Apprentices: Waxing Crescent

Being Sick Sucks

I obey Katie and spend the next day in my room. I only get out to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. But even that makes me feel a bit dizzy. It seems like the antiheating potion only had a short-term effect on me. Anyway, I’m trying to convince myself that I’ll feel better the day after, but I’m wrong.

On Saturday, I’m even weaker than I was on Thursday, when the fever began. I text Katie, asking her to bring some food to my room, so I can eat. I’m starving, but I can’t bring myself to get up and get to breakfast.

Katie assures me that she’ll take care of everything and I put my phone away, breathing out in relief. I only realize I fell back asleep when I hear a faint knock on the door. I open my eyes slowly, feeling like a train ran over me. And then went backwards just to make sure I’m dead.

“It’s open,” I say weakly, hoping that Katie heard my voice. I don’t have the strength to speak. My eyes feel heavy, but I force them to stay open, because I want to be awake for my best friend. But to my surprise, it’s not her. It’s my other best friend. “Jake?”

“Hey,” he greets me, carrying a paper bag in his arms. He steps inside and turns around to close the door behind him. f**k. I must look like a mess right now. Why did I have to fall back asleep?

“Don’t come near me. I’m hideous,” I say, making him stop for a moment, then shake his head. He ignores my words and comes straight to the bed, sitting down next to me.

“You’re being ridiculous. Eat now,” he simply responds, opening the bag to start putting all of its contents on my nightstand. I smell fresh bagels, which is enough for me to forget about the way my hair looks.

“You’re golden. Did Katie send you?” I want to know, already stuffing food into my mouth. He smiles as he hears me speak with my mouth full, while I grin with my lips closed. I don’t want to spit food all over him. That would be gross. And embarrassing.

“Yeah, she thought you would be happy to see me,” he explains. I look up at him, noticing the way he’s eating me up with his eyes. I stop chewing for a moment, then slowly swallow the food.

“Stop,” I demand, staring into his eyes in confusion. He told me he wouldn’t be doing this. Why is he breaking his promise?

He scratches his shoulder in an awkward way, suddenly not knowing where to look or even what to say. He just shrugs in response. I draw in a sharp breath, focusing on my breakfast. I’m not saying another word until he decides to be a friend again. Just a friend.

The silence in the air is thick, but it doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I’m used to awkward moments. In fact, I sometimes even enjoy them. Not in this case of course, but I’m still feeling completely fine. Jake, on the other hand … I know he can’t take this.

“Evy …” he calls me as I’m finishing breakfast. My gaze flickers towards his eyes. Those gorgeous warm brown eyes that can’t lie to me. Why is he doing this? We’re okay as we are. In fact, we’re doing amazing like this. No commitment, no feelings.

“No, Jake. You don’t get to come here when I’m sick and try to overpower me. I’m in a state of weakness, so act accordingly,” I turn him down again. It’s funny how we manage to communicate with few words and long gazes.

“I didn’t even say anything,” he defends himself, holding his hands up like he’s trying to show he’s got nothing to hide. I roll my eyes at him.

“You didn’t have to. Your eyes were loud enough,” I explain, making him twitch a little. I sigh, grabbing his hand in a sudden urge to apologize. “I’m sorry, but it’s the line we can never cross. You know that,” I add, caressing his long fingers. As I meet his gaze again, something inside my stomach flutters. No. I can’t let myself feel.

Jake sighs, pulling his hand away from me. “I know that. I’m the future alpha. I can’t afford to misstep, right?” he remarks bitterly, his eyes gazing through the window. But he’s not really looking outside. His eyes seem like they travelled miles away. Or even galaxies away. I know that he wants things to be different, but I can’t say that.

“You can. I can’t. You’ll find a mate and I’ll be left heartbroken. You’ll barely even remember me, once that happens,” I speak up, making him turn his head towards me, clearly horrified.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. No one can forget your face. I know I never will,” he fights back passionately, suddenly reaching out to grab me by my jaw roughly. I gasp in expectation, suddenly ignoring the fact that I’m down with fever.

“f**k me,” I demand, wanting to forget the sickening feeling that his words give me. I don’t want to hear him speak like that. We aren’t meant to be. It’s better to treat whatever we have this way. As a thing that has an inevitable end.

He looks surprised, his hand moving from my jaw to my forehead. His forehead creases with worry, but in the next moment, he already smiles in amusement, shaking his head at me. “You’re hot like hell,” he remarks.

“I know. And you can’t resist me,” I murmur in response, which makes him burst into laughter. I smile, knowing that I managed to ease the intensity of the previous moment successfully.

He sighs, getting up from bed. I lean on my elbows, watching him as he takes his shirt off, then starts unzipping his jeans. I bite my lip. My own private show, huh? Katie has no idea how good she’s actually taken care of me by sending Jake to my room.

“I’ll be gentle,” Jake assures me, while I scoff in response.

“Please don’t be,” I say, making him chuckle. I take off the lower part of my pajamas, leaving myself naked underneath the sheets. He climbs on top of me, pulling the covers over us. He then sends me a puzzled look as he realizes I’ve kept my shirt on. “Just pull it up if you want to, I’m not in the mood to take it off.”

He smirks, his thumb running over my chin before his hand slides downwards in a slow motion. I watch him the whole time, breathing in in pleasure as he finally reaches the lower part of my stomach. But he doesn’t touch me where I want him to. He caresses the inner part of my thighs, making me breathe out in frustration.

“Patience,” he murmurs before pressing his lips on mine. He kisses me so softly, that I freak out. This is not a good sign at all. I suck in his lower lip, biting it passionately. Before he knows it, my tongue is already making its way into his mouth, refusing to give him power.

Next, I slide my hand down his hard stomach to grab his shaft, making him pull away for a second with a puzzled look on his face. But I don’t say anything and neither does he. Instead, he tenses as I hit the right spot, letting me savor the sweet taste of victory.

In the next moment, his hand finally reaches my core, and I barely stop myself from moaning the second he touches me. s**t. This is going to be harder than I thought. We stare at each other almost angrily as we pleasure each other, both of us refusing to stop.

Suddenly, he lets out a soft moan, making me smirk victoriously. Then, I cover my mouth with my other hand, almost letting out a sound myself. But he already lost. It doesn’t matter if I scream now.

I spread my legs, then lead him inside me, loudly breathing out in pleasure as I feel him inside me. He feels so good, even if I can barely keep my eyes open. He furrows his eyebrows as he says: “You even feel hot from the inside.”

I chuckle, not knowing how to even respond to that. He joins in a moment later, knowing that this was a bit much even for him. Instead, he picks up the pace and makes me let out a loud moan. Ugh, I missed that.

A few minutes later, he pulls out, waking me up from my ecstasy. “Why are you stopping?” I ask, confused by his actions. He shrugs apologetically.

“I didn’t bring protection with me. I thought you were too sick to have s*x,” he admits, making me close my eyes and lean my head against the pillow. Great. I’m so stupid. And now I feel even more tired than before.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking straight. I just … I don’t know,” I murmur without opening my eyes. I hear Jake chuckle as he pulls his jeans back on.

“Evelyn Pierce doesn’t know? Now that’s a first one,” he remarks, making my lips pull up into a smile.

“Shut up.” In the next moment I flinch, as I hear a loud meow, then hissing. Jake and I both look towards the direction of the sound, seeing Beelzebub sitting between the doors of the bathroom, staring at us with disapproval written all over her tiny face.

Jake turns towards me, clearly creeped out. “See? This is why we never do this in your room. Your cat scares the s**t out of me,” he says, starting to put away everything he brought for my breakfast.

“More than Marcus catching us mid-action?” I wonder out loud, making him chuckle for a moment.

“Yeah. Marcus is harmless, compared to that thing,” he remarks, making Beelzebub let out a dangerous sound between meowing and growling. Great. He pissed her off even more now. I roll my eyes at both of them, deciding to let myself go back to sleep. I need to get better until tomorrow, or I’ll miss too much school.

“Thanks for stopping by,” I tell him, not wanting to seem ungrateful. I do appreciate him coming to see me. I missed him in the passed couple of days, even if he texted me often to check how I’m doing.

I freeze as I suddenly feel him press his lips on my forehead and linger there for a moment too long. “Feel better soon,” he whispers softly. I then feel a gush of wind as he walks away, then hear Beelzebub hiss at him again as he gently shuts the door behind him.

I turn towards the wall, falling asleep the moment I close my eyes. It’s quite blissful, not having to think about what just happened. And what it could mean.

My surroundings start to take a form. I’m walking the streets of a familiar city, one that I’ve visited a lot of times with my friends. Cincinnati. They’re beside my right now too. I don’t know why, but we’re walking around like drunks, each of us carrying around our own bottle of vodka.

Then we suddenly get caught by Mrs. Fritz, who scolds us and gives us detention, then sends us all into our rooms. We go through a door, and we’re all suddenly standing on the hallway of our dorms, each of us heading for out rooms. But when I get to mine, Marcus is sitting on my bed, petting Beelzebub.

He looks up at me, his blue eyes piercing through me as he smirks. “See? Even your cat likes me better than Jake.” I get angry and run towards him to tackle him to the ground, but my bedroom suddenly fades away and I find myself in complete darkness. I can tell that something is about to change and soon enough, I realize I was right.

I find myself in a strange environment. I don’t recognize the room, but it’s dark and musty. There’s someone standing behind me, but every time I turn around, they move backwards. I can’t see their face, but I can tell it’s a woman. She reminds me of aunt Marion. Could it be her?

It’s all so strange, like I shouldn’t be here. And neither should she. Suddenly, I feel her reaching out to me in a way that’s trying to violate my thoughts. I don’t know how I know that, but I just feel it. I need to get away from here. I have no idea how I do it, but I push myself away and force my mind to free itself from the weird dream.

When I wake up again, I have no idea where I even am or what time it is. All that’s on my mind is that creepy dream that makes goosebumps stand up at the back of my neck. I shiver, turning over in my bed just to freak the hell out.

There’s a pair of big green eyes watching me from the bottom of my bed, making me curse under my breath. This cat will give me a heart attack one day. She jumps on the bed, walking towards my face and sitting down right in front of it. She stares at me like she knows about my dreams and is trying to comfort me.

I pet her with a shaking hand, trying not to think about where I was in my mind a few moments ago. “It’s okay, Bubba, I’m doing just fine,” I murmur, glancing through the window. The sun is low on the sky. I slept over lunch.

I check the time on my phone, realizing that I still might catch it, if I get ready quickly enough. I have about a dozen unanswered text messages from Katie and Jake. They probably thought I died. Maybe they were even here, while I was sleeping. I feel my forehead, realizing that it doesn’t feel hot anymore. Finally, it was about time.