Chapter 2: Suspicion
Despite what his father had said the day before, Vaughn was feeling particularly anxious. That night would be a full moon. If what he thought was correct, he wouldn't be sleeping that night, and he probably wouldn't stay in one place. He had to get out, he had to at least make it to the woods so he could be outside, where no one would see him...
His thoughts were on that subject when Josie caught up with him, clapping her hand on his shoulder (even though it was much higher than her head) and bringing him down a little. "Hey, you feeling any better?" She didn't even wait for him to answer. "Good, 'cuz I think I might've thought of something here. About... you know... that."
"How'd you find out about it?" he asked frantically, before hurriedly stammering through an apology and crap excuse. No, in case you're wondering, Josie didn't buy it. She'd figured something was wrong with him in the first place, but that only reaffirmed her stance. I won't even say the excuse he gave, it was so much full of bull.
"You... sure you're feeling okay?" she asked, after he'd finally stopped spouting the fake excuse. "You've been acting weird for the past couple of days, and I'm... starting to get worried." There, she said it. She had to admit it eventually.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The frantic look that was still on his face proved that to be false. Not to mention... hey, there was something different about him, physically.
"Have... have your eyes always had that bit of yellow in them?" she asked, tilting her head to the side to get a better view. Sure enough, there were small, almost unnoticeable lines of yellow in his previously dark brown eyes.
Just before he could deny it and spout out some other crap excuse, Corrine showed up to save the day (unintentionally). "Josie, class! This'll be the fifth tardy this week!"
Josie rolled her eyes as she turned to face her roommate. "Serious business here, Corrine! So what if it's the fifth one for that class this week..."
"We're only two days into the week." Corrine's expression was totally serious. "I don't even know how it's possible, but you managed."
"Blame the 'hole." She pretty much ignored Corrine from then on, as she and Vaughn started for class (Corrine was nagging a little about how her attendance habits were rubbing off on Vaughn under her breath). The two of them lagged behind her considerably as she tried to pump information out of him.
"I'm telling you, I'm fine. I'm just... I've just got a cold, is all."
"Colds don't make peoples' eyes turn yellow, Vaughn," she whispered, shrugging to emphasize her point.
He was lost for a way out of that one, so he resorted to the oldest, least successful method known to man. "Look, I'm just not feeling so well. Leave me alone for a while." Vaughn picked up his pace until he passed Corrine, then hurriedly rounded into the doorway of the class. Now even Corrine was a little suspicious.
"Blame the 'hole?" she asked, once Josie had caught up with her in close enough range for them to talk about it discreetly. "Somehow I doubt Vaughn's really just sick. I mean, unless it's something like jaundice-"
"Like John? What?"
"It's a symptom of liver failure, commonly associated with alcoholism," she explained, "makes their skin turn yellow. It's pretty disgusting."
"Didn't need to know that..." Josie shuddered as they too entered the classroom. There's nothing that makes peoples' eyes turn yellow like that, though, she thought as she took her seat, assuming her normal 'bored' position. Vaughn's hiding something again. After we promised to be honest with each other. Hey, there was an idea. Guilt trip him into admitting it. She could tell there was a bit of partiality toward her anyway, why not use it to her advantage? So, that was what she planned to do.
"We promised, Vaughn."
"This isn't something I can just tell everyone about, Josie."
"So there is something to tell, though!"
"No! No, there's not..." Vaughn failed miserably at lying, it seemed. As he and Josie were in his room, he was both subtly checking for ways out at night and trying to hide the reasons for it.
"Vaughn, come on. You can tell me." Josie sat on the edge of his bed as he was standing in the center of the room, fidgeting slightly. No, he couldn't. He couldn't tell her. Even if he didn't, though, if she somehow walked in on him while he was... doing that...
"I was... wondering how I could give this to you without it being weird." There we go. He'd spotted something he could give to her both to throw her off and to help him recognize her should he be a little too fargone around her. The thought never occured to him to do the same for the others, but then again, none of them were pestering him near as much.
Madison had left a bracelet in his dorm once when she had visited, and, seeing as how she didn't seem to miss it, he figured that would work perfectly. Just so long as Josie didn't recognize it, he was fine. He took it from his dresser (he never thought of moving it or anything) and held it up, to make sure she could see it. "This, I mean. I just, uh... figured you'd like it."
"... What is that doing in here, anyway?"
"My cousin left it," he answered without missing a beat. "She hasn't missed it, so..."
Josie shrugged, as if it really didn't matter where he got it, but obviously showed distaste for the bracelet itself. "You don't expect me to... wear it, do you?"
"Just... have it on you." Even as he said that, he grabbed her left wrist and thrust it on. He continued to hold her arm as he studied the bracelet itself, making sure he had its features memorized (it wasn't that hard; it was just a little pattern of silver circles). He remembered being able to distinguish small details better than a complete thing before, so he made sure that one stuck out in his mind.
"Uhm... why?" She had to admit, it was kind of nice that he was giving her something. Maybe he gave her that because he was used to dating the preppy cheerleaders rather than- Wait, dating? No, it was just a casual gift from a friend. Nothing more than that.
"Sentiment." Good enough, he figured. Seeing he was holding her arm for quite a bit longer than he meant, he released it with a bit of a blush. "I mean, just... keep it in your pocket or something. It might come in handy for something." Wow, that sounded terribly cliche.
His eyes wandered past her as she stammered some freaked-out thanks, and widened. Sunset. He needed to be getting out, while the moon was still just rising. Josie noticed his expression rather quickly. "Hey, Vaughn, you okay, or is your "cold" acting up again?"
"You need to leave," he said not-so-subtly, eyes wide as he started shoving her toward the door. He followed her out, shut the door behind him, and started for the school's exit.
"Where are you going?" Hey, couldn't blame a girl for being curious.
"My dad's," he called back, starting to pick up his pace. His stomach was turning now, and he felt his leg cramp. The first things that always happened before. "I forgot I was supposed to... meet with him about something." Sounded about right, she'd have to buy it.
And she did have to. She had no choice, seeing as how he was hurrying off. So with a frustrated sigh, she started back for her dorm, occasionally glancing back at the bracelet and smirking.
Neckties were the Devil's scarves. He was just making it deep enough into the woods where he wasn't worried about coming across someone, or vice versa, but the stupid tie was being difficult. The sky was blackening ever-so-slowly, and he could feel parts of him alter slightly.
After nearly strangling himself with the tie, Vaughn finally managed to get it off and proceeded next to the shirt. Honestly, school uniforms were the worst things ever to come from an administrator's mind. It should've been considered discrimination; werewolf students were pretty much left high and dry if they were in a hurry.
He'd felt it first as soon as he was done stripping down. His knees buckled beneath him, and he found himself on his hands and knees on the ground. Every bone in his body seemed to be reconfiguring itself, bending, breaking, cracking, stretching, shortening, sharpening, mending. When he felt something shoot out of his lower back, it took quite a bit not to turn around and look. He knew what was there, anyway. The dark brown fur on his tail soon spread, and his entire body seemed to just totally flip upside down. His ears lengthened and pointed, his entire face stretched until it wasn't recognizable, and his hands and feet, well... his feet were more of hindpaws, and his hands mostly changed but still seemed partly human.
Had he not been standing upright, one probably would've mistaken him for an actual, natural wolf. His eyes had even finally reverted to the goldish-yellow that had appeared in them before. He was just barely able to grasp a bit of what was going on, though unable to really control what his body did. All he could tell was that it was dark, there were trees, and what he'd feared the most was true - the werewolf in him was back.
As if to top it all off, he couldn't hold back the long howl that had been retained for eight years, even as a bit of a tear formed in one eye.
Erilis: This chapter has been edited because Erilis made an epic spelling/biology FAIL in it. Thanks to the person who pointed this out to me. :3 Oh, and sorry there hasn't been an update in a while. Gimme a minute, major writer's block going on.
