You Smell Like... Mine (Book 1 in the 'You Smell' series)

Chapter 27 - Monkey See Monkey Do

Asher's POV

I watch Ivy as she goes back to the line for dessert. That girl can really eat, eh, must be her werewolf metabolism. When she starts back towards me, she pauses with a blank look that quickly becomes worried before she hurries over to me.

"Come on, we've got a situation. We need to get to your room ASAP." She says as she takes my hand, pulling me up and towards the door.

"What's going on?" I ask, practically jogging to keep up with her hasty pace.

"Brock revealed himself to Brandon and he apparently isn't coping well. I don't know what possessed him to do it here, especially in your dorm room. I mean what if he had run off screaming about wolves. I swear, that guy just doesn't think things through sometimes." She shakes her head.

I have to agree with her. He definitely could have chosen a better venue for his big reveal. We keep our steps quick as we make it to Slater House and rush up the stairs. When we walk in, I don't know whether to laugh or what. Brandon looks traumatized as he rocks himself back and forth in the far corner of his bed. His face is pale, eyes wide, and expression blank. Brock is pacing like a caged animal, no pun intended, and keeps making these high pitched whining noises. Then I notice the window. Well, what was a window. Now, for some reason, there is a sheet of metal screwed into the wall, completely blocking it.

Ivy walks straight to Brock before grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. When he just keeps whining, she smacks him a few times on his cheek. " Brock, listen to me. You need to calm down. Brandon is clearly in shock and you freaking out is only going to make it worse. Go sit over there," she says as she points to Brandon's desk on the other side of the room," and I will try to fix this."

Brock takes a deep, steadying breath before walking over and sitting in Brandon's desk chair. I follow him and lean against the desk next to him as Ivy approaches Brandon with slow, measured movements.

"Dude, what's up with the new window covering?" I ask him in a low voice. He turns to look at me as if he just realized that I was here.

"Oh.. Um..," He rubs the back of his neck." I, uh, I didn't want him to be able to run away when I told him, so I took some precautions."

I choke back a laugh. "Wait seriously? You are aware that we are on the third floor, yeah?"

"I know, but I didn't want to take any chances." He says with a shrug, causing me to shake my head at him.

Looking back over at Ivy, I see that she has finally made it to the bed and is now sitting on the edge facing Brandon. "Hey buddy, look at me. Come on, that's it." She says in the most soothing voice I've ever heard from her. "See how I'm breathing, try it with me. Here we go, nice and slow. In... and out. Good. You are doing so good. Okay, again. In.... and out. See, that feels better already doesn't it?" 

I notice that Ivy is following her own instructions, showing him what she wants him to do. I'm surprised by how quickly she has gotten a positive reaction. Brandon's rocking has slowed and he is maintaining eye contact with her. I can see his shoulders moving with the breaths he is taking in concert with Ivy's.

"Ok now, let's try to release some of that tension, alright? Watch how I move my shoulders up and back. Now I drop them down and forward. Again. I go up and then back, down and then forward. Try it with me this time. Good. That's really good. Let's do it again, just follow my lead. There you go, that's right." Her slow, even tone has clearly helped.

Brandon's posture has relaxed tremendously and he has stopped rocking completely. My girl is amazing. I watch curiously as she reaches into her purse and pulls out the brownie that she had gotten in the cafeteria. She unwraps it before breaking it in half and slowly reaching out to place a piece in Brandon's hand.

"Eat this. It will help. It's alright, it's chocolate." She casually lifts the remaining bit of brownie to her own mouth before taking a slow exaggerated bite. Never breaking eye contact with Brandon, Ivy makes a show of moving her jaw up and down before swallowing. She reaches out to the hand holding Brandon's share of the brownie and calmly lifts it to his mouth. "Eat it. You'll feel better."

It takes a moment for what she said to register, but when it does I can barely contain my laughter. "Baby, are you seriously quoting Harry Potter right now?" She just looks over at me with a grin. "You do know that he is suffering from shock and not a dementor attack, right?"

"I know, but chocolate makes everything better. It produces endorphins that make you feel happy." She calmly reasons before turning back to Brandon, who has taken a bite and swallowed as we talked. It seems Ivy knows her stuff because he has regained most of his color and he looks pretty chill as he looks around at us. "Go on, Brandon. Have some more."

Brandon nods shakily before obeying. He finishes the brownie after a few more bites and then leans back against the wall. After a few silent minutes, he says,  "Thanks, Ivy. You were right. I do feel better." When his gaze falls on Brock, he stiffens. "What were you thinking just throwing that out there like that?"

Brock just lowers his head looking defeated. Ivy gets Brandon's attention and asks, "Want to tell me what happened?"

"Well, I walked in the room to find him," he points at Brock," already in here. I'd still like to know how he got in, but anyway. Don't even get me started on the new window treatment. He told me to sit because he wanted to tell me something important about himself. Then with zero lead up, he tells me he's a werewolf. Of course, I think it is a joke because I mean seriously. A werewolf? But then he says he'll prove it. It wasn't so bad when he started stripping down, but then.... then he starts moving all weird and I saw his body changing and hair growing everywhere... and those sounds, I swear those sounds are going to give me nightmares. When they finally stopped, there was a freaking wolf standing in front of me. I panicked and would have run out the door, but he was blocking it. I barely remember him changing back and saying he'd get you two here," he nods towards Ivy and I," because you'd know what to do. Thanks for your help, by the way."

^^panicked Nicolaj^^

"It's no problem, it happens to the best of us. Look, I know this is scary, and I agree that Brock could have handled this better, but I think you two should talk. He would never hurt you, and I know you care about him. Please, for his sake, don't let this destroy what you could have." Ivy softly tells him.

"Yeah. Ok. But do you think you guys could stay?" He asks worriedly.

"Sure. That's fine, but I'm not going to have this conversation for you guys. Asher and I will hang out, but it's you and Brock that need to talk." Ivy says firmly before getting up and walking to my side.

Brock hesitantly approaches Brandon and they begin to speak quietly. Deliberately ignoring them, Ivy walks over to my bookshelf. She slowly looks over all of my books before reaching my selection of games. She runs her fingers along the spines of the cases until she reaches one that I love. She freezes before turning to me with a look of abject horror.

A/N: Please Comment and Vote people! Thanks for reading! ~~ TheCaster369