Decisions Ch. 06

"I'm fine." I said, through gritted teeth, hoping my erection wasn't poking through the blankets. I quickly changed my mind after once my stomach growled, making Stasi's ears perk up. "Actually.." I admitted. "Do you have any food?"

Like a flip of a coin, Stasi turned from a teasing minx to a loving and devoted girlfriend. "Yes! My mom sped home brought your favorite corned venison sandwiches when we found out you were awake. Do you want me to go bring them in? My family is dying to see you."

"Yes, please." I said, gratefully. "My parents too."

Stasi nodded before bending down and cradling my head in her hands. She gave me the most passionate kiss I have ever had in awhile, leaving the both of us gasping when she was finished. "I hope that'll tide you over until you leave the hospital." She giggled, before eyeing my erection with mischief and... want? Hunger? "Or maybe not. Ty dolzhen prikryt' eto s podushkoy. You know they will tease you to no end if they see that. Well, my mom would... I'm not sure what my dad would do."

I quickly pulled out an extra pillow from behind my head, using it to cover my lap, making her grin. "Let's go get you some food, lyubov." She laughed. She walked over to the door and opened it, sticking her head out. "Come in!" Everyone immediately came streaming in with Elena was leading the way. As always, she had a flamboyant smile on her face.

"I knew it!" She declared, proudly. "I told Annie that it'd take more than a brick to kill you and I was right."

"Gee. Thanks, little squirt. That means a lot to me." I replied. I laughed when I saw Stasi lightly cuff her little sister behind the head.

"I'm just kidding, big bro. It's good to see that you're still kicking." She bounced up to my bed and gave me a tight hug. "Please don't do that again. I don't think I can handle that happening ever again." She whispered faintly to me, and to me only. When she pulled away, I saw that her green eyes were more watery than normal and her smile was forced. She had the same facial expressions as Stasi.

"It'd take more than a brick to keep me out of commission." I smiled warmly at her.

Stasi's eyes widened. "Speaking of out of commission, you should've seen what these two troublemakers did." She stepped behind Viktor and Elena and wrapped her arms around them. "When you went down, Viktor and Elena ran out of the house. Fast. I mean, ochen' bystro. They managed to catch the guy before he could get away."

"I didn't really do that much." Viktor said, a bit shyly. "Elena did all the work. She's the violent one."

"Stop lying." Elena retorted. "I just kicked him in the nuts. You were the one that ran as fast as Usain Bolt and tackled him. How come you didn't run and tackle like that during football season?"

"Woah, woah, woah. What?" I said, holding up my arms. Everyone was talking over each other and my head was starting to hurt. "One at a time, please. Who kicked whose testicles?"

"Elena kicked, Viktor tackled." Yulia explained, reaching into her purse and pulling out a brown package. She unwrapped it, the smell of corned venison wafting over to me. She placed the sandwich on my lap, leaned forward, and kissed me on the forehead. "It is good to see that you're alright, Chris. You had us worried. Please eat. Your mother and I can't stand to see you any more skinnier than you are now. Anna will complain."

"But I never complained." Stasi interjected quickly, before realizing what she said and clamping her hand over her mouth. A blush began to come onto our cheeks. Yulia grinned, revealing her elongated fangs.

"Of course you haven't." Elena remarked, wagging her eyebrows. "It's like how Chris never complains about you. You two love each other's imperfections because it's what makes the both of you perfect."

Everyone looked at Elena in surprise.

"What?" She asked.

"Where dith thath cometh fromth?" I asked, surprised and through a mouthful of corned venison sandwich. My mom and Yulia looked at me disapprovingly. "Thorry." I sheepishly swallowed. "Forget what I asked." I said, taking another bite out of my sandwich. "Dith ith tho goodth." I moaned, making everybody laugh.

"Anyways," Anton rumbled in his booming Russian accent. "The man is currently in jail awaiting charges of assault, battery, and vandalism. He'll probably be charged. It is fortunate that he is. Had he hurt Anna, the court would've probably let him go. As a matter of fact, had he hurt any of your friends in the room, none of whom were human, he would've gotten away with it. Although... I am sure the court will sympathize with him on this one given the circumstances."

"Sympathize? How can they sympathize with him? He threw a brick at Chris!" Stasi snarled.

Anton looked at Yulia. Yulia looked at my mom. My mom looked at my dad. My dad looked around the room for someone to look at.

"The man," Anton began. "Although he was a human supremacist and had ties to radical groups, was not in the right state of mind. He was driven that way because of what I was told to be an incident when he was younger. According to Vasili, his younger sister was once abducted by a werewolf pack, raped, and murdered. He was drunk and alone this Thanksgiving. When he heard about the Thanksgiving Party, which was open invitation to both humans and monsters alike, he decided to send a... ah... message."

"That still doesn't give the right to throw a brick at someone's house and nearly kill someone." Elena retorted. Stasi vigorously nodded in response while Viktor and I simply remained silent, thinking.

Who was actually in the wrong?

Me for doing something that society deemed wrong... really wrong, in fact?

Or him, for letting his anger get the better of him in a fit of rage and grief?

I really didn't know the answer to that one. I guess we were, in a way, both right, and both somewhat wrong. Some more than the other.

Chapter 2:

Although I was released the next day, I was still suffering from debilitating headaches so I took the day off from school. It wasn't all that bad, to be completely honest. I expected to be completely bored while waiting for my friends to get off from school or answer my texts, but I ended up actually being productive for once. I caught up on my homework, read a book, and played a whole lot of video games. My mom kept me some company, deciding to take the day off from work to take care of me.

However, at around four in the afternoon, the doorbell rang.

"I got it, honey." My mom yelled upstairs.

"Thanks, mom!" I cried back.

"No problem, honey!" She shouted back. I craned my ear to hear as she opened the door. Although her voice was muffled through the numerous walls and distance that separated my room from downstairs, I still possessed excellent hearing. "Oh, hello you four! Why yes, he's upstairs. Yes, he's awake and fine, thank you for asking!"

It wasn't long before I heard a trail of footsteps up the stairs. I sat up straighter in my bed, looking up from my laptop. My door opened and a head with a mop of curly black hair poked in.

"Buenos!" Ricky exclaimed in the best Mexican accent he could garner. "How's your head, C-man?"

"Hey Ricky." I replied, enthusiastically. Ricky was always a breath of fresh air. "It's good. My head's good. I just have some pretty nasty headaches."

"Bummer." Ricky stooped his head as he entered. His head nearly reached the ceiling. Stasi, Lucy, and Jazz were hot on his tail, entering my quickly becoming crowded room. He was lugging a Belcourt High School Basketball duffel bag on his shoulder.

"Brought you something from school." Ricky said, dropping the duffel bag on the foot of my bed.

"We! We brought you something from school." Lucy corrected.

"Well, yeah. But some of the stuff in here is mine, you know." He unzipped the bag. Stasi took the time to hop on the bed and dive under my covers, snuggling her delightfully cold body into mine. "And... of course, Anna jumps right into bed. I don't blame her. Ya'll are in love."

"Quiet, you." She said to Ricky before turning to me. "Hey, lyubov. I missed you. What are you up to?" Stasi asked, leaning over to look at my screen and made a face. "That essay isn't due until December 7th."

"I thought I'd do something productive today while the love of my life went to school and decided to leave me all alone and bored." I replied, giving her a kiss. "How was your first day back from school, guys?"

"Good, but everyone kept asking questions about what happened at the Thanksgiving party. It was all over the local news." She replied.

"Yeah, it is." Jazz chipped in. "I'm pretty sure some teachers were even talking about it."

"Here we go! Found 'em." Ricky said, triumphantly as he finished digging through the duffel bag. "We'll save mine for last since it's the best, but here you go." He upturned the bag and dumped it's contents onto my bed. It looked like half a candy store had been stuffed into the duffel bag, along with envelopes, notes, and cards.

"Well-wishers." Lucy explained to my incredulous expression. "When everyone heard what happened, we all decided to give our school president a nice care package to help him feel better. I'm actually kind of surprised. The majority of the school came up to us today to tell us to tell you to get better or deliver something for you."

"Yup, you're a hero man! You will never, ever be marked tardy by any sane teacher for as long as you're a student at Belcourt." Ricky said.

"Totally. There's even been a couple reporters camped out at the front of our school. It's a circus. Everybody thought you were going to be at school today but when you didn't show up, we knew you were just recovering." Jazz looked at Ricky. "Don't you have basketball practice to be getting to, big guy?"

"Yes, I do... and I should be going. Thanks for reminding me, J." He picked up the empty duffel bag and swung it over his shoulder and made to leave before he stopped. "Oh! Almost forgot. I did some of that contingency stuff, the stuff you told me to do if you were ever killed. You know, like clear your browsing history and purging your entire laptop. I also got you some stroke mags."

"Stroke what?" Stasi asked, sharply in her accent.

Uh oh. This can't be too good.

"Stroke mags! Or, jerk mags. Call them whatever. Anyways, don't worry Chris. I had a concussion before because you didn't know how to throw correctly, know what it's like." He reached into his duffel bag, pulling out a stack of magazines all rubber banded together. "I got you some Playboy, Juggs, Hot Milf... I tried to find something that had to do with monster girls, you know, seeing as that might be your type, but I didn't want to buy anything expensive. This is all from my personal collection, y'know?"

He didn't seem to register Stasi burning two holes into him with her beautiful crystal blue eyes. While I was resisting the urge to burst out laughing, Ricky rambled on. "I'd rather not pass these beauties onto you, but you're a hero, man. Your birthday's coming up soon, so consider this an early gift. Anyways, you just lay here and stroke it all day, you've earned that right. Hell, if I were you, I'd just skip school for the rest of my life and pull on that thing all day long. Nobody would ever blame you."

"I'm pretty sure he won't need those." Lucy giggled.

"Why the hell not? You know what those websites do. Last thing he wants is a virus on his computer."

"No, I mean... gosh, look at Annie."

Ricky looked at Stasi, who was glaring back at him with her fangs extended. He suddenly balked. No matter how big he was, he was still going to be afraid of Stasi when she was mad. "Or, you know, I could hold onto these for awhile. Yeah, that's what I think I'll do." He placed the magazines in his duffel bag. "I'll see ya'll tomorrow."

"Bye, Ricky." I waved at him. I didn't want to laugh because I knew if I did, Stasi would turn on me after she finished tearing him a new one.

"See you, Ricky." Lucy waved.

"Bye, darling!" Jazz teasingly waggled her tail. I swear those two have something going on. While I had close relationships with everyone in our group, especially Lucy and Stasi, Jazz and Ricky were as thick as thieves. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days, Ricky had a deep conversation with me about his feelings for a certain 'best friend'.

Well doesn't that sound familiar?

It should.

As soon as Ricky left, I turned to Stasi. "A bit possessive, aren't you?" I asked, with a humorous glint in my eye. I didn't mind her possessiveness. I was actually possessive over Stasi myself. She was mine and mine only, just like how I was only hers.

She bared her beautiful fangs adorably. "No one touches my man except me. Not even himself."

"You're so romantic, Annie." Jazz snorted.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." I laughed, giving Stasi a kiss and wrapping my arm around her. I ended up turning to the large stack of cards. I grunted as I reached forward, picking up a card. I opened it curiously, staring at the inside. There was a drawing of a football player on the inside, wearing the royal blue jersey of Belcourt with a #14 emblazoned on the front. The words 'Get Well Soon, Chris!' were written on the top, as well as a phone number and the name of a girl. Madison Reed - I didn't recognize the name. I smiled in appreciation. "This is really nice of the school to do this."

"It's all because of you, Chris." Lucy replied, sitting down on the floor, her massive carapace taking up the majority of the space in my small room. "Almost everybody at the school loves you... as a person, not as a boyfriend, Anna. Don't look at me like that!"

"I'm not looking at you like anything." Stasi replied, defensively.

"Not really. I'm pretty sure the school doesn't love me that much to do this." I mumbled modestly, setting the card down on my nightstand and reaching for a candy bar that was just out of my reach.

"That's where you're wrong, lyubov." Stasi cooed. "Jazz, will you...?"

"Sure." She extended her long snake tail and nudged the candy bar closer to me. I grabbed it, nodding my head at her gratefully. I leaned back on my bed, handing it off to Stasi. She looked at me in confusion.

"I'm not supposed to eat candy during hockey season, remember?" I reminded her. "By the way, help yourself to the candy guys. I'd rather you guys have it than having it tempt me to break my diet."

"Diet? You're too skinny to diet." Jazz snorted, picking up a Hershey bar with her tail. "Want this one, Lucy?"

"Yes, please." Jazz flicked the candy bar over to her with an impressive tail-throw. The chocolate sailed through the air before Lucy snatched it with her hand. "See? This is what I mean. You're giving us candy without us even asking. This is why you're popular and beloved. Not because of football or hockey, but because you're nice, generous, kind, funny, and smart. Everyone wants you to get better. Ugh... why did you give this to me, Jazz? You know I don't like white chocolate."

"I asked if you wanted it." Jazz replied, irked. "You said 'yes'."

"Your tail was covering the label!"

"That's your own dang fault."

"If you don't want it, I'll take it." Stasi perked up.

I laughed. "Seriously, though. I gave you my candy because I can't eat it, not because I'm nice, generous, or kind. Why would I let it go to waste? Anyways, enough about candy and popularity. How was your guys' first day back from break? I'm sorry I missed it."

"It was alright." Lucy replied. "Not a whole lot of homework while everyone was settling in. No biggie."

We talked, conversed, and did our homework for the next couple hours. By the time everything was all said and done, it was dark outside, but my clock only said it was 7:00. It was that time of year where the warm sunny days were few and far in between. Rather, we got the cloudy, chilly, misty weather that I learned to appreciate and hold dear.

"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?" I asked Lucy and Jazz while they were packing up.

"Naaaah." Jazz replied. "I don't want to be a bother."

"Neither do I." Lucy concurred.

"You won't be." I said. "Stasi is staying and my dad is coming home late from work tonight. Trust me, she'll appreciate the company."

Jazz thought for a moment, before smiling abashed and shaking her head. "You should have some private time with Anna and your family." She explained, in a surprisingly gentle tone, a sharp contrast to her usual outspoken personality. "You live a busy life at school and out of school. Time isn't something that's unlimited. I know how much you cherish your alone time with Anna and I don't want to take that away from you two. What you two have is special and I wish I could have something like that one day." She slithered over to the side of my bed, bent her head down, and surprised me by giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Feel better, Chris."

She took a step... no... she took a tail back? Either way, she backed up. Lucy skittered over and took her spot, also bending her head down and giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Yes, please do. I don't think I can handle just Ricky there. He's suffocating under all the estrogen and trying to make it up by being extra idiotic."

"Speaking of Ricky, is he going to be picking you guys up?" Stasi asked. She didn't appear irritated that they just gave me pecks on the cheek. She probably wasn't even that worried. They were kisses that you give friends, not lovers.

"Yeah. He just texted me." Jazz said, looking at her phone. "He's almost here, actually.. I'm not sure why he's texting while driving."

"I'll walk you downstairs guys to the door." I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood up too fast. My head throbbed and I sat down on the mattress in pain. Stasi quickly wrapped her arm around me, pulling me back under the covers. She placed her face right in front of mine.

"No, you're not. You're not going anywhere." She said, firmly. "I'll walk them out. You're staying in bed until you feel better, lyubov." She slipped out of my bed. Earlier, she had changed out of her normal jacket, blouse, and jeans into something more comfortable. The sweatpants and hoodie did little to conceal her willowy body, her thick rimmed glasses did little to mar the beauty of her crystal blue eyes, and her long raven hair was in a ponytail, just the way I liked it. She knew I liked it too. "Come on girls."

Both Jazz and Lucy followed Stasi to the door. I watched them go. Lucy hesitated for a moment, wanting to say something, but decided against it. She made for the door, but before she left, she paused, turning her head over her shoulder to look at me. "Whatever you do, don't push yourself. I want you to get better, Chris. I know how much you hate being cooped up in bed, but don't be in a rush to get out of it, either. It was scary seeing that happen to you and I never want to see it ever again." She said, softly.

"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere, Lucy. I'm going to bug you until you die." I replied, cheekily.

The entomology joke wasn't lost on her.

"You know how much I hate insect jokes. They bug the hell out of me. Get better, boyo." Lucy grinned before skittering out of my room and downstairs to go say goodbye to my mom, who was busy doing who knows what. I leaned back on my pillows, sighing softly. Lucy was right. Even though I loved running around, being active, and never sitting still, I shouldn't be in such a rush to go. Her sound advice was... sound.

I snuggled into my blanket, staring up at the dark ceiling. I wondered how I'd be without her guiding me along. I wondered how I'd be without him making me laugh. I wondered how I'd be without her always putting a smile on my face. I wondered how I'd be without my best friends.

I wondered how I'd be without her in my life. My best friend and love of my life. The one who mattered the most to me. Her beautiful smile, her eyes, her face, her body, her everything.