𝗣𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀

ᴘɪɴᴇ-ʜᴇᴀʀᴛꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛᴇᴇɴ

-Luka, 18-

"It might be just what we need." I suggested, sitting down on my bed as Will sat glumly at the tiny dining table. "After... Today... It would be good for us to get away for a while, maybe. And you know that your professors are more then happy to transfer your course over, so you can keep all your perfect grades. I mean, come on, man: Blackwater is way smaller then Oakgreen, which means smaller class sizes, and from a google search there's a huge woodland right next to it, which would be perfect. Oakgreen's pretty shit in that regard, there's nothing but plain lawns and suburbs. Maybe you could even get back in the habit of shifting, and going on shifted runs with me while we're there?"

Will's eyes turned to me, looking both bored and irritated. I could tell he still wasn't entirely convinced, but we were getting somewhere.

I pulled up the emails on my laptop.

"My scholarship would remain the same in all aspects, too, except they'd actually fund me even more. And you'd still have your scholarship, of course, because Blackwater's promised they'd take you. Seriously, Will, this is a great opportunity... But, if you don't want to go, neither do I." I declared. It was true. We stuck together. Besides, it wouldn't be half as exciting to transfer if he wasn't coming with me.

"Don't put that on me." He grumbled.

"I'll be happy either way, promise." I spoke, vaguely realizing that my excitement and excessive grinning may have just been compensating for how pained I felt after watching Gabby faint and not being able to do anything about it (well, if it had just been us three, of course I'd have run over to help, and dealt with the consequences later, but she had friends there to break her fall). "You're my best friend, Will. And I truly believe that you'll benefit from this as much as I would. But again. Its up to you."

By midday on Monday, we'd said goodbye to our professors, packed up all our stuff into cardboard boxes, and were being driven the 5 hour drive to the new Uni by Will's uncle.

Will was silent for the entire trip, and I wondered if he regretted agreeing to the move.

But I didn't want to ask.

Truthfully, seeing Gabby again had been ice-water to my system, and was making it hard to think about... really anything. It felt like perfect timing that I'd been offered a place on this new course: getting away from Oakgreen allowed me to run from my problems, and anything involving extra spending money and the national track team was a great idea in my books. As for Will, it would be nice for him to get somewhere with actual fresh air, and woodland that he could explore in his wolf form. Maybe a change of scenery could even help him relax, and calm down about keeping his grades perfect.

Secretly, I also hoped that the move might fix his depressive episodes. If I had to watch my best friend drink himself into a blackout one more time, I might just lose my mind alongside him.

"Is this the place?" Will's uncle asked me.

"Hmm?" I asked, groggy from a disturbed sleep that I'd spent resting my head uncomfortably against my headrest. My neck hurt like a motherfucker. "Oh. Right." I mumbled when his question processed.

We were parked up in a small car park, with a dense thicket of pine trees to our right, and a small University campus to our left- after that, more pine trees. I couldn't see everything from where I sat, but I could make out a huge front lawn, a big modern building that looked rather out of place among the natural scenery, and some roofs of potential outbuildings behind the main one. If I hadn't been sure which Uni we were at, the sign above the entrance way reading BLACKWATER UNIVERSITY helped a lot.