Ted was twirling his straw and drown the ice one at the time but they kept floating back, stubbornly refusing to do what the master had said while he was equally stubborn trying to make them obey his simple but deadly command.
He has been doing this for a full thirty minutes without glancing up towards the staring audience of three. We have been waiting patiently with a red nose and swollen eyes due to crying for a whole fifteen minutes while we swallow three bottles of alcohol. At first the waitress said nothing and kept coming over to give me glass after glass of alcohol until one was too enough so in the end she gave me four bottles with a tight smile.
"Teddie." Gwen croaked and I could see that she was getting a bit tipsy. She was more prone to being drunk than us, werewolves but I could see she was fighting to stay sober and clear.
"Please tell us what happened. You're our best friend and we're worried about you. You look horrible and we want to help and be there for you but first you have to let us in." She grabbed his hand from the straw which caught his attention. His eyes looked around as if he had just realized where he was. "I - I can't." He whispered and it broke my heart. Where was my loud and happy go-lucky friend who smiles at everything? He was left with nothing but heartbroken and sorrow.
"Please Ted." I finally spoke and he briefly looked at me before he moved his gaze back to his water. For a brief moment, I thought I saw guilt but why would he feel guilty when he was just like me - rejected.
"Tell me what happened that night? I need to know why my whole world suddenly turned 360° in one night?" I took his hands and begged him. He stared blankly at his hands inside mine and I felt his heart beating fast. Finally, he looked up to me with sad eyes which made him appear ten years older.
"I was the one-" What he said later, made my heart stop. My ears rang as if there was a siren surrounding me in a bubble. All I see was his mouth moving but nothing came out.
"I need air." I gasped for air with my hands flailing in the air.
"Elly breathe. In. Out." Maya aided me to calm down with showing me how to breath normally. Her eyes on me - only on me. Slowly but surely, my lungs began to function normally while my heart still beats rapidly. My mind began to see clearly and I took every air in and calmly took it out with the help of Maya's similar action. "Okay?" She gave me an ensuring smile and I nodded. I closed my eyes and my body shifted straight to the culprit.
"I'm sorry, Elly. I didn't know it would become this." His hand moving to my state - indicating I was left by my mate. "I didn't know he would have chosen her when she comes running to him like a puppy. I thought she'll find someone else but I guess it was to be expected for her to go to him like a mouth to a flame." He clinched his fists into a tight ball of fury and soon after ruffled his hair into a complete mess.
"Why did you do it?" Gwen asked the question burning inside me but couldn't. The words wouldn't come out as the shock still hadn't settle in me.
"Why did you reject Violet when you've done everything to be with her?" Her voice was now demanding and livid. "If you think it was fun to see who would get Violet since you've been hating Kyle since forever and your winning was a short victory and she was simply a trophy that you could just throw, you're the worst. I liked you, Ted. Since the very first day I saw you. And I had to throw that away because of your mate and your desperation and determination to be with her. It hurts but now it hurts more when I know that my effort to let you be with your mate and be happy was trivial." She lashed out and her eyes were set cold at him.
"Gwen- it's not like that." He cleared his throat and sat straighter. His eyes went to her and me. "It's not about Kyle. Yes. I don't like him but I grew to like that guy until now." He glanced at me with sympathy. "It was something else entirely." He tried to justify but Gwen just stared outside with her hands both holding the glass - taking it away when he tried to touch her.
"It was because I can't be with her." His voice louder than before. Luckily, no one paid any attention towards us. "What do you mean?" Maya asked to let him talked more to justify for his action. "It's weird. We left the party and we went towards our usual spot to - you know, make out." He blushed sightly and quickly cleared his throat when we noticed Gwen rolling her eyes. At least, she's listening.
"But I couldn't." He looked down to his hands as they played with each other. "I couldn't bring myself to touch her. It's as if I was seeing her with Kyle and I grew disgusted. All my love evaporated to thin air while hate slowly slipped into me. In seconds, I was standing far away from her as if she was trash. And my mouth smoothly rejected her without a second thought." He looked up not at Maya but at Gwen and she was staring at him with wide eyes.
"I saw her as a slut like the night I knew she was my mate. The anger boiled again as the same as that night." He relived the moment to us. "And the funny part was, she smiled and rejected me within a heartbeat. It's like all our love just disappeared and we didn't want to be with each other."
Everyone went silent for a full fifteen minutes. "I don't understand." Gwen broke the tension. "How can you suddenly hate someone in seconds?" He shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing major.
"Maybe that's how life is. You love somebody but the next thing you know, you're back to strangers." He hypothesized. "But that's not possible. I heard once you found your mate, you would be so in love that his or her past doesn't matter." He chuckled darkly and stared into her eyes with the coldest stare I had ever seen. She shivered at the sudden change of attitude. "Life's not a fairy tale to forget that you're mate didn't wait for you when you have. It just make your effort useless and meaningless to her. She knew she had a mate to be with forever until death do us part but she just couldn't wait and fuck a fucking horny Alpha."
