His Moon, My Alpha

Changes

As I step out of the side door and make my way to my yellow, 1999, Volkswagen Rabbit, I hear these strange overlapping noises. It sounds like someone took your average, everyday sounds, edited them together sloppily, and blasted them from amphitheater speakers. I hear birds chirping so loud they seem to be screaming at each other, brakes from a nearby car squealing painfully, blades of grass rubbing together as the wind howls through them, and the music from the AirPods of the neighbor kid walking to the bus stop across the street.

I scrunch my eyebrows together and squeeze the bridge of my nose between my thumb and fore finger. What is going on? Why does it sound like this?

I quickly release my nose and shake my head, attempting to shake away the strangeness with it. I continue towards my car and the sounds of the world around me return to normal.

Well, that was definitely weird. I must not have gotten enough sleep. Anyways, what was I doing? ..Right, school. I pull the slightly rusted door to my Rabbit open and throw my backpack into the passenger seat.

After I’ve settled myself into the car I tuck a strand of my wavy amber hair, that fell out of the loose braid I put it in, behind my ear. I take a deep relaxing breath and tell myself that today is a good day.

As I begin to pull out of the driveway, I look towards the rear view mirror and am taken aback by what I see. I swing my head around to double check the bushes on the other side of the street behind me. I squint, really trying to focus as I look for the big black wolf that I thought I saw in the mirror, only to see the deep green bushes that are always there.

Yeah ..I definitely need to get a better nights sleep tonight, I think to myself as I again shake off the weirdness of this morning, and make my way towards the school.

I get to the school with ten minutes to spare before the first bell rings. Since I am already familiar with where all my classes are, where my locker is, and I already ate my breakfast in the car, I decide to use this time to find my one friend in this whole terribly dull building.

I find her at my locker. She is focusing intently as she fidgets with something inside the locker and doesn’t notice as I come up beside her. I remain quiet as I take in my friend of 13 years. Her normally pale skin is slightly tanned with a splattering of freckles across her pointed nose from the summer sun. Her ash brown hair is just as perfectly straight as normal, though there is a new touch of blonde as the light hits it. Her shoulders, which she normally slouches in an attempt to hide some of her 5’11 height, are straighter and more confident.

“Whatcha doing?”

“AGGH!!! Holy crapoly, you scared the mess out of me,” she screeches as she slaps me lightly on my arm.

“Well I would have thought you’d be happier to see me after a whole summer apart!”

CC, my best friend, and I are usually inseparable. However, this summer she had an internship in Austin, Texas assisting some fancy movie producer. It was an amazing opportunity that she, of course, jumped at immediately. See, she wants to attend university to study film and eventually end up a fancy movie producer herself. And CC always gets what she wants! Not that she is spoiled, by any means. She is just insanely driven and hard-working and stubborn, which leads to her excelling at everything, and ultimately attaining anything she sets her mind to.

Her crystal blue eyes open widely as she says, “Of course I’m excited to see you!” She then pulls me in for a tight hug. I pull back and smile up at her.

“So .. you didn’t answer. What are you doing?”

“Oh, well, I know that you are totally against school traditions, but this is our senior year! So, I was decorating your locker. And here in the middle, is a list if the other traditions that you WILL be doing with me.” I sigh loudly at this and roll my eyes. Of course she would have already planned out my entire final year of school.

“Look, just because you are a sour puss when it comes to this stuff, it doesn’t mean I want to miss out! And as my best friend, it is your obligation,” she says as she sticks her bottom lip out, pouting down at me.

“Okay, okay! Yes, you know I will do what I can to help you have the typical teenage experience. No matter how mundane I think it is ..I know it’s important to you.”

“Ooooh! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” She swiftly kisses my cheek and the warning bell rings. “We better get to class! I’ll see you at lunch love,” she calls as she begins speed walking towards her class.

I head off towards the science wing and slip into the door of the physics lab. I slide into my seat as the bell rings and Mr. Carter goes into his spiel about the ‘seriousness’ of the class and ‘college readiness.’ I’ve already started tuning him out thinking about my other classes. This semester I’ve got Physics, Spanish 1, Library Assistant, and Weight Lifting to finish the day off.

As I am counting down the minutes until lunch, I get this whiff of the most amazing smell. It’s like nothing I’ve smelled before. The words that some to mind are pine and citrus, but the smell is way more complex than that. I close my eyes breathing in deeply. When I open them, the door is open and HE is standing there smiling.