Chapter 59: Because of Me

Chapter 59

Because of Me

My legs were moved. I opened my eyes to see Titus sit down and place them across his lap. He was in human form and wear sweat pants. New bandages covered his wounds.

“How’s your head?”

I shrugged. “Fine, you’re the one I’m worried about.”

“Aden,” he groaned, grabbed my arms and pulling me up. He squeezed me tightly against his chest. “I’m going to be alright. I heal fast.”

“Someone tried to kill you,” I muttered. “They hunted you down like an animal. It’s disgusting.”

He kissed my cheek. “Don’t worry about me.” Titus scanned the area, before peeling up some the bandage. “See.”

The skin had pulled back together but was still heavily bruised. A bright red scar ran along the place the bullet had entered.

Titus smoothed out the bandage. “I’m going to heal up and be perfectly fine. My dad will handle the rest. This isn’t going to happen again.”

Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled slowly. “Okay.”

“That does sound convincing.” He quickly placed a kiss on my lips.

“Because I’m not convinced,” I replied. “But, I’m going to trust you. You are werewolves.”

He hugged me and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch. Placing it over us, we settled in and enjoyed each other’s company.

***

Chris walked into the classroom, and I wish it had been a two week suspension. I wasn’t ready to deal with him yet. He was ignoring me though, and I planned to do the same.

When the lecture started, I blocked out the other side of the room and scribbled down overly detailed notes. Finals for the trimester were coming up, and I wasn’t going to fall behind and be sent back to tutoring.

The teacher assigned us the questions at the end of the chapter and returned to his desk. Everyone started pairing off to work together, while I secluded myself and started doing on it alone.

“A few more months,” I breathed. Then I’d be free from this place for good.

The bell rang, and I gathered my thing. After shoving them into my bookbag, I headed for the door.

“Still wearing that piece of garbage.”

I glanced back, unsure if that was meant for me.

Chris was looking directly at me. His eyes flicked down to my ring.

“Yeah,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m still going to marry Titus.” I quickly left the room and hurried to my locker.

Katy was leaning up against the wall nearby as her friend applied chapstick using the mirror in her locker.

“All he wants to do is go shooting,” she exclaimed, waving her hand through the air. “I’m so tired of being dragged to the mountains and pretending I actually like it.”

I took my government book out of my bag and slowly put it away.

“I don’t even care guns, and they leave nasty bruises on your shoulders.”

“They’re also loud too,” added her friend.

“I know,” she breathed. “I want to go on a proper date. Hell, I’d do a movie night at his house, but no, Chris wants to go to the gun range or go shoot skeet. I’m tired of it. I want to do something fun for once.”

Swallowing hard, I ran my finger down the back of the textbook for my next class. The conversation next to me stopped. A shiver ran up my arms, and I had a feeling they had noticed me standing there for longer than necessary.

I closed my locker and glanced at the girls.

Katy eyed me. “Do you need something?”

“Chris, he goes shooting a lot?”

She looked me up and down. “Why do you care? He won’t take you along.”

“Just curious.” I put my backpack strap over my shoulder “I don’t like guns all that much either, and I can’t remember him ever being that into them.”

Katy groaned. “Since before Christmas, everyday is let’s go to the gun range. I have shooting lessons we can’t hangout. I need to go sight in my gun. Serious,” she exclaimed. “I don’t care. It’s ridiculous how obsessed he is with those stupid things. I mean,” she turned to her friend. “I was willing to skip school for him. His parents were gone, and everything and he told me no because he wanted to go shooting in the mountains. Is it even hunting season? He can’t even kill anything. He just shoots at bottles.”

My bag fell to the ground. “Last week? Last Friday?”

She nodded, folding her arms. “Yeah, how did you know?”

I sucked in my lips and clenched my fists. My eyes went to the ring on my finger. Would he really go that far? I turned on my heels and followed Chris’s loud voice to the adjacent hallway. He was walking toward me when I confronted him.

“Was it you?” I stated. “Do you do it?”

Chris smiled, one that said everything I needed to know. “Did what, Aden?” He laughed and leaned in close. “How’s Titus?”

I slammed my fist into his face, throwing my entire body into it. He was hunting my werewolf!

Chris staggered back, and I charged him. We both fell to the ground, and I was ready to kill him. He shot Titus. The sicko was hunting my boyfriend like a rabid dog.

I landed a few more blows before Chris regained his bearings and flipped us over. He punched me in the face. Blood poured from my nose. He hit me again. I rammed my knee up straight into his crotch.

This was war. He had gone too far with this obsession. If I didn’t kill him, I’d tell Xavier, and he would.

He fell off me, and I rolled to the side. The principal ran down the hall, barely making it in time before we collided again.

“Knock it off, both of you!” yelled Mr. Grant.

I cupped my nose and glared at Chris. His lip was bleeding pretty badly.

“Both of you in my office, now,” he ordered.

We marched down the hall. The school nurse helped patch us up before we were led into the principal’s office.

Mr. Grant paced in front of us. I adjusted the ice pack in my hand. With a sigh, he sat down on the edge of his desk.

“It’s your first day back.”

“Aden started,” hissed Chris. “He hit me first, ask anyone.”

“Aden.” Mr. Grant turned to me. “Why?”

I shifted in my seat. “I found out about some stuff and it just kind of happened. Sorry.”

“What kind of stuff?” he asked firmly.

I shook my head. “The regular me being gay stuff.”

The principal sighed. “Graduation can’t come soon enough for you two.” He ran his hand down his face. “You used to be best friends. Asking you to be friends again would be a waste of breaths, but why can’t you to find a way to get along? Tolerate each other. I’m tired of all this fighting, boys. I’d suspend you both for a month if finals weren’t in two weeks.”

We remained silent as Mr. Grant glanced between us.

He sighed. “You both suspend for the rest of the week. I’ll tell your teachers to email you any information you’ll need. Both of your parents will need to come in and have a word with me.”

“‘kay,” I said softly.

Chris nodded as well.

“Next semester, I’ll see to it myself you don’t share any classes. If you can’t get alone, you will ignore each other. No contact. Don’t even talk to each other in the hallways. If you can’t be civil, then stay away from each other. There will be major consequences if I have either of you in my office again. I’m not going to tolerate this behavior any more boys. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir,” I replied.

“Yes sir,” muttered Chris.

“Good. Mr. Harper, do you have a vehicle?”

Chris nodded.

“Gather everything you need, call your mother to check you out of school and go home. Aden,” he turned to me.

I bowed my head. “I’ll call my mom to come get me.”

The principal nodded. “Alright, you’re free to go.”

Chris hurried out of the room while I shuffled out. I took out of my phone and pressed my mom’s name as I wandered to my locker.

“Aden,” she said happily. “What do you need sweetheart?”

I bit my lip and picked up my bag off the ground where I had left it. “You need to come get me.”

“Why?” she breathed.

“I got in a fight.”

“Aden Perri,” she snapped.

“Please mom,” I begged. “Don’t. I’ll explain when we get home, okay?”

“Alright. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

The call ended. I gathered the last of what I might need and went back to the office. I signed myself out of school, before heading outside to wait. My mother’s car pulled up to the curbs a few minutes later.

I tossed my bookbag into the backseat as I climbed inside.

“Alright,” she said, pursing her lips. “Why Aden?”

My chest tightened. A flood of emotions and guilt overtook me. Leaning forward, I covered my face as I tried not to cry.

“Oh dear lord,” she whispered, reaching over and rubbing my back. “Let’s go home and then we’ll talk. Okay?”

I nodded, taking in a shaky breath. I remained like that, struggling to hold it together, all the way home. It wasn’t that I regretted what I did, but knowing I was the reason Titus almost died was destroying me inside. Chris found out about werewolves because of me. He hates TItus because of me. All the problems in both of our lives were caused by me.

My mom parked the car and led me inside. We went to the living room. She sat me down and clasped my hands. I couldn’t look at her.

“Aden?” She tucked my hair behind my ear. “What’s going on sweetheart?”

“It was Chris,” I said softly. “He did it.” I wiped my face.

“Did what?”

“He shot Titus.”

She jumped back and stared at me. “How can you be sure Aden? This isn’t something you can just accuse someone of doing.”

“He knows about werewolves,” I stated, taking in a deep breath.

“How one earth,” she squeezed my hand. “When, when did this happen? I just barely learned about them.”

“At Base Acid,” I sucked in my lips. “When Chris attacked me, Titus lost it. Chris saw him, and…” I let out a deep breath. “I heard Katy talking to her friend. Chris went to the mountains Friday. He’s been going to gun ranges and taking lessons. He told me he got a new scope for Christmas. He shot Titus mom, he shot him because of me.” I broke down and fell into my mother’s arms. “Mom, I don’t know what to do?”

She rocked me back and forth. “I don’t know either, sweetheart, but I think we need to call Xavier.”