To Dance With Wolves ▪Liam Dunbar▪

✓ | 06. A Blown Short Fuse

After sitting with Liam on the bus, Mason ditched him once we got to school to talk with me by our lockers before class.

"So how was you're weekend?" he asked.

"Um, it was pretty . . . uneventful. I got that Biology project done so I don't have to worry about it anymore, and I got most of the way through the boring ass book we're supposed to read for English."

Mason let out a low whistle, "Damn. You need to get out of the house more, and I know exactly what you should do."

I raised an eyebrow, "Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like what you say next?"

He rolled his eyes in response and opened his mouth to tell me what I should do to make my life more interesting. "You should come with me to the lacrosse scrimmage tonight, it'll be fun!"

I groaned, "That's what you said about the party on Friday night, and I had about as much fun there as I did when I got my wisdom teeth removed."

Mason grimaced, "Okay, so parties aren't your scene, but this is totally different. You can sit with Violet and me and you don't have to talk to anyone, and you can check out the hot lacrosse players with me."

He made a good case, and after a minute I caved and reluctantly agreed to go, just before the warning bell rang and we both had to rush off to our respective first period classes.

Nothing else exciting happened that day until the last hour of the school day, which also happened to be my free period. I was sitting on the ground, leaning up against a tree doing some homework since I would be busy later that night, when a coach bus pulled up into the parking lot across from me and a whole swarm of teenage boys started pouring out. The next thing I knew, my ears were confronted by an all too familiar voice.

"Brett!" Liam shouted as he walked out of the school, Mason following close behind with a worried look on his face. One of the guys turned towards the noise, and waited as Liam approached him. They stared each other down for a few seconds while I watched with bated breath and waited for something to happen.

"I just wanted to say, have a good game." Liam said, ending the tense silence and holding his hand out for Brett to shake.

I watched as Mason's hand flew up to his mouth in surprise, and I quickly packed up my things, more interested in what would happen next than my science notes.

Brett and the rest of the guys around him, who I figured were the players on the lacrosse team we were competing against later that day, started laughing.

"That's cute Liam, is that what they told you to say in anger management? Apologize and everything's fine?" Brett asked, his face turning dark, "You demolished coaches car."

"I paid for it," Liam retorted.

"Yeah, you're gonna pay for it. We're gonna break you in half out there, and it's going to be all your fault."

Just when I thought that the fight might get physical, two students ran over and grabbed Liam's shoulders and tried to smooth things over with Brett and his rude teammates. After failing at that, they rushed away with Liam, and without thinking about what might happen, I hurried after them.

I followed them all the way to the boys locker room where I silently entered a few seconds after them, watching them while staying hidden behind the lockers as they headed to the showers. I wasn't sure what I had expected to see once they came to a stop, but it definitely wasn't them slamming Liam into the wall and running the shower's water on him while his face contorted into the one that I had seen on Friday night.

My breath caught in my throat and every nerve in my body was screaming for me to run away like I had the last time, but I stayed frozen in place as I watched him growl at them, struggling against their firm grips which were holding him in place. After an excruciatingly long minute, Liam went limp in their arms and when he looked back up, his face had returned to normal. The other boys turned off the water and stepped back while Liam slid down the wall until he was sitting in the puddles on the floor.

"The car you smashed, I thought you said that it was you're teacher's." The shorter of the two guys asked in a familiar voice that I couldn't quite place.

"He was also my coach. He benched me for the entire season." Liam replied simply.

"What did you do?" The familiar voice asked again.

"I got a couple red cards," Liam said, looking down.

"Just a couple?" The second boy asked, voice tinged with a trace of malice.

Liam shook his head and the first guy crouched down. Then it hit me; he was Scott. I recognized his voice from the woods. He was a werewolf too, and that must have been why he was so calm about Liam wolfing out on him. What did that make the other guy? Was I the only human in a room full of werewolves?

"You've got to be honest with us," Scott said gently. "What else happened?"

"Nothing!" Liam exclaimed, before his shoulders sagged in defeat. "I got kicked out of school. They sent me to a psychologist for evaluation."

"What did they call it?" Scott asked.

"Intermittent Explosive Disorder."

"I.E.D. You're literally an I.E.D. That's great," the second guy turned to Scott, "You gave superpowers to a walking time bomb."

"Did they give you anything for it?"

"Rysperidal. It's an anti-psychotic."

"Oh this just gets better and better." The one I still didn't recognize responded sarcastically.

"But I don't take it," Liam added.

"Obviously."

"I can't play lacrosse on it, it makes me too tired."

"Okay, I think you should bail out of the game," Scott said. "Tell coach your leg is still hurting."

"No!" Liam almost shouted, standing up in the process, "I can do this, especially if you're there, Scott."

"Liam, it's not just about the game," Scott replied, "We think that whoever killed Demarco might be on our team."

What the hell?

"Who's Demarco?" Liam asked, as confused as I was.

"The one who brought the beer to the party, you know, they guy who was beheaded."

I almost screamed.

"We think that the person that ordered the keg killed Demarco. Do you know anything about that?"

"I don't know who ordered the keg, but I know who paid for it. His name is Garret, he's one of my friends."

My mouth dropped oped and I stumbled back in surprise. There was no way I had eaten lunch with a murderer. There was no way the blonde I sat across from on the bus, who couldn't be older than fifteen, and had been fighting with his girlfriend about not watching the notebook, had beheaded someone.

In my state of shock, I accidentally walked into the locker behind me, making a loud crashing sound as my bracelet got caught in the lock. Yanking my arm away without thinking, I didn't stick around to watch as the piece of jewelry fell from my wrist, I just threw open the door and ran.

I kept running until I turned a corner and almost smacked into the tall and very rude lacrosse player that had made Liam angry enough to turn into his werewolf self in the middle of the boys locker room. I heard footsteps running down the hall in my direction and was sure I would get caught by the werewolves I had been eavesdropping on, when Brett pushed past me, his team following him and effectively concealing me from preying eyes. Their cover gave me just enough time to slink down another hallway and disappear.