Chapter 5 - The Morning After

Matt’s body timer clicked into gear. He stretched his arms out over his head and placed his hot hands on the wall’s cool surface. His bed was the best place in the world in the morning. He never wanted to get up. However, he knew things had to be done in preparation for the night to come so he groaned and dragged himself out, creaking the bed as he did so.

The first thing he did was pour the bath and sort out everything he needed for when he changed again. It was automatic now. He'd done the routine so often since the first time that he'd changed that it was second nature to him to pour as soon as he woke up. He didn't like making a mess and the only time it had ever happened was when he didn't know what he was. Since then, he pushed himself into the routine to keep the house in a decent condition instead of blood everywhere.

He wished that when he poured the bath for himself it would be warm when he got in, though with it sitting there all day it obviously would have turned ice cold by the time he actually got to use it. He also wished that his clothes stayed on him instead of ripping to pieces if he didn’t get them off in time.

But that was life, Matt thought glumly.

He got changed into his dark shirt and jeans and placed his tie around his neck loosely. Afterwards, he tidied up a little before drinking a whole gallon of water from the tap. When he got up every morning he was always so thirsty, probably from the raw meat that he ate that night.

He didn’t like the normal cereals and toast definitely wasn’t quite the nicest breakfast in the world so he went into the fridge and took out a leg of chicken that he’d been saving for snacks during the day if he was hungry and he was at home, having had a stupid dinner at college which far from filled him up. He swore he developed another stomach when he turned.

Though he was very early compared to normal, he didn’t care. He wanted the day to be over and done with and he didn’t have much else to do. He exited the house and began to walk slowly. Running wouldn’t be such a good idea with everyone getting up and looking out the windows, or walking to school or college, or driving to work. He would definitely be seen and, though he loved to run, he didn’t want to risk it.

He stretched his fingers as the cool air skimmed his hot skin. Wolves were very hot most of the time, hotter than the usual human. That was probably the reason why he didn’t want Kristen touching his skin. He was constantly a hot water bottle with no way of cooling down. Kristen would certainly notice his temperature if she touched him for more than a moment. The last thing he wanted was her being suspicious about him and worrying about him maybe having a high temperature.

Also, with her being a suspect of maybe being not all human, she would definitely realise he was kind of the same and would ask questions or maybe do something else. It would help if he knew what the smoky thing was he saw last night. Then he could maybe match some more points to her or anyone else around the area. She certainly seemed human in classes, though so did he really, besides the random outbursts of anger he couldn't help having when people were winding him up like a jack-in-the-box.

He was thinking about the smokey thing again and it was annoying him. It was because he was curious to find out what it was and who it was, if it was a who. It could be a threat to him if he ignored it completely. Of course it wouldn’t be much of a competition, for he was a monster and was definitely stronger than some poxy bit of smoke. So it was faster than him, he was caught unawares and he was sure that if he saw it again he would be able to catch it and pin it down, maybe figure out what it was.

He was at college before half of the teachers and most of the students. Good. He liked to be alone, like normal. Laura was already there, as usual, slinking around Harry like he was a prize to be won. He looked happy to be her next piece of eye candy, laughing and joking with her as she brushed around his arms and posed in all sorts of ways as she moved, laughing loudly with him and pushing him in a playful manner. Matt could hear their conversation quite clearly from where he sat, especially as there weren't many people around.

“You’re so funny Harry.” Laura swooned and laughed as if to show it. She was so easy to read it was unbelievable. She thought the world of herself. She thought that everyone wanted her, even Matt, which was a pretty stupid assumption because Matt couldn’t be any more less interested.

Laura wasn't his type even if he had a type. She was such a show-off that even being in the same area as her annoyed Matt more than it should. She lived to create misery to other people. He couldn't even remember the last boy she'd been swooning over and it was probably only yesterday! The way she moved clearly screamed experience and Matt had to roll his eyes at how easy she seemed to pick up guys, even though they had to know that she had done it hundreds of times before.

“Oh I know.” Harry looked up to the sky and put his hand to his chest, only encouraging her more to laugh loudly and push him.

Matt sighed and narrowed his eyes. How simple could you get? They were both pretty stupid in any case. Laura never had an intellectual conversation with anyone - she probably didn’t even know the word existed - and they were quite easy. Easy as in she would take anyone to be her boyfriend, shallow as in she would only stay with a guy who was nice looking. It didnt matter how great a personality he had, if he wasn’t handsome, she wasn’t interested. Pretty stupid, Matt thought, considering as they were both going to lose their looks in the next 20 years at least.

“Oh look.” Laura’s voice lowered as Matt approached. “Look what the cat’s dragged in.”

A cat would definitely not be able to drag him anywhere. He’d probably eat it before it had the chance to. He didn’t say anything, though, and continued to walk towards them.

“I could take him. Bet he’s not as strong and fierce as he lets on.” Harry whispered and smirked at Laura as she raised her eyebrows and grinned back. Matt surpressed a snigger at his foolish words.

Laura's eyes, on the other hand, lit up like a christmas tree. “Go on then. Have a pop. He wont see it coming.”

Harry shook his head quickly and Matt smirked. Coward.

“Nah. I don’t want to beat him up so he has the pleasure to go home. Then we'd still be here and he'd be at home enjoying himself.” Harry folded his arms and held his chin high, proud of his excuse.

It was pretty pathetic, in Matt's opinion, but he didn't care about what Harry thought. Harry was a twig. He wasn't even big. With his funny gingery brown hair and his slanky little form with odd looking arms where he'd started to work out but it hadn't quite reached the rest of his body, Matt didn't even consider him close to being a threat. He could snap the boy's spine in half in a blink and he wouldn't even be breaking a sweat.

His mind came back into focus when Laura started talking again, his eyes narrowing. “What home? He doesn’t have one. Remember, his whole family mysteriously died.” She rolled her eyes and Matt caught his breath, growling quietly and tightening his fists, trying to stop the shivers that rippled through his spine.

He was getting close now. He was so tempted to hit Laura in her selfish little face and break Harry’s already-too-long-for-his-face nose. However, it probably wasn't good to unleash his wrath on some silly teenagers who had nothing better to do than to wind up people, particularly Matt. Though he didn't care that much, he didn't want to have the situation repeated around the college like what happened yesterday.

“Do you think he did it?” Harry’s voice quivered and Matt forced himself not to curl his lip as he smelt the grass and petunia waver over towards him, blocking his nose.

“Well who else could have done it? He was having a bad day. So easily he could lose his temper and kill someone. He damaged Mr Jones, didn’t he? Imagine his family. He’s a murdererm no doubt about it.” Laura sneered and Matt glared at her. She caught his eye and then lifted her chin up as if she was better than him.

He wondered whether he should go over and say hello to the two little pathetic gossipers. He so wished he was alone with them so that he could show them how strong and ferocious he actually was. He would batter Harry and threaten Laura, maybe destroy her pretty face. She would definitely not like that. No lads would go for her then; she wasn’t interesting enough. Harry would be in hospital for a while and it would certainly teach them both a lesson to get on the wrong side of him.

“Yes?” She asked as Matt continued down towards them. He wasn’t going to stop and waste his time on her. He just wanted to get past. Still, he continued to glare at her. She rolled her eyes and stepped in the middle of the corridor to block Matt’s route. “I said, yes?”

Matt snorted in and scrunched his fists up, the trembling starting to rise. She was just picking for a fight, wasn’t she. Well, if she wanted a show, he’ll give her one. “You know, I think I feel my ears burning.” He rubbed his ears and gave her a grin of anger. She blinked widely at him but tried to hide her fear. “It’s not nice to gossip, Laura.”

Harry swallowed beside her and switched from Laura to Matt as he watched. “Its not nice to listen to other people’s conversations, Matt.” She hissed and put her hands on her hip.

He raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. She stepped back at the same time and then frowned and glared at him. “I would have thought that conversation would have gotten boring by now, don’t you think?” He cocked his head to the side and stared at Harry. “You’re not impressing anybody.”

Laura licked her lips and hesitated, trying to think of a come back. “Well, we would stop if we knew the truth.” She stuck her chin out.

“The truth?” He laughed once then gave her an evil glare. “The truth is you’re a show off, a selfish, attention grabbing cow and you should get off your high horse and act your age. Maybe then your love life will be slightly better than it is now, because from what I can see, it's not going too well. You can't keep hold of them for more than five minutes. Should probably work on your relationship skills.”

…Silence.

“Ouch.” Harry said and smiled slightly. He stopped when Matt glared at him and slunk back into the wall, removing himself from the conversation again.

“That is none of your business.” She whispered after a while, staring at him with wide deer eyes. “You can talk. At least I can get someone.”

“I choose not to have someone. You want one and yet it only lasts a few weeks at the most. Pathetic.” Matt shook his head and stepped to the side. Laura hesitated then followed to block his way. “Oh, you want more truths? Okay, you’re easy. You will go for any boy who looks at you because you’re a slag. I'm surprised you can still stand.”

Laura gasped in shock and then frowned.

“Now move.” He boomed and stepped to the side.

She followed.

“Move or I’ll pick you up and move you.” He growled. He waited a moment and, before she was able to open her mouth, he clamped his hands around the tops of her arms and lifted her off the ground. She gasped and struggled in his grip as he stepped easily in a circle and plonked her back on the floor, pushing her into Harry. They bumped into each other and Harry jumped, holding his hands up awkwardly as Laura quickly moved away, blushing scarlet.

“How dare you!” Laura snarled at him, brushing herself down and flicking her hair, clearly embarrassed.

“I did tell you. Maybe next time you’ll just do it instead of making things difficult. Have a good day, Laura, Harry.” He nodded at them and glared before turning on his heel and walking away, leaving Laura and Harry flustered and confused.

Matt hated the way Laura liked to show off. It annoyed him so badly that it was one of the reasons why he had to control himself so much in classes. If Laura was dead it would save him a lot of trouble and hassle and he wouldn’t have to worry so much with losing his temper. He wasn't going to kill her though. Despite what she thought, he wasn't a murderer. He wouldn't purposely kill someone.

He took a deep breath and continued to walk to his usual place: near his windowsill. Of course there was the bench he had sat on the day before but he didn’t feel like sitting outside this early. He wanted to be alone without people around him, his only wish that never happened, and so he leaned gently on the window sill and took out his drawing book.

Pencil in hand, he began to swish it backwards and forwards. First, he drew in the background, a wavy sea with multiple colours like purples, blues and greens. Then he started to draw a white and yellow stained animal skull in midair, floating, not leaning on anything in particular. Next he drew a white rose next to the horns and shaded the whole picture in, finishing within two minutes.

“Oh wow, that’s pretty.” A voice came from his right.

Matt jumped, startled, and smacked his book shut, glaring to the right to see Kristen’s face right up close to his. He jumped again and stumbled away from her, staring at her with surprise. How had she sneaked up on him so quickly? “What?”

“The picture. It’s pretty.” She indicated his book and smiled encouragingly, ignoring his flustered response, “Hello, by the way. Sorry if I startled you.”

“You were too quiet.” His eyes bulged as her yellow shadow around her figure glowed and her raspberry scent blocked his nose again.

“Can I look? Please?” She indicated the book again and stepped forwards. He stared into her eyes and she stopped, waiting. Slowly, he held up the book and scanned it before passing it carefully to Kristen, not wanting to touch her. She gripped the book tightly and took it out of his hands, looking down at it as she flicked through the book to the newly pencilled picture.

“Don’t ask what it is. Im not too sure.” Matt muttered and watched Kristen’s expression as she took in the picture he’d drawn moments before.

“It looks like a Georgia O’Keeffe picture.”

“Who?” Matt frowned and continued to watch. Kristen looked up at him and smiled.

“Georgia O’Keeffe. She’s an artist who draws abstract pictures with close up images of skulls and flowers.” Kristen glanced back down at the picture. “I know a few pieces of her work. Sometimes she zooms in so close that you don’t even recognise what it is and its normally flowers. She uses so many colours and moods in her work. You must have heard of her.”

Matt shook his head.

“Well this,” she poked the paper and her smell clung to the pencil, “This is like you’ve been inspired by her. What made you draw it?”

Matt shrugged. “Don’t know. It just came to me. I thought it looked good.” He shrugged again.

“Maybe they represent something.” Kristen wandered and stroked the page with her fingertips.

“Maybe.” He glanced from Kristen to his picture, calculating her expression.

Suddenly she gave it back and smiled up at him. He took it and put it back in his bag, ignoring her smile. Just because he was talking to her at the moment didn't make them long lost friends. He didn't want to give her the wrong idea. “Why are you here so early?” she asked.

He shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

“Oh.” She fell silent and bit her lip lightly. “Well, what have you got today?”

He knew she was trying to make conversation but, to be honest, he wasn’t that interested and again he reminded himself that it was better if she was not friends with him and that she mixed with other people, for her own safety and for his pleasure of being alone. Why did she have to make it so difficult when clearly it was very simple? All she had to do was stay out of his way and everything would be okay but no, she wanted to make a mess of things and continue to be persistent about being his friend.

“The same as you. We have exactly the same lessons.” He murmured and looked down at the ground.

“Oh. So….Erm…”

Matt rolled his eyes and looked right into Kristen’s pupils. “Look, Kristen, I know you want to be friends and everything but, really, it’s not going to happen so why don’t you save your breath and just stay away? Im not trying to be mean, I just think it would be better for us all if we weren’t seen together.” He folded his arms and just stared meaningfully at her. He hoped that she got the message. Couldn't she see that he was doing this for her benefit too? Surely she realised that hanging out with him put her at the bottom of the popularity food chain.

She blinked and then her expression turned confused. “But Matt…I just don’t understand why not. Okay, so you like to be alone. I know that. I know people need space every so often and so do I. It’s just…we can still be friends, just not hang around together. We can do that cant we?” She said and searched his face for an answer she just couldn’t get her head around. She would never understand unless she knew what he was and seeing as he wasn’t ever going to tell her, she was never going to understand.

“We just cant be friends. Sorry. I think Laura is waiting for you. She was with Harry down there.” He pointed behind him with his thumb. “I think she’d like you to join her.”

Her face fell before it hardened again and stared right at him. He watched her eyes narrow. “Forget Laura for a moment. Explain to me why not!” She touched his arm and he stepped back automatically with surprise. Her skin was still the same very dull temperature of coldness and he hated that she took him by surprise over and over again. She retreated her hand quickly and guiltily dropped her gaze to the floor.

“Don’t. Just go to your friend.” He growled it as if it had a threat behind it and glared at her. He wanted her to understand. He wanted her to leave and never come back. He wanted her to forget about him like everyone else did. He didn't deserve her company nor did he deserve anyone else's. He wasn't like anyone else and he would never fit in. Kristen had a chance to make herself big and popular like Laura yet she refused to let go of him. He didn't understand why she was so persistant.

Why did she want to be near him so desperately? Was it because he was mysterious or was it another reason? Surely she wasn't attracted to him in any sense. He was far from being attractive, considering the beast that he became at night. He stayed in the shadows and stayed away from everyone else. It was impossible from the word go. They could never have a friendship. They both knew it. She was just being stubborn.

“Matt…” She murmured and looked up into his eyes sadly.

He was glad that he was taller than her. He felt more confident in talking to her when he knew that she had to look up to see him properly. “Matt nothing. I don’t want to talk to you. It’s for the best. Trust me.” He gave her a meaningful look and her expression became confused. She studied him for a moment and suddenly he had one of those human actions where he leaned on one foot, shifting his weight. She watched him carefully and then sighed.

“Matt I know Laura doesn’t like you, I know no one particularly likes you, but if this is just for my well-being and helping me to make mates just by ignoring me, then I don’t want to be mates with them. I hate people being left out and it is my choice who I want to be friends with. If they don’t like it they can get lost. I don’t care if I don’t have loads of mates because of it.

"If this is about trying to make me fit in, I don’t care. I’d rather not fit in. I want to be mates with you, Matt, and I don’t care what anyone thinks. You have more conversation than anyone I've met so far. Everyone I talk to either talks about something I know nothing about or it's just petty small talk about other people. No one is interesting. No one is like you. Despite the fact that you hardly talk, when you do everyone pays attention to you. You have this vibe about you and even though you tell me to go away I still want to be friends with you. I don't care what anyone thinks. Why wont you be friends with me?”

She breathed out and raspberries smothered his oxygen again. He was getting used to the taste of her air now and it was making him uncomfortable to realise this. Why wouldn’t she just leave him alone like all the other students did? Why did he have to be different to her? Why couldn't she fixate her girly ways on someone else? Though, calling her girly probably wasn't the best way to describe her as Matt took in her dark clothes and spiked shorts.

Why was she making such an effort?

Matt stared blankly at her for a minute and then stepped to the side. She watched him as he stepped again so that he was in the middle of the corridor, a space in front of him where he could escape. He avoided her gaze and slowly began to walk away, feeling her eyes on him, stabbing him in the back like knives. At least she wasn’t following him…was she?

He turned around and then regretted it as soon as he did. He locked eyes with Kristen from where she hadn’t moved and for kind of the first time ever he felt heat rising in his cheeks. He turned away quickly, hoping that she hadn’t seen how weak that type of thing could be. Well she wasn’t following. That was a good thing.

She was staring, though, and she’d seen him look back. That must have seemed like he had wanted her to look. Of course he hadn’t, though. He was just wondering if she was following…because he didn’t want her to follow.

Matt made it to the end of the corridor and sucked in some clean air before risking a glance behind him, changing his vision to a more yellowy glow of heat. Well, she wasn’t where she was before. He couldn’t see much because he was so far away now. Still, he could see Laura and Harry’s glow radiating off their bodies…

There were only two shadows.

Matt concentrated and tried to focus on that part of the corridor. Oh wait, there was something. A slight pale yellow shadow, not as clear as the other two but there nonetheless. So she was there. He couldn’t understand why she was so pale compared to the others but it didn’t bother him that much. Each radiation was different depending on their temperature. She was obviously feeling cold and so it wasn’t as clear as the others.

He didn’t look too much into it; linking it with the strange thing he’d seen the night before would be stupid as if he was scraping for anything that could to prove that it was her. He wanted an empty mind and to collect the correct information on everything, not just bits and pieces that would point only at Kristen.

He wasn’t really concentrating enough to notice that there were students piling in now, the bell close to going. When he did, he shook his head clear and blinked, several closer students twitching or jumping with his movement, hurrying along with their heads together. They could talk as much as they liked. They were right to be weary of him. He was the most dangerous thing in the town and they must have probably sensed it through his pours.

Matt slowly blinked and pushed his vision to the back of his mind, the bright yellow radiation blinding him the longer he kept it on. Students went around him, careful not to touch him, and lowered their heads as they whispered. When he moved to get to class, the students made a huge gap for him and he walked with wide steps towards the lesson he knew he wasn’t going to like, mostly because he’d have Kristen in the same room which would distract him with her strong smell and his nose so in tuned with it.

-----------------------------------------

It's so weird reading these stories back and picking up on things which I added because I was learning about them in school!

What do you think about Matt's drawings? Do you think they mean anything?

What about Laura? She's a character, isn't she? I based her on one of the people who used to be in my high school. Oops ;)

Dont forget to Vote, Share and Comment!