Twelve
Sterling
Shaw and I high-fived. "I can't believe it!" I cried. "It's raining!"
Jeremy sauntered over to us shaking his head. "You do know if you lived anywhere else, everyone would be staring at you like you're crazy?"
"Don't care," Shaw answered. "It's coming direct from that storm. So something is happening up there."
"Besides a predictable weather pattern?" Jeremy grumbled.
"You should be happy," I said. "You don't have to water your tree."
"Har," Jeremy grumbled.
I studied my friend. "Why so grumpy, Bark Boy? Didn't Morgana come out and cast her woo-woo juju on your tree?"
He glared at me. "She did and I've been having nightmares ever since."
Shaw chuckled. "That sounds like Morgana."
We both stared at him, incredulous. "Did you suddenly become her BFF or something?" Jeremy said.
His cheeks reddened, and I burst out laughing. His skin was so pale, the blush made him look like he was wearing makeup.
"Of all the people to have a crush on, it had to be her?"
"We can't help who we fall in love with," Shaw admonished me.
“You seem to be falling in love a lot this week, dude,” Jeremy said.
I couldn't argue with Shaw about falling in love though. Not without being a huge hypocrite. Cherry bitched at me the entire way home last night. She kept accusing me of doing something with Maron and while I'd defended myself, I really didn't have a leg to stand on. The smell of Maron was all over me. The problem was it was lingering, and it was beginning to really piss me off. I'd showered, scrubbed my skin within an inch of its life, and her scent was still clinging to me. My siblings had remarked on it over breakfast and I'd almost bitten their heads off.
When I argued that I hadn't done anything, which was true, Cherry had retorted I didn't have to do anything, she could smell how much I wanted to.
She wasn't wrong.
I wasn't sure what had gotten into me the other night, but when I saw Maron on that date with that pretty boy witch, something ugly reared up inside of me and howled. I barely remembered taking her by the elbow and acting like a stalker. When she shoved me, something snapped, and I felt like I was waking up from a dream. Thank goodness she was a vamp. If she hadn't been, things could have gotten a lot worse. It was rare, but there were times when the wolf took over, and I couldn’t help my actions. It happened a lot when I was younger. This was the first time it happened since I’d become an adult.
I owed Maron a sincere apology. I'd already apologized, but I could tell she didn't want to hear it that night. If I were being a hundred percent honest, I figured she didn't want to hear it now, either, or any time soon. Probably never.
It wasn't like me to act like that. Over anyone. I certainly didn't feel that way about Cherry. Her skin was chilled every time I touched her and she flinched away as if she couldn't bear the touch of another person. But when I thought about Maron and how fiery she was, something ignited inside of me.
It was awful and I had to figure out a way to get her out of my head. It was beginning to affect my work.
Or, according to my sister, my dweeby little hobby.
Speaking of which, Jeremy was still babbling on about the storm. I tried to bring myself back to the present.
"So I think we should try a drone," he concluded before he turned to me. "What do you think?"
"Uhhh," I said.
Shaw snorted. "I'm pretty sure he's been in la-la land for the last ten minutes. Probably dreaming about his little ice queen."
If they only knew. "Yeah," I said and rubbed the back of my neck like I was embarrassed. "She's great."
Jeremy’s look screamed he knew I was full of shit, but he didn't say anything.
