At that moment, as Evan was quickly and efficiently turning his room into a kingdom of chaos, he didn't think there would be any consequences. Of course, he was terribly wrong. His mom had to pick the day he was at school to go to his room to look for his lost sock. Instead, she found scraps of paper, scattered clothes, and somewhere underneath, the shards of a vase that Evan had thrown against the wall. The sock was suddenly forgotten, but not Evan's punishment. He was officially grounded.
His new good relationship with his parents did not last even a month. While his mom yelled at him, blaming him for what he had done, Evan rolled his eyes.
"And what's with the nails? Are you in a rock and roll band?" Her attention was suddenly diverted, but it didn't change her attitude. Rather, it made it worse. Before, when Angie painted his nails, he managed to hide them from his parents for exactly one week before he decided to remove the nail polish instead. This time he didn't even bother to be careful. It was his life. He had the right to make his own decisions. Whether his parents liked it or not.
"They're just nails," he answered her, even though he knew it was pointless. She had her own opinion, which she didn't even try to hide. Evan had gotten used to the fact that they rarely agreed.
"You look like you're from a reformatory with them," she added another comment. Apparently, only two types of people wore black nails - those who played in a band and those who ended up in a reformatory. Evan could barely contain himself from bursting out laughing. He never understood his mother's logic.
"I don't know if they have bands in the reformatory," he replied. Of course, this earned a reaction from his mom, who looked even angrier than before. Evan has been on his best behaviour lately, so she wasn't ready for his sarcasm.
"Don't twist my words," she warned him. Her look and crossed arms suggested to Evan that he should drop the attitude, but he wasn't going to give up that easily.
"Then try to use the ones that make sense," he advised her for a change. Evan could have sworn he saw a dark glint in her eyes. The storm was nothing compared to his mother's wrath.
"Enough! You're grounded! Until you learn how to talk to me with respect and clean your room, I don't even want to see you!" She couldn't take it anymore and started screaming. Evan had no idea why she thought not seeing her was a punishment for him, but he wasn't going to correct her.
"Fine," he replied simply and walked past her towards his room. His room, even in this state, was currently better than any room in the house where his parents were. He didn't need to listen to any more scolding, and certainly not from someone who wasn't really listening to him anyway.
Either way, Evan couldn't spend his free time in Marwell, where he had most of his friends, so being locked up at home was no different from his normal day. His parents would never deny him shifting to his wolf form, knowing that it was essential for wolves, so he couldn't complain about a lack of vitamin D in the future. That one from the sun, you freaks.
Evan looked around. There were pieces of his old self all over the ground that he couldn't get rid of even if he set them on fire. From the pictures he drew as a child to his latest pieces that all screamed freedom. The only pictures that remained intact were the ones he had won awards for and the picture of him and Angie in their wolf forms. He was particularly proud of that one, as he managed to capture the sun in their fur.
Evan used to notice lights and shadows quite often. He considered it an aberration. Where others saw a tree, Evan saw yellow reflections mixed with grey. Where others saw a shadow, he saw a reflection of the glass in which different shades mingled.
Sometimes he liked to look at things differently than everyone else, but sometimes he hated it. His desire to be like others was killing him. He did not want to lose his own identity, but he longed for the ordinary life of a high school student. With no addition that would complicate his life or make him a target of ridicule.
Fortunately, he felt exactly that way around his friends. And it was thanks to them that he looked forward to school every day. Not exactly the usual idea of a student, but this difference didn't bother him.
---
But what bothered him was that the one he wanted to see the most was absent from school. Kieran had texted him earlier in the morning that he wasn't feeling well and stayed home, and Evan briefly considered skipping school but eventually changed his mind. He didn't need another problem at home, although he missed his man.
Evan had to make it through the day without him. Luckily for him, he had friends with him who, for some reason, decided not to leave his side even for a minute.
"Okay, what's going on?" Evan stopped halfway to the locker. His usual party walked by his side, their steps matching his. Sometimes they exchanged a few words, but otherwise, they were unusually silent. Even Angie didn't dare tease him, and that was saying something.
"What do you mean?" Aiden spoke up first, addressing his confusion. He acted like nothing was wrong, but Evan knew that wasn't the case. All his friends looked a little too suspicious.
"Fess up. I promise I won't get mad," he said, adding after a moment, "much."
"Nothing's wrong, I promise," Angie spoke to him this time. One look at her was enough for Evan to know she wasn't being completely honest. He knew that wrinkling of the nose very well.
"Anyone else? Someone who doesn't spew bullshit?" He decided to give them one last chance before he decided to get seriously pissed.
"Oh, god. Just walk over to the locker and see for yourself. It's nothing bad, I promise." That was something he could trust. Josh's word was more trustworthy than Angie's. After all, only one of them would have pushed him in front of the bus for fun.
Without another word, he walked over to his locker and quickly turned the code to the lock. At first glance, he saw that something was different. The smell already suggested it. As they said, wolves relied on their sense of smell like nothing else, and Evan's locker didn't normally smell like flowers. Confused, he turned to his friends only to see them all grinning at him from ear to ear.
He opened the locker wide and immediately saw the originator of the smell. The inside of his locker played with all the colours thanks to the bouquet of flowers that were waiting for him there.
"What?" he muttered under his breath and carefully picked up a bouquet of various flowers. He recognized roses and tulips among them, but that was all. However, what caught Evan's attention the most were the black roses, which until today, he thought did not exist.
"He wanted to give it to you personally, but it didn't work out. Luckily, Angie knows how to break into your locker," Josh quickly answered all the unanswered questions running through Evan's head. Evan didn't know whether to cry or laugh. While he frowned all the way to school because he knew he wouldn't see Kieran, he gave him a surprise that left him speechless.
"Don't cry," Angie called to him, playfully patting his shoulder.
"I'm not crying!" he immediately defended himself and shook her hand off him.
"I would if someone did something like that for me," Lola admitted carefully reaching up to the flowers to stroke the petals. Evan had an irrational urge to pull them out of her reach. It was childish, just like the giggling that was going on inside his head. He just hoped his emotions weren't reflected in his cheeks, turning them maroon.
"I take it you like it?" Josh asked a pointless question as Evan's expression could tell practically everything. Just his smile indicated how he was feeling. Josh was proud of his best friend when he saw what his gift had done.
"I love it," he admitted. The girls squealed with delight and Angie even clapped. Evan couldn't stop the laughter from escaping him. He felt like he was in a romantic comedy and he couldn't mind less.
"If anything, you can leave it at my house." Angie leaned in and whispered in his ear. She knew very well that his parents would ask too many questions if they saw him with the bouquet and Evan thanked her for her quick thinking. With all that joy and thoughts of Kieran, he forgot about his strict parents, who liked to stick their noses where they didn't belong.
"Thanks," he replied simply. Even this fact, however, did not wipe the broad smile that settled on his face. He may have lost the perfect gift, but he still had the perfect lover.
"Don't forget to text him. I'm sure he's dying to hear from you," Aiden reminded him, and Evan immediately pulled his phone out of his pocket. Chat with Kieran was the first thing that appeared after unlocking the screen.
Three words lingered in the forefront of his mind, waiting to be spoken or at least written. Evan was surprised himself, not expecting to realize his feelings at this very moment. But he wasn't surprised that he felt that way. It was impossible to feel otherwise with Kieran. However, the words that would seal it had to wait.