Chapter 14: A gravy voice

Miracle POV

I tried to take my attention away from him when the seat in front of me started to recline until it became impossible to be comfortable in my chair.

I wanted to say something to the douchebag in front of me but to be honest, I was too tired to.

I'm beginning to think I have no more fight left in me but I did it anyway.

"H-hello" I tapped the asshole by the shoulder and he turned around to look at me. "Hey, c-could you move your seat, it's resting on my leg"

The boy blinked and smiled. "I would but you see I have long legs and this is the only way, I am comfortable. Could you be a darling and go with it? Thanks" he said and closed his eyes.

I saw the boy beside me, lean forward to say something…come to my defense. Play the knight in shining armor, perhaps.

What a load of crap!

Those annoy me now.

Boys who pretend to be kind and sweet but in secret are devil's incarnate.

They annoy me now because now I know the Truth.

Knights in shining armor are not real. They are just devils with several knives to impale at will.

I threw him a look like I was saying 'back off' before turning to the dick in front of me.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Ramsey" he said and threw his most seductive smile.

"Hi, Ramsey. Listen, I'm going to say it once. Move the god-damned chair or I'ma reach inside my backpack and take out a pen knife my uncle Dicky gave me and slit your throat. Okay?"

He looked taken back and then he was compliant

When I relaxed in my chair, the boy next to me was grinning.

"I'm so turned on right now!" His hazel eyes dimming a little bit "That is so badass…Hi, I'm Hardy. Hardy Kendall Lockhart"

I turned away from him and looked away.

Bye Hardy-ken, boys like you ruin girls like me just for fun.

Goodbye because it will be a cold day in hell before I can trust a boy ever again.

*

I leaned against the window of the bus, my head filled with memories I neither wanted nor needed.

My mind drifted both far and wide like it was on a fact finding cruise, the ache in my stomach branching out its tendrils to the rest of me like it wouldn't rest until I was completely enveloped by it…like it wouldn't rest till I was swallowed whole by my sorrow.

It made breathing a tad difficult. I took a deep breath and another Breath and another, doing my best to blink back the tears or maybe it's the image in front of me I was trying to blink away.

The image of a boy that looked awfully like Stevie.

I blinked and I blinked again but it didn't go away. So, I let myself be swept away not by the present or the future but by the bitter sweet memories of our past.

**

(Two years ago)

I was curled in a corner of the bookstore, on a cold floor giving no extra thought or care about the white dress I was wearing or the fact that it was weird that while every seventeen years old in Primmount highschool or Manhattan was out on a shopping spree or making out with a boyfriend or something fun, I was curled up in a corner of a dying bookstore with yet another romance book in hand.

And letting the imaginary world of the characters in my book be the center of my whole world... again.

It was an escape I welcomed.

If I couldn't find overwhelming devotion and unconditional love in real life, I would settle for the one in my books.

It was the only thing that made my life a tad bearable - the hope that one day I would find a boy who looks at me the way my father looks at my mother.

A boy who would love me at first sight...his first and finally choice.

See, I came from Love.

I was surrounded by it. It came easily to my family. We would do anything for love, always open to new ways to go the extra miles, always looking for the best ways to show just how much we cared.

We were infused with love, it was part of us and I thought that meant it would come easily to us…to me but imagine my surprise, when fourteen, fifteen and even sixteen came knocking and love was nowhere to be found.

There were no butterflies in the stomach or the intense need to be physically near a particular boy, there were no stolen kisses or little notes.

There was nothing for me.

Even my nerdy genius twin brother managed to find it before me and he wasn't even looking.

I wondered what about me excluded me from things that came willingly to others…willingly to Xavier.

While he found his wolf and his hybrid power at the little age of twelve, mine was nowhere to be found…no wolf, no superpower, just two different glowing irises with a whole side of nothing.

I was the girl with no wolf and he was my twin brother with the second most powerful wolf anyone has ever seen - a beautiful red wolf named red knight.

I was the one with the persistent nightmare of our kidnapping as children and he was the one with supernatural ability to excel at anything.

I love my brother more than anything in this world but it didn't lessen my sadness that I wasn't anything like him. I was like nobody in our family.

The only thing that seemed to help was my books, a world so imaginary that people like me actually got their happy endings.

It was one of those days, I was the safest I could be with my book, I hadn't heard him walk up to me…just a little low gravy voice so close to me that I couldn't help but look up to stare at him.

"Hi. I had to talk to you…I simply had to" the dark haired boy in front of me said with this little smile that made my heart race just a little bit.

True handsomeness had missed him by a few millimeters, he was too blunt and bold to be conventionally handsome…yet everything about him seemed - perfect.

He had enough imperfections to be the perfect man just like the book I was holding.

He was tall but not as tall as my Dad or brother and he had this air of certainty around him yet it didn't make him arrogant or off-putting, instead it made him reliable like you could count on him to weather a dangerous storm just to get to the one he loves.

The gray shirt he wore and the plain trouser was modest and fashionable in a laid back manner and I could tell by his hands that he was no Primmount highschool boy.

He was no teenager.

"I'm Steve Jackson"

"Miracle" I told him.