Chapter 5

ADA

It has been a while since I had that awkward meeting with my parents. By ‘a while', I meant a few hours. As much as I wanted to believe that they had lost it, the look I remember seeing in their eyes told me they weren't joking. And that shook me to the core of my being.

Right now, I was with Alex in the garden. Without any warning, he pushed me, his hands pinning mine against the wall. He brought my hands to feel his hardness and held them as I felt the tender pulsation.

“Do you want it?” He asked but pushed his lips against mine before I could answer.

I got him away from me with a gentle push. “We had sex just before I spoke with my parents. Remember?”

“With you, I'm hardly ever not in the mood. Seeing you alone turns me on in ways words couldn't ever do justice in explaining, you know.” He pushed some strands of my hair back and placed them carefully behind my ear. “You are beautiful, Ada. I could sing it to you now if you want me to.”

I poked his nose with my finger. “Well, your beautiful girlfriend would like to have a cup of coffee, and not have her ears bleed out. Let's go get some coffee, you know, as opposed to making out in my mother's garden.”

In each other's arms, we walked to the cafe. I stole a glance at Alex who was always on his phone. I wondered what he could be thinking about. I mean, we all had crazy things to think about. The whole damn world was nuts, but I was confident that I had the most insane thing to worry about today. I guessed it was alright to worry from time to time. Especially when your parent told you that you weren't human. They looked at me, tears in their eyes, and said that I was a werewolf. No, no. They weren't playing. They meant it.

So, yes, my day was going fine so far. It wasn't like it was weird to be told that your werewolf powers were going to be awoken in the evening. Mum said she would take me into the wood tonight to ‘make it happen’. What's better than a mother-daughter all-girls night in the woods at midnight? Amazing, right? Same thing I thought.

“Here’s your coffee, babe,” Alex said as he got back to the table we chose to sit at. “I got it just as you love it.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Are you alright, babe?”

I threw my hands in front of myself. “Of course, I'm fine. I'm just taking in the moment, you know. I love that we get to spend time outside of work.”

Jeez! I was a natural liar. At this point, it didn't feel healthy.

“Ada,” Beatrice, the store owner said as she came to our table. “It has been a hot minute since I saw you. Have you been speaking with Joyce?”

Beatrice had been running this cafe before I even got into middle school. For some reason, she always thought I was friends with Joyce, her daughter. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

“I haven't spoken to Joyce in a while,” I said, flashing a polite smile at her.

Beatrice nodded. “I’m guessing you don't know she's clean now. My girl now supports addicts, especially younger ones, in the battle against heroin addiction.”

“That’s amazing. She's doing really well for herself,” I said, pretending I had even thought about Joyce for once since high school.

Joyce left us and went back to tending to other customers.

“You didn't know her daughter was an addict, right?” Alex let out, already laughing before he completed his sentence. “You are a natural actress. You should look into getting into acting.”

Isn't that, right, babe? I thought to myself. If only he knew how much it took me to be able to hide how scared I was. He would know just how good I was at lying.

You see, when my parents told me earlier that I was a werewolf, I didn't believe them. I thought they were crazy, or maybe like my good friend, they had too much to drink. This was until I watched Mum's claws shoot out from her fingers as she tried to prove to me she wasn't kidding. Yeah, that happened. And it was proof enough for me.

It was the weirdest thing ever. One moment, her fingernails were just her regular untrimmed nails, and the next moment? They were this terrifying monster-like claws. You know, like the stuff you would see in a horror movie.

Mum saw how disoriented I had been when she showed me her werewolf claw. She wrapped her hands around my shoulder, turning around to give me a kiss on my forehead.

“It will be fine. I know it's too much for you now, but I assure you that everything is going to be back to normal in no time.”

When she said all that, I didn't even know what to say, that is, if I could talk at all. Back to normal? Damn, I didn't know if I could recognise what normal was anymore. Tell me how anything could be back to normal after I had seen what I saw.

And as befitting icing on the cake, I was told that my life was in great danger because of some sort of demons whose name sounded like the name of an app or something.

“Are you sure you're alright?” Alex asked, reaching for my hand. “Babe, I don't need to say this, but I reckon that you know that there's nothing you can't tell me. It doesn't matter how crazy or inappropriate your ever-busy mind thinks it is. I'm here for you. Always.”

I nodded, fiddling with the empty cup of coffee in my hands. “Sure. I know that, Alex. It's just that I got so much on my mind right now. A lot more than I can take, Alex.”

“Something tells me you need to drink something harder than coffee.”

“You know what, Alex? I think you're right. I need to get me a real drink.”

Anything to take my mind off the storm raging in my head.

We got to the bar sometime after three in the afternoon. Alex and I just sat in a corner, having our beer in a silence that only provided me more time to think and worry. But then the alcohol helped. Not as much as I would like, but it was something. Anything was better than nothing, right?

“Do you remember our first date?” Alex asked, smiling goofily at me. “Come on, it was a romantic one.”

“Being that we had only been having quick sex during lunch breaks, I guess seeing that boring sci-fi movie with you was an improvement.”

“It wasn't boring,” Alex said. “Nothing done with you can be boring.”

My phone rang and it was Danielle again. She was probably drunk so I ignored it. Look, I loved Danielle but she and alcohol didn't mix well. I knew how much I had done to make sure she stopped drinking… all to no avail. I was tired, and more importantly, I wasn't in the headspace to help anyone. Not now at least. What I heard from my parents today shook me to the core of my soul. I needed some time to get myself together and I couldn't do that while worrying about someone else's issue. Whether she was my bestie or not didn't matter to me now.

“Is it Danielle?”

I nodded, laying my head on his shoulder. “I can't deal with her now.”

“It’s fine, babe. Do what's best for you.”

“I'm selfish, aren't I?”

Alex turned to face me and had my head between his hands. “Babe, you know that's not true. You've been at her side since she started fighting her addiction. But you have to remember that this isn't your fight.”

I nodded and placed my head back on his shoulder.

The truth was Danielle was the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was that my parents were acting really weird and I was afraid that what they were saying was the truth. My parents have always been honest with me. I couldn't think of one bloody reason why they would be lying to me now. Now the issue was, if they weren't lying, the truth might be too much for me to handle.

A werewolf? Why did I feel like I was a character in a kid's story? Only that it didn't feel right at all.

“Damn,” I let out, looking at my phone. “I need to go meet my mother.”

“Fine. Let's head home. It's late already.”

“Uh,” I started, “I will meet you home later on. I just have this thing with my mother.”

Alex looked at me and was about to say something but kept quiet. He gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and gave my forehead a kiss.

“Okay, I'll see you later,” I said, kissing him on the face and then walking out of the bar.

I guess it was time to do whatever Mum meant by “awaken your power”. Whatever it was, I doubted if it would be a fun activity. The venue being in the woods— and at midnight— didn't help issues at all.