MONICA’S POV
I immediately left her contacts and erased all traces of me being there, then I took a few pictures and handed her the phone.
“Send them to me.” I said with a smile and she checked the photos.
“You like them or you want to take more?” She asked, still staring at the photos.
“No, I’m fine with them.” I objected, and she started to make the transfer.
“There’s this new genre of novels that I started to read. They’re really fun…” I started, making sure I watched each and every of her facial expressions.
“Really? What genre is that?” She asked, still busy with transferring the photos.
“Werewolf.” I answered, and she handed me my phone.
“Done.” She said with a smile. “Werewolf?” She added, and I nodded.
“What do you think of them? Think they’re real?” I asked, tucking my phone into my back pocket.
“Well…” She said, scratching her hair and then a lovesick smile crossed her face. “I think they’re real. I think some of them probably walk among us.” She replied, and my smile faded. She knew. “What about you? Do you think they exist?” She asked me as we began to walk away from the spot which we stood.
“Well, they definitely do. I believe in wolves, vampires, stuff like that. I also believe them to be quite dangerous. More dangerous than the stories let us believe.” I told her subtly, and she raised a brow and smiled.
“I don’t think they’re that bad.” She objected annoyingly.
“Have you met one?” I shot at her and she looked away as if caught off guard.
She simply chuckled my question away and ran her hands through her hair.
“If I ever meet one, I’ll be careful. I’ve known a lot about wolves before I started reading these fun stories about them. My granny used to warn me about them, saying they walked amongst us and were natural pretenders.” I continued and she looked at me.
“Natural pretenders. Well, we wouldn’t know until we meet one, would we?” She replied optimistically and I accidentally sighed. It was so easy to be her friend but not so easy to convince her being with Lucien wasn’t the best thing.
I knew I had to think of a next step to take, and soon.
~
ADRIA’S POV
I sat on the bench under the tree, reading. Monica had a bad conclusion about werewolves. They weren’t at all bad and even if they were, the one I had met wasn’t at all bad. Instead he was calm, sweet, romantic and knew how to love me right.
But of course, there was no way I could convince Monica or change the way she viewed them because I couldn’t let her know I knew too much of them or she could get suspicious.
I sighed, and continued to read until Stacy happened to walk past. I sprang to my feet and my book fell to the floor but I didn’t care about that and went to her instead.
Her phone had been switched off and when I approached her, she pouted.
“I don’t wanna talk to you. Can’t you just let me stay mad?” She asked, and I shook my head.
“I know I did wrong. It was totally wrong of me to simply start walking with Monica and spend less time with you guys.” I apologized, holding onto her arm.
“This started way before Monica came into the picture. You just started drifting apart, Adria. Hey, do you want to hang out?... Oh no sorry, I have a tutoring session… Hey, Adria, do you want to grab popcorn and watch a comic movie? …I’m sorry, I’m a little tired… you always have an excuse to give and it hurt me so I thought maybe you were tired of our personalities and needed a long break, possibly someone new.” She explained and I could tell she was really hurt.
“No. Look, I was really bad. There’s nothing I can say to dispute it, it’s all my fault but I’m going to be better. So, do you want to hang out today after school? Just the four of us like it used to be? Any movie you want.” I asked her, still holding onto her arm, and a little smile crept on her face.
“Any movie I want?” She asked, and I nodded.
“Yes. Any movie you want.” I repeated, and she giggled.
“Let’s watch superman!” She squealed and I stepped back in shock.
“Who still watches superman?”
“You said I could pick any movie I want.” She said and I scratched my neck with a finger.
“Yeah I did…” I replied uncomfortably then rushed my next words. “…but I don’t think any cinema would have it, they’re all busy with the latest releases so I’m not too sure about it.” I told her, and she seemed to understand. She nodded, and smiled.
“Then we watch whatever we see. I’ll get the tickets.” She replied, and was about to storm off but I stopped her.
“Do the… do the boys think this way too?”
“No. They were annoyingly on your side, saying you’ll return and that you were just trying to make the new girl feel better in an unfamiliar place.” She replied, smiling and I chuckled lightly.
“I’m glad they thought that way.” I said, and she threatened to land a knock on my head. “I’m sorry!” I squealed immediately, running back to the tree.
I was so happy that I had cleared things up with Stacy but it meant I had to miss another tutoring session with Lucien and I wondered how I was going to look up into his disappointed face and say what I needed to say.
Just then, a notification popped up on my phone. It was from the school platform, and I clicked on it.
In front of me was a post in block letters and it read:
“I KNOW THE PROFESSOR WHO HAS BEEN DATING ALL THE GIRLS, HE ALSO CALLED ME TO HIS HOUSE AND ON THE VERY DAY HE CALLED ME, I MET SOMEONE ELSE IN HIS HOUSE. SINCE THEN, I’VE ALWAYS SEEN GIRLS GOING INTO HIS HOUSE AND THEY ARE FROM OUR COLLEGE.”
There were lots of comments underneath and I couldn’t help but think of what Monica had said.