “Are you okay?” she asked. She looked at me with a worried face.

I stood up and took Andrew’s jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “Yeah, I’m good.”

Eva looked displeased at Andrew’s jacket, which was now covering my body. Then she reached out. “Give me that. I will return it to him.”

I don’t know why I didn’t like the idea. I gripped the jacket tightly and, avoiding Eva’s eyes, I said, “I’m cold.” The first lie to a new friend.

Eva’s eyes, which had been annoyed, turned to pity. “Oh—I’m sorry." She patted my shoulder. “Let’s go back to the dorms.”

“Don’t mind me. You can stay here if you want to. I can go back myself.”

Eva shook her head, then dragged me toward the exit. “I want to get out of this place, too. The party is boring.”

We looked at each other, then giggled. And before I went through the exit, I glanced at Andrew one last time.

And he was staring at me.