"Rejection is a hard pill to swallow"

Date :  2/18/18

edited

C H A P T E R  T W O
"Rejection"

My heart was pounding. I could hear each individual beat in my ears and feel it pulse in the tips of my fingers. This man was my mate?

I blinked a few times, before I broke my gaze. Looking down at my desk, I squeezed my hands into tight balls and took a long, deep breath. It didn't help, because with every inhale I was confronted with the sweetness of his smell.

He moved from the door to his desk. Every footstep weighed in my head, and every time he breathed it was as loud as a pan being smashed. Dottie was whimpering in excitement.

"Alright, first I would like to do the roll. Please say here when I get to your name," He called out. His voice was deep and smooth, it made something burn in my stomach. I glanced up, swallowing as I took him in again. He didn't look up at me, instead his eyes were trained on his clipboard.

He went through the first few names. Every name that passed, he would glance up and his eyes would meet mine, until he would place the name with the right person. His posture was rigid as he went down the list. It wasn't long before he found my name, and he called it out.

He looked at me immediately after he said it. I forced out a small "here" through my tight lips, my voice mousey. His gaze lingered on me for a moment, before his gaze returned back to the clipboard.

Once he finished calling roll, he put his paper down. He picked up a cow figurine from Ms. C's desk, turning it over in his hand with a frown, his eyebrows knit in confusion. He looked up again, putting the figurine down.

"My name is Mr. Wood, I am going to be your substitute for this semester as Ms. Crimson is recovering from her fall," My mate said. A few kids snickered, but under his dark glare they fizzed out into silence.

"I was told that you all have notebooks that you do warmups in," he said, "I want you to write a paragraph about yourselves." He looked back at the roll one more time, before his eyes met mine.

"Ms. Delson, a moment, please."

Everyone stifled a groan as the dug in their bag to find their notebooks. I choked down a swallow, grinding my teeth as I met his eyes. His gaze was fleeting, and for a moment he watched over the class before leaving the classroom.

I stood sluggishly, holding my breath. My anxiety was through the roof as I walked after him, my heart still thundering in my chest. Dottie was starting to quiet down, curious about what was going to happen.

He was leaning against the wall next to the door, tapping his foot as he waited for me. Once I stepped through he shut the door quietly, pressing his back against it once he heard it click close. I clutched my hands together, anxiously looking around, waiting for him to speak.

I didn't quite expect what he was going to say to me.

He looked me up and down, grinding his jaw before speaking. "I, Connell Wood, reject you as a mate."

His look was stone cold and callous, but I could only pay attention for a short, fleeting moment before everything went to hell. My heart cracked, and I let out a sharp cry as my hands flung to my chest. Dottie went silent, cowering away.

My breath was shaky as I clenched my shirt. With every moment my chest felt like it was one second closer to splitting. Connell stayed the same, but his breath's became staccato.

Finally, my voice found me and I looked at him once more. "Why?" I asked. My voice was soft and weak. I stumbled a step back, my throat tightening.

He looked at me, no expression on his face. "I'm sorry."

I knew I wouldn't get anything more out of him, I knew that with those two words this was the end of the conversation. Turning away from him, I walked to the glass doors that were horizontal the classroom.

I didn't want to run away- it felt cowardly, but my body felt as though it was falling apart. Tears started to fall down my face, making my skin wet and sticky. I ran until I reached the parking lot, cries racking my body.

I caught a glance at myself when I opened my car door, and it only made me cry harder. My face was a vibrant red, patched with white.

I stayed in my car for an hour, wasting gas before I finally pulled out. My tears had stopped for the moment, but my head was pounding. I tried to control my shaking as I drove home, trying desperately to forget about him. Every moment of distraction was interrupted with the realization that this was real. He was real.

My family were all gone when I got home, so I tugged off my shoes and trudged up the stairs. I felt pain swell in my chest as I collapsed on my bed. I thought about Maddie and Sara, and guilt fluttered in my stomach. They would be curious, perhaps worried about my sudden disappearance. It was all too much for me to think about, so I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes.

Hours passed in silence. My limbs became stiff from the hours of lying in the same position. I was convinced my tear ducts were completely out of tears, because they just stopped. Not because I was healed, but because I was tired.

Zach was the first one home in the evening. He entered the house as he did every day, practically ripping the door open. I heard him drop his bag on the ground and a groan.

"Ruby?" He called out. He was most likely staring at the ceiling, waiting for my irritated reply. Instead he was met with silence.

"Ruby you can't ignore me!"

His footsteps thundered through the house as he trampled upstairs. My room was across from his, at the end of the hallway. I shifted in my bed, stretching my sore muscles.

"Ruby," He called out in a singsong voice. He tried to open the door but was met with it being locked. I never locked my door, usually because I was too lazy.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He was worried. He tried again to open the door, as though the lock would become unlocked in a second. I looked at the doorknob, a sigh stuck in my throat. I was too tired to move, in too much pain to open the door.

"Ruby, please, open the door!"

"Go away," I mumbled, pushing my face into my comforter. He didn't hear me, his voice getting gradually louder.

"Open the door or I'll rip it off the hinges!"

I lifted my face and looked at the door. It hadn't occurred to me he would do that, but I was sure he would do that.

"I'm coming," my voice was soft and nearly inaudible. I pulled my legs from underneath my covers and stood up from my bed, my muscles groaning from the sudden change. I made my way to my door, each footstep stronger than the last.

I turned the lock and pulled the door open, squinting at the light that was coming from the hallway. My bedroom was dark, my blinds pulled shut and every light turned off.

Zach examined me, and his face changed from worried to pure confusion. He looked me up and down, from my disheveled clothes to my red face.

"Ruby..." He whispered, a look of sorrow coming over his features. I knew he didn't know what had happened, but I also knew that he's never seen me like this. I was a crybaby, but I never cried like this. Not even on my worst days.

I was silent for a second, letting him fully take me in. Then, he was in my room, taking me into an embrace as I began to cry again. The tears I was convinced were dried up were in fact not, and it only took something to re-trigger them for them to show up again.

He lifted me into his arms, holding my tightly. He walked a few paces forward until he was at my bed, sitting down on it with me still in his arms.

I was tired of crying, but my body wouldn't allow me to stop. Every time I was almost quiet, my heart would constrict and my throat would close, and the cycle would start again.

We sat there for twenty minutes, him trying to console me while I wept. By the end of it there were no more tears, and we were just sitting in silence. Once he knew I was done with crying, he pulled away, holding my hands in his.

"What happened Ruby?" He asked, his voice cracking. Zach was far more protective then he'd like to admit, and he could also be very empathetic at times. Even so, I had never seen him like this. Never so... distraught.

My hands moved to my face to try and wipe away some stray tears from my cheeks. Wispy curls clung to the wet spots.

"I knew something was off, I could feel it," I started to say, but I just began to cry again. "Mecah said he wouldn't reject me, Mecah said-,"

I wasn't an overly confident person, but I liked to believe I was a likeable person. I had friends, I was average looking, and I could always make someone smile. There was never a moment where I disliked myself, or put myself on a low stool. Yet, the way I felt now, certainly was going towards that.

It felt so wrong of me to pick apart myself, trying to find anything that could be considered undesirable about myself. But there had to be something he didn't like. There had to be a reason for him to immediately reject me, immediately reject the person he was supposed to love the most. The one his soul was made for.

"Your mate rejected you?" Zach asked me slowly, processing it. He was having trouble accepting that his well-loved little sister was completely denied from the one thing in a werewolves existence that that they yearned for the most. I didn't say anything, keeping my face in my hands. My silence seemed to confirm it for him.

Anger radiated off of him, but he tried to keep it concealed as he pulled me towards him, wrapping me in a tight hug. He didn't say anything for a few minutes, he just kept his breathing regulated and rubbed my back. We only parted when we could hear the garage door go up, signaling my dad was home.

"Ruby," Zach asked as soon as we separated. "Who was it?"

The question was simple and cut clean, yet I couldn't answer it. I looked away from him, my mind conflicting with what I wanted to do. I knew that if I told him who it was, he'd march out of the house until he found the man and smash his face into a wall. For some reason I couldn't bare telling him, having someone else know my secret. I just wanted to mourn alone, without people asking questions.

I just shook my head, hoping he wouldn't prod it any further. Zach sighed, but let it go anyways. Standing, he gave me a quick kiss on my head and began to walk to my door.

"Kids, what do you want for dinner?" My father's booming voice echoed through the house. Zach answered for me, leaving my room.

I laid back down on my bed, exhaling slowly as tingles drifted up and down my legs. I had slept for hours, yet in my chest I could still feel spikes of fatigue. Rubbing my eyes, I decided it would be better to just go downstairs instead of being shut up it my room.

I quickly tried to fix my appearance in my mirror before walking downstairs. As soon as I came onto the platform to the bottom of the stairs, I was met with a lot of steam. My mother was chopping tomatoes at the counter, which was to the right of the stairs, separating the kitchen from the dining table. My father was staring intensely at the pasta noodles, and if he had any ounce of cooking abilities, he'd know that they wouldn't burn.

Straight across from the stairs was the front door, and to the left of that was the living room. I walked over towards the couch farthest from the door, collapsing down on top of it.

My parents hadn't yet clued in that I was upset, but my brothers eyes remained glued to me as he set the table. I guess he was waiting for me to start crying once again, as I had done multiple times today. I played with my necklace, a faux-silver chain with a ring at the end of it. I squeezed the ring in my palm until it left marks in my skin, before letting it fall through my nimble fingers.

As I stared off at a wall, I suddenly heard the distant sounds of a man's voice. I shifted my eyes towards the windows that were next to the dining room table, my skin prickling with goosebumps. No one else seemed curious about the sound.

I stood up from the plush couch, my curiosity piquing and I walked over towards the window. Long, thick white curtains hung in front of the window, shielding it from the afternoon sunset. I could see the soft, yet retreating glow from other side.

Wrapping my hands around the cotton curtains, I paused for a moments before yanking the curtains open. I blinked a few times as my eyes adjusted, before a gasp became choked in my throat.

There, standing with his arms crossed, was Mr. Wood. He was standing next to a large moving truck, talking to a man with a clipboard. His eyebrows were pinched, and he was wearing a pair of glasses that made him even more attractive then before. Another man stumbled out of the next door house, and I narrowed my eyes on him as he walked towards Mr. Wood.

"Mom, is that person moving in next door?" I asked, looking away from the window. The answer was obvious, but I still didn't want to believe it. My mom stopped her conversation with my father to look at me.

She smiled pleasantly, nodding. "Yes, honey, that nice man is moving in next door. He came to say hello yesterday evening when you were out with your friends, but he hadn't been able to move in until today."

My whole world felt like it was crumbling piece by piece. He had taken my soul and crushed it into a million pieces, and now he was taunting me by living next door.

"O- Oh..." I said quietly, looking out the window once more. Mr. Wood took a box from one of the younger movers, who was obviously having trouble. My eyes naturally lowered to his biceps, which seemed to be tight in his button up shirt. It was the same shirt he was wearing this morning, as I could recall.

"Which reminds me Ruby, we're having dinner with him tomorrow, so you can't go stay with your friends," My mom told me, before tasting the steaming tomato sauce.

"What!"

My day could only get worse. I looked out at the window, then back at my mother with a feverish expression.

"What if he's some kind of serial killer- are you going to let a serial killer into your house?"

My mother rolled her eyes at me, brushing her hands lightly on her apron as if to rid it of any dust.

"He's not a serial killer Ruby, and I don't know why you're so against this. I know you wanted to visit your friends, but sometimes more important things arise," my mother said. "Besides, it's important that our neighbors like us-"

"No it's not," I whined, crossing my arms.

"This is the end of the discussion, Ruby," my mother said sternly, giving me a mom-look before looking back at her cutting board.

Dinner was quick, and soon enough I was back in my room, covered in a mountain of blankets. I wasn't sure what to do, but I could still feel the pain radiating in my chest, pestering me to do something.

Picking up my phone, I finally decided to look at my friends texts. They were both worried, which meant they were both texting me very kindly and threatening me. Whatever worked in their books, that was all that mattered.

I put them in a group call and called them, surprised when it only took a few seconds before they answered.

"Ruby, why didn't you say something before you left, we were worried!" Maddie scolded, her motherly voice coming out.

I sat there, trying to figure out what to say. I hated lying to my friend, but I  wasn't sure I was ready to tell them about Connell.

"I suddenly felt really sick, and Mr. Wood saw and told me to go home," I fibbed, twirling my hair in my fingers as I chose my words.

Silence crossed the speaker, no one speaking for a short few seconds, before Maddie's voice once again came up. I could tell they didn't believe me, but both of them knew not to push it any further.

"Okay Ruby, I'll give you your bag tomorrow when you get to school," Maddie said slowly.

Before Maddie could say anything else, her moms' loud voice came over the speaker, calling her downstairs. She sighed, yelling down that she'd be there momentarily, and then to us said a quick goodbye.

She left soon after, leaving me and Sara alone. Sara, who had been silent the entire time, finally decided to say something.

"You know, you can tell us anything... we'll understand,"

I shut my eyes, my jaw twitching.

"I know."

Thanks for reading! It is probably obvious, but the chapters with these fancy little pictures are edited chapters, the ones without them haven't been edited.

Lots of love,

Elle Kay