Animal Nature

Chapter 20

"What happened to you?"

Shy straightened up from her locker to see David beside her, looking no worse for his little adventures as a wolf the day before.

"What do you mean, what happened to me? What happened to you? Why weren't you in school yesterday?"

"You tell me first. Why is your face all bruised up?"

Shy touched the sensitive bump near her eye. She hadn't really looked in the mirror this morning. It occurred to her that her parents hadn't questioned the bruises because they assumed it had something to do with the wolf escaping from the animal shelter.

"Gym class got a little rough yesterday. It's no big deal. So where were you?"

"No big deal? Shy, you look like you got beat up."

"Don't worry about it."

"And what happened to your hand?"

The cut on her palm from hitting the lock had swollen into a bruised and scarred thing, so she had wound a bandage around her hand. "There was a problem at the shelter last night. Speaking of which—"

"A problem at the shelter? What kind of problem?"

She stared at David. Could he really not know? Maybe as a wolf he didn't remember. "One of the animals escaped."

David put his arms around her and Shy found herself pressed to David's chest. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just want to know where you were," Shy said, pulling away.

"It doesn't matter. So explain to me what happened in gym class."

"I got hit in the face with a dodgeball. It was an accident."

"Yeah? Who was the thrower? Or should I say, who were the throwers? Because you've got more than one bruise on your face."

Shy sighed. "Bart and Ron, okay?"

David's jaw tensed. "I'll kill 'em. I'll kill 'em both."

"It's not a big deal."

"Then I'm going to transfer into your gym class."

"No, David, don't worry about it. I'm okay."

"You're okay? You've got bruises all over your face, all thanks to those two assholes." He took her hands and looked deeply into her eyes. Everything Shy had learned over the past few weeks flew out of her head. "I only want to protect you."

Shy opened her mouth to answer him, but no words came out. The events of the past day overwhelmed her. She didn't know if she could even believe or trust her best friend, her boyfriend. Instead of replying, Shy buried her head in David's chest and cried.

His arms wrapped securely around her gave her little comfort.