6. Her Smile

Alex's P.O.V.

I watched him drop heavily into the chair next to me and begin to sulk. I was quite frustrated that I just straight up almost revealed myself and got rejected in just 5 minutes. I mean, I guess I wasn't completely rejected since he agreed to be my friend. I tuned into the front of the room much easier today, I guess since yesterday, being my birthday, was contributing to my obsession with the boy. It could also be that since I was half rejected, half of my attraction to him went away. I kind of wish that my father, or any other werewolf, was here to guide me in my first experience with a mate. Yeah, definitely not my father, I would never be able to trust that man again.

The bell had just rung, so I was walking out of the door until I felt a hand gently tap my shoulder. I could tell that it was Ash because of the sparks that generated from just the simplest touch. I turned around to look at him and he muttered quietly, "Follow me. Don't worry, I'll make sure that we get to class on time."

I followed him blindly through the frothing mass of students to a set of lockers halfway across the school. I couldn't help but notice that he had to fight his way through the kids until someone saw him and the entire hallway parted in front of us like he was poison.

He got onto his tip-toes to reach the top part of his locker, making his shirt ride up just enough for me to see his sculpted abs. It was only a flash, but it made me want to run my hands all over them. I quickly caught myself thinking that and turned away, waiting for him to be done with his locker. He then rotated around and stalked away like a cat, quick and stealthily, like he was hiding something. We began walking back to the gym, taking a long route. I was completely lost, since I had just arrived there, and asked, "Where are we?"

He gave me one of those, 'Are you stupid?' looks and expressed, "We're in the English wing, Duh," like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"I've only been to this school for two days, it isn't my fault that I'm unable to navigate it well," I snarled back. He looked slightly guilty for the shortest second, but then covered it up with his usual stone face. I hated it when he did that. He would block his emotions in his mind, leaving them to stew around in there and turn sour.

"You coming!?" he shouted from down the hallways, so I jogged up to him and we continued our journey to the gym. As I expected, we arrived together right before the bell and walked into the locker room. I opened my locker and changed swiftly, not even risking a glance towards Ash changing beside me before walking out to the main gym.

***

Lunch was just beginning, and I was in line for food wondering what half of the foods that they were providing even were. I felt his presence behind me before he even spoke the words, "What are you doing staring at the menu like it killed your family or something?"

"Nothing important," I replied, not interested in giving him more hints into the fact that I wasn't human.

"Okay, then go order, dumbass," he told me, giving me a little push. I looked up briefly at the menu and picked whatever food my eyes landed on.

"I'll have a... ham-bur-ger?" I demanded in almost a question, hoping that I had pronounced it right. The person behind the counter handed me a meal and directed me to sit down in the cafeteria. As I had the day before, I sat down at an empty table and ate my food, actually enjoying it. Suddenly, Ash sat down across from me.

"I hope you don't mind, Brad was being an ass hat," he muttered, looking up at me with those bright blue eyes that drew me in.

"It's fine," I responded, returning to my food.

"Why are you looking at that like you have never seen it in your life? I thought most hu- people in this country knew what a burger was," he asked me quietly.

"Oh, uh... I'm not from this country."

"Really? Where are you from?"

"Um... Somewhere not here," I was struggling to find any answer. If there was one thing that we had absolutely never talked about in my schooling it was human geography.

"Stop kidding around with me, you have to know where you came from," he joked easily.

"I really kind of don't."

"But you have to."

"But I don't."

"Are you so bad a geography that you don't know where you came from?"

"Yes."

We stared at each other for a few minutes until he broke the silence.

"Same," he laughed out awkwardly. "See, I was 7 when I got... Forcefully removed, I guess, from my home. I think it was somewhere around here. I would really like to find it though so that I can bury my c- parents," he recovered quickly.

"I wish I could go home too," I whispered softly, longing for the partnership of a pack.

"Why can't you go home? And also, if you haven't been going home when we leave each other in the forest at night, where are you going?"

"Well... I have a homophobic father and my mother was killed in... something. I found an alleyway to sleep in, though, there's a gap behind the trashcan that I can fit in," I responded truthfully, seeing no reasons to lie to that specific question.

"Oh... I think I lived there a few years ago," he told me. Yes! I finally got him to open up about something.

"Where do you live now?" I wondered aloud.

"There's a hollowed out log in the forest. It was safer for me since I turned... well I don't know, I lost track of my birthday. I know that it's October 10th though."

"Really? I'm fairly certain that's in a few days, I'm still not great with calendars yet," I informed him. Calendars were quite hard for me to grasp, especially since I had no clue what day it was when I got kicked out. We didn't have them when I was growing up, we used the moon instead. I do know it was somewhere around early fall just by looking at the moon last night.

"I haven't kept track of my birthday since my family died. They used to celebrate it every year. It really was a big deal, and a lot of their closest friends came too. W-we were in the middle of one of those celebrations... when something happened and my parents died. I was heartbroken. I vowed to myself, never to celebrate again without them. It would just bring back the awful memories of her smile."

A singular tear slid down the corner of his eye just as the bell rang. He was immediately shoved back into his shell, almost like the bell was a switch turning on his shield.

"We don't talk about this ever again, got it!" he snapped, sounding his normal angry self before he speed walked away from me.