Who am I, a heroine?

Chapter 8

“Halo?” I answered my phone when I saw Cayden was calling. I was just sitting in my room, staring at the ceiling. I cried in the last half hour, but I thought Mason didn’t deserve my tears so I f*rced myself to stop.

“Hey. Why did you leave so early? I thought you could bond with Katie a little bit.” Cayden said disappointedly, and I let out a sigh. What should I tell him now? Should I just snitch on Mason and tell him everything that he said to me? Nah, for what? Mason would hate me even more and Cayden would lose his friend because of me. I didn’t want either of the two to happen, so it would be better if I just stayed quiet about it.

“Sorry, I told you I wouldn’t stay long anyway and I started to have a headache so I left. You need to spend time with her first, Cayden. Did you ask her out?” I asked him to change the subject.

“Yes, I did and she agreed.” He said excitedly.

“I am glad for you. Just take her out, only the two of you. You don’t need a third wheel.” I told him, referring to Mason. If I can’t hang out with him, I hope Mason won’t be able to either. Stupid a*sh*le.

“Alright, I will do that. Thank you, Sera, for being such a good friend, even after I lied to you. I love you. See you in the morning.” He said and that made me feel a lot better.

“I love you too, Cayden. See you tomorrow.” I said with a smile and we hung up, but then my phone started ringing once again.

“Halo?” I answered.

“Why didn’t you come to school today? It was so boring without you.” Chloe whined into the phone.

“I didn’t feel good and mom let me stay at home,” I said.

“Sis is too soft on you. I needed to sit alone in all of the classes. Do you know how boring that was?” She asked and I let out a chuckle at her dramatic way of talking.

Chloe was actually my aunt, the little sister of my mom who was only three months older than me, so we had a lot of classes together, luckily.

“I feel so sorry for you, Chloe. It must have been terrible.” I said jokingly.

“Shut up, I am bored. Come over.” She said. She was always bossy. My grandparents totally spoiled her.

“Ughhh… you live so far. It’s almost one hour on bike,” I told her. I wanted to go to hang out with her, but their house was outside of the pack-territory. Even by car, it was twenty minutes to get there. Usually grandma drove her to school too, but she was already busy learning how to drive from grandpa.

“Let’s meet halfway then and we can hang out in the forest.” She said.

“That’s a good idea. Let me ask Iris if she wants to come. See you soon.” I told her.

“Alright. See you.” We hung up and I dialled Iris's number right away.

“Hi Sera.” She answered the phone.

“Hi, what are you doing?” I asked her.

“Just finished with my homework. Why?” She asked.

“Do you want to go and hang out with Chloe and me in the forest?”

“Sure. I will see you downstairs in five minutes.” She said and we hung up.

I washed my face quickly. My eyes were a bit puffy, but I didn’t really care. I was glad Chloe called, they will take my mind off of Cayden and Mason at least.

When I walked down the stairs I could hear Iris' voice already. She was arguing with someone.

“She is always with you. I want to spend time with her as well. She is my cousin and, anyway, she called me first.” I heard Iris say to someone.

“She said she had a headache.” That was Cayden. Sh*t, I didn't think that they could still be in the main hall.

“There she is.” Iris said and smiled at me as soon as she saw me. “Can we go?” She asked and I nodded my head.

“So you are fine for going out with her, but you didn’t even wait for me to get back.” Cayden said. He was a bit upset .

I saw Mason was still sitting on the couch from the corner of my eyes, but I didn’t want to look at him.

“Calm down, Cayden. I took some medicine so I feel better. Chloe called me. She was bored, so we were going to meet her. You are busy with them anyway.” I told him and he narrowed his eyes at me, then let out a sigh.

“You don’t look so good. Are you sure you are okay?” He asked worriedly. I guess he noticed my puffy eyes. I looked at Mason briefly and he was already looking at me, but I couldn’t read the expression on his face. He turned his head away as soon as our eyes met.

“Cayden… just let her be. She wants to go with her friends.” Katie said with a smile as she stood next to Cayden.

“I am fine, really. I will talk to you when I get back, alright?” I asked him and he nodded his head reluctantly.

“Alright, see you later then.” He said and I nodded my head before we walked out of the packhouse with Iris.

“This guy is unbelievable. He is acting like he is your husband sometimes.” Iris said while shaking her head. Husband? Yeah, right…

“Let’s just go.” I told her and we sat on our bikes and made our way towards my grandparents' cottage.

I don’t know how we could continue to be friends with Cayden when his other friends didn’t even like me and my friends didn’t really like him. I hoped our friendship was strong enough to survive that.

*

*** Mason’s POV ***

*

“Why is that a problem if she is with her cousin? I thought you wanted to hang out with me.” Katie said to Cayden as soon as Serena and Iris left.

“She is my best friend and I wanted her to get to know you better. Anyway, I knew something was bothering her. Did you see her eyes? I am sure she was crying and I am worried about her.” Cayden said and sat down next to me with a sigh.

He was right. She had been crying. I made her cry and I started to feel bad about it. I didn’t want to throw all those insults at her at once, I just got mad and I couldn’t stop the words anymore from coming out of my mouth. I went a bit too far, I admit, but at least she got the picture and, hopefully, won’t show herself so often in front of me.

“She said she was fine. Let’s just forget about her and do something fun.” Katie said, and I rolled my eyes at her. She was too oblivious.

“Hey guys.” I looked towards the stairs to see Dylan and Damien. They walked up to us and we all shook each other's hands. They were the sons of the Alpha and the brothers of Serena.

“I want to ask you something. Do you guys maybe know who upset Sera earlier today? Did someone hurt her? Did you guys see anything?” Dylan asked with furrowed eyebrows. They were very protective of their sister and, honestly? I didn’t want to get in their way ever. They can fight like no one at their age. They are only fourteen, but their mom, our Luna, who was the head warrior of the pack as well, taught them how to fight since they were five. People said that Serena was even better at fighting, but I think that was b*llsh*t. I had never seen her fight or do anything for that matter, but her mom and brothers were really good at it.

“No, I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I noticed that she had been crying, but she said she was fine when I asked her about it. I will talk to her later about it.” Cayden said. I hoped she would keep her mouth shut. I already regretted talking to her like that, but she made me furious and I couldn’t stop the words. The last thing I needed was for Cayden to be angry with me.

“She stormed into the house while crying and locked herself in her room. We asked her what happened ,but she didn’t tell us anything.” Damien explained worriedly and I gulped loudly. I was afraid they would find out it was me who upset her. Cayden would never talk to me again and the twins would definitely beat me up.

“Mason, do you know something?” Cayden asked and I looked at him like a dear caught in headlights.

“Who? Me? No, she was fine when she left.” I told them simply. I was thinking about telling them that she was upset because she was in love with Cayden and she couldn’t stand seeing him with Katie, but then if Cayden had feelings for her as well, that would just bring them together.

“Can you please keep an eye on her? We are worried about her.” Dylan asked and Cayden nodded his head right away. Then the twins both turned to me at the same time. It was a bit scary when they were even moved together.

“Of course, we will.” I told them. They were good guys and I understand that they were worried about their sister, but I didn’t like her, I couldn't help it. I couldn’t tell them that, of course.

“Alright, we will go now. See you guys around.” Dylan said and Damien nodded his head and they walked away.

“What do you think? Why did she cry?” Cayden asked me with furrowed eyebrows.

“I don’t know,” I told him and his eyes widened.

“Are you sure you didn’t say anything hurtful to her? Your jokes are mean sometimes, you know?” He asked again and I let out a sigh of frustration.

“Why don’t you ask her why she was crying? Why are you asking me?” I asked him. He was getting on my nerves with his Serena.

“Why do you care so much? Maybe her nail broke or something.” Katie said sarcastically and I let out a chuckle.

“She is not like that, Katie. If Sera was crying, then something was really hurting her.” Cayden said, and I stopped to think for a moment. Was I really that mean? Maybe.

He took his phone out of his pocket and dialled her number. He walked a few meters away from me and Katie, but I could still hear him talk.

“Sera?”

“On the bike..? Sorry, I forgot.”

“What’s going on?” Katie asked quietly as she turned to me, motioning towards Cayden. “Are they that close?” She asked disdainfully and I nodded my head with a grimace.

“Yeah, they are. It's so annoying,” I said and she nodded her head in agreement.

“Do you think Cayden likes her more than just a friend?” Katie asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I think she has a crush on him.” I told her. Let’s hope they will fall for each other and then Cayden will probably listen to her and he will stop hanging out with Serena.

“I think so too. The way she was looking at him…” Katie said and I nodded my head in agreement. I was not the only one who noticed.

“Ughh… She said we would talk later because she was riding her bike.” Cayden said frustratedly as he walked back to us.

“Just let her be. Let’s go to the game room and do something fun.” I told him and he nodded his head reluctantly.

“Alright, let’s go. I promised to teach Katie how to play pool anyway.” He said with a smile, and the three of us went to the game room.

I hadn’t asked Annie to hang out with us today. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea because I didn’t want a relationship with her. She was nice and everything, but that was all she was to me. A nice girl.

We had already played a few rounds of pool when Cayden turned to me.

“Mason, what do you say if we go to the beach on the weekend?” He asked with a grin and I automatically smiled back at him. Finally, he wanted to hang out with me and I didn’t need to persuade him to do so.

“That would be cool. Of course I want to. I don’t even remember when I was at the beach last time.” I told him excitedly and he turned to Katie.

“Do you and Annie want to come with us too?” He asked her.

“Yes, I want to go, but I don’t know about Annie. I need to ask her first.” She said and looked at me briefly and I shook my head when Cayden didn’t look. She rolled her eyes at me but winked in the end. I didn’t want Annie to come.

“Cool. I will ask Sera, too.” He said happily and my smile disappeared from my face, just like Katie’s. I should have known that was coming. How could we go anywhere without Miss Princess Serena? Ugh... I just hope she has other plans for the weekend with Iris and Chloe.