Life is quiet and comfortable for Gael. Abel has moved in to his house, school is going great and he has his little solid friend group.
But as the population of wolves grows from one to four, Gael has to figure out how to navigate them looking to hi...
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The brush ran over the canvas, giving off this soft scratchy noise. Which is a bit of a contradiction, but it was the most accurate way I could describe the sound. I was in the middle of doing a really big two metres by two metres painting of my favourite clearing in the forest. As nice as the vacation had been, it was nice to be back in the studio.
Fred was painting her own things, big headphones covering her ears. She couldn't paint in silence, she said. She needed noise. A beat to follow.
The only beat I needed was the beat made from my brush hitting the canvas.
"You're painting in the wolf's vision," someone said from behind me.
I sighed deeply and didn't bother looking over my shoulder. "Yeah."
River was really emitting all kinds of nervous energy. I could smell him sweating.
"It's... Weird."
"Alright," I muttered, putting the brush down and turned around, away from the canvas, facing River. "Listen, I'm working, alright? I don't have time for more apologies, River. It's time to catch a goddamn hint. You disrespected me and worst of all, you disrespected Abel for no reason. And honestly, I don't know if there's any coming back from that."
He scratched his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. I glanced over at Fred, but she was minding her own business, not even looking at us.
"Really? I can't even like... Make it up to yous?"
"I don't know. Can you?" I turned back to the canvas and continued with my painting.
"I need to. I don't think... I can just... Leave. I didn't do what I did to be mean. You know that. It was an action of love."
I didn't think River did it to be malicious, but that he could think such things of me. Of Abel. I didn't know if I could reconcile that with being nice and all about love.
"I don't wanna be asked to leave," he said then.
"I'm not asking you to leave."
"Then what are you asking me?" "I'm asking for time, River. Just give me some time." I looked at him over my shoulder. "I'll see you in the forest for the next full moon."
Maybe I had fried him long enough. He did seem genuinely sorry. His heartrate didn't speed up or slow down. It was very even, so he wasn't lying.
He pressed his lips together and nodded. "Okay, I can give you some time. I'll see you in the forest."
I gave him one nod and turned back to my canvas.
"You're a hard-ass. Remind me to never piss you off," Fred said when River had left our cubicle.
"Just don't come after my boyfriend and we'll be good," I said.
"Hey, I'd go absolutely feral if someone had said about Cal what he said about Abel. So, I don't blame you." She took the headphones off and turned towards me. "But I have a big family. What you're building here is your family. And sometimes families fight. River has tried to apologise a bunch of times, and this was his first offence, right?"
