The Nights Song

Chp 4

A couple hours later there was a knock on his door before it opened up to reveal the dark haired girl from Ashers pictures.

"Hey Ash, can you help me with this problem?" The girl asked quietly.
"Sure Mav, come here." Asher pat the floor beside him as an invitation, which the girl -Mav- took and showed him her paper.

"It's easy, all you have to do is multiply this, put this here and thennnnn," he paused for dramatic effect. "Tadaaaaaa, there's your answer." He grinned at her, earning himself a small smile.

"Thanks, you always make it seem so easy." She glanced at me curiously before side hugging her brother and leaving us alone again.

"You seem to care a lot about her..." I mumbled, slowly packing my stuff up.
"She's my little sister, of course I care." He frowned softly as if not caring for his sister wasn't an option. "Why wouldn't I?"
I shrugged softly, avoiding his gaze. "Some people just don't." I didn't elaborate, I didn't think I'd need to. If he heard what Terrance said the day before he knows what I mean.

He was quiet as he helped clean up before leading me to the door. He grabbed my wrist gently, his eyes full of worry and concern.
"You can tell me if somethings wrong y'know? If somethings going on I want to help."
"Everything's fine, but I need to get home now so I'll see you tomorrow."

Without waiting for a reply I bolted out of the apartment, catching a small glimpse of Ashers aunt -who's name I found out is Akari- staring at us with a grin despite the sad look passing over her features.

~~~~

Two weeks have passed since that day, I occasionally hang out with Asher, mainly when we're paired up for projects or Terrance isn't around, but today Asher came up to us during lunch.

"Hey," he said, sitting down beside me. "Wanna hang out after school?"
"She's busy." Terrance answered for me.
"You can come to, I'll be bringing my sister to get ice cream."
Terrance sighed heavily to suppress his growl.

"Fine, we'll go. But we have to be home by 3:30, we have chores." Terry makes it sound like he's going to do the chores.
"Cool," he grinned. "See you later."

Sure enough, as we were leaving the school Asher caught up to us with Mav and led us further into town, talking with his sister all the while. Terrance didn't look at her, too busy with his own thoughts, until Asher offered to walk us home, actually insisted would be a better way to describe it.

"We'll be fine, we know where we're going." Terrance argued with a scowl, probably worried about what they'll find out.
"We could use the extra exercise, someone's been a bit lazy." He glanced at his sister.
"Reading and learning aren't being lazy Ash." Mav said quietly,  keeping her eyes on the ground.

Despite their arguing I really needed to get back to the house before I got in trouble for not doing my chores, so I started leading the way home. Honestly I didn't really care what Asher and Mav found out, I felt like I could trust them.

"Cress." Terrance's tone was filled with warning, which I ignored. I had to get home soon, my chores needed to get done and honestly I was tired. I don't walk a lot, even on full moons when Terrance and I are allowed out of the house all night. My legs felt like jelly and I was ready to collapse.

Luckily I heard footsteps following behind me which meant two things: 1 Terry couldn't do anything right now, and 2 I had momentary support.

Asher tried to talk to both me and Terrance, but when it was clear we weren't going to say anything he stopped trying and settled for speaking with his sister. It wasn't long before we arrived on the trail that led through the woods and to the house, which is where Terrance sighed heavily and opened his mouth to protest. Again.

Before he could utter a word though, Mav held up her hand with a fierce kind of fire in her eyes and ordered, "shut."
Between the blatant disrespect towards an alpha by blood -not that she knew that-, the fact that she was younger than him and she was, well, a she, Terrance was finally at a loss for words.
Not even I could do that, but that was probably because my brother joined in, and seemed to enjoy beating me until I was vomiting in the basement.

Without another word, Mav led us down the trail, although for all she knew it wouldn't lead anywhere, and was quickly followed by Asher, then myself. Terrance could find his own way home.

Just before the bend that wrapped towards the house I thanked the siblings quietly and explained I could continue on my own.

"Are you sure? I don't mind coming with." Asher insisted, an emotion I couldn't describe sparkling in his eyes.
"I'm sure, I'll see you at school." He sighed, but nodded and walked away with his sister, waving back to me as he went.

I better hurry......

I turned to head inside, my heart stalling as I noticed Mr. Songs truck in the driveway.

~~~~

My head pounded as I opened my eyes to find myself on the living room floor. I couldn't remember why I was there, but I knew when I did remember, I'd wish I hadn't. Currently I felt like one, giant bruise. I probably had a few cracked or even broke ribs and my left wrist was definitely broken.

So much for pretending to be fine...

I couldn't go to school like this, Asher would get way to suspicious. I quickly stand, wincing at the pain, before slowly making my way to my closet. Either they'll assume I went to school or I ran away, which currently I wished it was the latter. I forgot how much it hurt to move with broken bones.

I would heal soon, I haven't heard from my wolf in a while, but I knew she'd heal me quickly, like she always has. It'll probably take a couple days but I'll be able to hide it well by tomorrow.

Just before I fell back asleep, I heard Alex's voice carry from down the hall.

"I'm selling the mutt. By 6 o'clock tonight she'll be somebody else's problem."