He's a Jealous Wolf (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Four

Alex hadn't expected a reply from Carter. Hell, he didn't deserve as much as a glance from the guy after all he had done, yet, somehow, he had hoped that he would receive some sort of reply.

He placed his cell phone in his backpack which leant against the wall as he walked past, picking up a pair of black jeans off the floor and pulling them over his hips. He walked shirtless over to his closet, stopping by the mirror on the way.

He hardly recognised himself. It wasn't that he looked all that different than a few months ago, but he wasn't the same person he was. He didn't think the same way, he couldn't allow himself the luxury of believing that he could be a normal seventeen year old, because he wasn't normal. Not anymore.

His hand came up to rest absentmindedly over the silver ring which hung by a simple chain on his chest. He had worn it every day since he got back from Italy, just to remind himself of why he was doing what he was doing. Why he couldn't be with Carter, why he couldn't be the same person he used to be.

He was about to move past the mirror when he caught a glimpse of the large mark on his shoulder.

The bite.

He rolled his shoulder forward, getting a better look at the tender pink flesh which was shaped like a large bite mark. It was placed on the juncture between his shoulder and collar bone.

He huffed, moving out of the way of the mirror, pretending that if he didn't see it, then it wasn't really there.

He walked to his closet, opening the draws to reveal a couple of black shirts. They were all similar so he randomly pulled one from the draw and threw it over his head. He pulled his bag over his shoulder and left his room to face the real world.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and almost smiled to see that his mother and little brother were flipping pancakes in the kitchen, laughing and talking. He stayed around the corner where he could see them and they couldn't see him. For a second he thought about joining them, laughing and asking his brother about who he was crushing on at school and asking his mother how work was going. He imagined ruffling his brother's dark hair and telling his mother that he loved her, but that wasn't going to happen. It couldn't.

He was going to walk past them, but he stilled his movements when he heard his brother, Jayden's, voice.

"Should I go ask Alex if he wants pancakes?" the twelve year old boy asked his mother.

Alex noticed that his mother took a few seconds before answering. "No honey, that's probably not the best idea. Your brother needs some space at the moment."

"Space?" his brother's young voice asked to clarify.

His mother replied in a tone laced with pain. "Your brother is just going through a rough patch at the moment."

"Oh."

"You know your brother still loves you, right?"

The silence that followed their mothers question was enough to break what was left of Alex's heart.

"Mom, what happened to him?" There was a hint of fear in his brothers voice, and the boy was facing away from him, but Alex could almost see the heart-breaking expression upon his only brother face. "Since he came back from Italy he has been acting so different."

"I don't know, but these things happen with teenagers. Alex will come back to us soon."

They went back to work, flipping pancakes. Alex didn't enter the room, instead he let himself lean against the wall, his head hitting the white wall with an almost inaudible thud. He wondered how his own brother could doubt his love for him. Of course, the young boy had no idea of the reasons why his brother was so distant, but that didn't make Alex feel any better.