Calling Affection (Boyxboy)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Van's POV

I stared blankly at the ceiling of my room. The heavy, demanding gaze of the textbooks in my room made me uncomfortable, but I didn't want to study. It wouldn't be good to stain them with tears.

The emptiness in my chest hurt. It had been there for a while, but it had grown so much recently. 

Axel found his mate.

It hadn't sunk in properly until I walked into Axel's room to see him sitting on the bed next to Oliver. Axel's heart pounded uncontrollably—I could hear it—and his scent ripe with desire, a glazed look of yearning on his face as he watched Oliver talk, his lips parted.

Axel was completely enraptured. My Axel was completely enraptured with someone else.

He wasn't mine, but he really might as well have been. He was my best friend. My childhood friend. My future alpha. My partner in crime. My responsibility. My confidant.

My long time-crush.

I had been with Axel birth—quite literally, in a cradle next to his moments after he'd been born. The elders loved to tell the story of how Axel was a fussy child, crying and whining all the time. But when we first met, he'd quietened down, staring at me and grabbing. When his pacifier had fallen out of his mouth, I had pushed it back in. 

There were countless pictures in our photo albums of us two cuddling together.

I was there beside him through everything. When we were learning to walk, Axel would encourage me with his baby babble, stumbling over to me and pulling me around. Of course, it just ended with us both sprawled on the ground, but the sentiment was there.

He'd always been a troublemaker, and I was the only one who could stop him. Whether it be him ruining his mom's garden, stealing cookies, breaking vases, stealing girlfriends and breaking hearts, I was there beside him, chastising him. 

It had always been that way. Axel would throw fits if I wasn't placed in the same class as him. Everyone thought his rebellious streak started in fifth grade when his parents refused to bargain with the school to have me in his class. 

I wasn't kidding myself—I knew it was just Axel throwing a tantrum because he didn't get what he wanted. But what he wanted—to the point of defying his alpha and fighting with his parents day after day until he got his way—was me.

How was I not supposed to fall for him? 

I rolled over, hugging my pillow to myself. It just made me acutely aware of the scent surrounding me—I was wearing Axel's hoodie, one he had left in my room the last time he slept over. 

My chest ached. It was a best-friend-hoodie, not a boyfriend-hoodie, and the difference had never been more apparent.

I knew Axel wasn't the best. He was horrible—going from kissing girls he knew someone else liked, to picking fights with people who refused him anything, to picking fights to boost his own ego. It was awful, and Axel had yet to grow out of it, despite our best efforts. 

In fact, he was charming enough to have people join him regardless. 

When Jayy joined our pack in middle school, we didn't know that he had lost his parents, just that he was the nephew of the current Gamma. And none of us knew that Jayy had retreated into himself as a result of that trauma. 

All Axel knew was that Jayy's quiet, apathetic, blank gaze was something he disliked. He felt challenged by Jayy's presence—not all that surprising, considering Jayy was quite a formidable Gamma.