Leo was sitting in class, hands drumming against his thighs as his eyes drifted everywhere except for onto the test paper he was supposed to be doing.

  There was a slight tremor in his hands, a consequence of the fact that he hadn't smoked in three days, and his looming headache was not helping his situation.

  From beside him, he could see Amirah staring with an innate focus at her test paper, pen rushing over the page. He sighed, restraining himself from turning behind him to assess if anyone else was as bored as he currently was.

  Suddenly, something in him compelled him to look up, and he glanced to his side, gazing into the large classroom windows that overlooked the parking lot situated on the side of the school building.

  He perked up when he suddenly spotted Ivan's frame walking very suspiciously across the parking lot and towards the school gates. Ivan was shifting his backpack over his shoulder in an extremely uncharacteristic display of anxiety or fear, and his head was turned slightly to observe his surroundings. It was obvious that he was skipping school, but Leo wouldn't have believed it if he hadn’t been watching Ivan leave with his own two eyes.

  He honestly didn't know why he had gotten so upset at him the night before. He hadn't meant to get so angry, but the thought that Ivan didn't trust him somehow made him… mad. It never did before, and he knew Ivan didn't trust him, so there was no plausible reason to be angry now.

  Maybe it was because it wasn’t just Ivan who didn't trust him now. It was also his mate who didn't trust him. And he wasn't sure how Ivan felt about mates, but they were special to him.

  The idea of his own soulmate not trusting him…

  Suddenly, without warning, Leo felt a light bump against his chair. He turned to his side and saw Amirah's foot resting near the leg of his chair.

  He felt Amirah kick again, and he glanced up at her in irritation. He had better things to be doing than writing this test. She scrunched her nose at him, then gestured combatively to the paper in front of him.

  Leo looked at her, expressing his irritation to her as clearly as possible.

  ‘Focus.’ She mouthed.

  He grabbed the pen that he had subconsciously flipped behind his ear and waved it dramatically in front of him before gripping it tightly and tapping the tip aggressively on his page.

  ‘Happy?’ He mouthed back to her.

  She nodded, then turned back to her test, and Leo followed suit with a sigh.

  Today was going to be a very long day.

  — — —

  Leo had been glancing as discreetly as possible at Ivan's lunch table for the last twenty minutes.

  He had started in an attempt to gauge if Ivan was being affected by the bond like he was, but that had quickly transformed into staring for staring's sake. It was like he was transfixed, watching the way Ivan talked and interacted with his friends. The way he would give lip twitches instead of real smiles whenever one of his friends would make a joke.

  Jesus, what was he doing? This was getting really weird. Frankly, it had probably passed the weird point 10 minutes into his staring, so there was no point in backing out now.

  Ivan suddenly glanced towards their table, instantly making direct eye contact with Leo. Leo quickly averted his gaze and looked back at his own table, snapping out of whatever the hell had compelled him to think about Ivan's smile of all things.

  “Hey, does anyone wanna go to that flea market in Cliffstown? It's only 30 minutes away.” Amirah directed the question at no one in particular, so they all remained silent, waiting to see if anyone else would answer first.

  “Isn't that really close to the human town?” Parker asked.

  “Yeah… so? You scared?” Theo wiggled his eyebrows at Parker, and he gave the smaller boy a deadpan look. “Do I look scared?”

  Theo shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I was under the impression that you only had one facial expression, and we've all just been inferring your emotions based on context.”

  Leo glanced up with a smile.

  “Ha. Ha.” Parker mocked, scrunching his nose at Theo.

  Amirah tapped the table, and they all turned to her. “Anyone going to answer my question?”

  Leo's gaze snapped up at her, and he gave her an apologetic smile. He had no time to go. He had to find Ivan and fix whatever was going on between them. “Sorry, I can’t. I have training.”

  They all groaned in unison at this, but Amirah simply frowned at him, not saying anything.

  Did she suspect something?

  “I can.” April said, leaning over the table so that she could talk to Amriah, who was sitting on Leo's other side. Amirah smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Sure you can afford it?” Mei said the question casually, easing the rest of the table into an unnerving silence. Everyone turned to the two women.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Mei, stop.” Amriah shook her head and directed her gaze to April, giving her an apologetic look.

  “Just trying to be considerate… You know?” Mei gave April a benign, close-lipped smile, attempting to express faux sympathy. An expression that looked genuine, but from the fixed stare of her almost-black eyes, Leo knew better. And so did April.

  “Because you're such a nice person?" April returned the smile immediately. "But you don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

  Mei ran her tongue over her teeth. “Fantastic. Just trying to help.” She muttered.

  — — —

  Leo finally saw his opportunity to talk to Ivan at the very end of the day.

  When he saw the blond part ways with his friends and stroll towards the forest behind the school, he said a brief goodbye to April then followed him, hoping he could catch him in time.

  “Ivan.”

  The blond stopped and slowly turned around, facing Leo with disdain. “What do you want?”

  “We need to talk.”

  “Yeah, we do.” Ivan turned and began to walk away again. “I'll text you later.”

  Leo could feel the strong urge to roll his eyes surfacing. “Will you just stop for one second!?”

  “Maybe when you have something valuable to say I will.” Ivan said with a shrug, turning back around to leave.

  “Seriously? What is your fucking problem?” He finally called against his better judgement.

  He watched Ivan pause. He gazed at him for a second too long

  “Look, I—” Leo glanced around them, suddenly aware that people were glancing at them curiously. ~Couldn't they just mind their own business?~ Surely there were better things to do than watch him argue with someone he had argued with thousands of times before.

  He turned, and he could see Mei and Parker engaged in a conversation by a group of lockers just in front of the entrance. If they turned just slightly, they would see him and Ivan.

  “Can we talk somewhere more… private?” Leo gestured to the people surrounding them. Ivan glanced around at them then said nothing, moving deeper into the thick collection of trees. Leo followed suit, making sure he took a different entrance into the forest before finding Ivan’s scent in a clearing a few feet from his pack’s border.

  Ivan glanced at him in disinterest, and Leo ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out what he would say. It was now or never.

  He blew out a breath. “I know I was being an asshole. I shouldn’t have taken your book— even though you really shouldn't have left it in the bathroom—and I shouldn’t have stormed off the way I did.”

  Leo contemplated revealing the bigger, underlying reason behind his reaction but decided that Ivan didn't need to know any of that. “I was overreacting.”

  When he finished, he glanced at Ivan’s face, looking for any sign of a reaction, but Ivan's expression revealed nothing. He simply looked at Leo expectantly. “That all?”

  Leo narrowed his eyes at him. He thought that the other boy would have a lot more to say about the previous night. What was going on with him? When Leo said nothing in reply, Ivan turned to leave, but without thinking, Leo leaned forward and quickly grabbed the top of Ivan’s arm, gripping him firmly in place. “Wait.”

  Ivan spun around to face him, their faces meeting only inches apart. The other boy’s features adorned a look of hostility, and his rage-filled eyes were glowing a bright green. “Today is really not the day, Leo. Let. Go.” he spat through clenched teeth.

  Leo loosened his grip, and Ivan pulled his arm away, continuing in the direction he had been walking.

  Leo rolled his eyes. Ivan was starting to get on his nerves, and he didn't like it. “Jesus. Just tell me! What is so fucking difficult? I can't fix whatever you think I did if I don't know I did it.”

  Ivan turned back to him, and Leo finally noticed the dark circles under his eyes. “Look—can we not do this now?” Ivan didn't seem angry or annoyed this time. He just sounded… exhausted. Done. Not just with this conversation, but everything.

  “One thing. Just one thing and I'll leave.”

  Ivan let out an unamused chuckle. “Do you seriously not remember anything?”

  Leo glanced at him in confusion. “Remember what?”

  Ivan sighed, then walked back to stand in front of Leo. He took his bottom lip between his teeth, peeling the skin off. “Do you remember after Simon's 10th birthday party, when my dad forgot to pick me up?”

  “Yeah…. Yeah, we went to the ice-cream place in town. What was it called again… Royal Cones?” Leo had remembered being so happy that day. He hadn't known it at the time, but his dad had come home early from a work trip and surprised him when they had gone home later that day.

  He remembered that he was eating bubblegum ice cream even though he couldn't remember ever having liked bubblegum.

  “It was Double Cones, but yeah. I don't think you even remember inviting me along.”

  “I did? No way.” Memories of that day began to flood his mind. He saw a reserved Ivan sitting beside him, eating mint choc chip ice cream. Leo's favourite. “Yeah, but that was…. I'm sure my mom just told me to invite you because your parents weren't there yet.”

  Ivan shrugged. “Maybe. And then when we got there, your mom somehow convinced me to order bubblegum, and I didn't like it, so you gave me yours.”

  “I wouldn't do that.”

  “Not now. No.” They glanced at each other, acknowledging the truth in Ivan's words, before Leo quickly looked down at his feet again.

  “And remember when you told me that your favourite movie was Trainspotting?”

  Leo’s gaze snapped to Ivan, and his eyebrows furrowed.

  There was no way Ivan would know that unless he had told him. Even his friends—except Amirah—didn't know. They all thought his favourite movie was Good Will Hunting, and he had never bothered to correct them before.

  So Ivan was telling the truth. But Leo didn't know why he couldn't remember. That felt like something you would remember. Something important. Leo tapped his foot impatiently. “I don't see how bringing any of this up is relevant.”

  “We didn't used to be like this, you know. We actually hung out sometimes. Voluntarily.”

  Leo’s eyes drifted to the floor, and he felt his scowl relax as the memories he had thought he had forgotten surfaced in his memory. Seeing Ivan laugh. Them hanging around at each other's houses while their parents talked about pack relations, talking about things he couldn't remember now. It had been so long ago that he didn't think Ivan remembered.

  “I remember.”

  Ivan lifted a questioning eyebrow at him. “Do you remember why we stopped?”

  Leo frowned. “Wasn't that when the pranks and stuff started?” And the bickering. And the deep, burning hatred. He honestly couldn't even remember when that had started or what had started it.

  “It was the year before high school. After you and Theo hung up those pictures.”