Ten Reasons NOT to Fall in Love With a Bear

Reason #6

Reason #6

            “He’s so hot!”

            “What’s she doing with him?”

            “I’m sure she’s just, like, his cousin or something.”

            “What, no way could they be from the same gene pool. She’s not nearly pretty enough.”

            Just listening to the conversations was driving me crazy. My eye was twitching in irritation. Of course Joey had been enrolled early the day before and when he walked in with me the next day, people started talking. One week later, and people hadn’t stopped. I was going to kill someone if Joey didn’t first.

            He was just as irritated with the comments at times, usually when they were about me not being pretty enough. Otherwise, he was taking advantage of all the attention. He loved that the girls flocked to him and he loved that he was instantly popular. But his favorite part? He knew that it made me extremely territorial.

            I may not have ever shifted but that didn’t mean the instincts weren’t there. I wanted to walk straight up to them and rip their arms out of the sockets. It would’ve pleased me immensely. Sadly, most of those girls were shape shifters and could tear me to pieces. I didn’t want to be torn to pieces, so I reigned in the jealous rage as best I could and returned to acting like he never existed.

‘If only, if only I hadn’t decided to go for a walk in the woods. Then, my life would’ve been devoid of this irritation,’ I thought bitterly.

            “Hello May,” Joey said as he plopped down beside me. He nodded toward my other friends and turned back to look at me, waiting for my greeting.

            I hoped that if I ignored him, he’d go away. He didn’t. “What? Stop staring at me like a creeper.”

            “Hello to you too,” He retorted sarcastically.

            “Ah, so you’re having conversations with yourself now.”

            “What?” His forehead scrunched up adorably. “I never…”

            “Shh, Joey. Your first persona is trying to speak.” I giggled at the confused look on his face. Messing with people was just so much fun.

            He finally realized what I had said. “There is only one voice in my head and it’s mine.”

            “They’re both yours.”

            “No, there’s only one!”

            My best friend, June (ironic right?) started laughing hysterically.

            “What?” I asked her.

            “You two would be so cute together.” She cooed. I grimaced. “You’d make such pretty babies too.” She started her giggling again.

            “We would have good looking kids,” Joey mused. “With her eyes and my overall good looks, they’d be irresistible.”

            I scoffed. “If they looked like you, we’d have poor sasquatch children.”

            “Hey there is nothing wrong with sasquatches. Haven’t you ever seen Harry and the Hendersons?”

            “I don’t even know what that is.”

            He chuckled. “Of course you don’t. Nobody ever does.” Joey shook his head.

            I sighed and continued to eat my ‘lunch’. Everybody knows that school food wasn’t exactly edible… Sometimes I doubted it was food at all.

            Joey continued to talk about pointless things all through lunch, and all through the next few classes. P.E. was by far the worst though. For the first ten minutes, he just stared at me. For the last forty, he wasn’t wearing a short. He was still skinny but had gained some weight to fill him out a little more. It had worked in his favor.

            That night, after the lights went out, Joey crawled into my bed just like every other night. Except this time, I was awake. “You should really stop doing that,” I whispered. “My parents are getting the wrong idea…”

            “Sorry,” He mumbled into my hair. “I can’t sleep without you though.”

            “I know,” I replied.

            “I remember everything,” He told me. “It all came to me this morning.” I nodded and waited for him to continue. “My full name is Joseph Anthony Mathews. I didn’t live far from here actually…”

            I laughed a little. “Your initials are JAM?”

            “Yup,” He said, a small smile forming on his lips.

            “So what happened to your family?”

            “Uh, my parents died in a car accident and my older brother, Jacob, took his own life…” Joey inhaled deeply and held me tighter to his chest. “Since Jacob was the only thing I had left, I left my home and I guess I naturally just repressed everything… I wasn’t even there for his funeral.”

            “I’m sorry…” I rolled over to face him. “So what brought you here?”

            “Not sure,” He told me. “I was in bear mode, my instincts just brought me here I guess…” Joey shrugged.

            I snuggled closer to his chest. Stupid bears. They were so easy to love. All snuggly and cuddly. “You’re poisoning my thoughts,” I complained.

            “No I’m not.” He grinned into my hair. “The mating bond is taking over or you’re falling madly in love with me. I like to think it’s the second one. Head over heels.”

            I shook my head at his arrogance. “Wow Joey.” With that, I kissed his cheek. “Now go to sleep before I end up killing you from annoyance.”

             He chuckled. “Goodnight, mate.”

            “Mm hmm..”

            What is the sixth reason not to fall in love with a bear? He thrives on jealousy and runs on arrogance.