317 Prepping Cover Boards

Nolen sat in the back with me and let Gavin drive. He was far too unstable to drive, his ears, and tail had formed, and his snout was starting to make an appearance. Gavin drove us to a little place where we could get away, and Nolen could let out his rage-induced morph.

The pond that Gavin took us to was adorable and just what we needed. Gavin and I decided to strip down to our underwear and hop in while Nolen leapt in fully transformed. Nolen swam around and tried to catch fish, then went and dug holes for a little bit, then back to swimming before he spent the last of his energy chasing a rabbit into the woods.

Nolen came back dripping with sweat, missing his shirt, and huffing loudly. He threw himself into a patch of soft grass and stared at the sky. I decided to be a little mean to him and magically got a ball of water and flew to hang over his head.

“Nolen… looks like you need to cool off.” I dropped the water on his chest and he shot up and grabbed me by the waist. I wriggled to get away, but he was too strong for being worn out.

“You pesky little pixie, I swear if you weren’t so freaking cute, I’d squish you.” He threw me over his shoulder and headed for the water. When he jumped into the water holding me I was in shock and choked on a little water in surprise.

I came up sputtering and gasping for breath, “Geez, are you trying to drown me?”

“No, but I’m not stupid either, can’t throw a fairy into the pond that easy can you?” He blocked my attempt at splashing water at him and laughed.

Gavin and I shared a look and I flew over Nolen and Gavin swam under to pull him down as I dropped to push him in. However, Nolen was faster and stronger than we anticipated and as I dropped, Nolen side swept me and managed to pull Gavin up. I come sputtering out of the water in time to see Nolen tossing Gavin into the deep part of the pond and swinging around to swim towards me.

I turned and tried to swim away fast enough but instead, I was caught by the ankle and tossed over like a ball where Gavin caught me and pulled me under. I kicked my way back up coughing and cursing the both of them while they laughed. We went back to Gavin’s place spent, and smiling.

********************

The next night I was sitting on Gavin’s roof looking out at the stars and feeling the calm wind blow through my hair. It was a quiet night and that was just what I needed. My life was turning into one big mess as it moved forward and I was about done with being the butt of the joke. I wanted a few blissful minutes of calm and peace before I went insane from it all.

My dream man had turned out to be my ex-boyfriend. My brother was a golden statue. My other brother lived on the other side of the world trying to figure out the cure to their brother, and he was also trying to replicate his dad’s experiments on their mom. My best friends were always watching me because I had almost eaten one of them, and the man that I had grown to like was the one that seemed to trust me the least because it was his baby sister that I had almost eaten. And to top things off, I was now splattered on the front page of Sunset City’s newspaper for my connection to Michael “Rivers”.

I flopped down and stared at the sky, just willing the calm breeze to wash through me and into my soul. That’s when I heard the footsteps in the room behind me. They were not as silently graceful and Nolen’s wolf feet were, nor were they as solid as Gavin’s relatives. It was a clumsy grace that only a ragdoll raised in a supernatural city would learn.

“Hey Gavin, You okay tonight?” I leaned my head back to look at the balcony at one of my friends.

He stood there for a second then smiled, “Needed air?”

“Yeah, I thought it might help after my little episode earlier.”

“Look, I’m sorry about my aunt, she had also been a big fan, and she didn’t mean to probe into your life like that. It was shocking for her to learn that I went to school with him too.”

“Yeah, I know, and I had no right to just fly off like that… I bet I hurt her feelings.” I covered my eyes with my arms and sighed.

“No, you had every right to go off like that. What he did to you was unforgivable, and once I explained to her some of why you didn’t want to talk about him, she backed off. You know we would do anything to keep you from harm if we can help it.”

I sat up and looked at him, “But why, I have to have a curse on me or something to have such crappy luck and for me to get you guys involved to just makes me feel worse.”

“We stay involved in your life because we are your friends, and friends are there when you need them.”

“But why are you my friends, after everything that has happened and all that I have put you through; hell, done to you……”

“Lilith, you are the only one that keeps bringing that up. We have all forgiven you and that will never change.” Gavin pulled himself onto the railing and sat there looking at me.

“No, not everyone has forgiven me, and I cannot blame him that he doesn’t trust me, I tried eating his little sister.” I sat up, I couldn’t look at Gavin as the hurt welled up inside me.

“Lil, Nolen thinks the world of you, and the only thing he doesn’t trust about you is your ability to not hurt yourself. We can all agree with him on that. You keep punishing yourself for something we all know you would never have done under any other circumstance. Watcher, Lil, He worships the ground you walk on, everyone else can see that.”

“No, he doesn’t, He’s always watching me and afraid to leave me alone cause I’m dangerous.”

“Lilith, you really don’t see it do you?” He inched his way off the ledge and slowly can over to rested his hand on my shoulder, “He’s afraid of what you will do to yourself without someone there for you.”

“But why should he worry about me?” I was getting confused, he was making my head hurt thinking about all of this.

“Look, if you can’t see it, I don’t think I can explain it.” He looked over the edge of the roof, “And I’m not a fairy, so if I fall you’ll make sure I don’t end up as stuffing in the yard right?” I hovered over his shoulder to look down too.

I laughed, it was the most heartfelt laugh I have had in a long time, and it felt good. But when Gavin whipped his head over to look at me with wide terror filled blue eyes I sobered up.

“No, really, you will right?” He inched back to the balcony and frowned at me as I flew over to join him.

“I would try, but after how you and Nolen teamed up against me yesterday, I don’t know if I would have the will to keep you from falling completely.” I winked at him and we both decided to go in.