Sawyer

  “When last did you see Clare?” Elijah asked, badging into the classroom where I was sitting alone, trying to figure out a project I had been struggling with for a while.

  I sighed and without looking at him where he was standing at the door, I answered, “How does that concern you? She’s not your girlfriend, anyway?”

  “I think something is wrong with her.” Elijah’s words finally got me to look at him.

  Unlike I expected, there was no scowl on his face from my mocking answer. Rather, his forehead was scrunched up into a frown with furrowed brows that made him uglier than usual.

  I was reclining on the teacher’s desk, with my feet placed on the table and my back leaning lopsidedly on the chair and his words made me take my boots off the table and sit properly as I reached for the tissue beside me to clean the dusty mark my boots had left on the table.

  Then I turned to face him squarely. “What do you mean? This better not be some kind of…”

  “Answer me first. When last did you speak to Clare?”

  “Two nights ago?” I answered.

  “Have you noticed that she’s been a bit different this week?” He asked.

  “What the hell are you trying to say? We’ve been talking on the phone frequently, eating lunch together and we went on a date last Sunday. There’s nothing wrong with her.” I answered.

  “So she’s keeping what’s going on a secret from you, I guess.” He said with a thoughtful look.

  His words made me irritated, but before I could tell him to stop stalking her since she already rejected him, he continued, “She’s been super quiet at work. She hasn’t really been around Lissa either and yesterday, she took an unplanned three work day break and the manager gave it to her. When we tried to ask about it, he just said she was going through some stuff privately. Today, I saw her skipping school after lunch.”

  Okay, now that was serious because Clare never skipped school. She even told me once that seeing me skip school had added to her initially bad impression of me.

  I stood up and pushed the teacher’s chair into the desk. “Well, thanks for the observation and…for telling me about it. I’ll take it from here and let you know, if it’s not too personal, what went wrong with her.

  He stared at me for a few seconds with an inscrutable face before nodding and walking away.

  I, on the other hand, who only stayed at school so that Clare wouldn’t see me skipping classes, immediately walked over to the parking lot and drove out of school to Josie’s house in the mobile home park.

  I thought Elijah was being a sensible wolf for the first time in his life until I got to Clare’s doorstep and found out that he had followed me all the way from school to Clare’s house.

  “Do you know that what you’re doing is called stalking?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  He gave me a nonchalant look. “I just want to know what’s wrong with her and I’ll back off. I know she doesn’t want me, but I have the right to be concerned about her.”

  I sneered, “What gives you the right to be concerned about her? Are you her friend or her relative or her boyfriend?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “I’m her—“ Thankfully, before he finished speaking, there was a clicking sound from the door to Clare’s home.

  The door swung open and Clare stared at me and then at Elijah. “What are you two doing here?”

  Before I could speak, Elijah stepped closer to the door and said in the most earnest voice I had ever heard from him, “He didn’t bring me here. I secretly followed him. I don’t mean any harm. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Then I can leave. I won’t disturb you. Just tell me that you’re perfectly fine because I can feel that you’re hurting and that’s hurting me, too.”

  As expected, Clare didn’t have any words to say as she just stared into Elijah’s eyes with parted lips for what felt like hours. I wanted to interrupt whatever they were communicating to each other with their locked gazes, but something held me back.

  Eventually, Clare sighed and pushed the open door wider so we could come in. “Both of you, come in.”

  I glared at the back of Elijah’s head as he walked into the house ahead of me.

  I watched Clare get us a cup of water each while noticing the things that I seemed to have ignored because I thought she was perfectly fine. There were very dark bags under her eyes and from the back, she just looked so sad in the pajamas she was wearing. That made me very sad because she had truly been going through something like Elijah said, but she hadn’t decided to confide in me about it.

  We all sat on different couches, staring at each other for minutes, not knowing what to say.

  “Clare…can you tell me what’s wrong? There are bags under your eyes when there were none this morning because you probably concealed them with makeup. Is something wrong with Josie or…”

  She was quiet for a few minutes before speaking. “My mom died a year ago, this week.”

  Her voice was dull and when she looked at me with glassy eyes welling with tears, I could tell she wasn’t looking at me. I wanted to reach for her, but I knew better than to interrupt at this moment.

  An involuntary sob escaped her lips as she continued speaking. “I don’t even know the exact day she died. I didn’t know her illness had gotten so critical. I didn’t even get a chance to see her in the three months before she died. I don’t know what my step father told her was the reason I didn’t come to see her. All I know was she died, my stepfather ran off and I didn’t get to see her. And I thought I had cried enough and I wouldn’t feel this awful, but looking at that date on the calendar, I get taken back to the day I found out she was gone and…”

  Elijah and I moved over to her side at the same time as sobs racked her tiny frame. Sitting on both sides of her, I hugged her and murmured several consoling words to her which Elijah just sat by her side, stroking her back in gentle, uneven patterns. I ignored the tiny tender kisses he dropped on her back, which holding Clare’s head on my shoulder and stroking her hair in gentle smooth movements.

  After several minutes of silently consoling Clare, she lifted her head off my shoulder and sniffed. “Can you take me to the rooftop again? I think I need some rooftop therapy.”

  I nodded, “Alright, go get dressed. I’ll drive you there.”

  She nodded and pressed a kiss on my cheek before turning to Elijah. “Thank you for noticing that I wasn’t okay. I thought I could bear it all by myself, but now that you two are here, I realize that closing myself off to the world and pretending to be happy was probably not the best way to go about it.”

  He stiffened and I could hear the nervousness in his voice as he answered, “It’s not a big deal. I’m glad you’re feeling okay now.”

  She nodded and then stood up to go change her clothes.

  After we left Josie’s house, we walked all the way to the parking lot.

  When we were about to separate, Elijah and Clare stared at each other while I watched from the sidelines.

  Elijah broke the awkward silence, extending his arms wide, away from his body, with his palms facing upwards. “C-Can I give you a hug before I leave?”

  Clare hesitated, glancing at me, before moving toward him and hugging him.

  At first, her back seemed tense and then it slowly relaxed as Elijah hugged her, leaning into her so that his nose was buried in her hair.

  After the hug, Claire moved away slowly, moving to stand beside me.

  “I’ll go now.” Elijah said with an awkward look before turning to walk away with his lonely back turned to us.

  I glanced at Clare and saw something akin to longing flash across her face as she watched him walk away.

  “Do you want him to stay with us? Just for today?” I asked her. “This is not a test or a trick question. I just want you to feel better and if his presence helps, then I don’t mind.”

  She looked torn for a second before she slowly nodded her head.

  I nodded and called, “Elijah!”

  He turned to stare at me with a blank expression, which told me that he had been listening to our conversation.

  “Just come with us.” I said. “Follow my car.”

  It was an order that he would have usually bristled against, complaining about how I wasn’t yet his Alpha, but today he just nodded meekly and did as I said.