Pride, Mates, and Past Mistakes

Casey Stabs Cody's Face With a Pen

 

*Sierra*

“He rejected you.” Casey said, her voice hard.

It wasn’t a question.

Unable to speak, I simply nodded my head.

Here we were, sprawled on the floor of my room at three in the morning. I had gotten over my share of heartbroken tears at around two, and then started the furious tears.

Because honestly, as heartbroken as I was on the inside, I knew that somewhere, deep, deep inside, I was just…pissed. I barely even knew the guy, and here I was, crying over him like we’d already dated for ages. He’d been my brother’s best friend for ages, but like my brother, he’d never associated himself with me after the sixth grade. How could I let someone who was such a complete stranger get to me?

Stupid destiny.

And as much as it shouldn’t, the rejection hurt. Not just physically, whenever my wolf felt it and the suffocating feeling came, but emotionally too, this feeling of a sad hollowness that I definitely did not need in my already miserable life. I couldn’t help but feel broken; it was as if I’d actually been in love with him.

Actually been in love—and I’d never even dated before!

However, as pissed as I was, it didn’t even come close to the fury of Casey, who was practically seething with rage at Cody. I could almost see the smoke coming from her ears. And now, as she paced back and forth in front of my, fists clenching and unclenching, I knew it was only a short time before she blew.

Suddenly, she spun on her heel and yanked a few pillows on my bed and rearranged them in a lumpy mountain. Then she promptly walked over to my laptop, and began clicking and typing furiously until she found something—it looked like a picture—and suddenly my printer roared to life.

She was acting quite calm, considering her behavior from just a few seconds ago, but I knew the explosion was coming. For example, her back was stiff and her leg was bouncing up and down in an anxious way, which meant the outburst was coming soon.

I watched in silent vigil as she ripped the freshly printed paper from the tray, grabbed a piece of tape and taped it to the top of the pillow mountain. It only took one glance to see what the picture was.

It was a picture of Cody.

She then stalked to my desk and grabbed a pen, uncapped it and stalked back to the mini Cody-mountain.

And then she burst.

She began to rain down blows with the pen on the picture, stabbing it repeatedly and making numerous holes in the paper, all the while screaming,

“Oh—my—gosh—that—little—jerk—how could he be such an—ugh—stupid—egotistical—douchebag—needs—to—learn—his—place—and to think—he’s our—alpha—ugh—disgusting—punk—idiot—doesn’t deserve you—” she screamed, enunciating each word or phrase with a blow to Cody’s head.

Half way through, she sat back on her heels, panting, and glanced over at me.

“Would you like to have a go?”

I shook my head adamantly.

She shrugged, saying in a matter-of-fact tone, “It’s quite satisfying, you know.”

And then she resumed her screaming and stabbing, saying many more lovely things—not just about him, many about Nolan and Deanne as well—and saying many more names that I don’t think I’d ever heard put together, but sounded very offensive all the same.

I glanced at the door instinctively; thank the moons that the rooms were soundproof in the pack house. What with all the hormonal wolves all over the place, it was a smart decision.

After a few more minutes, I slowly got up from my little sob place on the carpet— from which I hadn’t moved in the past five hours or so—and stumbled over to Casey. I gently placed my hands on her shoulder and pulled, pulled her away from the now hole-filled unrecognizable picture of Cody.

She allowed her arms to drop, but she was still seething.

“Hey,” I said softly. “It’s okay. Cody’s my problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“Your problem?” she spat. “Oh, no. No, no way. This is just as much of my problem as it is yours. Actually, I take that back. It’s neither of our problems. It’s his problem, that stupid douche. He doesn’t deserve you, Erra.”

“Thanks,” I sighed, plopping on my bed (in a very safe distance from the Cody-mountain murder scene). “I don’t feel like I can cry anymore, and the pain isn’t as bad now…but it’ll hurt again in the morning when I see him again.”

“D’you think maybe now that he, um…you know, rejected you…d’you think you can find a new mate now? Maybe the pain was just the connection breaking between you guys? Maybe you can still find a new one?”

I looked out the window, at the blue sky meeting the brown hills, and those eyes—so much like my own—flashed in my head again. “Nah. I don’t think that’s possible, Case. But Casey, at school tomorrow…what if I see him again? Oh my gosh, Casey, it hurts so much…”

“I know,” she said darkly, her hand reaching out to grip mine. “Well, actually I don’t. But Erra, I’m so, so, sorry. Sorry that you got stuck with an egotistical douchebag pig like him. He doesn’t deserve you, okay? He doesn’t know how sweet, funny, and loveable, and beautiful you are. He’s missing out. And tomorrow at school, I’ll be there, ‘kay? You can do this. Show him that you’re stronger than this.”

My Luna’s have to be…be strong, you know? And you? Well….

I shuddered, a ripple of pain stinging through my heart at hearing his voice ring in my head again. “I don’t know, Case,” I sighed, pulling the blanket from underneath the Cody-mountain, which sent it tumbling to the floor. “But I’ll try. I think I can do it.”