𝗣𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀

ᴘɪɴᴇ-ʜᴇᴀʀᴛꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱɪx

-Gabriella, 16 years old-

Will held me tightly on his lap as I sobbed, Luka's hands gently smoothing my hair down against my back. 

"It's not your fault, Gabby, I promise. He threatened Will, it's only logical that your wolf freaked out. And it doesn't matter. Everything's sorted. The faculty thinks he had some sort of breakdown in the woods after getting bitten by something, and then showed up at our doorstep. You aren't going to get in trouble, and you don't deserve to anyway." Luca wiped my tears off my cheeks. It reminded me of when we were younger, and I was sent into a fresh round of hysterical sobbing.

Was this really who I was? I didn't regret forcing Mr Bream to get his hands off Will in the slightest, but was the only way I was able fix the situation really going in for the kill? I had only been shifting for a couple months, yes, and Will and Luca had been a bit short-fused back when they were new shifters, but I didn't see it as any sort of excuse. I'd hurt a teacher either way. Instead of just telling him to get off. Which would likely have also worked. 

I couldn't get the taste of his blood out my brain, and it was making me nauseous. At least you aren't craving more, a sympathetic part of my brain offered as condolence.

Will nuzzled his cheek against my own, and pulled me tighter against him. 

After all these years then, nothing had changed at all. This was the primary reason my tears were still going strong. We had apparently all gotten some better control over ourselves, but today had just disproven that entirely, and I was back to where I was at 7 years old. Both Will and Luka still held me tightly whenever they got the chance, or saw I was distressed, yet we were still all 'friends'. It made me feel used, truthfully: why was it OK for Luka to call me pet names all the time, or put his hand on my ass -both in his sleep and not- or for Will's eyes to darken and him start purring and caressing my sides in the evening... But yet neither of them had said a word about how they felt towards me?

Was I going insane? Was I reading their signals all wrong? Or were they just forgetting that I had emotions too, and needed some clarity once in a while?

Everything made me feel angry, and feeling angry made me feel worse.

I wriggled about on Will's lap, and after a minute or two, he loosened his grip until I could shuffle away and stand up. I wiped my tears off with ferocity, and stormed out their room, down the hall- ignoring the irritated calls from a nearby matron- across the grass, to the girl's dorm, and all the way up to my shared room. Thankfully, Josie wasn't there, probably in the class I'd been allowed to skip from 'trauma' (that the teachers were unaware I'd caused). 

I grabbed my phone- a stupid useless flip thing I'd got in town when I was 11- and went into my en suite, locking the door firmly behind me. 

I punched in the numbers as I heard Will and Luka call my name outside the door (are you OK? Open the door! And lots of nonthreatening growling).

"Hello." I lifted it to my ear, and spoke with a shaky voice, thick from having cried a minute ago.

The talking outside the door went silent for a minute as they tried to work out whether I was talking to them or not. The silence allowed me to hear the voice that had haunted me for years loud and clear.

"Gabriella? Are you alright? Is it those boys? You never call me." My mother squawked down the phone.

The words 'those boys' let a solitary tear dribble down my cheek, and my bottom lip begin to wobble.

"I want to go home now, please." I asked quietly. The queries of my well-being came back full force in my dorm room, but at least they didn't try to actually bring the door down or anything. I couldn't bear looking either of them in the eyes right now, I'd probably combust.

"That's great, Gabriella, because I just found you this new local school at Mr Bream's request- how is he, by the way?- and it'd be perfect for you to get settled before the holidays and the new school year." She breathed a sigh of relief. "So he told you, then? Those boys are going elsewhere and you're going to get a break finally. It'll be nice to be closer to you again. We have a lot of catching up."

So there had already been plans in place for our separation, then. 

Usually I'd be fuming, but I was perfectly calm now. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to whinge about everyone trying to break our friend group apart, and should rather have asked why they were trying to do so in the first place.

Yes, there was something certainly unusual and concrete about our bond...

But a break did sound nice, maybe. 

"OK, sounds good. Can you come pick me up?" 

"Of course! Let me finish up what I'm doing and I'll head over right away. Get packing, but you might have to stay for dinner. Have it in Mr Bream's office or something. God, Gabriella, this is perfect." I could hear her beam through her voice before she hung up.

My expression, however, I saw as I looked in the bathroom mirror, was a perfect depiction of misery. Cheap mascara had run down my face and my lashes were all wet and stuck together. My face was pink from turbulent emotion, and my hair had never been so frizzy. Probably something to do with Luka petting it.

Luka. 

I swallowed thickly. Suddenly this separation idea didn't seem so brilliant. All I wanted to do was curl up on Will's bed and put the TV on.

"Please, Gabby, open the door. Or tell me what I did wrong." Luka begged from outside.

No. This was a good idea. 

We all needed a break.

-------------------8 hours later-----------------

One of the matrons helped shove my luggage into the car boot (a new, silver car now) as my mother embraced me and rambled about how excited she was. I kept my eyes on the gravel driveway, because in the window of reception, I could see Will standing with his hands shoved in his pockets staring at me devastated, and Luka pacing about running his fingers through his sandy hair, most likely yelling, from how his mouth was moving.

I'd eaten dinner in the nurses room, seeing as Mr Bream's office was understandably off limits. It had been torture hearing Will and Luka sitting outside trying to plan to make me 'forgive them' despite not knowing what they had done wrong in the slightest.

And having them hover in the doorway while I packed my stuff up and Josie chewed gum on her bed, scrutinizing them with daggers for eyes all the while making snippy comments about how great it would be for me to get away... That was also heart-crushingly painful.

I saw Will run his hand over his face in my peripheral, and Luka collapse onto a chair with his head in his hands, as I got into the passenger seat of the car. 

I took a deep breath of the car-freshener air. 

Normal school, no lost-the-plot Mr Bream, no snarky Josie (however much she was on my side in all of this, it was still hard to whole heartedly embrace her as a friend), no nasty rumors, no school nurse plaguing me about my miracle blood, and no weird friendships. I could actually make normal ones. Friendships, that was. I could befriend normally, hang out a normal amount, and gossip, or whatever it was normal girls my age did.

"Bye St Caspers!" My mother squeaked as she revved the engine and drove us away. Away from the school. The wrong way.

I turned to face out the window and let my tears free-fall again, surprised I hadn't dehydrated to death yet. 

I could have sworn I saw the shadows of two wolves darting through the undergrowth, but it was likely hallucinations.

I turned to face straight ahead. 

This was good. 

This was good.

(Scheduled to update again soon!)