43. Anonymous Donation
Shane’s phone once again starts going off and once again he looks at it, with a scowl, and closes it out. I wasn’t sure who kept calling him, but whoever it was, it was making him highly annoyed.
Him and Benji just drop me off right in front of my broken down fence. With just a simple, “We’ll be back.” And they were both gone. Like seriously, what the hell? How could they just leave me like that? And all alone too?
But I figured this was my time to figure out about tomorrow. So, heading into the house I stop short to find both of Hazel’s parents in the living room.
Just great.
My spine stiffens when her father gives me a death glare. He looks like shit, as the upper half of his face was nearly healed already. The color was an ugly green and yellow and he was no longer sporting a nose bandage.
Stupid werewolf healing. If only it didn’t work on him, he deserves to suffer a bit more. But Hazel’s mother was smiling. I haven’t seen her so happy. Why was she so damn happy for? I mean, it makes me relieved to see her like that, but what was the cause of it?
“Oh! Hazel, sweetie! You’re home!” She quickly gets up and comes over to me.
Her dad just grunts and looks back to the television, ignoring my existence. She waves him away and steers me into the kitchen.
“What’s this? You seem giddy.” I ask as she opens the oven to check on whatever it was she was cooking.
“Oh, as you can see the power is back on. I got a letter from the company…and guess what?!” She closes the oven door and nearly jumps in her excitement.
I think I know what she’s about to tell me, but I let her have her excitement as I played along. “What is it?” I smile.
“They told me that our electricity has been paid enough to last an entire year!” She sighs happily as she wipes happy tears from her face.
“The relief, I mean I’m not sure how it was paid, but they stated it was an anonymous donation.” She again looks to me with a watery grin. “I’ll be forever grateful to them, whoever they are. One less bill to worry about for a while. It’ll give us extra money as well.”
My smile slightly fades. I couldn’t help but look in the direction of the living room. Will it though? Or was it only going to get more difficult emotionally? She must have seen my hesitance, because she takes my hands into hers.
“I know what you’re thinking. But we’ll be okay, just trust me alright?” She pats the side of my face gently and walks back to the stove. “Dinner will be ready in about an hour.”
“Okay…mom.” I awkwardly say and leave the kitchen and head for my room.
The first thing I do is lock the door. Then heading to the closet I pull out all the things that I bought with Benji today and place them on the bed. I smile to myself as I take out my brand new cell phone. I was still getting used to it with the touch screen and all its little gadgets that comes with it. But, I thought it was pretty cool that technology was at this level already.
I go to Benji’s name and send him a text message. It was so much easier now than with flip phones, I didn’t have to wait for the letter I wanted to get to pop up and could just type it out within moments.
Me: Don’t forget to keep me updated and please be safe out there.
I bite my lower lip as I hesitate over the screen. Ah screw it, he wouldn’t think it weird if I send it right? Besides, they were all out there together risking running into rogues, so it shouldn’t be weird.
Me: Shane too, make sure he’s safe as well.
Benji: Don’t worry. We have scouts with us. I’ll keep you posted, promise.
Me: Even if it’s dead in the night!
He sends an face with its eyes rolled up. I remember him telling me they were called emojis and I found them quite adorable. But he didn’t have to send me one rolling his eyes at me. Damn brat.
I send him a row of the emoji that had steam coming out of its nostrils. He just sends the laughing emoji right back. I couldn’t help the grin on my face as a new message comes in, but it wasn’t Benji.
The number wasn’t one programmed in my phone so I open it up to see who it was.
Unknown: This is Shane, save my number.
My cheeks heat up at seeing his name there. Holy crap he just texted me. Before I could do anything another one from him comes in.
Shane: Oh and don’t worry, I promise to stay safe.
Did he really just send me a winking emoji? My face gets even more heated up and I turn off my phone, tossing it on the bed. I can’t believe Benji gave him my number! Shaking myself out of this weird funk I go through all the things I got and before I knew it an hour had passed as Hazel’s mother knocks on the door telling me dinner was ready.
The sound of food suddenly made my stomach growl in a feverish sound. Getting up, I stop just before opening the door. The antsy feeling wouldn’t go away and I don’t know how many times I kept looking at my phone. I finally decide to give in.
I snatch my cell off the bed and quickly save his number. Against my better judgement, and feeling a whole mess of embarrassment, I send him a text back. The heat in my face wouldn’t go away as it felt hotter than before. I turn the knob and get the hell out of that room, before I completely lost my mind.