Hunted (book 1)

Chapter 11

On Wednesday, I finally remembered to call Lola to tell her about my date. She picked up after the first ring.

"Took you long enough! Now spill." She didn't even bother to say hello.

"It hasn't even been a week!" I protested.

I could almost hear Lola rolling her eyes. "I can't wait that long!"

I smiled. "He picked me up, we watched a movie, we went for ice cream, he dropped me home."

"Come on. There's gotta be something else that happened."

"Not really... It was raining. Is that 'something'?"

"Eh. What about the guy you kissed? Do you still like him?"

"Which one?" I said mischievously.

Lola gasped dramatically. "You kissed two guys?! Who's the other one? Is it the one you went out with? How is that not something?"

"Yes, but...I sort of wish it didn't happen."

"What? Why?"

"He's kind of a jerk."

"And you only just found out?"

I nodded, then remember she couldn't see me and said, "Uh-huh."

"I'm sorry, Charlie," said Lola sympathetically.

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. How are things with you?"

"Um...I actually have news, too."

"What is it?"

"I don't wanna bum you out, but...Grandpa passed away last night."

"What?! I'm so sorry! Do you want to talk about it?" I couldn't believe it. Lola's grandfather had been in hospital since just before I had left North Shores. Lola had been very stressed about it.

"It's okay. I'm going to be okay." She had never sounded so small before in all the years I'd known her.

"Did you get to say goodbye? When's the funeral?"

"No; he died in his sleep. The funeral's this Friday."

"I'm really sorry, Lola. I know you two were really close."

Lola sniffed. "On the bright side, Connor's going with me."

"Did he even know your grandfather?"

"No. But he wants to come to support me."

I smiled. "That's nice of him." At least Connor hadn't decided to date Megan. "I wish I could be there."

"I wish you could, too. I really miss you being here, Char."

"I miss it too." I missed not being the werewolf girl who everybody hated. I missed having friends who didn't mind being seen with me. I missed feeling normal.

Lola sighed. "Anyway, have a good week."

"Thanks..." I paused, not sure whether to say it back to her. "You have a good week, too. At least try."

"I will." Lola's voice brightened. "And I hope you end up with kiss 1 guy."

She hung up before I could tell her that nothing had happened with him since the kiss. Hopefully she would get over me and Liam; I had. There wasn't any hope for us. If he didn't already know I was a werewolf, someone would tell him and then he would hate me.

~

I had been avoiding Ryan ever since I had found out that he knew. In history, I still sat with him and Hayden, but whenever possible, I put Hayden in between us. If he arrived to class first, which was rare, I would have to keep my mouth shut for the whole lesson. It was easy enough to not scream at him with Hayden acting as my buffer and reminding me that if I told Ryan what I knew, Hayden would get in trouble. When Hayden wasn't directly in my line of sight, however, it was harder to remember why I wasn't giving Ryan a piece of my mind.