Claws

Chapter Twenty- Normal

IM SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPLOADED IN SO LONG!! D: 

     Twenty 

   “Party in the back seat!” Shelby slurred from behind me, holding up her half-empty bottle of third beer. She turned and climbed clumsily on Seth, giving him a huge, sloppy kiss until he shoved her off. 

   “God, Shelby, get off. Katie’s my baby.” he turned to kiss Katie, who was also drunk and sitting on the opposite side of him. 

  I saw Shelby shrug and immediately jump on Lucas, who was beside her, and he eagerly kissed her back, throwing his forth beer bottle out the open window. 

  I made a disgusted noise, and went to sit on the step of the van. 

   We had stopped on the side of an old, deserted road about five hours into our trip to build a bonfire, roast some hot dogs, and, apparently, drink some liquor. I have to admit, real food had tasted amazing. A nice, juicy hot dog with ketchup, a chilled Coca Cola, some potato chips... it had all been an extremely tasty dinner. It almost made me upset that soon, hopefully that night, we’d be highjacking the van and taking off on our own. These people knew how to get food, and they had plenty of it.

  I stared down at the dying embers of the fire, tears collecting in my eyes, as I heard the annoying noise of lips locking from behind me. 

  I felt someone hop off the seat, and in that next second, Jack was squatting beside me on the step. 

   “Nice night.” he commented, gazing up at the almost full moon. 

   “Mhmmm...” was all I could manage to muttered, afraid that my voice would fail me, due to my now tight throat. 

   “Hey,” he whispered, grabbing my chin lightly and forcing me to look at him. He unleashed the full power of his smoldering, brown eyes, making it impossible to look away. He saw the pain, the anguish, in my eyes. 

   “It’ll be okay... we’ll find them, and everything will go back to normal.” he reassured. 

   “Normal?” I quoted, my voice squeaky. 

   “What do you mean by that?” he challenged. 

   “Jack, nothing’s ever gonna be normal again.”

  He remained for a long moment, staring at the ground instead of the sky. 

   “Only if you stay with me,” he finally said. 

   “Huh?”

   “Kaylee, you have to understand something. As long as you’re around me, you’ll be in danger. Wether my pack is after us or not. If... you decide to stay with me, you’re life will never be normal again.” 

   “What do you mean ‘if’ I decide to stay with you?” 

   “I just mean I won’t blame you if you want to walk away from this madness. If I had a choice, I know I sure as hell would.” 

   “I’m not just gonna walk away from you because I’m scared, Jack.” I said, sounding almost slightly offended. He shook his head, continuing to stare down. 

   “Sometimes I really regret dragging you into this.” he muttered, sounding agonized. 

   “Look, I gave normal up, okay? I left normal behind in Missouri. I left normal when I left St. Louis. And I’m fine with that! Normal’s not part of my world anymore.” 

   “But it should be!” he exploded. “Your’e seventeen, Kaylee! You’re just a teenage girl! You don’t have one supernatural cell in your body, and yet you’re living in this world full of monsters! Full of paranormal creatures that should only exist in horror movies and nightmares!” 

  I took a deep breath, blowing it out nosily. “Jack, calm down, you don’t want the others to hear.” I reasoned, ignoring his comment. It was true. I shouldn’t’ve been involved in the world of supernatural. But, sometimes, life doesn’t go exactly like intended. 

   “Right...” he sat back down, putting his arm around me and staring up at the moon. 

   “Hey...” I started, hesitantly. 

   “Yeah?” 

   “Um... just a question... don’t laugh, okay?”

  He waited. 

   “So... the whole full moon thing... are you gonna phase into a wolf tomorrow night wether you mean to or not?” I felt like a complete moron asking. He let out a care-free laugh, and I was glad my attempt at lightening the mood worked. 

   “No... that’s just a myth.” he smiled down at me. 

   “Huh. What do you know?” I nodded, looking around. “The Wolfman was wrong after all.”

   “Yep. What do you know.” he agreed. 

 I laid my head on his shoulder, suddenly feeling exhaustion taking over me. 

  I yawned, nodding off while listening to bottles cracking behind us...

  “Jack,” I heard Sydney whisper. Though it wasn’t me she was addressing, it still woke me. 

   “Yeah, Syd?” Jack asked, sounding completely alert. 

   “They’re all asleep. That or passed out.” she confirmed. 

   “Perfect.” I could see his bright teeth glint off the moonlight as he grinned. He lightly moved me off his shoulder, standing up and ducking into the van. I became a bit more coherent, realizing now what he was doing. 

  I stood up, a little wobbly at first thanks to sleep-deprivation, and slid into the vehicle as well. I accidentally bumped into Jack, who already had three bodies slung over his shoulders. Damn, he worked fast. He set them carefully on the ground, next to the cooler and bonfire ashes, then went to retrieve the other four. 

   They were out in no time, and we were all replacing them in the van, Jack driving, me in shotgun, and Sydney sprawled out across the first bench, already snoring. The dashboard clock informed me that it was almost four in the morning. Had she been waiting this whole time, just to let Jack know when they were finally all out of it? 

  I have to admit, I didn’t feel far behind her as my lids drooped, feeling heavier by the second. 

   “You can sleep.” Jack assured me. “We’re still about five hours to where we need to be. Just rest.” 

  I nodded, already slipping. 

   Four hours, I thought to myself. Four hours until we finally get this figured out... hopefully... possibly four hours until I witness the biggest battle of my life... 

  Knowing we were so close gave me the first glimpse of hope in a long time... So close to, well, not winning, but so close to finding what we needed to win... 

   So close to normal...