Hi! I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who either reviewed, favourited, followed or PM'd me about last chapter, you have no idea how much that stuff means to me, so truly, thank you.

Hopefully you'll enjoy this one, too! My chapters will vary in length, but my plan is to keep them around this kind of length so I don't get bogged down trying to post long ones regularly because I know it just wont happen.

Chapter Two

It had been a week since River had vowed to herself that she would ignore Paul Lahote. One week since she'd had some kind of panic attack at work. One week since Skylar hadn't looked at her like she was broken. One week since anything had felt normal.

She'd managed to keep up her routine of school, work and home, but things still weren't right. She still swore blind that she just knew when Paul entered a room. She could feel him in History class when she was looking at her work, she could feel his eyes across the cafeteria when she ate her lunch, she could even feel him and his friends when she got on her bike in the parking lot each day after school. It was weird to say the least, but she'd done what she'd said and she'd avoided him well enough.

There had been a few close calls where, if she didn't already know that he hated her guts, she would have sworn he was trying to catch her attention. He'd even been seemingly walking over to her bike one day after school, but she'd shot off before he could disappoint her by turning and talking to another girl.

Still, that day, as she walked into History, her first class of a Friday, she knew exactly where he was sat without looking up. His chair was one in front and three to the left of her own. She'd managed to snag the back chair on the far right of the room when the semester had started and now it was paying off, making a fantastic vantage point. She could, if she so chose to, stare at the back of his head for an entire hour if she wanted to and he'd be none the wiser.

As class began, she kept her eyes on the front of the class. She was doing well in History and planned to keep it that way.

Mr. Hart, their teacher, was a short man with an attitude like a bucket of sewage, but he liked River. She'd never felt any bad vibes from him about not being from their tribe, nor had he changed his attitude toward her when she came out, not even when some teachers ignored other students calling her a dyke. In fact, he had pulled her to one side and told her that all he gave a damn about in his classroom was effort, not the colour of someone's skin, not the tribe they came from and sure as hell not their sexuality. He hadn't ever mentioned it again, but she felt safe in his classroom.

As he wrote on the board, however, her heart sank. He wrote names. A list of names, all side by side, before clearing his throat.

The room fell silent immediately. No one pulled shit in his class. No one. "Your names are on the board. You can all read. Buddy up accordingly and everyone pull your own weight." River wondered if she'd shit on his bed in another life. She must have done, right?

She couldn't be paired with him. No. She refused. Alas, her refusal didn't matter much at all as a few students began to stand and shuffle around. The whole back row was free, save for River's seat, so when Paul stood with his pencil and blank pad of paper, she couldn't even act as if there was no room or she already had a buddy.

Groaning, she pulled her own books from her bag and laid them on her desk, ignoring as Paul sank into the chair beside her. She could feel his stupid eyes scorching the side of her face. Directly in front of him, Jared, Paul's friend, had managed to end up buddied up with his own girlfriend and was already basically ignoring Paul.

"So, uh, I don't really know a lot of History-"

"I'll do the work." River cut off his honey sweet voice sharply, not wanting to feel it caress her senses. "Just do what you want, I'll say you did half."

She didn't look up but she could tell he was taken aback. "I'll do my share." He stated, scooting his chair a little closer. "I'm not a total asshole. Just, you know, you pick the topic." He really thought she was stupid enough to believe that he'd do his share of the work? The last time he'd been part of a group project, he'd left all the work to the other person. Literally no one wanted to be paired with him, even his friends. Hell, Hart probably knew that River wouldn't mind doing the work alone and figured letting Paul off with an easy pass was better for himself that sitting in detention with him,

Incredulously, River looked up and found his eyes effortlessly with her own, desperately trying to ignore how his gaze made her feel. Trying to ignore how her heartbeat picked up and danced double time. Trying to ignore the instant flush that touched her skin. "I'm not stupid, Lahote. You're failing this class out of choice and I'm acing it. I know I'm doing the project while you do whatever the hell it is you do." She spat quietly, feeling immediate stabs in her stomach at having been so callous, especially to him. "Just sit with your friends and sign your name when I'm done." She then grumbled when he sat, shocked, in silence, looking back down to her books to decide what to do.

With the excited hum of voices around the room, she knew that no one had heard what she'd said, but she still felt guilty. "We could do the teacup thing?" Paul suggested, seemingly unbothered by her words, shocking her entirely.

Sighing deeply, she looked up again, this time pinned by his eyes. "The what?" She asked, having no clue what he was on about.

"The-" He grabbed her textbook without asking, flipping it open, skimming as he spoke. "The teacup thing. It was in here. Teacup dome-"

"The Teapot Dome Scandal?" River asked, actually wanting to smile a little when he looked up from the book, looking almost proud of himself. "That's the wrong decade. We're looking for the mid to late thirties." Before she could smile, she shut his idea down, reminding herself that she hated his guts. Why was he pretending to care about this stupid project? It made no sense.

He nodded, the corners of his lips curled up. "Right. Teapot. Well, what happened in the thirties? That's like, before the war, right?" Oh god, it was going to be a long lesson if he didn't even know what years "the war" was. Still, River decided that she should at least make a small effort. So, instead of being a jerk, she simply nodded and told him which years the war went on for, apparently shocking him.

By the time the end of the lesson came though, she'd gone back into wanting to ignore him, so she bolted as soon as the bell rang. She didn't know how to interact with a Paul that wasn't calling her names. She didn't know how to feel about a Paul that seemed willing to work with her. So instead, she all but ran to her next lesson.

For the rest of the day, she did her damn best to avoid him. She also did her best to pretend that she couldn't feel his freak presence around every corner. Sadly, as the day went on, she found herself warring with herself. One half of her wanted to believe that maybe Paul had simply woken up and decided not to terrorise her anymore, but the other half, the much darker half, wanted to know what elaborate prank he was playing.

Thankfully, as the school day came to a close, River made it to work on time without another run in with Paul. On the flip side though, Skylar was still treating her like a broken plate. She hung around much too close to her, looking at her as if she was going to fall apart her entire shift. It was annoying to say the least.

Only at the end of their shift did things turn around when their boss, Jet, asked River to step into the ring. You see, more than anything else, boxing was River's passion. The whole point of having this damn job was that it was the only gym with a ring in a ten mile radius. So yeah, the days that Jet wanted sparring partners for his guys? They were good days to say the least.

River had met his prized pupils many times. Dante and Owen. They were nice guys, early twenties if she'd had to guess. She knew that one of them was Jet's nephew, but she didn't know which and had left it much too long to ask. It didn't help that they both called him "uncle" either. Above all else though, they were respectful. She knew that whichever one of them was Jet's nephew cared for him and helped him out with bills when the gym wasn't doing too great, it just so happened that they were good fighters too. Jet liked good fighters. Having been a decent fighter in his youth, he had connections and managed to get them fights more often than not. He'd even promised to get River a fight once she said the word. Her parents hadn't been too thrilled with the idea, so their condition was simply that she had to graduate first.

As soon as she got into the ring, she felt at home. Nothing made all of her troubles melt away like the possibility of getting punched in the face.

For what felt like hours, she sparred gently with Owen. She listened to all of Jet's criticism and swore to improve. By the end of the night, once she'd showered and cleaned, she felt a little better in herself. She also hadn't missed the looks that Skylar had been giving her the whole time. Apparently the sight of River in gloves and headgear was enough for the blonde to want to eat her alive. Weird, but River wasn't one to judge. Anything to get them back to normal.

So, once the doors were closed and locked behind them, she turned to the blonde and took a chance. "Hey, you busy, like, right now?" She asked, watching as a badly hidden look of elation took the other girl's features. "Wanna come over? My parents are at some police thing tonight. We could order takeout, watch a movie?" Wait, was she really doing this? Was she asking Skylar on a date?

She thought about it for a second. Why the hell shouldn't she? They had amazing sex, great chemistry, plus Skylar was gorgeous as hell. It also didn't hurt that she was smart, funny, fast as a whip and seemed to actually care about River. "Only if you swear you won't judge the food I like." Skylar teased lightly, pulling River from her thoughts.

River, in response, shook her head with a smile. "No ball." She joked, shrugging her jacket off and handing it to the suddenly bewildered blonde. "I judge your food. You don't get to act like asking for pickles and anchovies on pizza is normal." She then produced a spare helmet from the top-box on her bike, raising a brow. "Feeling brave? I'll bring you back in the morning. Unharmed."

Skylar had said more than once that she'd wanted to ride River's bike at least once, so why not? Nervously, the blonde nodded, pulling the spare helmet on as River pulled her own over her head with a grin.

It took them both a minute or two to get properly situated on the bike. Skylar worried aloud about River not wearing the protective jacket, seemingly feeling guilty for wearing it herself, but River assured her that it would be fine and that she would drive carefully.

Sitting there, in the parking lot with Skylar, River wondered why some part of her still didn't feel right. Why was there some part of her still criticising the gorgeous girl holding onto her waist? Wasn't this exactly what she'd wanted? Sure, she'd been happy with a casual relationship, but she'd often wanted a more romantic connection from time to time. Why wasn't she as happy as she knew she should have been?

Whatever.

She pushed down whatever the hell she was feeling, instead simply starting the bike up and carefully riding away, smiling to herself as Skylar gripped ridiculously tight each time they took a corner.

Later that evening, as River and Skylar found themselves wrapped up in one another, blissfully unaware of the world around them, a pained howl rang through the night, singing of an ever breaking heart, a wolf longing for an imprint who seemingly wanted nothing to do with him.

Short but sweet. Well, not exactly sweet, but that's how the saying goes.

Again, please let me know your thoughts! I literally live for that shit!