The Prophecy of the Red Wolf [WattpadPrize14]

Chapter 3

3 years later

As I slowly come out of my deep slumber, I feel a nudge on my left side. Groaning, I swat at it but the little bugger is persistent. Shoving my face deeper into my pillow, I try to shut out the annoying sensation. Quick as lightning, my pillow is yanked away and I’m attacked by bright lights and loud voices.

“Caleb?! Caleb!! You have five minutes to get to the exam hall, dude!” the loud voice pounds into my ear drums.

When the information finally registers, my eyes fly open and I jump off my bed. Instead of landing with my feet on the floor, I look down and I realize I’ve landed right onto Nate, pinning him down on the floor – chest to chest and….crotch to crotch.

There was a moment of silence where I looked at Nate blankly and Nate looks back at me equally blankly before he clears his throat and says in the sweetest, most innocent and sincere voice he could muster, “Cal, I love you, dude. And I’m totally flattered that you find me attractive enough to want to jump my bones. But I’m sorry man, I’m straight.”

I roll my eyes, deck him on the shoulders and push myself off of him before hissing “Shut up, Nate!”

Rushing to put a t-shirt on, I put one foot in my jeans and hop towards my bathroom while struggling to put the other foot in. Glancing around for the clock, I stop dead in my tracks, my pants halfway up and my eyes wide open. “Nathaniel Ashton Mitchell!!! You asshole! You lied to me!! I have one hour to get to my exam hall, NOT five minutes you imbecile!!” I fume, whipping around, zooming in on the good-for-nothing idiot.

Nate bounces on my bed laughing, “Come on, Cal, you gotta admit you were pretty funny! Too bad I didn’t get Blake to record you jumping out of bed and falling on me. Damn, why didn’t I think of that earlier. Besides, you were the one who set your alarm for 7AM. I let you sleep an additional thirty minutes before I woke you up, man.”

“I hate you” I mutter under my breath but not really meaning it. I just hate that both Nate and Blake finished their exams yesterday and I still had one last paper today to slog through. I glare at him one more time before kicking my pants off and discarding my t-shirt as I closed the bathroom door.

Sauntering into the kitchen after my ten-minute shower, I notice Blake standing at the stove with his frilly green apron that we got for him as a joke on his birthday last year. Every morning since we moved into this three storey, three-bedroom townhouse 3 miles south of the campus, Blake’s been making us breakfast from pancakes to sausages, bacon and hash browns to just about anything he could cook up. And today, he’s flipping his famous pancakes.

“Hey B-boy! Happy Big Twenty-Two, man!” I give his shoulders a squeeze. He throws a “Thanks” over his shoulder without taking his eyes off his pancakes. Giving his apron a once over, I decide I’ll pop by Nord after my exam to get him a manlier one. I can’t understand how he’s comfortable wearing something so frilly. The joke seems to have backfired on us.

Moving around Nate to my bar stool, I clap his back, “Thanks for waking me up, buddy. And sorry… I just really really want all this to be over with.” I just need to endure the next four hours, three of which would be the actual exam and then I’m free! We’re going to be backpacking around Southern Europe, starting with Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and ending in Greece. We’d be back in time for our graduation, in four months.

 “Hey, don’t sweat it, Cal. My nerves and temper were frayed for the last month up until yesterday too. We’re cool, buddy” Nate nods his head and thump my back. “So, how are our pre-graduation summer vacation plans coming along? Are we good to go day after tomorrow?” I ask as I dig in to Blake’s mouth-watering pancakes.