The Sun and Moon and Stars✔

Feel Better

Maybe it was my fault.

Punch.

Maybe I unwittingly lead him on.

Kick.

It might have been the isolation....you know being around only one girl for basically your whole life.

Left. Right. Duck.

But even still, why was Jackson in on it? What did he gain from---

"You're thinking too much," Kelen said as he swept my legs from under me for the fourth time. The thud of my body hitting the blue matt, mixed with my heavy breathing, was all he got in response. For almost two weeks now I had been stuck in my head, not knowing how to properly express what I was feeling. I had cried. Screamed. Threw my guts up. What more was there to do than lay it all out, something I don't think I could do.

"June, baby, you have to stop this," he started but I quickly cut in, still laying on my back.

"Stop what? Feeling betrayed, disgusted, hurt? I can't Kelen and I...I don't know how to move on. Thinking back on everything about my childhood with them is driving me crazy, making my skin crawl. I don't know what I missed. He never displayed any signs of...well being---"

"Enough June," he said gently before sitting down next to me. His soft hands pulled me into his lap, sitting me so my back was to his front. I snuggled further into his warm, relishing the calm he brought me. We just sat in silence and watched as Clent and Marcus fought in the ring. It was brutal, but nothing that would do too much damage. To their left, Casbian taught Alaric how to punch. They sight of the two together made me suddenly remember something.

"Why did Alaric run from you guys to begin with?" I ask, staring at the man in question. Kelen sighs then begins to talk while messaging my tense shoulders. I groan, but try to pay attention.

"We used to go to the same highschool, the five of us, but at the time Alaric wasn't in our group. He was the quiet kid with secrets in his eyes. By no means were we the popular assholes or football players we looked like. We were just a group of guys that hated highschool," he explained and I could tell he was smiling at a distant memory. "Graduation was around the corner and we began to go our separate ways. Clent had a girlfriend and Marcus's pack was on the brink of war with a vampire coven. Casbian was busy taking care of our mother, while I," he paused, "I struggled to control my powers."

"Alaric would never get bullied or anything, but I guess he saw something he shouldn't have because suddenly, some people came around looking for him. Long story short, we took him in---made him one of us. They were the closest," he said, jutting his chin in their direction. "Cas took him fishing, taught him how to be a man." He laughed lightly. "Even taught him how to make a girl fall in love...."

"And then?" I prodded when he had gone silent for too long. Other than the irrational sense of jealously I felt, I wanted to know more---know everything about them.

"And then...well people started disappearing into thin air. We thought Alaric was one of then until Marcus came back from hunting and found his mother's wedding ring, the one Alaric never let out of his sight. We still thought he was gone, but Marcus insisted he was still out there. So we looked...for days then weeks and finally a year. That's when we found this place, where Alaric had been hiding out. He only stayed a day before he was gone without a trace again. After that we didn't look for him."

I turned to face him with a frown, gazing into his dark eyes, which swirled with distant emotions. "Did you guys consider maybe he was just scared? I mean, you said it yourself that people were after him. They might have---I don't know---threatend him."