chapter seven

I was woken up on a Monday morning with the ungodly sound of metal slamming against metal.

I jumped up out of bed, frazzled and heart beating too quickly in my ears, to see my mother standing at the foot of my bed with a pot and a pan in each hand. "What the fuck?"

My mother was on a mission, and I could tell because she normally jumps on the opportunity to chew me out for swearing. "Where is my wine?" she asked, voice low and commanding.

"What?" I was still rubbing my eyes and stretchering out of bed and my brain wasn't awake enough to lie yet. I tried to piece together the pieces with a groggy and clouded head but my head was spinning from the banging pots and pans.

But her eyes were narrowed and she inched closer to me and I had a feeling I wasn't gonna get away with this one easily. "I had a bottle of chardonnay and now it's gone. Where is my wine?"

"I don't fucking know maybe you drank it? Jesus, what time is it?" Her hair was wild and flying away and she had an hour commute to get to her job at seven so I knew it was too fucking early for me to be having this argument.

"Do not lie to me. Tell me what happened to the wine right this second."

"How the fuck am I supposed to know?"

"Rosemary Renata Cree, tell me what happened to the wine right this second."

My stomach dropped in my gut because my mom has never used my full name since the day I was born. I have always been Remy since the day I was born and Briah has always been Bear, and the only other time he was anything else was when my mom caught him selling pot. I stood up out of bed. Her eyes were wide and red like she was up all night crying over spilled wine. I couldn't remember the last time she was like this but I felt like it was when she screamed wildly at my father in the middle of the night.

"Like I told you, I don't know what happened to your goddamn wine. You probably fucking drank it, because you drink at least a bottle every weekend, and were either too drunk to remember or were so ashamed of how drunk you get at your big age you thought you'd blame your kid."

She stared at me. My mother's not normally rendered speechless, but her eyes are glossy and my gut sinks and I know I've gone too far. "You're grounded."

"Whatever," I mumbled, turning away from her and getting back in my bed. "Can you please leave my room now?"

Even though it was probably four in the morning, my eyes were stuck open and I stared out my window as the sun rise. I was thinking that maybe I'd ditch alcohol and try some other drug.

"What are you doing by my parking spot?"

Despite the ending of our last meeting, Embry was standing near my car with a smile. His cheeriness irritated me. "I thought I'd walk you to class," he said in a way that made me wish I was way more annoyed at how happy he could be. He leaned against my car and was painfully good at maintaining eye contact. "We have first period together."

There were a lot of things I didn't like about Embry. I didn't like that he was so much taller than me that I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye and I didn't like how he always smiled when he saw me like he was happy to see me (because he really had no reason to be, especially considering how he witnessed me glow with rage like three times now). I didn't like that he kept trying to wear me down or how it was kind of working. But, more than anything, I didn't like how I had no explanation for literally anything he did. And right now, they were all irritating me to point my whole body tensed up. "No we don't, and we never did. Didn't you and all your steroid buddies drop out to play D&D or something?" I asked, starting to walk away from my car and him.

But his strides were long and he matched my pace. "I have no idea what fifty-percent of that sentence meant, but no, I didn't drop out. No of us did. We were all...sick. But we're all better now, so we're back."

"You didn't look sick to me."

"Well, we were. All of us."

"You should really learn how to lie better. It's almost embarrassing at this point." I reached the curb and stopped, turning to look up at him. "Are you gonna keep following me around like a dog? Or am I gonna be allowed to be alone for, I dunno, five seconds today?"

Embry frowned. He was standing so close to me I noticed that the top of my head barely reached his shoulders and I felt like that was too close. "You're not usually this mean."

"How would you know? We've met five times."

To be fair, he was right. I'm not usually this mean. Usually, I have a friend that I didn't threaten to perform dental work on and a mom I can talk to, and before that I had a brother I was close with. Now, my mom thinks I'm a punk and my best friend's dating a jackass and my brother is dead, so I was left with some random guy who had never talked to me in all seventeen years of living near each other acting like we've been best buds forever. So, yeah, I was feeling a little sharp.

And he looked down at me like he was hurting over this more than me. "Listen about Kim, and Jared and everything, I know it sucks but I'm here for you, if you ever wanna talk. I know it can't be easy on you."

I didn't have anything else to say. Partially because I didn't feel the need to tell Embry anything about my well-being, but also because if I did, I was almost positive I would start throwing punches into a tree. The best I offered him was an eye-roll, and I walked into the building, hoping he would pick up the hint that I didn't want him to follow me.

But he didn't. He trotted behind me and walked so close next to me that I could feel the heat off his body. "We don't have to talk about anything if you don't want to—"

"I don't want to."

"—but I want you to know you have the option to talk to me." I didn't even know how that would possibly go. Hey Embry. I'm a little grumpy today because my mom woke me up at four in the morning to accuse me of stealing her wine, which I did, and she called me by my full name and my first thought was to try and get addicted to a different drug, and I still can't stop thinking about the look on Kim's face when I severed the last ties of our friendship. "I'm serious, Remy."

"But can't you not be? Like, I appreciate all the effort and everything, but I don't know how to make it any clearer that I'm really not in the mood for this conversation. Or any conversation. At all. With anyone"

I veered around the corner and tried to lose him but his legs were just so much goddamn longer than mine. He matched my pace like it was natural for him. And while we walked I tried not to look up at him but I knew Embry was staring down at me with his huge ass brown eyes. "Okay, well then I can just walk with you then."

I stopped, looking up at him for the first time and I kept noticing that every time I looked up at him the anger that was always somewhere inside of me just bubbled away. "Fine."

And I kept walking down the hall with my bag over my shoulder, Embry behind my other, and the stares of the people passing by all over me. Stupid kids that never talked to me stared gawked up at Embry and then looked me up and down like this was the most perplexing thing they had ever seen. And I guess, to be fair, it was a pretty intriguing sight; pretty boy Embry that grew six inches and put on twenty pounds of muscle on his first day back with short and moody little Remy Cree. I'd stare too.

Embry kept his promise while he walked behind me, not saying anything but keeping close to me. I chewed on my lip, realizing that yes, Embry did have first period with me, and he followed me into the biology classroom. I had never noticed him here before his little culty transformation. And while I stood in the doorway of the classroom and looked around and realized that there were three options for me to sit. I could sit with Kim, who I normally sat with, who's arms were firmly crossed across her chest with heavy bags under her eyes. I could sit at an empty table with Embry, who was grinning down at me. Or I could sit with Bobby Evans.

Bobby Evans was known for three things: being really hot, being really rich, and being a bitch. She was the prettiest girl that walked down these halls, probably ever, but there were rumors that the only person she had ever shown interest in was some dude in his thirties from Forks who promised to leave his wife for her but never did. Really tragic. And no one else on the res even came close to her family's wealth; there was a pretty big gap between the richest family and the second richest family. And she was a bitch, less of a bitch than me but way louder about it. From age ten to present, Bobby terrorized Kim, pulling out lame eighties coming of age movies moves on her to the point where Kim made a makeshift Bobby voodoo doll. She threw that out after a day tho.

And I looked between Kim, Embry, and her, and decided Bobby would be the most painless option.

I looked Kim in the eyes when I stepped away from Embry and walked to sit next to Bobby. And from the look in her eyes, I knew that if out friendship wasn't dead before, it definitely was now.

I sat down next to Bobby without looking at her, and keep my eyes focused down on my desk so I couldn't see Embry, Kim, or the girl sitting next to me. I chewed on my lip and pulled out my books, hoping that no one was looking at me anymore. "What are you doing?"

Bobby was furrowing her eyebrow and kept her narrowed eyes at me. "Sitting," I replied, tone clipped.

"Here?"

"Yeah, here."

She leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms and sizing me up. "Alright. You're Remy, right?" I nodded. "Aren't you friends with humpty dumpty over there?" she asked with a sly little smile and a nod in Kim's direction.

And right now, I wasn't Kim's biggest fan or anything, but the elementary level insults directed at her with unnecessary and unprovoked, and also lame as shit. "Her name's Kim," I said slowly, "and no, we're not friends."

"If you're not friends, why do you care?"

"She's not here to defend herself.

Bobby snorted. "How noble of you. Would it be better if I said it to her face?" she asked with a light little tone.

"Maybe don't say it at all," I snapped. "And maybe you shouldn't insult someone else's appearances when you can't match your foundation to your neck."

I thought she would be mad, and I thought she would snap back at me with some surface-level insult, but instead she just laughed, threw her head back and laughed. "You're so bold. It's cute."

Quil was making regular appearances at my house now. After school he would just be there, parked up in my driveway, waiting for me to unlock the front door. And now that they were actually back at school (which was actually confirmed, all of the cult boys were back in school and enrolled in class), it was like he was racing my back to my house. He would spend like, an hour or two there before he speed off in his loud and grumbling truck. And, unwilling, I would admit that I enjoyed his company. It was like hanging out my brother again.

He chewed some leftovers he found in my fridge. "You know, your mom's cooking is awful, but it's better when it's cold."

"Oh yeah," I replied from my spot at the counter, "speaking of my mom, now that you're back at school at for whatever reason I can't figure out, do you mind giving me rides in the morning?"

"What's that have to do you with your mom?"

"She grounded me."

"So why do you need a ride?"

"She's taking away my car keys tomorrow."

Quil looked at me like a disappointed older brother. I was wondering if it was morally wrong of me to allow myself to get closer to him on the sole basis that he reminded me of someone I lost, and I didn't know if it made it worse that he probably knew. "What did you do, Remy?"

I shrugged, tapping my pen down on the counter. The big brother vibe really was working in his favor too, cause I couldn't look him in the eye. "Nothing really too bad. Just drank a bottle of wine of hers."

His sigh of disappointment rattled the house. I didn't know if he was aware of my preference for wines, but considering how quickly information spreads within that little circle of people and Kim's tendency to run her mouth when her feelings were hurt, I was sure he had some sort of idea. "Yeah, I'll give you rides to school and back. It's not like I go anywhere else after classes."

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"So," he started, and looked at me with wide eyes.

"So what?"

"So does the bottle of wine having anything to do with your argument with Kim? Or maybe Embry?"

Quil didn't really have any business asking me these questions and I didn't think I would answer. But I guess if I was gonna force him into this role than I guess I had to open up my mouth from time to time. "Yeah, I guess," I said with a bit of a shrug. "I didn't like being ambushed like that. Needed to cope somehow."

"How about the next time you need to 'cope,' and you can't think of anything else to do, just call me instead, alright?"

I gave him a small smile. "Yeah, sure."

He stayed around for an hour. And we sat in my kitchen and on my couch and he talked a lot about nothing and I listened. I mean, I mostly listened. I would occasionally drift off. But then, when the sun was set and the darkness settled in, there was a nose outside. A huge bang, followed by a howl. A fucking howl. It was indisputable, and it made my skin crawl and the neck on my hair stand up. And then Quil, who was slouched against the couch with his legs spread, shot up straight and looked around a little desperately. "I gotta go," he said abruptly, and shot me a little smile before running out the front door. I didn't say anything. I didn't need to.

I looked back out the door and thought about what I heard. It was a wolf; it was one of them. I stared after Quil before I shot up and ran upstairs, back to my bedroom and back to my little journal. I grabbed it and flipped through the pages, landing on the last note that was left for me. I grabbed a pen and scribbled out a little message, a quick little give me a hint, before sprinting back downstairs.

None of us really ventured out into our backyard since the day we got Bear's bones. When I stepped out there, the grass was so high it tickled the tops of my shins and I was tangled in the weeds. The line of trees that taunted me daily were there, staring back at me and tempting me with darkness. I walked towards them, slowly and unsure, and stopped halfway there.

I held the journal tightly in my grip before arching my arm back and throwing it as far as I could. It bounced off a tree, the pages flipping as it fell to the grounded and landed out of sight. I looked down at the grass that touched my skin, and looked back at the trees.

I only saw her for a second, and I couldn't describe anything about her but her hair. Orange and tight curls that reached her elbows and leaves stuck in between the strands. And while I was thinking about her hair and how heavy it must be, she disappeared. And it wasn't until she did that I started to wonder what she was doing there, standing in my backyard in the first place.

She made me feel unnerved. I didn't realize I was holding my breath.

all ive been doing is playing animal crossing. im excited for this story i think its going in the right direction. thanks to everyone for ur reviews and support !