Wolf Country

Chapter 3- Unleashed

I hear near-silent footsteps behind me, so I slow down and pretend to look over the pencils. Suddenly someone grabs me by the elbow. I let out a shriek and nearly jump right out of my skin in fear. I spin around and see someone wearing an old pair of jeans and a black fleece jacket. With my heart pounding in fear, I look up into their face and see that it's...

Adam.

I groan and pull my arm out of his grasp, beaming in spite of myself. "You jerk, you scared the crap out of me," I laugh nervously, my nerves still a little on edge.

His lips curl into a grin. "I saw you walk in. I was just finishing my shift," he tells me.

"You work here? This early?" I say, surprised.

"Yeah, from twelve in the morning to seven," he responds, picking up the package of pencils I dropped when he scared me and returning them to the shelf. "It's good money and I don't do anything else on Sundays, so what the hell? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with my mom; I need school supplies for Monday," I say, rolling my eyes. "What is Jasper High like?"

He shrugs, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking along with me as I pick out things to buy. "It's alright. I play football there, so their team is pretty good," he jokes, and I try to feign surprise that he plays football.

He recommends his favorite brands and things to get, and when we get to the register he even uses his employee discount on me. "Only because you're new," he teases, bumping me with his elbow.

I laugh and walk outside with my bags, starting towards my car. "What are you doing today?" he asks. I see my mom watching us from the passenger seat and turn bright red.

"Nothing, really," I say, acting nonchalantly. He stops and pulls out his keys, grinning sheepishly.

"You wanna hang out?" he suggests. "There's some really cool places around town I wanna show you."

"Um...I'd love to," I answer, suddenly as shy as a middle school girl with her first boyfriend. "What time?"

"I can pick you up in, say...an hour?" he asks, looking down at his watch.

"Sure," I say, trying not to grin too widely. I tell him my address and he nods.

"See you then, Scarlett," he says, his hand brushing my arm in goodbye.

I run over to the car and plop down in the driver's seat, feeling a little flustered. My mom raises an eyebrow at me but decides not to say anything, knowing how responsible I am. I crank the car and back out of the parking space, biting my lip to keep from grinning all the way home.

***

I can't stop glancing at my watch once I get back. I try to put my school bag together, hoping that will distract me, but I finish so quickly that I don't have anything else to do until he gets here. Our boxes still haven't arrived yet, so I lie on my pallet and scroll through all the farewell texts on my phone. Most of them annoy me; the people who sent them barely said a word to me during class.

When this task ends, I get up and go over to the circular window, looking out over the evenly-spaced trees lining the driveway. There's a light wind rustling the leaves and the grey clouds from the previous day are making an appearance again, rolling slowly across the late morning sky. Disrupting this calm scene is the same 1955 Ford from the party last night, rolling up the driveway with a familiar face behind the wheel.

I grin and grab my bag and jacket off the floor before climbing down the ladder and running downstairs. "I'm going out," I say to my mom as she comes out of her bedroom.