Someone could fill a book with the rules and expectations of a first date, yet everyone would still feel that nervous, butterfly feeling in their stomachs as they drove to their date. Carter could wholeheartedly vouch for that. It wasn't like this was his first date ever or something momentous or extravagant, it was just a normal first date at a small diner, yet worried and nervous thoughts swarmed around his head like a group of bees in a hive. He pushed those thoughts aside as he repeated to himself, for the thousandth time, that it was just dinner with a guy, no biggie.
His car flew through the small streets of his city as he headed towards the main road, and he was thankful that there were no cops around who would have surely given him a ticket for the speed he was going. If he got pulled over, what would he even say? I am moving on from my ex-boyfriend and was so nervous about my date tonight that I didn't realise I was going ten miles over the speed limit? He shook his head, that would never work, and slowed down his speed.
His mother had warned him about the dangers of talking on the phone while driving many times, but when his phone started vibrating like crazy on the seat next to him and the caller ID said that it was Roxy, Carter felt like he shouldn't just ignore the call, she was his best friend and best friends don't ignore each other's call. What if there was an outfit emergency or a gossip crisis that just had to be discussed? That's best friend duty, and when duty calls, well, you answer the phone.
"Hey Roxy," he greeted as he put his phone on speakerphone, happy to hear from his friend as he hadn't seen her in a few days.
"Hey," she greeted happily, "I just wanted to wish you luck for your date tonight!" So no best friend emergency, but who cares, it was just nice to hear her voice. Carter felt like his best friend had been MIA since her date with Cole.
"Thanks, what are you up to tonight?"
"I'm hanging with Cole."
Carter wasn't sure how to feel about this. It seemed like every time he talked to Roxy that she was hanging out with Cole, and he didn't want her to jump head first into this relationship before she really got to know this guy. At the same time, he was happy that she was happy and as her best friend, he couldn't really say anything.
"You've been hanging out with this guy a lot, how is it going with you two?" he asked just as he came to a stop at a red light.
"Really good, I think that he is the one."
Carter almost crashed into the car in front of him. "He's the what?"
"I don't know, I know that it's really early and everything, but Cole, he is just so perfect. He gets me, you know? He treats me like a queen, and he is the perfect gentleman, he opens doors for me and pays for dinner and we go for walks and talk for hours."
To Carter, she sounded like a lovesick teenager from an eighties movie who was in love with the school jock. This was new, innocent love, and Carter understood that, he just hoped that when the glamor of new love faded, that there was still something meaningful left.
The light changed to green and Carter continued to drive along the main road. "Roxy, be careful, I don't want you to get hurt."
"Cole feels the same way, I think, so don't worry," she brushed his concerns off.
"How do your parents feel about you spending all of this time with Cole?"
Roxy took a few seconds before answering in a guilty voice. "Well, I may have told them that I was with you..."
"What? Why?" he asked, yet in the back of his mind he completely understood why she had told that to her parents. Her parents weren't one to let their daughter date, they were completely alright with her spending time with boys, but the moment she mentioned a date, well, suddenly there was a ten o'clock curfew and her date had to come to the door to meet them, and that sure was a lot of effort for everyone involved.
"You know how my parents get, I just didn't want to deal with them," she told him and he nodded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't actually see him.
"Yeah I understand, don't worry, if your mom calls I'll tell her that we have been attached at the hip."
"This is why I love you Carter." He could hear her smile through the phone.
"Have a good night, Roxy."
"You too, call me after your date."
"I will, Bye."
"Bye." Roxy hung up.
Carter placed the phone onto the seat beside him and looked around, and he could tell that he were definitely heading into the bad part of town. Most of the streetlamps were broken, so he had to rely heavily on his cars headlights. Abandoned and scratched up cars lined the streets and the buildings which surrounded the streets were quite old looking, but they had history and that was why Carter loved this area.
He kept going deeper into the streets until he reached a better looking section. These roads had working streetlamps and the buildings were more recently built than those in the streets before it. In the middle of one of the crowded streets sat a little, old style diner. There was no street parking, so Carter followed the road around and parked in a small parking lot a short walk away. He got out of his car and checked that it was locked. Twice.
He straightened out his back skinny jeans and make sure that the buttons on his navy shirt were done up right. A deep breath later and he was walking along the cracked and uneven footpath. It was night time, yet he could see almost everything around him, and looking up he could see the reason for that.
A big, bright, full moon hung low in the sky and seemed to act as a nightlight, giving off light but no warmth. Carter brought his arms up around himself as he felt a shiver run through his spine. He cursed himself for not remembering a jacket, and hoped that it would be warmed once they were inside the dinner.
This was the first date that he had been on in what felt like a lifetime, and he was looking forward to it. The only bit he was worried about was trying to get information out of Archer about how he knew Alex without Archer thinking that he was still in love with his ex. Which he wasn't. Of course not.
He was close to the diner when he saw that someone was standing outside of it and Carter smiled as he realised that the person was Archer. He was wearing dark pants and a light blue shirt with the top button undone, it was that kind of shirt that just looked like it was screaming to be ripped off of his body with needy fingers.
"Hey," he smiled brightly as he reached Archer, whose face transformed into a giant smile at the sight of Carter.
"Don't you look handsome," Archer replied as a greeting, pressing a sweet kiss to Carters cheek that sure as hell made his cheeks turn a light shade of crimson.
"Did you find the place alright?" Carter asked as they entered through the doors.
Archer shrugged. "Well, I did have to stop and ask for directions where I met a man who offered to sell me drugs, so it was an experience at least."
Carter laughed and they took a seat at a table which was bright red with black chairs pressed along its sides. A peppy waitress came over to them and handed them menu's, listing off specials. They ordered quickly and easily fell into conversation.
"How are you liking the country?" Carter asked.
"It is definitely an experience, very different from my country," Archer told him.
"Do you have any extended family back home? Do you call them?" Carter asked.
"I do have a lot of family actually, many brothers and sisters, but I am only close with a few of them," Archer told him, but by the look on his face, it seemed that he didn't really want to go too into family talk. It seemed to be a harder task than Carter first thought to get information out of Archer, even about just everyday things. Something that he said didn't really make sense.
"Your brothers and sisters didn't move here with you?" he asked. "How did it happen that you and Cole moved here at the same time? Did your families organise it?"
Carter was right about Archer being secretive. He very quickly changed the topic and didn't answer any of Carter's questions about his family. Their meals came quickly and they ate with hardly any silence, even though Archer didn't seem to want to delve into too much of his history, it seemed that the two did not lack talking points. They discussed shared interests and Carter seemed to become somewhat entranced by Archer, by the animated way that he spoke and the way that he seemed to be able to compliment him without Carter even realising it.
It was turning out to be one of those dates where the two people became instant friends, yet as he listened to Archer telling him some story about his and Coles nights out in Italy, he couldn't help but wish that it was Alex who was sitting before him, that it was Alex who was making him laugh. Yet, the person who sat opposite him was nothing like Alex, he was better in some ways if you thought about it rationally.
Archer seemed like the type of guy who said what he was feeling, who didn't hold back, who expressed every emotion as it came. Archer was an open book like that, and even if he wasn't so open about his past, there were no outright secrets with him, you got what you got and you weren't surprised.
Alex, on the other hand, seemed to have the emotional ability of a toddler in some situations and the emotions he felt were carried deep inside, never on his sleeve for the entire world to see, but Carter guessed that the exact fact of that was what made being with Alex so different and special. Carter had gotten to see a side of Alex that everyone else just didn't see. He got to see those deep, real emotions that Alex hid from the world, and even if he was hard to read, those moments when Alex opened up, those were some of the moments that Carter held closest to his heart.
He pushed those kinds of thoughts about Alex away as the memory of his conversation with Jayden came to the forefront of his mind. This was the perfect opportunity for him to figure out if Archer really did know Alex before he and Cole joined the school.
Archer was an open book sort of guy, so he figured that the straightforward approach would be the one that would work the best in this situation. Archer had just finished his story about Italy and was taking a sip of his drink as Carter spoke, "The first day that I met you, Alex seemed to already not like you, did you two meet in Italy, or something?"
Archer choked on his drink.
"Are you ok?" Carter asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah," Archer coughed out, "why do you think I knew Alex before I came here?"
Carter shrugged. "He really didn't like you and he hadn't even met you."
"Maybe he was just jealous that the new guy had an obvious crush on his ex-boyfriend," Archer supplied as an explanation with a flirty wink at the end, and Carter almost believed it.
Why was Archer being so shady about this? Was he lying, or just really bad at telling the truth?
"Alex was in Italy a few months ago, are you sure you didn't meet him there?" Carter asked again. He was so sure that Archer was the key in all of this, and if he was wrong, well, then he was back at square one.
"Carter, Italy is one hell of a big place, and there are many people who live and visit there," he told Carter. Archer then leant forwards, in what could have only been described as a flirty lean, "Let's leave your ex-boyfriend out of the conversation for the rest of the night, I would much rather speak about other things."
Well that theory crashed and burned, much to Carters disappointment, but it wasn't like Alex was Carters favourite conversation topic anyway, so the two divulged into other topics and before they knew it, the diner was closing around them. The peppy waitress from before bought them their check and the two got up from their chairs.
Carter made a move to walk towards the doors, but Archer took a hold of his hand in a light grasp and thread his fingers in-between Carter's own. That action lead to a, very cute, red faced Carter and a flirty grin from Archer.
The two made their way outside, a pair of linked hands swaying between them. The second that they were out the door, Carter was gently pushed up against the wall, his back touching the dark bricks which made up the structure. Archer placed one hand on his hip and kept the other one linked with Carter's fingers.
Carter gasped when it first happened, but his mouth turned into a shy smile as Archer moved slowly closer and closer towards him, until his lips were just ghosting over Carters. It was as if Archer was giving him a moment to make sure that he was alright to do this, and Carter was sure as hell not going to stop this.
Archer was taking too long, albeit it was probably only half a second, but Archer was too enticing and the wait was itching at Carter's sides. Carter was the one who made the contact, pressing his lips to Archer's hesitantly at first, but Archer's lips moved against his own and that just pushed Carter out of his hesitance and straight into confidently moving his lips underneath Archers.
Carter's free hand found its way into Archer's hair, fingers caressing the thick strands while at the same time being used as an anchor to angle his head for easier access.
They pulled away, breathless. Archer rested his forehead against Carter's as they caught their breath, and he whispered, "I don't really want this date to end."
Carter smiled. "I don't either, you know, there's a lookout close to here."
"I'll drive if you navigate?" Archer offered as he pulled away gently from Carter, keeping their hands intertwined.
Archer led him around the building to another small parking lot where he had parked, and they reluctantly let go of each other's hands as they got into the car, and Carter's hand suddenly felt all too cold as he sat down in the passenger seat.
"Where did you get this car from?" he asked as Archer was putting his seatbelt on.
"Rented it, it's nice, isn't it?" Archer told him.
The car was indeed nice, it was painted a black so dark that it was almost invisible at night and it looked classic but Carter was sure that it was pretty new.
Carter directed Archer out to the lookout which was very close, and it only took a couple minutes of driving before they were stopping the car near the edge of the lookout. Carter got out and crossed the short distance to the edge. The lookout gave a panoramic view of pretty much the entire side of the city, taller buildings in the middle with bright lights and smaller houses and more forestry around the edges. It looked beautiful at night.
Carter heard a noise and turned to see that Archer had gotten up onto his car and was sitting on the bonnet of the car. Archer pat the bonnet next to him and nodded his head towards it. Carter wasted no time getting up onto the car and pressing himself against Archer who threw a gentle arm around him as they both stared out at the city laid out before them.
They were parked along a cleared out area, and behind them sat thick forestry, the only space in between the trees made for the road which started there and ended back on the road where the diner was. The large, full moon hung low in the sky above them and Carter couldn't help but think that their date was just a little pinch of perfect, and exactly what he needed with all the stress going on in his life.
Somehow, a short time later, they ended up making out on the bonnet of the car. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but Carter was too wrapped up in the lips on his and the fingers in his hair to really care.
Archer kissed softly, gentle lips pressed against Carters own and then down his neck. As Archer peppered kisses over his neck, he seemed to pause when he reached his pulse point, pressing his lips to the spot over and over. Archer pulled back and kissed Carter deeply, almost aggressively, his fingers gripping at his hips tightly.
Carter wondered for a split second what had gotten into Archer, but he kept going, pressing back with firm kisses and threading a gentle hand up into Archer's hair.
Archer growled into Carters mouth, but it wasn't a soft growl, it was harsh and needy. Carter pulled back, they were going too fast, but Archer just caught his mouth in another hungry kiss.
"Archer slow down." Carter laughed, gently pushing Archer away from him, desperately out of breath and needing a break.
The second that Carter pushed him away from him, Archer turned his head away from Carter and started taking deep breaths.
"Archer?"
Archer's head flung back towards Carter and when he met Archers gaze and he gasped as he realised that Archers brown eyes had become almost black and his pupils were larger than any Carter had ever seen. It wasn't just the eyes, Archer's entire expression made him look like a lion who was moments away from pouncing on its unsuspecting prey.
Carter pulled back more, using his hands to scoot a little along the bonnet, hoping to give Archer some space to breathe.
"Are you alright?" Carter asked, but Archer's eyes were focused on Carter's neck. "Archer?" Carter spoke his name, hoping to pull Archer out of his head, but nothing happened.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Archer lunged towards Carter, tackling him off of the car and they both landed painfully on the ground. Carter was on his back, eyes wide, as he looked up at Archer.
Archer growled at him, his face only inches away from his face. Carter could barely comprehend what was happening, and the fear coursing in his veins raised tenfold as he realised that Archers teeth had morphed into sharp, fang like teeth.
Carter was about to scream, but Archer pushed his head up, revealing his neck.
It was then that the loudest growl that Carter had ever heard echoed around them and suddenly Archer was pushed off of him by a dark creature.
Carter pushed himself up on his hands and knees and watched in complete and total shock as a giant wolf with fur as dark as night bit Archer on his arm, drawing blood. His eyes widened even further as Archer's body started shaking, and within a few seconds he had morphed into a...wolf.
This can't be happening, this isn't real, he thought to himself.
The two wolves, one black and one deep brown pounced at each other, completely carnal looks on their faces, with teeth bared and squinted eyes. The brown wolf raked its claws along the neck of the black wolf. Carter didn't know what happened after that, he pushed himself off of the ground and ran.
What did you guys think of the chapter? Were any of you expecting something like this to happen? How do you think that Carter will react to what he saw?