Werewolf Love Story (14 page)

I was all cuddled up on the couch and was feeling really, comfy cozy. “Well,” I said. “I thought we could go ice skating later on. There's a rink in Arrowhead.”

“Ice skating? How fun! I never ice skated before!”

“Well, you’re in for a treat. It takes a few times to get the hang of it, but if you can roller-skate… you can ice skate.”

“That sounds like so much fun!” Maya was really excited.

“Until then, I thought we could hang out at the cabin. I have every board game known to man and I’m itching to beat your butt.”

“As long as we don't play scrabble, we'll be okay.”

“Noooo… you don't like scrabble!” I literally, stood up.

“Don't tell me you like it.”

“Like it?” I love it! It's chess with words, but even better”

“Oh no, you fit in so much with my family. I'm surprised Josiah and my dad haven't brought out the big board yet and played with you. They have marathon matches that last for weeks on end.”

“Josiah plays?”

“Josiah is sick at the game.”

“Oh, it's on, I will take little brother down. When I'm done with him, I'm going after pops.”

“Don't get too cocky, Tommy. They're both pretty good.”

“So let me get this straight, you think your fifteen year old brother can kick my ass in a fight, and beat me at scrabble?”

Maya was quiet, and smiled sweetly at me.

“You do understand I'm an undefeated professional fighter? And, I’m practically undefeated at scrabble.”

“And… I believe you’re really tough at fighting and can win against a lot of people at Scrabble. You need to understand, sweetie. My brother has beaten the best boxers in the world, and he’s almost as good at scrabble as good as he is at fighting.”

“Everyone he fought was his age!”

“My brother will fight anyone at anytime. He beats up grown men all the time.”

“So do I! And I get paid for it!”

Maya seemed amused that this bothered me.  But I was getting a little annoyed by all of it. I mean the kid just turned sixteen for God’s sake.  And now she wants to throw scrabble into the mix.  Those are fighting words.

One thing for sure, Maya was loyal as hell to her brother. Even though it perturbed me, that my girlfriend thought her little brother, who is five years younger than me could beat me up and hand me my ass in a game of scrabble. I had to live with that.

Josiah and I will never truly know about the fighting aspect, and I've seen him in the gym. He's a beast; his hands are quicker than anyone I had ever seen. It was just damn humbling hearing it from the girl you cared about. One thing was for damn sure; I was going to whip his ass at Scrabble. I must have shown my irritation in my face, because Maya said to me, “Tommy, you, know I think you’re amazing.”

“Just not as amazing as your brother,” I said, like a spoiled child.

“Does it really bother you this much?”

It didn't bother me the way she thought. I looked at Maya and said, “I just want you to know that you’re safe with me. That no one will ever harm you.”

Maya sat me back down on the couch, “Honey, look at you. You’re built like a pit bull. You’re muscular, and strong, and I wouldn't doubt for one second you could protect me against anyone in the world. You don't need to feel like your any less just because my brother is a freak of nature.”

I nodded, “I guess you're right.”

Maya stared at me and took my hand. “There’s something you need to know about my brother. When Josiah was seven years old, he kicked the neighborhood bully's ass. The guy was fourteen years old and terrorized everyone, big or small, in the neighborhood. He used to pick on us on the way home from school every day, and one day Josiah just had enough, and he fought back. That guy never knew what hit him. Josiah threw five punches and every single one of them landed cleanly. The bully was bleeding all over the sidewalk.  He tried to grab Josiah, but my little brother was like a ball of energy, and the guy couldn’t even keep him down.  If the older boys hadn’t stop Josiah, I’m pretty sure he would have killed that kid. He did this in front of the whole block. After that, we all knew one thing was for sure. Little brother can fight. My dad has done everything he can so that Josiah doesn't use his abilities the wrong way and become a bully himself.”

I took in Maya’s story and truth be told after learning those details about Josiah, it made me respect the little shit even more. “You're lucky, Maya.”

“Why is that?”

“You have the most awesome family ever.”

“I do, don’t I?”

“Not to mention your mom is pretty hot too.” I said for good measure.

“I know!!! Right!” Maya laughed.

I know I couldn't piggy-back on my previous comment about her mom without sounding like a big ‘pervert, so I reeled it in.

“I'll let my mom know that twenty year old guys are checking her out. Maybe it would make my dad pay more attention to her.”

“Please don't tell her I said anything.”

“You're right. My dad would kick your ass!” Maya laughed.

“I know he will.  Your dad is in great shape.”

“Okay, Tommy. Are we going to spend all day talking about how hot my parents are, or are we going play some Connect Four?”

“Connect Four? Oh! You're going down!” I said, and went over to my game closet. I pulled out a boat load of board games with Connect Four being on top.

“Wow, you do know there is a thing called video games?” Maya joked at the site of all the board games I dropped in front of her.

“I am highly aware of video games, but that isn’t the biggest turn on to a girl when you first start dating her.”

“Oh, you plan on waiting till were married to whip out that little detail of your life?”

“Married?” I nearly swallowed my tongue.

Maya realized what she said and put her hand over her mouth. “Easy there, Tommy. It was just a joke.”

I looked at Maya and couldn’t believe what I was thinking. I was thinking
if I could be so lucky.
“Didn’t someone challenge me in a game of Connect Four?”

“I sure did, lover boy.”

Maya and I played six games of Connect Four and we split them 3-3.  We went through nearly every game in my stack and had a blast playing each one. She even taught me how to play Texas Hold’em poker towards the end. I had seen it on TV, but never fully understood the rules.

It being winter and, knowing that it gets dark around 6:00 at night, I decide we should hit the Ice skating rink around 5:00, figuring it might be less weird for her if some of my issues happened in public.

We drove down the mountain to Arrowhead. Arrowhead was the next city below Running Springs. We passed a high school named Rim of the World before we got to the rink. That had to be the all time most unusual name ever for a high school. It sounded more like an amusement park or a landmark.

We got to the ice skating rink and it was pretty packed. What did I expect; it was winter and a Saturday night. There wasn’t a whole lot to do out here and the locals must love this joint. We got our skates and went over to the chairs to lace them up.

“So you've done this before right?” Maya asked me. She was having trouble lacing up her skates. So I leaned over and helped her get her skates on tight.

“They need to be on tighter than anything you have ever put on your feet before, you don’t want to twist your ankle which is really easy to do,” I said. I got my skates on and then we were off to the rink.

I hit the ice and showed off a little by speed skating around the rink a couple of times. The second time around I whipped in and went over to Maya.

“Done impressing all the girls in this place?” Maya asked, she obviously wasn’t too pleased at my display of my testosterone.

“I wasn't trying to impress girls plural,” I assured her, “I was just hoping to impress you.”

She winked at me. “You sure did Apollo Ohno! Could you be a dear and help me get started.”

I took her hand and she hobbled onto the ice. We went slowly around the ice. I told her to just glide her feet like roller skating.

Eventually, she got the hang of it and was doing pretty damn good. We skated around for about an hour and I knew the full moon was going to be out any moment. Then it happened right on cue. The music DJ guy put on a slow song.

“Couple skate!” He announced, over the speaker.

“Wanna skate?” I asked.

“Of course, she said, “Unless you were hoping to ask one of these teenagers to skate with you?”

“I just want to skate with you,” I assured her. “Teenage girls have nothing on you.” They really didn't. Maya was the prettiest girl in here.

I decided to turn my body around and so I could face my girlfriend while we skated.  I skated backwards slowly while holding both of Maya’s hands.  Maya skated in front of me tentatively. She started out rough, but after a lap around she was getting the hang of it.

“This is nice, Tommy.”

“It is, isn't it?”

I smiled at her warmly, she smiled back. But then her mouth just dropped wide open. “Are you okay, Tommy?”

“Why?”

“Your eyes are bright yellow.”

Holy shit! Here it is! It must be dark outside.
“I feel fine.” I said, trying to not freak her out.

“Let's go sit down,” she said. “You don't look good.”

“We don’t need to that. I feel great.”

Maya continued to stare at me and her face said it all. She was completely freaked out. “No, we’re going to go sit down.”

“All right.” We skated off the ice and sat in a couple chairs by the snack bar. The snack bar was more lit than ice rink, and that didn't make things any better.

I sat across from Maya and she just stared at me with a puzzled look.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

“I don't know, you look different. You were scruffy this morning, but your beard looks like it has already filled out.”

I just nodded my head and allowed her to try to come to grips with what she was seeing.

“Your ears,” she said. “They appear to be pointier.”

That's new
, I thought.

“And your nose seems to be longer than it was just minutes ago. It's like someone replaced you with a bad body double.”

“A bad body double? Thanks.” I tried to make light of it, but I could tell Maya was about to lose it.

“No, I didn't mean it like that.” Maya continued to stare at me.  I could tell she was thinking she was losing her mind and I decided this was the moment to let her in on the truth.

“Let's leave,” I said. “I have something to tell you.”

“Okay,” Maya said, slowly.

We turned in our skates and headed back to my car. I began to drive back and decided to pull over at the Rim of the World High School parking lot so we could talk.  I parked my car in the large empty lot and took the keys out of the ignition and stared straight ahead.

“What's happening, Tommy? Are you having an allergic reaction or something?”

“It's not an allergic reaction,” I answered back.

“Then please tell me what the hell is going on.”

I didn’t say anything at first. I knew I had to tell her and I was just praying this wouldn’t be a deal breaker. “It's something a little more bizarre than that,” I said.

“Okay, tell me, What's happening to you?”

I turned and faced Maya. She looked at me, petrified, and it broke my heart. She was no longer seeing me as I am. She was seeing this half-thing I had become.  “Maya, there are things in this world that are unexplainable, and up to a month ago I didn't believe any of it myself.”

“Okay,” she said. She had apprehension in her voice that scared me to tell her any more, but I had to.

“Maya,” I said plainly. “I'm in the process of becoming a werewolf.”

“What? Are you fucking with me?”

“No, I'm not,” I assured her. “I'm not fully understanding what’s happening to me myself. All I can tell you is that I know werewolves are real.”

“You’re being totally serious, Tommy?”

“Yes.”

“And you can just say that out loud and that doesn't sound weird coming out of your mouth?”

“Of course it sounds weird. You need to understand this is something I didn't believe in either. But, I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen a human turn into a full-blown werewolf.”

Maya’s eyes started spinning and she opened the car door and started running across the parking lot.  I opened my door and yelled, “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere, but here,” she yelled, back to me.

“Maya! Please stop! If you care about me at all, please let me talk to you!”

Maya stopped at the end of the parking lot and refused to turn around. At least she stopped running.  I walked over to her and brought her back slowly to my car.

“I tell you what, let me tell you the entire story and maybe it might make more sense.  Maya, you know me.  You know I’m not crazy.  You know if I think it’s true, then there’s at least the possibility it could be because I’m not crazy.”

Maya sat in my passenger seat and she seemed horrified. I reached over and held her hand. And right there, I told her the whole story regarding Sasha and how I was bit and now I was in some limbo phase. She was having a hard time keeping it together. It didn’t help either that I mentioned dating my roommate for a short period. She had a lot to take in. But she did allow me to speak. I decided to hold off on telling her about vampires.

Maya got out of the car again but this time she didn’t run.  She just sat on the hard asphalt floor, crossed her legs and closed her eyes as if she was doing yoga.

I got out of my car and walked over to her. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“This is how I calm down,” She said.

I nodded. “Go ahead, knock yourself out.”

Maya sat there for a brief time and then looked up at me. “What I don't understand is… what's happening to you?”

“Like I said, Maya, I was bit horribly in the shoulder by a werewolf that was in his human form. I think nature or the Triat has put me in some kind of werewolf purgatory, where I'm neither a man nor a werewolf.”

“This is the same Triat my grandfather used to talk about?”

“It could be a coincidence, but I doubt it.”

“So you’re saying you might be partially immortal?”