Dream Catcher (Woodland Creek)

“I guess you’re going to tell me?”

“You’ve got to kiss the girl.” Singing, Jase looked at me, ready to follow through with his lecture.

“No.” I told myself more than him.

“Just don’t eat her.” He shrugged, sounding pleased with himself.

“Thanks, Dr. Love. Fucking hilarious. We don’t eat people, Jase, we never have.” All those stupid movies and books throughout history gave our kind a bad name. I walked away, hoping he’d give it up, but no such luck.

“You’re missing out...” I was waiting for him to digress to the childish grosser than gross discussions we used to have as kids, but he stopped a moment, making me think he might be done.

If anyone could press my buttons it was my fucking cousin. “And this is why our species is ready to throw in the towel. I swear to God, your side of the family must have been inbreeding somewhere.” Jase wasn’t fazed and plugged right along.

“I’ve got magazines and DVDs under my bed and in the closet if you’re looking for places to start, teen wolf!” On a howl, Jase chased me to the door and I jogged to my truck, slamming the door shut and peeling out of the driveway.

I wondered if Kerri would care. It never really occurred to me that not being with a girl would matter when I found one worth the effort, but now I felt lacking. I didn’t need this shit; I needed to focus on work, school and the type of girls who knew what the shifter life entailed. I was determined to leave Kerri Harper alone.

Easier said than done. My phone buzzed with an incoming text from an unknown number.

Hey Boonie – Reagan here with Kerri’s phone. You can drop off the boxes any time after eight tonight.

Great. Fucking fantastic.

Chapter Eight

*

KERRI

The first couple weeks of class passed, putting distance between me and the pain of back home behind me. Warren and Jase were kind enough to drop off my few boxes of salvageable items and then practically nothing. I only saw them in passing, and when I asked Reagan once what was going on, she gave me a sad look and merely said the boys were busy with work and classes. It stung, but I accepted that Warren had been doing his job and extending a kindness. I finally called my parents to let them know I was settled. Neither expressed happiness that I’d left Dillon high and dry with Carter. Even my sisters thought I was making a mistake.

How thoughtless of me.

How irresponsible.

What of the poor boy?

I was being selfish.

Nothing I did was right…

If anything, I was self-preserving, from my point of view. I had a right to pursue my dreams and my education. I had a right to be treated with respect. I had a right to be loved.

Loved.

What did that even feel like? Look like? I didn’t have a clue, but my roommate, Reagan, was doing a darn fine job of trying to help me forget. When my phone chirped with a message from Dillon, she changed the ringtone to something from an old cartoon of Beavis and Butt-head. Their disturbing laugh repeated often and served to remind me that nothing good came of entertaining his pleas to return. I stopped taking his phone calls, but then he changed his number, surprising me a few times.

What I hated most was the one time he put his son on the phone asking me to come home. I could hear that Carter was coached through the phone and I felt bad for the little boy, who was being manipulated. I wasn’t a cruel person, but I also wasn’t his mother who dropped the ball on her son either. I had tried for a long time and it was past the time I moved forward and took care of myself before I lost who I was as a person. I asked him to put his dad on the phone and let Dillon know I wouldn’t take his phone calls any longer, even from strange numbers. He cursed me out and hung up the phone as if I had done something wrong. I had tried for so long and wished them well, deciding this was the defining moment to break free for good. Reagan was in our room with me, studying for an Astronomy exam when the whole thing went down like the Titanic…

“Are you still moping about Mr. Douche-canoe?” Reagan came in from the en-suite bathroom, wringing out her lovely cropped dark hair from her shower.

“Maybe.” Her eyes darted around the room in that perceptive way of hers before speaking again.

“Well, get dressed, we are going

out.” I swore she never kept still for a moment.

“We are?”