I look down with a sigh. My dad is my sister’s hero and he’s my mom’s love, I would never dream of hurting either of them just because I have some problems with him. If I choose Joey in the agreement, then I wouldn’t have the balls to tell them about what my dad said, so they would just assume that I chose to do it on my own and it would ruin my relationship with them.
You’re hurting Joey, you realize that, right ? You’re choosing the man that’s bringing you so much pain over your mate, the man that you were destined to spend the rest of your life with, she tells me and I grip her hand, shaking my head.
No, I’m not choosing my father. I’m choosing my mom, I’m choosing Emilie because they are my life and I would never, in my whole life, want to hurt them in any way. They’re the people that I choose to always be in my life, I snap.
Tyler shakes her head. No, you’re choosing to save them from a man that will ultimately hurt them in the end, just like he’s hurting you. Open your fucking eyes, Kade, because if he’s willing to go to these lengths to hurt you, then he’s willing to do anything.
I stand up, ripping my hand away from her because I believe, deep down in my soul, that my dad is somewhat a good person and would never want to hurt his wife or daughter. I grab my bookbag from the ground to swing it over my back along with my phone. I gotta go, I’ll see you tomorrow.
I make my way through the tables full of people as a few people notice my storming out until I’m out the cafeteria door to walk down the hallway to the back door, knowing that no one would catch me if I left through here. When I get outside, the cold weather hits me like a wall and I have to slow down to catch my breath for a second.
As I see my car in the distance, a hand catches my arm to pull me back and I assume it’s a teacher, but when I look back, I notice it’s Melissa giving me a confused look. What’s going on ?
I shake my head, too angry at myself and the world to even respond right now. I keep walking towards my car, but I can still hear her footsteps behind me until Cody’s face comes to stand in front of me and when I try to go around him, he grabs me to keep me in place as the anger pulsing within me starts to sting my eyes, making me look like a baby since I’ve cried the past few days in a row because of everything going on.
Melissa comes back over to me to stand next to her boyfriend as she crosses her arms as we stand in the cold. What’s happening ? Why’re you being like this to Joey ? He didn’t do anything to you.
Something within me snaps and I pull myself out of Cody’s grip, surprising him by my strength as I take a few steps back to contain my anger before looking back at them with this fierceness in my eyes. No, he didn’t do anything, but this isn’t about him. This isn’t even about you, alright ? It’s none of your goddamn business and you can’t just scare me into staying here to talk to you because I’m my own fucking person.
Kade, calm down, Cody tells me, reaching out to grab my shoulder again and I take a huge step backwards as I throw my hands out to my side before using them to cover my face as everything becomes too much for me to handle.
Don’t touch me ! I yell at him and he takes a step back, holding his hands in surrender before putting them back down to his sides as the two people in front of me looks confused as to what’s going on. There’s things going on that don’t involve you two and I need you to respect that.
Melissa shakes her head. No, we can’t respect that because you’re hurting our friend.
I let out a bitter laugh. You think I don’t realize that ? You think I’m just like, ‘oh, yeah, maybe today I just want to hurt Joey’ ? Because I’m fucking not ! There are things in my life going on that I have to make a decision of who I want to have in it and right now, I’m trying to just push everyone away because making a decision is the last thing I want to do !
I watch as their angry faces contort into a look of confusion as I walk around their shocked bodies to run to my car before getting in and driving out of the parking lot as fast as I can. As I hit the main road, angry tears just start to stream down my face as I try to desperately just control my emotions until I’m at home in my own bed.
When I pull into my driveway after about 10 minutes of driving, I remember that my mom didn’t go into work today because she decided to work from home and I almost bang my head against the steering wheel in frustration. I decide to try and sneak up to my room without her knowing, but when I open the door, she looks up at me from the living room couch and my plan’s ruined.
Kade ? School isn’t over, what’re you doing here ? She asks me.
I bite my lip to stop a sob from leaving me as I shake my head, telling her that I didn’t want to tell her. She notices the suffering look on my face and stands up to pull me into her arms as I start to cry into her shoulder. Her hands run up-and-down my back and through my hair as I desperately need my body to calm down because I can’t tell my mom. I cannot tell her what’s actually going on because it’ll kill her to know what my father’s doing.
Is this about you and Joey breaking up ? She asks me and I nod, remembering that Emilie had told her what happened and I guess she just assumed that we had had a fight and I decided that I didn’t want to be with him anymore.
Yeah, I croak out between sobs as she holds me even tighter.
Come sit, she tells me as she pulls me over to the couch as she grabs a tissue from the coffee table to wipe my tears away as I get a handle on my emotions. She waits until my breathing is under control before continuing on with what she wanted to say. Kade, even I know that you can’t just ignore your mate without severely hurting them.
I give her a confused look, running a hand through my hair that was tangled from my hands continuously running through it. Mom, how do you know about wolves ? You never explained how because even Dad didn’t know, so it just doesn’t make sense.
She lets out a sigh, placing her hand on my knee as she shifts on the couch to get more comfortable. My best friend in college was a girl named Arie, who happened to be a werewolf. One day, I came back to our dorm to find her in her wolf form because we were in the city and there was no place for her to go that wasn’t about an hour ago for her to shift and run freely.
I nodded my head. So she couldn’t hold her wolf in any longer and ended up shifting in your dorm room ?
My mom nods her head. Yeah, when she noticed that I had walked in, she immediately shifted back as I was way too shocked to even move. She explained everything to me because she didn’t have any other choice and I never told anyone because she told me that if I ever did, that there would be severe consequences and I didn’t want to know what that was like. So I don’t know exactly everything, but I lived with her for a few more months after that incident so I think I know quite a bit.
I nod my head, moving closer to her to set my head on her shoulder. I love him, Mom.
Then be with him, baby. There’s no reason to be hurting yourself this much if you still have so much love for him, she tells me, setting her hand on my cheek as I let out a long sigh.
What if you feel like you have to make a decision to choose between someone and either way you choose, you’ll hurt someone ? I ask her.
She runs her fingers through my hair as she thinks through her options. Whatever will make you the most happiest, you choose. Those people you’ll hurt in the end should see that you had to make a hard decision and they drew the short end of the stick. You do what makes you happy, baby boy.
But both options will hurt me, I whisper.
She turns towards me as I pick my head off of her shoulder and grabs both of my hands in hers. Then you find another option that will make you the happiest in the end. You’re not limited to anything because you’re the one who chooses what you do and if you feel trapped into doing something that you don’t want to do, then break free. Don’t let anyone limit you from your full potential.
I smile at her, pulling her into a hug because she just told me what to do. I had to tell her what my dad’s making me choose because I wasn’t going to be happy unless I could have Joey and my family. Those are the two things that are most special to me in my life and I’ll be damned if I can’t have both, but for tonight, I just needed to calm myself down because doing anything with this much anger and sadness running through my body won’t end up good.
Can I go lay down ? I ask her.
She nods her head, brushing some of my hair out of my face with her fingers. Of course, when your father and sister come home, we’re eating dinner as a family, alright ? We haven’t been much of a family lately and I was going to change that.
I nod my head, hating that I was going to break her heart soon, but I knew that this is what I needed to do for me to be happy and I knew that my mom would never want me to keep something like this from her, especially since if I went with one of the choices, she would get so hurt and think I betrayed her.
I’ve made my decision ; my dad wasn’t worth this pain.