Of course, Evan's wearing of the bright colour didn't go unnoticed. The moment he crossed the threshold of the school and Lola saw him, her expression changed to one of incomprehension.
"Hey, guys." Her typical cheerful tone was mixed with momentary disbelief that, from her look, was clearly directed at Evan.
"Hey, girl." There was still a beaming smile on Angie's face, which was the fault of her morning's revelations, and Evan hoped she wouldn't give it away right away. Not that he wanted to hide the fact that he had a new boyfriend, but he was still afraid of his friends' reactions. It had been a few months since he and Kieran had broken up, but their group of friends was still divided, so he didn't want to make a wrong move and mess things up even more.
"Hey." Evan greeted her, deciding to pretend he hadn't noticed the look she was giving him, even though it was impossible. "What's up?"
"Aiden's getting on my nerves," she revealed with a sigh.
"Nothing new," Angie answered her promptly. She and Aiden had a problem between them, though Evan had no idea if Aiden knew about it. The whole thing centred around the fact that Aiden had stopped talking to Evan, and because of that, Angie had stopped talking to him. After they'd had lunch together almost a month ago and he'd used a different tone when talking to Lola and Angie and a different one for Evan, Angie had decided it was the last straw and had started letting him know that he bothered her.
"I'm getting tired of this conflict." Lola sighed again.
"Tell me about it. I don't understand what his problem still is. I get that Evan broke up with Kieran, but Aiden was Evan's friend long before he ever knew Kieran. This taking sides thing is so terribly childish." Angie started to get annoyed, and her smile was suddenly gone. It seemed like this was something that had been bothering her for a long time and Lola starting this conversation set off a trigger.
"I didn't give him an answer," Evan interjected, sticking up for Aiden. "I can see why he's mad at me."
"You didn't give me one either," Lola responded immediately. Before Evan started to feel bad about her answer, however, she continued, "That doesn't mean we have to stop being friends because of it. He could just wait until you're ready to talk about it. That's what friends do."
The problem was that Evan wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to talk about it. It would still mean he'd have to admit he was a wolf, otherwise his explanation would be that he'd started to have feelings for Ryan, and it would make it sound like he'd emotionally cheated on Kieran. And while that was partly true, since he couldn't control his wolf's feelings and his joy at finding his mate, he didn't want to make Kieran feel like he wasn't good enough for him.
Suddenly both girls froze and didn't say another word. They were both looking over Evan's shoulder and he began to think that Aiden had accidentally overheard their conversation, but when he looked around to make sure, he realized that it wasn't Aiden standing a few steps behind him.
Kieran was approaching them with confident strides and Evan expected him to walk around them, but the opposite was true.
"Hey," he greeted, stopping by them. Evan glanced at him again fleetingly, but then quickly averted his gaze. He still had no idea what to do in his presence and he was either managing to make the situation awkward or worse, nothing in between.
"Hey, Kie." Lola immediately greeted him enthusiastically, giving no indication of how surprised she was by his presence. She still spent a fair amount of time with him herself, but Angie and Evan were almost never around. I mean, Angie almost wasn't, but Evan wasn't at all.
"Hey." Angie greeted him right after that, and that left only Evan, who still had no idea if he could speak up. In the end, though, he decided to take a chance, realizing that Kieran was the one who'd come to them and not the other way around.
"Hi." His voice betrayed his uncertainty and so the greeting was immediately followed by a clearing of his throat.
Kieran's gaze curled on him, and Evan felt like he was pinned to the spot. It hadn't been that long since Evan had approached him, but it was a spur-of-the-moment affair that had turned out better than he'd hoped, and he chalked it up to random luck. He hadn't expected this to be the beginning of peace.
"I didn't catch you yesterday. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday."
Evan couldn't control his expression, and his face and especially his eyebrows immediately betrayed his surprise.
"Thank you?" His answer sounded more like a question, and he had to clear his throat again to get more out of himself. "That's nice of you."
"It is." Lola jumped right in. "And it could have been the most amazing party ever if you'd let me throw it."
Evan suspected that her rebuke wasn't genuine and was just an attempt to continue the conversation, but he wasn't happy about it anyway, since he had no idea how to respond in a way that wouldn't make it sound wrong. He didn't want Kieran to feel guilty about him not being able to celebrate his birthday with his friends because of him. Not when it wasn't his fault at all.
"It wasn't long ago that you said you weren't into partying anymore," Angie reminded her, distracting her from Evan.
"I said I liked being home with Aaron, not that I don't like partying anymore," the blue-haired girl corrected her immediately.
"Same thing." Angie waved her off.
Evan was liking this conversation less and less, especially when he suddenly realized that the last party, they'd all been to together had also been the last time they'd all been together. And of course, it was his fault.
The thought made him duck his head in shame, giving him a perfect view of the hoodie in his fingers, which he was clutching with nervousness. Instead of the typical black one, however, he saw a light blue one, and that made him stop wrinkling it. And the thought of Ryan also gave him the courage to finally speak.
"I'm sure after partying with you, none of us would show up at school today and my parents would kill me." Despite his declaration, he tried to lighten the situation and act normal, even with Kieran's unexpected presence.
"One day I'll talk to your parents, and it won't end well," Lola declared, surprising Evan. He'd thought his friends were long used to his parents' behaviour, but they obviously had reservations about it. Not that he minded, since he had them too, but he hoped they would stay as far away from them as possible.
"They're not that bad," Evan added. The last few months with his parents had been hectic, and he felt like he'd been on a roller coaster. They were either too concerned about his happiness or they ignored it and did what they thought was best, nothing in between. Not to mention his conversation with his father in which they'd talked about Riley, which had made Evan start to think there was still hope for their relationship.
"I won't say anything bad, since they're your parents, but we all know they don't treat you the way they should." Lola's words added to the seriousness of this conversation, and Evan didn't like it. His morning had been perfect, and he hoped his good mood would last all day. He didn't want to spoil it with a conversation about whether his parents were good.
"I'm sure Evan doesn't want to spend his morning talking about his parents," Kieran interjected, surprising Evan. He was waiting for Angie to stand up for him, or just for Lola to realize that it wasn't the best topic, but not for Kieran to intervene.
"Sorry," Lola apologized immediately. If she was also surprised that Kieran spoke up, she didn't show it.
"It's okay," Evan assured her, allowing his gaze to shift to the boy at his side for a moment. This time, however, it wasn't subtle, and their eyes met. To his surprise, Kieran gave him a small smile, which he decided to return.
"Thanks," he decided to express his gratitude verbally as well, especially since it was prolonging his conversation with Kieran.
"Kieran!" He obviously jinxed it.
They all turned to see Marie walking in their direction. She was in the student council, and just as Evan knew who ruled their pack, he knew the same information about their school. Plus, he'd spoken to her a few times when he and Kieran were still together. Not a lot of times, but enough to know who she was.
"Hey, Marie, everything's fine?"
By her expression, everything wasn't fine.
"Can you give me a hand? Someone messed up the flyers and I have no idea if they can still be fixed. They printed 50 of them before they noticed the mistake." She shook her head as if she couldn't believe what she was saying. Of course, Kieran being Kieran immediately offered a helping hand.
"Sure," he agreed. "See you later?" His words were directed at the whole group, but only Lola agreed. Evan didn't dare rely on him to talk to him again, and Angie automatically did what he did.
All three of them watched Kieran walk away with the petite brunette and didn't take their eyes off them until their backs disappeared around the corner.
"That went surprisingly well." Angie was the first to break the silence. Evan nodded automatically.
"Don't get your hopes up, though." His words were directed at Lola, but in reality, he just needed to hear them out loud so he could act on them, too.
"I told you Kieran was too nice not to hang out with you forever," the blue-haired girl obviously couldn't help the remark.
"Just wait until Josh and Aiden find out about this." Evan immediately countered. Although Kieran was as kind and understanding as could be and always looked out for everyone around him, Josh and Aiden made sure that he thought of himself and his own well-being too, forcing him to make decisions that made him a priority. Not that there was anything wrong with that.
"I have a feeling it's going to be different this time," Lola declared, to which Evan gave her a sceptical look. Just a second ago they had been talking about Aiden and how he kept his distance and suddenly Lola had hope in him.
"Maybe," Angie concluded neither refuting nor confirming her words. It was strange, since she had no problem stating her opinion outright at other times. Evan, however, decided not to pursue it any further and focus on the positive.
"By the way, what's with that hoodie you're wearing?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Evan replied and, saved by the bell, quickly scurried away before she could get any more out of him.
In the end, it turned out that he was able to avoid the issue for the rest of the day, and as promised, he checked in with Ryan every hour, not caring if anyone saw him smiling at his phone.
He'd been in such a good mood all day, and it couldn't have been spoiled by the fact that Aiden continued to avoid him or that Kieran hadn't stopped by to talk to him again.
Besides, the fact that Kieran had talked to him in the morning wasn't the only oddity that day. No, what surprised him even more was the postcard that had fallen out of his locker sometime after lunch. He picked it up carefully, not understanding where it had come from, and when he opened it carefully, he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. It was a cheap ordinary postcard, but what was written on it meant a lot to him.
"A belated happy birthday. Josh."
It looked like better times were coming.