Mated to the Wizard

3 - Like Confetti

I burst out laughing, at his confused and horrified expression. Eventually, he starts laughing with me, although I know he still doesn't really understand.

I hear a growl and laugh even harder. Why he growled? I don't know, but it's funny that it winds him up this much.

"What?" I ask, wondering why he sounded so angered all of a sudden.

"What?" he replies, apparently confused as well. I cross my legs on the bed and shake my head at him. I'm pretty weird too, so I'm not going to push him to explain his idiocy.

There's another growl. But this time I understand it wasn't Alex in the first place. A pair of hands appear above his head, and I contain a gasp as they move towards his neck. I know immediately who it is; the only thing I can think it would be. There's only one of them that I know. There's only one wizard I know.

"Alex." I call softly, as if speaking too loud might cause the hands to kill Alex. "I'm kind of hungry. Go to the kitchen and get some snacks?"

"Ugh." He answers, throwing his head back and nearly knocking into one of the hands. "Can't you get them?"

"I just woke up, Lex. Just do it." I say the last three words with more urgency than intended when the fingers grow claws. Giving me a funny look, he stands and leaves the room for the kitchen all the same.

Wasting no time, I move back against the wall in shock and anger. The claws retract into the hands and slowly, Everest's body comes into view. With his face still hidden, he takes a seat where Alex was previously sitting and folds his hands together in his lap calmly, crossing his right leg over his left one like he's lived here all his life.

We sit in silence for a minute, me just taking in his frame on the chair.

I realise he's probably eye raping me with his invisible eyes as I am him, and a blush immediately creeps up my neck at the thought.

"Get rid of him." Everest states eventually, his cold, hard face finally coming into view. As first, I don't really take in what he's saying, but when it processes in my brain, I feel the flush of embarrassment quickly turn into one of anger.

"What was that?" I say, instead of complying. First he tries to kill my best friend, then he tries to tell me he can't stay over to hang out for a bit. Yet he thinks I'm going to listen to him? No, dude. Not happening. "You can't expect me to... what the fuck are you even doing here?" I practically shout at the end, standing from my seat on the bed and no longer cowering in the corner. Everest has the nerve to chuckle.

"I'll just kill him if you don't tell him to get out of your house. Simple as fuck, Avery." He rivals, moving his eyes across the room. Judging me. I don't exactly have a choice whether or not to tell Alex to leave. I have no doubt in my mind that my so called 'mate' would take a knife to my throat if it meant he gained something, let alone my best friend, whom he has no connection with anyway.

The door handle moves and I look from it back to where Everest should be, but he's gone. Just like earlier when I met him, he's gone.

Taking a deep breath, I turn to Alex, who is standing at the door looking at me funny with a bowl of crisps in his hand and a bag of marshmallows in the other.

"I, uh, just spoke to my dad. He said we're, um, going out today to see my Gran in... in hospital." I lie horribly, stuttering the whole time. My hands fidget with the duvet on the bed I'm standing next to and I stare at the floor. "So you, uh, need to leave." I add, my voice faltering at the end. I feel terrible doing this to Alex. Since we were babies we've been close, and I've never turned him away in a time of need. Especially with everything going on with him at the moment. But I need to protect him from the monstrosity that is Everest.