My mouth fumbled for the words as my tongue tried to spit something out. Instead I just made an awkward choking noise. Humphrey looked like a deer that just walked into headlights of oncoming traffic,panic written all over his face. I didn't have a chance to warn him that there were people currently over, muchless anyone from school that would recognize him.
Even though it was only a few seconds, the awkward silence that was abusing the air around us seemed to drone on for what felt like forever. He seemed to be the first to collect himself, quickly looking away and dismissing himself from the room, bolting straight to the living room, closing the door carefully behind himself as he did. I let out a loud, almost aggravated sigh as I looked at the floor defeated. This was not how I imagined this playing out. Well I'm not entirely sure how I imagined it would go, I mean there were really only two ways it would have gone, and we ended up with the worst one of the two.
I turned back around in the chair to face the girls, who for lack of better words, were shocked. Their expressions somewhere between excitement and confusion as they looked from one another in an unheard conversation with their eyes, before all turning and looking at me. I am not sure why but my face went bright red with the sudden attention as I just looked down trying to hide the embarrassment.
"Alright, so we're just not going to mention the six foot wet puppy that just appeared in your house,or noooo…..?" Beth said quietly being serious, yet cracking a small smile as if trying not to laugh. I wasn't sure how I should proceed in handling this, it wasn't like it would be easy to explain to them. Both why he was here, and why I didn't tell them before. I found this to be mildly frustrating at the moment.
"Uh..yeah..i guess that does seem kinda random..huh?" I said, trying to ease some of the tension. I just received looks that said "Really?" from them. I let out a small sigh, spinning my glass in my hands on the table, thinking of what to say. "Well..um..it's complicated?" I said looking up to them. Beth and Jane just looked at eachother and back to me, obviously intrigued by the situation.
"Well uncomplicated it for us.." Jane said, scooting her chair closer to me and leaning on the table. Her gray eyes brimming with excitement for the scoop, like some reporter that just got a big tip. I swear if we hadn't been friends you'd think she's creepy.
"How was he? Family maybe?" Alex said now also trying to pry answers from me. I looked at here like she was stupid for a second. I glanced at the other girls for a sec, to see that they matched Alex's confusion and the mystery guy in the other room. "Did they really not recognize it was Humphrey?" I thought to myself. I mean he was wet, making his fur darker and he wasn't wearing his normal hoodie but I mean he wasn't that different.
I mean I'd be able to spot those dazzling aqua blue eyes anywhere. To be honest Jane would definitely be the one to recognize him, she's never forgotten a single boy's name or face as long as i've known her. "You guys really don't recognize him?" I said looking from one of them and then the others. They looked back and forth from one another, attempting to figure it out. It kinda hurt to know they found him that forgettable.
I mean yea, it was only the first week but all of us had been watching him pretty closely the first few days. They seemed to be lost for an answer looking at me with pleading eyes. "How many people do you know with gray fur, and white highlights?" I asked sarcastically. They thought about it for a second before shaking their heads. "None, that I know of" Jane said, looking to Beth to confirm. "I swear you guys have the combined IQ of a goldfish, jeez" I said as I rubbed my temples and smiled. I leaned forward on the table like a kid about to tell his best friend his biggest secret.
"Anyone in first period ring a bell?" I asked casually, trying to let them figure it out themselves. I wasn't just going to give it to them. They needed to show initiative and acknowledgement of their other classmates. Especially since we almost lost him the other day and no one would have known. My expression darkened when I thought about it, but quickly disappeared as I sat back in the chair. Jane was eyeing me from the corner of her eye, while facing Beth. I didn't think much of it and gave them a few more seconds to figure it out.
"Grey fur…..first period…i dont think..wait, woah wait..nooo..it couldn't be" Beth said grabbing the girls attention. Her eyes widened as if she had just won the lottery, with her jumping up out of her chair and hopping around. The other girls stared at her blankly, obviously confused by her actions. I didn't blame them, I knew who it was and even I was confused by her actions.
"Calm down girl, did we miss something here?" Jane asked, grabbing Beth's arm, trying to calm her down. Beth stopped jumping around but she still had a huge grin plastered to her face. "It was so obvious, how did we not recognize him, duh.. It's shy boy" she practically yelled out. Jane looked at Alex for a second, then it clicked and her face lit up as she snapped to me, almost making me jump out of my seat.
"Wait.. that was Humphrey?" she asked quietly. I just nodded slightly as I felt at this point I didn't really need to confirm that information. "What? Him? Why?" asked Alex, now realizing it as well. I just giggled at their reactions to figuring it out, i mean it wasnt that shocking right? After a few moments they settled down and took their seats. They always had so much energy all the time, I was kind of envious.
"Okay..alright..so let me get this straight..that was Humphrey…Mr shy himself, in your house taking a shower. Do I have that right?" Jane asked, focusing her attention on me,and just like that I felt the pressure of the situation coming back. "Uh..yea..yea that seems about right" i said playing dumb. I wasn't sure what they were going to think about this. She didn't say anything but just nodded a few times, looking at the table for a moment.
"And.. if he's taking a shower..then would that mean he was here overnight?" she glanced at me again. I just nodded in response. "I see, I see…oaky. Was that the first night he stayed here?". I felt like I shouldn't answer that truthfully just to avoid complications and such, but I really didn't want to lie to them again either. I gave a guilt torn nod to say no, knowing I was only digging the hole deeper. Their eyes widened again at the information laid before them in astonishment.
"You meant to tell me that Mr. Shy over there, not only spent the night once but twice? Now i'm finding that hard to believe." she said with a suspicious face. I just stared blankly at them, not really having much to say on the matter. "Did he ask to stay over or something? Or maybe you asked him?" she said, giving a mischievous smile.
"What, why would I do that? I don't know him well enough to ask him to spend the night." I said , trying to defend what dignity I still had. They gave me the look that said "yea, sure" and laughed. "Guys don't act like that, come on '' I said, slightly irritated at their snarkiness. They just giggled a little, still grinning. "Come on Kate we aren't going to pick on you for inviting a boy over, every girl does eventually. You're popular so it was bound to happen, but who knew you were into the quiet, mysterious type" Alex said, making the girls laugh again.
I felt my annoyance growing with them. I hated being picked on by people and I know they knew it. "Look I said I didn't" I snapped back at them. I wasn't about to let my friends just make up some story of their own accord about me. I didn't need any more rumors about me or him being spread around and making things harder for either of us, especially him. I figured the girls would have picked up that I was serious but I would be wrong.
"Bet you I know why he was takinging a shower" Jane said grinning and pushing Beth's shoulder causing her to laugh with her. "Maybe we showed up at a bad time," she said, laughing a little more. My patience was wearing thin with there jokes making me snap back.
"I said it's not like that! God damn, I didn't ask for him to be here, mom just felt bad for the kid" I said angrily slamming my hand onto the table. The girls finally shut for once, not saying another word. I leaned back in my chair rubbing my face trying to calm back down. When I looked back up, I noticed they were still quiet, looking towards me. Their expressions showed they knew they went too far, but that wasn't all of it. They looked apologetic, which I'd never seen from them before.
I then came to realize that they were not looking at me, as I heard a small sniffle behind me. Everything seemed to stop as my heart dropped from my chest at the sound. There was zero chance that I was wrong about where it had come from as I slowly turned to look behind me. I immediately felt like I lost the ability to breathe as I laid my eyes on a gray wolf standing in the hall by the kitchen entrance. Humphreys eyes were brimmed with tears about to flood down his face, barely holding on to his eyelashes. He was looking straight at me, locking his eyes to mine, sending chills all the way down my back.
He looked like his spirit had been crushed and all his happiness, or what little he had was completely gone." Why would I even say that about him?" I thought to myself. I was about to say something but he beat me to it barely being audible to those of us in the room across from him.
"Did you mean that? Am I here because you pity me? " he asked in a low, choked up voice. He blinked, causing one of the tears to fall down his face, leaving a dark trail in its wake. He may have been a few feet away but I could clearly see his lip quivering slightly. My mind screamed for me to speak up and apologize to him, to get on the floor and say it was just a joke and that I never wanted him to leave. To just forget the whole thing. But instead my mouth felt like peanut butter, keeping me from getting anything out as I tried to clear my throat.
He just looked to the floor, staring at his feet as a drop fell from his face, making a small almost unnoticeable splash on the floor. He slowly turned and walked to the front door and walked out of the house, closing the door behind himself. I sat frozen in my chair for a few moments before I heard Jane yell my name, snapping my back to reality.
"Kate!" she yelled getting up and walking past me, stopping to look back at me. I was still in my chair looking at her, processing what just happened. "You just gonna let him walk away after that. You need to stop him and apologize, now! " she said, walking over and pulling me out of the chair. We ran to the front door, swinging it open and running out into the yard.
We scanned the surrounding area, but I didn't see him. "He could have gone in any direction" I thought to myself, panicking, looking back and forth. Before I could be indecisive anymore Jane ran up and shut the door. "Beth you go that way, Alex you take the main street and i'll go check the side street. I doubt he went far, so let's hurry. Kate move your ass before it's too late girl" she said before taking off from the house, the other girls doing the same.
My stomach was turning in knots as I thought of what I'd just done. "How could I pick a worse time to do something like that?" I thought as I dropped to the grass beneath me, feeling my eyes watering. I pulled my phone out and opened the speed dial, selecting mom's number. I looked up at the sky and cleared my throat, trying to hold back my tears as I heard the tone ringing. After a few seconds I heard her pick up the phone.
"Mum…" I wheezed out.
"Kate dear, what's wrong honey. Are you okay?" she asked, showing signs of concern. I looked down at the ground, crying softly. "Kate?..talk to me dear.."
"Mum, it's Humphrey. I..I messed up…please…" I said trying not to fully break down at this point. Mom quickly picked up on the situation as I heard some noise on the other side and she told dad something. "We are on our way now dear…" I just hung the phone up and dropped in the grass, curling up into a ball and crying. It would be okay,w e could fix this and make everything better.. It will be fine.." I thought…