Chapter 55

Prue

The dust motes in Tom's study danced like frantic, tiny embers in the amber slanting of the afternoon sun, a stark contrast to the hollow, restless ache that lived under my skin. Being a lone wolf meant I was perpetually vibrating at a frequency of flight, a frantic heartbeat away from another anonymous town, another set of locked doors, another year of playing the invisible ghost. I felt the familiar weight of my nomadic soul pressing against my ribs, but for this fleeting, quiet moment, I allowed myself to anchor into the stillness of his room.

"So, let's get to the most interesting part – what did you read during the last week?" I looked at Tom with soft smile.

"This one!" Tom picks up a gray book with a red-orange bird at the center of it and passes it over to me. I read the title: Man’s Search for Meaning, a classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust. The Holocaust?

"Hmm, interesting choice for the book," I say as I twirl the other side of the book and scan over the comment. "So, what did you find the most thought-changing?" I look up at Tom, my eyes searching his face for the depth he was hiding.

"There are many things, like for example, that no matter how out-of-control your environment feels or no matter what kind of hardships life will bring, you maintain absolute sovereignty over your own mindset. Or that society has set the ultimate goal in life is to pursue happiness or success, but Viktor says that it's the byproduct of living a deeply meaningful life. It teaches you how to anchor yourself during transitions by identifying what truly matters to you. So like me now – I'm stuck at home but I get to choose whether I am angry, frustrated, miserable about it or I get something good out of this situation with a positive mindset and acceptance."

Tom shared with a simple sincerity in his voice, his posture relaxing into the corner chair.

"Cool, sounds like I definitely need to read this book too." He smiled softly at my comment.

"I bet you would like it," his smile widened. "I promise to lend it to you when I'll finish reading."

"Great, then I won't need to dig for it myself. Thanks!" I smiled brightly at him.

"It's amazing how such a deep thought-out, wise and smart guy hides behind an outer mask of a douche." I smirked at him, making him chuckle and scratch his neck nervously as the dust motes drifted between us.

"You'll never let it go, will you?" he asked, looking back at me with a wry, lopsided expression.

"Until the day I die, I'll torment you in one way or the other." I winked at him with a bright smile about my exaggerated expression, making him chuckle more and shake his head as he looked at his fingers, nibbling at nothing. The playfulness hung in the air, light and fragile, until he shifted.

"Yeah, about that... I probably shouldn't tell you this, but there was actually someone else who requested me to mess with you." He glanced regretfully at me, the warmth of the previous moment evaporating into a cold, sharp tension.

"What?" I frowned deeply when my brain registered what he actually said. My brain exploded – someone else asked Tom to mess with me?

"And you are telling me this only now?" I got angrier by the second, the familiar heat of a grudge igniting in my chest. In my mind, there could be only two personas who hated me with a passion at school – one was that douche in the hallway I messed with and the second being the Alpha boy. My gut made bile rise in my mouth, thick and metallic.

"Well, sorry, but I was paid to keep my mouth shut, so... I might get in trouble just by sharing this with you. But you know – you are actually a nice person despite how shitty I treated you. So be careful – that someone might ask someone else to do the dirty job for them." He said with a sad smile. I looked at him for a long while, putting together all this new information, the betrayal stinging more than I wanted to admit.

"You should have said it straight away, Tom. I almost destroyed your life. Hell, you are homeschooled now because of me. I'll talk to your dad and convince him to let you go back to school." This was actually so fu.cked up. I was wrong – again. I was usually better with intuition, a gut feeling that rarely steered me astray. I never made so many mistakes. What was going on with me? Was I getting scatterbrained or something? Living on pride and arrogance and making rash decisions based on pure assumptions? Fu.ck, I needed my own intervention. I made a mental to-do list for some serious reflection tonight or over the weekend.

"Nah, no worries, I'll deal with this."

"No, I'll find out if what you say is true. And if yes, I'll talk to your dad and you'll be back to school next week."

"How else will you find out?" he frowned at me.

"Well, Tom, at this school so far I've got only two enemies." I pursed my lips, my mind already cataloging the suspects like a predator closing in on a kill.

"Who do you suspect?" he kept on frowning.

"One guy I don't know his name, but the other is..." I tuned into my wolf's hearing, the world fading into a symphony of thumping pulses and shifting breath. "Andrew Silverstone." His heart fluttered faster, though his face remained the same frown.

"It's not Andrew, but I don't know the other guy, you need to bring me a picture of him." He kept the same facial expression, but I already knew the fu.cking answer. Fu.cking idiot. Fu.cking as.shole. I'm gonna destroy him. Thus far I've played nice, but not anymore.

"It's okay, I know the answer." I smiled sadly at him.

"How can you? I said nothing."

"You said enough. It's Andrew. I will–"

"What the fuck?! I exactly said that it's not Andrew!! Why are you pushing on a guy who was not involved in this?!" He was getting more angry by the second, his voice straining against the quiet of the room.

"No worries, I'll not ditch you. He will never know you said a thing."

"Are you a lunatic? I said it is not Andrew."

"Okay, okay, I'll go around and find it from other sources to make sure I find out the real person." I placated him a bit, but he still kept on frowning at me with deep dissatisfaction and slight fear as his nostrils flared from hard breathing. I checked my phone, the screen offering a sterile escape from the mounting intensity.

"Well, great catching up with you today but I need to get running for my training with dad." I chirped, masking my internal storm with a veneer of indifference. "If no earthquake comes, I'll see you in two weeks." I smiled at him and went straight out of the doors.

"Ciao, bambino!" I waved and heard the doors slam behind me while a loud "Fu.ck!" and a punch came from the other side. Sorry to upset you, but you did the right thing to tell me the truth.

The afternoon heat was a physical slap, a wall of humid, punishing air that met me the moment I stepped outside. It matched the boiling rage surging through my veins, a vitriolic cocktail of humiliation and betrayal. Andrew thought he could play puppeteer with my life, using someone else’s hands to do his dirty work like a coward? He had no idea what he had just unleashed. I walked away, my grip tightening until my nails bit into my palms, the secret burning inside me like a jagged, obsidian shard.