By six in the evening, the cafeteria had mostly emptied, leaving only the loose traffic of students carrying trays back toward the returns and groups drifting toward the corridors with no particular destination.
The ceiling lights had taken over from the windows, flattening the polished floor into pale rectangles while conversations overlapped beneath the steady ventilation hum, and the doors opened and closed at the far end with soft pneumatic clicks.
Abigail came through the cafeteria exit several paces behind Adam, Brandon and the other boys, keeping enough distance that anyone glancing back would see a student walking through the same corridor, nothing more.
Adam's height made him easy to track anyway, his dark hair visible above the shoulders around him, his voice carrying just enough to reach her.
It's not like I'm stalking him. I'm just walking in the same direction.
She kept her hands loosely clasped in front of herself and looked ahead whenever someone passed between them, then let her eyes return to the group once the corridor cleared. She'd seen Adam at dinner and wanted to talk to him, but his friends had been around him, so she'd decided to wait until they separated.
In the meantime, she was simply moving through the school, paying attention to her surroundings, which happened to include everything being said eight feet ahead of her.
Just gathering some info. That's what this is.
She knew exactly what it looked like.
Adam was talking about the written exams being over, his shoulders looser than they'd been during the day and his hands moving occasionally when he emphasized something.
"You know doing these exams have really humbled me to the fact that. Maybe getting expelled isn't the end of the world... Who knows, maybe it's God's plan to some... I dunno, greater purpose in life." Brandon laughed first, then two others joined in, and Adam's mouth pulled into the small, satisfied smile he got when a joke landed exactly where he wanted it to.
Abigail laughed too, quietly enough that nobody ahead could hear her. Her lips pressed together almost immediately afterward, but the smile stayed for another second before she smoothed it away. She wasn't part of the group, and she knew that, but hearing Adam joke like that made the eight feet between them feel smaller than it actually was.
Brandon brought up the calculus exam, and the conversation shifted into the usual post-exam autopsy. Someone complained about the final section, another said the second question had been worse, and three voices agreed at once that whoever had written it had apparently developed a personal grudge against teenagers.
Adam shook his head when Brandon asked what he thought. "Honestly? I didn't think it was that bad."
Three heads turned toward him at once, followed by a chorus of disbelief that made him laugh.
"Well, I'd gotten a bit of help Monday night and i think it paid off is all," Adam admitted. Brandon immediately assumed Aiva, describing her as the hot girl from Class A who's in the student council.
Abigail filed that away without much interest because Adam's expression had already answered the question. He shook his head, still smiling. "Even better. I was studying with Luna."
Luna?
Abigail's steps didn't change. Neither did the distance between her and the group, and she kept her face arranged in the same mild expression she'd been wearing since leaving the cafeteria. Her fingers did tighten against each other once, enough for her nails to press lightly into the opposite palm before she loosened them again.
Of course.
She'd been doing fine. She'd been walking through the corridor behind him, letting his words drift past without consequence, and she'd been fine.
Then he said her name,
why did he have to say her name.
It was like a spark catching dry leaves: sudden, consuming. Her chest tightened, and her jaw locked. Now being fine meant steadying her breath, keeping her face blank, and swallowing the burn that threatened to show.
The boys reacted exactly as she expected. Someone whistled under his breath, another laughed, and Brandon immediately asked how that had happened.
One of them admitted that he'd noticed Luna had a soft spot for Adam since he transferred in, explaining that whenever Adam entered a room her eyes seemed to find him which was odd because most of the time she lived like there wasn't another single soul in that classroom.
he teasingly asked Adam, "Why do you think there was an empty sit next to her and nobody ever bothered sitting?"
"I dunno, why?" Adam asked back
"She doesn't let anyone sit next to her ever. Imagine my shock when you sat next to her and she let it happen."
"Probably because it was the only seat left idiot." Brandon chimed.
"Could be, but she's never tried pushing him away, or being irritated at his mere presence"
"Never? I wouldn't exactly say that... We've had our moments." Adam admitted embarrassingly, running his hand through his hair.
"Wow y'all are having moments now?" Brandon teased as the whole group erupted in laughter.
"Look man all I'm tryna say is, you know how people look at someone they don't care about?" he said. "She doesn't do that with him."
Adam swallowed.
Abigail saw it because she was watching him.
So it's true.
The thought arrived quietly, without anger attached to it, which somehow made it worse.
He likes her. She knows he likes her. And she likes him too. Maybe not exactly the same way, but enough.
She looked down at the floor for three steps, then back up. The corridor had not changed. Adam was still laughing with Brandon and the boys. The fluorescent lights still hummed overhead. None of that altered the fact that she had just learned something she hadn't wanted to learn.
Brandon moved on before the conversation could settle there. He asked what everyone was doing with the rest of the day, and the answers came from different directions.
Someone had plans to sleep until tomorrow noon since their club exam was after lunch, another wanted to play games all night, and Adam said he was going straight to bed. "I'm not opening another book until next year. Basketball don't need no books." His friends laughed again, and Abigail smiled before she could stop herself.
There it is again.
She kept walking.
Out of all people to try and sabotage the univers chose Anissa, and she only had her own failures and lack of composure to blame. She'd told herself she was fine with it because Anissa was better suited to the assignment anyways and because the objective was larger than any one of them.
Right?
She wondered if telling Adam the truth about the mission and asking for his trust might somehow make things work out. Maybe he'd realize she truly had his best interests at heart and, against all odds, fall in love with her, a foolishly naive hope, but one she couldn't quite shake.
Still, it might make talking to him alot easier than stalking him like this, maybe they could team up to stop Anissa in her tracks. Who knows, perhaps when everything would inevitably blew up in her face, Adam would step between her and the Thorne family, shield her, whisk her away, and they'd start a family of their own.
Thorne was still a far more intimidating name than Greene though, but they'd figure it out, wherever they ended up, building their legacy on the blood of their enemies.
Abigail took a deep breath before shaking herself free from the grasp of her ridiculous daydream.
I mean first of all, how the hell wsa she supposed to tell him about their mission? How would that even go?
Hey Adam, so here's the thing. It might sound abit strange but the real reason we're friendly to you is because you have something of value to our family. Because of that we have a mission. One of us is going to get particularly close to you and seduce and ultimately sleep with you, with no protection of course...
Abigail cringed at the sound of her own internal voice
...Then once one of us gets pregnant and has your child we can kill you and have your gift transferred into our family via your child, consider it like a sacrifice for the good of the Thorne family. Initially it was supposed to be me to do it but I sort of caught feelings for you so mom handed the mantle over to Anissa
And then what? Do I just tell him I've had a change of heart and now I'm in love and want to help you and betray my family? Like this would ever fucking work.
Abigail thought sarcastically.
I read way too many romance novels.
But regardless of everything she still had to do something. which is why she was here or so she told herself,
I'm here because I need to know what Anissa is doing.
That was reasonable. If Anissa moved too quickly, Abigail needed to know. If she got too close to Adam, Abigail needed to know. If there was an opportunity to interfere, Abigail needed to be close enough to see it.
That's strategic.
She watched Adam laugh at something Brandon said and smiled again.
Yup. Strategic.
The explanation lasted approximately three seconds before she knew she was lying to herself. And there was still the love problem she needed to solve.
Adam's heart was with Luna. She could see it in the way his voice changed when her name came up, in the tiny pause before he'd answered Brandon, in the way he had swallowed when someone pointed out that Luna watched him differently.
Luna seemed to indulge him, too. Maybe she even returned some of it. Abigail couldn't tell exactly where the line was, but she could see enough to know that whatever she was planning was probably going nowhere.
It wasn't her problem. Adam hadn't asked her to solve it. Luna hadn't asked her to interfere. Two people were allowed to like each other without Abigail inserting herself into the middle because she happened to have feelings for one of them.
So why am I still following him?
She knew the answer and didn't like it. She wanted to get close enough for him to see her differently. Maybe if he spent time with her, maybe if he actually knew her, someday his heart would have room for her too.
It was a bad plan.
Abigail didn't make bad plans.
But she continued walking anyway.
She needed an excuse first. Something natural, something that could let her fall into step beside him without making it obvious that she'd been waiting for an opportunity.
Approaching him directly would make the entire thing look exactly like what it was. She needed something they already shared, something that belonged naturally in a conversation between two friends.
Or rather, two werewolves.
Then she remembered.
The next full moon was this Friday.
Two days.
She could talk about that. Everyone in their kind understood what the full moon meant, the preparation, the heightened senses, the particular inconvenience of having a school schedule wrapped around something their bodies didn't care about.
It was normal. Completely normal. She could mention it, make a joke, ask what he was doing for it, and then the conversation could become something else.
Perfect.
The group reached the lockers near the end of the corridor, and Adam slowed. He exchanged goodbyes with Brandon and the others with the same easy warmth he'd used all evening, a hand raised briefly, a grin when someone called something back at him. Abigail had noticed that about him before. Even when he was tired, he didn't make goodbyes feel like interruptions.
She stopped before the others reached their lockers and turned slightly toward a notice board as though she'd suddenly remembered something posted there. Adam opened his locker a few yards ahead, his back toward her.
Abigail took one breath.
Then another.
She stepped away from the board.
The corridor shortened with every step. Her hands stayed at her sides, but her fingers flexed once as the sentence formed itself in her head.
Hey Adam, you know Friday's the full moon. What are you doing for it?
Simple. Normal. Nothing suspicious. She was almost close enough to speak when a familiar voice came from farther down the corridor.
"Adam."
Abigail stopped.
Luna approached with her usual unhurried stride, snow-white hair falling around her shoulders and grey eyes already fixed on him. She stopped near his locker and looked directly at him.
"I'm going to the spot."
She tilted her head slightly.
"You coming? There's a lot to talk about."
Adam stared at her for half a second, clearly caught without preparation. Then his expression shifted into a smile that Abigail had never seen him give her. "Yeah. Obviously."
He shut his locker and fell into step beside Luna.
Abigail remained where she was, one foot still slightly ahead of the other. The full moon sentence was still sitting in her mouth, completely useless now.
She lowered her hand to the strap of her bag and adjusted it over her shoulder, then glanced toward the notice board again as if she'd stopped there for that reason all along.
She watched them walk toward the exit.
Luna reached the door first. Her hand touched the push bar, and she glanced back.
Her eyes found Abigail immediately.
The look lasted only a second, but Luna didn't look confused. She didn't look surprised. Her gaze moved over Abigail once, then settled on her face with a quiet certainty that Abigail couldn't put into words. There was nothing openly hostile in it, nothing she could point to later and say:
that's what she meant.
It was simply too deliberate to be accidental.
Then Luna turned away and walked out with Adam.
Abigail stayed in the corridor.
Students passed around her carrying bags and jackets, their shoes tapping over the polished floor while conversations continued toward the dormitories and study rooms.
The door at the end swung shut behind Adam and Luna, leaving only the ordinary corridor in front of her and the full moon conversation she had never gotten to use. Abigail adjusted the strap on her shoulder again and looked at the closed door for another moment.
I'm such a mess.