You Are Not Cursed

Chapter 3: Creatre of Familiarity

CHAPTER 3: CREATURE OF FAMILIARITY

When the time came I drove to Joyce's house, purposely arriving fifteen minutes early in hopes of getting there before anyone else. At first I thought I had succeed in this as there was only one car on the driveway and none in front of the house but after getting out of my own car I realized that the car on the driveway wasn't the same one from when I left Joyce's place after dinner meaning it wasn't the one that belonged to Ms. Reyes and I knew Joyce didn't have her own. Nerves began to dance under my skin at every point in my body as I hadn't been prepared to meet anyone yet, I was hoping that arriving early would give me the time to mentally prepare myself.

Licking my lips nervously and shifting from one foot to the other I knocked on the door. Just like a couple days ago when I came for by for dinner I heard a bark and the shuffle of movement behind the door before it was opened.

"Hey!" Joyce greeted moving aside for me to come in.

"Hi," I reply stepping inside and shutting the door behind me as I toed my converse sneakers off.

"Come meet Mike; you're technically the first one here since he's been here all day," she explained as I followed her further into the house giving me a serious sense of deja vu. "Mike, this is Charlie; Charlie this is Mike, my boyfriend."

"Nice to meet you," I said as he nodded and repeated similar words back.

"It's nice to meet you again; Joyce has been going on about you returning to Crest Hill but I must admit, I don't remember you."

"That's alright, Joyce is the only person I remember, and maybe Ms. Reyes a little too," I reassure him.

"We were just about to call in our pizza order, any requests?" He asks as I subconsciously notice the front door opening and closing. There were three more heartbeats in the house now.

"I'm good with anything," I tell him before the owners of the three heartbeats come into view. The familiar friends greeted each other before Joyce introduced me, although I could already guess who was who based on what Joyce had told me while we looked at the pictures in her room.

"Charlie this is Andrew, Kris, and Jaxon; everyone this is Charlie."

We exchanged pleasantries although I couldn't help but feel a little -- okay very -- awkward. They all knew each other and were close and mean while I felt like an even bigger outsider than usual. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

Andrew was in the midst of yelling at Mike, who was on the phone ordering pizza, reminding him to get curly fries, when I heard the front door open again. It would seem I was the only one who bothered to knock but then again they were probably over at Joyce's all the time. By process of elimination I knew that the last person to enter the house was Julien, he greeted his friends before introducing himself not leaving Joyce with the job like the others had.

"Hey, I'm Julien Clarke," he said extending his hand out towards me.

"Charlie McCall, nice to meet you," I replied shaking his hand feeling rather formal in doing so.

"How are you finding settling back into Crest Hill?" He asked, making easy conversation with me as Joyce was torn away from my side to yell at Mike and Andrew who had begun to wrestle in her kitchen. e

"Not as hard as I thought, I guess Joyce makes it easier," I reply.

"That's not surprising, Joyce loves people. Truthfully I'm surprised she recognized you, it's been so long and I doubt I would have recognized her after ten years," he comments in an effort to keep the conversation from ending awkwardly there.

"Ya I didn't think I would recognize her but there is something memorable about her," I tell him smiling over at her with fondness. Something about Joyce made Crest Hill feel like home. Julien and I's attention was pulled away from our conversation when Andrew called over to us, asking,

"You two want anything to drink? Jax and I were gonna head to the store."

"Whatever you get it probably fine," Julien replies while I just shake my head.

"Um, no thanks, I'm good with whatever is already in the house," I answer not sure why they needed to go our to buy drinks.

"Oh wait," Andrew abruptly says as if he had an epiphany. "Joyce said your 18, right?"

"Ya."

"Wanna come with us, you real ID might work better than our fakes," he says with a slight chuckle making me realize that they weren't going to the store for regular drinks but for alcohol. Attempting to hide my slight cringe at the realization I wonder why Joyce hadn't told me they would be drinking tonight. Maybe it was just a given seeing as they were high school students but I had never been one to drink; for one my werewolf immune system meant I couldn't get drunk and no alcohol tasted good enough to drink it without the attached buzz.

"Um," I begin hesitantly. I wasn't one to judge, it was normal for teenagers, especially those going into their senior year, to drink and if that's what they wanted to do then whatever but I wasn't so knee on going out with just Andrew and Jaxon; I still hardly knew them and I was to awkward to be around them without the buffer that was Joyce.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Jaxon cut in sincerely noticing my apprehension.

"I think I'll stay behind this time," I reply after a moment and Jaxon nods before pushing Andrew out of the house.

The remaining five of us made conversation until the pizza arrived bringing with it the heavenly scent of food and just moment after the deliver left, 44 dollars and 12 cents weighing down his pocket, did Jaxon and Andrew return.

"We've got beer and vodka sodas," Andrew explained as him and Jaxon each dropped a box of cans on the table on either sides of the stacked boxes of pizza.

"Sweet," Kris mutters tearing open the box of fruity vodka sodas as Jaxon opened the box of beers and Joyce handed Mike a box of pizza to open while she opened the other two.

"Dig in everyone," Joyce said although no one really seemed to need any more encouragement. Everyone grabbed a paper plate from the stack Joyce set out earlier and grabbed a couple slices. While everyone was cracking open up a can of some variety of alcohol Joyce asked me if I wanted something to drink, listing off what she had available in her house if I didn't want to drink with them. Just like a couple days ago I accepted her offer of lemonade before settling at the table and biting into my pizza. Food was the best in social situations because it gave me a reason not to speak -- not that I didn't necessarily want to it was just easier not to. Joyce's friends were nice, that much was obvious pretty quickly, and throughout the night I learned how funny and entertaining they could be. Under normal circumstances I don't think I would approach them in school and befriend them but no situation I was involved in was normal and we got along despite what high school cliques and cliches would have otherwise said.

Although they were all drinking none of them had more than a couple drinks and were no more than a little tipsy so I didn't feel overly awkward being the only perfectly sober person in the room.

"I can't believe we only have two more weeks until school starts," Kris bemoaned sounding annoyed at the mere thought. At this point the pizza was long gone and we had moved over to spread out around the living room. I was sitting next to Max's bed, petting the dog who seemed completely unbothered by the busy room; Kris and Jaxon were also sitting on the floor but they were leaning against the couch that Andrew, Mike, and Joyce were on, Julien occupying his own chair.

"Ew, why would you bring that up right now," Joyce complained making the rest of us chuckle.

"Because it's what I was thinking about," Kris retorts. "I feel like we haven't done anything, let's do something."

"We went to the beach last month," Julien points out.

"Oh! Let's do that again, that was a good one," Kris suggests with excitement.

"I've got work this week but we can on the weekend," Mike says and the others nod in agreement.

"You have to come too, Charlie," Kris said to me and I couldn't help but smile at how she purposefully included me. But I was hesitant. Beaches meant swimming, swimming meant swim suits, swim suits meant putting all my scars on display and that was the last thing I wanted to do. So I lied.

"I can't swim."

"That's okay, you don't have to swim," Joyce assured me and I realized the flaw in my excuse. Why couldn't I have said something like I was allergic to sand? At least that can't be avoided at the beach no matter what, but it was too late.

"Alright," I agree, mentally berating myself. I guess not having to swim did help me out a little, at least I wouldn't have to wear a swim suit; still, I had a feeling I would be showing more skin than I'd like. If I could go to the beach fully clothed head to toe I would but unlike Joyce's house the beach didn't have AC. Damn.

"Alright, so Saturday? We can meet here and just take two cars," Joyce says looking around at everyone for confirmation. Wait Saturday... mentally I pictured my calendar and realized that that would only been two days after the full moon. I guess that was do able, it wasn't the day right after the full moon after all, but I highly doubted I'd want to spend the day at the beach so closely after the full moon... but it was too late, I had already agreed and I couldn't exactly tell them why that wouldn't be the best for me. Why do I dig these holes for myself?

Since everyone was drinking they would all be staying the night but just passed midnight I excused myself to return home. Before I could leave they insisted we all exchange numbers and I was added to their group chat so I could be in the loop about any of the plans they made. While I appreciated them welcoming me into their group without question I was hesitant of how this would go considering the secret I carried on my shoulders like the world. Truly I hoped it went well as I found myself enjoying my time with them tonight. I guess I'd just have to wait and see.

.

.

.

My first full moon alone was rough and that was a grossly huge understatement. For the first meeting Lazarus I hadn't spend a single full moon without him somewhere in the same house as me. He never did much, when I was still a young child he'd tend to my wounds after my transformation but as I grew older that slowly became my own responsibility. But Lazarus didn't need to do anything, it was his mere presence that helped calm me and set me at ease. It would appear that my wolf had come to feel that way as well as she didn't take too kindly to shifting in an unfamiliar den, unable to find Lazarus's heartbeat nearby. I suppose he was the closest thing to a pack I've ever had and when decided to move here I hadn't thought about how my wolf would feel to no longer being with Lazarus. My wolf always angry, mad at me for trapping her in a cage every full moon, for hindering her, holding her back, preventing her from running... from killing. I hadn't thought of her feeling much else but I suppose that was unrealistic of me.

When I woke the morning after my shift it was familiar despite this being my first full moon in here. Lazarus had created the den to be almost a perfect replica of the one in his house house and so I waking bare, on the ground dirt covered ground wasn't unusual. Exhausting and pain seemed to weigh my body down like a towel soaked with water but I knew all that would be eased just a little bit if I could move into a bed. When Lazarus built the den he only used up half the floor plan of the basement, leaving the spare bathroom and one spare bedroom as there was more than enough room without getting rid of them. So I dragged my body into that spare bedroom as it was the closest bed there was and promptly fell back to sleep my body aching every so slightly less now that I was on a softer surface.

Hours passed before I woke again and by this point most of my wounds had healed. I showered and cleaned any wounds that still warranted attention and care. Once dressed in my comfiest clothes I returned upstairs in search of food; at the same time I reached for my cell which I had left in the kitchen last night and immediately dialed Lazarus's number.

Before the second ring could begin he answered.

"Hello? Lūk?" I was surprised by how worried he sounded but after a moment if dawned on me that he knew this full moon would be more difficult than usual and had come to expect the worse.

"Hi, I'm okay," I reply. There was a sigh from his end of the line.

"That's good to hear; how did it go?"

"Well she wasn't happy about the new environment," I explained as I moved around the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal. "Which is ironic because she hates being trapped either way you'd think it'd all be the same to her."

"She's a creature of familiarity just like you, while she might not like the den at least it is familiar, covered in her scent," he told me.

"Ya well she is me so no surprise there," I mumbled coming off a little more bitter than intended. "...Sorry."

"No need, you've had a rough night," he assured me as I used my foot to push a chair far enough away from the small round wooden table that was in the kitchen for me to slide onto it. "Any real bad injuries?" I knew what he was really asking: would I have any new scars. Lazarus always chose his words carefully no matter who he spoke to, always keeping them in mind, and he knew how I hated my scars, how horrible they made me feel. I hum in confirmation.

"Back of my right shoulder, kind of overlapping the old one," I explain and I can picture him nodded his head despite knowing I can't see him.

"You use the healing slave I left you?"

"Yes sir," I confirm and again I can perfectly picture how he'd react; Lazarus would roll his eyes at the formal, authoritative label.

"Good, it'll help." A moment of silence passes before, "I'll let you get some rest then, call back if you need to."

"Mkay, bye Laza," I respond quietly, tiredly, before ending the call.

Leaving my now empty cereal bowl on the table I trudge up to my bedroom and promptly fall asleep beneath the mountain of blankets I had despite the warm weather outside. I'd allow nothing less than four blankets but since summer heat didn't agree with that I had no choice but to also turn on a stand up fan as the AC in the house wasn't enough. The house itself might have been old but certain upgrades had been renovated into the house by my grandparents and I was more than thankful for them having put AC in, it certainly made things easier for me. However, these thoughts barely passed through my mind before I was drifting off and away into a world of unconsciousness.