Lena frowned as she sat on a branch against a tree's trunk and watched the sun go down. What happened at the pizza shop was completely unexpected. The only thought that kept running through her mind was that Darien hated her.
She knew she was going to have to change the way Darien felt about her, she didn't know how she would. Darien has some serious issues and anger management issues he needed to deal with.
It had only been an hour since she had last seen him and Lena's heart ached already. She missed him and she wished she see him now so it would hurt so much. It was simple; her mate hated her. Lena wasn't sure if she was just overreacting, but the way he looked at her, it looked like he didn't care for her much.
She sighed and swung her leg over the branch and jumped off the tree. She decided to make her way home where she can be depressed in the comfort and privacy of her bedroom.
*
Darien couldn’t wake up from the bad dream he was having. The sound of his father hand hitting someone still made Darien jerk as if had occurred yesterday instead of years ago.
He dreamed of an occasion he remembered watching through the crack in his bedroom door. His father had come home heavily drunk and started beating his mother, cursing at her. Darien didn’t know why nor could he understand what his father was saying to know what his mother had done to warrant a beating.
Darien's father grabbed his mother and threw her against the wooden kitchen table. When she pocked herself up off the floor, her head was cut. She held her against the wound, crying. Darien remembered crying that night, wishing his father would stop hurting his mother.
“Nick, please!” he heard his mom scream. All he heard was his father's grunting.
He then heard his father's footsteps. Darien quickly backed away from the door and began crawling back; the fear in his body wouldn't help Darien get up. His bedroom door burst open and the light from the apartment living room flooded into his view. He couldn’t even see his father that well; he had been in his dark bedroom all day.
He father came near him, unbuckling his belt as came. Years later, Darien still screamed in his sleep.
“Ahhh!” Darien woke himself up screaming, without realizing that at the same time, his bedroom door burst open. His cousin Ash ran into Darien, pausing halfway when he saw Darien shaking. Darien's bare chest was rising and lowering rapidly and suddenly, he was freezing cold. Darien was sweating and the cold fall air was breezing in through the window he'd left open last night.
“Darien?” Ash said, stepping near Darien who was holding back the tear forming in his eyes.
“Get out!” Darien yelled at him.
“Dude, you were screaming bloody murder and—”
Darien grabbed the closest thing to him which happened a remote and threw it at him, “Get the fuck out!” he yelled as Ash dodged it.
“Dude, what the fuck!” Ash yelled. “Fine, whatever!” he said, slamming the door behind him.
Darien brought his hands up to his mouth and laid his lips against his knuckles, rocking back and forth, afraid to sleep the rest of the night. He would have nightmare every now and then. Sadly, those nightmares are bad memories.
*
Darien pinched the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them. He tried to take the sleep out of his eyes, but it was pretty hard. By third period, he was hoping the teacher wouldn't notice if he fell asleep, but if he did, oh well. A detention was nothing.
As Darien began to doze off into sleep, a voice rang into his ear, “Hey Wolverine.”
He turned his head to his left to see a nervous smiling Lena. He couldn’t help but look at her. She had on a pair of black skinny jeans with black and white converse. She had a loose grey off-the-shoulder shirt on and her soft-looking brown hair was in big loose curls. She had natural looking eye makeup on and a soft pink lipstick. She was completely stunning and absolutely gorgeous.
Darien remembered how he had freaked on her yesterday at the pizza shop; why was she still trying to talk to him?
When he didn’t say anything, she cleared her throat and said, “Look, Darien, I didn’t mean to come off pushy yesterday and I’m sorry. I guess I was coming off to strong by asking you personal questions, but I also think you should apologize to me for yelling at me like that. Now I know I won't get it now, but I hope I will later.”
Darien will admit, he was a little too harsh to her, but he was halfway home already when he realized it and he'd thought she had left already.
She gave him a cute half-smile that made his stomach flip and he shifted in his seat to sit up straighter. She had such perfect straight white teeth.
“So it seems like you're a big hit in 10th grade," she said. “All my friend Becca wanted to talk about was how everyone thinks you're so cool. But there still are those people who aren’t so much of your fans," she said, turning to look at Joey and his pack of friends joking off.
“I would rather get hit by a car before I care about what he thinks," Darien said.
“Well, Wolverine, I’m should warn you that Joey is quite a tease, so I suggest you stay away from him so you two don’t end up in a fight," Lena warned.
“Sure, Sunshine," he said sarcastically. Darien was kind of hoping Joey will push him to the edge, he just hopes it’s not on school ground, but if it is, well, it is what it is.
“I’m serious," she said. “I don’t want you fighting with him."
His eyebrows came together, “Why do you care so much Sunshine?”
She shrugged her bare shoulders, making her look hot doing it, “I’m a caring person. And why do you keep calling me that?”
“Because that’s how you act," he said, grinning at her. “Just a ray of happy sunshine." He demonstrated; opening his hand and moved it in a half circle.
She glared, “Whatever, Wolverine. If you grow some facial hair and thicker sideburns, you’ll look just like him.”
“Is that your comeback?” he asked, making her glare harder at him.
Lena's face then softened as she leaned over to him. He moved back before quickly freezing at what she was going to do. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair, fixing his bed head. She was really close to him —so close he smelt her cucumber melon body spray and her minty breath and she could ‘accidently’ slip onto his lap.
He couldn’t keep his eyes from going to her little exposed chest. He gripped the table, trying to control his hormones. Sure, he was no virgin, but he hasn't had sex other than that awkward time with his neighbor when he was fifteen. The girl tried to get attached to him after and she wasn’t even his girlfriend. She was just someone who really wanted to lose her virginity since all her friends had and she got clingy on him. He booked it after that.
“I like your hair pushed back," Lena said. “It looks sexy.”
Darien realized she was doing that on purpose and he cursed himself for letting her control him for a moment. He’s the guy, he should be doing that!
He reached out slowly without her even realizing it and his cold hand touched her warm stomach. He felt her slightly shaking and he saw her cheeks turn pink, almost red. He half grinned at her and moved his hand inside her buckled jeans, making her move closer to him.
He saw her eyes widen a little and he grinned bigger. “You seem nervous, Sunshine.”
She cleared her throat and stepped back, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about," she said, turning around and running into her desk. "Crap," she muttered angrily and Darien chuckled as he faced forwards, suddenly not tired anymore.
*
Lena was rushing to get her lunch and pay for her food so she could go sit with Darien. She couldn’t get away from Becca and their group of her gossiping friends yesterday to go sit with him, but if she could get through the line before Becca showed up, maybe she could today.
When she got to the cashier, she paid for her food and kept Darien in her sight. He was all the way at the back of cafeteria picking at his nails as she made her way towards him.
When she was halfway there, she heard a familiar sound quickly coming towards her. She closed her eyes tightly and mouthed, ‘No, no, no.’
“Lena, you didn’t wait for me!” Becca said as she came around Lena.
“Sorry, Bec, just got hungry.”, she said, holding her sandwich up to her friend before placing it back down on her tray
“Well I have much to tell you about new boy Darien," she said. “I heard you two went out for pizza yesterday, is that true? I called dibs on him first.”
“No you didn’t," she growled, a sudden anger towards her best friend. Lena's wolf felt the urge to claw Becca's eyes out for saying something about her mate. Then she started to feel bad for thinking meanly towards Becca, a girl she had been friends with since she was nine.
Her friend looked confused at her growl, “Okay?” she said, drawing the word out. “Maybe I didn’t, but I wanted him first.”
Lena didn’t want to argue with Becca, but she sure wasn’t going to let her have Darien. “Let’s talk about this later. How about we go sit with him?”
She knew she wasn’t going to be able to sit with him alone because Becca would follow anyways. And she couldn't not invite Becca without her getting mad at Lena.
“Oh, sounds like a plan," Becca said, turning around. They made their way towards Darien who didn’t realize they were coming.
When they were a few feet away, she saw bleach blonde extension wearing, tight shirt and skirt Julia slip her butt into the seat next to Darien. Lena stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth dropping when Julia slid her hand on his leg.
“Remember me?” Lena heard using her sensitive wolf hearing to sort through the loud crowd of teenagers. “I mean, you should, we do have some classes together.”
“I remember you," he said. “What do you want?"
She giggled, “Well you look lonely, I thought you I would come over and we can finally talk.”
Lena imagined herself shifting right there and clawing Julia's pretty face off. She pressed her lips angrily together as her hands shook, tightening while she held her tray. She was trying to control her anger that slut was causing by touching what was rightfully Lena's.