I sat fidgeting in my lunch seat, too nervous to even eat the pear sitting on the table in front of me. I was waiting for Liam to show up, though a part of me worried that he wouldn't come. I was afraid that he was still angry, and that he had chosen to either find somewhere else to sit, or decided to skip lunch all together.
However I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw a head of wild blond hair come my way. I suppressed a smile though, telling myself I shouldn't over do it today. I waited for him to sit down in the chair diagonal from me like he used to, but like the last time we ate lunch together, he sat beside me.
He sat his tray down, full of French fries, two hamburgers, and a ranch covered salad. He had a Gatorade bottle in his hand and didn't look at me as he unscrewed the cap and lifted the bottle to his lips, sucking down a long drink. When he finished, he put the cap back on the bottle, unwrapped a hamburger, and angled his body in his chair so that he was facing me.
He took a generous bite of his sandwich, all the while his eyes observing me. "You're not scared of me?" he said after swallowing what was in his mouth. He said this with the least amount of emotion possible, and my face softened.
"Nothing has changed." I said with a small shrug, and he continued to stare at me, chewing thoughtfully on his sandwich.
"You were scared the night it happened." He pointed out glumly, and my face turned a little red.
"I was overwhelmed. I didn't know what I had just seen, I thought I was going crazy..." I sighed, looking down at my lap.
He didn't say anything for a second while he finished his hamburger and then picked up the second one. He unwrapped it, took a bite, swallowed it, and then took a breath. "You're not crazy. It really happened. I'm a werewolf, and I'm sorry about this morning." He said quietly, and I raised an eyebrow.
On top of looking completely sincere, it seemed genuinely hard for him to say this. He looked uncomfortable, and I noticed he was leaning away from me a little, though he kept his body turned towards me.
"It's okay." I answered, and he glanced at my arms. "They don't hurt, don't worry." I told him tenderly, knowing he was worried about how hard he had grabbed me.
"I was just... I was ready to come to school and find everyone disgusted with me. the whole entire day after you saw me, I was waiting for the police to stop by my house. I was waiting to come to school and find out I gave you some kind of heart attack. I was so scared of coming today, you can't even imagine."
I watched him carefully, guilt twisting around in my stomach as I watched him speak. "I'm really sorry I caused you so much trouble. I swear I wasn't spying, I was just on a walk and well... the mansion you live in has always been something I admire, and I only meant to stop by to look at it for a second..." I felt myself reddening as I told him part of the truth, but never would I tell him that I had known he lived there, or how long I had staid to watch.
The more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I felt.
"It's okay. Part of me wanted to tell you anyways. I just wish you hadn't found out that way. I thought you would never talk to me again..." his eyes flashed to my face when he saw it pinch together skeptically. "Aubrey, I am a monster. You can't tell me that if it had been anyone else, you wouldn't have been disgusted by them." he said lowly, making sure that only I could hear.
I twisted my lips to the side in thought. If I hadn't gotten to know Liam so well before I found out what he was, would I still be sitting next to him today?
I felt muddled by the truth; no, if I hadn't known Liam so well, I'd have avoided him at all costs. I may have even told someone what happened, anyone, and perhaps I would have gone straight to the police.
"Is that why you didn't want to make friends?" I asked.
He finished off his hamburger, and then started to pick at his French fries. "I figured it would complicate things. I didn't want to keep secrets from someone I care about, and who's to say someone I got to know well would even react as well as you are? I guarantee you that if you were anyone else in this school they would want nothing to do with me once they found out. Even if they had gotten to know me."
I reached over and took one of his fries, catching his eye with a smile. "Yeah, well you already knew I don't quite fit in with everyone else here." I chuckled softly, and a hint of a smile pulled up his lips.
"Yeah I don't know who's weirder, you or me." he teased, and I giggled at full volume now.
For a moment the both of us just looked at each other while I lost myself in his beautiful blue eyes. Then my eyes wandered towards his forehead where two red gashes were. Without realizing it, I lifted my hand and reached for Liam's forehead, touching his wound tenderly. He jerked his head away for a second out of surprise, but then kept still, letting me observe his cuts.
"Every transformation has its glitches." He said once I pulled my fingers away, still holding his gentle stare with my eyes. "There's a room in the mansion especially for me on full moon nights so I can't hurt anyone, but I can't control myself once I've phased. There's so much anger built up inside me that I end up hurting myself in the end. So, the next morning I wake up with a few new bruises and or cuts. But it's worth it to keep everyone safe." He explained and I frowned.
"That's why you always skip school the day after." I said and he nodded.
"The transformation is really tough on my human body. Cliff went to college studying to be a doctor, so being the genius he is, he discovered a formula, if you will, that makes it a little easier on my body. I'll be a little sore with a few new wounds, but without the medicine there's no telling what I'd do to myself or what shape I'd be in the next morning."
"So, I guess he really is more than just a butler to you." I awed, and he nodded his head once again.
"I was very lucky I got landed with Cliff, Emily, and Timothy." he said, but at this I raised an eyebrow with curiosity. He took notice of my confusion and went on to explain. "Emily and Timothy are my parents, but they aren't really my parents. They found me as a child. My mother abandoned me at age three when I was bitten, so they took me in and adopted me. They knew from the start what I was, and were very sentimental to me since Emily's great uncle was a werewolf."
A part of me felt heart broken at Liam's story; abandoned at such a young age, and being a werewolf for as long as he could remember. And yet I felt glad, because as he spoke of his adoptive parents, he seemed happy.
"Wow, what a coincidence." I awed and he nodded his head.
"Yeah, I'm very lucky. We lived in Maine up until this year when we found out the mansion wasn't selling well. George left it to Emily's father when he died, but her dad didn't want it. So when he died the deed was left to Emily but she and Timothy had no interest in it. When they found out it wasn't selling well, and Peterborough was planning on bulldozing it, that's when Emily decided she had to take it." however, as he said this, my jaw fell open.
"Bulldoze the mansion? Oh my god, that would have been awful!" I gasped, and he looked at me with confusion. "I love that mansion, Liam. I think it's beautiful, and if they had destroyed it, I would have had to bash some skulls." I said with a slight grin, only causing him to roll his eyes with a peeking smirk too.
"Well, they didn't because we decided to move in. I was angry at first, but George was Emily's great uncle after all, and Emily is the only living Gentry heir..." however Liam's face faded as he watched my face drawl downwards with shock.
"George Gentry... was a werewolf?" I whispered lowly, and Liam nodded his head gravely.
"Yep." He said and I shook my head numbly.
"Oh my god... I had no idea..."
"There is probably a lot of stuff about him you don't know. People have this crazy idea that he killed his wife on purpose, but George kept journals and Emily inherited them when her father died. After reading all of them, we know that everything was just a big accident." He told me, and I continued to stare at him in awe.
"Wow... wow..." I was lost for words, and he was just watching me looking slightly amused. "And I thought I knew a lot about the Gentry history. You've got all the secrets first hand. I'm just surprised that George was..."
"A werewolf?" Liam finished for me, and I nodded.
"It's crazy to know that one lived here so long ago and no one knew. How do you miss something like that? We grow up and learn when we're little that things like that are fictional and now it's like everything's been turned upside down." Now I really felt something uneasy settling into my stomach.
"The unknown is scary, but knowing is even scarier, Aubrey. There's a lot about this world you don't know." he spoke with a far off look on his face, his eyes looked passed me and at something I couldn't imagine.
"I want to know." I said finally after a few moments of silence. His eyes flashed towards mine and he shook his head gravely.
"You don't know what you're getting into. You don't want to get caught up with me. This is why I didn't want to make friends. Things are complicated for me, and they are hard. It's like living in a horror movie every single day, and no one deserves to be dragged into that." he said, but at this I wrinkled my nose.
"But you heard me, Liam. All of this changes nothing! I already care about you, and I can't just take those feelings back." I said sternly, and he glowered at me, a mix of anger and sadness in his expression.
"No, this world is not for you." At that I felt something in me snap. I straightened up abruptly, looking at him with wide, surprised eyes.
"So I'm just supposed to forget everything that happened and all those things you just told me? I'm supposed to just walk away from this table like nothing happened, and never speak to you again?" I said incredulously, my fists balling up on my knees.
"You made this hard on yourself, Aubrey." He said with a hard voice. "I told you from the start I wasn't here to make friends, but you just wouldn't listen. I never promised you a friendship, I didn't promise you anything." Tables all around us were being dismissed to go to class, but in the midst of it all, Liam and I continued to sit, glaring into each other's eyes.
"Well I'm not walking away. I don't care what you say." I replied stubbornly, and he shook his head with rage, standing up abruptly in his chair.
"Why are you so difficult? I'm trying to help you here! Why can't you just give it up?" he growled, and I stood up in my chair too, staring at him straight in the eyes.
"I'm not a quitter, Liam. I'm here to stay, whether you like it or not."
He stood there, his head towering over me since he was about 6 feet tall, and I was a measly 5 feet and 1 inch tall, but I stood my ground. I didn't break our eye contact until he groaned, turning on his heel and stomping away from me, joining the group pushing through the cafeteria doors to go to class.
I huffed and leaned down to pick up my purse, shouldering it and grabbing my uneaten pear and Liam's lunch tray he left behind. I threw them both away and left the cafeteria as well, my head buzzing.