Howling In The Night | Night Cat #2

Howling In The Night - Chapter 4

Well, That Was Weird…

“You’re stuck.” Xander observed as he peered over my shoulder and scrutinized my chemistry homework.

“Really?” I snapped irritably. “I hadn’t noticed.”  A hurt look flashed in his eyes and I felt a little bad for snapping at him. It wasn’t his fault that chemistry and I weren’t on speaking terms. It was actually because of him that I had managed to pull my grade up to a B on my last final. He didn’t need me to be so snippy.

Still, he took it good-naturedly, as he always did. “Okay. You’re in a bad mood.” He dropped rolled over until her was on his back. We were doing our homework on the floor of his cozy den; a little habit of ours. There was a perfectly good table right behind us, but Xander and I felt more comfortable working on the floor. We figured it was a cat thing. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” I dropped my pen, frowning. “Well, I don’t know…Maybe it’s the fact that I came here because you promised me that we would watch the Nikita marathon together, but instead, we’re sitting here working on Titration calculations!”

“We’ll watch the marathon after you’re done.”

“But I’m missing some really good episodes!”

He shot me an incredulous look. “You’ve seen all those episodes before, Avery.”

“I don’t think you realize that this isn’t the silly La Femme Nikita, I’m talking about. This is Nikita with the awesome Maggie Q and the dreamy Shayne West.”

I was fully aware of the fact that I was whining. It was weird and so unlike me. Then again, I hadn’t been acting quite like myself these days – what with all whining my feline alter-ego had been doing for the past few weeks and what not. Oh, and those late night hallucinations – which, by the way, had yet to cease – weren’t helping any.

Xander looked tired. “Chemistry is more important, Avery.” He rubbed the sides of his temples and I could sense that his patience wasn’t going to hold out much longer.

“Not to someone who wants to be an archeologist!” I retorted.

His patience snapped. His usually smoky gray eyes turned a hard, rocky gray and the muscle in his jaw twitched. “It’s important now!” He yelled, bringing my whining to an immediate stop.

In the back of my mind, my conscience was trying to figure out why I’d suddenly flown off the handle. It wasn’t like me to whine and argue with Xander – especially when I knew he was right. I didn’t know what was happening. What was wrong with me? He had had every right to yell. I was acting like a child.

I guess the hurt and confusion must have shown on my face, because after a few moments of silence, he said, “You normally don’t act like this, Avery…” His voice was quiet. Gentle. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head hopelessly. “I wish I knew…”

In our argument, we had both risen to our feet without even noticing it. Xander took one look at my sad face and crossed the small distance between us, draping one arm over my shoulders. “Come on.” He said, steering me towards the large brown sofa in front of the fireplace.

“Where are we going?” I asked bemusedly.

“To watch your stupid show.” He replied with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. “And once we’re done with this marathon, we’ll talk about what’s bothering you, okay?”

“Okay.” I replied with a small smile. “Thanks Xa—”

A loud bang from the hallway stopped me in my tracks.