The Devil's Sweet Snare (EDITING)

The Devil's Sweet Snare

“Phoebe, honey, is that you? Can you come help me for a bit?”

I dropped my soggy book bag on the floor, exhausted from yet another day in hell. Kendra had gone all out on me today. She slipped about a hundred condoms in my locker, which confused me a bit by the way seeing as she most certainly needed them more than I, it cascaded out of it when I opened it to get my books for first period, and of course Kendra had been standing there the whole time with a teacher, ready to catch me in for my apparent scandalous display. And so because of the budget cuts they didn’t have anyone cleaning the comfort rooms and assigned me to do so for a whole week as my punishment.

Around lunchtime she went and spilled her lunch and mine as well all over me. She also made sure to let out a loud shriek to gather the attention of every single person in the cafeteria to us, and made a huge display of my humiliation. She even dared to blame me, I mean, she was the one who ‘accidentally’ ran into me and smashed her lunch all over me.

Not only that, when I went and decided to get myself cleaned up with a shower, she stole my clothes. I should’ve seen it coming but I chose to be an idiot and trusted her not to go so low, but she did and that actually disappointed me in her a little. I managed to borrow a shirt from Hunter that ended just above my thigh making me look ridiculous and gym shorts from Josh that I had to tie really tight around my waist to keep them from falling off completely. I spent half the day walking around looking like some wannabe rapper.

Sad to say the torture didn’t end there; Kendra went and threw my book back into the school’s dirty old fountain. Its water was murky and covered by moss, making it look really gross but I had no other choice, I had to suck it up and reached into the water to grab my bag. I was just thankful Kendra didn’t push me in, I wouldn’t have had a change of clothes and I would’ve had to walk home covered in that shit.

And this was all probably just revenge for what I did to her boyfriend, because I can't seem to remember a day when I was remotely mean or bitchy to her, well at least never to her face. It’d been a week, and I can't believe Axel still hadn’t stopped bitching about it. I mean, really? I kicked him in the balls, I didn’t kill his mom. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, they probably couldn’t screw because of it. The thought brought a huge proud smile to me and even my wolf found it amusing.

Suddenly I wasn’t in such a sour mood anymore.

I followed my mother’s voice into the kitchen. She was about to empty out a pot of pasta on the sink but didn’t have a colander to catch them with. I reach up into one of the cupboards for the colander and place it under the pot. I love my mom but she can a bit of a spazz at times and it causes me to worry about her.

She smiles up at me and eyes my outfit. “Kendra, again?” she asked knowingly.

I nodded and took a seat on the counter. “I think I’m going to need new books,” I told her, remembering the soiled ones in my bag. “Kendra thought it would be fun to use my bag as basketball and the school’s old dirty little pond as a net, so she went and threw it in there.” I picked up an apple and started munching on it.

 “One of these days, you really should stand up for yourself.” She nagged.

 “I would, if that didn’t mean I was making myself public enemy number one.” I stated as-a-matter-of-factly. “Besides, her being with that jerk of a mate of mine is punishment enough, don’t you think?” She smiled sadly at me and stroked my cheek.

I told my mom everything; after all, all we had was each other. My father left when I was a baby and it killed my mother inside every single time, she thought of him and I knew whenever she did because of the pack mind link. Images of their time together, how happy they looked and it boggled me to no end how love that was clear as day as theirs turned out that way. It made me sad whenever I saw that she didn’t have the same energy she had in the pictures taken of her youth. Every now and then she would host a beaten down expression on her face whilst she stared off into space.

 “Phoebe, honey, I have something important to tell you,” She paused, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Terrance and I have decided to get married.” She visibly stiffened and peeked at me with one eye, as if expecting me to launch into a domineering rant about how she should consult me first before making any life altering decisions.

I was confused as to why she thought I would be angry with her and flung myself at her. “I’m so happy for you!” I beamed excitedly instead, and engulfed her in a big warm hug without missing a beat, surprising her very much. “So when’s the wedding day?” I asked happily as I led her to sit down on the couch with me.

 “Two weeks from now and Terrance said his family would take care of everything.” Mom cried out much like a teenager overly excited for her first date and I couldn’t stop the single tear that fell from the corner of my eye from seeing her so happy. I quickly swiped it away before my mom had the chance to see it and we engaged in a talk that consisted of much squealing like little girls.

They met two years ago during one of the conjoined pack meetings. Terrance, the recently widowed beta of the pack a few towns over, has apparently been forced into marrying a befitting femme wolf, his late wife, since he couldn’t find his mate when he came of age and needed one to be able to take over the beta position from his dad. The moment he caught a whiff of my mom’s scent he came barreling down the hall, to where we were and just relished the sight of his mate.

He approached us after the meeting and introduced himself. They shook hands and it was confirmed when both their eyes grew wide and the sparks, literally, flew. They’d been together ever since and now they were getting married. I’m happy for them. I mean, my mom was shocked to find that Terrance was her mate when she thought for sure that the man she had me with was. But other than shocked, my mom was happy and thankful that the moon goddess had come and blessed her with another man to love.

I’d met Terrance only a handful of times but it were evident that being around him made my mother happy. And I thank him inwardly for it. I just realized just how much less I’d been seeing mom in that beaten down daze. The emotions, rather, expressions that were always on her beautiful face were now ones full of life and love. She’d become a bit more a spazz but I was fine with that. I’m just glad she’s found love with another man.

So I appreciate the coming of Terrance into my mother’s life very much.

*****

CUT.