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Enid thought wolfing out was going to change her life, it was what her family had been telling her for years. You’re strong, fast, and now you can come home and we’ll find you someone to spend the rest of your life with, a mate inside the pack. Someone also strong, fast, and pack-approved.
That sounded embarrassing. Your family should never be the ones to pick out your love life, and she was pretty sure they wouldn’t like it if she brought Ajax home so she didn’t tell any of her brothers about him, or her Mom. Especially not her mom.
All of that was enough to worry about, but then being a wolf—a full-on werewolf—was a bit confusing at times. Enid finished typing her homework on her laptop and she went over to Wednesday’s desk and popped up behind her to see her answers—like normal. The usual.
Except her roomie’s heart went crazy.
Ah. I snuck up on her. I messed up. She didn’t pat Wednesday’s shoulder like she might have done Ajax, or Bianca, or Yoko, or Eugene. She straightened up, apologized, and requested to look at her answers. Her roommate gave a formal nod of the head, just the slightest acknowledgment she was there.
Except, her heart was still going crazy in her ear though. Funny.
Well it was funny the first time, then it started happening all the time. When they went and got coffee, (caffeine brings up your heart rate right?) when she dragged Wednesday to go shopping with her so she could try on some new dresses. She needed another set of eyes to tell her what looked good or not, (that’s cardio though,) and then lastly after she had stitched Thing a mitten so he wouldn’t get cold.
That part she didn’t understand but she chalked it up to her roommate having just gone up all those stairs to get to their room. Wednesday stared at her, stared at Thing covered in rainbow yarn, stared at Enid again and shuddered.
Thump thump thump. Beat beat beat.
Her pulse was going a mile a minute and all because Thing was warmer and cozier than a second before. It was odd...confusing having her roomie's pulse going all nuts in her ear all the time. Kinda like that story about the crazy loud heart and the guy who wrote the poem about how it was in his ear all day, except Enid couldn’t remember who had written it or why—she just knew something was wrong. Maybe?
The last time it had happened, Enid had been finishing her blog post and her roommate had just been coming back inside from her cello practice. It was more funny than anything, she had bumped into Wednesday and her roommate had gone stiff like a small animal playing dead. Beat. Beat.
“S-sorry!” Enid squeaked.
She didn’t know her strength anymore, it was easy to bump someone just a little and they’d tell her ouch, Enid! Watch out! Wednesday said nothing but walked back to her desk like she would be jumped if she made one false move. Enid watched her sadly, but she also heard her.
Her heart was racing again. It was all the time now.
It had happened when she brought her the leftover brownies from her meeting with the Nightshades. (A club she was still begging Wednesday to join her in, but she had said, ‘No club that can be found that easily is worth joining,’ and Enid was pretty sure that was Addams-talk for ‘Real G’s move in silence.’)
Her heart was also racing when she needed to borrow a toothbrush and Enid handed her one.
She didn’t ask why, or what was going on, but she was worried. She had wolfed out and now her roommate was scared of her.
At lunch she asked Yoko and Bianca if they felt any differently about her.
“The scars are new.”
“But badass.” Yoko quickly added.
“But what if…what if Wednesday is scared of me?”
“That girl?” Bianca asked in disbelief, “She’s not scared of anything.”
But what if she was? What if she was scared of Enid now? She had seen her in the woods that night…seen the real Enid.
Then it happened again to her, not with Wednesday, but with her boyfriend. Ajax and her had snuck off to makeout behind the Greenhouse and she heard his normally relaxed heartbeat start to clamor loudly in her ear. Enid grabbed him by his hoodie and pulled them apart.
She stared at him for a moment before asking. “Are you scared of me?”
“W-What?!”
“Your heart is beating like crazy…everyone’s is lately. It’s like everyone is freaking out or something all the time.”
The boy gave her an even more scared look then stared at his mud-caked sneakers.
“It’s not that, Enid. We were—we were…kissing.”
“Yoko’s heart never raced when we used to kiss.”
“Because she’s a vampire,” said Ajax. He gave her another worried smile and Enid’s frown disappeared. He was right. Enid had to remember that Yoko didn’t have a heartbeat so all that ‘practice’ time in her room didn’t mean anything—because for a second she worried she was a bad kisser and Yoko had lied to her.
“What? Your heart never races?” He asked, another worried smile.
Enid laughed like that was a dumb thing to ask.
“Of course it does.”
Literally all the time. This didn’t explain why Wednesday was upset with her though. Enid leaned down, gave him a quick peck on the lips and went running back to the dorms. She had an idea. Project ‘don’t scare Wednesday.’ She wasn’t going to do anything scary ever again.
When she got back to their shared room, she made sure the package she asked Bianca to grab them was there then she waited. She went to sit on her bed, cross-legged.
Thing came over to her with a bottle of clear nail polish and she got to work on his pedicure.
“No Thing, it’s not dangerous to me if I’m careful. I just can’t go and be in her personal space all the time…I think it’ll help. With the…werewolf-human-fear thingie.”
Thing did not approve. She interlocked their fingers together and gave him a little squeeze. A soft, careful one not to hurt him (because she really was strong now.)
“I can’t keep giving her heart attacks and goosebumps all the time,” she told him.
Thing shook a finger.
“It isn’t good for her health, no Thing, it’ll be fine…I am pretty sure it's because I'm a—”
Thing was about to answer, but then the door opened and her roommate was back.
Enid pointed to the black box on top of her roommate’s desk.
“I bought you a present.” She said. “Open it.”
Wednesday blinked. She walked over to it and propped it open like it was a bomb…but Enid couldn’t go look with her.
“Enid…” Wednesday’s voice was flat but also a little angry, “What is this?”
She pulled out the silver charm bracelet. It was a thin chain of pretty silver, with a half-crescent moon charm and a cat’s face side-by-side. Enid looked at it, admiringly, though it also made her feel a little sick. Not that it would hurt without touching it, but something about it hit her wrong in the stomach anyway. She felt a bit queasy thinking about it…
It would be worth it if it made her friend feel better though, she reminded herself. That’s all that mattered. Thing put it on his wrist and did a little jingle as he danced with it on. Wednesday looked disgusted by it.
“Wednesday…” she said, carefully. She put her hands up gingerly and kept her space on her side of the floor so her roommate would feel safe, “You don’t have to be scared.”
The girl’s head tilted back at her. Like: ‘Scared of who?’ All offended. The silver bracelet dangled in between two fingers like it was a dead bug, (except she loved those.) “Scared? How did you even buy this ridiculous thing?” Wednesday asked.
“Bianca and Yoko did…”
Wednesday dropped it back in the box and then walked over to the middle of their room. Enid gave a small smile. Dark eyes were staring at her still and though Wednesday didn’t react strongly most of the time, she thought maybe they were looking at her with some disbelief still. Total confusion. “Enid, why do you think I’m scared of you?”
“Because, like…” she fiddled her thumbs, “You’ve been all weird around me since I shifted that night in the woods…like your heart’s beating super fast all the time, and sometimes your eyes get all dilated and skin flushed like I want to—I’m not going to rip your throat out, I promise you, I’m new to all this but…”
Her roommate just stared at her in shock.
In a Wednesday type of shock, which meant almost nothing on her face…but some extreme type of focus and concentration. Her heart was doing it again though. Going crazy. ‘Cause when she started talking about all that she heard it hammering away in her ear again and Enid felt worried. Tongue-tied. She was a bad friend, a bad roommate. Why was it like this?
“I should have made sure you were okay the whole time, Wednesday, because you didn’t sign up for a werewolf roomie really—”
She had to show her it was safe here. So she wouldn't leave.
“Enid.” Wednesday gave her a stern look. She went back to the box on her desk and picked it up, then she went to the window and she opened her side up and chucked it over the balcony.
“Wednesday!”
Her roommate ducked back inside and brushed her hands together like she was wiping off dirt. She walked over to Enid’s side and looked at her for awhile, for a strange amount of time as both remained silent.
“No silver allowed in here from now on. Got it?”
Enid nodded.
“If you bring any anti-werewolf security items back into our shared room I will hack onto your blog and tell everyone at Nevermore about that time you chased your tail for four hours straight when we were supposed to be doing our alchemy assignment or the time you were kissing the singers on that K-Pop poster—”
“Wednesday!”
“No. More. Silver.” She pointed in Enid’s face with each word, “Understood?”
Beat, beat, beat, beat.
Enid just nodded again, quickly. She wiped the goosebumps off her own arms this time with her hands, she felt weird. Like she was in the middle of a shift or like the silver was too close to her again and she might vomit on her pastel boots. They were both hovering kinda near each other not breathing much, just stupid hearts racing.
“So…you’re not afraid I’m going to eat you?”
Wednesday rolled her eyes.
“Can I… hug you…?” Wednesday glowered even longer. She sent up the puppy eyes. Her roommate gave in, putting her arms out and Enid jumped into them from her spot on the bed. She felt Thing jump onto her shoulder and join the hug. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Enid didn’t worry about it this time though, she just squeezed tighter and felt the wild beating heart thump against her own chest and she smiled. Wednesday squirmed from the affection but didn’t let go, she gave a small squeeze back then went dead in her arms again. Thing patted Wednesday’s shoulder.
“Agh!” Wednesday said.
Enid pulled away, confused. Then she saw her claws had come out and she jumped back. “Did I hurt you!?”
Wednesday mumbled something. Thump, thump, thump, thump.
Being a werewolf was weird.
Enid shrugged it off and grinned at her two friends.
“Sorry!”
Wednesday stared at Enid, stared at her claws, then back at Enid. Then she sighed and went back to her desk to work on her book.
Enid grinned. Thing gave her a fist bump.
“Good work Thing,” she whispered.