Chapter 4: The Boys Meet

I got between the guys before things escalated.

“Damien,” I said with a soft smile, “it’s okay.”

I motioned towards Jasper, whose stance relaxed.

“This is Jasper. We met at the party a few weeks back.”

Damien squinted as if he were trying to remember Jasper. Damien’s nose flared outward, and he backed away.

I sighed with relief.

Damien said, “As long as you’re not here to harm my friend, then you’re fine.”

Jasper’s lips twitched, and he replied, “I saved your friend while you were buying snacks.” Jasper softened his voice and quickly added, “I’m just happy we were both able to make it in time to help Adele. You mentioned, Damien, you were going to walk her home?”

I gripped the strap of my muddy and wet purse tightly, excited to feel so valued at that moment.

“That’s right,” Damien said with a nod. He squinted his eyes.

“I was just about to bring her back to her place,” Damien lied. He took a step closer to me, then leaned forward towards Jasper.

“Wait,” Damien said. “I think I remember you.”

“Damien,” I whispered, fearful of what he might say next. Did he know something I didn't know about the night at the party?

Damien stepped back up to Jasper, and Jasper rolled his shoulders out and stuck his chin up.

Damien coldly asked, “You’re from the Red Moon pack, aren’t you?”

Jasper glanced over at me, winked, then said, “The one and only. I take you both are Blue Sky?”

“We are!” I exclaimed, tugging on Damien’s arm to pull him away. “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you boys we were all at the peace treaty celebration together.”

Jasper raised his hands, closed his eyes, then said, “Hey, I’m all for peace.”

I had just seen him brutalize another man to protect me, and blood fell from the open wound on his arm to his boots. Yet, he seemed unfazed by it.

It felt amazing Jasper had interjected on the robbery to save me, but I wished I had some sort of bandage to help stop his bleeding before it got worse. Damien, however, had other plans.

He made a noise close to a growl, and I jabbed him in the ribs.

Ignoring my best friend, Jasper held out his hand. “Could I see your phone for a second, Adele?” Jasper asked. I looked into his dreamy hazel eyes when he said to me, “I’d like to give you my number. And maybe we can celebrate our packs' newly acquired peace over a drink sometime.”

“Yeah!” I said shyly.

I scrambled for my phone inside my damp purse, but my nervous hands dropped it. My phone, a tube of strawberry chapstick, and keys fell out. Damien rolled his eyes and knelt down to help me pick everything up, but Jasper beat him to it. Damien clenched his jaw and eyed Jasper like a hawk.

“I bet,” Jasper said, stuffing everything back into the purse for me, “that the thief would’ve been pretty pissed off if all he had to steal from you was some strawberry Chapstick.”

Jasper smiled at me, handed the purse back to me, and tucked a loose strand of his auburn hair behind his ear.

He said, “that thief struck me more as a watermelon kiwi kind of guy, not a strawberry.”

I laughed so hard I thought I might fall over again, but I gave Jasper my phone. Damien shook his head and sighed.

“Why don’t you two get a room?” he muttered. He crossed his arms and made his hand into a fist, and the bag of snacks crinkled in his clenched hand.

I nearly muttered under my breath, “we already have,” but I didn’t want to reignite any flames and managed to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t want to hurt Damien, either. We had been through too much together, and he’d already broken my heart once before.

I turned to Damien and the smallest laugh escaped my mouth as old memories were conjured. He and I spent years tangled in each other’s arms, sneaking around to avoid our parents and keep our moans muffled under the sheets. We’d done a good job of it, too, until Damien’s mother caught me creeping down the stairs of her house one morning in nothing but her son’s oversized sweatshirt. She took a single glance at my frizzy hair and screamed me out of the house.

Damien would have made for an excellent husband, but he had already made his choice for the woman who mattered most to him, no matter how many bags of pretzels he brought me.

I watched Jasper punch his digits into my phone’s screen, thinking he might very well be the father of my child and if he was, I really, really lucked out.

Jasper returned my phone to me but pressed the call button, so I was calling him.

He acted surprised when his phone went off in his back pocket. He answered it and asked, “Hello? Yes, it’s Jasper. What’s that? You’d like to have a night we can both actually remember? That sounds great!”

We both hung up and I couldn’t stop laughing. Then something major struck me: if he didn’t remember our night together either, and if I left in the morning, then Jasper didn’t know we woke up together.

“Dude, you should really get that cut patched up,” Damien commented, nudging his chin at Jasper’s arm. Damien had cooled off, and he really did sound concerned.

Jasper smirked and said, “You’re probably right. Well, Adele, it was great seeing you. And nice meeting you, bro.”

Damien watched Jasper walk off down the street and mumbled, “Yeah, pleasure meeting you too.”

He looked at me and asked, “What the h*ll was with that guy?”

I bopped Damien on the nose and asked, “What’s the matter? You jealous?”

Damien shrugged and shook his head, trying to hide the fact he was blushing.

“I got you something,” he said, reaching inside the bag. “I was going to drop it off at your place, but since we’re here, here you go.”

Damien gave me a huge pink bag of my favorite chocolate covered pretzels.

I wrapped my arms around Damien and gave him a big hug.

“Aww!” I told him. “This is so sweet of you.”

Damien grinned and said, “I figure you always like these things when you’re...well...you know. When it’s that time of the month.”

I stood straight up and made a little yelp noise.

“Yeah,” I said, “I crave these since I’m on my period. Bestie knows me well!”

I ran into the store and told him, “I’ll be right back! Wait for me?”

Damien leaned against the wall of the pharmacy outside and gave me a gentle nod. I beelined towards the aisle with the condoms, thinking how I wouldn’t have been in this mess if I had just made the guy wear one.

I grabbed a pregnancy test, discretely brought it to the register, and paid for it as quickly as I could, checking over my shoulder to make sure Damien didn’t see. He was still outside, watching the rain clouds.

I stuffed the test in my purse and rushed back to him.

“All set!” I said.

Damien nodded and we walked together down the rainy sidewalks, past a sushi restaurant, a grocer in a yellow raincoat selling melons, and finally back to my house at the cul-de-sac. Damien seemed sad.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

He motioned to the side of the house, and I followed him.

“I can’t let my Mom see this,” he confessed. His green eyes were full of guilt.

“Damien, see what?”

Damien chewed on the inside of his lip and said, “my mother would kill me if she saw us together.”

My shoulders drooped, and I looked down to hide my disappointment.

“She still hates me, huh?” I asked timidly.

“It’s not like that,” he insisted.

My stomach rumbled, giving me an excuse to make my way in through the back door.

“It’s alright,” I said. “I get it. She doesn’t want you with somebody who can’t get pregnant.”

For a moment, we were both silent enough to hear the gentle wind blow. Rain fell off the leaves of the big tree in the backyard.

“I’m sorry,” Damien said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry for kissing you at the party.”

I scoffed and leaned on one leg.

“Why?” I asked. “Was it that bad of a kiss?”

“What?” Damien stumbled. “No! It’s just...well, you should probably get something to eat.”

I held up the bag of delicious pretzels, gave Damien a big smile, and said, “Thankfully, I’ve got a friend who watches out for me when I’m hungry, even if he thinks I’m a bad kisser.”

I walked away and heard Damien call out once more.

“The kiss was amazing!” he shouted. Then he ducked down, realizing he’d made too much noise. The way his mother helicoptered over him, I wouldn’t be surprised if she watched him from the neighbor’s bushes.

I propped myself on the back door’s banister.

With an eyebrow raised and a shy smile on my face, I asked him, “Was the kiss actually good? Or are you just saying that?”

I pictured all the times we had made out in our cozy little hideaway along the town’s lake, and I imagined what color bowtie and pocket square I’d want him to wear on his tuxedo if we got married.

Damien rubbed at the back of his head.

“I was drunk,” he admitted. “But I know dancing with you was the best part of the night. The kiss was the cherry on top.”

I bit down on my bottom lip and found myself getting flustered.

“I’m glad,” I said. “I had a fun time with you, Damien.”

He smiled and then checked his ringing phone.

“It’s my mom,” he said. “I’ve got to take this.”

I nodded and we parted ways.

I watched Damien run across the street and jump up the stairs to his house. He pressed his forehead against the screen door to his kitchen and glanced through. Damien flung the door open and dashed inside.

I squeezed the bottom of my damp sweatshirt and drops of water trickled down my hands. Would Damien still drop everything to answer the calls from his mother if he had a child?