02. ▹ AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

     RAVEN DRAKE PASSED A wet rag across the top of a sticky table. She released a loud sigh of boredom, causing Carter to subconsciously turn around and look at her.

     "What's up with you, Rae?" Carter asked with a smirk and a cocked brow, taking the rag from Raven's grip and placing it in a cabinet full of cleaning materials under the bar.

     "Nothing. I just wanna bloody leave already, are you almost done?" Raven questioned tiredly. Carter crossed his arms, glaring back at Raven.

     "You just want me to tell you about the boy I saw in the alley, don't you?" Carter accused, knowing Raven's tactics more than well. Raven rolled her eyes and groaned, walking towards Carter and then holding onto his arm.

     "Come on Carter, you've gotta take the alley again! Maybe he'll come out again! You said he was hot, didn't you?" Raven recalled with curiosity and cheer in her voice. Carter smiled down at his shorter friend, rolling his eyes in return.

     "I mean yeah, but it's not like he's some bloody creep hiding out in a dark alley every night. Hell, the bloke is most likely not even there!" Carter pointed out and pulled away from Raven's grip, taking their hoodies from his locker in a back room and handing Raven hers as he slid his own hoodie on.

     "I never said he was a creep, maybe he just walks through the alley to go to his house! You never know." Raven said matter-of-factly. The heavy back door in the pub clicked shut as Carter turned the key and tossed it into Raven's hand and he pushed her away playfully.

     "Fine, I'm walking through the alley tonight just to prove you wrong. I bet you ten pounds he won't show up, and if I get killed for walking in a creepy and lonely alley in the middle of the night, you owe me ten times that amount." Carter challenged confidently.

     "If you get killed I can't even give you the ten, much less a hundred, you wanker." Raven pointed out and rolled her eyes.

     "Fine, but you know what I mean." Carter spat jokingly with a cocked eyebrow. Carter stuck his hand out towards her. Raven shook his hand with a smirk.

     "You're on, Chamberlain. You better have those ten pounds ready." Raven teased and smirked as she departed from Carter's side and slid into her boyfriend's car.

"In your dreams, you little bitch." Carter retorted with a chuckle. Carter walked through the entrance to the dark alley, looking around as he began to hum to himself. He hoped the mysterious werewolf-slash-kanima from the night before wouldn't show up— not because he was nervous or afraid, but because he didn't want to lose ten pounds.

     Not to mention, he wasn't in the mood to get attacked again. Sadly, Carter lost all hope and gripped tightly onto a twenty pound bill that sat in his hoodie pocket when he heard familiar footsteps echo behind him. Carter stopped in his tracks and spun around, looking at the same boy from the day before as they stood in silence and stared at each other awkwardly.

     "Are you following me?" Carter questioned him quickly. The blue-eyed boy cocked his eyebrows and scrunched his nose in distaste and confusion.

     "This is a shortcut to my house, freak." The boy seethed. Carter quickly noticed the boy had an American accent, and he crossed his arms.

     "You're American? An American werewolf in London?" Carter laughed in amusement, "what's your name, mate?" He asked. The boy hesitated for a moment before shrugging in defeat.

     "Jackson." He introduced himself. "What are you, exactly? Some kind of witch?" Jackson Whittemore asked snobbishly. Carter's lips tugged up into a crooked smile. Jackson.

     "That's actually exactly what I am, Jackson. Name's Carter." Carter stuck his hand out, waiting for Jackson to shake it.
Jackson rolled his eyes and ignored Carter. "Okay, rude." Carter mumbled as he put his hand back into his pocket.

     "Right, well, if you'll excuse me, I better be getting home, and uh, I don't want any freaks following me." Jackson informed and gave Carter a fake smile and continued walking, his fake smile disappearing as soon as he stepped away. Carter smirked, crossing his arms as he watched Jackson walk away before walking after him.

     "So, what brings you to London, dog-boy?" Carter asked casually. Jackson's head snapped up to look over at Carter before he turned to look back at the alleyway ahead.

     "Long story." Jackson snapped immediately. Carter shrugged, turning to face the moody boy.

     "I've got time, friend." Carter teased. He was starting to realize just how easy it was to get under Jackson's skin.

     "Well, I don't. And it's none of your business, anyways." Jackson bitterly replied to Carter, taking a turn in the alley upwards towards a large house in the near distance. Carter decided against following the moody werewolf to his house and shook his head to himself in fits of quiet laughter as he walked towards his own place. When he stepped foot inside his apartment, the first thing he saw was his younger sister, Eloise, sitting on the couch with Raven's boyfriend, Aaron Davis. Carter let out an exaggerated sigh and slumped over, slipping out a twenty pound bill from his hoodie and waving it in the air as if it were bait.

     "Here's your bloody ten, Raven." Carter shouted throughout his apartment. He sometimes stayed in the apartment and sometimes at the coven house. Soon enough, Raven appeared from his kitchen with a tub of popcorn in her hands and a smirk on her face as she snatched the twenty from his hand and slipped it into her pocket. "Thank you." Raven said in a sing-song tone.

      "I do want my change." Carter snapped back playfully with a teasing glare. Raven chuckled, rolling her eyes and handing Aaron the tub of popcorn, which he basically gobbled down immediately, and digging through her pockets for Carter's change before handing it to him.

     "Did you two talk?" Raven asked. Carter smiled, plopping down on another couch as he watched Eloise and Raven smirk, while Aaron wiggled his eyebrows at him with his mouth full of popcorn.

     "It was mostly me talking." Carter admitted and shrugged, opening his mouth up wide as he pointed to it and Aaron took a piece of popcorn, aiming it at his mouth.

     "Did you get his name at least?" Eloise asked. Aaron threw the popcorn at Carter, missing and hitting his chin as it rolled down to his lap. Carter took it and plopped it in his mouth while Eloise waited impatiently for an answer.

     "Jackson." He said. "His name's Jackson."