A Bit of Wolf in Her

5. Magic labradors and wolf boys

Something was off. Winnie couldn't quite explain. It clung to her skin and made her more irritable than her sleepless night had. When she arrived at school, she was delighted to learn that all three Delaneys were absent. Winnie didn't care about the reason. She could breathe, at least, as she tried to figure out what her next move was.

"Winnifred? You only have a month for this Classics Week assignment," L. Bowers chided when she spotted Noah's empty desk for the second day in a row. "This is an extremely important part of your grade, so I'd get your partner on the same page."

She had only nodded at the teacher. At that point, Winnie didn't care if he never showed his face again. Hopefully, his cousin did the same.

Fate had other plans, though, and she found Noah leaning against her locker on Friday morning.

"What do you want?" Her words sliced through the concerned look on his face.

"Can we please talk?"

No.

Winnie didn't care what he said. If he found out she knew, he would try to convince her it wasn't true. If he didn't, he'd try to interrogate her to gauge how much information she possessed.

"We have nothing to talk about, Noah. Excuse me," she said and pushed past him. Winnie had a hunch that it wouldn't do the trick, though. She headed outside to the football field, not wanting to fight in front of the entire high school. Seeing no one there, Winnie halted and turned to face Noah, who had followed close on her heels. "What?"

"I'm sorry about Elijah. I didn't know and if I had, I would have stopped him." Winnie didn't react. "He said he heard Miles say some weird things to you about us?"

There it was.

"He told me the truth." That took him by surprise. Winnie didn't possess the energy to listen to him try to lie to her. It shut him up and Winnie could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to decide whether he should keep trying or confess. A part of her wanted to believe it wasn't true. The way the Delaney's were acting did little to convince her otherwise. "I won't tell anyone if that's why you're still here."

"Miles told you."

"Yeah, because your cousin is a psycho, not because it's fun telling people you go to school with a magic Labrador."

When Noah kept quiet, Winnie crossed her arms across her chest–a move she did to appear annoyed but did when she felt scared and insecure.

"I really am sorry," he finally said, genuine-ness tinging his voice. He held out his hand with a wry smile. A stupid gesture in her opinion and it would do little to repair the damage already done, but she shook it anyway.

"I believe you," she said.

Winnie didn't go to class as the bell's shrill ringing echoed through the hall, and instead found a place to smoke. Noah had stood silently in front of her until he realized he wasn't getting anything else out of her and left.

Her phone buzzed, and Stella's name appeared on her screen.

Where are you?

Winnie wondered if Miles had told Stella about coming clean to Winnie about the Delaney's.

Her shaky truce with Noah, she suspected, would have little to no consequence of how the rest of the family treated her. Hector especially. But she guessed it was a good start. She ate her hastily thrown together lunch in silence and her friends didn't press her for information even though she knew they were burning with questions. The Delaney's absence didn't take away the awkwardness between her and Miles.