Cursed

“Does it hurt?” Kieran asked suddenly as we sat outside on my porch, watching the sun set behind the trees.

“Is this the beginning of an awful pick-up line?” I questioned, giving him a disgusted face.

“Not this time! I’m trying to be serious!”

“And it’s still hilarious,” I said, chuckling before grabbing for his hand and cradling in between mine, smiling against the soft flesh as I pressed my lips against it.

“Jerk!” He cried. “But, I meant turning into a wolf.”

“Well… it used to,” I told him, looking thoughtfully at the trees. “Usually, we’re raised in the woods by wolves until we’re ten so we can learn their secrets.”

Kieran looked at me with wide eyes, genuinely shocked.

I laughed out loud at his face. “I was kidding.”

“Jesus Finn, just be your serious self or you’re gonna give me a heart attack; you’re too good at lying,” he groaned.

“Okay, well, usually we have to wait until we’re about sixteen or seventeen to be able to transform, it usually just… comes naturally. But we have to wait until then because our bones are still growing and we could really mess up our bodies,” I explained. “But no, it doesn’t hurt.”

He pouted before leaning into my shoulder. “You don’t need to get any taller, though,” he huffed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“So you really won’t fetch a stick for me?” Kieran whined as we were over at Shailey’s. Unfortunately, this felt like stepping into enemy territory, and it kind of was. However, Shailey’s parents invited us to dinner after school and I felt like if I declined and went home with Kieran, they might get slightly suspicious and I don’t want them to feel like they have anything to investigate.

Luckily, they didn’t ask anything weird from us which made me feel a lot better because maybe they really don’t suspect anything. But we still had to be on our guard.

“Kieran…,” I said in a warning tone.

“No fun, you’re no fun! Shailey, tell him he’s no fun!” Kieran whined, flopping onto his belly and throwing his hands dramatically in front of him.

“Finn, you’re no fun apparently,” Shailey giggled before sitting down on Kieran’s back causing him to groan.

“No! Get off get off! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“That’s what you think! Now I’m the queen,” she cackled evilly.

“Finnjamin! Help me!”

“I’m no fun, remember?” I said, smirking.

However, I pulled Shailey off of him. Then he lunged at me and said, “My knight in scraped armor!”

“What? Isn’t it ‘knight in shining armor?’”

“Nuh uh! It’s scraped because you had to fight a dragon,” he whispered. “And the hero gets a kiss for his heroic actions.”

I pushed him away a little. This could be pushing it to kiss while in the enemy’s territory. “Later,” I whispered.

“Actually, you guys might want to get going, it’s going on eight,” she informed us.

We said bye to her before heading over to my car that was parked in front of Shailey’s house. I had to take Kieran home so I might as well have taken it to Shailey’s house just down the road so I could be lazy about it.

But then Kieran pulled my hand into his and intertwined our fingers. It only lasted a moment before we had to part them to duck into the car.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Usually I’m not too much of a light sleeper despite my sensitive hearing so it was strange to wake up to urgent mumbles in the next room. I rolled over and out of my bed, stealthily landing on my feet before tiptoeing to the door to listen in.

“…saw Finn holding his hand,” I heard Shailey’s mom’s voice.

“We think they’re getting too close, you need to keep your son under control,” her dad chimed in.

I panicked inside as I realized that they had seen the two seconds of Kieran holding my hand to the car. It wasn’t enough for them to think we were doing anything more, but it was enough for them to tell my parents to do something about it.

“I don’t think they mean anything by it. You know Kieran is a touchy person,” my mom defended. I nearly sighed a breath of relief.

“We’ll be keeping an eye on them,” Dana said before I heard footsteps and the door slamming shut.

“Finn, you can come out now,” my dad said.

I probably should’ve known that they would sense I was listening. So I opened my door to surrender.

“You need to be more careful,” Mom said in a voice so quiet that only my father and I could hear, just in case Shailey’s parents were listening.

“I know, but… I think they’ve had a hunch all along,” I told her. “Mom, what if… what if they find out?”

My lip quivered as my mom cradled my face in her hands and pulled me into an embrace. “You know what your choices are. It’s Kieran’s and your decision to make. We’ll support you.”