Running out of Time (#Wattys2017)

Sparks Fly

"So let me get this right. You rule the go cart track, you complete slay at laser tag, and you are an exceptional dancer. Besides mini golf is there anything you can't do?" Clarke flashed me a half smile that hid his laugh as we headed home. "I suck ass at Scrabble. Like seriously I would rather kill my brother than play that game." Now of course I would never kill Lance, but god damn I hate Scrabble. Like seriously I'm 90% sure that game was invented to make a phonetic speller's life hell.

"Now that game I rule at." It was my turn to laugh. "How come I never saw you around school?" Ryan was his Beta and he went to school with me along with his pack. "I was home schooled. My parents had a smart kid and knew the school in this area didn't have the best accelerated class track. Now get your feet off the dashboard." He playfully pushed my feet off as he chuckled. His parents were right though. The accelerated track at the school sucked. I was on it for as long as I could remember and it wasn't that challenging.

"What about you? Did you end up getting your GED?" That was actually a tragic story. "I did. actually I got it by March of what was supposed to be my senior year. I spent every moment of my free time working on it." Once again Clarke let out that heartwarming laugh. "Obviously you can take the girl and get rid of the nerd physically, but the nerd will always be inside the girl." This time I playfully slapped him. The whole car ride we had been asking each other questions back and forth, but there was one burning one on my mind.

"How come you haven't found your mate yet?" In the slight moment I looked over to him I could swear that I saw him choke back tears. They were threatening to spill over his forest green eyes and my heart broke a bit. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He wiped the one tear away with the back of his hand. "No it's okay. It's just a bit of a sad story is all."

"About two years ago I did find her." He started. I could tell that even now it was hard for him to tell this story. "I was out on patrol and heard a car accident. I was the first one to the scene and there were two cars. The driver of one of the cars was moving around so I went to help the person in the other car. It was flipped over, so it was harder to get to the other driver. She was unconscious so I spent a good five minuets trying to wake her up.

The moment she opened her eyes and stared into mine I knew it was her. My wolf felt like his heart was being restarted after a long sleep. She said that her name was Emily. Eventually I was able to get her out of the car and onto the pavement. I couldn't let her out of my arms though you know? Someone else had heard the crash and called 9-1-1 so I heard the sirens in the distance. Just by Emily's smell I knew she was human and not one of us. There was so much blood everywhere and I couldn't do anything except keep her calm and comfortable."

As Clarke told the story I knew how it ended. He kept going though. "By the time the ambulance got there Emily was dead. As soon as I found her, I lost her." Clarke had one hand on his lap and I reached over to grab it. "I'm so sorry Clarke." He gave me a quick sad smile before turning his eyes to the road. "So, while we are on the subject, how did Ryan reject you?" What hold the fuck up a moment! RYAN NEVER TOLD HIM! Oh this was just grand.

"He said the damn words right at lunch in front of pretty much the whole school. Since everyone was one of us he didn't even bother to make it quite. Heck, he didn't even pull me into another room to reject me." I pretty much spent the whole first week with my cousin calling him every name in the book.

"That just sounds classless Lilly. How do you deal with your wolf?" The million dollar question. "I don't. I completely shut Jules out because she was the reason I couldn't just move on through life." Now granted this wasn't as sad of a story as his but it was true. Spare me the bull shit too about how shutting my wolf out makes me weaker. I don't care! It was what needed to be done.

The rest of the ride after that was just silent. When he pulled up to my house I didn't have time to get out before he opened my door for me. Ugh! That made me swoon inside so much. "thank you Clarke. Today was a blast." Clarke pushed a lock of hair behind my ear and smiled. "Thank you Lilly for coming." Just like the true gentlemen of old he brought my hand up and kissed it.

Slowly his hand moved up my neck as he brought me closer to him. His soft lips were drawing nearer to mine. Before I knew it they were just an inch away. Was it wrong that I wanted him to kiss me again? In a soft way too. Not like that night at the club, or like the one in the forest. Just soft.

"Clarke I can't." I couldn't see the look on his face so I just walked up to my door and listened to him just drive away.