Chapter 3

"I see Brady and Collin." I pointed to the small figures on the beach. Seth and I walked over.

"Damn Stevie, talk about short shorts!" Brady teased me while somewhat obviously checking me out. Collin smacked the back of his head while we all laughed. Whether it was Seth getting protective or just aimlessly leading me where to go, he put his hand on the small of my back and lightly grabbed my shirt, pulling me back towards him. I internally smiled at the thought of Seth being jealous of Brady checking me out. Brady is one of those kids that you could trust with your life and know that he would never let you down. He knows my secrets and I know all of his secrets. He even knows my small crush on Seth, but that was only because he tricked me into telling him. But I don't mind because I know I can trust him.

"So what are we gonna do?" Collin asked as we all layed on our stomachs in a circle. Kat was next to Collin, who was next to Brady, who was next to me, who was next to Seth, who was next to Kat.

"Truth or dare?" Kat offered after thinking for a while.

"OU! OU! Me first! Me first!" Seth waved his hand in the air like a five-year-old.

"OK. Go."

"Uh, Kat, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Seth smiled evilly at her.

"I dare you to... make funny noises at that couple over there." He pointed to the cute lovebirds on the bench. Kat smiled and ran over there.

"EXCUSE ME! MOO, I'M A PIG. OINK, I'M A RABBIT! Help me I'm confused." She yelled at them. She bowed and skipped back to us.

"I think you scared them away." I whispered to her as the couple glared at us and walked away. She waved her hand like whatever.

"MY TURN!" she turned to Seth. "Truth or dare, Seth?"

"Truth."

"Hmm. What do you like most in a girl?" This caught him off guard. Interesting, I'm actually curious about this answer.

"Well, um. Their smile." He answered, blushing.

"Awwwww." Kat and I cooed at the same time.

"Then why are you with-" Collin began before he was cut off by Seth's glare.

"My turn." Brady called, breaking the tension. "Collin, truth or dare?"

"DARE!" Collin yelled.

"Ok, I dare you to go skinny dipping. Right here. Right now." Brady smiled and all of our jaws dropped, including Collin.

"Fine." Collin said. Collin's pride kind of blocks his common sense, in case you couldn't tell. He stood up, took his shirt, pants, and underwear off and ran into the water.

I adverted my gaze to the floor in front of me and Kat just whistled at him. I heard Collin splash into the water and I looked up to see him jumping around in the water. We all laughed.

"C'mon in. The waters great!" he stood up and Seth and Brady just moaned.

"Put some clothes on you idiot." Seth shouted. Collin walked back to us and mumbled something unintelligible. After he put his pants back on, he came and tried to give Kat and me a big wet hug. We laughed and ran away.

When we settled back down Collin asked Brady "Truth or dare bro?"

"I don't feel like doing anything stupid, so truth."

"Hmm, nothing stupid eh? Ok, who was your first kiss?" Brady blushed like crazy.

"Who was your first kiss Collin?" he fired back.

"Kat." He smiled proudly and kissed her. We all groaned.

"And my first kiss was Collin." Kat said with a giant grin plastered on her face. I wasn't even surprised, they've been together since forever.

"Mine was Jenna." Brady whispered. Jenna! Oh, how I hate her … It got quiet.

"Awkward…" I sang, speaking that Seth is currently dating Jenna.

"Whatever, just continue. Seth who was your fist kiss?" Brady changed the subject and with Collin's short-term attention span, it was easy. Unfortunately, Seth was his victim.

"Uhh, Jessica Riley." He said, scratching the back of his neck. We all stifled our laughter. "Oh, shut up, I was drunk at a party and she threw herself at me. I'm a guy what do you expect…" I knew the story, I was at the party with him. We had gone together but we went home separately because when I saw him hooking up with Jess I got jealous and hooked up with some guy in the grade above us. I don't even remember who it was. But I know Seth left before I did because when he saw me after he said to have fun with the guy and that he'd see me later, and then he left. You could say it led to one of our bigger fights in our friendship. But we worked past it and moved on, both confirming to each other that neither of us were jealous and that we were just too drunk to think straight. If I'm being honest, I fought with him out of total jealousy. Oops.

We had been at the beach for an hour, and it was starting to get cool out. As we were getting up to leave there was a rustle in the woods behind us. We all froze and turned around. There was a bright pair of yellow eyes peeking out from the woods.

"Do you guys see the wolf too?" Kat whispered quickly.

"Yes." We answered.

"Fantastic." It looked like the wolf I saw earlier in Seth's backyard.

The guys pushed Kat and me behind them and they stood in front of us protectively. I felt someone behind us and quickly turned around to come face to face with a strange looking woman. She was very pale and had bright red eyes. I gasped. Her hair was a fiery orange and it blew in the wind. Everyone turned around and the strange woman glared at us. She reached out and touched my cheek. I was frozen, I couldn't move. No one moved. We were frozen still. Too scared to move or process what was happening.

She licked her lips and opened her mouth. She pulled me towards her but a giant russet colored wolf-like animal flew out of the woods and… attacked her? She tried to fight it but they ran back into the woods and everything was completely silent.

Collin, who was closet to me, pulled me up as I began to fall. He handed me to Brady who picked me up bridal style and ran to the cars, not wanting to stick around to see her again.

Kat jumped in her car with Collin and they sped off towards town. Brady threw me in his back seat and Seth hopped into the driver seat, silently deciding he would drive while Brady sat in the back with me. Who was she? Why did she touch my cheek? Her hand was ice cold and hard. What kind of animal was that and why did it attack her? Why would she pull me towards her as if she was trying to kidnap me? She looked like she was going to bite me. How was she able to fight off that animal?

I kept fiddling with the buckles and even Brady tried to help with the buckles.

"I got it. I GOT IT! GO!" I yelled and panic crept over me. Seth stepped on the gas and Brady wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close and whispering, "Everything will be ok. You're fine now."

The car ride was silent. None of us said a word. Seth drove calmer now as we reached the safety of town. He pulled up to Brady's house as Kat and Collin pulled in.

"You guys can hang here tonight. Our parents are out of town for the weekend." Brady said as we climbed out of the car. The guys quickly pushed Kat and me into the house and locked the doors. Collin jumped up stairs and came back with a t-shirt and sweats for Kat. The rest of them changed while I sat on the couch. I turned the TV on because I really didn't want to think about what happened tonight. I called my mom and told her I was spending the night at Brady's and that I'd be home tomorrow.

Kat came downstairs along with Collin. They went in the kitchen and came back out five minutes later with a tray of mugs.

"Here you go." Collin said to me as he handed me a mug with coffee. "Are you ok?" he asked as he sat on the other end of the couch with Kat on his lap.

"Yeah, just a little shaken." I took a sip of my drink. Brady and Seth bounded down the stairs in sweats and no shirts. Damn they looked good. They sat on either side of me… talk about a lucky girl.

"Let's just try to forget about this night. It was just some creepy lady and a large animal." Seth said.

"Yah, a large animal that attacked the creepy lady!" I proclaimed

"And she didn't even look like she was getting hurt." Kat added.

"What if that animal was one of those wolves they've been talking about around town." Collin pointed out. He was right, apparently there were these mysterious wolves living in the woods lately. Maybe that's what I saw outside Seth's house.

"I still think we should forget about it." Brady whispered.

"Agreed." We all said after a moment of silence.

We spent the rest of the night watching Mean Girls. The guys loved it, surprisingly. They even quoted some parts along with Kat and me. Somewhere in the movie we fell asleep though. Kat's head rested on Collin's stomach, Collin's back laid against Brady's shoulder, Brady leaned on my shoulder, I laid against Seth's stomach with his arms wrapped around me… probably because I was still scared.