The Wolves of Cain

Questioning Quarrels

Date: 2-17-17

Chapter 12: Questioning Quarrels

The group of friends get split up eventually during the party. Jerica is hanging out with Lena, Evie with Alisa, and Lucas and Mason with John.

After dancing for awhile and just hanging out, John tells Lucas and Mason that he'll be right back. Then he goes to talk to his younger sisters.

"Hey, girls!" John calls to Evie and Alisa with a smile. They barely spare him a glance. To get their attention, he decides to do a little trick.

"Are you girls thirsty?" John asks as he holds out his empty hands. Then out of nowhere, he's handing them both a cup of coffee.

Evie quickly takes the cup while Alisa hesitates. "John!" She nervously whispers to him in warning. "You know you're not supposed to use magic in public!"

Evie snorts and says, "Yeah, but we certainly know he needs the practice." Alisa sends a short glare Evie's way before responding.

"Just get rid of that." Alisa demands quietly as she makes her coffee disappear. Evie stares at her cup for a moment and it disappears too.

John shrugs along with his apology. "Sorry Alisa." But they all know that he doesn't mean it.

Lucas and Mason notice the tension between John and his sisters. They try to listen in but John is already walking away from them. "What was that about?" Lucas asks John with a faked smile when his best friend reaches them.

"Oh you know, just the same old sibling rivalry." John smiles broadly to show it doesn't bother him. Lucas announces that he's going to talk to his sister.

When he stops in front of Jerica and Lena, they're having an intensely hushed conversation. Jerica sees Lucas and pulls him over to them. "Lucas! We were just about to find you! We have exciting news."

"It's important, not exciting." Lena tells him with a serious look.

"Oh, crap." Lucas thinks to himself out loud, taking a step closer and lowering his voice so only they can hear him. "What is it?"

Jerica jumps in to explain before Lena can. "We know who vine girl is."

"What? Who?" Lucas feels his heart speeding up as he remembers the night of the full moon. Panic sets in at the fact that they'll know who vine girl is.

"Ivie!" Jerica exclaims for dramatic effect. Lena shushes her, glancing around to see if anyone noticed that they're all acting strange.

"Ivie?" Lucas repeats, thinking of shy, nervous Ivie, realizing that it sort of makes sense. Of course the girl who controls vines is named Ivie.

Jerica nods her head enthusiastically. Jerica's always hated Ivie and is glad it's her who's turning into a crazy person.

Lucas turns his thoughtful gaze to Lena, watching as she casts her eyes down at the floor. She isn't happy about this like Jerica is. And Lucas can tell that Jerica doesn't notice this.

Lucas glares at his inconsiderate sister, making her confused. "What? What is it?" He notices when Lena looks away with a smile. She's glad that Lucas is paying attention more than her best friend. It makes her feel better about the fact that her best friend isn't paying attention to her.

But Lucas can tell that she doesn't want him to call out Jerica completely. Just the mean look will do.

So he smiles and grabs Lena's hand. "Let's just forget about it for now. Will you come dance?" Lucas asks, shoving his nerves aside and ignoring the nasty look that Jerica's sending his way.

Lena grins, allowing Lucas to gently pulls her away from Jerica and into the dancing crowd. "Wait! We need to talk about this!" Jerica yells after them, but they disappear from sight without a backward glance.

Lucas and Lena dance without touching, in that intimate way that two people can, just letting go and feeling the beat. It's nice until Lucas feels someone watching them. He can't see who it is through all of the people.

Even though it's a weekday and it's not dark out yet, not for a few hours, there are a lot of people there. It's the first teen club in their town and it's a big hit.

~*~

John watches Lucas dancing with Lena as they laugh and have fun. John saw when Lucas was speaking quietly to Jerica and Lena, so he knows for sure that something's going on with his friends that Lucas isn't telling him.

John looks back at Mason with a smile. Lucas may be busy with Lena, but Mason is free from anyone at the moment, and much more likely to spill secrets.

John goes over to Mason and puts on a serious face. "Hey, Mason!"

Mason grins enthusiastically at him. "Hey, John! What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something." John admits, just loud enough to be heard, attempting to be heard by no one else besides the two of them.

He can tell by Mason's smile dropping slightly that the younger twin knows that John is serious.

John leads Mason outside to get away from all of the people inside. "Something's been going on with you and Lucas. I want to know what it is." Mason stares blankly at him, processing the words and trying to get past his currently frozen state.

"Um...what do you mean?" He asks in the most obvious way ever, not very subtle in his act of playing dumb.

"You know what I mean, Mason. You two were attacked in the woods one night and haven't been the same." John points out, to which Mason only shrugs.

That's one of the only things that bugs John about the Hallow twins. They shrug way too often, choosing that vague action over words.

"We're fine. Nothing's wrong." Mason lies to his face, avoiding any and all eye contact.

"Mason, did your leg heal? Are you two taking drugs for the pain and it's making you act weird?" John knows this isn't true, saying it as a tactic to try to get Mason to blurt something out.

"Yeah, we have some medicine we're taking right now." Mason speaks to the ground.

"Why are you lying to me, Mason? I'm your friend. Whatever it is, I can help you and Lucas. My family has some experience in these sort of situations." John pleads, trying to sound sympathetic and not weird or creepy.

Mason suddenly snaps. "Well maybe you can't help, John! Maybe this is too much for you, or me, or anyone!"

Then he storms back inside, leaving John to stare at his retreating back. Mason may not realize it just yet, but he's given John another piece of the puzzle.