And There Were Wolves

forty one | is it chill that you're in my head?

Xyrra's POV

"Hey, Miles, thank you for getting me home."

"Nah, don't mention it." Miles smiled and then took off his seatbelt. "Come on. Let me walk you to the door."

His chivalry made me roll my eyes. "It's fine. I got it. Trust me, even though he sent gazillion texts to me, Ryker will ignore me and pretend I don't exist."

Miles let out a chuckle. "Gosh. What did you do?" He got his keys, opened the door, and stepped out.

I followed suit and walked towards him. "That's the thing. I didn't know what I did. Everything was fine — he was even kind at one point, and then the next day he became a completely quiet person. He acted like I wasn't there." I shrugged it off as though it didn't hurt. "But that's okay. I'll get my own money and pay him monthly for staying here, so it'll be like a hostel. We would be just like housemates or a landlord and a tenant."

"That's a bad idea." Miles shook his head and looked at me as we stopped at the front porch. "He won't take that lightly."

"I'm sure he wouldn't care." I sighed. "I could just give the money to Dmitry. That would help his effort at ignoring me."

I pulled out the spare key from my backpack. Dmitry rarely locked the door until midnight, but just in case he had. "Hey, I mean it. Thank you," I said and added, 'I'm sorry for lying and possibly erasing your memory.'

"Don't fret." He waved his hand, still smiling. "I've told you before, I like you."

Right. His feelings towards me could complicate things. "Look, I don't think you should—"

"I know what you mean. Don't worry, I won't pursue you or try to do anything funny," he tried to assure me.

With a smile on my face, I looked at him and tilted my head. "So friends?"

"Yes." Miles's smile turned into a grin. "Besides, you know what they said, friendship is the best foundation of a relationship."

"Geez." I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. I tried the door and sure enough, Dmitry hadn't locked it. "Hey, why don't you go in for a bit? I'm going to make some tea."

"Sure."

I stepped inside after opening the door. Miles was trailing behind.

"Hey, Xy, do you have a sandwich or something?" he asked. "I'm kinda hungry."

"Me too. I'm pretty sure we have something in the fridge." I waited for him to close the door before we walked down the spacious hall towards the kitchen. "Dmitry also stored those pastries he baked and I can assure you, they're so good. Sometimes I wonder if—" I stopped. Miles nearly knocked me over from behind as he stumbled upon me.

"Oops, sorry, you shouldn't suddenly stop like—" Miles too had abruptly stopped mid-sentence, which could only mean that he had been following my line of sight and was currently seeing the same thing that I was seeing.

Alana was hovering on top of Ryker on the couch. Due to the obstruction caused by her back, I couldn't see clearly from this distance, but I could perceive their activity. I'd seen it a lot back at the party. They were making out. I was too speechless to say anything, which was a good thing, because the last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt them. I turned around and was about to tell Miles that we both should go to the kitchen through the back door when he suddenly opened his mouth and practically yelled, "Seriously, you two? Stop torturing us with the horrific view and get a room. Better yet, maybe you should stay in the dungeon."

Alana straightened up and turned around. Her hands were on her waist. It was evident that she was angry because we had interrupted them. "Miles, where have you been?" Her tone was a bit chastising, almost as if she had any authority over him. "You're not supposed to go to parties on weekends. The weekend is family time."