Under the Giant Oak

I was seriously pissed. I had a protection pact put on me, by Ronnie. Ronnie! I seriously am starting to hate him with all of my puny heart. I had stormed out of math after Monte told me this little piece of information to find that guys stupid ass.

I didn't exactly look too hard, so I didn't exactly find him. I just walked around the school building for a little bit before I decided to just leave school. Nothing was really keeping me here. I didn't have friends. I finished my work for all my classes. I could always get the work tomorrow. So, I definitely had nothing keeping me here.

I walked to the park that is my stop where ever I go. The swing set under the giant dead oak was my favorite place. The park was desolate. No one was here during school hours. It was mostly for kids anyways with the jungle gym, the swings, and the slides. The breeze was calm causing the swings to groan and squeak with the sudden movement. It had a kinda eerie feeling really. The tall trees shadow were casted over the entire park, and it already had an overcast. The swings swayed in the wind, and the leaves rustled.

I sat on the swings kicking my feet in the dirt. This place reminded my of my mom. She always took me here when I was a kid before she . . .I haven't seen her in a while, that's it. I just haven't seen her. We had so much fun before everything turned sour. When everything changed.

I used to be a good person. I never cursed. I never lied. I would answer people's questions if they asked. I was pretty much a perfect fertile. But, that was before not now. Now I was mean and bitter and I was the farthest thing from a good fertile.

I don't know what happened. Well, i did. I just didn't understand why. I used to be happy. Now all I can think about is how long until I die. That was when I could be truly happy again.

"Hi." Someone whispered. I looked over and saw Ronnie staring at the dirt. He had blood on his clothes, and looked like he just went for a mile hike.

"Hi." I whispered back not willing to speak any louder and break the some what silence.

"I know you know." He said sitting down to the swing next to mine.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Aren't you even the littlest bit curious?" He asked. I kicked the dirt some more. Did I want to know?

"No." I replied.

"Why not? Normal people would."

"You're just going to get me hurt."

"How?" He asked shocked.

"You seem like a guy people get mad at easily. I'm the type of guy that is an easy target. If we start being friends, or if we start needing each other for some bizarre reason, people will try to get back at you through me because they know it will get to you." I explained.

"I wouldn't let that happen though. Besides any doms would try to protect you if they saw you in trouble." I stifled a laugh. It was a humorless, and forced. I didn't have a real laugh left in me.

"You're so blissfully naive, Ronnie. I miss those days."

"Now what are you talking about now?" He asked.

"You automatically assume that every dom cares about every fertile. Well, they don't. The doms from my school just walk by when they see my bleeding on the ground. Hell, I even got hit by one once. Broke my jaw for like two weeks. Even the fastest healer in the world couldn't heal quick after a hit like that."

"A dom hit you?" He asked extremely pissed all of a sudden.

"Yep. It isn't that uncommon for me to get beat up, and that's why we can't be friends or anything else." I sighed staring at the sky.

"What if I want to be your friend?" He whispered.

"I don't have friends. I have people who beat me and people who watch."

"I could change that."

"Why would you want to?

"I can't just help a guy out?" He asked in reply.

"People aren't this interested in someone else unless they want something. So, the question is what do you want?"

"I want something that you don't seem to want to give me." I looked over to him. He was staring into the forest across the way. He seemed to be thinking about something really hard.

"And what's that?" I asked again.

"You." He said deadly serious. He stopped staring into the forest to look at my reaction. I honestly didn't have one. My brain didn't seem to process to the information correctly.

"What?" I asked genuinely confused.

"I want you, Max.. Not as a friend or math partner. I want you as a mate." He said like he was talking to a five year old. I understood him perfectly fine this time. I just didn't know what to say. People don't usually tell other people this after knowing them for a day and a half, and no one has ever said it to me at all. I never thought anyone would actually.

"No you don't." I denied. "You're just confused. Maybe you caught a scent in the hall way and you thought it was me, but it wasn't. You don't want me as your mate, you just don't."

"It doesn't really work that way, Max, and I think I would know who my mate is."

"I'm not your mate. I'm a nobody. I don't matter." I scrambled standing up and pacing around the swing area.

"Yes, you do, and you are my mate. You'll figure it out soon enough."

"No, no I won't. Why are you telling me this? Why are you trying to get me to react to something that isn't true?"

"It is true. You're my mate, and I'm telling you this because you have a right to know. I thought you would rather get to know me instead of figuring out on the day of the ceremony." He said calmly. He seemed like he knew this was going to happen. That I was going to flip out.

"How do you know I'm your mate? You could be getting me confused with someone else. I'm easily confusable, you know. You have to be getting me confused." I said muttering each word more and more. He sighed.

"There's something that fertiles aren't supposed to know for good reasons." He started. "You don't figure out your true mate until you bite them and your mark appears, but doms just can't go around biting everyone. So, the elders invented the mating ceremony. I don't know how exactly they know everyone's mates, but they haven't been wrong yet." He paused for a minute.

"Well, the elders also had another genius idea that said people would kinda freak out if they just got two random strangers together, and said you're mates, now move in and mark them. They decided that they were going to tell them dom who they're mate was three weeks before the ceremony, so they could court their future mate. They give you this piece of paper with a name on. Mine said 'Max Green'. That's why I asked you about your name the first time we talked." He continued. I stopped pacing.

I didn't know what to think. He had to be lying. He can't be telling me the truth. He just can't. I was perfectly fine before I met him. I got up, went to school, got beat up, went home, went to work, and then failed at trying to sleep. Then, he comes and tells me this a day after we met, and there was a part of me that believed him. That's what scared me.

"Max? You okay?" Ronnie asked.

"Am I okay? Am I okay?! No! I'm not okay. You can't just tell someone this, and expect them to be okay. You can't just say something and get someone's hopes up, and, and-" I stopped. I started pacing again. I bit my lip. And what? What was I going to say? And then leave them. And then let them fall in love with you. And what? I couldn't even answer my own questions.

"I didn't expect you to just accept it, but I thought someone like you would be a little happier to finally have someone in there life." I stopped dead in my tracks. He seemed sincere on what he said, not knowing of what he just said.

"What do you know about me exactly?" I asked.

"Well, I kinda asked around about you, and I heard the rumors." He said looking down.

"What rumors?" I asked. I didn't know there was rumors about me. I thought no one cared about me even enough to acknowledge my presence.

"You know the ones were you live by yourself in a run down building, and how your parents died and you ran away from every home someone tried to put you in." He seemed upset while he was saying this. I don't know why. He shouldn't care about my life. Though most of that was a lie.

"Most of that isn't true. You saw my place. It isn't a run down building, and my parents didn't die. I was never put in any homes, but I ran away once. Came back though." I explained.

"Do you live by yourself though?"

"That's non of your concern."

"So, you do?" He asked again.

"Like I said, it's non of your concern. Now, I have to leave. I have to go to work." I mumbled in a trance.

"You work?" He asked.

"What?"

"You said that you work. Feriltes aren't supposed to work." He said.

"Yeah well, some one has to pay my bills. Unless, you're offering?" I suggested.

"If I did, would you quit?"

"I can't I have a contract." I lied.

"Where do you work?" He asked.

"Some where."

"Where?" He asked again.

"At a club."

"Where, Max?" He asked again standing up and walking towards me. He was seriously pissed right now, but so was I, and I was stubborn like an ass.

"At a club, as a bar tender, Ronald." I said. He was standing right in front of me, and he was quite a bit taller than me. But, I'm a fighter. I always get the first punch.

"Don't call me Ronald." He snarled.

"Don't question me, and I can call you what ever I like, Ronald." I mocked. He seemed like he was at that stage when i usually was going to get hit in the face, but he seemed to control himself well enough.

"Then just tell me where."

"I told you. At a club."

"Which one?"

"The one down main."

"That narrows it down to about ten clubs, but just four with bars. So, which one?" He asked again.

"One that I've never seen you in." He face twitched for a second, and something dawned on him.

"You work at the strip club?!" He screamed.