Hey everyone! I know im a late for updating and I really don't have any excuse for it, but I am sorry. This chapter, and the two after this one, were requested by Cassie967. Its chapter 17 of the Reckoning in Dereks PoV. Hope you all like it! :D
I sat and watched as the sun slowly went down. Simon said he would have Chloe back before nightfall, so I was waiting by the backdoor, waiting for him and Chloe to come walking out of the woods holding hands, waiting for my heart to be torn into even smaller bits.
I was in love with Chloe, but she couldn't have cared less about me compared to my adoptive brother.
The last rays of sun were starting to fade, so I stood up and walked over to the door. I couldn't see Simon anywhere, but I could hear Chloe making her way towards the house, sounding like a baby elephant. Where was Simon?
When Chloe came into view only minutes later I opened the sliding glass door and started down the stairs toward her.
"No," I heard her say. "Not now. Just go back inside-" I don't think she was actually talking to me but it did sound like she didn't feel like making conversation with me. Oh well, to bad. I may love her, but that doesn't mean im gonna be a pushover.
As a walked closer to her she started looking around franticly, looking for an escape from me I think. In the end she just kept walking forward, like she hadent even seen me.
"Wheres Simon?" I dindt mean to snap at her, but I was used to talking to her like that. I really did care about her, she just couldn't know that, so I had to put on the Derek's-an-asshole role. I mentally sighed.
She didn't say anything, but a look of relief washed over her face as she pointed behind her, towards the woods where she had just come from.
I was furious! How could he just leave her out there, especially after I told him about the fact that she hates the woods? But instead of saying that I said, "He left you? Out here? At night?" I put enough snap in my voice that it only sounded like I was surprised instead of fighting my wolf off from killing Simon.
"He dropped something." She was trying to save him. She was waayyy to nice. "Hes not far." She said trying to get around me. And as she did the wind direction changed so that it hit her and come up to me. I could smell salt. She was crying?
I stepped in front of her and slightly leaned down. "Your crying?" I asked.
"No I-" she tore her gaze from mine, but not before I saw the fear in her eyes. Oh shit. "Just dust. From the path. Simons that way."
She tried to pass me again, but I continued to block her path before she coul slip by. When she stopped trying, she still wouldn't look at me. I tried to get a view of her face by crouching a little, but that didn't seem to work, me being as tall as I am, and her being as short as she is. So instead I took her chin, and gently guided her face so that I could have a clear view. She had very potent tear marks down her cheeks and down her neck, but I didn't dare look farther, the wolf was already getting ideas by just holding her chin like this.
Before I could say anything though, she flinched and pulled away.
"You have been crying." I stated, in a softer voice then before. My poor Chloe was upset about something…No, she wasn't my Chloe, she was Simons. Thinking of him made me think of what he could have done to her. He wasn't stupid enough to try and force himself on her, was he?
As I though, my breath hitched, and before I could stop it I growled out, "What did Simon-" But I stopped before I could finish. She would guess that something was up. She wouldn't know about my feelings, because she wasn't a good person reader, as you can probably tell by her befriending me, but it would still be awkward for me.
"What happened?" I said instead.
"Nothing. It just didn't work out." She said quite calmly. I could still hear the quiver in her voice, but she managed not to stutter at all. Actually she hadn't stuttered since I walked out the door.
"Didn't work out?" I spoke slowly, trying to figure out what she meant by that, and trying to keep my wolf from doing a happy dance. "Why?"
"Talk to Simon," She snapped.
"Im talking to you. What'd you do to him?" Had I really just said that? Shit.
She stiffened almost instantly. I knew the shit was gonna hit the fan soon so I was thinking of a way to show her that wasn't what I meant. She was to engrossed in her own thoughts to even realize what I was doing.
"I screwed up. Again. Your shocked, im sure. Now, let me go inside-" She tried to side step around me, but I blocked her.
"What'd you do Chloe?" I had decided that I would play this through and see where it got me. If being a jerk to the only girl I have ever, and will ever love was the only way to get answers then I would have to do it. It wasn't like she would ever go for me anyways…snap out of it Derek!
She sidestepped again, and I blocked.
"You like him, don't you?"
"Yes. I like him. Just not.." My heart did a flip as wolf me grinned wildly and though we still got a chance! YAY! then he stared doing the happy dance before I could stop him.
"Not what?" I asked her.
"Talk to Simon. He's the one who thinks…" She trailed off again. God, I was never going to get an answer from her.
"Thinks what?"
Step. Block.
"Thinks what?" I asked again.
"That theres someone else." By the look on her face, she hadn't meant to blurt that out. She took a deep breath and said, "He thinks theres someone else."
"Who?" I had to ask. I think I knew who it was because she wasn't the type of girl to go around teasing people and have someone back at her school or someplace. So me and Simon being the only two guys in the group kinda left the option of not getting my hopes up very slim. "Me? Simon thinks you and me are-" She cut me off.
"No, no that. He knows we arent-" I cut her off before she finished.
"Good. So what does he think?"
"That I like you." She said without missing a beat. I just starred at her, mouth hanging open like an idiot. I felt like I was the loser kid at school being told the popular girl liked me. But that all went crashing down.
"I dont." She said it with so much convection that it completely threw the wolf into a state of shock, and trust me, it takes A LOT to do that. "I don't." She said again when I didn't look away.
I was hurt, like really hurt. I knew that she didn't have feelings for me but without her telling me it to my face, there was still a little bit of hope that the wolf and I could feel. But now, both of self-confidence had been squashed into oblivion.
"you'd better not." I said with my normal bite and growl, while my face turned back to its appointed scowl. "You'd better not, Chloe, because Simon likes you."
"I know." He face and voice flattened.
"Simon has had girls calling him every night since he was twelve. They follow him at school. They even talk to me to try and get to him. Cute girls. Popular girls." I was just trying to show her the kind of choice she had right now. Either nice, good-looking Simon, or Smart, mean, acne-covered Derek. I didn't even think of the repercussions of my saying this to her.
"So I should be thrilled that a guy like him even looked my way, right?" Shit.
"Coarse not. I didn't mean-" But she cut me off before I could finish explaining what I meant.
"Oh, I know what you meant. I should count my blessing that I happened to be around when his choices were, well, none, really, because otherwise I'd never had stood a chance." What the hell? "That's not- I never said-" I was in so far into my state of shock that coming by a way to tell her what I had meant by that, without spilling my secret, were slim to none.
"Simon likes you, Chloe. Yeah, he's dated a lot of girls. But he really likes you. I thought you liked him back."
"I do. Just not…not like that I guess." Again, the Wolf got excited, and his hopes up. I couldn't let him get any momentum, so I said something I knew would piss her off.
"Then you shouldn't have let him think it was like that."
"You think I lead him on? For what? Kicks? I don't have enough excitement in my life, so maybe I'll tease a nice guy, get his hopes up, then laugh and skip away? How could I know how I felt until we went out and-" she didn't continue, and I cant tell you how happy I was. If she had, I don't know what would have happened. The Wolf probably would have went haywire.
She turned and stared walking again, only this time, around the edge of the surrounding woods.
"Where are you going?" I called after her.
"You wont let me go into the house, and im sure Simon doesn't want me around either, so it seems that im going to be taking a moon light stroll through the forest." She couldn't be serious.
"Oh, no, your not." I said jumping in front of her petite body. "You cant go wandering around alone at night. Its not safe."
She looked up at me, her eyes glinting in the moon light with a few unused tears as she looked at my face. Hers was tight and ready to fight, while mine had gone from scowl, to worried. I know she could see it because her eyes widened slightly.
She looked like she was trying to decide something. Of what, I wasn't sure. All I could do was stare at the perfect girl in front of me. She didn't think of herself like that, I knew, but I sure as hell did. She was kind, smart, knew how to handle herself when in a situation (normally). She had the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen, and they shined brighter than mine did, and looked like sapphires. She was skinny, but not overly, and the starting of curves showing, and they were getting more noticeable with every passing day. She had the cutest laugh, and the most dazzling smile.
She turned back to the woods, and resumed walking. "I'll be careful. No dead will rise tonight. Go back inside, Derek." Is that really what she thought I was worried about? I was worried about her. She could trip and end up breaking her leg. She could run into a bear. She could run into a rabbit that looked weird and made her scream. There were so many different possibilities, and most of them I didn't want to think about. And that included the Edison Group.
"You think that's what im worried about? The Edison Group-"
"Could be camped out there right now, waiting for us to venture into the deep, dark woods. If you believed that, you'd never had let Simon out." She knew me to well, and it scared me. Only Simon knew me this well.
" I didn't like it. But he promised you'd be back before dark, which is why I was at the door, getting ready to come find you two." I grabbed her arm, but the Wolf decided to step in then, telling me to drag her into the woods, into the clearing behind the house, and make her scream my name, so I let go of her arm, and grasped her sleeve instead.
"Just-"When I took a breath a scent I never thought I would smell again hit me. I turned my head towards the smell, letting my chin lift. The scent was gone =, but I still checked. From my peripheral I saw Chloe turn toward me with a puzzled look o her cute little face, until she saw what I was doing, then her face went from emotionless, to annoyed.
"Don't pull that."
"Pull what?" I asked her. What the hell was she talking about?
"Pretending to smell something out there. Someone." Oh.
"No, I thought-" As I took another intake, the scent had completely vanished. I couldn't even tell you which way it had come from. Damn. "Nothing, I guess. Just-" I rubbed the back of my neck, now just realizing that I would have to change again soon. I was covered in sweat, but I just pushed it off as being nervous and stuck in an over heated house.
She just stood there and starred at me, with her big, blue eyes, and I could almost hear her saying, "Not now. Please not now." She knew just as well as I did that I would have to change tonight.
"Fine. Take a walk." I said as I released her sleeve.
She started walking the perimeter of the yard, and I followed a few paces behind her. I wasn't going to risk something happening to her.
She walked about 20 feet when she turned and looked back at me.
"Derek…" They was she said my voice did things to the wolf, but she sounded annoyed to me. Well that was just bad for her! So was I!
"I need some fresh air. Go on."
She walked another 20 feet before turning back around to glare at me, but I kept my face impassive. She wasn't going to get away that easily.
"Fine." She said. "I'll go inside. You track down Simon before the Edison Group snatches him." I had completely forgotten about him. Opps.
I followed her to the back door, made sure it was closed, and watched her walk away, before I turned and ran into the forest. I was gonna find Simon, and get some answers.
Soooo…I tried something new with this chapter…I was grouded from my computer for the day so I decided instead of waiting till the next day I would right it out in my notebook…did it turn out better or worse? Please let me know! I want to know so I can do the same thing for all the following chapters for this story and my other ones! Oh and I will be updating the rest of my DP stories this week, so just a heads up to anyone who has read my other ones!
Well, as always, I love y'all!
~RenesmeeRedbird~ 3 3
