Hey guys, 

Sorry I didn't post on Christmas. Things have been a little crazy! How were you holidays? Do you celebrate? Did you get/give any awesome presents? Oh, did anyone give you books? 

This chapter is dedicated to crazystuff112 for the awesome comment. One day, I hope to write a character who does that! 

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Saffron

"Of course you're still Zara's best friend," I tell Jess.

"Yeah, right." She crosses toward the sink and plops down on the counter. "She couldn't even bother to text me."

"She didn't get your texts." I grimace. "I still have her phone. She gave it to me last night, but it's locked, and I don't know Zara's passcode."

"She has a tablet and a laptop." Jess rolls her eyes. "I thought you guys were in so much trouble that Alpha confiscated them."

"Zara was just... distracted," I try to explain. There are no words for the way Zara and Jasper have been acting from the moment they realized they were mates. It's like they haven't been aware of anything or anyone except each other.

"I went to find her this morning," Jess snaps. "You should have heard her." She jumps off the counter and takes on a snooty, mocking tone. "You'll understand when you find your mate, Jess. It's different when it's meant to be, Jess." Jess snorts.

"She didn't mean it like that."

"Sure she didn't." Jess rolls her eyes. "I was so freaked out when I came looking for her, and guess what? She was sorry for like three seconds before she started jumping up and down and telling me how happy she was."

"Of course she's happy. She found her mate, Jess. Her mate! You should be happy for her!"

"I am happy!" Jess shouts and starts crying. "I am. Really, I am. Of course I'm happy for her. It's just..." She swipes at her face with the back of her hand, smearing even more makeup. "She said Logan and I weren't meant to be."

"He broke up with you," the words leave my lips before I can think it through. I know how insensitive I sound, and how jealous... but I don't like her talking like that about Logan. If she so much as tries to make a move on him...

"I know we broke up," Jess whispers. "I know I lost him. I just don't want to lose Zara, too."

"You're not losing Zara," I say, my jealousy dissipating. "She's still your friend. Just talk to her, okay?"

"Okay," Jess nods and swipes at more tears. "I'm such a mess."

"You're not." I walk over and give her a hug.

"Thanks, Sof." Jess hugs me back. She lets go and slides off the counter. "I really am a mess."

"No you're not," I tell her, mostly to be nice, since mess doesn't even begin to cover it. Her black eyeliner and mascara is smudged all the way to her cheeks, her nose is beet red from crying, her eyes are bloodshot, and she has chunks of bleach blond hair is sticking out of her high ponytail.

Jess takes one look in the mirror and starts giggling at her reflection. Then she turns on the tap, pumps out some soap from the dispenser and starts scrubbing her face. I figure it'll take her a while—she really does look that bad—so I climb onto the counter and wait. Yeah, I should probably go back to class, but I think I've had enough of watching people roll on condoms for one lifetime. I'd honestly rather get detention and face an angry POW than go back there.

When Jess is done, she climbs onto the other end of the counter and turns to face me. She looks so much younger without makeup. "So you decided not to run away?" she asks.

"I was going to," I tell her honestly, "but Alpha caught me sneaking around and sort of walked in on Jasper and Zara while they were..." I flush and trail off, unable to finish the sentence.

"He what?" Jess sputters, and by the look on her face, it's obvious she knows exactly what I'm talking about.

"I tried to stop him," I blush, wondering again if there was more I could have done, "but he walked me back to my room and they were naked, and..." I force out the details, going into as much detail as I can without dying of embarrassment. "I think I saw Jasper's..." I look down and wave my hand around a few times, trying to think of the right word to use. "Junk."

"You think you saw it?" Jess gasps. "As it you're not sure?"

"Um..." I blush.

"Was it that small?"

"Jess!"

"I'm kidding," she giggles, "I know he's not small."

"Jess!" It's my turn to gasp. "You know—"

"Zara told me. Goddess Sof, what did you think?"

"Nothing." I blush.

"I can't believe you and Alpha walked in on them doing it."

"They weren't actually doing it... they could have just been talking..."

"Naked? Right..." Jess rolls her eyes. "Poor Zara. That must have been so embarrassing."

"Poor me," I whisper under my breath and slide off the counter just to have something to do.

"Hey, what's that stuff on your pants?" Jess asks, staring down at my legs. I follow her gaze and spot a bunch of sticky, shiny residue where I gripped the banana.

"Gross," I cry and grab a bunch of paper towels from the dispenser and wipe at the stain. When that doesn't work, I run them under the water for several seconds and wipe at the stain again. I'm still rubbing at my pants when the bathroom door swings open.

"This stuff is so disgusting," Zara says, joining us. She smiles at Jess, completely oblivious, and sniffs her hands, which have pink, sticky stuff on them. "Ew, that smells like cough syrup."

"It does?" I ask, taking a sniff of her hands. It smells exactly like the cherry flavored stuff I had to take two years ago when I had the flu. I was only sick for like a day, all thanks to my Wolf immune system. Unfortunately, I had to take the stuff every half hour, this time thanks to my superior Wolf metabolism. It was so bad that even the smell makes me gag.

"Here Jess," Zara extends her hand, "smell this."

"What is that?" Jess wrinkles her nose.

"Cherry flavor," Zara says. "What did you get, Saf, Banana?" She looks pointedly at my pants and giggles. There are now visible wet spots above both of my knees but you can still see the sticky stuff. It looks kind of shiny, and to make matters worse, there are paper towel bits on my pants as well. Zara looks down at her own tights and grimaces. Apparently, she held the banana a lot higher, because her stains are on her inner thighs.

"What the hell?" Jess gapes.

"Health class," Zara says, as if that explains everything. Apparently it does, because Jess's lips form and O and then she starts to laugh.

We spend a few minutes rubbing at the stains on our pants without luck until Zara finally gets an idea. She sends me into the stall to take off my pants and washes them in the sink while I wait. I huddle in the stall in my underwear, hoping that whatever she's doing works. If it doesn't, I guess I'll spend the rest of my life in the second floor bathroom, because I'm so not going anywhere in my underwear.

After a few minutes of me nervously peeking out of the stall to see what's going on, Zara finishes washing my pants and sticks them under the dryer. It's one of those fancy ones that makes your skin on your hands move so it works fast, but it still takes forever.

When Zara finally—finally—declares my pants ready, I slide into the toasty warm, and kind of stiff material, which has also suddenly shrunk a few sizes so it barely zips up. Then, we switch spots and I wash her black tights.

"Hey Saffie, do you still have my phone?" she calls from inside the stall.

"Yeah, but it's in my bag." Which I left back in class. "I'll give it back to you later?"

"Sure." Zara groans. "Jess, can I borrow yours?"

"In a minute," Jess mumbles as it dings and she types something back. "Kaitlin wants me to chancel cheer practice. Again."

"Do you have to?" I ask, more so because I don't like Kaitlin than because I care about cheer practice being canceled.

"Yeah," Jess groans. "It's Kaitlin." As if that explains everything. Maybe, it does.

"Hey, it's my turn to watch Nicki after school and Jasper has practice," Zara calls from the stall. I swear her voice goes down an octave when she says Jasper's name. "Why don't we all hang out?"

"Yeah, sure." Jess smiles. "Do you have your car? I didn't have time to unpack mine."

"Nah, but we can just walk home."

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Did you like this chapter? 

What do you think will happen next? 

I'll give you a hint... it's earth shattering, and it starts on Monday! Are you ready?

Also, check out my other story, Hunter's Luna. It's up to chapter 5 now and I update it every week! 

♥ Also, do you remember what I said about voting? No, seriously, do you? Because I totally forgot and need you to remind me!* ♥

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