Silent Wolf

The Lake

I was excited when I woke up to a text from Vance.

[Vance: Morning babe, lake house this weekend?]

I got ready and joined my mom and Mariah for breakfast.

"Hate to leave you here. But I'll be home by 2."

"2?" Mariah asked, "I thought you only had 3 classes you have to finish for graduation?"

I nodded, "still do, just playing catch-up since I was out...only way I'll graduate with our class."

"It's cool, I'm probably gonna visit mom today, maybe I'll start the process to join our community college."

"Ugh I'm dreading doing that...but hey if you want, a few of us are going to the lake this weekend, you should join us."

"Is..." she looked at mom before continuing "I'll think about it." She said with a smile.

I knew she wanted to know if Patrick would be there. I left shortly after to pick up Harper.

"Hey girl." I smiled.

"Hey, so Brax wants to go to the lake this weekend, can you and Vance make it?"

I nodded, "we'll be there...I also invited Mariah."

"Wait...she's here, when did she get in?"

"Harper!" I got more than a little upset. "Haven't you called or text her?"

"No...I figured if she wanted to talk to me she'd reach out...you know, like a swinging door swings both ways sorta deal."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, "Well you should at least text her, especially now that she's back in town...but yeah, she got back in last night...she's going to be staying with me for a while."

"Why?'

I gave her a look that said if you want to know then you need to ask her yourself.

"Fine...I have to admit I've been sort of flaky lately..." She sighed, "It's just a lot ya know."

"I get it...and while I don't know everything you're going through...I can guarantee we're all dealing with something...Ry included... you know what, we should probably have a sleepover."

"Honestly...That's exactly what I need right now." She smiled almost shyly. "Things seem kinda stressful with all these Luna regulations I wasn't exactly aware of, but the thing is I'm technically not even the Luna yet."

I shrugged, "we all basically recognize you as our Luna though, try not to stress about it too much."

"I'm trying... hey, so don't take this the wrong way or anything..." She said almost nervously now.

I knew she had something on her mind, but was trying to filter through coming off like a bitch, very Harper, she never wants to offend anyone or be seen as the bad guy.

"So...every since you left for California I've kinda been wondering...will things be weird now that she's back?" She asked. "I mean last time I saw her we sort of apologized to one another but there was so much going on that it was almost like a second thought."

I shook my head, "Mariah's good, we're good...I think we can all just let everything go given the circumstances."

"She just dropped us Ellie..like she didn't even care that we weren't friends anymore."

"Look, I can't force you to be friends with her or to forgive and forget what happened, but I know she was going through a lot of stuff herself...still is to be honest."