An American Tribrid in London

Chapter 10: Hope, SK and Josie

"So," Josie asked with a heavy heart, but masked it with a smile.

"So" Hope had a crooked smile on her face.

"You told me something about SK..." Josie couldn't complete the sentence as her own heart broke, but she grinned as she was happy for Hope.

"Well, he told me that he loved me." Hope rolled her eyes. "Not directly but in his own way"

"I'm happy for you Hope"

"Thanks Josie. Also, what happened to you and Finch?" Hope asked.

"Well, before coming here, I broke up with her" Josie's shoulders drooped and her face dropped.

While she liked all others like Penelope, Finch, Jade and even Landon to a certain extent, being here alone in London gave her a much needed perspective in life that she actually loved Hope since the first time she saw the tribrid in school. She could have confessed it all during that one time. Instead, she set fire to Hope's cabin because she gay-panicked, which resulted in a fractured relationship between Lizzie, her younger sister and Hope. While they settled their differences, she always felt guilty about Hope having to lose the painting she did with her dead father. Even Hope forgave her, but Josie still hadn't forgiven herself and in a way still always felt that she did not deserve Hope's love and even her friendship.

"Josie, look at me gloating," Hope admonished herself.

"No, Hope, I'm sorry for being a drama queen. I feel like Lizzie now," Josie chuckled while wiping a stray tear drop from her left eye.

"Ok, Josie, would you look at that? It's 3:30 AM already. I am going on my wolf run." With that, Hope changed herself into her wolf form.

There were so many things that happened on a single day and she had to release her bottled up emotions. So, she ran as she felt the cool morning breeze over her face. While the initial process of turning herself into a wolf would be very painful for her as she has to break a lot of bones in her body, she would reach an almost bigger state of bliss as the feeling of running around a wolf is something which had been unmatchable for her other than falling in love.

"Hello, You"

The voice caught Hope off guard. It was from SK. What the hell was he doing here at this time? It was early by his standards.

"It's been a long time. How are you?" SK continued the greeting.

Hope wasn't sure how to react. Instead of disappearing like the last time this encounter happened, she just froze.

SK smiled at the wolf. It's been weeks since she last saw the wolf. He knew it was the same wolf as the eyes were very familiar.

He found himself extending his hands towards the wolf's face. While he studied in kindergarten not to engage with strange animals, in his gut, he seemed to know that this wolf would not harm him.

But a voice suddenly snapped him out of his daze. Hope, meanwhile, came out of her entranced state and ran away in a swoosh as she mentally thanked Josie.

"Hi SK!" Josie grinned widely.

"Josie?! What are you doing here at this time?" SK asked.

"I could ask the same of you," Josie returned.

"Well, I couldn't sleep," SK confessed.

"Why may I ask?" Josie asked with a smirk.

"Heh..." He squirmed.

"You're Hope's friend and all..." He hesitated.

"Didn't we three agree together just yesterday that all of us were friends?"

"Yes, we did." SK affirmed and asked, "That reminds me, where is Hope?"

"I'm here," Hope announced as she came to stand near Josie with sweat beads glistening on her face in full black tracks and a black tee. It hugged her figure tightly with all the sweat.

SK averted his eyes from her body to look at her eyes. Her ocean blue eyes stared back at him intensely. He felt himself swallowing saliva in his throat. He scratched his head with his right hand as Hope adjusted her hair with a sweet smile.

He started hearing this background music from an 80s Tamil romantic song. Great! More signs of him going to the deep end and becoming a nut job!

"Do you hear that music, too?" SK asked both the girls.

"Yes, we do," they replied in unison.

He sighed but internally he was a bit disappointed, but he never knew why. As his hands landed on the right pocket of his tracksuit, he understood that this cellphone must have started playing the music by mistake.

He smiled awkwardly as he turned off the music.

After this, Hope and SK looked at each other intensely.

"Get a room, you two!" Josie's remarks snapped both of them out of their daze as Josie averted her face from both of them to wipe her tears.

"Josie, are you okay?" Hope asked with concern laced in her voice.

"No, I'm fine. Just some dirt fell into my eyes," Josie lied and smiled with her smudged eyes.

While Josie looked a little off, SK did what he does best and kept his thoughts to himself.

SK cleared his throat as he said, "Alright. I'm going to go back to my room"

And with that, he jogged back to their room.

"Hope, that was close." Josie remarked.

"I know this sounds corny, but it was almost like the world stopped and it was just the two of us there at that moment" Hope's face suddenly dropped as she continued, "But I don't think this feeling can last. With Ken, Hollow and Katherine coming, it is too dangerous for him to be involved with me."

Regardless of anything, Josie always wanted Hope to be happy, but the siphon can see that whatever the tribrid had planned was going to cause a lot of hurt.

"What are you gonna do?" Josie asked.

"I'm gonna compel him to forget about me," Hope said with tears threatening to drop out as she hugged Josie.

A/N: I hope the 80's Tamil romantic music was good. There are going to be some very dark, violent chapters with lot of deaths and handling sensitive issues in the future. I might have to change the rating to mature if that was the case. Just requesting you to change your settings to allow mature books. Again, still there would absolutely be no smut. Just some innuendo. Let me know what you think of this chapter and making this fic mature in general.