Unforeseen

Chapter 2 | Expecting the Unexpected

Thursday

After Dad's confrontation last night, I was determined to find my mate sooner. That old man was getting on my nerves.

"Hey, mate!" I slap Cole's back as a greeting. And I call him mate as a friendly greeting; I'm not referring to actual mates. He looks mad but when he realizes it's me, his face softens.

"Hey! What's up?" He puts his phone in his pocket giving me all his attention.

"Dad was giving me the mate talk again, and damn, I want to shut him up."

"This is a big school. Your mate could be any girl." He emphasizes every word. My head goes up and down in agreement.

"Well then, I know what I want to do." I smirk and Cole's face scrunches in confusion.

I get up onto a table and yell, "Kissing session to find my mate at lunchtime!"

Girls start squealing and Cole fist bumps me.

"That's the way to do it!"

Lunchtime

So far I've kissed about 40 girls, that's including the popular girls! They showed up, and that surprised me.

"Man, I'm gonna give up." I mutter as the next girl waits.

"I'll call it off." Cole replies.

I get up and head off into the other direction, I need to get out of here. As I look over my back, I watch the girls whine in disappointment. I can't help but chuckle at the sight.

The leaves rustle as they fall on the ground. Autumn is such a beautiful season, the leaves die fast but beautifully.

The bell rings and I head back inside for English class. I sit near the back and wait for the teacher to begin the lesson.

"Good afternoon," She begins and we all mumble it back, "Today I'm assigning you all a project...about love."

Everyone groans, this is why I hate having a hopeless romantic for a teacher. They'll make you do the weirdest things.

"Now, now. I haven't finished. You will do this project with either your mate or if you haven't found one yet, I'll assign a person for you."

Mates. How I despise the topic.

She cleared her voice before reading out the names.

"Maria and Lucas, Jane and Thomas, Lisa and Liam, Trina and Theodore." All of those people had their mates.

"Now for the people without mates, Gregory and Ethan, Carla and Carlos, and Lucy and Tim."

Ethan, as in Ethan Cassels? Never talked to him before, no one does really. He's just this isolated person who sits at the very back and knows all the answers to every question the teacher asks.

My feet find their way to the back of the class and settle at his desk. My eyes search his and all I can make out is that they're...empty.

"I'm Gregory." I reach out my hand for him to shake, I'm too nice for an Alpha sometimes. My dad keeps telling me to have this strong figure, but I don't.

"I know." He states, and his voice is as cold as ice. It's like he hates me when he doesn't even know me. Hurtful.

I sit down next to him and look forward, but as I do so, I feel his stare on me. I stare right back and suddenly a beautiful smell of roses and strawberries fills my nose. I shut my eyes and silently sigh before I flutter my eyes back open. I know this smell, it's been described so much in Health class and some old books. I look around eagerly trying to find my mate, did they smell it too? Did they feel all warm and squishy inside like I did?

Everyone seemed to be minding their work or in a deep conversation with their partners. The weird thing is Ethan is staring at me, his stare is soft and gentle, this nerd is abnormal. The bell rings and I run out of the room to my locker frustrated. I stood there for 5 minutes waiting for a girl to come running to me telling me they're my mate so I can shut up my father.

Does my mate want me or not? My heart kind of breaks at the thought and I feel angry. I slam my locker shut and decide to skip school. Across the hallway I can see worry etched across Ethan's face. He better stay away from me.

My eyes search for my car and I hop in once I find it. The keys bring the engine to life and I leave. Just like that.

I don't even look back. My phone vibrates and I fish it out.

Dude, where the hell do you think you're going? I saw you run out. -Cole.

Fix your shit then come back to school okay?! We gotta talk about this later -Lia.

Ugh, people decide to care now? I drive to Lake Monet. What a bizarre name for a water body. I come out here once in a while to smoke. It calms me down.

I arrive and get out of the car. My nose detects the fresh air that I'd soon release smoke into.

I sit on the shore and admire the lake and it's peaceful aura. I felt collected, calm and in contact with nature. After smoking 2 cigarettes, I knew I had to get back to school. My friends are worried about me and I don't want to upset them.

When I return to the torturous perimeter we call school, I head right into the cafeteria knowing it's lunch. I head over to my friends' table and sit down with them. The whole football team stares at me inquisitively. People are always in my business, it's pretty annoying.

"Look who decided to come back." Lia smiles at me. She's not part of the team but she's like one of the boys.

"I had to get away for a while." I explain to her.

"I can smell your cigarette breath from over here!" Nash yelled from the other end of the table, which is far away. Since we're a team, we get a big table. The others laugh at his joke. They know I smoke whenever I need to get away or when I feel down. They don't know where I do it though, if they did they'd think it's so gay. I think.

Either way, I catch Ethan staring at me from the other end of the cafeteria, his eyes divert from the book he's reading now and then.

Dramatically sighing, I say, "I think I don't have a mate in this country."

Lia laughs, "What are you gonna do? Flee the country to find love?"

The others laughed at her joke.

"That's so gay." Cole says.

For some reason, that comment hurt me and my wolf. I don't know why but it feels like we've just been insulted.

"Guys, when's our next game again?" I ask changing the topic.

-

I was quite surprised to see Ethan leaning against my car after school. Didn't he have to ride his bike home or something?

"What do you want, nerd?" You know what's surprising? I didn't even feel the least bit disturbed by his presence. In fact, I enjoyed his presence.

"We have to work on the project." He whispered nervously as his cheeks became rosy.

Isn't that cute?

Wait, what did I just think?

Holding my car keys, I stroll over to my car and get in.

"You coming, nerd?" I smirked. Ethan gulped and nodded quickly getting in.

The silence was awkward, he kept glancing at me and my car smelled of flowers this time, what the hell? And to make it even weirder, the nerd was smiling.

Smiling.

"What's got you happy, nerd?" I question him curiously.

"If I told you, you'd probably throw me out of this car." He smiled looking out of the window.