Chapter 3

Liam's POV:

"I hate History," Sage declared as he almost threw his tray down on the lunch table in frustration that was easy to see in his green eyes.

"Agreed," Juliana sighed, crossing her arms.

"Who decided that history would be the hardest subject to pass?" I wondered, absentmindedly taking a bite of food as I thought on the issue. "Remember back when history was actually fun?"

"Back when I actually understood half the things we were talking about," Julie sighed again. "It used to be my favorite subject. Now I just hate everything."

"How melodramatic."

"Shut up, you know it's true."

"I mean... yeah," Sage agreed, laughing a bit.

"Honestly, we ought to start a petition," I continued, leading a spoonful of applesauce (who decided it was a good idea to feed high schoolers that?) to my mouth as I watched, out of the corner of my eye, Adriel and Milo trying to find a place to sit as the tables filled up. Julie gave me a look and I responded with a look of my own that said, just let me finish my bite of applesauce.

Yet apparently I didn't need to wait for that, because-

"Hello. May we sit here?"

I choked on my applesauce and had to press a hand to my mouth as I coughed. Sage started to laugh, so I fixed him with an unamused stare as Julie assured Adriel that it was perfectly fine for them to sit there. Finally I managed to swallow the apple remnants and offered the two now sitting on the opposite side of the table a smile.

Milo surprised me by being the first to speak. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Applesauce is deadly."

Unlike what I'd hoped for, no friendly banter ensued. Instead, Milo and Adriel began to eat in silence, so I gave up and continued eating my applesauce, smiling a bit at the notion that it was some sort of assassin, like the stories Paisley loved to create with Caleb, Sage's brother.

A few moments later, Sage asked, "Is applesauce a soup?"

"What?" I asked, surprised. "No- why would you ask that?"

"I don't know, it just seemed like something that might be a thing."

"I don't think we can even debate that," I said, "it's not like cereal. There's just no reason why it would be considered a soup."

"Okay. Is cereal a soup, then?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't know why, it's just not."

"Hold on, I'll look it up," Juliana interjected, already tapping on her cell phone. "It says here that a soup is 'a liquid food prepared by boiling'. So unless you drink your cereal warm, I don't think it's a soup."

"But what if I did drink it warm?"

"Why would you even try that?" Julie sounded disgusted, a laugh shadowing her tone.

"I don't know, now I'm curious!"

"Hold on, did you just say 'drink your cereal'?" I asked, a bit horrified.

"Well, you don't really eat cereal."

"Yes you do! You don't just put it in a glass and drink it, that's disgusting."

"I am so confused," Sage said, looking with wide eyes between my girlfriend and I. "Is cereal a drink or a food?"

"The cereal itself is a food, but the milk on the cereal is a beverage."

"So can we just say it's both?"

"We could, but then we'd have to find something else to talk about," Julie replied.

"That's true. We can keep arguing."

I glanced over to where Adriel and Milo were sat, their mouths still closed as they passed a piece of paper back and forth. What was on the paper didn't appear to be any sort of writing- actually, they appeared to be making a drawing, one line at a time. It was probable that they were communicating through their personal mind link, so I didn't think too deeply into the fact that they weren't conversing with the rest of us.

Adriel was quite cold at first, after all, and Milo...

Well, Milo was untrusting and shy- unbelievably shy.

"Hello. Do you need something?" Adriel asked, and I realized I'd been staring at their paper, which was taking the shape of a duck with the haphazard ink strokes.

"No, sorry. Just thinking."

"Mmm," Adriel hummed in response, so I turned back to Julie and Sage, my cheeks a bit warm from being caught in the act of staring. Julie raised her eyebrows at me, so I shrugged and returned to the conversation, which was now questioning the legitimacy of eating soup cold.

-

That night, my sister insisted on having a movie night.

"C'mon, Lili! It'll be fun!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together to beg me over dinner, a bit of spaghetti sauce smeared around her mouth.

Normally, I might just say no, but tonight, my entire family wanted me to join in. Even my father, who had been overworked at best for the past few weeks, decided to have a family movie night. And honestly, what did I have to do anyway? Spend hours on my mind link with Sage or Julie, chatting about random shower thoughts and ranting about history class? Actually working on my history essay? Ha, no. So I decided to join in as well.

"So what movie are we watching?" I asked as I settled on the couch next to my mother with my sister on her other side, Dad sitting down on his armchair with his glasses propped up on his nose.

"Let's watch a Christmas movie!" Paisley suggested.

"No. No thanks, it's only September," I said instantly.

"Okay, what's your idea?"

I stalled. "I don't know, why don't you want to watch something normal?"

"Normal is subjective," my mother countered. "Let's watch a holiday movie."

"Fine," I huffed, "whatever."

Paisley took the remote, so Mom reached to squeeze my knee comfortingly. "Now don't go off to your room halfway through," she said with a stern look in her eye, causing me to groan. "I'll go get some hot cocoa, dears."

"Can we watch this one?" Paisley asked, the remote's cursor stalling on what appeared to be a murder mystery Christmas film. I hesitated for a second, reading the description, before I read the words 'contains swearing' and hurried her onward before she could get too attached.

Finally she decided on some sort of Hallmark Christmas movie with the main character (whose name might as well be Mary Sue) adventuring back to her small hometown and falling in love with her high school boyfriend. I absolutely hated it, finding it almost overwhelming stereotypical heterosexual and honestly, quite obsessive. The characters had such a toxic relationship, but my mother and sister (hopeless romantics, the both of them) seemed to enjoy the movie, at least. Dad fell asleep within the first five minutes, so I was left alone to sip my hot chocolate and chat with Sage and Julie through the link- it wasn't as if my mother would ever know.

'This movie sucks,' I complained to Sage.

'At least you're not stuck with babysitting on Mom and Dad's date night,' he thought, equally as exasperated. 'Oh Goddess, Caleb, don't do that--' and he cut off from the link.

Well, I thought to myself, at least I'm not babysitting.

Juliana was my only other option for company, so next I attempted to contact her. However, she didn't respond- a bit worrying, but I was sure it was nothing serious- Julie could take care of herself, after all. She'd managed to beat Sage in a duel a fair few times, and she was at least six inches shorter.

So, sighing, I laid my head down on the back of the sofa and tried to fall asleep.

A couple hours later, I was awakened in an empty living room (well, Dad was still asleep in his chair) and immediately greeted by a message from Julie. 'Sorry, was passed out asleep. Still wanna talk?'

'Sure,' I replied, standing up to walk up to my room, my neck sore from the awkward position I'd fallen asleep in.

'What do you want to talk about?'

'Mostly just feel like talking, I guess. I'm a bit nervous for Friday.'

'Of course, who wouldn't be? Julie smiled. At least most of us don't have to stand in front of the whole pack.'

'Oh, don't remind me,' I groaned, though in all honesty, it didn't seem like such a bad thing when compared to the rest of my current anxieties.

'Sorry, I'll try not to. Feel free to rant or something, I'm gonna brush my teeth.'

'I don't know. I guess I'm just anxious.'

'Eighteenth birthdays are pretty important.'

Julie had been my best friend, along with Sage, since kindergarten. I was sure she wouldn't judge me for worrying about who my mate was- despite being my girlfriend, it wasn't very serious since we were, of course, waiting to find out who our mates were before diving into anything too serious. It was more the natural progression of things, a friendship that had eventually turned into a relationship. So I didn't feel strange or awkward opening up to her about my fears, and she knew exactly what advice to offer me. Friendship at its finest.

-

Milo's POV:

"I hate this," I mumbled under my breath. "I hate this so much."

Bubbles squawked quietly in my grip, probably a bit squished. I tried to loosen my grip but her heartbeat was the only thing keeping me calm. I was laying on my back, so stiff I might as well have been tied down, my open eyes staring straight at the ceiling and Bubbles clutched by my side. My body wanted to sleep, but my mind was racing with nightmares. I didn't know how late it was but the moonlight streaming in from the window told me enough: it was too late to be awake.

I forced myself to roll over onto my side, facing the room (I had never been able to sleep facing the wall, for some reason, maybe it was the paranoia) and tried to close my eyes. It didn't work, but had I really expected it to? At least now I had a view of the room.

Nights like these were hard. The silence, the dark... it hurt so much to remember. That night was so similar to this one, except it started out with a family dinner.

When I had felt so similar then to how I was feeling now for the first time, it was awful: a mixture of the terror, the grief, the paranoia. Adriel had been the one to calm me down that night in his room. Our parents had been friends since my father moved up from Mexico, but I had never liked talking to others so while I had known Adriel all my life, we had never been friends. But that night, with tears streaming down my face because, even though Daniel wouldn't say anything, I had seen the blood, he had hugged me so fiercely and I had felt like nothing bad could happen to me.

Then I had remembered what had happened to my parents and cried harder.

The point was, Adriel had always been there for me when I needed him the most. He wouldn't hate me for talking to him in the middle of the night... right?

'Adriel?' I asked tentatively through our link.

He responded instantly. 'Can't sleep?'

'Mhm. Why aren't you asleep?'

'I'm washing the dishes.'

'Why? It's so late.'

'Because they were dirty. '

'Okay.'

'Do you need me to come over?'

'No, I just can't sleep.'

'Just wanna talk then?'

'That sounds good.'

'What about?'

'I don't know.' Even at our menial conversations, I felt myself relaxing into the bed more and more, my eyelids growing heavier as Bubbles began to snore against my chest.

'Sleepy?' Adriel laughed quietly through our link.

'Oh, go away.'

'You're the one in my head, not the other way around.'

'Technically it goes both ways.'

'Go to bed, you're not making sense.'

'You started it.'

'Go. To. Bed.'

'I'm trying!'

Adriel audibly sighed through our link, though I could tell that he wasn't actually annoyed with me.

'I finished the dishes,' he said randomly a couple minutes later. I blinked before smiling.

'You're so strange.'

'You're one to judge.'

'Goodnight, Adriel.'

'Goodnight, Milo.'

-

Today is Thursday, I thought the next morning as I got dressed. That means that tomorrow is Friday. If tomorrow is Friday, therefore Saturday comes next. Therefore, the weekend is really soon.

But, the more annoying part of my brain thought, you also have to go to that eighteenth birthday celebration and sit next to a bunch of people and maybe have to even talk to someone.

Shut up, I told that part of myself. Stop worrying. It'll be fine.

Yet I couldn't help but indulge in that little part of me that feared for the worst.

-

Government class was one of the most controversial ones in the werewolf community, mostly for the reason that werewolf government was very different from human government. There was the alpha, the beta, the packs that made up the Council, and above all, the Moon Goddess... none of which were things that human governments had.

However, since our pack wasn't so large that we needed our own schools within the pack, Government was a class we all had to suffer through senior year.

And believe me, no one liked Government.

One good thing about the class was that the teacher always let us have the last five minutes to talk with each other or work on homework. It wasn't very long and I always found it rather awkward, but my classmates seemed to like it, at least. It kept most tensions from arising during work time.

On Thursday, we had a test in Government. It usually wasn't a problem; I'd studied and thought I did decently well on the test- the problem came in the aftermath. The teacher was at his desk, grading the papers, and obviously the humans of the class decided it was the perfect time to pick on the lonelier members of sixth period government. Namely, me.

"Hey," some boy who looked as though he'd been held back for several years sneered at me as he half-laid himself over my desk, his torn up sweatshirt decorated with a skull from some band from the eighties. I looked up from my notebook where I was reviewing notes with a confused, shocked expression.

"Uh- um- yes?" I stumbled over my words, my horror at being singled out by this person I'd never talked to before in my life tripled by the fact that now the entire class was watching the exchange. I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment at the mere thought.

"You prob'ly aced that test, eh?"

I stayed silent, not sure how to answer or even if he wanted an answer. My breathing became a bit rushed and my palms began to sweat in anticipation for what could possibly come next.

"Your notes," the boy said, his tone suddenly shifting into something darker, something more demanding. "Give them to me."

"Wh-" I stuttered, my hands beginning to shake. I couldn't give my notes, I had spent far too long on them! I had even spent hours to color-code and underline the important bits and the different stories were researched far past what we'd done in class. I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to be able to accomplish something, anything, no matter how menial- I couldn't let him have my work.

But what else could I do?

"Hey, shut up," another voice said as a hand fell on my desk. I looked up, shocked, and my gaze fell on Sage, who was staring at the other boy intensely, causing him to shrink back a bit despite his original demeanor. I wasn't shocked- if that gaze was directed at me, I knew I'd be cowering on the floor by now. "Stop picking on Milo."

The boy did a good job of staying standing, and bit back a response. "You're not involved in this."

"Actually, I am," Sage replied instantly with no hesitation whatsoever. "Milo's my friend and I don't appreciate it when people decide to, say, take my friends' notes."

I blinked, a bit confused. Had I just heard wrong? I must have just heard wrong.

The boy sneered once more and turned away, arms crossed across his chest. My eyes trailed him as he passed my seat, myself still frozen in place, and mouthed something to me, something I didn't catch but still chilled me to the bone by his facial expression. It reminded me of something dark.

Something in the class seemed to snap, and people began to pick up their awkward conversations again. Sage sighed heavily, closing his eyes for a moment and massaging his temple with his hands. I watched him warily, unsure what he wanted now that he'd shooed the other boy away. A moment later, he opened his eyes again with a somewhat strained friendly smile.

"Sorry about that."

"No," I mumbled under my breath, "thanks."

"No problem," he replied. "He shouldn't be allowed to do that. Just uh, let me know if he gives you further trouble, m'kay?"

"Okay."

"Good."

As if on cue, the bell rang, and I stood up, silently gathering my papers and wondering if Sage knew that we also had seventh period Forensics together. However, my hopes (yet also dreads) of being left alone were dashed when he looked up from fiddling with his bag strap and offered another smile.

"Ready to go?"

Maybe this isn't too bad, I thought as I walked next to Sage, almost in his shadow, on our way to Forensics. While we weren't talking, it also wasn't uncomfortable, though maybe that had something to do with the abundance of chatter surrounding us.

Does this mean he's my friend now? I thought to myself before erasing the thought from my mind, feeling a bit embarrassed. Nevermind, that's a bit redundant. Don't get ahead of yourself, Milo.

After all, being meek had been what had protected me this whole time.

--

heya!

How y'all doing? Im doing pretty well :) this chapter is one of my favorites; I love all of the strange conversations. Friendship at its finest indeed lmao

-bloom :)