Chapter 4

Mera met me at the curb, her pixie hair cut which was dyed in a midnight blue was hard to miss in the sunlight. She was a picture-perfect high school girl. Curved in all the right places and never had a flawed makeup day. Her hair was perfectly done to look as if she hadn't spent the hour it took doing it. She was beautiful and worse she knew it. She was beaming down at her phone, and I guessed the flavor of the week was gushing over her through text. When she looked up to see me her face fell. "What on earth is growing from your head? "She complained as she took in my air-dried barely brushed hair. "Here at least this jacket will help with your appearance".

"Thanks," I said grateful yet sarcastic at the same time. "So, who has caught the attention of Miss Heartbreak Queen herself this week?" I asked as I slid my arms into the wonderfully heavy-lined jacket. A wicked grin spread across her face as she said his name "Jackson!"

"Jackson? As in Jackson Douglas?" I gasped. "The very same!"

"You have no shame Mer, no shame". She only smiled and went back to her conversation with Jackson. All I could do was shake my head.

Jackson Douglas was the town's bad boy, right down to his slick black hair, leather jacket and boots. Always on a motorcycle and going way too fast. On a first-name basis with the Sheriff type of bad boy. Of course, not everyone blamed him. He had a rough go. When he was ten his dad had supposedly murdered his mom in front of him, forcing him to move here to live with his closest relative, Grandma Nelly.

Now Nelly was a breed all her own. Not the typical grandmother at all. She dressed in skinny jeans and house shoes with a rocking granny shirt, yes, but her attitude was 40 years younger, and she could skip down the street with the best of them. She carried this no-nonsense look everywhere she went, and I don't think I had ever seen anyone disrespect her in the slightest. It was a sight to see. It often made me smile to see her out and wonder what it would be like to have that kind of grandparent in your life. I had never met my mother's parents; for reasons unknown and never discussed. My dads had tragically died in the last war between the pack and witches. All he would ever say about them is that they would have been excited to meet me. It would have been nice to have met them also, to have the love of someone else close to me.

The walk to school was a welcome and comfortable silence as Mera was obviously entranced with whatever she and Jackson were talking about. I took the time to think about what I was going to do with my birthday right around the corner, I had no one I could really talk to about my problem. Mera was great, a better friend than I could have asked for, but she knew nothing of the real me and my real life. All she ever knew was that my parents came from money, leaving us with the title of "the richest family in the city.”

I attended a private school, but I chose one that wasn’t only for the wealthy. I did want a normal life. The walk was short enough that I convinced my parents I didn’t need a detail following me either since I refused to even drive the very obnoxiously expensive Porsche my parents had given me as a sweet sixteen gift. Mera on the other hand was still sulking over not being able to ride in it more. Though today I could have made an exception it was freezing today.

While we walked the couple of blocks to school, I had gotten lost in thought wondering how I was going to handle what was in my near future. It was then that something slammed into me, throwing me to the ground an easy twenty-five feet from where I was walking. Everything at that moment went completely fuzzy and there was a loud ringing in my ears. I was struggling to get my bearings back when it felt like someone picked me up and began moving me. I had a sensation; almost like I was floating. I knew that I was moving but I didn’t actually feel hands on me. I wasn’t able to open my eyes to see exactly what was going on. Mera, I thought. Where the hell is Mera, Was she hurt, Is she okay? Thoughts raced through my head, but never once did my brain acknowledge the fact that I had been moved away from whatever force it was that sent me flying across the street. When I was able to find enough of myself, I opened my eyes; all I could do was stare at the scene in front of me.

In front of me, people had begun to gather around where I was just a few moments ago. I could vaguely hear Mera from the ever-growing crowd. Thank God she's alive. I tried to run to her to see that she was okay, but I found that I couldn’t make my legs work. Taking my eyes off the crowd, I looked down to see that I wasn’t exactly standing, I was floating. I felt weightless. What the hell? “Oh my God, I've died!” I said out loud without meaning to. “This cannot be happening; this cannot be happening!” seemed to be the only thing I could get out. I finally tore my eyes away from what was in front of me. I looked around and spotted a woman staring at me. To somewhat of a relief she wasn’t looking at me as if she was seeing a ghost and for some reason this allowed my brain to relax enough to really look at her. She looked; well, she looked like me. Older but there was something familiar about her, almost comforting.

There was a whispering in my ear, while we stared at each other. I couldn’t quite make out what it was saying before I was seemingly slammed back in the other direction where I was minutes ago. Opening my eyes this time was no problem. I looked up to see that yes, I was on the ground and Mera was ok. She was hovering over me protectively dictating that someone needed to call the ambulance.

“What the hell hit me?” I said, trying to sit up. “Oh! You’re okay!” relief was clear in her voice as she heard me speaking. “Yeah, I’m good, I think but what hit me?” “Hit you? What are you talking about? We were walking and all of a sudden you went down. I’ve been trying to get you to wake up forever now! Maybe not forever but like ten minutes. You’ve hit your head. Be still.” “Huh?” was all I could get out. I clearly remember feeling like a freaking bus had run into me.

“Someone is on the way” I heard a man say as I stretched trying to get to my feet. “No, it's okay, I’m fine” I protested but Mera almost shoved me back down. “I think not Cort, you’re going to let someone else make that decision.” Mera was in her “I’m in control of this” mood. I groaned but as my body really was sore, I laid back down asking if she could at least get someone other than an ambulance. The smile on her face that followed my request made me roll my eyes as I knew exactly who was coming.

The crowd slowly moved on to finish their days. I tried to give thanks to those who stopped to help Mera and me. As the crowd left, I could see Mera get bubbly as the sound of a way too-loud engine got closer. “Jackson,” I said looking at Mera. “What? He has a car.” she beamed. With another eye roll, I tried again to get to my feet. I was shaky and couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Mera had said nothing hit me. I had just dropped to the ground. If that was the case what in the hell happened and why did I see myself outside my body? Who was the woman who could clearly see me as well as I could see her? Too many questions for my brain to get to right now.

Pulling right up on the sidewalk was a primer black muscle car. Clearly, it had a lot of time but into the motor and parts under the hood. V8 from the sound of the engine even in Idol. I looked to see Jackson getting out of the driver's side. He oddly enough had almost run to my side and without a word picked me up and carried me to the back of the car. Mera looked relieved that Jackson had lifted me into the car. I didn’t know how I felt about what he had just done. After what I felt was a quick look over to make sure I had no injuries he turned and went to Mera. The conversation they were having looked more like it was an argument. I couldn’t hear what she was saying but it didn’t look sweet at all. He simply let her finish and bent down and whispered something in her ear and she caved on whatever the topic was, “Push over” I said out loud to myself. He walked her to the passenger door, and she climbed in.