To Share You (manxman)

Chapter 23

It's a few days later that I hear a knock on the door I wasn't expecting. Against my better judgement, I hope it's Zach again.

Obviously I know that won't be the case, but I miss him already. Suddenly, the whole situation seems to swallow me up again completely. It's overwhelming and scary and I only now properly realise that it partly took Zach coming here for me to give in to Raph.

When I open the door, even more unexpectedly, Mary stands there.

As she so often does, she has her hands in fists digging into her sides as she stares at me with a focused and accusing look in her eyes.

'Hello?' I try, if only for the sake of actually saying something. When she doesn't actually respond, I try again.

'Long time no see?' It's true as well. I've not really seen her for ages. I've seen her in uni of course, but there were never any words exchanged, not even greetings.

'Damn right it's been a long time!' she then exclaims and just pushes past me.

She stomps into the living room to throw a 'Hey Miss B' at my mum and then lets herself into my room. For some reason, my mum and Mary have decided that calling her 'Miss B' is way cooler than just calling her by her actual name. I will never understand, but I've given up trying as well.

Hesitantly, I follow Mary to my room, earning myself a cheeky wink from mum as I do so. It's quite amazing how such a petite girl can intimidate a werewolf like me.

'Sit.' she says the moment I take a step into my room. Without saying anything, I simply sit down on my bed.

It's silent as she just stares at me from her position on my chair. She's sitting on it the wrong way around so she can lean her arms on the back of it, and, respectively, her chin on her arms.

Then, she slowly rolls closer until she's right in front of me, only to then proceed to lifting the chair's seat as high as it goes.

Now, she's just a few inches taller than me, which is probably what she intended anyway.

'Go on then.' she says, seemingly impatient and I must have a look of pure confusion on my face, because she just follows it up with a heavy sigh.

'Tell me what's been going on. I'm not blind. I can see everyone acting weird and it's getting on my nerves. I'm your friend, so I get to participate in the drama.' she goes on to explaining.

I'm tempted to just tell her how little right she actually has to know or be involved in any of this, but I hold back, swallow and fall back onto my bed.

In reality, maybe I should let her know. It would be one more person let in on the secret and maybe if I do it step by step, it might make a difference to Raph as well.

'Let me just call someone.' I say defeated as I get off my bed, grab my phone and tap on number one speed dial to call Raph as I leave my room.

'Hey beautiful.' is what he answers the phone with. I fake gag and just listen to him laugh in response.

'What's up?' he says then.

'Mary's here. Says she wants to know what's going on. I kind of want to tell her, but this isn't just my choice so...' I let my question trail off, hoping he understands where I'm coming from.

It takes him quite a while to answer, and I give him that time, to think.

'Sure. Tell her. Just make sure she understands not to blurt it around.' he finally agrees and honestly, I could dance right now. Being able to tell someone that maybe I wouldn't usually let in on secrets feels good. It feels like I can finally be myself.