Five in the morning this time. Gosh, I'm not even remotely tired. Sorry, chapters are kinda crappy. And I don't have spell check on the type of document I'm using, so there might be spelling errors. Feel free to point them out.

~

Chapter Nine

~

He called me the next day. As soon as I picked up, he began speaking. "God, you probably think I'm a loser. All my friends told me to wait to call you, so you don't think I'm desperate, but I couldn't help myself," Tristan explained, sounding apologetic.

I let a little smile cross my face. His babbling was kind of cute. "Hi, Tristan."

"Hi, Cade." He was whispering.

I waited for a few minutes. Surprisingly, his steady breathing calmed me. "Aren't you going to say anything?" I asked softly.

Tristan stammered. "Yes. Of course. Would you like to see a movie with me this Friday?" he asked.

Friday was two days away. 

"Sure, Tristan. I'll meet you at the theater?" I suggested.

"Uh- okay. Are you sure you don't want me to pick you up?" he asked after a pregnant pause.

He was a gentleman. I had to give him that. "I'm sure. What time?"

"Eight?"

"See you then. Bye, Tristan."

The strangest thing was, I was actually excited for our date. 

~

"Hey. I didn't think you'd show up," Tristan said, as he stood up straight from leaning against the building as I approached him, my hands in my sweatshirt. 

"Why didn't you think I would?" I asked

Tristan shrugged. "I don't know. You're unpredictable." 

Yes I was. And I was glad he understood that.

"What are we watching?" I asked him. 

"This movie about werewolves," he said absentmindedly, escorting me into the theater. I controlled myself. Tristan was kidding right? Werewolves? Maybe he was a hunter undercover or something,  because that was one hell of a coincidence.

A smile crossed my lips. "Interesting."

He bought us popcorn, drinks and other snacks and we went to sit down. We were sitting in the middle and it wasn't crowded, which I appreciated. I was watching the huge screen in wonder because I hadn't been to a theater for years. The last time I was here was when I was just a kid and with my parents. I'd missed so much. 

The effects were horrible. Really. The werewolves were deformed things and ugly. I was muttering under my breath the entire time. It was an insult to our kind. We were beautiful and like normal wolves. Just....bigger. I hated to admit it, but we were like Twilight wolves. It was something that Stephanie Meyers had actually gotten right.

Afterwards, Tristan beamed at me. "Did you like it?" he asked.

I nodded thoughtfully. "It was...something." 

"Do you want me to drive you home? It's late and the streets are dangerous this time of night..." Only if he knew.

"Thank you, Tristan, but I will just walk." 

"Be safe," he said softly. I heard him though, crystal clear.

"You too." The whole town was surrounded by trees and the woods were right besides the theater, so I just walked into it. I felt Tristan's eyes on my back, but I didn't turn around. Let him think what he wanted. 

I was surprised because I had really enjoyed going out with him. And...chances were, if he asked me out again, I wouldn't say no. 

Stripping out of my clothes, I shifted into my huge black wolf and slinked through the shadows. I blended in perfectly with my night colored pelt. I ran for at least an hour. When I got tired, I found a nice spot, under the moonlight and let myself sleep...

~

I tracked down my clothes the next morning and shifted back into my human, putting them on. Then I ran through the tears until I got to my apartment and casually walked back in. I got some looks from my neighbors, because my clothes were grass stained, but I ignored them. I changed into fresh clothes and called Jebadiah.

"Hey, Cade," he said.

"Hey, Jeb. When should I come to pick up Mike?" I asked.

Jebadiah hesitated. "He's going to one of his human friend's sleepover, so he won't be able to make it tonight, Cade. You want to talk to him?"

That hurt. God, I wanted to kneel down and cry. But I didn't, even though I missed my little man. "Yeah, sure."

There were a lot of noises and rustling on the other side of the line before an excited Michael came on the phone. "Mom, Danny asked me to sleep over yesterday!" he said. I could just imagine him smiling.

"Alright, sweetie. Mommy is going to miss you, though." He didn't even know just how much.

"Sorry, Mom."

"No, it's okay. I'm glad you're going out. Have fun, okay?" I wanted to see him, but I was glad he was getting along with kids. I knew Michael had always been a troubled kid at school. Having me as his mother and going to all his school meetings didn't help either. I was young - only twenty and the other parents and teachers didn't take well to that because they assumed I had gotten pregnant at thirteen. They didn't know the whole story. I had never bothered informing them either.

"I will, Mom. Can I go now?" he asked.

"Yeah. Go do your thing, baby."

Jebadiah soon came back on the line. "You're not too dissapointed, are you?" he asked.

I sniffed, though I wasn't crying. "No..." But I was.

"There's next week," he suggested.

"I know. Hey...I have to go. Bye." I quickly hung up. I didn't really have to go, but talking to Jebadiah was almost suffocating. I took a breath and left, leaving the door unlocked. Robbing me was useless. I'd find them anyway.

I ran into Tristan when I passed his new garage. He grinned when he saw me and came out, his old, white shirt greasy. There were marks on his hands, arms and even cheeks. Still, he was attractive.

"Hey, Cade! What are you doing out so early? Work?" he asked, wiping his hands on his pants. 

"No, I'm just exploring, you know," I replied. "What are you doing? Fixing up cars?" I asked.

He nodded, excitedly. "Yeah. Wanna see?" he asked.

I paused. "No, that's okay. You go back to doing your thing. I'm going to go now," I said, giving a half-hearted smile. I waved to him and began to walk off.

"Wait, Cade!" he called. I turned back around. "Do you want to go out to dinner with me?" he asked.

There was still something at the back of my mind that told me I was just going to get myself hurt again. Humans weren't like wolves. They couldn't commit fully. Only rare ones could. Tristan could go ahead and cheat on me any time. But I still told him yes. I couldn't bring myself to turn him down. I felt like if I did, I would miss out on something great.

He took me to a steakhouse for our date and it was nice. I liked that he got a boner watching me eat. That had never happened before with anyone, Xavier, Jebadiah, Darren or Hayden. It was easy to please him. And he was great company. He didn't push me about my life, though I knew he was curious. Instead, to fill the air, he told me things about him and his life. Tristan was really open and I liked that about him.

I was right when I had guessed if he had been through as much hurt as I was. Well, maybe not as much, but close. He had lost the girlfriend he had since he was sixteen in a car accident when he was twenty-one. He was three years older than me, making him twenty-three. 

I took a chance on him. And I didn't regret it.