My bestfriend's boyfriend

Chapter 4

 The boy broke the 10 minute silence with, "So, what's your name?"

I ignored him, still mad at the jerk, but also reflecting on what my mother had done to me. The way she left me really made me feel broken up.

"Hey."  He nudged his elbow softly into my ribs, and I punched him. Hard.

"Ow! Hey, what's your problem? I'm trying to be nice here but I keep getting punched in the same arm. Just talk to me, please?"

I sighed, feeling sort of bad. "I'm sorry. And my name is Sam. I probably would have been talking to you earlier but a lot has been going on and I hate my mom, so, yeah."  Part of me wanted to tell him, but the other argued I didn't know him.

"Hey, don't worry. You can talk to me. We may not be all that different." He gazed at me with a look I didn't understand.

"How so?" I wanted to take the attention away from me for a while. And besides, I wanted to know about him.

"I'm mad at my parents too. They dropped me off here to go on a vacation to Barbados. They said they needed some ' alone time,' if you know what I mean."  He did that same annoying eyebrow thing again, but this time adding a lopsided grin.

"Ew." I stuck my tongue out in mock disgust, lightly knocking him on the shoulder.

"Um, bruise." he said, gesturing to the red spot on his bicep.

"Sorry. Force of habit." I apologized, a bit guiltily. "So what's your name?"

"My name," He paused dramatically, " is not of importance."

"Aw, come on! I told you mine. You could at least tell me yours. Or, " I threatened, " i'll dub you Mr. creepy eyebrows."

"All right, if you insist..." His eyes then seemed to burn a winter green, if that can even happen. "It's Diego."

He stopped walking and whirled around to look at me. He held my eyes in an intense stare, like he wanted to tell me his life story, but then his eyes turned back to that same iridescent blue and his accent disappeared.

"Okay...tell me what just happened."  I ordered, slightly freaked out by this freak. I stopped walking and looked at him.

"Nothing happened," He turned me around and prodded my back forward, trying to coax me back into walking with him.

"What do you mean 'nothing happened'? Something happened so it wasn't 'nothing' that happened."

"So my eyes change colors and I get a hot accent. Big deal."  He tried to coax me again, but seeing that I wasn't going to budge, he sighed.

"It's something I've been practicing for a while. It's... almost like I'm a different person. Except I'm still me, of course." He added , seeing the scared look on my face.

A wolf howled, sounding nearby. 

"Look, we can talk about this later, or when we reach camp, but right now, we gotta worry about getting there before the sun goes down."  The sky had already turned a midnight blue, the last rays of light fading in hues of magenta and burnt orange. A dim light gleamed from atop the looming hill before us.  "Come on, it's just up this there."

Still uneasy, I glanced behind me, wondering what the chances were the wolf would get us first.

Diego followed my gaze to the forest, then looked back at me. "Don't worry," He grinned, "I won't let him get you." 

My heart thumped, just once, and he took my hand and led me towards the campsite.