CHAPTER 4
He's a Wolf and I'm His Prey
The following Monday morning, I decided to go and check back on my coffee jar, even though I didn’t feel like it.
Sitting down on the rocks, I carefully opened the jar and took out the new letter inside. Three sticky toffee papers were stuck to the note. Yuk! I peeled them off to read the note underneath the sticky brown stains.
Dear Lexi,
It sounds like we have like, two things in common. I like dogs and I prefer winter over summer. Oh, I can cook pretty well, so I guess that’s three things.
You actually sound cute. I like short girls. You’d fit nicely under my arm.
I have brown hair, grey eyes, 6’0” tall, and extremely handsome.
Danny.
P.S. I don’t like toffee. Bring humbugs next time.
I grinned devilishly. Oh, I had something much better than humbugs this time.
I picked out some paper and wrote my reply, though I didn’t really know what to reply to that.
Dear Danny,
What do you like to cook? And thanks for the compliments. I obviously don’t need to compliment you back because you already did that yourself, and it sounds like your ego is big enough as it is.
I’m afraid I don’t have any humbugs, but I do have these mints. They’re second best to humbugs. Enjoy.
Yours,
Alexis.
I dropped in three mint laxatives that looked exactly like sweets and laughed evilly as I screwed the lid back on the jar.
Let’s see what he has to say about that!
________________________________________________________________________________
When I returned home, mum and dad were getting ready to go out.
“Where are you two going?”
“Shopping. You have to stay here and listen for the postman. We’re expecting a parcel,” mum said as she attempted to do up here watch.
I slapped away her hands and did it up for her. “Where’s Eliott?”
She rolled her eyes. “Still in bed, of course. Why were you up so early anyway?”
“Wasn’t tired. What time will you be back?”
“Should be back before you go to kickboxing club,” she responded, grinning.
I groaned. “No, I’m not going back,” I said stubbornly. “Never again.”
Mum scrunched her eyebrows together and frowned. “Why not? I thought you liked it there.”
I shook my head. “I never said I did. It’s embarrassing and I’m the only girl,” I replied, choosing my words carefully in case I let something slip that I shouldn’t.
“Well that’s okay. Are there any handsome young suitors there for you?” she asked, smiling mischievously and bumping her hip into mine, sending me stumbling into the wall.
I rubbed my shoulder where it’d met the wall and grimaced. “No,” I said moodily. How did she always manage to dig in precisely the right place?
She gasped. “There is! What’s he like?”
Great.
“There’s nobody. I’m not going back. And oh look, there’s dad waiting to go. Goodbye!” I said in a rush, pushing my way past her.
She grabbed my wrist. “Not so fast. You are going back tonight, even if I have to drag you there myself.”
How could I go back after what happened the other night with Rob?
“No, I’m not going back.”
“Oh yes you are,” she replied in a singsong voice. “Come on, David, let’s go.”
My dad followed her out of the door, where they both climbed into their car and drove off. I sighed heavily. No way was I going back, no matter how sexy Rob was.
________________________________________________________________________________
“Fine! I’ll go!” I cried, slapping my hands over my ears as mum began to sing Mother Knows Best from Tangled. She’d been bugging me all day since they got back from shopping, and basically blackmailed me into going back to kickboxing club, saying she’d sign me up to Army Cadets if I didn’t.
I got changed into my tracksuit and walked down to the leisure centre. I checked my watch before I pushed through the double doors. “Shit!” I said out loud as I saw that I was five minutes late.
I tried to quietly go through the doors, but of course with my awful luck, it squeaked. Rob was up front giving another lecture when he suddenly stopped and turned to face me. His eyes met mine wickedly, and he smirked. “Late again, I see, Miss Swan.”
I scowled down at the floor. “Sorry,” I muttered through gritted teeth as I dropped my bag with the rest and joined the group.
Rob continued with his lecture. It was something about defence. I couldn’t really concentrate because every couple of seconds, he would look at me, a smirk in his eyes, and I would look away, trying to fight off a blush. I didn’t succeed.
“Right, warm up by jogging around the hall then.”
The sound of Rob’s hands clapping echoed around the walls.
I tagged along at the back again, this time not getting worn out as easily since I hadn’t ran all the way there. I didn’t even notice when Rob began jogging beside me.
“Alright?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
I snapped my head towards him. “Fine,” I muttered, concentrating on my breathing again. I saw him nod his head from the corner of my eye. I didn’t dare look at him. It was too embarrassing after what happened.
After we’d finished our twenty laps, everybody sat around chatting and swigging water again as they caught their breath back. Rob sat down at the opposite end of the room, laughing and joking with some other guy.
Clenching my jaw, I slowly made my way towards him. My palms were already clammy just thinking about talking to him again.
Both guys looked up as I approached. “Alright, love?” the blond stranger asked. He looked about the same age as Rob, early twenties, but I hadn’t seen him the last time I came.
“Here, have a sit down,” the blond said, patting the spot on the floor next to him. It was kind of cute the way he acted around me, even though he didn’t know me.
I shook my head and looked to Rob. “Can I um… talk to you, please?” I asked timidly, barely glancing up from the floor.
Rob stood up and placed his hand at the small of my back, guiding me towards the other corner of the room. I moved further away, effectively breaking the contact.
“I’m sorry!” I blurted, doing my best to look him in the eye.
He pulled his eyebrows together. “What for?”
“For what happened the other night. You must think I’m such a slut. I don’t know what came over me, I-I just… I don’t know. I promise I won’t let it happen again,” I said, trailing off towards the end so my voice was barely loud enough to be heard over the noise in the hall.
He blinked at me and set his jaw. That could never mean anything good, right? He was angry.
When no reply came, I was about to turn back and run home out of embarrassment. But then he smirked.
“Hmm, it was pretty bad what you did. You really should be ashamed.”
Now I could feel tears prickling my eyes. He was right. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you… it really made me feel uncomfortable when you started kissing me…”
Wait a minute; he was the one who kissed me. He asked permission! Admittedly, I shouldn’t have responded the way I did, and that was what I felt bad about. It was a pretty sluttish thing to do on my part. I didn’t want to come across as ‘easy’.
“But—”
“But,” he cut me off, “I think I may be able to find it somewhere within myself to forgive you for practically molesting me… if you come back with me and Shawn over there tonight for pizza,” he continued, pointing towards the blond guy who he’d been sitting with before. A grin broke out on his face and he began laughing.
“Sorry, Love,” he started, before stopping to laugh some more. “The look on your face is… is… PRICELESS!”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I’ve never wanted to punch someone and at the same time kiss them so much in all my life. He looked so handsome when he laughed; he even had dimples! Immediately a blush spread over my cheeks at my thoughts.
“I’ll go tell Shawn we’ve got a guest tonight,” he said when he finally sobered up.
“Wait, what?”
“You’re coming over for pizza.”
I cupped my elbow and bit my lip. “I don’t know…”
“You’re coming,” he ordered, his expression suddenly dead serious.
I glanced over at Shawn, who was currently watching us, and then back at Rob. “No.”
________________________________________________________________________________
After I’d been man-handled by not only Rob, but also Shawn this time, I’d learned a few new combinations, and also how to kick correctly. Although I was doing it right most of the time, they still found excuses to physically show me, normally consisting of one or both of them man-handling me until I got it ‘correct’.
And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I also gained an audience of men who decided that it would be more fun to watch me being pawed than to continue with their training.
And Rob had basically blackmailed me into going with them for pizza, by saying that if I didn’t, he’d tell everyone that I tried to spike his drink and then seduce him.
“Hey, Lexi, what topping are you going to get?” Shawn asked as we were waiting outside the leisure centre for Rob to pick us up.
I shrugged. “The cheapest I guess.”
“What? Why?” he inquired, sounding horrified.
“I didn’t bring enough money.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry, we’re buying. What’s your favourite topping?”
“Um… pineapple, olive, mushroom and cheese.” I said quietly.
“Ew.” Shawn scrunched his nose up. “That’s disgusting. I thought you were cute before, but now you just gross me out.”
“Hey!” I cried, embarrassed. “I’m not gross!”
“You are what you eat,” he responded, a grin slipping onto his face.
“S-shut up.” I muttered, sticking my nose in the air.
It was hard to be shy in front of him. He was annoyingly friendly and instantly I felt comfortable around him, even though he enjoyed embarrassing me. Rob, on the other hand, was a different story…
Suddenly, the blare from his headlights lit up the area as he pulled up alongside us. Shawn opened the passenger door. “After you, M’lady,” he said, faking a posh accent.
I rolled my eyes and stepped in. I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to sit in the front seat.
Shawn slammed the door shut behind me.
“Don’t slam the damn door!” Rob snapped, causing me to jump. He glared at Shawn in the mirror as he slipped into the back seat.
Shawn smiled sheepishly and carefully closed the door “Happy, Your Majesty?”
Rob grunted in response before checking the mirrors and speeding away down the empty road. I clung to the seat and squeezed my eyes shut until we arrived at the takeaway.
Why do men always drive more dangerously around their friends? He was driving fine the other day when it was just me and him, but now that Shawn was in the car, he had to pretend that he was on a race track!
“Hey, Lexi? Lexi! Are you okay?”
I blinked open my eyes when I felt my shoulders being shaken.
I looked over at Rob. “You’re an awful driver,” I said dryly.
Shawn burst out laughing while Rob cocked an eyebrow. “You think you can do better?”
“I would probably be safer.”
“We’ll have to see about that, won’t we?” he taunted.
“Yeah! Let’s put her on the old track!” Shawn blurted. “That would be so wicked!”
My eyes widened. “What? No!”
Rob grinned wickedly. “Come on, let’s go order pizza. I’m starving.” He patted his stomach rhythmically to prove his point.
“But—”
“Yeah, Lexi wants mushroom, cheese, pineapple and olives.”
Rob gave me a weird look. “Ew,” he said flatly.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of the glamorous looking car onto the pavement and waited for Shawn and Rob. I followed after Rob as he entered the takeaway, slinging on his leather jacket. He had combed his tawny hair back into a sort of quiff that hung down one side of his head too while we were in the car, and looked remarkably hot!
Suddenly, there was a heavy weight around my shoulders that almost caused me to fall over. Luckily, I managed to cling to a lamp post before I hit the ground. “What the hell!”
“Hey, buddy!” Shawn cried, still clinging to me like a limpet.
“H-hey!” I responded, confused.
“Come on then! Let’s go inside. Hey, why are you clinging to that lamp post? You know dogs piss up them, right?”
Immediately, I let go forgetting that it was the only thing keeping me from falling flat on the floor.
I teetered on my feet for a second, before losing balance completely and landing on my back on the pavement. I groaned in pain as Shawn followed, landing straight on top of me and winding me.
“Gee, if this was what you wanted, all you had to do was ask,” he grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.
Rob appeared at the doorway. “Hey, Lexi, did you want black olives or—” he trailed off when he saw the two of us in a heap on the pavement. “What are you doing?”
“Get him off me,” I groaned, still struggling for air. I managed to shove the blond to the side, where he rolled off me and hit his head on the concrete.
“Ow.”
“Idiot,” I muttered, pushing myself to my feet. “Black olives, please,” I told Rob.
He looked between Shawn and me. “Okay…”
I was about to follow him into the takeaway when Shawn grabbed onto my ankle, almost making me trip again.
I glared at him.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “Give me a hand up, would you?”
I reached down and lent him my hand while he pulled himself up by it.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders again. “Thanks, sis. You’re the best!”
I rolled my eyes as we walked into the shop. Rob was the only customer in there, and was standing at the counter, a pinched look on his face.
“Let’s sit down,” Shawn suggested.
We both took a seat down the far end while Rob waited for the food to be cooked.
“I can’t see it myself,” Shawn confessed after a couple of minutes.
“What?” I asked, snapping my head towards him.
“I was just looking at you. Usually cousins share some of the same characteristics, don’t they?”
“Um… I guess…”
“Hm… oh well. It’s probably a good thing anyway.”
“Sure…” I said, now completely confused. I decided to just let it slide.
As I looked back over at Rob, he looked even more pinched. He tapped his tattooed fingers impatiently on the counter while the staff rushed about cooking our meals.
When they were finally ready, after about another ten minutes, a black haired Emo guy with a face full of metal and a ‘the-world-owes-me-a-living’ type of expression, walked out from behind the scenes. That was, until he laid eyes on Rob. Immediately after he saw him and the tormented look on Rob’s face, his already pale skin paled even more.
“H-hey, Beckham! How’s it going?”
“Oh shit. All hell’s going to break loose now,” Shawn muttered from beside me. I turned back to see what was going on.
Rob watched the boy for a moment, before plastering the most sickly and forced smile I’d ever seen over his face. “Hey, Craig,” he said in an unusually friendly tone, matching the sickly sweet smile. “How are you?”
“N-not bad, thanks,” he said, putting the plastic bag on the table and taking a step back. “There are your pizzas. Nice choices, by the way. Not sure about the pineapple one, but if you’re ordering it, it must be delicious.” He laughed nervously while Rob continued to smile sweetly.
“Anyway, that uh, that comes to ten pounds and fifty three pence.”
Rob leaned over the counter, his smile still in place. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
The boy scratched the back of his head. “Ten pounds and fifty—Ah!”
Rob grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and hauled him halfway over the counter.
What the hell was he doing?
I was about to stand up and stop him, but Shawn pulled me back down. “It’s okay. He’s just settling some old business.”
I watched again with wide eyes, unable to speak.
“What did you say? I didn’t quite catch that…” Rob continued, his words coming out long and slow as if he was trying to convey a message to a deaf old lady.
“Fine!” The emo cried. “Mates rates! We’ll call it an even tenner.”
Rob’s hand slipped around the back of the boy’s neck. “Not good enough, buddy.”
“It’s on the house!” he finally yelled. “Free!”
Rob let go, and the boy slithered back down the counter, pulling his shirt straight. “You know, considering we’re old mates and that,” he said, nonchalantly.
“Thanks, Craig. You’re a pal.” Rob looked towards Shawn and I. “This is why this is my favourite pizza take out. The service is excellent. The only thing that could make it even better is if we had some DRINKS,” he hinted obviously.
“You know what? I think I spotted some cans in the chiller. What’ll you be havin’? On the house, of course,” Craig cut in.
“Three shandies.”
“Coming right up!”
The boy disappeared back behind the scenes and then returned a moment later with three cans of shandy. “And here you are. It’s really been great to see you again. Have a nice night.” And he scurried off back out of sight faster than a rat with a chunk of cheese.
“What was all that about?” I finally whispered to Shawn.
“He’s just a silly kid who managed to get on the wrong side of—”
“Let’s go,” Rob interrupted, his annoyed expression back in place. Why did he suddenly look so cheesed off? He was fine back at the boxing club.
Neither of us said anything, but just followed him back to his car.
“You can sit in the front,” I said to Shawn, not fancying sitting next to a guy who looked like he wanted to rip somebody’s head off.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll be a gentleman and sit in the back,” he responded, shoving me in front of him. He probably had the same thoughts as I did.
I shoved him in front of me. “No, really. I want to sit in the back.”
“So do I,” he whined.
“Will you two get in the damn car!” Rob snapped from inside.
Immediately, Shawn opened the back door and leapt in, being extra careful not to slam the door.
Nervously, I slid into the passenger side and buckled up, not daring to look over at Rob.
As soon as we were both buckled, Rob sped away down the road, going way over the speed limit. I glanced at Shawn in the mirror, and even he looked scared now.
Luckily, Rob’s apartment wasn’t far away, and we were there within five minutes.
We followed Rob up the driveway and into the dark building. He fumbled with his keys at his door before finally finding the right one and unlocking it. As soon as he switched the lights on, he gave me a dirty look. I returned it with a confused one. I thought back to the time we had left the kickboxing club. He was fine then. He was fine on the drive to the pizza take out…
That’s it! It must be when he saw Shawn lying on top of me after I fell. It must have looked bad from his point of view. Now he really did think I was a slut.
But I didn’t do anything wrong. I just fell and Shawn landed on top of me!
I was about to explain it to him, when he suddenly ran to the bathroom and locked the door. What the hell?
“What’s up with him?” I asked in bewilderment. “Maybe I should just go…”
“No way. You’re staying,” Shawn insisted. “Go grab some plates.”
After some hesitation, I made my way to the kitchen. At least he’d washed up those filthy plates from last week. They were in a neat little pile on the kitchen island in the middle of the room.
I walked over and picked up three.
“Lexi, grab some bog-roll as well!” Shawn called from the other room. I rolled my eyes and picked up the roll of kitchen towels. A little square of paper fell onto the floor, neatly folded up.
I bent down and picked it up; with every intention of putting it back unread… but I couldn’t help myself.
I know it was a nosey thing to do, but as long as nobody found out, it wouldn’t matter if I looked, right? Maybe I could find out something about Rob.
Quickly, I unfolded the paper and almost dropped the plates in my other hand when I saw what was written.
It was my note that I’d written that very morning at Mermaid’s Lookout!
Did that mean… Rob was… Danny?
“Hurry up, Lexi! I’m starving here!” Shawn complained.
I shoved the letter in my pocket and brought the plates and kitchen paper into the other room and placed them on the table.
“That gross looking thing there is yours,” Shawn said, turning his nose up again at my pineapple pizza.
I peeled it out of its box and put it on my plate. “So how long have you known… err… him then?” I asked, deciding not to use his name since I didn’t even know if Rob was his name anymore.
“Years.” Shawn responded, taking a bite out of his pizza. “Funny though, he never mentioned he had a cousin until today.”
He told Shawn that I was his cousin? Why would he do that?
“Really? I wonder why...”
“Ow! Hot!” Shawn squawked, a stringy piece of cheese dangling off his lip. “Yeah, you’re pretty cool. I wonder why Danny didn’t mention you before.”
Wow. That was too easy. So his name was Danny, and he really did tell Shawn that I was his cousin. What was his problem?
Suddenly, it hit me why he gave me an ‘if-looks-could-kill’ look and then ran to the bathroom. He’d eaten the laxatives I’d given him this morning!
I burst out laughing. He was shitting his guts out right now, and he knew it was me who’d basically poisoned him.
After a minute, Shawn started laughing too, his mop of blonde hair falling into his blue eyes. He obviously didn’t have a clue as to what I was actually laughing about, but continued anyway.
Suddenly, the bathroom door flew open and our laughing immediately stopped.
“Hey, Danny. Your pizza’s getting cold,” I said scathingly. “What happened? Did you eat something that didn’t agree with you, cousin dear?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Shut up. You gave me laxatives!”
“You shouldn’t eat sweets off of strangers then, should you?” I snapped, suddenly not feeling shy at all. I looked over at Shawn who in turn was watching the both of us, looking utterly non-plussed with his mouth wide open. I decided to put him out of his misery. “Shawn, Danny here has told you quite some whoppers. I am not his cousin, and I’ve only met him twice in my life. For some reason as well, he told me his name was Rob.”
I looked back at Danny. “I don’t know why you lied. It was obvious I was going to find out the truth sooner or later.”
He sat down next to Shawn on the sofa and took a bite out of his pizza. A couple of seconds later, he bolted back to the bathroom and locked the door again behind him. I stopped myself from laughing again.
“Lexi… you really don’t know Danny, then?” Shawn asked unusually seriously, putting his plate onto the coffee table.
“Not really.” I responded.
“How old are you?”
“Sixteen. Why?”
“Shit!” he muttered. “I thought you were older.”
He sat closer to me. “You need to be careful.”
I looked at Shawn with wide eyes. “What? Why? I didn’t know it was him that would eat the sweets!”
“He’s a player,” Shawn cut in before I could go into complete hyperventilation. “He uses girls and then throws them away like they’re trash after he’s had his fun. I thought you’d be safe because you two were cousins, but now I know why he lied to me. He’s a wolf, Lexi. And I think you’re his next prey.
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Ooh, so what do you think about that revelation? Did you see the 'Rob-is-actually-Danny' thing coming? Or did I fool you? ;)
Picture of Danny over on the right ====> Yummy! ;)
Sorry for the late update. I've been away for the weekend staying at an army barracks. No internet, no laptop, no time. We had to be up at 5am, and the girls I was staying with were heavy snorers, so I hardly got any sleep! :(
Anyway, this chapter is pretty long, so give it a vote and a comment if you enjoyed! :)
I'm off now to get a decent nights rest. I'm super tired!
Goodnight!
~Ella xxx