Hearing His Words

Chapter 1

Sitting at our table in the cafeteria I smile as my five closest friends come and join me-most of whom are mates.

Over the past two years most of them found their mates expanding the size of our small group, with Lisa being the exception.

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Lisa is the last to reach the table, and as she approaches the rest of us it is blatantly obvious how completely ecstatic she is. A smile stretches across her face as she bounces towards us.

"I found him!" Lisa exclaims as she spins in a circle before sitting next to me. My heart dropped.  She had found her mate.  Everyone congratulated her as I held back my tears.  I so desperately wanted my mate. I had met him once so I could feel the bond I shared with him and as time passed and our bond grew stronger I got sadder and less hopeful without him.  Smiling I gave Lisa a congratulatory hug.

"So, tell us about him," I said injecting as much enthusiasm as I could muster.  Lisa looked at me realizing something was wrong.  Turning back to the group Lisa smiled saying  "He's the best.  He's tall and has blond hair, blue eyes and he's the Alpha's nephew or something.  Ms. Jackson wanted to talk to him about some pack stuff, so he should be here soon."

We were eating when Lisa jumped out of her seat yelling "Eric," while flailing her arms around franticly.  A young man fitting the description Lisa had given us of her mate made his way over to our table and sat in the empty seat beside her, pulling her into a hug.  Introducing himself to the rest of us he said "Hey, my name is Eric and I'm Lisa's mate as you may have guessed.  I just transferred into my Uncle's pack with a few friends.  And before you ask one of my friends is wondering around somewhere."

"They can join us if you see them" Jill said before introducing herself and reaching out to shake his hand.  Eric froze and reached forwards fingering the friend ship bracelets I had made for everyone asking, "Where did you get this?"

"Peanut.  She gives us each one for valentines day every year," Margo shouted pointing her finger at me while sticking her tongue out.

The bell rang interrupting conversation.  Getting up to leave I noticed Lisa coming up to me smiling at her I waited for what she would say.  Giving me a hard look she said "Your coming to my house after school and we are going to talk about what's going on."

Immediately Lisa left before I could respond.  It was going to be a conversation I thought would have taken place a while ago.  I thought she would notice sooner, but I was better at hiding the pain than I thought, still I was going to have to talk to her about my mate.

The day had passed quickly and I found myself waiting next to Lisa's car.  A hand waved in front of my face as some one called my name snapping me out of my daze.

"Sorry," I mumbled crawling into the car.  Rolling her eyes at me Lisa jumped in the car and strangely quiet drive to her families house began.  We were hardly ever quiet when we were together and when we were the silence was never as heavy and suffocating as it is now.  Getting out of the car we made our way up to Lisa's room without a detour.

"sit," Lisa shoved me onto her bed, before sitting down next to me.

Tears started to leak down my face as I lost control trying to explain "I-it's just-well.  I love you, you know that.  I love all of you and I'm happy for you.  Truly happy.

"I just, you see, I can't be.  He's not here and it hurts.  It really really hurts.  It hurts more each time, and I can't, you can't stop.  It won't go away.  I want him."  Crying into her shoulder I looked up to see my best friend giving me a quizzical look.  Rubbing my back she cooed comforting words to me until I'm finally less hysterical.

"Can I ask you some questions about this and get some answers without another break down?" Lisa questioned quietly.  Nodding my head yes I gave her a half-hearted smile.  I would have to talk about this anyway, but maybe it would help some with the depression.

"Who are you talking about?" Lisa immediately got to the point.

"My mate"

"Aww, Peanut" Lisa says in response to my mumbled reply.  Jump up Lisa looks straight at me.

"I need you to tell me all about how you feel.  You need to vent about this, your not aloud to hold this in, because that's not healthy for you." Lisa went on saying how important it is not to hold in your feeling, and that some times you just need to let it all out.

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"I'm proud of you, you know that right? I could never deal with knowing nothing about my mate and never knowing who he is, unsure if I would ever meet him.  Especially if I were the last one in the group to ever find my mate.  I would go off on everyone when I was the only on with out their mate and they all had those 'moments'.  I might even go into a depression." Lisa said to me before pausing, "How about we invite the girls over and watch the Hobbit.  You don't have to talk to them about any of this, but let them comfort you.  They noticed how off you were too, but you get snappy with them while your down, so they talked to me about it."

"Yeah, yeah lets do that.  Can you have them bring deserts?" I ask quietly before grabbing the blankets from her bed and going to the living room.  Heading to a hall closet I pulled out more blankets and added them to the growing pile in the living room. Margo and Jill came in a short while later with their arms filled with snacks asCasey trailed behind and Lisa put the movie in.  Getting up I turned off the lights as everyone settled on the floor.  Smiling I curled up against Lisa's side.

As the movie played and reached the parts where the dwarves showed up at Bilbo's house, showing the dwarves as they arrived at the doorstep, I felt my heart freeze.  Their hair remained me of my mate.  From that moment on tears would slip down my face periodically through out the movie.  Lisa noticed and mind-linked me Are you alright?.

Yeah, I was just thinking about earlier, I replied as Lisa gave me a small sad smile, while gently rubbing circles on my back.

As the movie moved forwards I was able to laugh and enjoy it with my friends.  I was still overly concerned with my mate, but was able to shove the thoughts out of my head by focusing on the movie.

As the movie ended we decided to spend the night, so the girls all got in touch with their mates.  It didn't matter what their parents said, seeing as we had all moved into the pack house when we turned seventeen.

Jill, Casey, and Laura ran around the house pulling out more blankets and pillows while Margo ordered pizza and Lisa and I made a run to the store.

During our trip to the store Lisa and I talked more about me not having my mate making me feel more settled.  Stuffing my negative feelings down so they weren't visible I gave her a reassuring smile.

By the time we walked back into the house the living room was set up for a Lord of the Rings marathon and the girls were in the dinning room eating pizza as they did homework.  Grabbing my backpack I joined in while everyone yelled and joked around as we worked on homework. 

An hour latter we went to the living room again after having finished the pizza and getting a fair chunk of homework finished.

Our movie marathon went well with lots of yelling and comparisons to the books.  At one point, after the first movie we went streaking as a way to keep ourselves awake.  Between the second and third movies we played a short game of truth or dare.  Of course the sugar and caffeine we consumed helped us stay conscious as well.

It saddened me slightly when each of my friends slinked off at some point, only to come back giddy with large grins.  It was a tale-tell sign they had either talked to or snuck out of our girls' night to meet up with their mates for a short time.  It hurt more now that I didn't have anyone to laugh at them with anymore, because I was the only on who "hadn't" found her mate yet.

It was fairly early by the time we went to bed in the morning meaning that we slept well into the afternoon.  By the time I woke up and headed down to the kitchen the boys (excluding Eric) had arrived and everyone was eating and laughing together.  It was too much for me to handle as soon as I had woken up.  Grabbing a pop tart I headed over to the dinning room and worked on homework with Lisa.  She gave me a small sympathetic smile as we worked beside each other in silence.