Chapter 4

Jasmine I was lying on my bed, trying my best to focus on the homework that was in front of me, but Mia’s pacing was distracting the hell out of me.

I didn’t know what she was doing, but whatever it was, she had to stop it.

I sighed and looked up at her, an annoyed expression on my face.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked her dryly.

“Thinking.” She replied without looking back at me.

“About what?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“I need to ask you something.” She said, ignoring the question I had asked her.

She stopped her pacing and stood in front of my bed, staring at me intently.

“Go on,” I said as I sat up, looking up at her.

“Why are you hanging out with that Noah guy?” She asked, and I frowned, confused by her question.

“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering why she would be troubled by something that wasn’t her business.

“I mean, why are you friends with him? You just met him, yet you’re mostly hanging out with him when you’re not with me, and I want to know why?” she demanded, with her hands folded across her chest.

I didn’t know where all that was coming from, but I chose to explain to her.

“Well, as you already know, I met him in my economics class, and he seemed nice, so we decided to be friends. I don’t see any problem with that. He’s the only one who has spoken to me since I got here, all thanks to your stupid brothers, and he doesn’t seem to care what other people think about me. Shouldn’t I be friends with such a person? Or are you jealous?” I asked, giving her a smug look.

She laughed a little before sitting beside me on my bed. “No, I’m not, I just have a weird feeling about him. The aura he gives off isn’t a good one at all. I don’t know why, but he gives me the chills.” she said, with her voice heavily laced with concern.

“You’re just overreacting, Mia. There’s nothing wrong with him. You’re just not used to girls liking guys who aren’t your brother.” I sneered at her.

“What the hell?” She exclaimed, looking at me amused.

“It’s true. The boys that girls only ever talk to you about are your brothers, so now that I’m attracted to someone who isn’t your brother, you find it weird.” I said to her jokingly.

Mia burst out laughing.

“That’s the first time I’m hearing such a thing. I can’t believe the way you think.” She said, still laughing, and I shrugged.

“I’m just saying the truth, nothing more,” I said, doing my best not to join in her laughter because of how infectious it was.

Mia has the cutest smile and laughter that I have ever seen or heard from anyone. Her cute chubby face lights up so well the moment she is excited, which makes it difficult to stay mad at her.

“Whatever, but that doesn’t change anything, he is creepy,” she said, amid little chuckles.

“No he is not, just leave him alone,” I said as I moved to lie back on my bed to complete my homework. “And leave me alone, too. I need to finish this up.” I added.

“Oh, wait. Before you continue, I wanted to ask you something.” She said, looking serious again.

“Would you come home with us for the weekend?” She asked and I frowned.

“Why would I do that? You’re going to see your parents, why would I go with you?” I asked her and she whined.

“I feel homesick, and I want to go see them, and I want you to come with me, you have to,” she said, as she tried to win me over with her sad puppy eyes.

“No, I don’t,” I said adamantly.

“Yes, you do, and you’re coming with me whether you like it or not,” she said in a bossy voice.

“Come on, Mia. I just want to say here and enjoy my weekend peacefully and quietly.” I said and she rolled her eyes.

“Sounds like you are trying to avoid my brothers. But, I’m not leaving you here, Jasmine. You’re coming with us whether you like it or not.” she said.

“Us?” I asked, my face scrunching up.

“Well, my brothers are coming with-”

“I don’t even need to hear more, I’m not going,” I said and laid down, and Mia grabbed my arm and started pulling it.

“You have to! Please,” She cried. “Jasmine!!”

With the way she was tugging at my arm, I was certain that with the next few pulls, it would completely detach from my shoulder.

She sometimes forgets she is bigger and thicker than I was, even though I was two months her senior.

“It’s your birthday this weekend. Even if you would rather not celebrate it, at least spend it with me and my family,” she said pleadingly.

“But that family includes your brothers, and I do not want to be anywhere near those boys who act like little spoiled kids,” I said grudgingly.

Mia rolled her eyes before letting go of my arm and getting up. I got up to watch what she was going to do. She moved away from my bed and moved straight to my closet and pulled out one of my bags and began pushing clothes in it.

“Hey!! What are you doing?” I asked, quickly sitting up.

“Packing your things, what else?” she said passively.

“What? Wait, it is not even the weekend yet, and I told you I’m not going!” I whined.

“You are. Jasmine, you know it’s useless to argue with me because I never give in. So just let me do my thing.”

I sighed as my body sagged. I knew she was right. No matter how much I argued with Mia, she would never give in to me. If I persisted, I know she would go as far as stealing my keys and locking me out of the room without my phone for the whole weekend.

“Fine, I’ll go. But only this once. I’m never doing anything like this ever again.” I said, and she broke into a grin.

“You’re the best.” She came towards me and kissed me on my cheeks before leaving to continue packing my clothes.

I sighed as I looked down at my homework, thinking of how it would be to stay in the same car with her brothers.

I prayed that I would arrive at their pack in peace because I knew what those boys were capable of.

***********

It was finally the day that we were to go to Mia’s home. We were standing in front of our dorm, waiting for her brothers to arrive, but they were running late.

“I don’t understand why they’re so late,” Mia complained.

Just then, I saw their SUV approaching us, and I sighed. I didn’t have the strength to argue with her brothers, as to why they kept us waiting outside as long, so I was just going to ignore them.

The car stopped in front of us, and the trunk was opened, We put our stuff inside and then entered the spacious SUV.

Ethan was seated in the driver’s seat, Calix in the passenger’s, and Zane was in the back with us. I made sure to stay as far away from him as possible.

“it is unclear to me why you insisted on bringing Miss Whiny Whiny to us,” Ethan said, glaring at me through the rearview mirror.

“Watch it. Don’t talk about her like that!” Mia scolded and Ethan rolled his eyes as he started the car and pulled away from our dorm.

I knew that he was looking for a way to annoy me already, but I had decided not to give them the time of day.

“Anyway, Jasmine, where did you go last night? I didn’t see you in the room when I got back, and you didn’t get back until I had gone to sleep.” She asked, and I pursed my lips and looked away, not wanting to say anything.

I kept quiet and pretended not to have heard her because I wasn’t too comfortable talking about Noah and where her brothers were.

“Don’t tell me you went to see Noah?” She said, and I neither gave her an answer nor looked at her as I kept staring out the window.

“Jasmine!!” she yelled.

“What?!” I asked her.

“Give me an answer.”

“Okay, fine. I went to see him last night. He said he wanted to take me somewhere, and I couldn’t turn him down.” I finally gave in.

“You didn’t even tell me. What if your mom had called me?” She asked and I shrugged.

“I didn’t tell you because you were against us being friends, so I thought to just keep everything concerning him to myself.”

“But we’re friends. Even though I don’t like him, as long as you’re happy, I am too.”

“Okay, I apologize for not saying anything. From now on, I’ll let you know what’s going on, is that okay?” I asked, smiling at her.

“It is.” She smiled back at me.

“You know, he’s a kind person. I’ve never seen a person our age being so kind to other people before. He helps out a lot of our classmates with school work and whatever it is that they need, and he doesn’t ever-”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence because of a loud g***n that came from the front of the car.

“Will you stop already?” Calix said. “It’s annoying. Everyone keeps talking about this person like he’s a big deal when he’s not.” He added, his words laced with strands of jealousy.

“It’s not like he’s more handsome than us. He doesn’t surpass us in any way, so I don’t know what the craze is all about.” Zane commented.

“It’s only because he’s new. After a few weeks, it’ll all die down, like it usually does, don’t worry” Ethan added.

Hearing them talk about Noah sounded funny to me, so I laughed. If I didn’t know better, I would say they were jealous of Noah.

Or are they?

“You’re all just jealous, that’s all. You’re not used to people talking about people besides you, as it hurts your stupid egos. Pathetic.” I scoffed at them and Mia laughed.

What I said shut them up for a while, and I continued my conversation with Mia.

“Anyway, there was this particular AP math class that we had recently. The teacher called him out to solve a very hard question. No one in the class knew it, I mean no one. But he managed to solve it. I don’t know how he’s so smart and handsome, unlike a few people I know.” I said throwing shade and Mia burst out laughing.

Well, it was safe to say I was practically trying to push their buttons this time.

A sudden screeching sound from the car tire told us that Ethan had applied the brakes suddenly for reasons best known to him.

“If I hear one more word from you, Jasmine, I’m going to throw you out of this car, So you better keep your mouth shut.” Ethan spurred from the front of the car.

What I had said had obviously gotten to him, so Mia and I kept quiet, but we were still laughing silently.

I would rather not push my luck too much, so I kept quiet the rest of the way. By the time we got to the pack, it was already nighttime, so we all just greeted the alphas and Luna and went straight to bed.