MONICA’S POV
I paced around in front of the restaurant where Adria and her friends ate. I was frustrated beyond words. No matter how I tried to tear her apart from Lucien, she stuck to him like glue. Twice I had posted on the school’s site thinking she would fall into my bait and believe it was Lucien I was talking about but she seemed to turn a blind eye to it and I couldn’t afford to write his name out directly.
First, she’d confront him if she saw his name on the school site and then they would talk things out which would make getting Lucien harder for me, and second, Lucien was definitely going to find out who had uploaded the post and when he found out I was behind it, it would be over for me.
He would hate me and never attempt looking my way.
It was something I had to think through thoroughly. Adria was quite the determined type. Despite the fact that she knew who Lucien truly was, she still stuck with him. She wasn’t scared, nor was she losing her mind. In fact, she still blushed whenever I mentioned his name or wolves.
The text I had sent to her was because I had decided to take a huge risk. I was going to let her know that I also knew about Lucien and if she wasn’t scared of human rumors about him then she’d definitely be scared of deadly wolf-related rumors about him.
It was definitely going to work this time around. I peeped at them once more and saw they were still laughing and happily sharing their pizza.
“When are they going to get their damned asses out of the restaurant and into their houses?” I murmured to myself wondering what exactly they were discussing.
Then my eyes fell on a woman with coal black hair like mine which showed even though the scarf she had tied from her head to underneath her chin tried to cover it. She also wore large, dark sunglasses and when she caught me staring, she immediately turned away.
“Mum?”
I cast a cursory glance towards Adria and her friends and walked briskly to my mother.
She turned and held out her hands to stop me but I grabbed it and pulled around the restaurant and into an alley.
“Honey, I just needed to see you were doing well.” She said as she tried keeping up with my pace. “Honey, Monica wait…” she called, and I finally dropped her hand.
“I clearly told you to leave New Orleans!” I attacked and she took a step back.
“But darling, I couldn’t just leave without seeing you.” She countered and I ran my hands through my hair and kicked a stone on the floor.
“You’ve seen me now so I guess you can leave. Tell everyone I’m fine. I don’t need you ruining things for me.”
“Fine, but promise me you’ll take my calls.”
“I will take your calls, just leave New Orleans immediately.”
“Monica. Why are you like this? Don’t you feel the least pity for me? Why do you keep acting this way?” She asked, and I bit my lip hard. “I’m doing this because I’m worried about you!”
“Alright, alright mum I know you’re worried about me but I don’t want you running into Lucien. He already dislikes me, I don’t need him to dislike you too! I don’t want him to think you pushed me into this so please, I’m working things out, it would all be fine.” I assured her and she looked at me reluctantly before finally agreeing to leave.
I watched her leave and felt a little guilty that I was being a bad daughter, but it was what I had to do. I really couldn’t risk losing Lucien, and with that thought, I decided to wait for Adria at her house.
~
ADRIA’S POV.
“What?” I asked, and she took in a deep breath.
“I’ve been trying to warn you. Lucien has been taking female students to satisfy his wolf hunger. Lucien is a wolf.” She told me, but I shook my head. There was no one who would tell me that and have me believe it.
“I know Lucien is a wolf and he has never for once killed a human. I suggest you ask him instead of doing a lot of damage by trying to convince me that he’s bad. It makes me think you’re doing this because of the bad blood between you and him, and also, how did you know he’s a…”
“Adria.” I heard my mother call and turned to see her returning from work.
“Mum.” I called, and ran to meet her. “You’re quite late.” I nagged, taking the bag of groceries from her. “Oh, meet Monica, she’s…” I was saying but when I turned around, Monica was no longer there. “Where did she…?”
“She left. I suppose she’s the shy type?” My mum asked, and I nodded.
As we made our way inside, I looked back, wondering why she would leave without greeting my mother or saying a word to her. Shy or not, that was no excuse to just leave without a word.
~
The next day, I walked into class to prepare for a class and met quite a number of students already seated there, and they were all staring at me.
Why were they all staring at me?
I was about to walk to my seat when a girl I had never talked to before stood from hers.
“Hey, Adria. I think it’s time you confess now.” She said with an accusatory tone.
“Confess?” I asked, looking around cluelessly at all the eyes staring at me with that same accusatory gaze.
“I’ve always found it weird how you always managed to make all straight As and I’m sure I’m not the only one.” She continued and I held my books tighter.
“You shouldn’t beat around the bush, I’ve got to prepare for our class.” I told her loud and clear and she scoffed.
“Someone tried to steal the test questions. In short, we think it’s you.”