Little Wolves (gxg)

Chapter 6 - Ruby's

I barely got any sleep last night. If I don't sleep with my window open a crack, my room is too quiet. But it was almost unbearable last night, the howling. The howling was endless. It sounded like there were wolves everywhere, even in my backyard.

And to tell you the truth, I was terrified.

I was too scared to even look out of the window to see if I could see one. They sounded too close.

I thought I would love hearing a wolf howl, that it would be majestic and comforting, but I was wrong. It sounded like there were hundreds of them. At least five different howls were echoing around, answering one another, calling out to the next.

Maybe if I had gone to sleep earlier I would have been able to sleep through the noise. I had laid down right as they started, around eleven.

Now the sun was rising and I was in the kitchen, trying to find coffee grinds. Not long had passed when I realized my mom probably didn't bring them. So, I sighed.

I started drinking coffee when I was eighteen. It's gotten so bad that if I don't drink a cup in the morning, I get caffeine headaches. It sucks. My eyes were threatening to close as I was walking around. I desperately wanted to either go back to sleep or consume an unhealthy amount of caffeine.

Being tired isn't even the worst part of this morning, though. When I woke up, my stomach sank. It felt like a pound of rocks were sinking to my toes and staying there. That's when a feeling of impending doom settled over my heart, too. It was almost like I was forgetting something, but more like a sense that something big was going to happen.

I used to get the same feeling in school. Mostly when I had forgotten about a homework assignment and I knew my professor was going to chew me out for it, or if I forgot an appointment or club meeting or something. The feeling was real annoying, honestly. It made me want to punch my own gut. Thanks, anxiety.

"No coffee?" dad grunted as he tumbled into the kitchen and started opening the cabinets. I smiled. I wasn't used to seeing him up this early.

"Afraid not. I wanted some, too," I admitted. My arms were crossed over my chest, hiding the design on my t-shirt. Dad huffed as he turned around to look at me.

"Want to go explore town? We can get some on the way home, I don't know what places open this early," he offered.

"Absolutely." I nodded and immediately followed dad into the foyer to slip our shoes on. My dad's outfit pretty much matched mine, except his sweatpants were those typical plaid pajama pants while mine were plain black.

"Oh, shit, gotta grab my wallet. Be right back," dad said as he patted his pockets. He ran up the stairs before I could acknowledge his statement. I decided to wait for him outside so I opened my front door and stepped onto the porch.

My arms were immediately met with chilly morning air. I closed my eyes, relishing in the beauty of the early morning. The birds were starting to sing, a soft breeze lifted through the leaves, and there were no traffic sounds to be heard. Everything was so peaceful. That feeling in my stomach seemed to settle down, too.

I was standing there, enjoying the quiet when the rumble of a car engine disrupted everything. It made me open my eyes and watch a dusty-red, two door jeep barrel down the dirt road. The doors were taken off and the soft top was fully pulled down.

As it passed, I barely got a glimpse of the driver. It was a girl, I could tell that much, but she had sunglasses on so I couldn't see her face. She whipped her jeep around the corner of the street so tightly I thought it might fall over. It pulled into the Auden's driveway.

Judging by the two surfboards sticking out of the back seat, I had only one guess as to who had just gotten home. I would've stayed to see what she looked like, but my dad opened the door behind me and had me turning around.