Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 33: Friends

At this point, I guess it was safe to say that I had royally messed up.  Name just about every stupid thing in the book and I had done it.  Starting way back on my first day when I had shifted form after being told very clearly not to and finishing with throwing my obnoxious, controlling date through a wall and then subsequently fleeing the scene of the crime.

I had to set things right, once and for all.  I had to stop with the impulsive, irrational decisions and start thinking before I acted.  

My animal side would be absolutely no help in this matter.  It no more understood the concept of thinking before acting than it understood the concept of long division.  Maybe that was the whole reason I was being so impulsive in the first place.

But, from now on, I would listen to my human brain.  My rational brain.  The one that made reasonable, logical decisions.

The first step would be getting rid of Lucas.  Basically, my plans for that involved blowing off the date I had never agreed to in the first place, avoiding him whenever possible and, if our paths happened to cross, making my feelings toward him abundantly clear.  He was bound to get the message at some point.

The second step, the one I was dreading the most, involved telling my friends what an idiot I had been before all the secrets spiraled out of control.

And step three: keep my head down and stay the hell out of trouble from now on.

Easy, right?

After breakfast, Reza went off to spend a little quality time with his girlfriend (I tried to ignore the pang of jealousy that struck harder and harder every time that girl was mentioned).  This left me, Danielle and Jewel with a full day of complete freedom ahead of us.

“I think we should go to the beach,” Jewel said, as we made out way out of the courtyard.  “I don’t think Eve’s been there yet.”

“Is it safe?” I asked.  “What if some…” I cast around for the right term “… normal people see us?”

“Highly unlikely,” Danielle said.  “It’s part of the ‘restricted military zone,’” she added air quotations to the phrase.  “No one ever goes there.”

“Actually, some guy did wash up from a ship-wreck or something a few years back,” Jewel said.  “Luckily, he was completely delirious.  He assumed the huge wolf that transformed into a woman right in front of his eyes was just a crazy hallucination.”

Danielle grinned.  “Oh right, I forgot about that.  Kerry went berserk.  She wanted to have his memory erased.”

“Like that’s even possible,” Jewel rolled her eyes.  “So, what do you say, Eve?  We like to shift into cat-form and chase the seagulls.”

I hesitated.  It sounded fun, but going to the beach would mean changing out of my baggy hoody and putting on some proper beach attire.  There was no way to hide the bruises on my arm in a bikini. I was prepared to tell them about my problems with Lucas.  I was not prepared to admit that he had gotten physical with me.  That somehow felt like it would create more problems than it would solve.

We stepped out into the morning sunlight.  The heat struck me like a wall.  Beads of sweat quickly formed on my body and rolled down my skin.  Then again, if I didn’t get out of this sweater I was likely to get heat stroke or something. 

“How about shopping first?” Danielle suggested, as if she had read my mind.  “Some of us aren’t exactly dressed for going to the beach.”

Jewel looked me up and down.  “Good point.”

“Guys,” I said.   “I appreciate the thought, but I’m fine. Really.”