Blue Lupus

Chapter Five: Werecats and Ghosts

        “Italy sounds beautiful.” Alaska smiled as she and Jake sat in her favorite little restaurant: Adriotico’s.  It was a cute little Mediterranean style bistro, specializing in their feta flatbread pizzas. She sipped on her water, and poked her appetizer fork through an olive, quickly popping it into her mouth. “You must miss it.” 

            “I do.” Jake nodded, using his fork to roll an olive around on the appetizer plate. He smiled as he rolled it too close to Alaska’s side and she quickly stabbed it and ate the round vegetable. “I would like to visit it again soon.”

             Ala nodded, “I have only visited a few states before, never another country.” She grinned and propped her head on her hand, elbow on the table, “Well, other then Canada." She corrected herself. "When I was little, my siblings and I use to go on big long hiking trips as wolves. We once made it all the way to Canada, but ended up turning around.” 

            Jake grinned, remembering when he and his siblings were close and go on pack-trips too. “That's awesome.” He said, rolling an olive to her again, chuckling as she rolled it back to him and they began to soccer game between their forks and that last olive. “Was it nice in Canada?" 

            “Just a lot of trees.” Alaska swept his question to the side, focused on their game. Jake noticed her tongue poke out from her lips as she bit it in concentration.

            Jake watched her for another second, before watching their game again, “Have you always lived here?”

            “Yup,” Alaska nodded, “My father lives in downtown. It’s not a very nice area.” She looked uncomfortable as she thought of her past, “Now we live near the train station. Noisy, but it's a nice place and we all have our own rooms.”

            “You shared a room before?” Jake frowned.

            Alaska nodded softly, “My siblings and I did, yes. Then we lived in a cave for a while, till we finally got some jobs and here we are.”

             “A cave?” Jake sounded surprised.

            “Yup.” Alaska laughed, “As wolves, don’t worry. It was cozy; I actually loved it.”

            Jake thought about the times he and his siblings had sleepovers in caves or forests as wolves. They did it only for fun, never because they didn’t have a house to live in.  Even then, he never found sleeping on rocks or the ground very comfortable. It must have been a lupus thing. “That's awesome, our packs should go on a trip, and you can show me some of the caves around here.” He said the words without really thinking.

            Alaska chuckled, “Sounds great.” As the waiter came to get their orders, she was distracted and gasped as Jake hit the olive hard for a ‘goal’ and it toppled off the plate, hitting her right in the chest.

            “Oh my god.” Jake looked mortified. He grabbed his napkin, quickly handing it to her, wanting to get the oil, which the olive had been coated in off, of her shirt. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry-“

            “I will fetch you a wet napkin.” The waited ran off, his European accent thick. 

            Alaska laughed as Jake chanted his apologizes, “Jake-“ She tried to make him stop, “Jake…” She watched him begin to panic even more, “Jae!” She finally hollered, taking his hand as he tried to reach over and clean the stain himself, “It’s just a shirt.” She smiled kindly; honestly flattered that he was so apologetic. “Really, it is no big deal.”