I am getting dressed for the dance and seriously contemplating just staying home. Will I really be missed? Who am I kidding, those two will show up at my door demanding that I come.
I put on a lavender floor length dress. It isn't tight, but lays against my body nicely. You can see my curves, but it doesn't look like a hooker. It's spaghetti strapped and the front hangs loosely, so my chest isn't on prominent display. I have my hair up in an updo with curls hanging down. I kept everything else simple. No makeup. I just want to relax, even though this night is anything but relaxing.
A part of me wonders what Gray is doing tonight. I wonder if he still thinks about me or if I am some footnote that he doesn't even want to consider. I wonder if he is laughing with his college buddies about the dumb highschool girl that he got to fall for him. Then I wonder if he regrets what he said. Sometimes it seemed like he cared about me, but then others it was just being a friend. I read too much into it. He obviously wasn't interested in me, he led me on.
I am grabbing my purse when Calab comes to the door. He gives it a soft knock. "Are you alright to get there?"
"Yeah, Ethan is picking me up. You guys go ahead. I know you are picking up Willow on the way." I give him a smirk.
He blushes a little. "Yeah, I really like her."
I nod. "She seems good for you."
He smiles. "She's perfect."
He looks pretty dressed up. He's wearing a white dress shirt with a black tie. He never wears a tie. He paired it with black slacks. I am pretty sure he bought this outfit just for tonight. He must really like her. He hates dressing up. His idea of dressing up is a collared shirt and jeans.
"Did you get her a flower too?"
Calab blushes again. "Yeah, it's in the fridge."
I nudge my head towards the door. "Well, go get her tiger."
"See ya there." He leaves me behind.
I finish collecting my things and make it down stairs. Uncle Jared is fiddling with something in the kitchen. I think he is fixing the sink. Aunt Josephine is in the sitting room. Glaring at me as I descend the stairs. Uncle Jared looks up at me and smiles. "Well, you look nice. Who's the lucky guy?"
Aunt Josephine rolls her eyes. "With her it could be anyone in town." I swear to God I am going to punch her.
Uncle Jared waves her off. "Ignore her. Who's picking you up?"
"Ethan. I didn't want a date. Too many guys think that means I am their girlfriend. I don't want to be with anyone."
"Yeah, you want to play the field." Aunt Josephine mutters. "In my day that was called a slut."
Uncle Jared growls at her. "That is enough. She is a kid. She isn't sleeping around. You need to get a grip."
"She will be an adult in a short time. October twenty-eighth isn't that far away." She counters.
"Then she will find her mate."
"Unless her mate doesn't want her because she smells like ten guys."
He growls again, but then gets a cocky look on his face. "What if she is mated to a bunch of guys, like that one wolf in the Delta Pack."
Aunt Josephine's eyes grow to the size of the moon. "Don't even mention that. That is not going to happen in this pack."
He rolls his eyes. "Who made you Alpha."
I put my hand up. "Question. Who is Alpha?"
Uncle Jared smiled. "It was supposed to be your father, but he left with your mother, so, it's me."
"Some of us thought there should have been a challenge when your father stepped down." Aunt Josephine replied smugly.
Uncle Jared bared his canines. "Care to challenge me. Anytime."
I just shook my head. "I am going to wait for Ethan outside."
Uncle Jared turns back to me. "Have fun."
I waved back. "I doubt it."
He just laughs.
Thankfully Aunt Josephine stays in the house and leaves me alone. Ethan arrives a short time later in his old buick. It's one of those old four door models from the eighties. It works for Ethan. I don't expect him to do anything date like so I just go straight for the passenger seat and get in. When I sit, Ethan passes me one of those corsage things. "What's this?"
He groans. "My mother insisted. She seems to think that I will never have another date. She wanted me to bring you back to the house so she could get pictures. I told her that isn't happening. She was highly disappointed. So if you don't take the flower she will blow a gasket."
I chuckle at this thought and put the flower on my wrist. "Well, it's pretty."
"Yeah, she picked it out too." He puts the car in gear. "I can't believe her sometimes. Does she not get that girls in this town are just not stimulating enough for me."
I mock hurt. "Hey, I'm in this town."
"Yeah, but you are my best friend. That doesn't count. The only one close besides you, was Willow and she is with Calab. Even then she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to talk to me. Or maybe she was too shy. Whatever. The point is that there are no girls in this town worth talking to, let alone dating."
"She's your mother, she worries about you." I point out. "At least she cares. My mom probably doesn't even know where I am right now."
He gives me one of those pity looks he gets sometimes. "Sorry, I know that's a touchy subject for you."
I wave it off. "I think I am more irritated with Aunt Josephine at the moment. She keeps calling me a slut. I swear if she wasn't an old woman I would beat her down."
"Ignore her, she doesn't know what she is talking about. You tell these guys that you aren't interested, it doesn't stop them. That isn't your fault."
"Maybe I could fight them off a little more. Like Trey. I could put more distance between us, but to be honest, I am liking the attention at the moment. After what Gray did, I don't even want to think about a guy seriously, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to be appreciated."
"You feel bad about it though, don't you?"
I look down in shame. "I do. Trey needs to move on. At least with Justin, I think I feel something, even if I don't want to. There is nothing there for Trey. It makes me feel bad. I told him that too."
"Well, you can't blame him for holding out hope. He thinks you will change your mind. I see it in him. He thinks if he is good enough then you will want him. I am not sure if he understands chemistry."
"Maybe I could explain it to him, like him and Kelly."
"No, then he will think you want him sexually, you just hate his attitude. Although sometimes I think he wouldn't mind if you just used his body."
I laugh, because he practically said the same thing yesterday. "I don't even hate his attitude. I just don't feel anything for him. Is that bad of me? Like maybe I should like what I got. Like I'm ungrateful or something."
He shrugs. "You are asking the wrong guy. This is the only date I have ever had. And you aren't even really a date."
I chuckle. "Well, not according to your mother."
"Yeah, except her." He smiles too.
"So, off my love life. Have you found anything about Abigail?"
"Not much. It's like she just showed up and then disappeared. There is no birth certificate, no death certificate, no marriage certificate. It's like she was just here to cause trouble."
"Well, she did. What did you find?"
"She seemed to stir up a big commotion in town. Tried to have many council members tried for heresy and witchcraft. She accused so many people of things. Then after there was a duel over her hand, she disappeared. Both men died."
"Wait, you're saying both men died."
"Yeah, I think one had the same last name as you."
"Jedadiah?"
"Yeah. That was it."
"That's what Aunt Josephine was talking about. Only she made it sound like he lived after that. But she was vague as hell, like she didn't even really know."
"The whole thing seems vague as hell. Like who the hell was that woman and what happened to her?"
"That's what I would like to know." I pause for a second. "What was the name of the other guy?"
"I'd have to look at my notes. What are you thinking?"
"Maybe we can track the other family. See if they know something more than we do."
"We can try. Let's look at it Monday and see what we can come up with."
"Sounds like a plan. At least we might get somewhere with this nonsense. I swear if I hear it one more time, that's just the way it is, I am going to scream." I imitated Aunt Josephine's voice. Obviously she didn't know nearly as much as she thought she did.