Her eyes sharpen with tears. The facial expression shakes and cartoons itself as she shrinks back into herself at my raised voice suggesting that she may start crying. Its fragile hands painfully tug at my heartstrings.

I sigh and run my hands down my face. “Im sorry for yelling at you. Forgive me?” I plead. I gaze at her with pouty lips and puppy eyes, hoping this will make her feel tempted to forgive me with my cuteness turned on.

A smile graces her lips, edges slightly turning upwards. “Not that I can stay mad at you for long anyway but yes, you’re forgiven.” She shyly enunciates, eyelashes flashing at me a mile a minute as she lowers her gaze to the floor.

Relief swarms my cardiovascular region, loosely sitting in with the low thumps of my heartbeat at her words. I grin.

She laughs, a tingling bell melody that fills my ears with its beautiful notes. “But to answer your question, I just wanted to cheer you up,” shy movement of her shoulders in a brief lift and lower as she continues, “I just can’t stand seeing you upset and stand by and do nothing.” She raises her head up and meets my eyes from across the table.

Surprised, I blink at the sudden outburst of emotion just as the door tinkles again in the silence as if in response to her impassioned confession, signalling that another customer has entered the parlour.

Their footsteps fade into the noise that is my thoughts whirring about in my head.

Slowly taking in her genuine expression, I maul over her words, even as they echo in my head like thunder striking on a rough rainy night. Shock isn’t even a word I can use to describe how I'm feeling right now.

A worm of guilt worms its way in between the bones leading up to my heart and squeezes painfully hard like a cobra to its prey and the look of open and earnest devotion tinkered across her face, a random but beautiful splatter of emotion on a canvas.

Here she was trying to cheer me up, an unexpected but appreciated attempt nonetheless, and I'm thanking her by complaining, making her feel like her efforts aren’t so appreciated or welcomed when they are.

I had a nagging feeling that she was trying harder than most people would, or that anyone would, to achieve the said task and I had the inkling suspicion that she would let herself bleed if it meant the happiness of the person she trusted with her whole being. And yet here I am treating it like I couldn’t care less when I care more than I can say with words that just aren’t enough to express it.

My lips itch to turn into a frown as I think over my recent actions.

I should better than to do that. Especially to her. She deserves better.

For the past two days that we’ve known each other, although not as very intimately or familiarly as I’d like, I’ve seen just how sweet and can’t caring she can be, which just fuels the flickering flame of anger in my gut at Adena's past actions against her.

That’s not a disposition that everyone possesses which makes the process of finding a friend is a damn near impossibility as you tend to find more assholes instead. I hope my past actions don’t instantly put me into that same category.

I should know better though, I scold myself, feeling like a bad friend and a bad person all in one.

Looking back at her now though, it was confusingly evident that she thought otherwise, the radiance of the hanging lightbulb illuminating her sparkling eyes that seem permanently stuck on mine, her cheekbones higher than normal as her face stretched into a ditzy smile.

“I-“ I stop for I'm not really sure what im going to say to that. I shaky my head to clear the sudden fog in it. I inhale and exhale and start again. “I-Okay, what do you want to get?” I ask, pulling out a small black purse from my side jean pocket, “I think I might get a little bit of everything really.”

Her hands jut out to mine just to stop my movements which I look at her in confusion for, although I don’t make any move to protest about it. A strange sensation burns its way through my fingers to my hands where her hands lay atop. I lower my eyes to the then back at her. lay. She smiled a gummy smile at me.

“My treat so I'm paying for both of us. What'd you want?” She gently admonishes me? I chance a look at the ice cream display.

Differently frozen coloured creamy goodness lays await in tots square imprisonment, imitating their flavours as best they can, but not giving anything away to what they taste like. I can’t possibly pick one from that whole as of ice cream and I can’t even see them that well as I'm not up close. Its transparent encasement only representing them in bright outlines against its plane glass.

“Um….surprise me?” I answer, slightly turning my head back around her frame faded back into view in time along with my turning peripheral. She smirks, an odd frame on her face, pokes my nose once and flounces on towards the counter. I snort softly and turn to look for a suitable place for us to sit.

I cast a glance over the plastic spoon embed in my mouth, the other end being courteously held down by the curl of my fingers, cheery tinged sweetness blazing a cold fire on my taste buds a few minutes later. She had never released me from her sights in the last few minutes we had sat down, concern, frustration, curiosity and patience that was starting to wear thin each passing minute.

I shift my eyes back from hers and quietly plonk the plastic into the fragile ice cream paper cup, the frozen substance slowly melting. I slide back into my seat, her scorching gaze set on me intensifying with each passing second, burning through my thick braids, which seems a dead weight under her piercing eyes. I shift again and pour my attention on the plastic in from of me.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

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She’s the first one to break the silence between us. “So, are we gonna talk about it or are we just gonna stare at each other all day?” Her voice cuts through my distracted thoughts and feelings, sharp steel grating against already frayed nerves.

My eyes raise up to meet with hers with a startled jolt, making me inevitably flinch.

She releases a faint sigh, bosom heaving up and down with the slightest of breaths, and pushes her empty ice cream cup away. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” She leads now, clasped hands silently begging, a voice crack drawing my full undivided attention to her, vision blurring with tears.

I look back down and let it out in a slow stream. “I’m not sure how to go about this but okay…..” anything for you, refuses to leave me, choosing to burn and die on my tongue, unspoken and unheard as I clamp my mouth shut.

I gulp, wetting my suddenly parched dry throat. I raise my head up to hers, her shadowy outline framed by my fluttering eyelashes.

Her eyes brighten quite a bit at my remark, hope twinkling in those dark depths, but not enough that's anything against her usual glimmer. The light emanating from the barrier window hits her eyes, adding more luminosity that cast a shadow of it against the windowpane. A smile briefly captures my soft features which slowly lose their warmth and returns to a solemn streak across my lips as my demeanour changes.

“Well, I had a dispute, with my two best friends because one of them kept trying to force me to go to this stupid party just for the sake of finding my soul-me a boyfriend. Which I then called her selfish for.” I start, the words carefully escaping my dry lips. With a grimace I continue, “ Then after I went to the bathroom and…..” stopping once I am unable to continue past this, not wanting to continue my torment even as the words weigh heavy on my soul.

“And you befriended me…..” She completed with a hollow whisper as silent teardrops rolls down her cheeks. “I ruined your chances of getting your friends to apologize and now,” she hiccups on a whimper, “now they might hate you for stealing you away from them.”

I shake my head. It's not your fault. None of what has happened between me and them is any of your fault, kay?" I coerce, as I try to soothe her. My hands cross the table to envelop hers in mine. A teardrop lands on our interloped hands, thudding in a soft plop onto my skin. I stare into her eyes pointedly as my thumb absentmindedly stroke swipes on her thumb.

She swallows thickly and lets out a shaky breath. "Okay."

I pin her with a look, not satisfied by that short answer, but I let it go for the time being. I didn't want to rush her to commit to anything she wasn't confident about yet.

All I could do now was to lend genuine support to her, even if I didn't like that she would carry that guilt, huge weight to bear on one's shoulders, that wasn't even hers in the first place. My thumb caresses hers in warm slow strokes.

"Can we talk about something else, please?" I quietly plead, lowering my head so that she may not meet my eyes, "I seem to have upset you with my response and I don't like seeing you upset."

A hint of a smile. She raises her hand to clean up her fallen teardrops, flashes of her smile occasionally twinkling at me, hand movements obscuring half of her caramel complexion. "I'd like that. Maybe um we should get to know each other better?" She suggests with a cautious simmer in her tone.

A mischievous grin hits my lips. "Moving that quickly are we?" I tease her for her choice of words which makes her blush. She uses her other hand to lightly hit me in the shoulder and I have to press my hand against my mouth to stifle my laughter.

"Okay, fine, fine. I'll stop. Favourite movie?" I ask when I'm sure that I'm calm enough to speak.

She nibbles on her lip as she ponders. "It's a tough one but I'd have to say Enchanted."

I quirk an eyebrow. "I hadn't perceived you as someone who liked romance and fantasy. Adventure maybe but not fantasy." I quip shortly after. Which makes me wonder......

Would she react badly if I told her I was a werewolf? Or would she be completely alright with it?

Her smile widens. "Well, what can I say?" She dramatically falls over and lays a hand on her chest. "I'm a helpless fantasy and romantic." She says. A coy smile coils around her lips slowly. "Although I wouldn't mind a bit of adventure every now and then." She adds as an afterthought. Her frizzy coils of tresses slide off her shoulders while a side part covers half her face when she leans forward, catching me unawares.

Damnit.

I gulp, the chasm of my heart heaving up and down in and out of tune with the minuscule sounding of my heartbeat. I slide my eyes up to meet hers so my eyes don't drop down into any dangerous territory I'm not ready for yet. "Wh-What type of adventures?" I manage to get out, never minding the brief stutter in my words.

Her nose, a perfectly square shape set on her small heart-shaped face, scrunches up cutely. “A little bit of everything really. But I really like those that fill you with adrenaline, y'know? It's.....exciting." She shrugs with half a smile.

I nod.

"What about you? What's your favourite movie?" She asks without missing a beat. I don't miss the way her shoulders lean towards me, a mesmerizing sight to see, even as she slouches to do so. Or the darkened eyes that survey me in what I can only describe as a predator looking at its prey.

I suppress a shiver as my heartbeat drums in my ears that starts and stops for a second as her eyes, not as slyly as they think, roam over me from head to toe and starts up again, the loud pounding of my heart against my ribcage, once her eyes come to rest upon mine again with a slow head raise.

My breath catches in my throat.

I don't think I've said this enough but her eyes are breathtakingly beautiful......I could stare at them all day. My heart swoons.

"Um, " I shift uncomfortably to which she retracts her hand a little from my own. A whine almost crawls out of my throat at the loss of skin contact. "U-um, fantasy movies b-but my favourite movie is Colossal." I breathe a sigh of relief once I finally get my words but internally cringe at the stuttering, which oddly enough causes her to flicker a smile. I swipe my tongue across my lips and feign a cough when I notice her eyes, not at all subtly, follow the movement.

Not sure why though.....unless…...could she, perhaps, have romantic feelings for me? Or developing them?

Inwardly, I shake my head against the idea, because I mean, why would she? We've only known for two days after all.

And I still have a mate out there to find.

The realization of the situation hits me like a run of bricks to the face though, taking the energy out of me, my shoulders slump.

My eyes prickle with teardrops which I sniffle back with a stronger will than the force of the itching behind my eyes. My thumb, being dead to the world- I was actually starting to think it has going numb, the little traitor-extended its affectionate caress to her thumb, as if on its own accord, as I tried to sort out my conflicting feelings.

"That actually quite sounds like you." She murmurs to herself but thanks to my wolf abilities I hear as loud and clear as day.

Distantly, I hear a throat sounding its agreement but then I realize that it was me.

The bell tinkles likewise and the chattering parlour abruptly goes dead silent. My breath stills in my lungs and I manage to choke as I try to inhale in the dying air at the sound.

His scent floats toward my nose. I scrunch my nose up, an involuntary reaction to its lingering persistence.

I will myself not to bolt out of here which would mean leaving Daisy with someone, a monster my heart whispers, that I don't like to think about too much or, if possible, at all, which I loathe thinking of ever committing.

Quiet whispering, they're braver than I am at least, loud to my wolf sense of hearing, have nothing on the loud buzzing in my head as it conjures up every single speculate every single possible thought known to man. My thoughts are distracted as I hold my breath, his slow, almost quiet, footsteps draw nearer towards our direction. I flinch.

I lick my lips, wishing to wrap my arms around myself in a cocoon of safety. One beat. One footstep. Another beat. Another footstep.

I stiffen. A voice I know all too well having grown and been their friend once a bitter lifetime filters into my eardrums. He walks into peripheral vision.

"Well, well, look who we have here."