Werewolf Chapter 5

A Story by RayLynn

Hey all! Here's chapter 5, I messed with the timeline a little so if things don't seem to line up, please let me know so I can fix it! Enjoy!

Chapter 5

“Charlie, wake up.”

I groan and roll away from him. “No, five more minutes.”

“Charlie, we’re going to be late, you have to get up.”

I groan again and pull the covers over my head. “I don’t want to get up, just let me sleep in today.”

“Babe, come on, it’s already like 10 o'clock.” Lucas pulls the blanket away from me and I gasp as the cold air wraps around my body and chills me to the bone.

“Really?” I sit up and wrap my arms around myself. “It’s freezing in here, Lucas.”

“I know it is. Come look outside.” Lucas rushes over to my bedroom window and his face lights up as he looks outside.

I get up slowly, stretching and yawning as I make my way over to him. “What is it?”

“Look! It’s snowing for the first time this year!”

I look outside and see hundreds of tiny snowflakes all swirling around in the wind. “It’s beautiful.”

“It really is.” Lucas wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his side.

It’s been about five months now since we went on our first date and I couldn’t be happier with him. I mean, the past five months have been filled with a lot of anxiety and planning and watching over my shoulder wherever I went, but that had to do with Kris, not Lucas. Ever since that night in the woods, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that someone has been following me. It’s not really all that much to make me believe it, usually it’s a rustling behind me or hearing footsteps or not really feeling at ease. I try not to let it bother me, but sometimes, I can really feel her here and I know that Kris is watching me. I just wonder what she’s planning to do next.

“Charlie?”

“What?” I realize that Lucas had been talking to me and that I was completely lost in thought. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

“Why don’t you get dressed so we can head out?”

“Okay. I just need like 15 minutes.”

“Alright.” Lucas falls onto my bed and just lays there on his back. “I’ll just lay here until you’re ready then.”

“You’re so weird sometimes.” I lean down and kiss him lightly before walking over to my closet to pick an outfit for today. Honestly, I don’t even remember what Lucas has planned for today. Lately I’ve just been so out of it and I really feel bad for not focusing enough attention on him. I just can’t shake the feeling that Kris is still coming for me, even after all this time. It’s so hard to live with that constant fear and anxiety that some day, she’ll just show up again or be lurking right around the corner. Whenever I’m in public with Lucas, I try not to be too close to him or to show too much love and care for him. I just never know if Kris might me watching or if she has someone working for her who might be following me. Showing her my weakness is not part of my plan so I’m always overly cautious.

I finish getting dressed in jeans and a nice cozy sweater and go over to where Lucas is still laying on my bed.

“Hey babe, you look great.” Lucas pats his leg and holds his arms out for, motioning for me to sit down. I laugh lightly and sit down on his lap facing him.

“Thanks babe, I love you.” I lean forward and press my lips against his.

“I love you too.” He sighs and reaches one arm behind him to grab his phone. “Now, our plan for today is to go ice skating at the outdoor rink downtown and then I’m taking you to that new coffee shop for some hot chocolate.”

“Oh no. Ice skating?” My whole body tenses up and I remember all the times my parents tried to teach me to skate as a kid. I also remember falling on my a*s every single time. I honestly think I spent more time sitting on the ice than I did standing on it. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”

“Charlie, it’s December which means it’s like an entire month of Christmas so I have a list of a bunch of stuff I want to do with you before the holidays are over.” He reaches behind him again and pulls a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket.

“Wait, you have an actual list? What else is on it?”

He unfolds it carefully. “Let’s see. I have ice skating, sledding, building a snowman, sending Christmas cards, drinking hot chocolate, spending way too much money shopping at the mall, making snow angels, having a movie marathon-”

“Hold on. You literally have an entire list of things?”

“Yes. That was only some of them. Do you want to look at the rest?” He holds the paper up for me to grab and I take it from him. The list goes down two columns on the paper and every line is filled with something. Out of everything on the list only one or two things are checked off so far.

“We can totally get all of these done.”

“You want to?”

“Of course. I know this is important to you so it’s important to me too.” Lucas wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me against him. He kisses me softly and leans his forehead against mine.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you either, honey.” I smile. “Should we start getting ready to go?”

“Not quite yet.”

“I thought you wanted to go.”

“I do. But I also want to make out with my girlfriend first.” He wraps his arms around and pulls me down with him as he falls back on the bed.

I fall on top of him and we both laugh. “I love you so much.”

He kisses my neck. “I love you too, Charlie.”

He continues kissing my neck and I rest one of my hands on the back of his head. He trails his kisses down to the neckline of my sweater and pulls it aside to kiss even lower.

“Hey Charlie, Dad just called me and- Whoa!” Alex walks in my room and turns away when he sees me and Lucas on the bed.

“Alex!” I quickly get off of Lucas and fix my sweater. “Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize he was still here.” Alex looks up at me sheepishly.

“It’s fine.” I shake my head. “What did you have to tell me?”

“Dad just called me and told me that we’re going to get our Christmas tree today. He wants us to meet him out at Monroe’s in an hour.”

“What? No. I already have plans with Lucas today. I told Mom and Dad that I was spending the day with him.”

Alex holds his hands up. “Don’t kill the messenger. I’m just telling you what Dad told me and he wants the whole family there today.”

I turn to look at Lucas. “What should we do?”

“It’s okay. I understand if you have family stuff going on. We can hang out some other time.” I see a hint of sadness in his brown eyes and immediately feel bad for needing to rearrange plans at the last minute when he was so excited for today.

“Why don’t you come with us?” Alex looks at me. “I’m sure Dad wouldn’t mind if you brought him with.”

Lucas’s face lights up. “I’d love to go.”

“You would?”

“Yes! I can add this to our winter bucketlist, babe.” I grab his hand and help me up from the bed.

“Let’s go then.”

*******

An hour or so later, the three of us pull up in front of the house at Monroe’s farm in my car and park.

“Alright boys, let’s go.” I get out of the car and almost immediately, the stench of manure hits me. I nearly gag from the strength of it.

“God it smells out here.” Alex walks around to my side of the car.

“Yeah, it’s really gross, what is that?” Lucas asks.

“That’s what farms smell like, courtesy of the cows.” I say, taking Lucas’s hand as we all start walking up to the front door.

“We are never living on a farm.” Lucas shakes his head and we walk up the front porch steps.

“You’ll get used to it in a few minutes and then the smell won’t seem so bad.”

Alex knocks on the door. “Yeah, it won’t take long.”

Mrs. Monroe comes to the door. “Oh my goodness! Alex and Charlie? Oh you kids have grown up. I remember when you were both still in diapers and here you are nearly adults now. Please come in.”

She opens the door and motions for us to follow her into the house. She leads us into the kitchen where she’s already getting food ready for dinner time.

The sweet smell of cookies with a hint of something savory hangs in the air and I feel my stomach start to rumble. I rest my hand over my stomach and try not to let anyone else hear it.

“Come on in and sit down. I just finished baking some Christmas cookies if you’d like some.” She gestures over her shoulder toward the table as she walks into the pantry to gather more ingredients for what I’m sure will be a wonderful dinner.

Lucas, Alex, and I all sit around the table and each of us grabs a cookie. They’re all different holiday figures and Mrs. Monroe decorated all of them with frosting. Mine is a snowman and my first bite takes his hat off. I sit there munching on the cookie and looking around the kitchen. It’s probably been years since I’ve been here, but everything still looks the same.

“So who exactly is this?” Lucas asks.

“Close friends of the family. Our Dad and the Monroes’ kids all went to school together. Jayden is their grandson.” Alex explains.

“Oh, okay. So why are we out here right now? I thought we were getting your Christmas tree today.”

“We are. The Monroes have a bunch of pines in their back lot that they give to their family and friends every year for Christmas. We just have to go pick one and then cut it down.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. I’ve never had a real tree before.”

“What?” Alex stops mid-bite and turns to look at Lucas.

“Really?” My jaw drops open.

“Yeah. A lot of Christmases when my parents were first married were really hard on them and they got tired of spending so much money on a real tree to just have it for part of a month and then throw it away. And with my mom working crazy hours when she first started at the hospital, finding time to pick out and care for a real tree was just too hard. They ended up buying this huge fake tree that we just use every year now. I think they’ve had it for like 20 years or something like that.”

“I mean, I guess that’s easier to maintain and probably way less expensive than getting a real one every Christmas.”

Mrs. Monroe comes back into the kitchen with an armful of stuff that she sets on the kitchen counter.

“Your Dad is out back already, if you all want to head on out there.”

“Is Jonathan here yet?” Alex asks as we all stand up and get ready to head outside.

“Yes, little Johnny is out chopping some firewood for me.” Mrs. Monroe starts organizing all the food on the counter and Alex and I turn to smirk at each other. No one calls my older brother anything but his real name so hearing her call him ‘Johnny’ is just weird.

“Alright, we’re going to head out there. We’ll be back later on.” Alex leads the way outside.

“Thank you for the cookies!” I say before following him.

“Yes, thank you!” Lucas adds.

“Okay kids, you have fun out there. Come back inside if you get too cold!”

We all trudge through the knee deep snow in the yard and make our way back to the grove of tall pine trees. After about ten minutes of struggling to walk through the snow, we finally see my dad and Mr. Monroe standing next to a seven foot tall tree.

“Please tell me that’s not the one we’re taking home.” I say as I waddle over and stand next to my dad.

“It sure is, kid.” He puts one of his arms around my shoulders.

“Dad, that thing is huge. How are you even going to get it home?”

“I brought the truck; we’ll just lay it in the back and strap it down.”

“Well, if we’re taking this one home, let’s start chopping it down. It’s freezing out here.” Alex reaches for the axe leaning against the base of the tree and lines it up before taking the first swing at the base.

I pull away from my dad and walk over to stand with Lucas. He wraps his fingers around mine and holds me close.

“This is so weird for me. I’ve never actually seen someone chop down a real tree before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen some of those lumberjack shows before but it’s quite the same as chopping down your own Christmas tree.”

“That’s true. Hopefully this will be a good memory for you.” I smile and lean my head against his chest. Lucas wraps his arms around my shoulders and leans down to kiss my forehead.

“It will be. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this day.”

I stand there, smiling and holding onto my boyfriend as Alex continues to chop at the base of the tree. Soon enough, the trunk gives way and the entire seven foot tall tree falls on its side in the snow.

“Well, let’s drag this back up to the house so we can get it in the truck.” My dad takes the axe from Alex and uses his free hand to grab one of the lower branches of the tree. I go around to the other side and grab a branch, hauling some of the weight myself. We slowly make our way back to the house, our new Christmas tree in tow.

After getting it strapped into the back of my dad’s truck, we all head into the house for some cookies and hot chocolate, courtesy of Mrs. Monroe.

I head into the bathroom first to wash my hand and attempt to get the smell of pine off of me. I scrub at my hands but it doesn’t seem to help at all. After the third time of washing my hands with entirely too much soap, I give up on it and go back into the kitchen with everyone else.

“I smell like a tree.” I say as I sit down besides Lucas and take a chocolate chip cookie from the plate at the center of the table.

“We all do, Charlie. That’s what happens when you chop down and carry a pine tree.” Alex laughs and gives me a little nudge on the shoulder.

“I was hoping I could just wash my hands and it would be gone, but no such luck. I’ll just have to shower when we get home.”

“We’ll head out in like ten minutes. I think the Monroe’s daughter is on her way and I want to say hi to her before we go. She hasn’t seen us in a while.”

“If she’s not here in five minutes, Alex, we should go. I literally just wanted one day to spend with Lucas but we’re here instead.” I lean back in my chair. “I’d like to actually have part of a day with him.”

“I don’t mind, Charlie. I like spending time with your family and getting to do all this with you.” Lucas sets his hand on my knee and gives it a light squeeze.

“I know. I just want a little alone time before you have to go home later tonight.”

A few minutes later, Laura walks in. “Hey everyone!”

She sets her stuff down on one of the kitchen counters and walks back to the entryway to hang up her coat and take her shoes off. When she walks back in, she notices Alex and I. “Oh wow, I haven’t seen you two in forever.”

We both stand up and go over to let her pull us in for a hug. “How are you guys doing?”

“I’m pretty good. Just getting ready for the holidays.” Alex says.

“I’m doing alright. There’s been a lot going on with school and trying to figure out my plan for college.” I laugh awkwardly.

“Oh that’s great! I’m so glad you two are doing well. You both grew up to be fine young adults.”

Alex and I exchange a little side glance. “Yep, we did.”

“We were just about to get going though, so I guess we’ll see you later. Probably around Christmas some time.” Alex says as he grabs his jacket and swipes my car keys off the table.

“Well it was great seeing you guys! Keep in touch!” She pulls us in for a hug at the same time and I feel myself being squished by Alex’s body. I pull away as fast as I can and grab my stuff so we can go.

We say our goodbyes to the Monroes and to our Dad before heading back out to my car.

“God, that was awful!” I say as I steal the keys back from Alex and get in the car. “I love the Monroes but their daughter drives me nuts.”

Alex and Lucas climb into the car and I start heading off down the driveway.

“I know what you mean. She can be a lot to handle.” Alex says.

“She seemed...unique. That’s for sure.” Lucas says.

“Yeah. I’m just glad we got a tree picked out and that we all get to go home now.” I turn on my blinker and pull onto the ramp leading to the highway. It’s almost an hour drive to get back home, but I don’t mind it so much. I have some pretty great company with me and plenty to think about.