Who am I, a heroine?

Chapter 4

*** Mason’s POV ***

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“Look, it’s Serena.”

“It’s really her. I like her hair so much.”

“Look at her hair, it’s so long and shiny.”

“She is even more beautiful in reality than in the photos.”

I am starting to get headaches from all this sh*t already, but seriously. I don’t understand people who are obsessed with someone who they don’t even know. I mean, what's that special about her? Her white hair? Big deal. I admit she looks pretty, but so do half of the girls in the pack. I will knee in front of her once she really did something huge, but until then, she is just a spoiled brat in my eyes. I wish my best friend wasn’t friends with her so I wouldn’t have to see and listen to this all the damn time. It makes me nauseous.

We were riding our bikes towards home and every single person who came in our way made comments about how nice and perfect Serena was. I already regretted going out with them. I should have gone to play soccer with the guys, with or without Cayden.

She always acts like she doesn’t like all the attention she is getting, but I can see through her. She is so superficial. She is acting all shy and innocent, but I bet she would cry if she wasn’t in the spotlight. I mean, if she hated the attention so much, why doesn’t she wear a wig to hide her hair and identity? I would do that for sure, but she doesn’t, which means she is enjoying it. I just don’t know how Cayden can’t see how fake she is.

I almost felt sorry for her when we were at Cayden’s. She looked so pitiful, but now I think maybe it was all just an act to make Cayden fall for her. Over my dead body. I won’t let my best friend date someone as fake as her. He deserves better, even if their relationship only lasted until he finds his mate.

I think I already have a plan to make him see my point.

*

*** Serena’s POV ***

*

The next day was Sunday and I made some plans with Iris, since Cayden went to play soccer with the guys. Usually I spend the weekends with him because Iris used to hang out with her friends. Cayden was my only real friend who was hanging out with me because of me and not because of my hair color, but today I called Iris and asked her if she wanted to do something together, so now here we were in the cinema, trying to decide what to watch.

“Let’s watch this new movie, I wanted to come here especially for that.” Iris said and looked at me with her puppy eyes, but I just shook my head apologetically.

“I can’t Iris. I am sorry, but I already promised Cayden that we would watch it together. You know how upset he was the last time when I just mentioned that I would watch the second part of 'Venom' with you.” I explained to her and she let out a frustrated sigh.

“Fine. Let’s watch something else then, but you are buying the popcorn and drinks.” She said and grinned at me, which made me roll my eyes.

“Of course,” I said, and we went to buy popcorn before the movie started. I didn't mind paying if she didn't mind that I wanted to watch that movie with Cayden.

I loved movies. You can be someone else for one and a half hours without needing to worry about anything. I loved reading too, but that took much more time which I didn’t really have, sadly.

We walked to the right movie hall and waited till we could finally go in and take our seats , but then, as we were waiting…

“Oh, my f*cking God,” Iris said sarcastically while staring at something behind me. “Didn’t you say that Cayden was playing soccer with the guys?” She asked and I looked in the direction she was looking at.

“Yeah, why?” I asked, but then I froze in my spot as soon as I saw them. There was Mason and Cayden, coming out of a movie hall with two girls from our school. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Cayden laughing and joking with one of them like they were old friends… or more.

“See? It seems like the promise to watch that movie with you wasn’t that important to him as it was to you.” Iris said with a hard expression on her face and then I realised what she meant. They came out of the hall where that movie was being screened.

Suddenly, I felt betrayed in every kind of way by him. Like friends and like… something more, even though I had no right to feel that way when we were just friends. Why did he lie to me, though? He could have told me that he was going to the movies with his friends. I would have understood. Was he fed up with me?

I watched him interact with that girl while Mason was talking to the other one, while he was smiling at her sincerely. He had never smiled at me. Why does he hate me so much? I just don’t get it, but right now, my full attention was on Cayden. They didn’t even notice us in the crowd, but I could see them clearly as they walked past us.

I took my phone out of my pocket and typed a message to him to see what he was going to do or if he would lie to me again. One last chance to say the truth, my friend.

Me: Hi, how is soccer? When will you be back?

I sent it to him and watched him as they walked away. He stopped for a moment and looked at his phone. The girl asked him something and he just shook his head and put his phone away before they walked towards the exit side by side while they continued talking and laughing.

My heart clenched in my chest. Maybe I was overacting, but I couldn’t help it. That’s how I felt and I had never felt that way before.

“Are you okay?” Iris asked worriedly and I nodded my head sadly, while fighting with my tears.

“I will be.” I told her and I turned on my heels and we went into the movie hall.

I tried to distract myself with the movie, but all I thought about was Cayden and that girl.

'Does he have a girlfriend? Why didn’t he tell me about her? Did he lie to me before as well or was this the first time? Maybe he has a good explanation and I am just overthinking everything.'

I think I will just go home and wait till he is willing to tell me about her and about the movie he watched with them instead of playing soccer as he said he would.

When the movie ended, I was glad as I wanted to get out of there and go home so I could talk to him. I didn’t like this feeling, not at all, and I wanted to make everything clear as soon as possible.

I looked at my phone for the hundredth time, but he hadn’t texted me back yet, which was another stab in my chest. He always replied to me right away before.

“Just forget about him, Sera. He is not worth it and, anyway, you will find your mate in two years. It makes no sense to fall in love for that short period when your soulmate is waiting for you somewhere to turn eighteen.” Iris said and I know she was right, but I couldn’t help my feelings. I would just stop them with a button if I could.

“I know. It’s just…it’s hard. He was always there for me.” I told her sadly as we were walking back to the packhouse.

“I can see that,” She said sarcastically while she rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand why you are hanging out with him all the time when you can hang out with anyone you want to.” She said.

“They are fake people, Iris. They only want to be my friend, to make them look cool in front of others and not because they actually like me.” I explained to her and she nodded her head. She knew exactly what I was talking about. People were nice to me for two reasons. One, so they could be popular, or two, when they were afraid of me. There were really just a few people who really liked me as I was and those people were part of my family, mostly.

“Maybe you are right. You know what? Let’s go to the game room.” She said and I nodded my head. I needed to distract myself, so why not?

When we arrived at the packhouse, we made our way straight to the game room.

“Sera..” I looked towards the voice and saw some girls waving at me with huge smiles on their faces. I waved and smiled back at them and then I spotted Cayden in the corner of the room with that girl. He was already looking at me with wide eyes while he said something to the girl before he made his way towards us.

“Hi.” He said while he scratched the back of his neck. He was nervous, I could tell. I didn't want to confront him like that, but he was already in front of me.

“Hi, how was soccer? I didn’t know you guys were done. I sent you a text.” I told him. 'Please don't lie. Please, don't lie.' I prayed in my head.

“You did? I didn’t notice, sorry... Yeah, soccer was good. Actually, we just finished and came down to play.” He said and checked his phone like he really didn’t know about my text. I suddenly felt a hard pushing sensation in my chest and it wasn’t a good feeling at all. He was still lying to me and even if I didn't see him in the cinema, I would know that he was lying from his expression. He was bad at lying.

“What an a*sh*le! Come on, Sera. Let’s go, he doesn’t even deserve your friendship.” Iris said without caring about him hearing it and dragged me away from him towards the door. “Let alone your love.” She added the last part quietly so only I could hear it.

“Wait, what? Where are you going?” I heard Cayden asking in confusion, but I didn’t turn back and just let Iris drag me away. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to talk to him when all that came out of his mouth were lies. He had never lied to me before, at least not that I know of, and now, he was lying to me because of a girl…!? I thought we were best friends...

“Let’s go for a run, what do you say?” Iris asked as she patted my back to console me.

“That’s a good idea,” I told her and she smiled at me sadly. That’s what I needed, a good run in the forest.

I looked back at the door of the game room for one last time, deep down hoping he would come after me and explain everything and apologise, but he didn’t and that hurt me even more.

I realised that I really liked him to the point that it could really ruin our friendship if it wasn’t mutual and I had the feeling it wasn’t. He just thought about me as a friend and nothing more. I should stop dreaming. It was a good wake-up call.

I heard my phone ringing later in the evening. I was already in my bed, staring at the ceiling while I was thinking about everything that happened today. It was Cayden calling and I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. I didn’t want him to make it worse with more lies. I couldn’t handle that, but I knew I needed to talk to him eventually. For example, at school tomorrow.

“Sera… it’s Cayden.” Damien knocked on my door later and before he could see me, I closed my eyes quickly and pretended I was asleep. I didn’t think Cayden would come over because I hadn’t picked up the phone.

“She is sleeping.” I heard my brother saying after he closed my door.

“It’s only eight o’clock,” Cayden said in disbelief.

“Maybe she was tired, she was training hard and running a lot today.” I heard Dylan say. His voice was a bit quieter. I loved my brothers. Did I mention that before?

“Oh, okay. I wanted to talk to her.” He said sadly and my ears perked up. Maybe he wanted to explain himself.

With that thought, I jumped out of my bed and opened the door. I wanted to give him a chance to talk to me about it. We have been best friends since we were born after all.

“Cayden? What is it?” I asked and rubbed my eyes like I was really sleeping.

“Serena? Are you awake? I came to talk to you.” He said and I nodded my head and opened the door of my room wider so he could come in while I let out a sigh nervously.

‘Here goes nothing.'