Monster

It has been a few days since the strange embrace that Paul had given to Shiori and instead of having her having the courage to come up to him and talk about what happened, she has been avoiding him. Her avoidance shouldn’t have hurt him as much as it did, but sadly it hurt like a motherfucker. His voice always got caught in his throat when he saw his beautiful imprint walking down the hall and once her soft brown eyes glanced his way, her footsteps became quicker as she practically ran away from him.

Clenching his jaw, his gaze followed her every move as she reopened her locker to gather her books in her hand. Paul wanted to walk over and help her, just when he was about to get the courage to do so, her so called boyfriend Dex caught her books with that idiotic smile.

He heard his corny joke that made Shiori laugh as she thanked him for being so kind, holding his hand, the couple walked the opposite direction. “Staring at your lover like the creeper you are?” Jared teased as he stood next to his best friend. Paul huffed as he muttered darkly, “Fuck off.”

When Paul decided to turn around from the incisive teasing he got from Jared, he walked away, “Oh come on Paul! Stop being so uptight! You aren’t to win over Shiori with you being so tense all the time.” That surely made him freeze in his tracks as Jared caught up with him, he stood right in front of his best friend to give him a perspective, “I understand that Shiori avoiding you has been bumming you out.”

“She always avoids me.”

Jared sighed before he continued, “Like I was saying, you can’t expect her to walk up to you in school, she will expect you to be the same jackass you always were to her. If you want to have her break that habit, go to her. That way her barriers will start to break down and the imprinting process will finally sink in for her. Shiori is already questioning herself with the looks she gives you…plus the guilt that crosses her face from time to time. Anyways, it will have her become closer to you and farther away from Dex.”

Paul’s fists clenched even tighter as the football star crossed his mind, no matter how close he wanted to be with her, it was her decision what she wanted him to do. Isn’t that what an imprint was supposed to be? Whatever the imprinted wanted? Either it was a friend, guardian, or lover, he had to abide by her wishes.

So far, he hoped that she would choose the last one, but for now he will look after her. Jared saw the emotions on his face as he shook his head at Paul’s stubbornness, “Why are you making it so much harder for yourself?” he muttered.

He knew that Paul would want to give Shiori her space and by coincidence have her come to him that will never work out. Shiori might get married to Dex before that happened, so that was when the role of best friend comes to play. Glancing at Paul, he walked away to find the short girl that was around her friends. When Jared saw Jacob sitting with Ronnie, Shiori, and Dex he knew that he was going to join the pack soon enough.

It was only a matter of time.

With a smile on his face, he inched closer with Ronnie catching Jared first, a frown etched on her face as she sneered, “What do you want Jared? Here to apologize for Paul’s rude behavior again?”

“Nope. I’m actually here to talk to Shiori in private.” His trained eye saw Shiori tense as Dex’s arm tightened around her waist while Jacob and Ronnie continued to frown. None of them can assume what he wanted and luckily, he was the nice one of the group so it was more likely that Shiori will follow him.

As if she read his mind, Shiori, released herself from Dex’s grip as she heard protests from her friends, “It’s okay. I’ll be right back. Besides, it’s just Jared.” That made the older werewolf smile as Shiori had the friendly smile she always had whenever she wasn’t around Paul. Stepping away from her group, she clasped her hands in front of her body as the beat of her heart started to accelerate.

“Is there something you wanted?” her low voice laced with worry and concern.

Jared licked his lips as he responded, “Don’t feel so tense, Ori. I’m the nice one remember?” Shiori looked uncomfortable as her nickname came out of his lips like they were old pals, they were never old pals. Shiori was has seen Jared from time to time and had him for some of her classes throughout the years and was famously known as the best friend of Paul Grey who has terrorized her for years. Now after Embry as gone off the deep end, she has been bumping into Jared and Paul a lot more frequently than she wanted to.

“Sorry, Embry talks about you a lot and that’s what he calls you by. It stuck.” He sheepishly smiled.

Watching the reaction of her mentioned friend, she frowned, it was has been a while since she has spoken to him. She watched Embry from time to time, but that was it. “Embry…talks about me?” she squeaked.

Jared’s eyes softened at the uncertainty, “Of course he talks about you. He loves you.” He knew that he was getting off track by bringing up an old friend, he can’t have her get any closer to Embry. She had to be pushed in the right direction which was Paul’s direction. “Anyways, I was thinking about something and I was wondering if you can help.”

That caught Shiori’s attention as her deep brown eyes peered up at the abnormally tall teen in front of her, “Oh? What do you need?” She was prepared for anything, money that he wanted to borrow to having her do something else that involved school.

“You see, Paul has been slacking off lately when it comes to homework and his grades has been dropping. His mom has been on him for the last month and a half, and since I know that he’s too stubborn to seek help, I was wondering if you can tutor him?” It was one way to have Shiori stuck with Paul and if that didn’t work then he had to come up with several different plans that involved Embry’s help as well.

Shiori looked uncertain as her body became frigid, “I-I don’t know. Paul doesn’t seem like the type that wants me to tutor him. Maybe you can?” her voice went up an octave at the last word, hoping and praying that Jared can squeeze in some time to spend some extra time with his friend.

It wasn’t like she didn’t like helping others, but Paul was different and seeing that she was still embarrassed about their encounter, it was highly unlikely for her to be comfortable around him alone.

“If I could, I would. I actually have work after school.” Jared frowned as he shrugged it off. He watched Shiori was she struggled to agree to the terms and finally after a little while of convincing, she did agree. “I have violin lessons after school so he would have to wait a bit afterwards.”

“He’ll go with you. That way you can get more work done.” Jared gave her that pearly smile as she gave him a stiff one back. Walking back towards his pack, Jared beamed as he grinned seeing his group of friends giving him a confused look while Paul was glaring.

“Stop trying to kill me with your laser beam eyes. Doesn’t work on me and besides, you should be grateful that I got you some time with your future girlfriend.” Plopping down across from his best friend.

Paul growled lowly, “I thought I told you to stay out of it?”

“If I did then you will never have Shiori. The rest is up to you, if you fuck up your chance with your imprint, it’s all on you now.”

“This should be a good thing, Paul. I mean, don’t you love her?” Embry added as he glanced back at his former group of friends. Embry’s eyes caught with Ronnie’s as her red painted lips were curved into a frown before turning away, muttering some obscenities to Shiori which scolded her for using such language that concerned their friend.

“Ex-friend, you mean.” Ronnie corrected her.

Embry sighed as he turned around to see that Paul was staring at Shiori once again without a single word.