Merely Human

Chapter 13

            For the next few days I completely ignored Caden, refusing to even look in his direction. It was childish of me and cowardly, but I was sick of him and his behavior with me. One minute he would insult me, and the next he’d be kissing me or acting as if we were dating.

The only contact I had even remotely to him was talking to his girlfriend in the class I had with her and Trish. We had all become rather close and we invited her over one night to study, which had turned into a night of dancing to Bollywood films. Jason had walked in on us then promptly turned around and walked right back out of the apartment, which had made us erupt into a fit of giggles and they had both begun to tease me about my “boyfriend” even with Trish knowing it was fake.

            Caden did not respond well to my ignoring him, which was making Jason nervous. The other day I saw him in the courtyard and immediately looked away when he attempted to make eye contact, which prompted him to kick the nearest trashcan over with a loud clanging sound. Jason had thrown his arm around my shoulder protectively and shot Caden a scathing look. Seeming to have finally gotten sick of Jason’s displays of affection and his disgusted attitude, Caden started stalking towards us with his fists clenched as if he was going to start a fight, but I grabbed Jason’s arm and tugged him towards the car in a desperate attempt to stop some impending supernatural showdown.

            “You’re going to have to talk to him eventually.” Jason told me when we got in the car. “He’s an asshole, but you two have a connection that’s only going to get stronger, and it seems his resistance to it is getting weaker.”

            “So.” I said stubbornly.

            “Don’t be an idiot, Andy.” He sighed. “I’m not blind, you know. I can tell the reason why you are avoiding him.”

            “I don’t know what you are talking about.” I turned my head away from him.

            “Yes you do. You are doing the same thing I did towards you; you’re trying to block out any feelings because you are afraid to care too much. You gave me a second chance and I had tried to kill you! Why can’t you even talk to him?”

            I whirled my head around to properly glare at him. “Why are you suddenly so eager to get me to forgive him? You weren’t his biggest fan earlier.”

            “Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s a prick! But I do care about you, and he’s your mate. Being somebody’s mate isn’t a supernatural lottery that pairs you up with any loser as some sort of sick prank, it’s a connecting of two souls who are a perfect match. Even if it’s difficult to see now, you two are made for each other. There has to be something in him that is as good as you are or else he wouldn’t have been paired with you. Either that, or the universe is trying to have you turn him in to a better person.”

            I paused, trying to wrap my head around his words. I didn’t realize the car had stopped until the opening of my car door made me jump, and Jason helped me out.

            “I’m definitely not saying skip straight to being all lovey-dovey like Andrés and Trish because that’s impossible, I’m just saying you should try to talk to him. Maybe he’s already changing.”

            I bit the inside of my cheek stubbornly as I prevented myself from answering him, choosing instead to walk into the apartment. Jason growled at me in annoyance for ignoring him and seemed to finally crack. He grabbed my arm and used it as leverage to push me down on the couch and then leaned down to hover over me, efficiently caging me in. There was absolutely nothing sexual about the way he did it, it was merely so that he could prevent me from looking away from him.