Crashing

A few minutes before the bell rings for lunch, Star packs up his guitar and says he is going to pick up his sister from her classroom.

"She doesn't have study hall this period?" I ask, confused as to why she might have cut class yesterday.

"Nah, she's in band this period. She just really wanted to tick me off yesterday."

"By leading me to your secret hideout?"

He smirks. "Exactly."

"Did it work?"

His smile broadens. "Not even a little."

When we meet up with Addy, we all head to the cafeteria together. Alastair is a little hesitant about sitting with the pack after Addy's experience yesterday, but she seems completely undeterred, and together we manage to convince him to join us.

We are the last to arrive at my usual table, and I am pleased to see Tiffany is not sitting with the rest of my friends. A cursory glance around the cafeteria finds her surrounded by a pack of preps, looking very much within her element amongst the human elites.

I take my usual seat between my sister and boyfriend while Star sits across from me between Taylor and Addy. Oscar and Ashley might as well not even be here, making out at the end of the table, completely ignoring us.

"Addy!" Taylor exclaims. "You're back! And you brought another escapee!"

"Hey, TayTay. This is my brother Al."

TayTay? What the heck?

"Yo, what's up bro?" "TayTay" lifts his head in a bro greeting which does not match Addy's juvenile nickname for him. At. All. "You gonna serenade us?" he asks gesturing to the guitar strapped to Star's back.

"No," Alastair replies shortly. I can practically see all the walls reforming around him, his secret smiles and blushes being replaced with neutral apathy.

"Woah." Taylor blinks fast, then smirks slightly, leaning over to whisper loudly to the witch next to him. "Did you forget to remove the stick from his ass when you broke him out of prison, Addy?"

"Oh, Al prefers it up the ass."

David coughs on his juice. Taylor and Ellie burst out laughing. Oscar and Ashley stop sucking face just barely long enough to register that they missed some good joke. Alastair's eyes flick to mine, but he keeps his face perfectly neutral. I flush and shove down some very inappropriate thoughts.

While the rest of us recover quickly, David is still having a coughing fit so bad that apple juice is leaking from his nose. I give his back a few good poundings until his spell recedes.

"Oh my Goddess! I think you broke Davy!" Taylor declares. "Where have you been all my life, Addy? And can you stay forever?"

We all laugh besides David, who looks thoroughly embarrassed. "Yes, well, enough of that. Um… Addy, do you play any instruments too?" David tries to awkwardly change the topic.

"Well, I play the clarinet in band, but only because I need an extracurricular for college applications. I'm not really musical like Al. More of the books and academics sort of person myself."

"Oooo. I love to read! Got any good recommendations?" Ellie asks, drawing Addy's attention away from the main group.

As Ellie begins interrogating Addy about which books she read over the summer, Taylor tries to re-engage Star. "Well, if you're not going to play for us, how about a lesson at least? As you can probably guess, none of us jocks know jack squat about music."

Star's eyes soften just slightly, "So I've been told. What do you want to know?"

"Is it hard to learn?"

Star shrugs. "As hard as any other skill is to pick up I suppose. It just depends on how good you want to be."

"Ok, so like, if I wanted to impress a bunch of girls and maybe convince one of them to sleep with me, how long would that take?"

I laugh, but Alastair seems to be taking his question seriously. "There are some simple three chord songs that sound more impressive than they are. So, to learn one of those, maybe a couple of hours?"

"Speaking from experience?" I tease.

I hear the lowest possible growl emanate from David beside me. Ops. I place a hand on his leg and I feel him relax under me. I dig into my lunch, deciding I better just stay quiet for a little bit, lest I slip up again.

"Oo! Can you teach me how to play Wonderwall?" Taylor forges on.

"Now?" Star asks incredulously.

"Yeah well, I'd like to get it under my belt before Cam's party on Sunday. The place is gonna be loaded with horny wolves!" I squeeze David's leg preemptively, but I can still smell his Alpha pheromones spilling out from him slightly. He doesn't like this conversation, but he is keeping himself in check for my sake.

"Do you even own a guitar?" Star questions.

"I'm sure there's one in the pack house," Taylor brushes off.

I see the briefest flash of light turn Star's eyes lavender, before he responds, "Ok. Sure, I guess I could teach you. But I've never tried to teach anyone before, so I may suck at it."

"Really? You'll do it?! You're amazing bro! "

I am unbelievably happy about how well everyone is getting along, and it's honestly a miracle David hasn't exploded into a jealous rage yet. A small smile tugs at my lips as Star begins by explaining how frets work to Taylor, then fumbles as he suddenly remembers that his guitar is designed for left-handed people, unlike the one in the pack house. Taylor brushes off this complication as "unimportant", despite Star's obvious hesitancy in continuing the mini-lesson with all the strings flipped upside down. I spot another flash of lavender magic in his eyes, after which he seems to calm down, probably realizing that Taylor doesn't actually care about learning the correct way to play the guitar.

Despite my insistence that sitting with us wouldn't be a problem for Star, I was a little worried it might be awkward between him and David. But seeing the two outgoing werewolves keeping the two introverted witches talking makes my heart lift. I'm on cloud nine seeing all my friends—new and old—getting along. Not even David's slight displeasure with the topic of conversation, which I can smell from the pheromones he is releasing, can bring me down.

Besides, I'm pretty sure witches can't smell pheromones, so Star hasn't seemed to notice my boyfriend's glowering. In fact, they have barely even acknowledged each other.

"You look happy, darling," David whispers close to my ear.

"I am happy." I smile up at him and lean in close to his chest, feeling content. "Thank you for being cool about them joining us."

I feel the last of his subtle pheromones recede. "Of course, anything for you," he purrs. For a moment, everything feels perfect. I want this to last forever. "Although, we might have to rescue your friend at some point. He's looking a little nervous from Taylor's interrogation."

My head snaps to the side, and I lock eyes with Alastair. Indeed his slight smile has been replaced once again with knitted brow, but I know it's not Taylor that is making him feel that way. I move away from David, but it's too late. He already saw. Suddenly, I'm not levitating anymore. I'm crashing.