Hurting was what I was doing.
Everywhere, in my chest, head, arms, even in my toes. Being away from my mate was seriously horrible. The night had passed with barely any sleep, because as soon as I thought that I was asleep I jolted awake again. I was back at thinking that this mate thing was bullshit.
A morning in agony passed before I got to see my newly found addiction again. Erik was standing on the school parking lot when me and Jeremy arrived in the car. I almost threw myself out of the front seat just to get caught in his arms, it felt like a lousy Disney-movie reunion, but that mattered less at the moment.
"Hi." I said breathlessly in his ear. Finally near him again, I could breathe normally and I didn't feel suffocated anymore.
Erik leaned back to look me in the eyes and answered my greeting with one of his own. I saw it in his eyes, that he had been hurting throughout the separation too. That sucked, but at least I knew that he feel the strength of this as much as I did. Annoyingly, my brother decided to interrupt out moment just then, by pushing my bag, that I had left in the car, on Eric's arm.
"Bye, bye lovebirds. See you at lunch!" He said while walking away flingin an arm over his shoulder in a lousy gesture.
I guess he didn't want to spend much time with Erik now that all his focus was on me anyways. I hoped Jeremy was fine with me stealing Erik for a while, but I was also kind of my revenge since it was actually Jeremy who had pushed me into this from the start. Although, after this I knew that I would be done and had fully forgiven him. It had been for a good cause anyways.
----
Splitting up for class was really hard. I knew it was necessary though, but it felt so dumb to do it just because I had to learn. I mean who the hell needed to know chemistry anyways? Apparently Mica and I did, something she would not give up on any time today, so I obediently agreed to come with her. It was still hard letting go of Erik though, especially since my body now knew how much it hurt not to have him near.
As we stood outside his classroom that started to fill up with morning-tried students, I have to admit that we must have looked pretty pathetic. I almost couldn't let go of his stare, nor his hands, until Mica grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away.
"Come on now! You will meet him at lunch again!" She also added some mumbling on the end, which could very well have been a row of insults aimed at me, although I didn't focus on her.
Being away from Erik seemed to clear my head up a bit, it seemed. I could at least focus on Mica while we were chatting away on our english lesson. Apparently some hot guy had moved in next door to Mica and she was utterly blissful about the whole thing. His name was something I unfortunately, or not, didn't catch in her quick rambling. She often did this, she would see some guy in the next door's house or on the supermarket or in school and she would go all batshit crazy over them. Sometime it actually went as far as Mica believed that she was in love with that guy. This, of course, ended up in her heart breaking in many, small pieces when the not-knowing love of Mica's life started dating someone else.
The sad thing was that normally I was the one who were on the other side ad who got to pick up the pieces of her heart and try to puzzle them together again, which never was a fun job. The best thing that could ever happen to Mica was therefore that she could get a stable and loving boyfriend who would stay with her and support her and never break her heart. Those were not easily found, it had proven.
----
Mica's chattering had quieted down later as we arrived to the cafetera for lunch. We had grabbed lunch as usual, but when we were to sit down Mica started walking to our old table, where we usually sat. I instead walked towards the table where Erik and three of his friends sat. We both stopped at the same time, looking at each other in question.
She was clearly wondering why I wasn't following her to the table, and when I gestured towards the new table and looked back at her I could tell that she wasn't happy. When she didn't move I adopted a pleading face and mouthed 'please' at her and she gave up with an exaggerated roll with her eyes. I had won.
As we went towards the new table I saw Erik sitting and joking with his friends. I came up behind him and patted on his shoulder. He turned around and saw me and a smile lit up his face.
"Hi, Liam."
"Hi" I answered him as he took my lunch tray and put it down on the table, so that he could pull me into his lap. A blush crept onto my face when I could feel the added attention from other students, especially the ones that had their eyes filled with jealousy, but I didn't want to leave Erik's lap after the hours that we had spent apart.
"How were your classes?" Erik asked me.
"They were fine, although Mr. Hudson really is dense when it comes to... well, just about anything."
"What, why?" He seemed confused about that, maybe the PE teacher actually treated him good since I could bet anything I had that Erik was great at sports.
"Well to begin with 'I'm 10 minutes late because of the 400 meter distance plus changing time it takes to get here' and 'I'm skipping this whole class today' both means the same thing to him. Plus, he is so mean! He even made a guy climb up the ropes, which he was clearly afraid of!"
"Sounds like you had a bad PE lesson today."
"Well, yeah."
In the middle of lunch I noticed that Mica had been very quiet. I looked over at her to see that she looked remotely uncomfortable as she sat on the edge of the bench. The guy next to her, Noah I think his name was, was sitting with his back turned to her and talking to someone else and gesturing wildly as he did so. Every time an elbow or a hand came her way she moved a few centimeters to the edge to avoid getting hit. She had almost passed it when she looked up and met my gaze.
She widened her eyes at me, a signal for me to do something and I signaled Erik by a pat on his arm. He looked down at me and I turned around and whispered the issue in his ear.
"Hey, Noah, chill" Erik told his friend with a nod of his head to the side. Noah got the hint and turned around to apologize to Mica. Noah looked a bit surprised that someone was sitting behind him at first, but then managed to form an embarrassed apology.
----
This mate thing really was hard. It went on like that, Erik and I meeting between every class and hanging out after school. Basically we spent every minute, except for classes, together. The bond calmed down after time, I could feel it. A night passed much easier and my heart didn't ache as much every time I saw Erik walk away from me as we were separating again.
Somehow in this blurr of emotions that I had for Erik I figured that my feelings were much more clear when the bond calmed down. It was an odd situation, since the bond forced us together we were very cuddly and touchy all the time, but since we had actually been together like this for a couple of weeks by now it was impossible to know how I actually felt for him. Sure, I was attracted to him, but that was just a small part of the whole thing.
I was unsure of how Erik felt for me too. It was very much possible that he was also confused by the situation, but we hadn't really talked about our feeling in that way yet, so it was hard to tell. Often, when we talked about the deep stuff he would open up to me, but when it came to what he felt for me he wouldn't say much. Of course that made me nervous, maybe he didn't even like me? Or maybe he felt forced to feel things for me because of the mate thing?
My nerves were calmed down one afternoon when Erik and I were walking down the street after school. I was out of notepads for school and he had offered to go with me to the store. As we were walking down the street, hand in hand, it felt so good and calm, my paranoia was far away.
"By the way, Liam, mom wondered yesterday if you would like to come over for dinner some night?"
Shit.
"Uh..."
I was too shocked to answer. Your boyfriend asking you to come meet their parents? That's some serious stuff.
"It won't be awkward and uncomfortable, it's just a normal dinner. Plus, you know my parents already, you've met the many times." Erik added when he saw the face that I made at his proposal.
That was actually true, I had met his parents many times when we were little and I came with Jeremy to Erik's house to play. I knew them well, especially his mom, Marla. She was one of the nicest women that I had ever met and was always there if I got hurt when I was little. But meeting Marla and John together with Erik, like his boyfriend, that would inevitably be awkward.
Throughout the time that Erik and I had spent together since the mate bond started we had mostly been at my house. He had eaten dinner there enough times for mom to threaten to charge him for it, since he ate like an elephant compared to me. Maybe I just had to get through that first dinner at Erik's house and then it would be easier to hang out at his place too.
"Sure. But you have to promise to talk through every silent or uncomfortable moment. And Mike can't be there." I added that last part together with a finger in his face.
My feelings for Mike were gone by long. After activating the mate bond with Erik I hadn't had much time over to think about Mike. Then one time last week or something, I had thought back at it and realised that there were no feelings left, not even anger or sorrow. It was relieving, but also just a bit disappointing. I had spent around ten years of my life on almost loving Mike, only for the feelings to disappear as soon as I found someone else that I was 'destined to be with, love and cherish'. Not to be ungrateful or somethin'.
Erik's answer to my conditions were positive and just as I was about to thank him my phone buzzed.
Mica <3
Come over
You need to look at ma new stuff
Bring your magnet if you want to
I told Erik about the change of plans. He accepted it and so we headed towards Mica's house instead of mine. She was at the door in an instant when I knocked at the door. After rushed greetings she motioned for us to follow her to her room. There, Mica pointed to her bed and then went into her walk-in closet. Erik sat down and I sat next to him, or tried to, because as soon as I sat down Erik pulled me into his lap. I tried to protest, but he just gave me a peck at the lips every time I tried to say something.
When Mica came out of her closet again she was wearing a bright yellow skirt. It was actually really pretty on her and I told her as much, but she shook her head in the mirror.
"I don't know if I like it..."
"It is actually nice", Erik said, which startled both Mica and me. I didn't think that he was big at the fashion front, but apparently I was wrong.
After the skirt she showed us a pair of really nice shoes. She had already warned us that she loved them, so we couldn't say anything but positive things. Although, that wasn't a problem, because I thought that they looked really cool.
"They are so cool, Mica. Promise you will let me borrow them sometimes!"
She glanced at me and pretended to think about it. Then she rolled her eyes and leant in to give me a kiss on the forehead, only, she didn't come that close before a deep growl arose from Erik's lungs. His eyes swirled a bit with a darker shade of brown as he looked at her with a furious face. Mica flinched a bit and backed away, but as soon as Erik's abrupt outburst had come it was gone. Now he looked as surprised as Mica and I did.
"Oh god, I am so sorry... Mica, I don't know what to say. I really didn't mean that." Erik got out.
"It's fine, no, really, it's okay. I get it, he is your little soulmate", she answered, still a bit stiff, but took a breath and calmed down.
I was ready to be mad at Erik for that, but he looked extremely regretful. I understood, he had a powerful wolf and he was an alpha, it could be hard to control himself all the time. It was just dangerous when there were humans involved, they can't really protect themselves against an alpha werewolf.
I noticed that Mica seemed a bit more careful when she was close to me after that, maybe she didn't want to risk anything, even though I thought it was silly.
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Hello!
I know it has been a long time since I updated last time, but I have had a lot to do. If you want some chapters that I publish earlier, go check out Web Novel, another side that this story is published on.
<3