Making It Right
*Violet's Turn to Talk*
I pushed my wet hair out of my face and put my hood up. My clothes were already soaked but I didn't want anymore water hitting me in the face. I continued to walk down the beach, my shoes making a funny squishy sound.
The sky was a murky gray color and the clouds were rolling angrily above me. A bad storm was coming later and I didn't want to get stuck in it.
I headed off the beach and followed the road for a while until I saw Preston's small house. I noticed his car was in the driveway but that didn't mean anything at all; he could be anywhere from what I've learned.
I am still determined to get my answers out of Preston (even Greg if I had to but that was last resort). I was nervous though. One of my questions was where did he go all the time. I wasn't sure I wanted that answer. What if it was something bad like drug dealing or doing drugs? My other question is the one that I was the most nervous about. What were his feelings for me?
I didn't bother knocking on the door and let myself into the house. Thankfully, Greg wasn't asleep on the couch or in the kitchen so that meant he was sleeping in his room or out somewhere.
I tiptoed down the hallway to Preston's room. I've only been in here once and that was when I was ten years old. I quietly opened the door and peeked in. Preston was lying on his bed, his feet and one arm hanging off the bed. He was lying on his stomach and was snoring into his pillow. Preston almost looked sickly. He was pale and I could tell he hadn't shaved since I last saw him two days ago.
I looked around his room now. There were only a few clothes thrown around the room but I'm guessing that they were dirty. A stack of CDs were up against the wall next to an old boom box. I could see that on his nightstand he had a picture of the two of us smiling at the camera with a thick layer on mud on us.
"Preston?" I whispered shyly, stepping into his room. He didn't move but continued to snore. I walked right up to him and gently patted his shoulder. I didn't get a responds out of him. I grabbed his arm that was hanging off the side of the bed and tugged.
"Greg, leave me alone. I told you not to wake me up until my patrol tonight," Preston mumbled, jerking his arm out of my grip and rolling over so his back was to me.
"Excuse me, I'm not Greg," I stated, crossing my arms. Preston jerked around so fast that he tumbled out of his bed. Normally I would have laughed at him but this was too serious for that.
"Violet, what are you doing here?" he asked, picking himself off of the floor. I blushed when I noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt and only a pair of boxers. I cleared my throat and brought my eyes up to his eyes.
"I've come to demand an explanation from you," I stated, trying to make my voice firm and collected, to bad my voice shook from my nerves.
"About what?" he asked, trying to play dumb. I glare at him and tried to make myself look more menacing so he'd take me more serious.
"About what happened at my party and where you go all the time when you're not hanging out with me," I exclaimed sharply. Preston ran a hand through his wild hair and started to pace. I sat down on his bed and waited for him to say something.
"I knew this day would come of course, I was just hoping it wouldn't come this soon. I mean, you're just a child," he said.
"I'm not a child! I'm almost an adult!" I snapped, glaring at his back while he paced. Preston either didn't hear me or was ignoring me.
"They said I should have told you sooner but I didn't think that was a very good idea. And then there was that almost kiss we had that the party. That was a bad idea because like I said before, you're a kid. This is starting to get confusing but I'm not sure how else I'm purposed to do this," Preston ranted. I don't even think he was aware that I was sitting there listening to him.
"First, I'm not a kid. Second, I have no idea what you are talking about when you say that you should have told me sooner. Thirdly, I don't think our almost kiss was a bad idea. I mean, that was the high light of the party, except for the part where Katie interrupted us," I said.
"Violet, I'm twelve years older than you. Don't you think that is weird that we almost kissed? Don't you wonder why I hang out with you?" he exclaimed, finally stopping his pacing.
"Well, I've thought about the age difference and I asked mom about two years ago but she said not to worry about it. If my mother doesn't have anything against you then I shouldn't have to worry about it," I said thoughtfully.
Preston looked kind of shocked and flattered at the same time. I wasn't sure with he was more of though.
"Your mom knows about me though. Do you think she was hoping for this?" he mumbled. I didn't say anything even though my curiosity was practically burning me. My own mother knows about Preston's secret but I don't and he's my closest friend.
"What is that she knows?" I whispered, hoping he'd just tell me. Preston sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"You never did figure out the clue I gave you last year, did you? I guess I knew that you wouldn't. I didn't even figure it out when it was happening to Greg," Preston exclaimed.
"You better just spill your guts now or I'm going to find someone else to tell me," I threatened. Preston closed his eyes and started taking deep breathes.
"Fine, I'll tell you. All the legends are true, okay! I can turn into a giant wolf and I run around protecting the rez from vampires," he said in a high, tight voice. I glared and stood up from where I was sitting.
"That is not funny. I can't believe you are trying to feed me this crap!" I yelled and stalked to his door so I could go find Greg for him to tell me the truth.
"Wait! I'm telling the truth! Please, I'm not joking with you," Preston begged, jumping in front of me so I couldn't leave. I pushed him away from me and went for his window instead. Preston latched onto my arm and swung me around to face him.
I could have just melted after that. Preston pulled me right into him and didn't even hesitate and brought his lips right onto mine. Our first kiss was sweet and gentle. My knees shook and my heart was beating almost painfully against my chest. He slowly pulled away and just hovered above my lips while looking me in the eyes.
"Oh," I gasped. I felt heat crawl up my neck and settle on my cheeks. I didn't know if I should be embarrassed or giddy with the fact that we had just kissed. I timidly reached out and took his large, warm hand in mine.
"Do you believe me?" Preston asked quietly.
"About what?" I murmured. My brain was a bit fuzzy and I couldn't quite remember what we had been talking about be.
"About the legends. Do you believe me? I can show you if you want me to," he said nervously, stepping back from me but keeping my hand.
"You can show me? Really, well, go right ahead, Preston," I exclaimed, finally remember what we had been talking about. I waited for him to do something, anything that he might try to pull off as proof of a legend being true.
"We need to go outside. I wouldn't fit in here and I'd probably end up hurting you," he muttered and pulled me out of his room and out the back door of the house.
I tugged my hood back up again to keep the rain from getting into my eyes and nose. I would have said it was chilly out if Preston hadn't been there right beside it. He pulled me out to the forest that was behind his house. I pulled my hood down because the rain wasn't making it down to the ground because of the thick trees above us.
"So, er, transform or whatever it is you do," I said, reluctantly pulling my hand out of his and stepping back from him and went and sat down on an old stump. I gave him the thumbs up and grinned at him.
Preston didn't smile back but remained tense and serious while he watched me goof off about all this. His hands suddenly went down and unzipped his jean shorts.
"What are you doing!?" I squealed, covering my eyes with both my hands. I heard the pants drop down to the ground.
"I'm showing you what I'm talking about," he whispered. I suddenly heard a loud crack and a ripping sound from the area where Preston was standing. Against my better judgment, I peeked through my fingers to see what had happened. I gasped and lurched to my feet only to stumble over the stump and fell on the wet ground.
A black wolf the size of a horse was lying down from me just a few feet away from me. It had its head bowed but was looking at me like it was waiting for me to do something. I stood up with trembling legs and waited for it to move.
I suddenly remembered that Preston had been talking about how he could turn into a wolf and he didn't seem to be anywhere around here by the looks of it. I looked at the wolf warily and took a step towards it. It seemed to lift its head hopefully and watched me take each step closer to it.
Mom would freak out if she knew what I was doing. She's always tried to keep me from doing stupid stuff and here I was practically prancing up to a mutant wolf and giving it the chance to eat me.
"Please, don't eat me," I whispered when I was only four feet from it. The wolf looked at me with such….beautiful deep eyes that I could stare into all day. "Preston?" I asked timidly.
It rolled over onto its back and flashed all its teeth at me with its tongue hanging out. A weird version of a smile for a wolf, I guess. I swallowed and sank down to my knees; my legs couldn't hold me anymore.
"All these years you've been giving me hints about what you are and I never even considered this. Of course, logically none of this is real and I'm having a hallucination or I'm still sleeping. But this is too real feeling for it to be fake….could I, um, touch you?" I said.
Preston shuffled over to me until his side was pressed up against my leg. He was defiantly still as warm as he normally is that is for such. My hand was trembling slightly as I lightly brushed my fingers through his thick fur. It was soft and made me want to bury my face in it.
"Can you turn back, please? I have some questions," I exclaimed, scooting back from him. I watched this time to see what happens when he changed back. He shrunk and all his fur seemed to disappear. I missed most of it though because I slapped a hand over my eyes since he was still naked.
"You can look now," I heard him mumble. I peeked through my fingers still in case he was lying to me. Preston stood just like he had before except he was grinning now and his shorts were barely hanging on him.
I pushed myself to my feet and walked over to him. He let me take my time as I looked him over to make sure he didn't have any extra hair or he still had pointy ears. I circled around him twice to make sure he was completely back to normal.
"Um, do you want to go back inside once you're done?" he asked, amusement clear in his tone. I nodded and followed him back to his house. It seemed unreal that seeing Preston as a wolf that his house would still be the same.
Preston went straight into the kitchen and started to make hot chocolate for us. I stood, dripping in the living room, wondering which of my questions I should ask first.
"I want you to tell me everything. Start from the beginning and I'll just follow along," I exclaimed when Preston came back into the living room with two steaming hot cups of chocolaty goodness. He nodded, handed me my cup and sat the two of us down on the couch.
He talked for over an hour about everything related the tribe and the wolves. I had stayed quiet the whole time as I listened to him talk, soaking up the information that he was giving me. My mind would wander sometimes back to earlier to when we had kissed and I would find myself staring at his lips or thinking about when we would kiss again.
"Then there's imprinting but I'll come back to that. Anyway, so the wolves appear every time the vampires come back and-," I put my hand over his mouth so it would give me a chance to talk.
"Wait! What's imprinting?" I said, keeping my hand over him even though he couldn't answer me. His eyes pleaded with me to drop it but I just looked at him expectantly.
"It's, um, how the wolves find their soul mates. Now, when the vampires come back then so do the-," I clapped both of my hands over his face to keep him from distracting me as I thought.
"Soul mates? How does that work?" I asked. I could feel panic rising up. What if Preston had someone else that I didn't know about? Was that kiss just to stop me from leaving?
"It's…It's like when you see her you would do anything for her. When you first see her, it's almost like she is the holding you down to this world and-and it makes you feel wonderful and horrible at the same time. Wonderful because being around her is perfect and makes you happy. Horrible because when you are away from her there is a hole and nothing seems to distract you from it and you worry all the time about her until she is safe beside you and-and" Preston cut himself off and just stared at me with his sunny expression.
"Oh. It sounds like you're talking from experience," I mumbled jealously. I glared down at my lap. I've got grass stains on my jeans. Mom won't be very happy about that.
"Of course, I'm talking from experience. I imprinted eleven years ago," he said, smiling at me. Eleven years ago? I'm sure I would have noticed him talk about another girl or saw him around the rez with her if it has been that long.
"Oh, right. So, who is she?" my stomach felt hollow and I wished the floor would open up and swallow me. I felt horrible and I just wanted to cry my eyes out and run out of the room.
"You haven't figured it out? I would have thought you would have. You are my imprint of course. If you weren't your mother would have had me arrest years ago," he said. I gasped.
"Really? I'm your soul mate and my mother knows this!" I exclaimed. Preston grinned and I could just tell he was relieved that I knew now. It must have been horrible to keep this a secret all this time.
"Right, so are you hungry?" he asked.
"What? I don't want to eat after I just found all that out. How can you want to eat?" I exclaimed, kneeling on my knees now.
It must have been the joy of knowing that the two of us were meant to be together because normally I would have never had had the guts to do what I did next. I practically laid on him when I pressed my lips against his warm ones. He didn't react at all like I thought he would.
Preston pushed me away from himself and leapt off the couch. I kneeled, confused, on the couch with my lips still tingling from the brief kiss.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Violet, you're sixteen and I'm twenty-eight. People will not be happy to see us together. Besides, I'm not getting any older so we can wait," Preston explained to me. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed loudly.
"What? Are you saying we can't date until I'm eighteen?" I asked, standing up now.
"Er, yeah," Preston grumbled. It seemed like it pained him to say that.
"Bummer," I stated, plopping back down on the couch to mope.
