He stared at me as I started running down the road. I heard Bret grunt and stopped running. I yelled, “You go with them! I need time alone!”
Bret started to shake his head as he tried to put his pants on, and I ran down the road as fast as I could. Dirt kicked up behind me as I sprinted towards home. I felt stupid for even believing that wolf had been Ares.
A werewolf? How stupid am I? I have a wild imagination.
I stopped suddenly and stared in surprise at my house.
How did I get here so fast?
I shrugged and walked up the steps of the front porch.
Darren opened the door before I could reach for it and narrowed his eyes at me. “Where’s Bret?”
“With his friends. I left early to come home.”
He shrugged. “Okay. Now what are you doing?”
“Taking a shower and then eating lunch. Is that okay with you?” I glared at him, my hands forming fists at my sides.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Yeah, yeah, kid.”
I hurried into the bathroom and undressed.
What the hell is wrong with me? I keep having wolfman dreams then I think I see the man that is from my dreams. Koda said I couldn’t call him for two days. Why not? Oh shit. Is he still alive?
I started to get nervous and wanted to call him, but breathed slowly, letting my body relax again.
I can wait until I’m done. If he is dead… I swallowed hard… rushing won’t do anything.
I would have rather taken a bath, but I needed a shower after swimming in the lake. I climbed into the hot stream of water and washed my body and hair absent-mindedly.
Why had I felt so strongly that the wolf was Ares? It was stupid to even consider that my dreams were real, right? But how was he in my dreams? Why was he in my dreams?
“Artemis, are you alright?” Bret called through the door.
I sighed. “Yes, Bret. I’m fine. I thought I told you to hang out with your friends?”
He sighed heavily, and the door creaked from him leaning against it. “I know what you are doing.”
I stared at the wall waiting for his answer.
“You think by pushing me away it will make it easier on you when I leave.”
I sighed. “Yeah, well, what am I supposed to do?” I turned off the shower and wrapped the towel around myself. I opened the door and looked up at Bret who stood, frowning at me. I walked past him and into my room to get dressed. Bret shut the door behind me waiting in the hallway as I got dressed as slow as possible.
When I walked back outside Bret was still scowling at me. I put my hands on my hips. “What?”
He frowned. “Looked like you and Billy were pretty friendly at the lake.”
“He was just trying to be nice since you are leaving and everything. He offered for me to hang out with him, so that I wouldn’t be lonely.”
Bret rolled his eyes. “Right, so you wouldn’t be lonely. What a dirtbag!”
I frowned at him. “Why are you upset? Most of the time, your friends won’t even talk to me so, shouldn’t you be happy that he is being nice to me?”
Bret scoffed. “I’m sure he’ll be real nice once I’m gone.”
I stared at Bret and realized what was going on. “You’re jealous.”
Bret’s face twisted from shock to sadness. “No, I’m not. Why would I be jealous of Billy?”
“Because you think that when you leave I am going to hook up with Billy and then when you come back, it won’t be the same between us.”
Bret played with a string at the end of his shirt. “That’s not it. I just … I just don’t want him to hurt you.”
I smiled. “You mean emotionally, right?”
He smiled back. “Well, not physically. I think you could take Billy if you wanted to.”
I rolled my eyes. “I could take you if I wanted to.” I pushed his chest, and he fell backwards onto the floor.
He swept my legs out from under me, making me fall on my back beside him. He rolled over and before he could do anything else, I punched his chest and arm. His face lit up with a giant smile as we wrestled in the hallway. We both admitted defeat when we were breathing heavily and sweating. Bret stood and then held out his hand to help me up.
I folded my legs under me and stayed sitting as I looked up at him. “Tell me the truth, Bret.”
Bret’s face turned serious, making him look older and a little handsome. “I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here with you.” I started to protest but he squatted down, grabbed my arms and shook his head. “I’ll play for one of the colleges close to here. We can live in my parent’s house and—”
I shook my head. “Bret, Notre Dame is an amazing opportunity. I’ll make new friends.”
“I don’t want to be away from you Artemis. I lov—”
I pushed him away and ran from the house. I am not doing this right now. I could hear Bret calling after me, but I didn’t want to deal with him and his stupid attempts at making me into something more than his friend. I just didn’t see him that way. Bret was catching up to me, and I knew I couldn’t outrun him, so I stopped. He stopped a few feet behind me, trying to catch his breath. I focused on my own breathing and realized that I wasn’t even winded, but I normally never got winded. Bret said it wasn’t human for me to be able to run so fast or long without getting winded, but I just told him he was just mad that I was in better shape than him.
I started to turn around to look at Bret when I heard a soft growl from beside me. I turned my head slowly and saw one of the wolves from the lake standing in the forest. The black wolf. Bret grabbed my arm before I realized I was moving towards the wolf. The wolf snarled loudly, and I knew he was snarling at Bret. Darren appeared beside me and yelled, “Get in the house!”
I jumped away, since I hadn’t even heard him run up to us.
I started to protest leaving, but Bret picked me up and started running. I tried to fight Bret, but he was a lot stronger than me. I twisted in his arms so I could see the wolf as he watched us leave. Darren raised his gun and aimed at the wolf.
I screamed, “No!” and pushed myself from Bret’s arms. He stumbled as I made him lose his balance, and I ran to Darren.
He had his finger on the trigger, gun aimed at the wolf.
I ran as fast as I could into Darren, making his gun go off high in the air, and he fell to the ground. I jumped up and looked to the forest hoping the wolf was fine and smiled when I saw him standing proudly in the clearing. The other two wolves from the lake came to him, and together they ran off into the forest. I turned on Darren. “What the hell are you doing? That wolf didn’t do anything.”
Darren snarled. “That wolf is dangerous! He needs to be killed.”
I shook my head. “You were the one who taught me that predators are not always dangerous and shouldn’t be shot just because they might harm your animals. He was just sitting there.”
“He growled at you!” Darren yelled at me, his face blushing with his anger.
“He growled at Bret, not me, and he was just standing there,” I said as I glared at Darren. “I can’t believe you were going to shoot him. You are not the man I thought you were.” I started to get angry and felt my body temperature rising. My hands started shaking, and I sighed as the first of the convulsions brought me to my knees. I fell to the ground on my back and started to twitch hard.
Darren yelled, “You bastard!” in the direction the wolves had gone then stared into my eyes. “Artemis, breathe honey. Slow your breathing and calm yourself. You can work through this. Focus on happy thoughts.”
I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes. I tried to slow my breathing and pictured how beautiful the wolves had looked at the lake and Ares’ smiling face from my dreams. My body slowed, cooled down and then stopped twitching. Bret started to pick me up, but I pushed him away, standing on my own. I brushed my backside off and ran towards the house. We had no clue why I had the seizures and Darren refused to take me to the doctors. I threw clothe
s, contacts and my toothbrush in my backpack and ran back out of the house. Bret was following me and I stopped running to wait for him. He caught up to me frowning. “Where are you going?”
I snarled. “Away from my father.”
“Are you coming to my house?” he asked smiling.
“I hadn’t really thought about it actually,” I said quietly.
He smiled wider. “You know you are always welcome to stay with me.”
I stared at his smiling face and felt sadness overwhelm me, knowing that in a week I would no longer have him. I would be alone, just like the first week of kindergarten. I started to tell him I couldn’t when Billy drove down the street. I waved at him and he stopped the truck, waving back at me. I smiled at Bret. “I think I’ll go hang out with Billy for a while.”
Bret’s smile fell and a quick anger replaced his happiness. “Fine. Do whatever you want.” His anger faded and he rubbed the back of his neck in his nervous gesture. “If you want to stay the night at my house, I’ll leave the door open for you. I think I’ll go hang out with the guys for a while if you won’t be with me.”
I could see the hope in his eyes that I would go with him, but I smiled reassuringly. “I’ll meet you at your house for dinner, ’kay?”
He nodded and attempted a smile. “Alright. I’ll see you at six.”
I stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Bye, Bret.”
He smiled at me with a little gleam of hope in his eyes. “Bye, Artemis.”
I ran to Billy’s truck and hopped up into the open door. I threw my bag in the back before turning to him. “Hey, Billy. You know you have perfect timing?”
He laughed. “Well, that’s a first.” He looked at my bag. “You going somewhere?”
“Just running away from home for a little while. Not like my dad won’t know where to find me, but I need some space.” Billy’s face fell, likely because he realized I meant Bret’s house. “So, Billy, you want to go somewhere? Bret’s hanging out with the guys for a while and I’m not supposed to be back at his place for dinner ’til six.”
Billy smiled. “We could go to the mall.”
I nodded. “Great. I need to do some shopping.”
Billy smiled wide. “Cool.” He started the truck back up and drove away down the road towards the highway. I buckled my seatbelt and sat back against the seat. Billy talked about his ‘after high school’ plans and I tried to pay attention, but all I could think about were the wolves. I had never seen wolves come so close to humans before, especially twice in one day. Billy must have noticed my wandering mind because he turned on the radio and didn’t talk the rest of the way to the mall. We parked on the top level of the garage and walked towards the mall.
I smiled reassuringly at Billy and asked, “Do they have cell phones in here?”
Billy shrugged. “I don’t remember. I have one you could borrow, though.”
“Thanks. I just need to make a call tomorrow.”
“No problem.” He opened the door for me and I walked in and inhaled the smell of sugar and sweetness. Billy laughed. “It’s the cinnamon bun place. It’s like two feet from the department store. If you want, we can get something there?”
I licked my lips, realizing that I hadn’t eaten after my shower. “Actually, I think I need to get food, like more than a cinnamon bun.”
Billy rubbed his stomach and said, “I’m always hungry.”
“What is it with boys and always being hungry?” I asked.
He shrugged and then flexed his arms, showing off his muscular biceps. “It’s from all of the working out and growing big.”
I huffed a laugh. “That must be it. Working out your big egos.”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, there is this great Chinese food place in here I love.”
I shook my head. “No way. I need meat!”
He laughed and put his hand on the center of his chest. “A woman after my own heart.” We walked through the department store to the exit, which led to the rest of the mall. I dodged people as I hurried to the food court, which was about fifty feet away. I turned and looked at all of the places surrounding me, trying to figure out where to go. Billy started pointing out places. “There’s the fast food burger place or the place that makes giant burritos that are like ten pounds. You can get an all meat burrito I bet.”
I licked my lips at the thought of spicy shredded beef in a burrito. “Burrito place it is.” He led the way to the restaurant which thankfully had no line. I ordered the largest burrito of spicy shredded beef, rice, sour cream, refried beans and cheese they could make. Billy ordered his burrito then got us chips and salsa with our drinks as well. We sat down at an empty table and started in on our chips and salsa. I moaned happily. “I forgot how much I love chips and salsa.”
“My mom always keeps chips and salsa around at the house. We could watch a movie afterwards and chow down on some more chips and salsa there if you want?” Billy offered with a tentative smile.
I shrugged then talked around a chip in my mouth. “Maybe, it depends on how I feel after shopping. I generally get tired from dealing with the Barbie girls here.”
Billy frowned. “What Barbie girls?”
I looked around us and saw at least ten blonde haired, big-chested, scantily clad girls and laughed. “Look around us Billy. It’s like an ‘I wanna be Barbie’ convention at this mall.”
He looked around us and smiled. “I guess I see what you mean.”
I scoffed. “As if their looks weren’t bad enough, these girls all act dumb and talk in high-pitched voices.” I changed my voice to as high pitched as I could get. “Like oh my God, Billy! Did you see her hair? It is like totally last summer.”
He laughed at my mocking and shook his head, rubbing a tear from the corner of his eye. “So, why is it that you have been the outcast in our group when you are so much fun to hang out with?”
I shrugged and tried to hide the pain from my face. “I think because Bret forced me on everyone so they didn’t get a chance to decide if they liked me or not. Then you have Skankzilla who wants Bret so bad that she will do anything she can to try to get rid of me.”
Billy looked nervous as he dipped a chip in the salsa. “Yeah, she definitely hates that Bret is with you.”
I felt my face wrinkle in disgust. “I told you that I’m not with Bret! We are just friends. I told you that at the lake.”
He shrugged. “You don’t have to lie to me Artemis. I see the way you are together.”
I shook my head. “You obviously don’t. Bret is my friend and that’s all. Ugh. I hate it when people assume we are together.”
He smiled and asked, “So, you guys aren’t a couple?”
I shook my head. “No. He is just so damn protective of me that he makes everyone think that.”
Billy smiled wider. “Oh. Well, I’m glad I know now.”
I finished eating my burrito and finally felt full.
Billy finished his burrito with a sigh. “Man, that was good.”
I nodded. “Yep. Definitely hit the spot. So, are you ready to shop?”
He smiled. “Always!”
“Are you one of those guys who is a secret shopaholic?” I asked after laughing at his enthusiasm.
He put his head down in a bashful manner. “Maybe.”
I laughed. “Great. I think I’m coming here for a relaxing time and you’re going to be going to all of the sales.”
His eyes got big and darted around the mall. “There’s a sale?! Where?”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, tough football player. Let’s shop!” I stood and he followed me, throwing away our tray on the way.
I started to walk past the teen clothing store with a giant SALE sign and Billy cleared his throat. “Uh, I wasn’t kidding about being a shopaholic.”
I laughed and followed him into the store. He rushed right to the discounted racks and started pulling out t-shirts with the clothing store’s logo on them. I had to admit that Billy had decent taste in clot
hes.
He cleared his throat, and I looked up from the floor that I had at some point started looking at. He smiled. “What size are you?”
I frowned. “Why?”
He sighed. “Just play along.”
I sighed back at him. “Medium.”
He nodded then turned back to the discounted racks. I walked over to one of the display stands and sat on it. It was definitely going to be a long day of shopping. Billy walked across the store with a pile of clothes over his shoulder to another rack which had sunglasses. He put on a pair of the old style aviators, and I couldn’t help but laugh. He turned to me and frowned. “You don’t like them?”
I shook my head. “No.” I walked over to the sunglass rack and found a nice pair of sunglasses and put them on him. He looked in the mirror and smiled. I nodded. “I like those.”
He reached over to the girls’ side and handed me a pair with diamonds on the frame. “Put them on.”
I frowned and put the sunglasses on. I had never really been a big fan of sunglasses so I didn’t own any. I tilted my head to the side as if I was modeling them.
“I like those. They look good on you.”
I blushed. “You think so? You don’t think they make me look—”
He moved closer to me and whispered, “Hot? Yes, definitely.” I turned to face him and he kissed me on the lips, sending an unpleasant shock down my spine. He pulled away from me, smiling, and took the glasses off my face. “I’m buying you these.”
“I have my own money, Billy.”
He shook his head. “Nope, I picked the store, so I’m buying.”
He walked over to another rack and started looking at belts.
I sighed too softly for him to hear. “I’m going next door to get my shopping out of the way while you’re finishing up.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you in there. I think I’m almost done.”
I laughed as he scowled at a pair of jeans, trying to decide if they were worth it with the ten percent off or not. I hurried to the store right next door and walked in. It was my favorite place: a jewelry store. I didn’t wear jewelry, but I loved looking at everything. I walked down to the men’s jewelry spot and looked at the necklaces. They were all chains and reminded me of rappers on TV. I rolled my eyes and then found the necklace I had been looking at since I found out Bret was leaving. I smiled at the clerk who stood silently waiting for me to ask for help and pointed at the necklace. “I’d like that one please.”
Artemis Lupine- The Complete Series Page 4
