What If You Stay?

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming my head off at the sight of the huge wolf. I didn’t know that wolves could get that big in reality. I looked around hoping to find a way to leave the beach to get home safe without getting attack and call Paul about not being here because of the wolf.

Before I could turn and make a run for it, the wolf turned around to disappear into woods. I let out a long breath of air that I hadn’t noticed that I was holding in during the time period. Planning on turning around and head home, but the sound of someone walking my way and someone calling my name and stayed where I was to turn back around to see Paul running in my direction from the same place where the wolf disappeared from.

“Colby!” Paul yelled running toward me with a smile on his face.

“What were you doing in the woods?” I asked when he reached me. He gave me a confused look, but something inside of me told me that he had to know what exactly I was talking about. “There was a huge and I mean huge wolf right where you came from. Didn’t you see it?”

“No.” Paul said quickly. “I didn’t see a wolf. You probably were just imagining things.”

“I was not imagining it, Paul. I swear it was right there, staring right at me. Why don’t you believe me?”

“It’s nothing.” Paul said looking away from me to scratch the back of his neck. I knew something was up.

“You’re hiding something.” I said backing away from him. Paul sighed looking back at me before nodding his head. I took another step back showing him that I wanted an answer. Paul took the chance to step forward reaching out for me to grip my arms so I couldn’t move away from him again. “Tell me.” I whispered.

“I’m afraid to.” Paul whispered back.

“Why?” I asked getting upset.

“I’m afraid of your reaction to it, Colby. I’m . . . I’m really beginning to like you and I don’t want to ruin anything.”

“Some relationship gets ruined by someone holding in because that was afraid to tell them the truth, Paul.”

“A relationship?” Paul asked smirking. “I didn’t say anything about a relationship.” I rolled my eyes punching him in the shoulder, which was a bad mistake because my hand started to throb in pain, but I kept my mouth shut about it. “Shit! You okay? Does your hand hurt?”

I stared at him as he took my hand that I punched him with to start examine it. How would he know if I got hurt if I tried to punch him? Yeah, something really is up with him and he won’t tell me.

“Stop the crap, Paul and just tell me already.” I snapped jerking my hand away.

Paul took a deep breath running a hand through his hair. We stood there a while, with me mostly staring at him harshly trying to get him to tell me what’s going on. Eventually, he took me by the hand, the good one, and pulled me into and through the woods until we reached an all familiar clearing. Paul let go of my hand when we reached the center, but continued to stay looking away from me.

“Paul,” I whispered. “You can tell me anything and I won’t get mad at you. I promise.”

Paul turned around to face me with a look that I couldn’t quiet read clearly. I stood there waiting for him to say something, anything, but then he did the unexpected. He took my face in his hands and pressed his lips against mine for a soft kiss. It took me a second to grasp what he was doing and started to kiss him back. I ran one of my hands through his short hair gripping the back of his head never wanting this kiss to end, my first kiss.

Paul moved one of his hands from my face to travel down my side to rest it on my hip before circling his arm around my waist. With my other hand, I curled my arm between the two of us, resting the hand against his chest feeling his heat calm the throbbing in my hand. We stood there for a few more minutes before I pulled away so we could catch our breath. I released my hand from his hair to circle down the side of his neck stopping at the nape of his neck. Kissing him, I had forgotten what we were talking about before.

“Colby?” Paul whispered pressing his forehead against my mine while smiling. I smiled back waiting for him to continue. “Will you . . . will you be my . . . girlfriend?”

If it was even possible, my smile widens hearing that question. I never had a boyfriend back in Tennessee, but I had a lot of guy friends, just not a guy I was attracted to like I was with Paul now. Instead of giving him a verbal answer, I leaned up on my toes to softly press my lips up against his for a quick peck before falling back down flat footed. I giggled at the look on Paul’s face which now held a goofy grin as he wrapped his other arm around me to pick me up to spin us around and I had to wrap my arms tightly around his neck from the amount of shock.

Paul set me back on my feet and I let out a little laugh before he pressed his lips back against mine. I happily kissed him back thinking to myself that this is the first time I’ve been happy since my mother’s death and possibly even before that. Pulling away with smiles on both of our faces, I cupped my hands against his cheeks. Sooner than I wanted, the smile on Paul’s face slowly began to disappear making me wondering what was wrong.

“Colby, there’s something that I need to tell you about me.” Paul said looking straight at me.

“What is it?” I asked with a smile on my face as I continued to cup his face.

“There is no other way to tell you this, but I’m . . . I’m a shapeshifter. I can phase into a wolf.”