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Puzzle Pieces

I was in the kitchen, staring at the wall.

Whatever happened, it was serious. The way Lucas had slammed Josh against the wall like that. He wouldn't do that to his friend, his pack mate, his brother, unless it was something very important.

Like me.

Lucas had said that I was the most important thing, his top priority, all the time. He was just exaggerating.

Right?

All I knew was that this 'pack leader,' was dangerous. Dangerous to me.

Dangerous to Lucas.

I was worried sick. It was already noon. I was sipping a cup of chocolate that Riley had slipped into my numb hands. She was sitting across from me, staring at my face perplexedly like it was a particularly complicated crossword puzzle.

"What's wrong, Maya?" she asked for the six billionth time.

"Nothing," I lied, "Just tired, I guess."

"Then go get some sleep," she suggested helpfully.

"Not that tired." I replied, still staring at the wall.

"By the way," she asked, "Can I still borrow your copy of 100 Contemporary Artists?"

"Yeah," I answered, "I'll go get it now, actually."

I jumped up from the table, eager to get away, and clambered away up the stairs. I grabbed the book off my bedside table, but paused to look out the window. Lucas's room was empty. I sighed, and went back downstairs.

I handed her the book. Suddenly, a slip of paper fell out.

White. Card stock.

It fluttered feebly, then fell to the ground in between us.

"What's that?" Riley asked.

I snatched at it, but Riley's always been quicker. She pinched it and picked it up, opening it to read it.

She read every word of the note aloud. My face burned. She froze, and looked up at me.

"Who...?" then realization dawned on her face.

"The window... open, empty bed, thought you went for a walk or something, but you were at Lucas's!" and one by one, Riley verbally fit all of the pieces together.

"Maya!" she cried, "Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Riley!" I broke down and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. Riley squeezed back.

"Do you want to talk about him?" Riley asked. I felt giddy.

"He's... strong," I answered, "Not just physically, but he is really muscular. Mentally, too," and I poured all of the days experiences, minus the werewolf part, into a description of Lucas. Even though we weren't officially together, I wanted us to be. So bad. As I described him to Riley, I realized how great he really was.

"And he's amazing, and super awesome... and off to do something dangerous and I'm here swooning over the color of his eyes!" I buried my head in her hands, and all of the soul-crushing worry was back.

"Whatever he went to do, he'll be fine. He wouldn't leave you," Riley said, but she didn't realize how true her words were. 

It felt great, drowning in my worry, that at least I had Riley here to keep me partially afloat.