Mom sends me ahead once the meeting is over. Everyone else is already gone, except for us and the alpha.
I leave the house, not meeting anyone on the way, and wait outside, by our car. There's this urge to know what mom and the alpha need to discuss, but I don't dare make any assumption, I know mom will tell me at some point.
It takes her about 15 minutes to come out and when she does, she's the same as always. I don't ask, because she knows how curious I am anyway.
On the ride home she keeps going on about how ignorant Amber is and I just listen, happy to have a mother like her.
The day after, when uni is finished, I spot my mate outside. She notices me as well and waves me over with a smile.
I feel as though my heart is tumbling over at the gesture. I look around and Raphael is nowhere to be seen, so I make my way over as fast as possible.
I feel my smile stretch further the closer I get to her and hers does to.
"Do you wanna go on a date later?" she asked once I reach her and I seem to lose all ability to speak. Never in my life have I thought that having a mate can change me that drastically and even though generally I wouldn't welcome change to how I am at all, if it's for my mate, I don't want it to stop.
So I only nod, working around my starstruck moment.
"Brilliant. Casual dinner fine with you?" Her eyebrow arches slightly and it's the absolute cutest thing.
"Sure." I say, or rather mumble, still far too taken by her beautiful face and all the expressions she makes.
"Alright. I'll be at your house at 7, yeah?" She's already sitting in her car, halfway done the road when I manage a quiet "yeah".
"Well, that was anti-climatic." a sarcastic voice says next to me.
I whip my head around from where I was staring at my mate's disappearing car and look at a small woman.
"Wouldn't have pegged you for the timid type." She says, whipping back and forth on her feet. I try to remember why she seems to familiar but I really don't have a clue at all.
"We met yesterday." she then explains, interpreting my lost look correctly, "I guess you forgot. Alright, then, rewind."
She stands up straight, a serious look on her face, until suddenly, a giant grin makes its way onto it.
"Hi there! Lovely to meet you! My name is Meredith, but I prefer Mary, so please go with that. Thanks. What's yours?" she rattles down.
When I only blink, she shoots me a questioning look.
"Donovan." I manage. She's so strange.
"Cool. Always wanted a friend whose name starts with a D. Then again, I do know this guy called Dexter. Does he count as a friend though? We've not really talked and he was quite bitchy at that one party. I guess he doesn't. Which means, you're now officially my best friend out of all my friends whose name starts with a D." she announces proudly after he speech.
There's a silence between us, right up until the moment when I turn away and leave without a word.
I'd rather get away before it's too late.
Apparently, it already is.
Because it takes maybe half a minute until she's walking in front of me, backwards. Which means she's facing me. Which means there's absolutely no way for me to escape her talking.
It's not that I'm an anti social person, but I do value my silence and I tend to find humans unbelievably ignorant on better days.
This one seems like the prime example.
During the first five minutes, she even manages to almost fall over her heavy Dr Martens at lest nine times.
It doesn't surprise me, considering she is walking backwards, but apparently, it does her.
By the time I get home I'm utterly exhausted and ready to sleep and not wake up until tomorrow morning.
Then I remember that I have a date with my mate and I immediately perk up.
I get ready with the help of my mom. In all honesty, fashion is a world so far away from my own, I couldn't see it on the night sky if I wanted to. So I leave all important clothing decisions to mom.
I do manage to dress myself for uni and casual stuff, but when it comes to dressing up, I'm hopeless.
Mom helps me choose an outfit, which takes us far longer than I think it should, but I don't complain.
So now, at half past six, I sit on the living room couch, one leg bumping up and down nervously, while I wait for the last half hour to pass.
"Since when do you get nervous?" mom asked jokingly from the kitchen. She knows me, I don't get nervous ever.
"Since I got a mate to win over thank you very much." I shout back since I can hear water boil for her spaghetti.
"Sure but this is a bit over the top, don't you think. Calm down. She'll be happy to see you and it'll be a nice evening. Believe me. No need to be nervous." She shouts as well, probably out of the same reason I did.
"I can't help it. Maybe it'll get better once she's actually here."
With that, the conversation dies and I'm back to handling my absolute nervous wreck of a self on my own.
A few minutes to seven, I finally hear a car pull up and run to the door, only to notice two people getting out through the little window on our door.
They're too far away to see me but I can make both my mate and Raphael out.
He's walking around the hood of the car to get to her and grabs her shoulders. He's probably saying something to her, since they stay like that for quite a while. I grit my teeth. I really don't want to see this, but even more so I don't want to turn away.
Raphael leans in then, hugging my mate and soon after kissing her.
I would have kicked down the door and ripped him away from her if it wasn't for my mom holding me back. Her grip is like iron and it's painful, but anything less wouldn't hold me back and she knows it. She also knows that I would regret doing what I am wanting to do a few hours later.
I can still see Raphael with my mate, toucher her and kissing her and it hurts. It hurts so much, I don't even know how to handle it. I don't even cry.
By the time he drives away, I hang in mom's arms limply, trying to pull myself together before my mate rings the doorbell.
I don't feel one bit better when she does, but mom reassures me that I look good, so I just open it, smiling as best as I can.
My mate smiles as well, she doesn't notice there's anything wrong with me, she's not known me long enough to, so we just walk to my car and drive off, all while having casual conversation.
We end up eating at this small Mexican place that serve really nice food. I gobble my meal down as if my life depends on it, because really, it probably does.
She does the same and it's almost a relief to see her eat so messily. We both end up laughing at our food antics and we're having a brilliant time.
It's like we fit together so naturally, we just get along.
"So can we play 20 questions?" she asks while we wait for dessert. I only nod and gesture for her to start.
"What's your favourite pet?"
"Chinchillas." I say immediately. She looks at me for a second, then starts laughing.
"What? They're fluffy and not annoying." I justify myself.
"Alright, alright." she still can't stop laughing, so I decide to let her, instead thinking about a question to ask her.
"Mine's parrots," she says eventually, "because they're pretty." What an odd reason. Most people would say because of the fact that they talk.
"What's your favourite colour?" I end up asking. I'm really not all that good with this, I realise.
"Grey. Yours?"
Again, I don't really have to think.
"Auburn." I say, "my mom's fur." She squeals at that, calls me cute way too often and then actually goes on to ask me another question.
We go back and forth like that, laughing more at our silly answers than anything else, even letting our tasty ice cream half melt because we don't actually get around to eating it.
Over the course of the night, I begin to forget about how Raphael kissed her and about how I had to watch.
Only when I drop her off and he stands there, in front of the door, arms defensively crossed over his chest, does it all come back to me.
No matter how much fun we had on this date, or on any dates to come, she will always go back home where he is.