Blood and Basketball

Chapter 8: I Wish She Could Understand

Harry's POV

I wish she could understand. Everything.

Hell, I wish I could understand everything.

Everything was going so great. I was crushing my freshman year of college. I got a scholarship to play football at Duke University, and I was thrilled to be here. Duke had an outstanding football program- all the sportswriters were ranking us high and saying we had a shot to win the Super Bowl. People think it's weird that I'm from England and have an "American football" scholarship, but I was always such a big fan of the Green Bay Packers growing up that I insisted on learning how to play the game myself. My roommate, Louis, whose also from England is also an athlete here at Duke, but he insists he is on the real "football" team, or what Americans refer to as soccer. He's such a cheeky lad, despite how small he is. My large, burly figure practically shadows over his small, dainty one. He's been my roomate since freshman year. Another great thing about freshman year was my girlfriend Klarissa. We met during our first week of college and fell madly in love. I was absolutely crazy about her- i had even planned on askign her to marry me. We were perfect together, until everything changed.

Everything changed on that one fateful day. I had the day off from football practice, so I decided to go on a run through the beautiful Duke gardens after dinner in order to stay in shape. I put in my headphones and started running. I must have lost track of time because of the great music I was listening too. I was really into this Irish- British band called one direction, one of the guys- Edward- was even from the same area of Cheshire, England as I was. Soon the sun started to set. By the time I could make it back to the entrance of the gardens, it was already dark outside. I even noticed a full moon. Even though I was tired, I started running back to my dorm faster since I still had a lot of work to do, when all of a sudden, a wolf jumped out of the bushes and attacked me. I cried in pain as it sank its jaws into my calf. Finally, it let me go, and I hobbled back to my dorm. Student Health wasn't open that late, so my roommate, Louis, helped me clean my wound and make sure I didn't get rabies. I took some painkillers and tried to get a good night's sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I awoke to a searing pain in my chest. I yelled in pain and also woke Louis up. I looked down at my chest and noticed a red burn mark where my silver cross necklace rested on my chest. I lifted it up with my fingers, but yelped in pain as it touched the skin on my fingers.

"Whats the matter, Haz?" Louis asked, concern laced in his voice.

"I don't know, my necklace is burning me!" I cried out in pain, clenching onto the bedsheets in hope I could feel some other sensation than the burnign pain on my chest.

Louis hopped down off of his loft bed and came to help me. He gently unclasped the necklace and laid it on my nightstand before touching my chest to inspect the wound between my tattoos.

I could see Louis smile as he outlined my tattoos with his fingers. He was always complementing them, saying he liked the detail of each design and the story they represented.

"That's so odd..." he remarked.

I looked down at my calf to see how my wolf bite looked this morning, but amazingly it was almost healed except for a little bruising. I showed Louis and he was shocked. "A wound like that doens't normally heal that quickly..." he pondered.

So, the two of us immediately started to Google my symptoms.

After a few minutes, Louis broke the silence. "Haz-"

"What is it, Lou?" I asked.

"Call me crazy, but I think you turned into a werewolf."

"That's impossible! Werewolves aren't real? Are they?"

"Well, according to the internet they are. And most things online are true. And you're showing all the telltale signs."

"Woah... this is crazy." I didn't realize that from this point on my life would be forever changed.

I didn't really know what to do. Louis was the only person who knew I was a werewolf, and I was scared to tell other people because I didn't know what they would think. Even Klarissa. On our first date after my transformation, she reached to hold my hand, but I yelped in pain and recoiled as her silver ring burned me. The worst part is I knew how much that ring meant to her, it was the only thing left she had to remind herself of her mother, who left her, her dad, and her little brother when she was relaly little. I felt like I couldn't tell her what was happening to me, so I thought the best thing to do, for her sake, was to break up with her.

Which brings me to the strange situation we're in now. Every month when the full moon comes out, I get a little more impulsive. Sometimes I can even lose control of what I'm doing. I never stopped loving Klarissa, and I still think about her all the time. So, this month on my full moon rampage, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to KIDNAP her. Way to go, Harold. I don't know what to do now.