Diego is twenty and a young good-looking Sergeant in the new Lycan SWAT team on the island Lucrania. He's also the right hand of Commander Ezra Khan. He's good in his job as intelligance officer and well liked by everyone. His parents Vice Commander...
Everything is starting to change slowly but surely around me and now I understand what my parents talked about. I'm alone more and more and all my friends are busy with school stuff for the next year. After somewhat of a fight between Mom and Dad I'm allowed to go shop for Christmas gifts alone and I love the freedom. I buy my Mom the beautiful but rather expensive scarf that I know she looked at a while back in my great grandma Odette's boutique. My Dad gets the big glossy page book about the biggest and best guns in the world that he wanted so much and for Armando I buy a new big backpack, one of the camouflage ones that he wanted. Then the extra present...I have to walk around a bit, it's difficult to buy a present for someone who means the world to you but he's going to open it in front of everybody, so it can't really express how you feel about him. I walk past a gun shop and decide to go in when I see the bows in the window. He loves and collects bows and I know each one he has. I look around and eventually decide on the one I want to buy. The shop owner knows me and I tell him how we buy Christmas gifts this year. When I tell him for who I must buy a gift he laughs, and brings out a bow with arrows in a beautiful leather case. He tells me that Diego came in a month ago, looked at it and left without it again, saying he'll come back for it. It's a bit pricey, but I get it on discount as it is for a gift and since my Dad gave me a big amount of money for shopping, I have enough to buy this for Diego.
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I know the others will buy expensive gifts for the friends they have to buy for in anyway. The owner even wraps the bow and arrows for me in bright red paper and promises not to tell Diego who bought the bow if Diego maybe comes to buy it before Christmas. Happy with my gifts I walk around the mall some more and just as I was leaving, Diego walks in. He stops dead in his tracks and glances at me as if I caught him in the act. "Hey Caitlin, what are you doing here alone?" I roll my eyes. "I'm doing my Christmas shopping and my Mom said I can do it alone, shouldn't you be at work?" He smiles and nods. "Yes, but your Dad sent me on a few errands for him. While I have time, let's grab an ice-cream at that little Ice-cream parlor with the coconut ice-creams." I'm surprised about the invitation but I nod. I also immediately realised my Dad send him to check up on me. "Okay, I'm always game for a coconut ice-cream." He wanted to carry my bags, but I refuse. "No thank you, it's not heavy." At the Ice-cream parlor he chooses a seat at the back of the place and with the high seats we won't be visible to any passers buy. He gets us our ice-creams and when he sits down in front of me he gazes at me while he eats his ice-cream. "What? Why do you look at me like that? Do I have ice-cream on my face?" He smirks. "No, but I like looking at you. Is that a crime?" I blush and look away. "I didn't say it is a crime, but you freak me out sometimes." Now he looks serious and he leans over the table so he's face is very near to mine and he speaks softly. "I didn't mean to freak you out Caitlin, I'm sorry. It's just...sometimes... just forget about it okay." I lean forward too and now our faces are almost against each other. I lick my lips and I see how he focuses at my lips. I look into his eyes and for a moment I wanted to forget where we are and who we are and kiss him. "Don't be sorry, you're just so strange sometimes and things are weird between us and you're confusing me." He sighs. "I know and I'm sorry. I can't really talk to you, about these strange things between us, I'm not allowed to. What I'm doing now can already have repercussions for us. Please Caitlin do not ask too much questions. Just take things as it is. Let us be friends and go on as always. I don't want you to be uncomfortable with me it will only cause questions from others. Questions that I don't want to and cannot answer now. But if I make you uncomfortable, you just have to say so, and I will stay away from you and any of the friend's gatherings. I promise, I will try to make it easier for you. I know your life as you know it, is slowly changing and it can be daunting and I don't want to complicate things more for you." I finish my ice-cream and wipe my hands before I look straight into his eyes. "I want a lot of answers and I know some of it will scare and confuse me, and some will make me happy, but I really don't want to loose your friendship, so I'm going to ignore all the weird stuff between us...for now... I would never expect you to stay away from your friends because I'm there and you're really not making me so uncomfortable that I don't want to be in your company. It's just sometimes when we're alone that things seem weird between us and I don't understand all of it yet. I may be only sixteen in two month's time, but I understand many things other kids my age don't understand. My whole life I've been half in the adult world and half in the kid's world without other knowing it. You of all people should be able to understand it better than anyone else. Lately I feel dumb and as if I suddenly know nothing of anything. Friends like your sister, suddenly considers me as to strange to talk to and I am still the same Caitlin that was her friend for years. She sees me differently as if I'm some kind of freak. Did you know that you're actually the only one who talks to me as if I'm an adult? We always chat about anything under the sun and you never laugh at my opinions. So you know what, just go on treating me as you usually do." He takes my hand on the table and the tiny sparks fly when he touches my fingers and he glances at our hands when he speaks. "This little sparks is one of the reasons, I have a terribly hard time to treat you as normal as possible. When we're alone its okay, but if I dare to touch you even just in a friendly hug, others will see this and start with questions that especially your parents shouldn't be asking or know the answers to. It will change everything between us and when they are finish with us, even our friendship will be not be the same. No one will think we're just friends and the gossip will drive you crazy. I need to protect you from gossip as far as I can. Come we should be going, I still have things to do for your Dad and we shouldn't be seen here alone." I look at him and smile. "You go on ahead, I'm going to sit here a while before I go. Thanks for the ice-cream." He smiles, bends down quickly and kisses my cheek before he walks away. The sparks fly on my cheeks and it tingles a lot. His aftershave makes me remembering things about the Halloween party and the times that my secret admirer kissed me. Some things that Diego and my admirer said, suddenly clicks in my head. I'm almost positive Diego and my secret admirer is one and the same person and I start to smile.
