When The Wolves Come Out

Chapter 12

"You look extraordinary," Harry comments when I open my front door to him. His hair is slicked back and he's obviously used a lot (and I mean a LOT) of aftershave and body spray. He's put in contacts to replace his glasses and is wearing a baby blue button up shirt.

"Thanks, Harry." I invite him inside and we wait for Jasmine and Jack to show up.

An awkward silence passes between us and Harry gives me a dimpled smile. "Want to know what we are doing?"

"Yep. Let me guess, a movie and dinner?"

"Of course!" He laughs and I awkwardly chuckle back, not really sure what's so funny. "Jack and I bought tickets to a sci-fi film, if that's okay with you."

Honestly, Jasmine and I both absolutely hated sci-fi, to cut it short.

"It's fine," I lie right through my teeth.

The door bell rings and I open it to see the other two beaming at me.

"You look amazing, Ashlyn," Jack says, making me blush seeing as I definitely was not his date.

Harry comes and wraps and arm around my waist protectively, which I find really uncomfortable so slide out of. I didn't even like Harry, let alone want to go on a date with him!

We drive straight to the cinema in Jack's car and when we get there I race out of the car as quickly as I can, not wanting to be in a small space with those two boys any longer.

"Ooh! What kind of film our we seeing?" Jasmine claps excitedly.

"Sci-fi." I roll my eyes when the boys aren't looking and so does Jasmine.

We take our seats in the cinema with me in between Harry and Jack. Great!

"How long is this movie?" I ask within 5 minutes of it starting.

"I dunno. Only around three hours, I think," Jack replies. "Plenty of time to get close."

I try to ignore his comment, eating my boredom through popcorn. Then, out of nowhere Harry yawns, stretching his arm and placing it over my shoulder. Was he seriously doing that move? I give him a confused look, picking up his arm and placing it back on his lap where it should be.

When the film finally ends I get up as quickly as I can, racing out of the theatre. We walk to a small take away shop and each get some chips and a burger, then sit on a bench by a river, except it's nowhere near as beautiful as the river Ethan took me to. The memory brings a sharp pain in my chest, like I somehow had a pull towards Ethan and now that we were apart, I was seriously hurting.

"Great film, wasn't it?" Jack comments.

"Mmhmm," Jasmine and I chorus tiredly.

"How's your food, Ashlyn?" Harry asks.

"Uh," I stare down at my cheap, greasy chips in their brown paper, "good."

"Come with me." He holds out a hand which I ignore, and then we stand up and go over to the river.

Even though the street lamps are dim and we're mostly in the dark, I can still see the murky black-green colour of the river, along with leaves floating above it and a few annoying ducks swimming through. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable.

"I've had a lovely time tonight," Harry says, turning to face me. And then, the worst of the worst happens. He leans in, trying to kiss me. I step back, reach over for my chips and throw them straight at Harry's face. I guess being on the school netball team was finally paying off.

"What the hell?" he yells, shooting me a disgusted glare.

"You tried to kiss me!" I argue.

"So?"

"So," I raise my voice, "I don't even want to be on a date with you!"

"What are you talking about? I was just claiming you as mine, seeing as Jack's practically had his hands over you all night!"

"That's not true; I'm not yours!"

"Fuçk off, Ashlyn. It was a mistake bringing you here."

"At least we can both agree on something." I storm off, fuming that Harry would even think about doing something like that.

When I get to the bench where the other two are sitting, I grab Jasmine's hand.

"Keys," I demand to Jack. He shuffled around, nervously looking for them. I take them out of his hand and drag Jasmine to Jack's car, starting the engine and driving away.

Jasmine just stares at me, shocked. I end up telling her what happened and she can't believe it.

"We should never have come," she says, almost as angry as me.

I drop Jasmine home before driving to my house, trying to forget that anything ever happened.