The Protective Wolf

Once we'd eaten and parted ways, I went about the rest of my day feeling slightly anxious. My English class didn’t seem to be interesting enough to sustain my attention for more than the first five minutes. Then again, my English professor was an older British man who liked to just stand in front of the lecture hall and talk about the topics we were reading about. He usually would ramble on up until the last few minutes of class, then he would decide we could end a solid ten minutes early. I loved the class, but sometimes I think the major may not be the choice for me. Everyone else in my class seemed to love it so much more than I did, and I once thought it was the only path I could ever take. That it was what ran through my veins along with the usual pints of blood.

After my two afternoon classes, I headed back to my dorm room for the day. If I weren’t meeting up with Lukas later on in the evening, today would be a perfect sweatpants, hoodie, and Netflix night while Molly sat with me still clinging onto her daily reading hopes. That won’t last much longer, I’m calling it right now. I give her ten more days, if that much.

When I reached my dorm room, I shifted my books from between my arms and grabbed my key from my pocket.

“It’s open, Reags,” Molly shouted, directing my attention to her oncoming figure as she made her way back from the bathroom down the hall. She wore a pair of black sweatpants with our high school’s name down the leg and a hoodie ten sizes too big: she was having a Netflix night. It’s always a dead giveaway for either one of us. I smiled to her, opening our dorm room door and sliding in but leaving it wide open for her. “So, Lukas is coming over later, huh?” Molly asked, a confused look graced her face as she sat down at her desk beneath her loft.

Both our beds were lofted, much to my dismay, and both lofts had our desks underneath them. On either side of the door were our open closest spaces, each with our dressers nestled inside. I call them closet spaces because there are no doors and they’re way too small to put much in once you added in the dresser. Unless you’re some furniture wizard, I don’t know how you could possibly put your dresser anywhere else in the small room. Also on my side was the fridge and the microwave which sat on top of the fridge. I had to force Molly to leave her ugly rug back with Shelby and Louise, who gladly took it saying the rug was “totally to die for.” I think it’s “totally to die for” if they’re talking about the cause of my death.

“Uh, yeah, Molly,” I answered her, dropping my backpack onto the floor beside my desk chair before climbing onto the chair in a completely monkey-like fashion, “I decided I would end the whole avoiding thing and try to get to know the guy.”

“But why?”

“Everyone deserves a chance?”

“It’s because Markus has a thing for the Twain, isn’t it?” Molly narrowed her eyes at me, earning her gasp and a look of betrayal.

“How could you say that? I mean I love the guy’s writing. He was, and still is, a genius, but I don’t base my safety or give out chances to people just because they like the man too.” I placed a hand over my chest, still clinging onto the act of utter betrayal and disbelief. “I have standards you know.”

“Do you? Do you really?”

“Yes,” I said, deadpanned.

She watched me with her green eyes narrowed into little slits as they scanned my face. I made sure to lack any emotion, knowing she was looking for any single sign that I was being forced into hanging out with Lukas. Molly sighed, “Whatever, just keep your phone on you.” She placed both feet completely on the floor before twisting herself to face her desk, which conveniently held an open textbook. Ten more days. Only ten more days and this girl will never touch another textbook until midterms, or maybe finals.
—-
It was exactly six when we heard a knock on our door. By then, we’d both decided to start a movie on Netflix and were curled up onto each other on our dorm room floor. Molly had a fleece tie blanket she’d made in middle school hanging around our shoulders and I had drawn the curtains like the hater of sun that I am. I heard my best friend release a sigh as she leaned forward to press down on the trackpad of her MacBook Pro. It never occurred to me that it would upset her, me going out to spend the evening with Lukas instead of studying or watching a movie with her. Molly really clung to spending some time together, claiming that if we didn’t continue to do these little things that we’d drift a art. I never had the heart to tell her we would never drift, that she meant too much to me for me to push her away. Doing these things, just made her feel better, so I couldn’t tell her she was being crazy.

“Hi Luke,” I greeted, opening the door to reveal the guy standing there with his twin brother right beside him, “and Markus.” Of course I added Markus with a bit of a delay which apparently did not go unnoticed by the look Markus flashed over to his twin who just stared at me, scanning my face for something just like Molly had before. I quickly removed any sign of emotion from my face, as I had for Molly, and watched him watch me. Creepy.

After a minute or two Lukas coughed, removing his gaze from mine and running a hand through his short dark hair. “I assumed Molly wouldn’t want to be alone this evening so I asked Mark if he wanted to keep her company. Hudson and Jackson offered to join too, if she wanted. I know it was already asking a lot for Mark to come, so I didn’t ask them. I hope it’s okay. It is okay right?” He probably would have continued to ramble on, with his eyes glued to the floor, if Markus hadn’t of slapped the back of his head rather harshly. I crossed my arms against my chest, stepping out of the way so they could enter the dorm room. “Sorry about…” he paused, meeting Markus’s careful gaze, “um, that.”

“It’s fine, Luke,” I reassured him, flashing a soft smile which he didn’t even see since he and Markus seemed to be having a staring contest.

“It really is, Lukas,” Molly piped up from her spot on the floor, “and it’s fine if Markus wants to watch the rest of this movie with me. I was feeling a Netflix night so it’s perfect. Hudson and Jackson can come too, the more the merrier.” The twins broke their staring to turn their focus onto the girl sitting on the floor. Markus beamed down at her, easing himself down onto the spot I had been sitting in moments before. I suddenly felt a bit jealous he got movie night. Lukas flickered his eyes over to me, examining whatever emotion was dancing on my face before he turned to his brother.

“Oh, I didn’t know it was Netflix night,” Lukas said, sounding a bit like he was struggling to keep his tone neutral, “we can hang out some other time, Reagan. You guys can still have your movie night. I don’t need to intrude, or bother you guys. I didn’t know you had plans with Molly already. You could have told me, it-“

“You’re rambling again, Lou,” Markus piped up, amusement ringing in his voice.

The amount of importance he put on a Netflix night probably would have made me comment, except Molly and I took them very seriously. It’s kind of sad actually.

“It wasn’t planned, Lukas,” Molly told him, giving him a sympathetic look as he looked down at her. I felt myself begin to nod without really thinking about it, like I was agreeing with her. “So you two,” she moved her hands to drape the blanket over Markus’s shoulders too, “go out and have a bit of fun while we call up Hudson and Jackson and have a movie night.”

“Or,” Markus added, staring at his hands as they adjusted the blanket on their shoulders, a smile dazzling his face, “we could not invite Hud and Jack and instead, we could prank call them.” He raised his eyebrows while I flicked my eyes onto his twin who placed his arms crossed against his chest as authority dripped off of him. Markus gazed up at his brother, “Don’t be like that, Lou, let us have a little fun. I’m letting you.”

I smiled softly. He sounded kind of like a little kid, allowing his mother to finally start to date again after a divorce he didn’t really care too much about. Lukas rolled his eyes, dropping his hands. “Fine, but they’ll know whose calling so don’t get too upset when they don’t play along.”

I shifted over to stand beside him, placing my hands on his arm, “You guys could always add Shelby and Louise to that list.” Lukas stiffened at my touch, slowly bringing his eyes over to watch as I made my suggestion. Markus laughed, clapping his hands and nodding. “Molly has their numbers.”

“See, Lou, even Reagan knows how to have fun,” Markus commented while Molly dug her phone out from the blanket.

Lukas turned his authoritative and disapproving gaze onto me, saying, “Yeah, sure she does. Come on, Reags, I’m starving.”

That’s how we ended up eating some subs, like the proper, manner-driven people that we are not, in Lukas’s dorm room while I examined Markus’s Twain collection. It was the start of what I had no doubt Molly would classify as a date and ask me about the next day while I begged for her to forget about it.