-Carmen Silvers POV-
"Hello, Caleb," I said, my tone even as I slid into my seat next to him. I, Carmen Silver, was in detention.
With my very best buddy Caleb.
As if detention wasn't horrible enough, add my own personal Devil to the mix and now you're just asking for it.
"Hello," he sneered, "So where did you run off to yesterday? I felt terribly lonely after you left."
"I went to go visit Natasha," I said casually as more students filed into Mrs. Stern's class for their lunch detention. Unfortunately, I had a half hour detention meaning as soon as I was done here I had to race over to the music room to practice with Alex.
Which meant no lunch for me.
Just thinking about it made my stomach growl in protest.
Caleb tensed, his fists clenching. I was incredibly satisfied to have hit a nerve; obviously Natasha was his weak spot.
"How is she?" he asked coolly, black eyes narrowed at me.
"She's doing great," I said, smirking slightly, "Much better than you."
He snorted, "I'm doing just fine," he said curtly, catching a strand of my hair between his fingertips, twirling it around his finger as he looked up at me with a wide smirk, "Especially now that you're around."
I stiffened in my seat, struggling to keep myself calm. I was determined to make it through a whole day of school without almost exploding into a wolf for once and so far I was doing much better than usual.
"Really?" I asked forcefully, "I was doing pretty well too...before I saw your face that is."
"My, my someone's feeling better today," he said, dropping my hair from his fingers, "But that probably won't last very long."
"Oh?" I asked curiously.
"Well, you always seem to be running off whenever we're together too long," he remarked gleefully. "You can't keep running away from me, Carmen. Eventually you're going to have to stop."
His black eyes pierced mine, "And I'm going to be there no matter how far you go."
My heart nearly stopped beating as my mouth fell open in shock.
Austin had said those exact words to me a while ago when I went with Matt on a 'date' to the movie theatre and I fled to the bathroom after he started holding my hand.
"No talking! This is detention and if you're caught talking then you will stay five extra minutes for each time I catch you!" Mrs. Stern shrieked.
I bit my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut. Now I understood why Tucker had said that Natasha had been like a perverse version of his girl. Austin's words hadn't meant to be mean; he was just being honest even though I didn't know it at the time. But Caleb's tone was mocking, changing it into something that was a complete opposite version of Austin. A perverse version of my soul mate.
Caleb didn't talk to me for the remainder of detention and for that I was grateful. As soon as the teacher dismissed me I sped walk through the class and as soon as I was out the door I took off sprinting back to my locker. I tossed the books from second period in there since I brought them to detention before I hurried back to the music area. Alex and I practiced a few songs that we decided were songs we really wanted to do and then practiced a couple of the songs we still weren't sure of until it was time to head back to class.
I know Alex knew something was off about me today but for once he didn't question it. He walked me back to my locker without a word and when I walked to Science with Matt and Kayla I stayed quiet as well.
