Black Sun 015: Hide and Seek (Original Draft)

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The sun was going down.

Leo watched it sink below the horizon through the chain link fence that edged the school parking lot. The lot was empty; even the teachers and the track team had gone home by now. He wrapped his fingers through the links and rested his forehead against a line post. A chill breeze came up from behind him, blasting the back of his neck and ruffling his hair, catching at his t-shirt.

It also carried her scent right to him.

He didn’t turn around. He wasn’t sure what she was doing here, but he figured he didn’t have much choice about finding out.

“Ah HA! Finally!”

Not that he would know what she was talking about. Yet. Julian was out of breath and paused to lean forward with her hands on her knees to catch it. Running around town on foot would do that to a person. Once she did she approach, she plopped her back against the fence next to him.

“You’re probably mad and disappointed with me right now. But I’m kinda hoping you’re closer to ‘Oh Hey Julian! My BFF times infinity!’ rather than ‘Oh great, Julian. Fuck this girl.’.” she turned, shoulder still against the fence to examine his face.

“I know you don’t need me anymore. But I kinda need you. Do you want to know what foooor?” she murmured it like it was going to be a grand secret, a hint of a mischievous smile at the corner of her mouth.

“Why do you think I’m mad at you?” he asked, not moving a muscle. Although he had a good idea why. Ignoring texts for days at a time usually made people think you were mad at them.

Of course, not moving didn’t stop her from getting up in his face all on her own. She was doing that thing again. The one where she was trying to figure him out. He hated when she did that.

Leo raised an eyebrow at her.

“Pretty sure you’re going to tell me anyway,” he drawled.

“You know why.” she alluded. Julian didn’t show up to talk about Michael, though. That would be a fast track to an argument, and for once, she didn’t have any intentions to shout at Leo.

When he looked at her she grinned wide. “Angela got herself in trouble with a vampire the other day. It was lucky she told me where she was. But one day I’ll know something is wrong but I won’t have a clue where any of you are. I mean, the entire point of me doing this psychic stuff in the first place was to find people.”

“I’ve pretty much done everything BUT find people. I tried today and epically failed, until I got to you and even that took me to three different places before I got here. So I figured, why don’t we play a little vampire hide and seek.” Julian pushed away from the fence to hop a few steps away before she turned around and held out her arms. Her grin went cheeky.

“By the way, you don’t get a choice. If you refuse I’m just going to keep showing up. Crawl in your window. Assault you at your Vampires Anonymous meetings. When you’re out being mysterious and broody.” she finally offered her hands and wiggled her fingers, daring him to take them.

“C’mon. Come play.”

“I’m not broody,” he retorted, shifting so it was his shoulder leaning against the fence. “And I’m not mad at you.”

He wasn’t, really. It was hard to be mad at Julian for her choice in boyfriends when Leo was the one who let it happen in the first place. Encouraged it, even, before he’d realized Michael had more than a passing interest. And by then it was way too fucking late.

Michael always got what he wanted.

He was staring. A few days ago, he might have grabbed her hands and made some kind of snarky comeback. Now… Now he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

He could probably manage to avoid her, no matter what she claimed. But he already knew he wasn’t going to try.

“Hide and go seek, Jules? Seriously?” Leo folded his arms over his chest. “What’s in it for me?”

Julian made grabby hands at him, as if she were trying psychically will him to accept. When it obviously didn’t work, she threw them in the air with an exasperated sigh.

“Well, I don’t know! I didn’t plan that far ahead. I was pretty much expecting you to flat out say no and take off in a blur. Then I’d play the Jaws theme on my phone and spend the night skipping after you like a psycho.” she kicked a rock in his direction and rest her hands on her hips. Julian eyed him again, tilting her head to the side and mulling it over.

“For one, you get a friend. And seeing as you’re brooding here outside a high school when no one is even here, you definitely need one. Why are you lurking out here anyway, I thought you hated teenagers.”

He was starting to seriously regret admitting that they were friends.

“…I used to live here.” No point in keeping shit from her. Isn’t that what everyone kept telling him? That was Angela’s policy. Even Michael was taking away all the classified markers. Tell her anything, he said.

“Right there.” He pointed at where she was standing. “You’d be in my mother’s sitting room. Pretty sure your feet are in the couch. Rude, Jules. Or go up a floor and you’re in my bedroom- fair enough, I’ve been in yours. Couple of times. When I was a kid, I would stay up late with my ear to the floor, listening to my parents entertaining guests right below me.”

Julian looked down as if she expected to see a couch there, and took a quick step to the side. There was a very peculiar look on her face. Like something suddenly occurred to her, but she wasn’t sure what it meant. “That explains some things…” she muttered softly to herself.

“He told me about the fire. But I never asked him for the details.” She finally said, stuffing her hands in to her pockets and rocking gently on her heels. Her expression shifted to something odd and uneasy, maybe even a little stiff.

“Do you still think about them? And miss them?” Once it was out of her mouth, she realized how stupid it was. “Never mind, you’re standing out here, of course you do.” Julian laughed it off breezily (or so she hoped, anyway), slowly turning on a heel so her back was to him. This was sheering too close to home.

“It must be weird coming back here now with everything so different.”

Part of him wanted to go over and hug her.

Leo shoved that part of him into a box and sat on the lid. It was a stupid idea. And he wasn’t the cuddly type anyway.

Another part of him wanted to scream. Because of course he missed his fucking parents, but what good did missing them do him? They’d been dead forever anyway. Just another thing he could thank Michael for.

And myself, he added silently. No matter how much he wished he could pin it all on that dick, Leo had to be honest with himself on that score. If it weren’t for him, his parents would have died of old age. His sister would have married some asshole and popped out the kids she’d always wanted. But like everyone else Leo loved, he fucked them over and then they died.

“It’s not a big deal,” he lied. “Accidents happen. Things change. Places, people. Not much we can do but live with it.”

Grimacing at his own inner monologue (and his outer one too, for that matter), Leo straightened up and ran his fingers through his hair, stretching.

“Alright. Unfortunately my car is still dented on account of werewolf crossing, so we’re going to have to do this nearby unless you want to spend hours chasing me around town. Got any suggestions? Because I’m thinking a little B&E with the conveniently close bigass school building.”

Julian turned around, pulling a hand out of her pocket but keeping it close to her body even as she pointed at the school. Her mouth twisted to the side in a poorly hidden look of horror and there was this stare, as if he had just suggested they break in to the gates of hell.

Wait. Why was she even freaking out. Just because a few specific dreams liked to start at the school didn’t mean anything. In fact, nothing weird or bad ever DID happen at school. That was a miracle all by itself. It was probably the one place in Silent Pines your brain would melt with boredom.

She wiped that look off her face real quick, already walking backwards along side the fence. “The science lab usually cracks open a window at night, so getting in is a piece of cake. What are the rules of this game, teacher?” she flashed him a toothy grin.

“No rules. You know I can’t stand those things.” Despite himself, he was smirking at her. “Well, just one: No cheating. If you want to get better at being a psychic, it’s not going to help you to fall back on other means of finding me just because you’re getting frustrated. So…”

Before she could so much as blink, he’d picked her pocket for her phone. He stashed it in his own pocket and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Think of it as incentive. You’re not getting it back until you find me.” He spread his hands, taking a few steps backward towards the school. “In return, I promise I won’t move around until you catch up to me. Only fair.”

“What! C’mon!” She actually pouted. How did he even know? Not that she was planning on cheating, but now she definitely wasn’t going to be able to text him taunting messages so she could sneak up on him.

Julian stalked forward, giving him a good hard shove before she laughed and spun out of the way of retaliation. “FINE! It’s going to be easy anyway. I’ve already found you once today and you’re gonna be all fire and smugness trapped in a hamster maze of halls.” She wiggled her fingers at her head, the psychic mojo was on. Mirroring his smirk when she turned back to dash towards the building.

It took a little walking around the perimeter to find the science lab, but just as she expected, there were a few windows pushed open. They were always having accidents with chemicals in there and needing to air the room out. No one ever seemed to remember to close back up at the end of the day.

The window was a little high, but Julian didn’t require any help jumping to pull herself up. Her landing on the inside was a little less graceful. She didn’t know someone’s desk was right there and she ended up toppling right on top of it and rolling to the floor. She grabbed the chair before it fell over with her, holding her breath to see if maybe someone heard. Even though, as far as she knew, no one was supposed to be there THIS late at night.

It was pretty obvious that Julian was NOT the breaking and entering type.

“You’re terrible at this,” Leo told her helpfully.

He’d slid inside right after Julian, but he’d landed with a lot less noise and a lot more grace. Maybe he stood a little too close when he spoke, but some things never changed: Scaring Julian was still kind of fun.

Not that he was getting excited about this dumb game.

“Let’s start with something easy and work up from there. I won’t go far.” Just to see her reaction, he tapped her on the nose. “After that we’ll try something a little more challenging. Come and get me.”

And just like that, he was gone.

“We don’t have to start with easy!” she shouted, flustered, despite the fact he was already well out of sight. She also realized shouting was not a good idea when you were lurking around somewhere you shouldn’t be, and slapped her hands over her mouth. Julian muttered a few curse words under her breath, took in some air and released it with a soft sigh.

Then she followed.

Julian peeked around the doorway, glancing both directions down the halls before she turned in the proper one. She wasn’t kidding about Leo being all fire and simple to trail. Although, with the school being empty there was nothing else around to confuse or dull her senses. It was kind of creepy though. There weren’t any windows in the hall to give a little light, so it was just a bunch of tall shadows and big empty dark spaces. With her sneakers and the very tip-toey steps she was taking, there also wasn’t any sound.

Cheating was definitely not an option.

Luckily, with a cat-eat-canary grin as she turned another corner, she almost had him.

And that was when she got tackled.

“Nope!” sang Leo, as he hauled her clear off her feet and swung her around, trapping her against a locker. The resulting clang echoed in the abandoned hallway, but Leo wasn’t terribly worried about that. No one was here.

“Sorry Jules,” he said, without an ounce of remorse or sincerity. He flashed a toothy grin. “Predator instincts. I’m just not good at being hunted.”

Julian yelped, because who wouldn’t have! The shock wore off real quick, replaced by a very huffy scowl. Leo was then rewarded with a hard shove, several swats and a kick to the shin. Julian probably wasn’t going to stop there either, but now she was hissing at him.

“You jerk! This is hide and go seek, not hide and go give Julian a heart attack!” Yep, that was followed by a few more swats and a look that suggested she was thinking about swinging a punch at him. “…and we’re supposed to be quiet!”

Jesus fuck, she was adorable when she got mad.

Suddenly Leo realized that he was hemming her in against a flat vertical surface. Annnd that had all kinds of wonderful possibilities that he needed to ignore, avoid, and forget about. Shit. He’d told himself he wasn’t going to do this shit anymore.

Alright, stop. Get it together.

Holding up his hands in surrender, he took a few steps back.

“Alright already,” he told her in a pleasant, calm voice. “So touchy. Okay, so we know you’re locked on or whatever. Ready for me to stop going easy on you?”

He received a yeah, you better back up look, which didn’t seem all that threatening considering her face was flushed. Julian pushed up the sleeves of her jacket, taking a moment to fold them so they’d stay in place. He was in SO much trouble now. Once she had her temper under control and a few unexpected other feelings shoved out of the way, she finally spoke.

“You have ten seconds to run and hide, and then I’m gonna kick your ass, Leo. We’ll see who is going easy then!” And just to make sure he knew the timer was ticking down, she covered her eyes with one hand, and held out the other to start counting.

This time it was harder. Julian was pretty sure it was because he was moving around, which left her trying to figure out where he would move to next. She was also pretty sure she almost caught him once, but he snuck past her. Which so wasn’t fair, and she made her complaint known by whispering that he sucked, knowing he could hear her, and letting him know all the ways she was going to hit him.

Julian was getting close again when she heard a pair of the double doors close somewhere in the building. That was definitely not Leo.

Two different kinds of panic set in. The first and strongest was that she didn’t know the punishment for breaking in to the school at night. Probably a YEAR of detention. She was so dead. The second was just the tiniest worry that she was going to be the other kind of dead.

She could already hear footsteps in the hall.

Julian hopped on her feet and shook her hands balled up as fists, thinking as quickly as she could. Once she zeroed in, she dashed down the hall, nearly sliding on the floor when she turned the corner. She practically crashed in to Leo when she did find him (he HAD to of heard someone coming too), and grabbed his shirt to shove him in to the nearest open classroom.

“Someone’s coming!” she hissed, probably not as quietly as she could have. “Oh god, I haven’t had detention in two years I can’t even-” What terrible luck! Whomever it was had to be coming down this hall. Stifling a squeak, Julian grabbed Leo again, bodily shoving him towards and then in to the class supply closet.

As soon as she was inside and shut the door, she realized this was a huge mistake.

For one, it was DARK. She couldn’t see anything. It was cramped and small. Leo had the benefit of standing in the one bare spot, while Julian was balancing on a tiny stack of magazines that her her high enough to be nose to nose with him. To make matters worse, she was getting poked in the spine with a mop handle any time she tried to lean backwards. Julian didn’t even know why there was a bucket and mop set IN there. Those things were supposed to be stored in the janitor’s closets!

“Don’t you dare laugh.” she threatened in a whisper.

You have got to be kidding me.

This was the stupidest thing ever. This only happened in romantic comedies or bad fanfiction. People didn’t seriously end up in closets together in real life. How the fuck was this actually happening.

“Why Jules, if you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask,” he heard himself joke in a half-whisper, except he wasn’t really joking at all. And that was the problem. He’d automatically braced his hands against the wall to either side of her to keep himself from ending up any closer, which would have worked really well if it didn’t just remind him of having her up against a locker less than half an hour ago.

Shifting uncomfortably, he bumped into the supply shelf behind him and hissed out a curse when the contents rattled.

He could hear the footsteps outside of the classroom, coming closer.

“What’s your brilliant plan now?” he demanded, lifting his eyes to the empty socket on the ceiling where a light bulb should have been. Not because he especially found light fixtures fascinating. He just was trying to avoid looking at her. Unlike Julian, Leo could see in the dark a little too clearly.

“Sshhh!!” she flailed her hands at him, which wasn’t a smart move as it nearly had her slipping off her stack of magazines. She grabbed his shirt to catch her balance again, and then she was slapping her hand over his mouth.

“Don’t be cute, just be quiet.” she muttered. Of course, now that she had him held hostage in a closet, the absurdity of the situation was starting to kick in. This was hilarious. Completely horrible in every way possible, but hilarious. Julian bit hard in to her lip, now trying to stifle a giggle.

Without pulling her hand away from his mouth, she was tilting her head to listen. Did they pass by the class?

Unbeknownst to Julian, Leo was locked in a silent inner debate.

You can’t, you fucking moron.

She’s right there. She’s touching me.

So? You’re a fucking 136-year-old vampire, not some dweeb kid. Let her touch you.

Uh.

Yeah no, rewind that train of thought. Look, you’re way too old to be losing your shit over this-

Who the fuck am I kidding, I’m a sixteen-year-old boy.

Leo reached up to peel her hand off of his mouth. Just as his fingers clamped down on her wrist, there was an unmistakable noise: Someone had just opened the door to the classroom. Acting on his gut, he wrapped an arm around Julian’s waist and pulled her in tight against him, crowding backward as far as he could in the small space.

This was definitely a really, really bad idea.

Whomever decided they needed to drop in to the school so late really sucked. They were lingering around out there, and now she was trapped in a closet with Leo, who had to go and put his arm around her and now she couldn’t breathe.

Did he know this was sort of an intimate thing? The jerk probably had no idea! He probably wasn’t even thinking twice about it. Meanwhile Julian had to force her head to turn to the side, so she wouldn’t slip and accidentally kiss him on purpose. Because apparently she was the kind of asshole that thought about kissing her boyfriend’s cousin instead of worrying about the fact that a teacher and/or murderer was ten feet away outside the door.

For the first time ever, Julian was glad it was dark.

Leo couldn’t see her anyway, because his eyes were shut. He’d also actually stopped breathing, which left him wide open to hear all the little subtle noises around him: Julian’s heartbeat and breath, and the footsteps of whatever asshole was shuffling around outside of their hiding place.

He had better things to be worrying about than kissing Julian right now. Like whether he was about to get in a fight, or have to talk his way out of an arrest.

But then he heard the door again, and the ensuing silence, and the tension eased out of his shoulders.

Turning his head, Leo found himself practically nose-to-nose with Julian- and there went the bottom out of his stomach again.

Hell, maybe he should just tell her. Get it the fuck over with. Give her a reason to slap him silly and give him what he needed to stomp out all his idiotic hopes. Or maybe she’d even-

Except there was still Michael to consider.

Leo swallowed.

“Hey.” He slowly pushed her back away from him by her shoulders. “Jules…”

The door outside closed. That was good. Very good. Julian finally let out the breath she was holding, and tilted her head back to sigh. “Leo?” she muttered softly in an automatic response. Now they could get the hell out of this closet, and she could get back to normal thoughts. Like wanting kick him and not kiss him.

At that point she just lost it and started giggling.

She slapped her hands over her mouth and tried to swallow it. It took a second and a clearing of her throat before she dropped her hands. “Well, that was stupid. I found you though, so I’m pretty sure I win.” Julian leaned to grasp the door handle and push it open. The sooner there was distance, the better.

There was the bucket of ice water he needed.

Thank fuck it was dark and she couldn’t see his face.

What in Christ’s name was he thinking? He clearly couldn’t avoid her forever, but if he was going to be around her then this could not be an issue. Sure, it’d be great for as long as the kiss lasted. But the aftermath wasn’t worth it. Leo needed to stop thinking with his dick.

“Yeah, you win,” he told her. He kept his voice carefully even. “Let’s go.”

Reaching past her, he put his palm against the door to push it open first. But before he could… someone pulled it open from the outside.

“…Julian Hollinger?” It was Mr. Anderson, Julian’s English teacher. He blinked at them in surprise, then narrowed his eyes at Leo. Normally he was pretty laid-back- probably in part because he was only a few years older than his students- but his voice went sharp pretty fast. “What do you kids think you’re doing in here?”

Anderson!

“We’re definitely NOT vandalizing!” Julian blurted out as she practically fell out of the closet. She stumbled to straighten and push the sleeves of her jacket down. Not only did that sentence sound like they were definitely there to vandalize, but with her looking disheveled and flushed after falling out of a closet, it seemed like they were up to other things too.

“Wait- That’s not what I mean. We were just. my boyfr- my FRIEND, goddamnit Margrit,” Holy shit, she was going to kill Margrit a million different ways! “We were trapped in there! Because-”

“BULLIES!” Yes. Perfect. …It was actually terrible, but everyone should have known by now that Julian Hollinger was the worst liar in the history of liars, and here it was being put to the test. She reached behind her to grab Leo’s hand to try and edge them both towards the classroom door.

“So um, it’s late, and dinner time and you’re working, thanks for saving our lies- LIVES. We’re just gonna gooooo.”

“I don’t think so,” the teacher told her, in a tone that brooked no arguments. “Julian, I’m going to have to call your social worker about this. But for now, I need to talk to your friend outside.”

“Oh,” said Leo, as it clicked and his senses returned to him. He eyed the guy up and down. “I get it. You’re the one Michael told me about. The star of My English Teacher is a Werewolf. Look pal, I didn’t lure her here for dinner.”

Anderson blinked. “You didn’t? Wait. I mean-”

“Nope,” Leo interrupted. “And even if I had, pretty sure you couldn’t stop me. We got a problem?”

Part of him really hoped the taunting hit home. He was itching to punch something right about now.

No, not Miss Tina! Then she’ll tell Lucinda, then it’s going to be be a whole THING – oh god, foster families and vampires won’t mix and-

Wait a minute.

“My English teacher is a werewolf? Also? Of course he is. If half the student body is filled with werewolves, naturally they need a teacher.” That might have been exaggerating a bit. Julian didn’t actually know how many werewolves were currently studying at Silent Pines High, but they were there. Just like the vampires and probably some witches too. Teachers couldn’t be exempt. Keeping teenagers from killing each other was hard enough without all the EXTRA stuff on top of it.

This was so fucking funny.

Julian slapped her free hand over her mouth again, coughing in an attempt to stifle laughter. Especially because Mr. Anderson now looked as bewildered as she was (and far less amused).

“We don’t have a problem.” she finally managed to get out, squeezing Leo’s hand and smacking him in the stomach so he’d shut up. “No one is eating anyone, and we weren’t starting any trouble. Please, pleeeease don’t call Miss Abernathy.”

Now Mr. Anderson was the one giving Leo the measuring look.

“You’re Leo Lanier,” he said. “You’re with Michael Hightower?”

“I’m not with anyone,” snarled Leo, a little more viciously than he’d intended. He narrowed his eyes.

The teacher gave a slow nod. He glanced between Leo and Julian, putting his hands on his hips. At last he sighed.

“Julian, I can’t just catch you trespassing on school property and do nothing,” he scolded her. “Here’s the deal. I won’t call Ms. Abernathy, but I do expect you to show a little more respect for the law, and I’d like you to meet me after school for the next week so we can discuss what’s going on with you lately. Especially the whole… dating vampires thing.”

“Smartest thing you’ve said yet,” commented Leo.

“And you.” Anderson glanced at Leo again, disgruntled. “You’re not a student here. Why aren’t you a student here?”

“Please. I don’t have Michael’s desire for playing make-believe.”

It was easy to forget sometimes that Mr. Anderson was an adult. He barely looked older, and most of the time he was a very chill sort of guy. All of her giggles vanished, replaced by a crestfallen, kind of alarmed expression. Instead of detention she would have to meet him after school for a week to discuss her dating life?

Julian shot the dirtiest glare to Leo she could possibly muster. She was going to break his hand in a second. In fact she was trying very hard to beam those thoughts of her snapping every bone in his body right to his brain.

“Maybe you SHOULD go to school. You’ve obviously forgotten how to get a dumb girl OUT of detention, not land her deeper in it!”

I’m going to snap his legs off first and stuff them in his big dumb mouth.

“Quit calling yourself dumb,” was his automatic response. Which only served to make him even more pissed off at himself, because boy was that NOT the point he needed to be arguing about.

“Let’s just be glad he’s not calling the cops and get out of here,” he snapped instead, fighting to keep the color out of his cheeks. Good thing he was dead. “Come on, Jules.”

Without waiting for her, he brushed past Mr. Werewolfson and took off out of the classroom and down the hall.

“I promise we weren’t up to anything weird. And I AM sorry.” she said to Mr. Anderson first, looking properly apologetic about the entire thing, even if Leo wasn’t. Julian might have lingered longer, but she would have a whole week of awkward conversations with her teacher. No reason to start on them tonight.

Besides, Leo was being weird.

Julian darted after him, catching up with Leo quite a ways down the hall and shoving at his shoulder as she fell in to step beside him.

“Are you completely incapable of not snarking at people in general, or are you still pissy about your car and now gunning for every werewolf we run in to?” Julian got the impression it would be more Michael related, but then that was always a safe bet.

“Aside from the torturous consequences I’m gonna have to sit through now, that was fun.” she muttered under her breath.

It was a lot easier to think when he wasn’t trapped in a closet, Leo found.

“You know he didn’t turn us in because I called him out on being a werewolf, right?” He glanced at her. “Give me a little credit here. I know what I’m doing.”

Usually.

After a beat, he returned the shoulder-bump in kind.

“I’m working on the car. She’ll be back up and running soon. In the meantime though, I’m resigned to pedestrian life.” He sighed. “Which means you’re out of luck for a ride home, so. You might want to start walking now.”

“Hmm.” Okay, that was the most obvious sound of trying to figure you out that anyone could possibly make. Julian pretty much gave up being subtle with them days ago. If it made them paranoid, good! Maybe they’d stop withholding important details for fear of her vicious wrath.

In this case she decided there was nothing for her to be worried about.

“Was THAT the plan? Cause I’m thinking that could have totally backfired and I’d be trying to pull another werewolf off you before your face got eaten.” Julian couldn’t see Mr. Anderson doing that… she was still trying to wrap her head around him being a wolf in the first place. She missed the fact her English teacher was a werewolf, even after several days of knowing about wolf vibes.

Her psychic mojo was going to be completely useless if she didn’t clue in to this stuff faster.

Julian did a little spin before she was walking backwards in front of him. “Poor Leo without his car. I walk everywhere, you know. And that’s without a bazillion miles per hour vampire speeds. Do you want me to call Angela to come get you?” She cast a cheeky grin.

He flicked her in the forehead.

“Nah, I’m good,” he said. “I can run a bazillion miles an hour, like you said. I’ll be home before you are.”

Not that Leo knew where home was supposed to be, these days. The one he grew up in was a parking lot. The one he’d played in with his best friend was full of nothing but bad memories now. And the car he’d been sleeping in was a scrap of junk in the woods.

Suddenly, he grinned.

“Catch you around, Jules,” he told her casually. And then he was off like a shot, so fast it probably looked to her like he’d vanished into thin air (when really he’d just darted around the corner and down the hallway, headed back to the open window). He almost regretted that he wouldn’t be around to see her face when she figured out what that grin was about…

…You know, since he still had her phone in his pocket.

“ASSHOLE!”

The curse echoed way, WAY too loud in the empty halls. No doubt Mr. Anderson got a good earful. Julian shushed herself real quick and took off down the hall to make her escape before the one week of the most awkward detention known to mankind was turned in to two.

Her walk home was still consumed with thoughts about her teacher. Why hadn’t she noticed sooner? Julian supposed it was because Michael was in the class too. He had a way of being completely distracting. Even so, after meeting a bunch of werewolves during the Blood Moon, she REALLY should have picked that up. Not only was she going to have to practice seeking, she really needed to learn to be more aware of who was human and who wasn’t.

It wasn’t until Julian was on her front steps and pulling out her house key that she realized her phone wasn’t in her pocket. Her head tilted back and she growled at the porch light. That jerk stole it on purpose!

Huffing, Julian pushed her way through the front door, already plotting to use the house phone to call-bomb on both his phone AND hers until the ass brought it back. That thing was her life’s blood. …Not to mention Angela would DIE if Julian didn’t respond to a text fast enough.

“Told you,” said Leo.

He was leaning against the wall at the bottom of her stairs, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. Sliding forward, he tucked her phone securely in the front pocket of her jacket.

“Offer still stands, right?” he asked, almost warily, as he took a step back again and put his hands in his pockets. “As regards couch crashing. I don’t feel like hiking back to my car.”

She almost screamed. Almost. There was no hiding the way she nearly jumped a foot off the floor, though. And he was getting one hell of a I’m going to punch you, look when he dropped her phone in her pocket.

Julian backed up with the door as she closed it, and leaned against the frame. She was obviously debating what the best form of punishment was going to be for scaring the shit out of her. Finally her expression softened and she just sighed with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

“Don’t sleep on the couch. Just pick a bed and go sleep there.” Julian shrugged off her jacket to hang it up, and then retrieved her phone from it’s pocket. It got a few swipes to make sure it was still perfectly safe. Apparently Julian had the same feelings for her phone that Leo had for his car.

“…And that’s for your own safety, by the way! I have two different kinds of rose oil spritzers in my pockets-” she pointed down at her jean pockets with both hands, “and you’re not always going to be so lucky.”

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Silent Pines

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