Chapter Twenty Six

"Hey, Blue."

I answered and placed the phone between my ear and the shoulder while I used my hands to snatch the blanket from still asleep Tay. "Marco? Oh, hey."

"Can you not sound so disappointed?" He groaned.

"I am not disappointed. Just surprised." I said with an embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, sure." He let out, sounding bitter.

"So, how are you? And everyone else?" I questioned, placing the blanket back in the closet.

"Everyone and everything is good. Tobias was bugging me about wanting to talk to you."

Hearing Tobias' name made me smile. "Oh, where is he then?"

"Mommy really doesn't want to talk to me…" He grumbled.

I stopped in my tracks and my eyes narrowed. "Call me that again and I'll hang up."

"Spoilsport."

I shook my head at his antics before walking back into the living room to get Tay's pillow as well.

An idea popped up in my head when I saw the still asleep Tay squeezing the pillow in his tight grip. "Actually, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yeah?" Marco asked, sounding curious.

"Well, you see…" I trailed off, trying to create suspense.

"What is it?" He inquired again.

"I was thinking…" My smirk widened when I realized he was starting to get annoyed.

"What?" His irritated voice confirmed my first victory, so I finally continued.

"I was thinking that, what if you and my friend Tay are mates?" I uttered each word in a leisurely manner.

I struggled to hold in the laughter when he didn't reply. "Don't tell me you're blushing."

He exhaled loudly before answering. "The next time you wanna say something idiotic like that, don't lie and say that you were thinking. Say that you read something in one of those dumb book of yours again and thought it'd be cool if it came true as well."

"Hey, my books aren't dumb. Plus, those books are the only reason I didn't freak out and believed you so easily." I retorted.

"Fine, not dumb, but far-fetched for sure."

"You know what's far-fetched? Werewolves."

"Touché. But my point is that the way you met Nicolas was cliché enough. Our pack probably can't handle any more of that and I definitely can't."

"Spoilsport." I answered, mimicking him from earlier.

"Yeah, whatever. Forget thinking that you'll get to order your friend around as his Luna."

"I didn't even think about that." I answered honestly.

"That's the issue." He muttered under his breath.

"What?" I snapped in disbelief.

"Oh look, Tobias is calling me. I'm gonna help him. Bye!" He laughed out loud before hurriedly hanging up.

Placing my phone on the table, I walked over to Tay, completely peeved.

Shaking him awake, I interrogated. "Tay! You're still straight, right?"

He complained in his sleep before finally opening his eyes. "Huh?"

"Nothing. Just get up." Ignoring his whines, I pulled the pillow away from his grip before going back to put it in its place as well.

~~~

"Finally, we're done! I'm gonna sleep the whole day today." Tay rejoiced loudly, leaning against my car.

"Sure, just go back to your dorm first." I reminded him, narrowing my eyes at him.

"I'll go back tomorrow. Stop-" He trailed off, his attention suddenly focused on something behind me.

"What are you-" I asked in confusion.

"Don't turn around." He responded, abruptly cutting me off.

"Why not?" I asked, resisting the urge to turn around and look by myself.

He clasped both of my shoulders in his hands, keeping me facing toward him.

"Aaron is checking you out." He whispered, looking down.

"What? Me?" I asked in bewilderment.

He nodded before letting me go and stepping back. "He keeps stealing glances this way."

"He probably has a crush on you." He kept looking over and let out a chuckle. "It's kinda cute."

"You're probably misunderstanding this. I've never even talked to him." I informed him, trying to clear the misunderstanding.

"I have. He is shy but super nice. And real polite too."

"Stop staring at him, idiot. You're gonna embarrass him." I said, hitting his shoulder.

"He's already blushing." He grinned, continuing to stare at him despite my words.

"I'll punch you in the eye if you don't stop." I threatened him again.

"He doesn't seem to mind. Look, he's smiling."

"Oh God." I groaned, rubbing my palms against my face. "I have Nicolas. Stop it."

"I don't think he's going to come over. Let's go talk to him." He suggested before standing up straight and taking a step toward him.

His words startled me. "Are you serious?"

Instead of answering, he gripped my arm and turned me around to face the direction Aaron was standing in. "Let's go."

By the time I started walking, Tay was already halfway across the parking lot, just a few feet away from Aaron. I ran to catch up with him and walked slightly behind him, catching the glimpse of Aaron.

Aaron stood beside his car, his head lowered and hidden from the view. His strawberry blonde hair tied in a bun on top of his head. He was a very tall and lanky man. Despite the fact that he towered over everyone in our class, he almost seemed to be scared of us.

As soon I saw his hands shaking beside him, clenched in fists, I grabbed the back of Tay's shirt to stop him.

"He's scared." I whispered low, near his ear.

Tay looked back at me in confusion.

"He's shaking." I pointed out lowly. "Look at his hands."

Tay stayed rooted in his place for a minute, just staring at the tall boy in front. Just as I was about to ask Tay to get in the car so we could leave, Aaron looked up.

His brown eyes met mine before settling on Tay. A moment later, Tay started waking again until he stood beside Aaron.

When Tay noticed me still standing away from them, he gestured me to come over.

"Hey." I waved at Aaron, trying to break the awkward silence between three of us.

Aaron's reply was almost inaudible and I had to guess what he must've said.

"This is my friend, Blue." Tay said, pushing me closer to Aaron.

From the corner of my eyes, I glared at Tay for pushing me and he just grinned in response.

"Uh, so, how are you?" I let out awkwardly.

In response, I heard something that sounded like 'fine'. I was almost tempted to lean closer to him to hear him better but when I remembered his shaking hands, I took a step back instead.

"Um, it was nice talking to you. We should get going now." I said, reaching out to grab Tay's arm to drag him back to the car.

"I'll meet you back at the apartment." Tay said, without even looking at me.

I stood there annoyed by his stubbornness until he gestured toward Aaron. "Aaron can drive me back."

I looked over to Aaron to give him one last chance to get rid of us if he wanted to. "Are you okay with it?"

Aaron nodded almost immediately and I resisted the urge to sigh.

"Okay then, I'll see you later." I waved to both of them and turned around to leave.

Just as I was about to pull out from the parking lot, I looked over one last time to make sure Aaron didn't seem too frightened. Much to my surprise, I saw him giggling after hearing something Tay had said. Looking at his flushed cheeks and the sparkle in his eyes, I knew one thing for sure, Tay was half right - Aaron definitely had a crush.

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