I blinked my eyes open tosee Derryn smiling back at me. Her reddish
browncurls were tamed in two French braids, and the green eyes that
her family shared gleamed with excitement.
"She's awake!" She shouted over her shoulder, as if talking to
someone, though it was obvious that we were theonly ones in the room.
I winced as I tried to get up, because my head felt a little queasy.
Giving up, I lay my head back on thepillow, and grunted.
"Where am I?" I scrutinized the room thatseemed foreign to me. Derryn
sat up in the chairshe'd been sitting in for god knows how long.
"You're in my room silly. Satchel carried you in here a while ago." I frowned.
I don't remember Satchel carrying me. And by 'awhile' she must have
meant the whole day, since nighttime was nearing again. I started to
lift my head again, butfailed miserably since it was apparent I was
feeling nauseous.
God! How long was I out? I wondered.
"Oh God! I feel dizzy." I muttered. Derryn touched her hand to my forehead.
"Mom said you had a bit of a fever, so you had to rest. Satchel told
me to look after you while he showered. He told me to yell out to him
when you woke up."
I smiled, looking around the foreign room again, noticing just how
much of Derryns personality showed from looking at her room.
You'd think it was a boy room with all the wild animals plastered
everywhere. The color of her room was as neutral as any plain room;
with gray carpet, beige walls, and the same comforters as I once had
in my room over at my fathers farmhouse estate.
I don't know how many stuffed animals she had perched on shelves but
it was a lot, and the postersthat were hung up were of wolves in
different colors and sizes. I stopped at one wolf. One that sat in a
frame that looked familiar.
A black wolf with green eyes, and a little girl cuddled up next to it,
smiling into the camera. Idon't know for sure, but Iwas betting that
that wasthe same wolf I'd seen in the forest. In the photo, Derryn
looked like she'd adored the wolf, and the wolf adored her.
"That's you in that picture?" She followed my stare and nodded.
"Uh huh. That's me and Black Wolf." I frowned.
"Black Wolf? It's not Satchel?" She raised her eyebrows, clearly surprised.
"You know?" I slowly nodded. Her shoulders relaxed.
"You're not supposed to know yet, but I'm glad you do." She said, and
I wasn't sure what to make of that comment. But I guess, I'll have to
ask Satchel about that.
"You call him Black Wolf?" I asked instead. She nodded.
"Yeah, daddy named him that when he was sick. It's like he knew what
Satchel was."
A knock snapped me out of my reverie, and startled Derryn. We looked
to see that Satchelwas leaning on the door frame.
"Derryn? I think Willy is thirsty. Would you mind getting her some
water?"She got up and squeezed my hand, smiling with those warm green
eyes.
"You'll be alright. Like I said, my brother will takegood care of
you." She left soon after, leaving me alone with Satchel. Hestayed
leaning on the door frame, just staring at me.
"You okay?" He said at last. I nodded.
"Yeah, just a little dizzy, but it'll pass." He moved forward, taking
up the empty seat that was onceoccupied by Derryn. I noticed his hair
fit into a ponytail now, and he was freshly clothed.
A black shirt, with the same colored slacks, held up with red
suspenders this time. But the one thing that never failed to intrigue
me were the depth of his light green eyes. So compelling, I couldn't
quite pull mine away from them. He crooked a smile.
"You wanna tell me why you passed out on me back there?" No. I broke
his gaze and blushed. God I was such a loser, I didn't want to relive
my embarrassment for having to explain myself for passing out on him.
Especially in the middle of a make out session. I'd never done that
before, but then again, I've neverkissed a werewolf either.I found
myself shuddering at the thought. There was no such things as
werewolves. I chanted in my head. I looked up to the sound of his
sigh.
"Willy, you gotta meet me half way. I don't know what you're feeling,
and your body language gives me mixedmessages. Tell me what I did
wrong."
"You're a wolf." I blurted.He blinked and then stared for what felt
like ages. I could hear my own heart thrumming fast.
"I…and that bothers you?" It wasn't exactly anagreement, but he didn't
deny it either. I'm not sure what I wanted confirmed either, so it was
just as well he kept quiet. I frowned.
"I don't know how I feel about anything. Besides, I can't be involved
with someone like you." He scoffed.
"Someone like me…" He let the sentence hang in the air, and I watched
hisface turn over with multiple expressions. I didn't mean it to come
out like that, but I knew it hurt him just judging from his
expressions. I wanted to slap myself forsaying such a thing.
"I didn't mean to say that. I'm sorry." I said quickly. He shrugged it
off like it was no big deal.
"I'm just a little shaken up about what I saw…when I saw you
outthere." He rubbed his face as if he could erase his feelings I
presumed, and looked at me with that god forsaken stare that I'm sure
could bend me over backwards and compel me to do anything. I blinked
my stupid thoughts away. Focusing on Satchel.
"What you saw out there was…you weren't supposed to see that. Notyet
anyway." His voice was strained, and it hurt him to say the words, I'd
realized.
"I'm not sure what it was I did see out there Satchel. All I know is
that it's not normal to see a human boy flailing aboutwith hands and
feet like paws."
"I'm sorry you had to findout that way. I wanted totell you…but I had
to waituntil…" He paused and bit his lip. I frowned.
"Until what?" He shook his head.
"I've said too much already. Promise you won't say anything aboutwhat
happened in there. It's not your time. You shouldn't know about this
yet." He had his handon my face, gently caressing my cheekbones.
"Satchel, what are you talking about? Time. I have time." I frowned, I
noticed his eyes were staring out of the window again.
"What aren't you telling me?" I whispered. He looked at me, taking his
hand away.
"I need to go." He shot upout of his seat, and paused at the sound of my plea.
"Satchel. Please! Tell me what's going on?" He looked over his
shoulder with an apologetic look on his face.
"Wait 'til your birthday. Then you'll know everything." And with that,
he slipped through the door, and closed it gently behind him. I wanted
to scream in anger, or throw something at the door to release some of
my pent up frustration.
But I resorted to just lying there, staring at theceiling as if
answers would magically appear in front of me. They didn't, and I lay
there for hours wondering what answers I would get in this coming
fall. My seventeenth birthday was less than a month away.
What was so important it had to wail until then?
No comments:
Post a Comment