Under The Sea

Chapter Forty Eight

"Are you ready?" Jacin asked from the doorway of my bedroom. His body relaxed against the wall and he had a lazy, crooked, nice smile on his lips as he stared into my worried eyes.

I shook my head thinking and thinking and thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong at this party. About everything I wouldn't want to remember when it was over.

"I'm nervous, Jacin. What if they hate me?" He just laughed. He always laughed when I said something stupid. He strided over to me and wrapped his arms around me in a warm best friend embrace. "They're not going to hate you Forest. There's no way they can hate you."

He was most likely right, but things were wrong these days and anxiety had been eating me up inside. I hugged him back tightly and kept his too kind words in my head and pulled away. Aran waited at the bottom of the steps in a three piece suit of black and white. Very classy. My pale blue dress swished against my legs as I walked, and I loved the feel of its soft fabric. It's color reminded me of the tips of the waves.

I took his arm and together, with Aran on my left and Jacin on my right, we walked to the pack house.

This day couldn't come fast enough. I was ecstatic about it when I asked for it, but upon its arrival, preparing for it, walking to it, I felt absolutely terrified and a bit nostalgic. There was nothing I could do but keep my head held high and hope for the best. I'd make sure they saw me for who I really was, I'd try to talk to every one and I'd smile and be friendly. Aran mentioned that there would be a couple hundred people at the ceremony, which was the average size of most packs. A couple hundred people was a lot of people to be introduced to, but I shrugged that thought off and focused on staying positive.

I was finally going to meet his pack. His family, his people. And I couldn't be more honored. My excitement and nostalgia were mixed and it turned into an odd opposites attract kind of feeling. And then my thoughts wondered to that horrid note and I felt the fear tumble in all over again. Just one word told us so much. It told us Mason was watching watching, planning planning. That was enough to nearly knocking me off of my rocker and send me into my head going over bad versus good scenarios, daydreams and nightmares.

Aran didn't know what to think, he crumpled the note and hugged me to his chest after James had brought it to us frantically. Aran was scared. I could see it when he thought I wasn't looking, I could see it in his eyes when he looked at me, such an unfamiliar yet familiar fear that shone in his eyes. I wasn't used to seeing it there.

And again I was thinking about the note. Congratulations. Could he be implying something else by letting us know that he knew? Or was he just trying to get into our heads and scare us. Or maybe he wanted us to be scared and he wanted us to be ready for him because he knew it wouldn't make a difference. I shook my head.

Suddenly, the pack house was before us and I could hear the chattering of people behind it and a soft melody playing in the background. I took a breath. Aran kissed my cheek. "Ready? Don't think about the note too much, okay?"

I nodded and squeezed his hand when he took it in his and pressed his lips to my palm. As we walked through the front door, Jacin bumped my shoulder with a playful smile on his lips. I smiled back.

The backyard looked very ornate with white covered tables that each had a candle and a crimson rose and strings of lights hanging from the trees. The people were just as ornate. The girls wore dresses of every color, short and summery but dressy and sophisticated. The men wore three piece suits, like Aran's, but some were of black, others were of grey, and some even of blue.

My eyes were roaming over everyone, trying to catch every reaction, while also feeling hot under their gazes. The chattering was silent now and I wondered what was going to happen next. There wasn't a stage for me to stand on, but I was clearly the center of attention at this point, and was literally in the center of the crowd.