Before I Forget

No Tacos

He kept seeing that image in his mind over and over again, thousand times over, like a fucking reboot in his brain against his will. Sky, smiling and laughing at something Demetri said, and then tiptoeing in her high heels to hug him.

She'd been so damn good looking in her tiny little skirt, that Hawk couldn't have drawn his eyes off her narrow waist, her perfectly round backside, her bare legs that seemed to go on forever.

All things he had already started to think belonged to him, that were his to touch, to kiss, to want. But now–

Sky had been hugging Demetri! After she had told Hawk to sod off and had shrugged his arm off her shoulder as if it had disgusted her.

Thinking about that felt like something was breaking in Hawk's chest, every breath hurt, every agonized beat of his heart was strained, painful.

He was tapping the floor under the table with his sneakered foot, restless, angry, desperate. He wanted to jump up on the table and fucking scream, he wanted to punch his fist into the wall, into that teacher's stupid face. He wanted not to think, not to feel, he wanted oblivion but this fucking lesson was never gonna end - he was trapped in here, when he should have been out there, finding Demetri and—

And what? You actually gonna hit him?

That's what an alpha would do, and I'm done with being a pussy.

Some small voice in Hawk's mind tried to remind him that Demetri was his friend, his brother, but he silenced it the best he could.

Demetri had been flirting with Sky, and Sky was his, not Demetri's! It was Demetri's fault that Sky was angry at him now, that Sky had told him to walk away and was instead hugging Demetri, laughing at his stupid jokes.

Something painful switched and turned in Hawk's chest when he thought about that. Sky had liked him when he'd still been Eli... so maybe she had a thing for pathetic nerds? Maybe she was switching him for Demetri, because Demetri sure as Hell was the most pathetic nerd there was, and he always would be.

The class didn't end a minute too soon. When the school bell rang, Hawk sprinted out of the classroom, his fists gripping the straps of his backpack so hard his knuckles went white.

He found Demetri by the lockers.

"You—" he spat out, and slammed the locker door in front of Demetri's face. "Can't you keep your hands off my girlfriend?"

Demetri's eyes widened, he took a step back - and for the shortest moment, Hawk felt the pure, raw energy of having the power to make someone afraid of you.

It had a sweet taste, and he realized he could get used to it.

He took a step closer to Demetri, pushed him in the chest, almost making him fall and Demetri's eyes widened as he fought to keep his balance.

"Eli, come on—!"

"It's Hawk!" He managed through clenched teeth. "What the fuck, man? She's mine!—"

"Hawk!" a shocked voice called his name, and he spun over just to realize Sky was standing right behind him. Her eyes were wide, her face was pale and she looked at him with such a shocked expression that Hawk froze on his feet.

Sky rushed past him, and positioned herself between him and Demetri - as if to protect Demetri from him, just like in the classroom when she had said that Demetri was right, which - of course - had meant that Hawk was wrong.

"What the fuck?" she asked, tilting up a stubborn chin. "Why are you yelling at Demetri?"

He swallowed, cleared his throat. "I saw you," he managed. "If you liked him better than me, all you needed to do was to fucking say so—"