‹ Prequel: Just a Sip
Status: YAAAARRRR!!! ©AFos2011

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Kapitel Sechs

Rowan's POV

Sebastian didn't take long in washing up. I lazed around his room flipping through his comic book collection and strumming his guitar. He tried to teach me how to play one time but it resulted in me breaking one of the strings...instruments weren't my thing. I went to his bed deciding to help him out by stripping his dirt covered sheets.

"God what did he do? Have a mud pit at the gathering?" I mumbled flicking an ant from the pillow. His phone buzzed from the sheet pile. I bit my lip and searched for it before I Accidentally forgot about it and let it go through the washing machine. It buzzed a few more times. Finally finding it I couldn't help but glance at who the texts were from. Girls from school of course. A little strand of jealousy was tugged somewhere within me but I brushed it away. Sebastian spent all of his time with me anyway. His BEST friend.

Now his phone was ringing and the sink stopped running in the bathroom.

"Is my phone ringing?" Sebastian asked. It sounded like he was brushing his teeth. The caller ID said Markus. His elusive and rude cousin.

"Yeah, it's Markus." I yelled back, tempted to pick up and hang up just cause. The bathroom door opened and steam poured out, Sebastian emerged, a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair, still wet clung to his forehead as he lunged for my hand which had the phone. Picking up hurriedly, he put a hand up asking me to wait. I continued to strip the bed patiently, seeing a trail of blood on the sheets. The dark red stain was still fresh, it's tangy and almost animal smell assaulted my nose. I backed away quickly.

"Hello, Markus? Are you okay?" Sebastian asked worriedly retreating to the bathroom. Why wouldn't Markus be okay? I wondered looking again at the blood...what the hell was going on?

"You know I can't talk about it now...yes they're here...are you, uhm solid for good?" Sebastian continued, cracking the bathroom door. I gingerly picked the sheets up and laid them in a pile. Sebastian had finished on the phone and came back out, tossing the phone on his armchair.

"What happened?" I asked, while he stood there, I inspected his body for any injuries that linked to the blood on his bed. As he fumbled for an answer, I saw it. Lo and behold, a deep gash in his arm, it looked like something from the makeup trailer of a horror film set.

"Uhh, Markus was just drunk and screwing with my uncles motorcycle. He hurt himself." He said uncomfortably, goosebumps raised along along his chest. He noticed me looking at him strangely, and shrugged. "He should be coming back today, actually..." Sebastian went to his closet and closed the door so he could throw some clothes on.

"Why isn't Markus in school?" I asked trying to push Sebastian's injury from my mind. I didn't want to pry...too much.

"Well, he graduated early, and he was going to college...but got sidetracked I guess. He's really smart, was going to study medicine and everything, but just lost the drive."

I went to his bathroom to grab some more bedsheets where I knew the cleaning lady left them usually. There was blood all over the bathtub and seeping down the drain slowly, mixing with water and becoming a cloudy pink. I hastily grabbed the sheets, any sheets, and left the bathroom. The smell was sickening, like roadkill...like the dead rabbit I found.

I ran right into Sebastian on the way out. I yelped. He took the sheets from me.

"Why so jumpy? You act like you've seen a ghost or something." I shook my head, looking him in the eye.

"You wouldn't lie to me would you?" I asked, glancing at his arm which was now covered by his long sleeved flannel. His face reddened as he backed away and tossed the sheets on his bed.

"Of course not." He mumbled. I pointed at the tub behind me and looked at him.

"Then what happened to you? There's blood on your bed and in the bathtub? Are you hurt? Sick?" His face turned another shade of red. He sure did that a lot.

"No no, I just took a spin on the bike too and got awful road rash. I'm good." When he saw the hesitation on my face, he sighed. "I promise Row. I'm fine."

I walked towards him and touched the hurt arm, he flinched but didn't move away.

"Let me see." I ordered. He carefully rolled up his sleeve and let me examine it. Sure enough, he was fine, the wound was healing up and not as much of a flaming gouge as I had seen before. It was strange, he had healed like magic or something.

"Fine." I said letting him lower his sleeve as I crossed my arms. Though I wasn't so sure what I believed anymore anyway.

O O O

Sebastian and I headed down the stairs getting ready to go out to eat. His mother looked up at us from the couch and smiled cordially at me.

"Hello Rowan. How's your grandmother?" She asked sipping wine. Sebastian zipped his coat up loudly as if he were annoyed with his mom or something. I threw him a look.

"She's great Mrs. Gregor, she won first place in the fall festival for the pie you like so much." Mrs. Gregor nodded, pleased. She was so poised and perfect, it was shocking she could have a son Sebastian's age.

"Let's go." Sebastian grumbled opening the front door end getting ready to leave, but he was stopped short. "Markus...how did you get here so quickly?” Sebastian said opening the door wider. His cousin pushed past him excitedly, shirtless and covered in dirt. He had a wild and crazed look in his eye.

"I learned how to control it Sebastian! I can-" he noticed me standing there as Sebastian closed the cold air out by shutting the front door. Raising an eyebrow at me, Markus crossed his arms.

"Rowan. Fancy meeting you here." He said not waiting for a response and heading for the kitchen. Sebastian opened the door again, this time with a bit more urgency. It was like he didn't want me to speak with Markus...but I was curious. What was going on in Sebastian's life that I didn't know about? It can't be teenage angst, because we're way past that...I mean, we're graduating from high school in June! By the time I got to utter a "you too" to Markus, Sebastian was already outside and heading for the car.

"What the hell was he talking about? Your cousin looked like a nutter." I said once in the car. Sebastian cracked a real smile for the first time all day.

"I think it's about the stupid motorcycle again. He wants to make it his bitch." He laughed as I rolled my eyes. As we turned into the 59 diner, his face took on a serious look though, "But don't bother with him. He's trouble Rowan. He's got a lot of issues and I don't want him getting into your head."

Normally I would have scoffed and made a joke about it. But I thought back to the other day when I met Marcus. The look in his eye screamed don't fuck with me...and to be honest, I was a bit frightened after tonight...and I didn't even know why. Sebastian parked and made a light joke about the black bombers light again to get my mind off of the serious topic we just discussed, if I could even call Markus a "topic".

Heading straight for our usual booth in the back corner so we could talk we walked past people from our school. They were more interested in Sebastian but I waved kindly anyway. I always felt like a celebrity when I hung around him, I looked up at his handsome face and had a brief moment of relief. Why did he hang out with antisocial and weird me?

We slid into the booth across from each other, got our orders taken by some sophmore that was running for class president. I highly doubted he would win due to his status at school and nerdy looks, but I secretly rooted for him.

"Hey Rowan, did you get a chance to look at my platform?" Ethan asked nervously before leaving to give our order to the chef. He was referring to what he was going to do for the school if he won. He pushed his glasses high on his nose and scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I got a chance to look over them in English. I think they're great Ethan. If you don't win, the race was rigged." I said kindly. His face brightened.

"That's the nicest thing anyones said to me during the race." He said, blushing and bowing out to finish our order. Sebastian snorted.

"I think someone has a little crush." I shrugged and pushed the peppershaker around the table, pondering how I would manage to choke down the fries I ordered. It seemed as if eating food was becoming more of a challenge.

"Not everyone can be in love with YOU huh?" I retorted coolly. Sebastian put his hands up in surrender.

"Ouch. Don't kill me." He said pulling on the hoop under his nose. I clasped my hands together and smiled.

"So, tell me all about your trip." I said as Sebastian's face clammed up again.

Sebastian's POV

Rowan's grey eyes gave away nothing as I fumbled for an answer. What was I supposed to say??
"Oh, I had a great time, I got naked, ran around the forest as a wolf with my cousin and then blacked out gaining a nasty ass battle wound while I was in dreamland...as a wolf. Did you want to order dessert or skip tonight?"

"It was fun, my aunt Louise got too drunk again and mistook me for uncle Larry and tried to kiss me." I said embarrasedly, unfortunately this part was true. Rowan threw her head back and laughed, relieved that I took her mind off of anything serious.

"Isn't that the aunt that used to take you to soccer practice and leave you there way late so she could hit the bar?" She said wiping tears from her eyes. I put my head in my hands remembering this, ugh just another reminder at how my family sucked monumentally.

"What did you do while I was gone?" I asked, curious as to what she did when we weren't slumming it together. Now it was her turn to look a bit guilty...but for what? Playing with her long slender fingers she bit her lip.

"I saw them in real life." She said sheepishly. I knit my brows together and studied her face.

"Saw what?" I asked, now extremely intrigued.

"The wolves." She said leaning towards me. My stomach dropped.

"Wh-what? Where? When?" I hissed now leaning towards her. I felt nauseous. Is this where all of her suspiciousness came from? Did she know? Ethan came back with our food, causing us to separate quickly. He looked at us strangely.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, his voice cracking.

"Fine!" Rowan and I said in unison. Ethan's pimple covered face was etched with intrigue, but he didn't push anything further and he walked away. After he was gone, I fixed my gaze back on Rowan,

"Continue..." I said, anxious to hear what she had to say. Avoiding my eyes, she played with her fries. It seemed as if she never really ate, it was like she pushed her food around and then made it LOOK like she was eating.

"I made a new friend named May and her father studies wolves so she knows a lot about them. I wanted some information, since SOMEBODY wouldn’t indulge in my interest.”

I was about to protest but she gave me a stern look, so I clamped my mouth shut and folded my arms over my chest. She continued, smoothing her hair back against her bun.

“Anyway, we ended up going to the woods out by McCleary’s Pass and picked around for a bit. Apparently wolves gather there for some reason, so we only stayed for a few minutes and almost got ATTACKED by the same pack of wolves! It was just like my dream Sebastian…”

I couldn’t hide the horror on my face. I was appalled, she went LOOKING for the wolves?! My uncle or aunt could have ripped her and her nosy little friend’s throats out! My jaw clenched instinctively, what was with her creepy obsession with us? Couldn’t she just leave it alone? And now that she has this new friend, who knows what type of danger Rowan could get in. She was still rambling when I snapped out of my reverie.

“…and then out of nowhere this wolf saved us, he was the most majestic creature I had ever seen. I know I’ve seen him in my dreams before, his eyes were so familiar.” I looked down at my plate in silent relief, happy that she didn’t know anything about me or my family, but worried about her still.

“Rowan, you can’t do this anymore…you’ll get hurt, I promise.” I warned, pushing my plate away, I had lost my appetite. Rowan caught my gaze,

“Sebastian, I’ve got to find a connection or I’ll just go crazy.”

“Too late.” I mumbled leaning back into the tough leather back of the booth.

“You have to help me. Please, I just feel like, this is one thing I have control over in my life…” She trailed off, her eyes dropping to her hands. I couldn’t help but feel for her, this was something she felt strongly about obviously, and how could I deny her. But how could I help her without giving myself away?

“I think I have to get in touch with my mom.” She said taking a deep breath and shoving a fry in her mouth.
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Sorry this is a little short, but I'm trying! leave feedback if you'd like!<3