CLAIRE.I hurried down the hallway, heading to the Janitor's closet. It was the third period and Scott had sent me a text that he needed to see me. Urgently. With three exclamation marks. The urgency couldn't be stressed and so, I'd taken a pass from my Woodwork teacher and was half sprinting, half walking to the closet. The door was closed tight and I paused when I got to it, wondering if the janitor was in there. I glanced down at my phone, wondering if I should call Scott because he hadn't said anything about getting into the closet. He might've meant that we'd meet in front of it. I'd just pulled up his contact and was about to dial his number when the Janitor's closet's door pulled open. I jumped away from the door and whirled round, relaxing when I saw that it was Scott. With my hand on my chest, I smacked his arm hard with my free hand. "Jesus, don't do that, Scott. You scared me." My pulse was erratic and I didn't know why I was as scared as I was but I guess I thought it had
ALEXAKIS.Angelo had been acting strangely around me. Around everyone really because I wasn't the only one who commented on it. He came into the den early this morning, warily watching everyone as he strolled into his office. Marcus had stepped on after him and they'd been in there for hours, till Angelo had stepped out, a gun gripped tightly in his hand. A couple of guys gave each other a lot and turned to Marcus who nodded at them. And then they were on their way after him, taking off their gloves and unwrapping their hands. I'd watched silently, sitting beside Motty as we stared at the entourage. Or I stared rather, Motty barely glanced at them. They came back in less than an hour's time, looking dishevelled and tired. It was Angelo who caught my eyes because he was splattered with blood and it seemed that he didn't even notice, or he didn't care. I stood slowly, feeling Motty's gaze on me as I stared at Angelo's approach. He'd gotten to his door now and took the wet towel Marcus
ALEXAKIS.I sat outside my girl's school for the past few hours, wondering when she would come out. It was pretty sunny out here. Some of the school kids escaped school with their friends, wandering off to only God knows where. I would have stopped them and maybe scared them into going back to school, just to warn them of the kind of danger they are liable to when they run away from school and also make sure they warn others but I decided to be chill. They should have their fun while it lasted. I only wished I had this school experience but I couldn't because I spent most of this age being in full wolf form. Kinda hurt a bit. The pleasure of having cliques, friends, rivals, frenemies, harsh teachers, good and bad grades and even more. Yes, I learnt all of these from stalking my girl. You can't miss what you never had anyway, so it's completely fine. I walked up to one of the boys missing school and grabbed his arm with my right fist, raising him in the air. "Who are you? What are yo
CLAIRE.Alex finished his chocolate, a little smile on his face. It must have been his first time having chocolate. I was glad I gave him that experience. It wasn't bad having him around, I liked the partially silent company. He was a good listener and the fact that he didn't talk much did me a solid. I didn't need anyone's pity patty speech of motivation, telling me how to live my life. I preferred this. "I'll need you to stop here, I don't want any further trouble from the one I already know I'm going to face when I get home.""Trouble?" He said with a worried face."Don't worry about me, I can handle it." I knew that was not enough convincing but he understood anyway. I could see my Cinderella mansion from where I was and imagine my step mum looking at me and preparing ways to lock me up in the cobwebbed attic. I turned back and the wolf man was still there, watching me like some sort of guardian. I felt humored sometimes by him.The floor of my house creaked as I stepped in, it
CLAIRE.It was homecoming and while the whole school was in high spirits, I wasn't. I wanted to be far away from the festivities taking place at school, where the football team all pretend like they were gods and the girls act like they would be picked as the homecoming queen, even though they truly know who'd get that crown -Veronica. I had seen her show a deep lack of interest in the activities and then Evie had burned with rage when her name was called as one of the competitors. She knew that everyone would vote for Veronica and not her and that was the only part in all these that pleased me, that Evie was miserable. I was miserable in my own way because Ms. Wells had given me a duty -working in the food stands with other social outcasts, like my place in school wasn't obvious to everyone already. Another girl -she was new with dark hair and pink highlights- had tried to make conversation with me but just at that moment, I saw Scott pick Evie up in a hug and spun her around. He d
ALEXAKIS.I didn't pay anymore visits to my girl, not wanting it to be a regular thing between us, not wanting to frighten her more than she would allow. She had been surprised and maybe even scared when she saw me in her bedroom that night but I couldn't just let things go like that. She had been near tears when she was heading home that day and her heartbeat had accelerated in fear. She truly didn't feel safe at home. So I'd followed her, had heard the argument with her mother and couldn't withstand going to her when she'd started crying. I'd heard those sobs like it was coming from within myself and the need to comfort her rose up like a rash on my skin. I couldn't help but scale the wall till I got to her bedroom, till I was able to comfort her. And she'd let me.That was enough of an ego boost for a day because I had been determined to stay away from her for a while. That didn't mean I was at peace with my decision, seeing as I still felt that pull towards her and had to restrai
ALEXAKIS.It pained me to say, but my mind and actions didn't usually go hand in hand most times. Take last week as an example, I'd woken up with the same determined mind that I would avoid going anywhere near my girl but had somehow found myself on the path to her school. I had immediately snapped out of it and thankfully, showed up at work early. Angelo had been in a beastly mood and Motty thought it had something to do with a missing container -I still didn't understand what that meant but I had acted like I did and showed worry like the rest of the men did. I found out later that the container held different machineries and weapons and I hadn't been so sympathetic then. Angelo noticed this and took me off two day's matches, just to be petty. I didn't mind though, as I thought that my body needed the rest. But what I also didn't realize was that the den was like a binder of sorts for me and it restrained the urges I had to visit my girl every time. Which was why I'd noticed that
CLAIRE.There are times when I wished that I could not be who I was, that I didn't need to act the way I acted sometimes, or say some of the things I ended up saying. The day of homecoming, when Scott had tried to be the best boyfriend anyone could ask for, when he'd tried to make me see my truth and how I always tended to push people away, that was when I truly realized how horrible of a person I was. Of course, people didn't just abandon me or treat me the way I thought they treated me for no reason, I was merely the one at fault. I was the terrible person who didn't try enough, who made others feel like shit, and when they'd succeeded in turning their backs on me and treating me with the hate I had once treated them, I had somehow got it in my mind that I was being maltreated. Becky was right, I was the most selfish person. And because of that, Scott had left me. I was sure that it was just an argument and that we'd be back to the way things were after that day, but Scott hadn't