Chapter 38 - Back To Normal

"Am I seeing right?" Lola's voice greeted them right at the entrance, and she even rubbed her eyes for effect. Her reaction was no surprise as seeing Angie and Evan together had been something impossible for the past few days, and suddenly, they were happily pacing together.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Evan's reaction was also characteristic of him, as he couldn't help but roll his eyes. At the same time as the two of them argued, they all started telling him how they were sure they would make up since they always did, and now Lola looked surprised. She wasn't even there when he said it wouldn't happen.

Lola squealed happily and grabbed them both in a tight hug. Angie returned it without complaint, but Evan, being his stubborn self, refused to wrap his arms around them. Fortunately for him, this group hug didn't last long, and he was freed. Anyway, Lola was shining, and not only thanks to her hair, which was currently dyed pink except for her roots, but also happiness.

"You look suspiciously happy," Evan commented. Not that Lola wasn't always this energetic, but something was different today.

"Is he coming?" Angie obviously knew what was going on with her, and from the way they both squealed after Lola gave her a nod, he was someone important.

"Who is he?" He had to ask. During those days when Angie didn't talk to him, and thus he didn't talk to Lola either, he obviously missed a lot.

"Oh, boy." Lola hung her hand around his neck and blissfully leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "You have no idea." She quickly returned to a stable position and gestured away her excitement.

"I'm sure she's head over heels for him." Angie chuckled at her best friend's reaction, who giggled in return. Evan's confusion increased as he had not noticed Lola even having a crush on anyone. His usually blonde friend mostly talked about the party, the latest gossip, or the unfairness of the teachers, but she rarely brought up the topic of boys in a serious way. She was a free spirit, and Evan sometimes doubted that there would ever be someone who would either tame her or match her. Not that he didn't wish for her to find her happiness in someone's arms.

"His name is Aaron." Finally, the first real information reached him.

"He's from Alnwick and the same age as us," she added. Alnwick was a smaller town near Marwell, and if Evan remembered correctly, it had its own pack, which although not large, made a name for itself despite its size.

"And he's hot, like super hot," Lola said so dramatically that he believed it without even knowing who it was.

"And he's coming where?" he followed up on an earlier question Angie had asked her. Lola giggled again, and he shook his head at her in amusement. He had never seen her like this, and it was more than an interesting sight.

"For my birthday party." He frowned at her answer. He didn't know about any party and started to wonder if she really decided not to invite him so she could have Angie there. However, before he could jump to conclusions, Lola explained the situation to him.

"It's not exactly my birthday party. I wanted to celebrate my birthday at the Depot, but I wasn't sure if anything was going on that weekend. I just found out that some sophomores are having a party on the same day as my birthday, and so I started to see if Aaron had time before inviting everyone."

"And he's coming," he added with a nod.

"Yes!" she squealed. He couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Laugh, Angie, and Evan in one place. Somebody pinch me." He quickly turned around to show Josh his middle finger. The aforementioned boy was walking towards them and, like them, he was clearly in a good mood.

"You barely talked to me the last few days, so shut up," Angie hushed him immediately. Their friend group automatically split into two teams after their argument, based on who spent the most time with whom. And since Evan was dating Kieran and Josh was his best friend, he and Angie spent about as much time together as Evan did with Lola.

"You hurt my boy." Josh didn't take her words seriously and threw his arm over Evan's shoulders. Ever since Kieran and Evan officially got together, he and Josh have grown closer. Evan had no idea how it happened, but he couldn't say he minded. The only downside was that if he lost Kieran, Josh would automatically go with him.

"You don't even know what happened," Angie was confident in her statement. She knew that Evan couldn't really explain the problem between them without telling him about its supernatural nature, so Josh knew the bare minimum.

"The main thing is that everything is fine again," Lola interjected.

"And that it's your birthday soon," added Angie, and the girls were once again cheering. Josh and Evan exchanged a silent look. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, and their friends immediately pulled them into a group hug. That is if jumping in a circle could be called a group hug.

Suddenly, more hands appeared in the gap between them, followed by a small figure that squeezed between them without any problems.

"What are we celebrating?" Millie's curly hair bounced on her head in a joyous dance. A wide smile was visible on her face that she didn't usually show at school, especially when she didn't have Clara by her side. And so her high spirits could only mean one thing.

"They finally broke up?!" Evan wasn't sure who all shouted the same thing as him. Their voices merged into one, and suddenly all eyes around fell on them. Neither of them cared though, as they waited impatiently for Millie's answer. Not that they needed it, as her smile said it all.

"Yes!" Millie shouted with unconcealed enthusiasm.

"What finally opened her eyes?" Lola immediately wanted to find out the details. And not only her by the way all her friends looked at her. Josh's look in particular, however, was more dreamy than curious. Evan had no doubt that the brunette was thinking about finally having a chance with the petite blonde.

"Jacob cheated on her." No one gasped at her answer. Jacob has built a name for himself over the years, and people would be more surprised if he did something nice and not this. It would be even less surprising if he had some venereal disease.

"How did Clara react?" this time it was Angie who wanted to know more. I mean, they all wanted to, but she was the first to vocalize it. Instead of answering, Millie laughed until a few strands that were not cornrows braided on one side fell into her face.

"She..." apparently it was so funny she couldn't say it without laughing.

"This better be good," Angie stated, but there was nothing in her voice to indicate that she was bothered by Millie's constant laughter.

"That's good news anyway," Evan spoke, his gaze once again falling on the boy next to him. He wasn't sure if the girls knew about his crush on the girl in question, so he wondered whether to bring it up or leave it for later when he and Josh were alone.

"It is!" Lola confirmed, and immediately added: "Now we can get her together with Josh at my party!" Caught off guard, Josh's head quickly turned towards the pink-haired girl. But before he could protest, Angie spoke up.

"Let's let her recover first. We don't want Josh to be just her rebound." The heads of everyone present moved in agreement. Josh took another breath to comment on this, but this time he was interrupted by Millie, who finally mustered up the strength to explain the whole situation.

"She destroyed all his underwear."

"What?" "How?" "Why?"

Millie giggled at the vision that had apparently popped into her head. "She found out just before she went to sleep at his place. He wanted sex, and she pretended she had a headache, so they went to bed, and nothing happened. Well, nothing happened when it came to sex. While Jacob slept, she destroyed all of his underwear. She set some on fire, spread Nutella and peanut butter on the inside of others, and tore some open with scissors. When she was done, she threw them all in a pile and put a sticky note on top with an inscription You don't need them anyway, since you can't hold your dick in them."

After her thorough explanation, she wasn't the only one who fell on the floor laughing.

"That's my girl." Angie didn't even try to hide her pride in her friend, and Evan couldn't help but agree. Clara was a sweet girl, but one wrong move and she turned into an unstoppable hurricane. Definitely something to be proud of.

"I still don't understand how she did all that while he was asleep. Didn't he wake up?" Lola pointed out the obvious.

Millie's smile turned into a disgusted grimace, causing the others to turn serious for a moment as well. "He likes to go to bed drunk. Apparently, he can't fall asleep otherwise."

"Someone remind me what she saw in him?" Evan's heart may have been torn between two boys, but both of them were too good for him, not the other way around. He didn't understand how Clara could fall in love with someone like Jacob.

Obviously, no one knew the answer. That is, no one except Clara, who was not present.

"The important thing is that she finally opened her eyes," Josh finally found his voice. It was obvious that he felt for the blonde and not just because he cared about her more than he was willing to admit.

Everyone hummed in agreement.

"So we only have one couple in our group again," in an attempt to dissolve the gloomy atmosphere that had arisen, Lola turned the subject in a different direction.

"Until your party, where you hit on Aaron," Angie added.

"Who's Aaron?" Just like Evan before, Josh had no idea about Lola's secret romance. Angie rolled her eyes at his question, as she had answered the same question a few moments before, but then she and Lola went straight to explaining. After a while, Evan began to ignore them, lost in his own thoughts. Since Lola was one of his best friends, he couldn't afford to miss her birthday, which meant only one thing. Evan had to figure out a way to convince his parents to let him go to the Depot.