Lemon Water // Paul Lahote

forty four

Serena

"Jake I'll be fine, go patrol" I told the massive boy wolf. He let out a whine and I knew that he wouldn't stop following me until I was inside my house.

It wasn't hard to figure out that it was Jake following me and not some random animal or inhuman species. First of all, Jake and Seth have patrol until two, where Jared and Quil take over.

Second of all, Jake walks different than the other guys. They all have heavy footsteps that are clumsy while he has nice light steps that only give off crunches when he steps on old leaves or sticks.

Third of all, it's not hard to recognize his eyes compared to the other guys. Each one has distinct features and his are the most noticeable.

I listened to his steps the entire way back to my house, "thanks Jake," I said before walking up my driveway.

"Where the hell did you go!" Embry yelled at me as soon as I closed the door behind me.

"Leave me alone Embry" I replied, pushing past him to walk to our room.

"Serena you just disappeared! You can't fucking do that! Where the hell were you?!"

"I was where people actually care about my feelings, Embry! Because obviously you don't!"

I stormed off to our room and slammed the door behind me. I threw my backpack to the ground and changed into sweats and a long sleeve before getting under my covers and shutting the lights off.

I cried to myself quietly for nearly an hour before the door opened again. "Serena" Embry tried but I ignored him.

"Mom wants to talk to you"

"Tell her that we have nothing to talk about" I whispered but I know he heard. He sighed and the door closed again, and I heard his footsteps disappear down the hall.

It took another half an hour for him to come back to our room, and this time it was for him to go to bed. It was nearing eleven now, and I needed him to be asleep soon otherwise I wouldn't be able to leave.

It didn't take long for his snores to start and I smiled to myself. Looking at the clock I saw that it was 11:23, not close enough to midnight for me to leave.

I spent the next 30 minutes thinking about what I was going to do to help Laken. I figured that he needs to find his tick to start working through it but I have no clue how to help him with that. Hell I don't even know Embrys tick.

I also though that maybe he could shift but then vetoed it because then Jake and Seth would find out. I could try making him angry enough to the point where he might shift and then start to calm him down by talking about Bailey, but that's cruel and dangerous.

I opened the bedroom window at exactly 11:58 and slipped out of it quietly, making sure to leave it cracked so I could get back in. I speed walked to the backyard and then into the woods by one of the bigger trees where I waited for Laken to show up.

It was midnight when Laken showed up, right on time like he was scared to be late. "Hey" he said, a small smile on his face, "what are we going to do?"

"I think our best option is to find your tick, but that might take ages so we may have to switch to something more extreme" I replied

"As in?"

"Making you angry enough to the point you're going to shift then bringing you out of it by talking about Bailey"

"I'm not doing that"

"Why not? Besides, that's only if we can't figure out what your tick is"

"Because I don't want to hurt you. You've seen what happened to Emily, I'm not doing the same to you"

"I thought Emily got attacked by a bear?" He shook his head at me, "Holy shit that was just a cover up! It was Sam!"

"Yeah.. that's why I'm not doing that, nobody else can get hurt"

"We're going to do what we have to do. All of the others spent weeks out of school trying to control themselves, we're getting you back by the end of next week, but hopefully it'll be this Friday when we get you back"

"Ok, let's start, just say random things and see what gets me?"

"Sounds good. First, what's the most important thing in your life? Maybe person even?"

"Um, definitely my dad, and lacrosse"

"Ok, I've got this. You're a terrible lacrosse player. You will never play on varsity because you suck. You're so bad that even the C-Squad bench warmers can put score you"

"Yeah thanks for that. Nothing worked"

"Ok, you'll never be as successful as your dad. Your dad wastes his time on you. Your dad likes your friends more than you"

"Still nothing"

"Bailey will never love you. She will never forgive you for what you did to me" Laken started to shake in anger, "there it is!"

I didn't stop insulting Laken. It felt good to say these things to him even though I knew that none of these statements were true. The fear of getting torn apart by a raging wolf man was overrun by my desire to fix his problem.

"Bailey will never look at you as something more than a classmate. She likes my brother more than she likes you and would probably get with him first"

He was shaking uncontrollably. By the time I realized how bad it had gotten it was too late. He exploded into a massive wolf just inches away from me and I let out a large gasp.

"Laken?" I asked, "is it you or your wolf? Sit if it's you" the wolf sat down and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"Now that we know your tick we can work on controlling it. Phase back, I'll turn around"

"Ok, let's do this" Laken said after turning back into a human.