Myths & Rejections

Chapter 1 - Hiding Out

Word Count : 2363

Harper

"Rise and shine sleepyhead, today is our lucky day!!"

Harper groaned and tried to put the pillow back over her head. "Why did you have to be a morning person? How did I get cursed with a best friend who's a morning person?"

"You love me and my morning happiness!" Celie chirped. "You should be thrilled to wake up today of all days! Today is the last day of school and our 18th birthday! We are double blessed; we finally finish school and get our mates! Who else can say that?"

Harper pulled the pillow back over her head and groaned again. She was excited to end high school, and looking forward to college, but she had been dreading mate day for years, she didn't want to find her mate here. Everyone hated her here, Celie was her only friend, everyone else treated her like crap, called her fat, ugly, and stupid, said she was garbage. So she must be, right? If everyone believed it, it must be true. She wanted to find her mate in college, someone who didn't know how worthless she was.

"Harp stop it, just stop. Your mate will love you as much as I do!" Celie said smiling. "Mine will love me as much as you do! The goddess chose them for us, they will be perfect, and we will be so happy it will make all this terribleness seem like a bad dream."

"Celie, I'm sure you're going to find your amazing mate, and I know he will love you as much as I do." Harper smiled. "But that's not going to happen for me. Just accept it; if he's here, a member of this pack, he's going to reject me, it's a guarantee. For me today is my rejection day if I'm unlucky, or just the last day of school if I'm lucky."

Harper felt bad watching some of the happiness dim in Celie's eyes as she spoke, she didn't mean to bring her friend's mood down, but Celie needed to be as prepared as Harper was. Harper knew it would break Celie's heart to see her be rejected so she didn't want her friend carrying around false hope all day.

"Don't look so sad, Cel." Harper said more gently, and pinched her friend's freckled cheek. "Today is your day! I'm going to be right there cheering you on too!"

Celie's smile brightened again, even though there was still a touch of sadness in her eyes.

"Now let's get showers and get out of here before the hordes of assholes wake up and start annoying me." Harper said, laughing as she finally got out of bed.

She didn't want to admit it to herself or Celie, but there was a tiny part of her that did hope for her mate to be here today, and for it to be someone nerdy who hadn't been cruel to her, but there was literally no one who fit that description. Her wolf was sad, she could feel her sorrow and it made her feel even worse. Even her wolf had lost hope, years of abuse and bullying had taken her hope and turned it to dread and fear.

Harper didn't want to dress up or act like today was any different than any other day, so she went with a long teal maxi dress with a pale blue crop half sleeve sweater over it and a pair of simple flat thong sandals. The dress was not tight, but it was not loose, it showed that she had a figure, but it didn't cling or look slutty. She wore this dress a few times a month, so it definitely was not a dress up day for her. She pulled her hair back into a half braid over one shoulder, so it hung down to the bottom of her breast, added some mascara and was done.

Harper avoided looking into the mirror other than to put on her mascara, she didn't really care to see how she looked, what she saw always made her want to stay in her room away from everyone else. They'd told her she was ugly so much, she'd begun to believe it, even though it couldn't be further from the truth. Harper had beautiful large aqua eyes, long lashes, pale flawless skin, a tiny straight nose, curvy lips, and long thick dark brown hair. The truth was, nearly every girl in school was jealous of Harper's beauty, and that is why they tried so hard to make her feel ugly.