Shift (discontinued)

Chapter 5 - Why I Don't Date

Here's the new chapter, as promised. Happy reading everybody! ~LostInInk

(P.S. Comments and votes are appreciated :) )

"Elizabeth Regina, you'll lead the tenth group. The other members of the company will include Felix Asher, Collin Rainer, Jacob Masen, Alexi Konn, and Richard Stenson. Now, as I said before, secrecy is imperative to our hunt. We must not alert anyone about the wolf until it is captured and/or killed. If someone does find out ..." John Rainer went on to illustrate the damage that could be done if news of the wolf spread. I, in the meanwhile, I observed the members of my hunting party, who had already taken their places at my sides. Of course I got stuck leading a group of teenage boys. Xavier had said I would be in on the hunt. He just left out that I was heading the group least likely to actually find the wolf and do anything useful. 

The main problem with my troop, along with inexperience, was, well... me. I was an adolescent girl, leading a hunting party of hormonal teenage boys. I had dated two of them, Felix and Alexi, a long time in the past. It didn't help that the gossip that snaked through the human community of the plantation had informed me that Adolphus wasn't the only male that considered me a hot commodity. Humans just gave more respect. 

My dating life had lasted for one year, and I then I ended it at fifteen years of age. It had overwhelmed me. My experience with Brutus permanently scarred me. I feared getting romantically involved with any guy, human or Sordida. 

The first boy I dated was Alexi Konn. Felix had actually hooked us up. He was a year older than both Alexi and I, and at the time he and Alexi were close friends. Alexi admired my tenacity with the Sordida and thought I was cute. He asked me several times to go out with him. I spurred his advances. I didn't need a boyfriend. I had my own concerns, consisting of defying and working for Sordida and keeping up with the boys so they didn't try to exclude me from their games. Felix convinced me that I could try having a boyfriend, and always get out of it later if I needed to. I consented, because Felix was my best guy friend, and all the other girls pressured me into it. 

From what I knew of Alexi, I anticipated he would be sweet, but not overly demanding as my beau. I overestimated him greatly. He was sweet, but very, very controlling. If he had the slightest inkling that another guy was flirting with me, he would go berserk. Therefore, I couldn't even seek out conversations with other boys without being hounded by Alexi. I tolerated his intolerance for about two months before I lost it. After having him over at my house for dinner one night, I quietly pulled him outside and told him that our relationship just wasn't going to work out. I needed more of a free reign than what he gave me. 

Alexi was furious, but surprisingly, not at me. He blamed Felix for his troubles. He ranted on about how Felix was so good-looking, and how all the girls wanted him, and that the only reason I was breaking up with him was because I assented with the opinion of the rest of the girl population. I kept my head while he raved, and told him no, that I just felt he was not the right guy for me. That's when things went awry. Alexi, enraged, and feeling the need to fight back, roughly pulled me into a kiss. Immediately, I became alarmed and mumbled against his lips to stop. He didn't listen to my pleas, and after pulling away for a few seconds, he swooped in again. Unfortunately for both of us, the pressure he put on me was causing me to freak out. The situation reminded me my run in with Brutus when I was eight. So, instead of meeting my lips again, Alexi met my fist. 

I stumbled back into my house in tears, and the whole family stared in shock as slid into my room. My sobs wracked the frame of the bed as I laid down and wrapped myself in layers of blankets. I hadn't realized how badly my encounter with Brutus had scarred me. I tried to run that terrible night through my head to prove to myself that kissing Alexi had been nothing like the way Brutus had treated me. Each distinct detail came into focus in my head. First, I remembered Brutus storming into the houses while I was curled up on my bed, reading by candle light. I had been shocked, but then had pleasantly he asked him what he wanted. He had replied that he wanted me. I was so young that I wasn't sure what he meant until he tried to rip my shirt off. I shrieked as soon as he attempted to remove my clothing. The loud, bloodcurdling noise startled Brutus enough that I was able to escape his grimy hands with only a minor tear in my shirt. I bolted for the front door, but I was so little that there was no way for me to out run the Sordida. He snatched me up when I was only a few feet away from salvation. Then he roughly pulled me to the back wall of the living quarters, telling me I was a pretty little girl, and that he would let me live as long as I didn't struggle. Then his big, fat, ugly lips met mine.