[ Edited on June 3, 2016 ]
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One would never know how they'd sleep, unless if someone tells them about how loud they snore or how their mouth would slightly open. In Christian's case, it was no different. Alexandra woke up to find her best friend sprawled on her sofa: his head was resting on a pillow while his feet dangled on the other side.
Christian had always drooled when he slept. Pair that with a steady snore and one would be able to imagine him sleeping on her couch.
Alexandra huffed, giving up on trying to wake him up politely. For the past five minutes, all her attempts were useless in waking him up from his deep slumber. At that exact instant, Carlos knocked on the door of her room. He didn't need her permission and Carlos opened the door soon after. "Sis, you ready?" asked Carlos, only to see Alexandra jerking her thumb towards her best friend snoring on the couch. A devilish grin made its way to his lips as he stepped inside.
"May I have the honor?" he asked, and Alexandra nodded with a grin.
Carlos rubbed his hands together before lying on top of Christian on his back. Her best friend's eyes shot up immediately, shocked at the sudden weight. However, he couldn't stand up or move, which made her giggle. Carlos was closing his eyes as if he was laying back on a recliner. Christian's attempt to push Carlos off of him was futile and he decided to finally speak.
"Pickles and cream, Carlos! I'll avada kedavra you if you don't get your fat butt off me!" half-shouted and half-wheezed Christian as he uselessly continued to wiggle out from under him. Alexandra bursted out laughing at his words.
Meanwhile, Carlos gasped dramatically. "I'm not fat! I'm chubby," he said, pinching his cheek to emphasize his statement. Still laughing, Alexandra pulled Carlos off Christian, much to Christian's relief. Immediately, he gladly gulped in lungfuls of air. Carlos found this funny and started to laugh along with Alexandra.
Clearly embarrassed, Christian glared at the two of them. "You," he pointed a finger at Carlos, "need a diet." Snorting, Carlos rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest.
"I love my body," he reasoned, patting his belly defensively. It was Christian's turn to roll his eyes.
"Anyway," he continued, giving a pointed look to Alexandra. "You need to find a more acceptable way in waking a person up." Then, he started to ramble on about how her tactics of waking him up was not entertaining. Alexandra walked towards her bathroom as he continued to babble on the couch and started to brush her teeth while Carlos decided that it was time to eat his pre-breakfast meal.
The main reason why she had woken up at five in the morning was the continuation her usual routine: go for an early-morning jog, eat breakfast and do random things for the rest of the day. For today, Carlos was running with her since he wanted to practice archery with her.
Archery wasn't a very useful skill nowadays, but it was fun to practice nonetheless. People usually settled for firearms since bullets were far more efficient than arrows. However, Carlos and her usually kept their practices secret because of Brian. Whenever Brian catches them 'spending precious time doing useless stuff', he'd start to lecture them about the necessity of doing useful things. By 'useful things' he actually meant: training in hand-to-hand or wolf-to-wolf combat, tracking and other related stuff.
Carlos equally found it boring, thus reason of their 'secret sessions' happening every now and then.
"Are you done?" she asked, tying the laces of her rubber shoes. Christian huffed, unable to believe that she wasn't listening to his rant, before standing up.
He stopped in front of her door, looking over his shoulder to look at her. "Father's going to expect me in his office in thirty minutes. I guess I'll see you around, Princess," he said before giving her a wink and stepping out of her door.
***
It seemed that their early-morning jog was converted into a full, blown-out running session when Carlos decided to go through her chocolate stash.
Alexandra was currently in pursuit of the culprit, who was surprisingly laughing. "You'll never catch me!" said Carlos, waving the pack of M&M's in the air while zigzagging through the trees. His attempt to shake her off almost succeeded when she nearly hit a tree.
Carlos howled with laugher when she lagged behind him, which made her chuckle despite being out of breath. Tired and gasping for air, Alexandra leaned against a tree, using her hand as a make-shift fan. Her brother leaned against the tree right next to hers as well, giving her a wide, flushed smile. "Nothing like a good run to burn chocolate," he commented.
Alexandra rolled her eyes at her brother. "Give me my M&M's back, please."
"Not a chance," he said while waving the half-empty packet in the air. "You'll have to catch me first."
Knowing perfectly that she had no choice but to comply with his challenge, Alexandra pushed herself up from her leaning position and their game of tag resumed. For a slightly fat person, Carlos sure could run faster than her. It was annoying and embarrassing at the same time.
Suddenly, someone rounded the corner just in time to collide with Carlos. Pages of papers scattered everywhere, and Alexandra didn't know whether she should celebrate that she could catch up with her brother or be worried about the person he bumped into.
Settling for the latter, Alexandra managed to reach them in a few moments. She then started to apologize to the person, but not until she recognized him.
"What in the world are you two up to this time?" Brian was clearly annoyed. He brushed himself and bent down to collect the bunch of paperworks that was inconveniently scattered within a meter from where they were. Alexandra huffed and started to tell him about Carlos' crime. Their eldest brother rolled his eyes as he picked the last one up. "I'll buy you more of those if you leave Carlos to his business."
Seeing that it was a fair trade, Alexandra heartily agreed, glad that Brian was at least considerate on her chocolate habits. "What about me?" Carlos piped up from where he stood.
Brian shrugged. "You can get yourself your own food." He turned towards Alexandra with an excited smile. "Don't forget our practice today, Alexa," said Brian before continuing on his way.
The supposed practice aimed to help her control the 'switch' of her coat. They still had no inkling on how they would do it, but Brian was persistent and told her that it wouldn't be hard. In truth, Alexandra was nervous as hell. She didn't know what to expect and was worried that she might hurt someone in the process.
Eventually, Carlos and her decided that they should get on with their secret session. He stood up and they both set out to look for their tree. Alexandra stopped in front of one and smiled when she noticed the familiar recesses within the bark that usually served as their steps. Grinning from excitement, she hoisted herself up and started to climb the tree. Carlos followed soon after.
Alexandra reached a thick branch and used it as a bridge towards the next tree. She could hear Carlos humming a tune as he slung his quiver of arrows behind his back. Her quiver was on the neighboring tree.
"Did you place any new targets for today?" inquired Alexandra as she lifted her bow. Carlos shook his head silently, watching the leaves dance with the wind above them.
Her shoulders sagged a little from disappointment. It was always a treat whenever Carlos made new targets for them. Her brother gave her a smile.
"Next time, I promise," he said. It was enough to bring back her jolly mood and Alexandra grinned as she loaded her bow. "Ready?"
"Set," Alexandra continued, keeping her eyes on the branch in front of her.
"Rainicorn!"
Off they went, leaping from branch to branch as they looked for the familiar targets scattered everywhere. Alexandra shot one arrow towards a target dangling from a distant tree. She could hear Carlos laughing a few branches from where she was, clearly exhilarated as she was. Loading her bow, she aimed at a dangling target a few meters from where she was and fired. The arrow hissed and embedded itself in the wooden material.
***
Sam smiled at him before playfully punching his shoulder, amused at his question. Christian couldn't find what was amusing about it. It was a very, very serious question and he needed answers. "You're think too hard, Chris," he said. "Just follow your heart and you'll know if you two are mates."
Christian frowned and sighed. He still had no idea and no assurance that Alexandra is his mate. Okay, he may be a little persistent about that fact but he could feel it deep within him.
"Hey," called Sam. Christian looked over his shoulder and stared at his grinning friend, wondering what was running inside his mind. "If you two get married and have lots of little puppies — twenty would be nice — I want one of them to be Sam Jr.," he said while laughing at Christian's horrified look before stepping inside the front door.
Twenty little puppies. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts regarding it before entering the forest. Christian had the rest of the morning free for some reason. His father seemed quite busy in his office and decided that Christian should enjoy his morning. But he knew that his father only gave him freedom so that he could work in peace. Christian hated paperworks. Seeing a pile of papers waiting for him always nauseated Christian.
Sam's words emerged again and Christian's mind couldn't help but conjure up an image of his possible future (with a -2% chance of it coming true).
There would be a little girl grinning up at him. Her hair would be golden, just like his own and she'd have Alexandra's eyes; silver ones. For Sam's sake, he decided that she would be called Samantha. Alexandra would then step out of their house and lift their girl in her arms. He would wrap his arm around her waist and kiss Samantha's cheeks.
What a perfect representation of his perfect version of his possibly pathetic future.
Sulking, Christian kicked a rock. It sucked that he felt attracted to her. It sucked that he felt as if the attraction was only one sided. And it sucked that Alexandra was nowhere to be found. (Brian told him that she and Carlos were in the woods earlier.)
He bent down and picked a pebble before throwing it up somewhere high above the branches. The resounding thump he was expecting didn't come. Instead, an 'ow' answered him.
Surprised, he jerked his head towards the source of the sound and recognized a familiar face glaring at him. His heart started to run a marathon for two reasons: first, Alexandra was twenty feet from the ground; and second... well, he had no idea what was the second reason.
"Carrot chips! Princess! Get down from there!" he shouted, running towards the tree she was perched on. He could swear that he saw her roll her eyes at him.
"I'm not going to fall," she reasoned, shifting her footing and rubbing her shoulder. "Why did you throw a pebble at me?"
Christian immediately flushed a shade of pink as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't know you were up there," he muttered before realizing something. "Wait, are you practicing archery?"
"Code red!" Christian twisted his head and noticed Carlos sitting on another branch. "Code red! Our secret has been discovered!" he said, pretending to be serious about it.
Were they training secretly?
Perhaps they thought that he'd tell Brian. Christian quickly shook his head at them, denying the claim even before they presented it to him. "I won't tell!"
Carlos narrowed his eyes at him before giving Alexandra a look that Christian couldn't understand. She sighed and nodded before climbing down the tree. Dazed and not being able to believe that she and Carlos were climbing trees and practicing archery behind his back, he helped her get down as soon as she was near him.
Christian stared at her and wondered if there was a chance of them having a happy ending together. She tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear and gave him a small smile. "What?"
"Is Samantha a good name?" The words flew out of his mouth before he had the time to process it. As soon as he did, Christian internally kicked himself.
Crap. Why did he have to ask that?
She gave him a weird look. "Umm, maybe? It seems nice." Christian now wanted the ground to swallow him whole. "But it reminds me a lot of Sam-the-asshat."
Before he could say anything else, Carlos suddenly appeared beside him. "How can we be sure that you won't tell anyone?" he said while narrowing his eyes at him.
"I'm your sister's best friend," Christian deadpanned. Alexandra suppressed a snicker before placing her hand on his shoulder.
"What Carlos is trying to say is that you have to pass an initiation to be trusted." The ridiculousness of it made Christian laugh at Carlos' face. Initiation? Wow. That was a very original idea for Carlos to come up with. He stopped laughing when Alexandra told him that Carlos was serious about it.