Sly as a Fox {Book One}

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N: The picture above is a picture of Kyle. Enjoy!

Alone

adjective

-without help from others; without help or support from anybody or anything else

-without company; without any other person or thing nearby or in attendance, for company, or to give assistance

-unique in some respect; being the only one of a group to do, achieve, or think something

I awoke with a start; a nightmare forgotten forced my consciousness back to the forefront of my mind. Sitting up and pulling the covers off of my body, I wiped my face with the back of my hand to loosen up the parts of my face that had stiffened from the tears that were spilled during my sleep. Looking over beside me, I glanced over at my clock, noticing that I had only an hour left until I would regularly wake up for school, but I knew there was no way I would be able to go back to sleep now that I was awake again.

At least it's Friday, I reminded myself, trying to be positive.

I opened up my curtain, a special design for shifters that blocked light from entering my bedroom. I desperately needed it; being an animal that would otherwise sleep in a den, when light hit my face, I would wake up. The sun bore onto my skin and I blinked my eyes as I was blinded by its rays.

Sighing, I got out of bed and ran a hand through my hair to part it. I figured that with the extra time before school, I might as well take a shower to wash off all of the scents and emotions left on my skin from yesterday.

I quickly jumped in the shower and reveled in the feeling of the warm water hitting my back as it loosened some of my muscles and helped to pull me from sleep. I switched over to wash off the impurities of the day before and eventually forced myself to get out.

With my hair freshly combed and in a microfiber towel on top of my head, I dried off my body, and rubbed some scented lotion over my skin to further cover up any residual smells on my skin. Deciding on a fitted gray tank top and a red un-buttoned plaid shirt with skinny jeans and my own pair of Converse, I felt like I looked decent, considering what I just endured.

I was grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge as I tossed my still somewhat damp curls over to one side of my head, when I heard two rings of my doorbell echo through my ears. After years of experience, I knew that could only mean one thing.

Serena.

With relief flooding through my body, I literally ran to the door and swung it open to reveal both her and Kyle on my front steps. I felt my heart warm with pride and love of the people who do actually genuinely care for me, and not because some cosmic force or their genes tell them they're supposed to. They just do, and they do so unconditionally.

I opened the storm door and let them in. As soon as they both stepped foot into my foyer, they gave each other a single glance, like they were trying to synchronize their movements and I was immediately wrapped up in a giant bear hug before I could protest or escape their grasps. For once in my life, I didn't try to escape their affections because I was actually craving it. This was exactly what I needed at the moment, and somehow, they had sensed that. I was nearly in tears as they embraced me, though I tried to hide it.

Pulling back, I said lowly out of fear of causing a dam to burst down my cheeks, "Thank you."

Serena's eyebrows furrowed slightly, "For what?" To her, that small act of hugging me was just that: Small. But for me, it had a bigger impact on how I felt than if they had tried to talk to me about it. It was an act of kindness that I was rarely shown, and was even more rare that I accepted it. I knew Serena well enough to know that she was just dying inside to learn the details of yesterday, so the fact that she was letting me be for the time being left me extremely grateful.