Howl

  Chapter 8 – A Guy to Hate

  We must have driven for hours and Christopher didn’t even pull over once. By now, we had been driving for over 6 hours straight, we stopped for gas once, and when Chris went inside to pay, he made me go with him. When I asked to use the bathroom, he stood right outside the door only letting me out of his sight for the short time that was necessary. Not that I would have tried to escape anyways, I was already miles away from home and wouldn’t begin to know how to get back. The scenery had changed, and the weather grew colder too. Chris adjusted the temperature in the vehicle a few times already. I finally did sit back in my seat properly, but only out of desperation for sitting in a different position to try to stretch my legs. Chris and I didn’t say anything else to each other, and I had to admit the silence was getting to me.

  There was absolute nothingness out of the window of the car, just open fields, occasionally fields full of trees, but mostly just open fields. The lack of proper scenery annoyed me. And what was even more annoying was the lack of people on the road. It seemed like Christopher and I were completely alone in this world, and just when I became convinced of that theory, another car passed by. Chris cleared his throat after 5 hours of pure silence. “So… are you still going to the dance with me?”

  I gave a sarcastic laugh, “Hell no.”

  Chris grunted. “I really don’t understand why you’re so mad at me… at any rate, we’re stopping right down the road, next hotel.”

  That wasn’t enough information to keep me happy. I hated not knowing what was going to happen, and these past months it seemed like that’s all that my life was—completely unaware of what was going on right around me, and trying to grasp concepts that I couldn’t even begin to make sense of. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and to say the very least, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. I wanted to know more than anything what would happen. I wanted to know what Chris would say, I wanted to know if I would go back with my family, and I wanted to know what happened to this Dawson dude, and what happened to my school. The worst part was, deep down, I wanted Chris to put my mind at ease for at least most of these questions. Even though I hated the way he was acting, I wanted comfort from him, but I knew he wasn’t going to until we got to our destination.

  I spotted a couple of lights and buildings in the distance. It was already well beyond midnight. I let out a yawn; I didn’t realize how tired I actually was. Surely enough, a small town began to appear before my eyes. Not long later, Chris pulled the car into the parking lot of the nice-looking Lincoln Hotel. I was only too glad when the car came to a stop and I could open the door and actually stand up. Closing the car door, I stretched and let out another yawn. Chris got out of the vehicle too, I noticed he had a close eye on me. He was scared that I might attempt to make a run for it. But, honestly, I had no intentions of doing that. I was too tired, too confused, and too lost to even think about that. The hope that I clung to was he would bring me back after he was done talking to me—just like he said.

  Taking a quick look around the place, I followed Chris into the building. It was so quiet, there weren’t any cars going down the road, and there were no people in the distance. But, judging by how late it was—or how late it felt anyways—there should not have been a lot of people around anyways. But, I still found the entire situation eerie like one of those horror movies, and I half expected Chris to turn around wielding a knife and stabbing me to death or something. But he didn’t… yet, anyways.

  I didn’t do anything to make it look like Chris and I were together—or even make it look like we were acquaintances, I let my anger radiate out for the world to see only humoring him enough to stand in the same building that he stood in. He walked over to the concierge and I let him mind his own business as I stood in the middle of the lobby surveying the entire place. It wasn’t very large, and it wasn’t very notable either. The lobby couldn’t have been more than a 40 foot square, and the decorations were far from expensive, most appearing as though they were donated or something of the like, all of them mismatching.

  Not a moment later, Chris walked over towards me.

  “Come on,” he said leading the way down a hall.

  We didn’t walk long before Chris stopped in front of a room—room 208. He unlocked it with the card key he got from the concierge. He held out a hand offering me entrance first. Throwing a glair his way, I entered the room. It was a decent room; it had two single person beds in it, and a small television set—just enough for a person or two. I thought it was kind of odd that he got only one room for the two of us, and to be honest, it kind of bothered me. I didn’t like the idea of sleeping in the same room with someone whom I didn’t trust, though I suppose he didn’t trust me either.

  Chris took off his jacket and threw it on a bed, which missed and fell to the floor.

  “Make yourself at home; I’m going to go take a shower,” he said heading towards the bathroom. My jaw dropped. “The hell if you are!” I yelled grabbing his shoulder and yanked him around towards me, “I want some answers and I want them now!”

  Chris ran his hands through his hair, appearing lost at what to do for the moment, and then he sat down on the edge of the bed. I stood in the middle of the room waiting patiently for an answer. He opened his mouth, and then closed it again as if trying to find the right words to say what he needed to say.

  “Being a werewolf is hard enough without—”

  “Why can’t you just tell it to me like it is? You have to weave these entire long stories and comparisons that no one really needs. Just cut to the chase,” I shot at him.

  Christopher looked up at me completely annoyed, “I can cut to the chase, Halle, but you won’t like it, at all, you won’t believe me—take my word for it.”

  “What makes you think I won’t believe you?” I asked slightly offended.

  Chris raised his eyebrows questioningly, “Being a werewolf is hard enough without the added problems that humans cause.” He stared down at the floor. “Quite a few years ago—I should say decades—a werewolf decided to reveal himself to his best friend.” He gave a weak laugh. “I remember this story so well, my dad told it to me so many times—”

  “Your dad is a werewolf?” I just made sense of what he said.

  He looked up at me, “Now really isn’t the time for that story. But, yes, he’s a werewolf that is why my parents are not still together.” He cleared his throat, and I felt my own become dry. “It was 1954 and this guy—he had been a werewolf for quite a few years now, and he decided the share the secret with his best friend Luke Donavon.”

  “What was the guy’s name?” I wiped my sweaty hands on the sides of my jeans.

  “No one knew, he never lived ‘till morning. Luke Donavon killed him—they say as he was getting ready to rip him to shreds,” Christopher paused, “But I think Mr. Donavon killed him when he was in the process of transforming, when he was most weak and most vulnerable. Anyways, he learned enough to know that there were more werewolves in the world, and so he developed a small following. The Gregottas, is what they called themselves, which somehow translates into ‘The White-Pain Chasers’. They are werewolf chasers—destroyers. They are still around today—you saw the leader, Anthony Dawson.”

  I gave a small nod, it didn’t seem quite so bad, so what they were just werewolf chasers, like the police or something… my stomach lurched as I made that comparison, they were the police and I was the convict that did something wrong and here Chris and I were, the convicts, hiding away in this hotel.

  “They found out you were a werewolf and came after you. All they want is to kill you. Their job is to kill you. The only thing any of them think about is killing you. They will stop at nothing until you, and everyone around you is dead.” My breathing began to quicken, this kind of stuff didn’t happen to me. “They will murder your parents, they will murder your friends, and they will kill any person or thing that gets in their way.”

/>   I took in a shallow breath, “How did they find me? How do they know I’m a werewolf?”

  “When you went to the hospital, they got a hold of the records, I’m sure of it. They’re nearly the only people in the world that know about werewolves.”

  I wiped away the perspiration on my forehead; the scary thing was it wasn’t even hot in the room, “Then we have to go back to Wolf Point.”

  “No—”

  “They know where I live, they know where my parents are, and they know who my friends are.” I shook my hands back in forth in front of myself to emphasize my words.

  “Halle—”

  “We have to go back. Why did you take me away? They could be dead by now!” My eyes started filling up with tears thinking of all they different ways they could have murdered my family—and no one gave them warning, no one was there to give them warning. Worst still was the thought of being alone. The thought of not having them in this world with me… I wanted to be home. I wanted to be in the comfort of my house that my parents built and provided for me. More than anything right now, I just wanted to zap myself and instantly be home and no other option would satisfy me at this moment. I needed to see they were okay.

  I felt tears of frustration welling up in my eyes. Christopher stood up from the bed and wrapped his arms around me. I wanted to resist, but his safe arms were the security blanket I needed. I wrapped my arms around his waist. “They’re dead!” I whined hardly able to speak due to the burning in my throat.

  “They’re not,” Chris whispered above my ear. He stood there holding me for several minutes rubbing my back soothingly. I couldn’t stop the tears flowing from my eyes, the entire situation was entirely out of control and there was nothing I could do about it stuck here. I was so mad at Chris and I wished he would have told me earlier, because I never would have left that town, I would have gone kicking and screaming. At the same time, he was the only comfort that I had right now.

  Finally stifling my sobs, I took a step back from Chris and looked up at him waiting for him to say something else. He just looked back showing a great amount of sympathy for me. “Halle…” Chris started to say slowly. “It’s your decision whether to go back or not—” I tried to interrupt him, but he put up a finger to silence me. “But, I know you will automatically think let’s go back, but you have to look at all of the facts, is that really the best thing to do? It’s best to be tactful with the Gregottas. I’m going to go take a shower, while I’m in there, you think about everything, let it rot in your mind, and then think over it again. When I come out of the shower, I want your answer. Then I will tell you my thinking on the matter.” Chris turned around and walked into the bathroom. I let him go even though I had a lot I wanted to say to him. As soon as the door creaked closed it was pure silence. I wiped away some half dried tears from face attempting to make myself look presentable, even though I could only guess what I looked like. I heard the shower start up, and the peaceful sound of running water sounded in a muffled like way in the distance, filling up the background with nice sounds. It almost made it feel like everything was okay—but I knew very well it wasn’t. I didn’t know where to begin contemplating things. Yet again, Chris didn’t give me enough information, then again, I couldn’t quite place what part of the necessary information that he left out. I scurried over to the bed, and threw myself onto it. Looking above my head I looked out the window which was positioned between the beds. The night was so peaceful, I could have easily laid there and fallen off to sleep, but thinking of the reasons why I couldn’t was enough to keep me awake. I wanted to call my parents, to see if they were alright, they would know what to do; they would protect me just like they always did. I was so young, I didn’t deserve to die, I couldn’t make these decisions either. More importantly what were my choices? If I didn’t choose to go back, what were my choices? Running my hands through my smooth hair I kicked off my shoes listening to them as both of them thumped as they hit the floor. I wanted to see my parents more than anything. I smiled, how ironic, you have your parents perfectly in place and you don’t want to be anywhere near them, but then something happens and you want them to be there for you to pull you out of the mess. If they even still wanted me. If I told them I was a werewolf would they even still want me? After all, they already had the perfect child, Logan, they never actually needed me. The only thing I would be worried about is they probably already sent out search parties for me, or at the very least have the police looking for me—I just realized that would be another obstacle for me, staying away from the police and the Gregottas. But, my parents would not miss me; they would be fine without me. Scarlet has Rafael and the entire school; she didn’t even come to school and hang out with me half the time anyways. If someone turned me into a werewolf, and this has been happening for centuries, and if the Gregottas have been after them for almost just as long, then there must have been millions like me before—and probably millions after me, like some kind of never ending cycle. Thinking about that just disturbed me. I didn’t like the idea that, the Gregottas harming innocent people. It was like the flu. Being a werewolf could have been like the flu—anyone can catch it. If the Gregottas wanted to start getting rid of “dangerous” things then they should start locking away every person that has the flu, or even a disease. The idea of the entire thing was just completely and absolutely ridiculous. There was only one thing I could do, and I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew it was necessary. Wherever this path my lead, I had to go with Chris, my parents would miss me beyond anything, but I had to go, it was the best route for the entire situation. Really the best way would just be to make the entire situation disappear, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. This was my decision. Even though I didn’t trust him completely, he was right, he hadn’t done anything to make me think he was a liar, and maybe that was what scared me the most. I’d seen movies where plenty of bad guys sweet talk gullible girls like me and they don’t even realize it until the big, red danger sign starts flashing. I didn’t want to be one of those girls, but at the same time, I didn’t want to not believe anything he said and be caught off guard. I wanted to be safe rather than sorry, but my only problem was I didn’t know which way was safe and I had this feeling that no matter which way I choose I would end up sorry. Any way I chose, I would end up the loser, just like I always did. Growing tired of lying in the same position I sat up on the edge of the bed, I didn’t want things to be like this. I inhaled deeply attempting to clear my thoughts, rather than just think good ones, because I knew that all of the thoughts in my mind were not good ones. I heard the water turn off in the bathroom and it snapped me back to reality, I had almost forgotten that Chris was here with me. There were so many other things I could have been doing rather than sitting here in the middle of the night choosing between forks in the road. Part of me even blamed myself for being in this situation, but I knew the werewolf that bit me was really to be blamed… or maybe even my dad for insisting on taking me there in the first place. I really didn’t know who was to be blamed, there were a lot of people involved, but I did know I was not one of those people to be blamed. Certainly not me. The bathroom door creaked open and Christopher came sauntering out. He was definitely cleaner now—the man certainly did like to take his showers, which didn’t bother me at all, if there was one boy in the entire universe that actually liked to take baths, smell nice, and be clean, I definitely would not be the one to be complaining about it. He was dressed in different clothing now, sweat pants and a baggy black T-shirt. It was too bad I didn’t have any fresh clothes to change into. Chris sat down on the edge of the other bed. He fluffed his wet hair with his hand, and then he looked up at me noticing that I was watching him carefully. Suddenly, he wore this huge stupid grin. “You’re so serious,” he said giving a dumb lug laugh. I shook my head; yep he was a typical boy alright. I couldn’t help smiling in spite of myself. I think he knew I would, and I think that’s why he said that. “So, you?
??re still not going to the dance with me then?” he asked out of the blue. I laughed quietly, he certainly was determined; I made my face more serious, “No, I’m not going to the dance with you, Dude.” Chris raised his eyebrows, “So now I’m a dude?” I nodded, “Alright then, Dudette.” He held up a hand, “Okay, okay, I’ll take Dude.” “That’s what I thought,” I said staring down at my hands. The fingernail polish was chipped, and my nails were chewed, I think I chewed them all on the way to the hotel. Another of those glorious habits of mine. My hands looked like I had put them to work, they were thin and I could easily make out the bones in my fingers. To top it all off they had calluses on them and my skin was rough and dry to say the least. They didn’t always look like this though; they used to be among the smoothest of all of my friends, or anyone that I knew—even Mom’s, but since becoming a werewolf, there wasn’t really anything I could do to keep them that way. “What exactly are my options?” I asked knowing Chris was waiting for me to speak about it first. Chris shook his head, “I thought it was obvious.” I raised an eyebrow. “Obviously not.” Chris nodded. “You have basically two options. You can go back to Wolf Point, pretend this never happened, hope you don’t get killed—or anyone else for that matter. Or, you can leave Wolf Point and hopefully throw the Gregottas off track.” I gave a frustrated sigh. Was this really what I wanted to do? Did I want to leave Wolf Point? No. I didn’t. I really didn’t want to, but it was something that I needed to do. “Okay, we’ll go with option two… we’ll leave.” Chris let out a large breath, apparently he had been holding his breath; I guess I chose the right answer to please him. I shook my head, and pulling me knees up on the bed in front of me to hug, I rested my chin on them. “Now what?” I asked in more of a ‘talking to myself’ way. “There’s a lot of things we could do. We know we’re leaving. We know we’re going far away. We know we’re hiding from them. But, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do—I think it’s the best way to explain this. I’m going to take you to a safe place, make sure you’re alright, and leave to go find the Gregottas warren. With Anthony being gone looking for you, it’ll be only too easy to sneak in under security and weaken the Gregottas.” “How’s that going to work?” I said skeptically. It sounded like a stupid half-baked plan that he came up with on spot. Christopher scurried over to the edge of my bed, squatting down to my height in front of me. “Look at it this way: if someone were to jump through that window right there at you—” He pointed at the window. I turned around to attempt to create a rough image of what he was talking about in my mind. “—you would be totally shocked, probably stand before fighting.” Christopher turned in the opposite direction, “If someone were to come through that door, you would see them, and you would not need to move to fight them. First reaction would be to fight them before even moving an inch. Do you see what I mean?” Chris stood. I looked up at him like I thought he was crazy. “Uh, yeah?” “Well, you have a better picture than you did before,” Chris said, putting his hands on his hips. “Anyways...” He sat back down on his bed. “After weakening the Gregottas I’ll go straight for Anthony, and if I get him, there won’t be any more Gregottas.” I nodded agreeably. “I like the sound of that.” Chris nodded too. “So do I.” After a moments pause he continued, “Halle, you can come with me if you want.” I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, Chris continued, “I would love it if you came with me. Instead of staying put at wherever, you could come with me. There is power in numbers. If you could help me destroy the Gregottas, I would be in your debt.” I blinked a couple of times attempting to rid myself of my current shocked expression. Come with him and what—did he plan on killing Anthony Dawson? I didn’t want to be a part of that—well I did, I wanted the Gregottas gone, but I didn’t want to be a murderer. “You don’t have to decide now, just let me know when you do,” Chris said standing. He walked to the other side of the bed, pulled down the covers, and got in. I think he knew that I had no idea what to do. There was no way I could have given him an answer on something like that right then and there. It was impossible. I was simply too tired to think about anything else, and I knew by forcing myself to would only cause me to pick the wrong decision. On that note, it made me wonder if I was doing the right thing by choosing to leave Wolf Point. “What about the Principal’s car?” I asked suddenly remembering our mode of transportation. Chris shrugged. “He’ll understand.” I nodded, I knew what that meant. The Principal probably would not understand, and Chris really didn’t care at all. That’s exactly what that meant. Chapter 9 – I Need a Sign Please tell me I’m doing the right thing! I begged myself silently in my mind as I stared up into the running water coming from the showerhead. Please don’t let me regret this! Last night felt like a vaguely remembered dream, but it was the only reason I could remember for being here in this hotel. No other reason came to mind. So I accepted it as truth. I slept a short while last night, but upon waking a single time I couldn’t get back to sleep, which led me to being here, taking a shower, waiting for Christopher to wake up—lucky him, he could actually sleep. I had no idea what time it was, there were no clocks in the room—none what so ever. It was still mostly dark though, so I assumed it was around four or five in the morning, but I couldn’t be sure. I was inclined to go and leave the hotel to explore the perimeter, but to be honest; I really didn’t want to put myself in any more danger. I half expected the Gregottas to jump out behind me, and that’s why I stayed put. One thing I didn’t need any more of was drama. Turning the knob on the shower, the flowing water ceased. I opened the shower door and grabbed a towel off the rack as I walked by. It was a shame I had to put the same clothes back on again. I wondered where Chris got all of his money at. He buys a house; he gets a nice hotel room. It would not have been strange but, he doesn’t work, and he’s only 17, which is what made it weird. Maybe he just stole it too, like the principal’s car. After dressing, I opened up the bathroom door quietly and slid out. “Ready to go?” Christopher’s voice startled me. “Not running away are you?” Christopher teased. “I thought you were sleeping.” I edged my way around him and over to my shoes. “I was, but I’m not anymore.” I noticed Chris was now dressed in some sort of preppy, striped shirt, paired with dark wash jeans. He looked different from what I was used to him looking like. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was just different. I did find it slightly unfair that he had several changes of clothing, but I had none. He was standing in the corner of the room messing with his hair in the mirror. “Where did you get all those from?” I said motioning towards his clothes. Chris looked down at himself. “What the clothes? I’m always prepared; I knew the Gregottas would come eventually.” I nodded my head. That would explain it. “You could have warned me you know. I might be decently dressed then.” He turned away from the mirror and looked me up and down. “You look decently dressed to me.” Then he turned back to the mirror. “The bigger question is how you smell.” My eyes grew big. Did he really just say that? Yes, he did. He turned towards me wearing a huge smile. “I’m just kidding. You smell fine,” he said upon seeing my face. After tying the final shoe lace on my tennis shoes, I stood and walked over towards the window in between the two beds, and I looked out it. It certainly looked like a small town. It seemed more pleasant than it did in the day time, but it still certainly was a small town indeed. There were a few houses, a few buildings, and a road one way; other than that it was trees and open fields—nothing else really. It seemed even smaller than Wolf Point. “Ready to go?” I turned my head towards Christopher. “Yeah.” It really was a nice little town though; it was too bad we had to leave so soon. Chris walked out of the room and into the open hall way. Taking one last glance around the room, I followed. I couldn’t get the images out of my mind of what could be going on in Wolf Point with my parents and my school. I thought of the best possible outcome—they forgot about me completely. I also thought of the worst possible outcome—my par
ents and friends are all dead. I was almost sure that nothing bad had come to my parents, and I had a feeling that the entire situation’s after effects were somewhere in between my guesses. I headed out to the car while Chris returned the keys to the concierge. The doors were locked so I couldn’t get in until Chris came to unlock it. The air smelled fresh and clean—like early, early morning air should smell. The only difference I noticed was the heavy scent of pine mixed in with the crisp air. Taking a look around I noticed where the scent came from. The entire area was surrounded with pine trees, even more than in Wolf Point. Glancing over towards the hotel I saw Chris heading over towards me, his stride was something to be admired for. He walked like he was sure of himself, but at the same time he looked conservative. I was clueless as to how he pulled it off. Even I had to admit, he was exceedingly good looking, and I was sure it wasn’t just because he changed his style of clothing and hair. “Are you read to go?” I had to snap myself back to reality when Chris reached the other side of the vehicle. “Yeah,” I said as if it was obvious. “Open the door.” Christopher didn’t make any motion to open the door, but he did have the key in his hand. “You’re sure you want to do this? After you get in the vehicle there’s no turning back.” Without waiting to see my response he climbed into the vehicle and all of the locks popped up. I looked towards the sky but closed my eyes as I found the sunlight too bright. No turning back, I told myself and swung open the car door and threw myself in. Chapter 10 – On the Road Again “Where are we going anyways?” I asked attempting to avoid the bright sun which glared in through the windshield. It was late now, we had been driving all day, unlike last night though, he actually did stop a few times. Which made it a pretty decent road trip overall. “New Mexico,” Christopher said in a dreading sort of way. “New Mexico?” I questioned. He glanced at me. “Yes.” “Why on God’s green earth are we going to New Mexico?” I asked shocked at the destination. I never actually thought of New Mexico as a travel destination before, it might have been one of the last places I’d ever go on the earth. “What is there in New Mexico, Aliens?” I continued the list in my head, Aliens, sharp plants called “cacti”, and barren land. That is what there was in New Mexico. Christopher chuckled. “You would be referring to Roswell, New Mexico.” “Uh, yeah, any other place with aliens?” I said as if it was obvious. I didn’t want to go to New Mexico. If he would have told me this back at the hotel I might have actually decided to stay. “Can’t we go somewhere else?” “No,” he said, seriously. “New Mexico has a lot of art, it’s a cool place, I’ve been there a few times. Not only is it a great place to hide out, but it’s safe. You have Texas to the east, Colorado to the north and Arizona to the west.” I narrowed my eyes. “And a list of bordering states are supposed to make New Mexico good… why?” “Well, Arizona really doesn’t have a purpose, they’re just… there. But, my dad’s in Colorado, so if there’s any trouble, with the Gregottas, he can be down there quick.” I rested my head on the back of the seat. “So, what, I’m under this type of werewolf protection or something?” Chris glanced towards me nodding. “Uh, yeah, basically.” “Great,” I said sarcastically. I looked out the window, everything looked so different, the plants and the trees, it was really starting to get to me. “What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?” Chris asked suddenly. “Uh,” I muttered, thinking back. “I went to California when I was like three or something, but I don’t remember it.” Chris nodded. “So you don’t get around often.” I brushed the hair from my face. “No, not particularly.” “Well...” Chris gave a dry cough. “Consider this your adventure then.” “Great comparison,” I said with sarcasm. Chris turned the car into a gas station. “I’m going to fill up the tank. You go inside and grab some snackage.” “Snackage?” I questioned, it was definitely one of the strangest words I’ve ever heard. “Oh, I forgot, you don’t get around much, that translates into snacks.” The car came to a stop and Chris pulled a leather wallet out of his jeans pocket. “Here.” He handed me a wad of money. “Don’t forget to buy food for me too.” I snickered. “Would I do that?” He looked at me skeptically. “Would you?” I opened up the car door, and counted the cash, 20, 20, 20—60 dollars—60 dollars for food. Again, I wondered where he got all the money from. I would find out later, that’s what I told myself, and I continued into the convenience store. I saw a bunch of bananas and thought about grabbing them, but decided against it. I turned down a row and headed straight for the soda machine—perfect, a big oversized soda for the trip. I got two of those, and filled both of them up with your basic soda wondering what Chris might like. I headed down another row, grabbed a loaf of white bread—then I needed something to put on it, so I searched around. I found peanut butter and a jar of jam, but the thought of eating nothing more than sweet food after sweet food annoyed me, so I searched for something salty. I turned the corner and headed down the next row. I didn’t really like the idea of shopping for food, every time I looked at something all I could think about was how many calories it had in it. But, I managed to surpass the calories and just think about what Chris might like to eat. I was going to head down the very last row, when I found a large snack bar hidden in the back, pizza, hot dogs, and nachos. Hot dogs and nachos do tend to become all soggy after awhile—and though pizza did too, it could last for a couple of days. I approached. “Can I help you?” The worker behind the snack bar asked. “Yeah, I’ll take three large pizzas,” I said. The worker looked at me strangely before complying. A moment later I had three pizzas all boxed in my hands, and I was almost unable to carry everything—a sure sign it was time to checkout. I headed towards the checkout almost dropping one of the sodas, and completely dropping the jar of peanut butter. It rolled all the way to the front counter. I was glad the store was almost empty and there was no one in line at the check out. I put the stuff down on the counter and picked up the strayed jar of peanut butter. Upon standing I noticed a display with candy bars. I grabbed a couple of them randomly and put them up on the counter too. The cashier started ringing the things up. I took a second glance around the place just to be sure nothing else caught my eye that we might need. I did a double take as I noticed Chris standing in the parking lot talking to some guy. I noticed right away that the guy wasn’t very well kempt; his grizzly, black hair was overdue for a trim, and, on that note, overdue for a brush as well. I turned my attention back to the cashier who just rang up the last of the items. I handed two of the twenties to the cashier. He slowly put them into the cash register and reached for a five and pulled it out, but not without great difficulty pulling it away from the rest of the rest of the money in there. It seemed like he was taking so long, but maybe it was just because of my curiosity to go and see what Chris was up to. Grabbing the now bagged, and easier to carry items—and the sodas, off of the counter, I walked out the door and over towards Chris. Getting a better look, the guy talking to Chris seemed to be around his age, but I still didn’t like the look of him. The guy nodded towards me in either acknowledgement or as a warning to Chris for whatever they were talking about. “That your girlfriend?” I heard him ask Chris. Chris glanced nervously at me. “No, this is Halle,” he corrected quickly. “Ah...” The guy took a step closer to me. “I’m Evan.” He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

  I passed the soda that I was holding to my other hand, and my left hand now held everything. I shook his hand, he had a firm grip making my own seem weak and feeble. I always thought shaking people’s hands were a weird way to meet new people. Often times if it was left up to me, shaking the person’s hand was one of the last things I would think of doing. I just thought it was weird; I did humor those who want to shake my hand though. “Nice to meet you, Evan,” I said taking my hand back. “Cool,” he said stepping back, “Well, I’m just going to go get a soda—Halle made it look good—then we can get going.” He took off walking at a semi-quick pace towards the store. I opened my
mouth to speak to Chris, but before I could say anything he spoke as if reading my mind, “Evan is coming with us, he’s headed over to my dad’s house, so we’ll stop by there on the way.” I dropped my jaw and glared at Chris. I was just thinking how relaxing the trip was, it wasn’t really like a getaway at all, it was more like a road trip. But now I was sure things were going to be terrible. Who was this guy anyways? “I’ve known him for awhile,” Chris said almost as though he read my mind. “He knows about werewolves.” It surprised me that he didn’t even check to see if anyone was listening before he said that. “We’ve been friends since I was a kid.” I nodded. “Oh.” I handed the soda to him. “Here.” I grabbed whatever was left from the previous purchase in my pocket and handed it to him. “No,” he said. “You keep it. You’ll need it more than I will.” I shrugged and shoved the money back into my pocket. Walking around to the other side of the car I set the food in between the front seats careful not to mess up the pizza, and then I sat down in the seat closing the door. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home more than I could have ever remembered wanting to go home before. I reached in my jeans pocket pulling out my cell phone. I held down the on/off button attempting to revive it from its dead-battery grave, to be able to squeeze out a little, tiny bit of battery life—just enough for the phone to dial through to show on my parent’s answering machine that I called, to let them know that I was okay. The cell phone flickered to life; I cursed myself for not taking off the start up sound. Chris turned around and looked at me, suddenly I felt like someone who had been kidnapped attempting to make a phone call for help. He looked at me, but made no motion to stop me, and then he turned back around as Evan approached. Before I could even get to the main screen, the phone flickered off again and died. I scowled and shoved the phone back into my pocket and put my seat belt on. “Road trip!” I heard Evan yell; he slammed his hand down on the top of car and jumped up in the air. Oh, God, what did I get myself into? He was like a college boy—but worse! He was loud, annoying, obnoxious, and I knew when he found the pizza—which I knew that would be the first the he would go for—it would be devoured in two seconds flat. I didn’t want to go anymore; at this point I would have rather walked all the way to New Mexico rather than ride in the same vehicle with Evan. Evan opened up the back car door and threw himself in, the car shook as a result. The moment the car door closed I smelt a raunchy scent and realized it was coming from the back seat—it was coming from Evan. It was a cross between old, soured milk, and body odor. Chris opened up the driver’s side door and paused as he saw the nasty look on my face, and then proceeded to climb into the car slowly. He started up the vehicle and headed out of the parking lot. “Dude!” Evan yelled. “Is that pizza? This is gonna be the bomb!” Chris let out a small laugh finding amusement with Evan and shook his head. I tilted my head back and hit it on the back of the headrest a few times—hopefully I’d knock myself out so I would not have to deal with the two of them. He was just too much of everything for me to handle—too loud, too happy, too stinky. We traveled for the rest of the day, and there wasn’t a moment of silence since Evan entered the vehicle. He was a never ending fountain of stupid questions; the worst part was 99% of them were all directed at me, so I had to find an answer to give him. I knew I would not be able to humor him long on this trip.

  Evan finally fell asleep after what seemed like hours. Chris planned on driving all night without stopping and the idea didn’t really appeal to me. I didn’t trust him enough to let him drive when I knew he was tired, and when I couldn’t even hardly keep my eyes open. But, I did manage to keep my eyes open; I really refused to sleep so I could keep an eye on him. I waited for him to fall asleep at the wheel; I knew he would do it at any second. “Why aren’t we stopping again?” I let out a yawn as if proving a point. Chris didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Quite a few reasons, mainly because money doesn’t grow on trees.” I sat up a little straighter in the seat attempting to force myself to stay awake. “Yeah, but is that really a reason? I have twenty bucks!” I offered. Chris chuckled quietly. “You’re going to need it. Just hold onto it and go to sleep, you’ll see, it’s not so bad, the car is pretty cushy.” I didn’t say anything; I didn’t want to go to sleep. I couldn’t go to sleep. Suddenly the thoughts of my mom flooded my mind. She would not approve of what I chose to do. She would not approve of who I’m riding in a car with. She certainly would not approve of the destination, let alone what we’ve done to get where we are. Everything we did was unreal. All we have been though and it all happened just yesterday. Here we were in the middle of the United States. Where? I had no idea. With two people whom I hardly knew, and my biggest concern was staying awake. How ridiculous. I knew I would not have been thinking about any of this had I been asleep by now and well rested. But it was all I had to do to keep myself awake—mentally and physically. The car started slowing down and the change in pace made me more awake. I looked ahead and noticed a small rest stop ahead. It looked totally abandoned, no one was around it anywhere—no cars, no people. There was a cute little Ramada with a couple of tables under it, but it wasn’t anything too fancy. It looked more like a little park than a rest stop with all of the grass surrounding it, but that made it more peaceful looking. The car came too a stop and Chris turned off the engine. Everything was so quiet all of a sudden, except for Evan’s obnoxious snoring—too bad that had to ruin perfectly good silence. Christopher got out of the vehicle and headed straight for the bathrooms. I got out of the vehicle slowly, careful not to slam the door too hard and wake up Evan. That was the last thing I needed. I walked slowly across the grass, and over to the tables under the Ramada. It felt good to get out and stretch my legs, it felt like I hadn’t used them in ages. It was such a nice night. The stars were out and the sky was clear. It was a lot warmer than what I was used to at this time of year, so I found that strange, but that made the night only better. The grass felt like it had been freshly watered; as I walked water droplets sunk into my shoes. The air was fresh and nice though, so it didn’t really matter. Soon my feet found the pavement under the Ramada, and I found the sturdy cement tables to lean up against—the last thing I wanted was to sit, which I knew I would have to do eventually. There was a nice eucalyptus tree to the left of the Ramada which was nice, I could imagine that it would allow for a block to the sunlight in the daytime, as well as allow for a small bit of privacy from those traveling down the road. A few moments later, Chris walked out of the bathroom and over to me. He didn’t look as tired as I thought he should have, he barely showed any weariness at all. It annoyed me that I couldn’t be more like him. I knew I probably looked like I was going to fall over and go to sleep on the pavement at any given second. I stepped aside a few steps as Chris climbed up on the table and sat down on the edge next to me. “Nice night,” he commented. “Yeah, sure is,” I said in agreement. “Would be better with pizza.” Chris chuckled climbing down from the table, “It certainly would.” I watched him walk all the way over to the car and back again. The moonlight shown in his hair giving a blue-grey tinge to it. Blue was definitely one of his good colors—not saying that his hair should have been blue or anything, it’s just to say that he looked good is all. I took in a deep breath and filled my lungs up with the cool night air. Chris slammed the car door closed a little bit harder than I would have dared, and then he turned around and headed back towards me carrying a box of pizza. “No fear of Pizza Monster waking up and devouring the pizza like he did erlier—eh?” I yelled to Chris referring to Evan. I could see Chris smile even from a distance, “You could move a mountain while he was sleeping on top of it and he would not even stir,” Chris said. Chris set the pizza down on the table. I turned around only too glad to open up the box and grab a slice. I knew I wasn’t really hungry—more tired than hungry, and I had a feeling he felt the same way too. “So in other words he’s like my brother,” I said thinking of him, I actually started to miss him and the way he charmed my
parents with his perfect ways. Chris nodded nibbling the tip off his pizza, “Yeah, basically.” He devoured his entire slice of pizza in almost two bites. He couldn’t take his eyes off me as always, the only difference between now and before was I actually pretended not to notice now. I finished off my slice of pizza now, and seeing that Chris was done eating the pizza too, I closed the box to save the remainder for later. I let out a yawn that I was attempting to hold back. “Not tired are you?” Chris teased knowing very well that I was. Sometimes I thought he did it on purpose—keeping me up all night worrying about his driving skills. I hopped up on the edge of the table scooting to the edge, “Me tired? Werewolves don’t get tired when there’s plenty of moonlight to waste time in.” Chris nodded obviously humoring me, “This is true.” Christopher moved in front of me, and before I knew what was happening, he planted a kiss on my lips. His lips were soft, unlike mine which had been chapped from the cold, dry weather Wolf Point had been having in the previous weeks. I rested my hand on his strong shoulder, and he held me close with his free arm. It was almost like the kiss that had been burning up inside of the both of us, building and growing, was finally released. It felt like seconds, but I knew it was minutes later that we finally ceased. Chris looked into my eyes as if trying to read my reaction, I think he knew I accepted the kiss and along with that his heart. I only hoped that he would hold my heart in the same regard.

  I searched in my mind for something to say, but everything I could think of was cheesy and awkward. I hoped Chris would say something—anything, even if it was awkward, but after continued moments of silence he said nothing. I realized there was nothing to say. The kiss had said it all. Chris still stood opposite me; it looked like he was trying to figure out if he had done something wrong or not. Without thinking, I approached kissing him again. I wrapped one arm around his neck and the other around his waist. He wrapped both arms around me.

  I pulled away and looked up into his face feeling comforted for the first time in a long time. I laid my head down on his shoulder, he was so warm and strong it felt like he was there to protect me and only me, but there to harm everyone else that got in our way.

  Chris looked down at me, “Still not going to the dance with me?”

  I let out a laugh, “No,” I teased.

  Chris let out a sarcastic frustrated sigh, “What will I ever have to do with you then?”

  “I’ll leave that for you to figure out,” I said mischievously. I took a step back, grabbed his hand, and headed towards the car.