by Mirajane
“That’s right,” she said. “Those we lose will always be with us, no matter what. So, one day I will have to leave you. But I’ll never really be gone. You will always have me close by.”
“I know, but it’s far too early for you to even talk like that.”
“Oh, don’t be so sure. I’m getting on in years. You need to make peace with the fact that I will never be around forever. And the best way to do that is to surround yourself with people you love. Have your own family, your friends, your career—these things are important. That will give you the balanced life that you crave.”
I hugged her softly and said, “Thanks.”
We watched television for a while and what she said got me thinking about how I might never actually go through what she would be. I would lose people in my life, but I would never be facing the end, at least not for a long time. I was part supernatural now. I wasn’t sure exactly how long my kind lived, but I did know that I had not really changed much in three years. Part of my growth spurt and the reason I’d filled out the way I had I believed was because of the shifter curse.
Curse…? Could I really call it a curse? It had mostly been pretty good to me, and since I’d learned to control my urges and avoid transformations, I’d been able to embrace several things about being as shifter. My senses were acute. I could read people so well. I could work tirelessly and go days without sleep. I never got sick. I didn’t even worry about broken bones or cuts. Injuries would heal within minutes.
And I wasn’t sure I would ever die, but I did know that the oleander plant was toxic to my kind. I’d heard rumors on the internet and from my own research that oleander could be melted down and injected into a bear shifter. It would kill one within seconds. And I heard it was pretty brutal.
But again, with this thing there was so much information floating around that I just had no idea what was real and what was not. I’d been tempted to find some oleander and touch it, to see if it would hurt me, but the information all seemed to agree that it would burn my skin practically off if I did such a thing.
For now, I would have to take their word for it.
My grandmother went to bed shortly after the movie. I gave her a hug, told her I loved her, and then went back to my place. On the way I called Angie and asked her if she was still coming over.
“On my way,” Angie said.
The way she said that sounded so sexy. I had a feeling I was about to have a wickedly fun night.
Chapter Fifteen
Angie
I did not want to go to this stupid barbecue. But for some reason, it seemed important to Tyler. So I decided to go to support him. Brad was one of his favorite teachers in school, but I wasn’t sure why. The guy gave me the creeps. I’d heard so many awful rumors about him, but then again they were just silly rumors. I was trying my best to consider the source and not believe them.
It took me a few minutes to decide what to wear to this thing. I wanted to look pleasant, but I did not want to look enticing enough to give Brad any ideas, just in case my feelings about him being creepy turned out to be true. I was lucky enough to have Mrs. Casto for History class in high school. So, I never really had to put up with Brad Stewart. Heather and Jackie both swore that he was a weirdo who used to “eye bang” the shit out of them and stare blatantly at their cleavage.
“The guy is a total creeper,” Heather told me when I mentioned that I was going to a barbecue at his house. “You know, I heard that his wife divorced him because she found that he was stalking his favorite students online and keeping a tab folder on his computer of their social media pictures. It was so creepy.”
“Well, that is why you have to be careful what you post on there. Any moron can just take the pic and use it to get off,” I said.
She laughed and smiled. I thought she might be a little hungover or drunk from last night still. She was over at my place early that morning to hang out a bit. Mostly, she just wanted to eat some good breakfast since she knew my mother always pulled all the stops and put together a log rolling meal when I was home. She made pancakes, steak, eggs, turkey sausage (my mother said pork was filthy) and a big bowl of berries and assorted fruits. This was of course followed by lots of coffee. All the things a growing girl needed to sober up.
After we got back last night from the ski trip, the other girls went to the bar since it was only nine o’clock. I went home for a few minutes, and when Tyler called me, I drove straight to his place. We had an amazing time. It started with a few drinks and ended with some of the most mind blowing sex that had ever been had by anyone. How did we keep topping ourselves? It was like every single time we were together we learned something new about the other person and this enabled us to take things to a higher level. It was crazy.
I couldn’t wait to get done with the evening so we could have some more wild, crazed sex. It was very much becoming a drug I was dependent on, something I looked forward to all day from the moment I opened my eyes.
And of course we’d had some more shower sex this morning, so we were almost assuredly dirtier after the shower than before. I then came home so my mother wouldn’t worry too much, and so Tyler could get some work done. The man was a workaholic. I’d woke up in the middle of the night twice now to see him sitting in bed with his laptop working away on some sort of code or something he was putting together.
I admired so much about him.
“Ok, well, I’m just saying you need to be careful around this weirdo. He might poison your food and turn you into a human horsefly or something.”
“You have been watching too many movies.”
“I’m sure it’s been done around here,” she laughed.
“I will be fine,” I replied. “I’ll be with Tyler. And it might be fun. I wonder if Brad will have a date.”
“Can you imagine who would date him? I mean, I’m not sure how he got his last wife. It’s bizarre.”
“Who knows? Maybe he is into witchcraft and put some magic spell on her. That’s been known to happen in these parts,” I teased her.
“You kid, but I know about some people,” she said. “But I think they take a break during Christmas. I’m excited about this Christmas. Aren’t you? I mean, we have all our friends together, and it is the most festive time of the year. I love it.”
“I do, too,” I said. And I meant it. I was worried that this trip was going to be a total disaster, but now I was excited. I wanted to share this holiday with Tyler. I wanted to kiss him under the mistletoe. I wanted to drink hot cider, eat pumpkin pie, go look at Christmas lights, and then I wanted to sit beside the warm fireplace and listen to soothing holiday music in his arms. That sounded ideal. I’d always dreamt of having such a Christmas, but I was starting to believe that it would never happen.
I finished getting ready and then I waited for Tyler to pick me up. Heather said her goodbye and walked towards Jackie’s parents’ place. They were going to do “something creative, whatever that means” Heather said. That sounded like Jackie. She was always putting things, fun events together, but she was also all about the surprises. Typically these little events were something like arts and crafts, which could be fun, but sometimes it could get really annoying and even childish. But Jackie was our friend and we humored her.
Tyler picked me up about ten minutes later. He looked great, as always. Every time I saw him, a big part of me lit up and I just could not help but feel safe, warm, secure, and so happy. I tried not to let on that I was basically giddy about him being with me, but it was hard to hide.
“Hey,” I said as I slid into his car. He leaned over and kissed me. His lips tasted so good.
“You look amazing,” Tyler said as he pulled away from the driveway. The trip to Brad’s house was only about ten minutes. I was now nervous since Tyler had complimented my looks. I wasn’t sure he was doing that because he and I were together, or if he was doing that because I really looked great to him.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“What did y
ou do all day?” He asked.
I hung out at the house with Heather. It was just kind of a relaxing day. I guess someone wore me out yesterday.”
Tyler smiled and then said, “Well skiing is a grueling activity.”
I giggled and began to relax a little bit. He had such a calming effect on me.
We arrived at Brad’s house and he was all set to begin grilling in the back. He had a nicer house than I would have guessed on a teacher’s salary. It was a single story home, but very spacious inside, and in the back, he had a big patio, a swimming pool, and a huge deck with a large grill set up. This was all topped off with a patio table with an umbrella and several nice chairs around it. And he had a nice yard as well.
“Wow, this is pretty sweet,” Tyler said.
“Thanks,” Brad asked. “Beers are in the cooler. Help yourselves.”
“Great,” I said.
“It is so good to see you again, Angie,” Brad said. “You weren’t in my classes were you?”
“No, I wasn’t,” I replied. “Well, that’s a bummer. I wished that you were. But I do remember you. Was it study hall with me?”
I nodded. “Right, I did have study hall with you briefly, but then I dropped that study hall since I didn’t need three of them.”
“Ah, that is right. I remember it now.”
I doubted he remembered of that. Brad put several burgers on the grill along with some hot dogs. They were already sizzling and sounding fantastic. I preferred barbecue on a charcoal grill, but the electric one he had was really nice as well. I was suddenly very hungry.
Brad grabbed a beer and sat down at the table with us. “So, how have you both been? Tyler and I briefly caught up a little bit, but Angie I have no idea what you are up to these days.”
“Well, there isn’t much to tell. I’m still in school.”
“Are you in any athletics in college?”
I shook my head. “I was doing some volleyball and softball, but I got kind of bored with it and I found it was interfering with my school work, so I decided to drop those.”
“That’s interesting. I remember you being a bit of an athlete in high school. Is that right? You did cheerleading as well?”
I nodded. “I did. But my heart was never really in it.”
“I can understand that,” he said. “Even if one has a natural aptitude to something, if your heart isn’t there then you shouldn’t do it. There are too many people who go that route. My niece, April, for instance. She was the fastest track and field runner in Franklin county. She lived up outside of Columbus in Upper Arlington. Anyway, she was so fast that it almost wasn’t fair to the other runners. But she quit her senior year despite having several scholarships pending for colleges. She just didn’t like doing it. She was tired of training and tired of racing. My sister and her husband tried to make April feel bad, and told her how she was cheating. But she didn’t let it stand in her way. She was more drawn to the arts and started getting really into dancing. April ended up going to dance school and is loving every minute of it.”
I tried not to zone out during his touching story, but this was very annoying. I felt a bit bitchy around him. I really just didn’t want to be there and the more he tried to play entertaining host, the more annoyed I was becoming.
But the food smelled great, which was a bonus.
“That’s what I believe as well,” Tyler replied. He took a drink of his beer and then started chuckling. “You remember when Mr. Kaiser had that big bushy beard, and everyone said he looked like a serial killer.”
“Oh, yeah,” Brad said. “I do remember that.”
“You guys had that crazy bet about something—I can’t remember what—and then he lost, so you got to shave his head. That was hysterical.”
I spoke up. I did remember this. “Yeah, I think it was to do with the rival teams. Remember? His alma mater was Logan. And we always had that horrible beef with Logan. The kids would pull a huge prank war and the year before things had gotten so bad that there was a rumble at the game. So, that year, you decided that you would shave the other one’s head and post it online depending on who lost. That was hysterical.”
“Yeah, it was good.”
Brad didn’t seem to get too excited over anything, it seemed. Even when he was having a good conversation with someone, he couldn’t get to that normal way of really engaging with people. I wasn’t sure how anyone could really tolerate him, let alone actually marry him. I had never met his wife, but I was damn curious to. I wondered how hard it would be to actually track her down and ask her point blank to her face what had it been like to actually marry this odd, little weasel. And now I was here about to eat food that he had prepared. It felt dirty to me.
I glanced over at Tyler. He seemed to be completely oblivious to the way I was thinking about Brad.
“Have you ever done anything like that since?” Tyler asked.
“No,” Brad said. “I’m not sure I really have it in me anymore.”
“Well, I guess the years get the best of us all,” Tyler said.
“You remember the time that Tommy Johnson came at you with that chair?” Tyler asked.
“I do. That was probably my most frightening day as a teacher.”
“What? I never heard about this,” I said.
“Yeah, the moron got upset about something stupid, and then he just went crazy and started screaming at the top of his lungs. I remember that Brad tried to get him to leave the room and go to the principal’s office, but he just got angrier and picked up a chair and threw it at him. That was when a couple of the guys jumped up out of their chairs and restrained him. The guy was an idiot. I’m not sure what he is doing now.”
“Well, hopefully, he got the help that he needs,” Brad said. “He was a very troubled kid.”
“Right,” I said. “It sounds like he was on something.”
Brad got up to check the food. Everything looked done, so he grabbed the buns, and then began to put the burgers and the hot dogs on them. A moment later we had our food. Tyler began to dig into it immediately as if he hadn’t eaten all day. I was a bit more hesitant, but with both of them chowing down, I didn’t want to look rude, so I began to eat as well.
It did taste really well, and I kept remembering what Heather had been telling me before about him being some kind of a serial killer or something. It almost made my stomach turn to wonder if there was any poison or anything weird in my food. I chalked it up to a wild imagination, but it was still messing with my head.
“This is one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted,” Tyler said. He was gulping it down quickly now.
“Thank you,” Bradley replied. “I find that the key is to get the grill as piping hot as possible before you add the burgers to them. That will ensure that they cook quickly. I find if you take your time with burgers, than they will dry out on you. And no one wants that. You fry them fast and all the delicious flavor stays trapped inside.”
“I see. Glad to know you’ve got a secret,” Tyler said. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the restroom.”
“Down the hall and it is the last door on your left.”
Tyler stood up and walked into the house. Now Brad and I were left alone. This was now a bit awkward as neither of us said anything for a few seconds. I hoped that we wouldn’t. I was hoping that we could just sit there and have fun enjoying the silence.
Brad began to speak to destroy that dream. “So, you and Tyler are really hitting it off. I don’t seem to remember you crazy kids having that much in common way back in high school. If I do recall, he was part of the nerd crowd, though he certainly has changed quite a bit, am I right?”
The way Brad spoke gave me the impression that I was listening to some weird old professor from some old movie who was way past his prime and really just trying to find something to do to pass the time and keep himself feeling important. I sighed and tried to keep it together without slapping him upside the head. He was just so grating.
“Well, y
eah. People change. We just reconnected at the bar the other night.”
“I used to hang out there,” Brad said. “It’s a great place to reconnect with old students, who are now perfectly legal young women. And you’d be surprised at how many of them still want to earn some extra credit, if you know what I mean.”
“What?” I asked. I was floored that he was actually saying this to me. Was he just trying to be crude and vulgar, or did he really think this was normal talk.
“Yes, you’d be totally shocked to see how many of your classmates are still hot for teacher. I would never cross the line when they were students, but don’t think I didn’t think about it. I would watch them carefully, taking careful notes about them with my mind, and then when I was alone I would relieve myself over and over again. And now, I’m actually able to get those same girls I used to fantasize about. And it is way better than the fantasy, I’ll tell you that.”
I stood up. “This is sick. I’m going to leave.”
“So soon? Tyler might be a few minutes in the bathroom it looks like. I guess he had to go number two. That’s fine. It will give you and me a chance to get to know each other much better. We can make some magic happen, or at least plant the seeds for some. I bet you would love to come here later, maybe not tonight but soon, and I could make you scream my name over and over again. You were never in my class, but I did notice you. Oh, don’t think I didn’t. You were the prettiest, sexiest little minx in the entire school. I’ve fantasized a lot about you.”
“You’re a disgusting pig. I’m getting out of here.”
“Well, I’ve had many women call me something similar, but they always end up giving into their primal desires. We are sexual creatures. Hell, most women are completely turned on by my brutish behavior. It is alpha, animalistic. It is the way of the wild, and it is still deeply inside of every single one of us. Don’t think for a damn second that it’s not. You’d be fooling yourself.”
