A\N: Hey, everyone :) Here's another chapter, I hope you'll enjoy it. Thank you so much for your support!
P.S. Mori, yes, you remembered correctly, I'm not a native English speaker; you can probably tell from the mistakes I make xD Anyway, I'll use this opportunity to thank you for your incredible comments, they really mean a lot!
Kim just stood silently for some time, with Paul's hands firmly on her shoulders.
"You ok, champ?" Paul shook her shoulders a little, then patted her on the back. "You're looking queazy. You gonna hurl?"
She just shook her head, unable to take her eyes off of Jared. It was hard to realize that was actually him in there, trapped inside that huge body. He was pacing about, never crossing the imaginary line between them. The fur on his neck stood up and he barred his teeth a couple of times, growling from the base of his throat. He looked feral, like a wild animal trapped in a small cage. At that moment, it was easy for Kim to imagine him killing something. Someone? She shuddered, shaking her head to erase that image.
"How long is he going to...?" She asked quietly.
"As long as he needs to calm the fuck down," Paul said, looking pointedly at Jared. "Also, he'll need some clothes. Are you good to go? We should probably head back, meet at Emily's?" He asked Jared.
"What? No," Kim frowned.
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"I'm not going to Emily's."
"What's the big deal? She's, like, super nice."
"She's also a stranger to me. I don't want to go to her house in a moment like this."
"Connweller, Emily knows, ok? There aren't many places where we can be... relaxed."
"I'm glad for you, really. But I'm not going, not today. You guys go," she sighed, closing her eyes. Pain started radiating from the base of her neck to the top of her head. She felt clenched and tense, like a wound-up toy. All the energy seemed to drain from her and she just wanted to sink into the floor.
A grunt came from Jared's direction and she opened her eyes to him finally sitting, looking almost calm. He was looking at Paul with his big, wet eyes and she wondered if she should approach him, touch his fur, but she didn't dare. He and Paul seemed to have a silent conversation; just long stares and a couple more of Jared's grunts. Finally, Paul gave a theatrical sigh.
"Fine, damnit. We can go to my shitty house," he grumbled. "And if you two are hungry, don't ask me for food, because there's nothing to eat there."
"That's fine, Paul," Kim assured him.
Paul huffed, finally releasing her shoulders, and started walking back home. "You good to walk?" He asked, although it sounded more like a statement.
"Hey, wait, what about Jared?" Kim asked.
"He'll join us later. He should go get some clothes. Unless you want to see some other parts of his body as well?" He cackled.
With a last look at wolf-Jared, Kim started following Paul and she shook her head.
"You know that you're a dick, right?"
"What can I say, I do try."
As they walked back, Kim felt like crying. Her head was pounding and her body felt weak, her feet hurt and her mind just wouldn't calm down, overwhelmed by rushing, incomplete thoughts. Were lives of seventeen-year-olds supposed to be like this?
Paul didn't say much, other than a few warnings like: Watch your step. There's a sharp rock there, be careful. Go left. Your other left, Connweller. She followed his back and noted how broad his shoulders had become. She guessed they had to be as big, to carry everything the world had set up in front of him. Poor Paul, she thought the words she would never say out loud. He would have hated it if she did.
As they emerged from the forest and into Paul's backyard, which looked a bit tidier, she noticed that the broken window was still boarded up and not replaced. As she followed him inside, she wasn't even surprised by the usual mess. What did surprise her was a loud, "Kimmy! Well, I haven't seen you in ages." Mr. Lahote was sitting on one of the rickety chairs in the kitchen with an array of beer cans on the table in front of him. His face was flushed and he was smiling broadly at them. She tried to return a polite smile, but Paul's jaw tightened and a furious red started rising up his neck.
"Well, I'm glad my boy had the good sense to patch things up with you. Are you guys hungry? Paul seems to always be hungry these days, our fridge is always empty," Mr. Lahote chuckled.
"Well, maybe if you went to the groccery store once in a while instead of the liquor store..." Paul muttered through his teeth.
"So, Kimmy, how are things, kid?" Mr. Lahote asked her, blatantly ignoring his son's comment.
"Well -"
"Don't talk to him," Paul stirred her towards his room. "Jared's also coming," he said, not even looking at his father, "so don't interrupt us. We have things to do."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Mr. Lahote gave a mock salute and chuckled, like it was all banter and games. Paul all but dragged Kim to his room and slammed the door behind them. He closed his eyes and exhaled loudly.
"I knew we should have gone to Emily's," he mumbled.
"What about his sabbatical?" Kim asked quietly.
Paul just let out a dark chuckle.
"Sometimes I think about taking one of those beer cans, a full one, and smashing it against his head. And then another one, and another. Sometimes, I picture him on the floor, bleeding. And I don't feel too upset at all."
"You're just angry with him."
"Or I'm an asshole, like everybody says I am, yourself included."
"I was joking."
"Eh, you know what they say, every joke is a half-truth, or some shit."
"Stop it. You're not a bad person."
"Whatever," he just shrugged.
"You're not," she insisted.
"Ok, let me stop you there, before we turn this into Good Will Hunting. You're not Robin Williams, so you wouldn't pull it off."
For some reason, that was the moment when something broke in Kim and tears started flowing freely down her face. She flung herself at Paul and wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing as tightly as she could. He flinched at the contact, but after a moment, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kept her close. They stood like that for a while, her tears soaking his shirt, then he patted her left shoulder and said, "Ok, enough of this emotional crap." A chuckle burst out of Kim and she pushed him away.
"You're officially the worst hugger," she said wiping her face with her sleeve.
"Well, excuse me for not indulging in emotional nonsense. And is this snot on my shirt? It better not be snot, Connweller, I swear to God."
"I'm sorry."
"Well, sorry doesn't do much for my shirt."
"Not about the fucking shirt, Paul. I'm sorry all this is happening," she said.
"Pffft. It's not your fault."
"Still, you don't deserve it."
"Well, it's not all bad," he scratched his neck. "I mean, have you seen this body or what?"
"Jesus Christ," she rolled her eyes.
Jared entered Paul's house loudly, like a guest gladly received. Kim could hear him laughing with Mr. Lahote in the kitchen. Did nobody use the front door anymore?
"God, he always does this," Paul grumbled. "Cameron, come on!" He shouted.
"It's good manners," Kim pointed out.
"It's fucking annoying."
Jared knocked on Paul's door and when nobody said anything, he entered.
"Since when do you knock, little miss sunshine?" Paul asked.
"Hey, sorry it took me so long," Jared said, pointedly ignoring Paul. "I thought we all might be hungry after... today," he shook a big, greasy paper bag, then he started taking out the food.
"Heyheyhey, what do you think you're doing? No one is going to eat anything without a plate in my room. No one."
"Bro," Jared sighed. "You know what, fine. Can you bring the plates, please?"
"If there are any in this shitty fucking house," Paul grumbled. "Do not start eating until I come back. I mean it. There will be no crumbs on this floor."
"We won't eat, geez," Kim rolled her eyes as Paul gave them a stern look and got out of the room. Jared kept fumbling with the bag, not really doing anything, just taking things out and putting them back in. Finally, he cleared his throat.
"I didn't know what you like, so I got you a cheeseburger. I hope that's ok?"
"Yes, that's fine. Thanks," Kim gave him what she hoped was an encouraging nod.
"Don't mention it," he said and started violently scratching his thigh.
"Jared, are you ok?"
"Am I- Are you? What you witnessed today... it wasn't meant to go like that, I swear. I just... well, I fucked up. The entire thing, I had one idea and then nothing went as I planned... I could have hurt you. And I'm really sorry."
"I don't think I would have gotten hurt, though. I was standing far enough."
"Don't try to make me feel better, because then I feel even worse."
"No, honestly. I was there, Jared. You were never close enough to hurt anyone."
"Even so, it was-"
"It was fine. We did what we came there to do. Relax a little," she gave him a small smile and he brightened a little.
"I also didn't tell you, you were very brave. I was- I am super proud of you."
She raised an eyebrow at his choice of words but something in her stomach started fluttering and her cheeks warmed up.
"I almost fainted, so, maybe your pride is a little misplaced," she mumbled.
"Hey, the key word is almost," he gave her a smile. "You are taking all this really well."
"Aside from casual panic attacks and splitting headaches? Sure, I'm killing it," her lips twitched into a smile.
They stared at each other, smiling like fools for some time, until Paul burst into the room, plates clattering.
"We got lucky," he said and gave Kim the least chipped plate, a white one with yellow roses. "Now we can eat."
Paul and Jared tore into the food like... wolves? The whole process went so fast that they were half finished and she had barely unwrapped her food. Jared caught her bewildered look and shrugged.
"It's a part of being a shapeshifter. Our bodies burn through everything. We need to eat more, we can't really get drunk, our bodily temperature is higher..."
"Oh. What else should I know?"
"What else would you like to know?"
"Well," she put down her food and started rummaging through her bag, "I do have some questions."
"Shoot," Jared gave her an encouraging smile.
She fished out a piece of paper from her bag and handed it to him. Jared raised his eyebrows but he unfolded the paper and Paul leaned over to see as well. In a matter of seconds, both of them burst out laughing. Paul laughed so hard that some soda came out of his nose.
"Just for the record, both of you are dicks," she yelled, but couldn't help smiling.
"Did you really make a list of questions to ask us?" Jared said, wiping his eyes. "I feel so important," he pressed his lips together in a futile attempt to stop another fit of laughter. Kim gave him the finger.
"Oh, Connweller," Paul said, still breathless, "if you didn't exist, somebody would need to invent you. You are the weirdest person I have met." Kim also gave Paul the finger.
"He means it in the best way," Jared said. "He was heartbroken when you weren't friends," he added, earning a shove from Paul.
"Aaaaw, he was?" Kim gratefully took the opportunity to turn the tables. "Who was a sad wittle wolf? Was it Pauw?" She gushed, making Jared laugh even harder.
"Are we going to answer these questions or not? Let's stop dicking around," Paul grunted and took the paper from Jared.
"Oh, now you want to answer the questions? Jerk," Kim smiled.