“We know you’re in there, Laura!”
“We’re going to break the door down if you don’t open up!”
Laura doesn’t move from the couch. There’s no way she’s going to stand up when she feels so comfortable splayed out on the L-shaped furniture. Not to mention, there’s a whole day replay of her favorite cooking show. Nothing or no one’s going to get her to stand up.
It’s been three days since she lost her job in Love in the Net, and in those three days, she’s barely gone out. A number of her friends – her ex-colleagues Mia, Candice, and Derek included – have come to visit her to bring some food and drinks, most of it consisting of alcohol of course. She’s also received a few messages from Nate and Alex in the past days, but she never replied to them. She can’t think about dating and sex when she’s unemployed. She’ll get back to those once she feels more stable and secured.
If she isn’t going to come to them, of course they’re going to come to her. And with the continuous rapping on her door, she knows Nate and Alex are going to stay there until she comes out.
Bam!
Laura shoots up from the couch when she hears the sound of her door being broken. When she swivels her torso around, she sees her whole door smashed and lying on the floor. The hinges have been broken as if someone pushed the door with brute force.
“What the-”
Laura stops mid-air when Alex and Nate enter her apartment. When she meets their eyes, they give her a cheeky grin with Nate saying, “We’ll replace that right away.” Soon after, he then asks, “Why haven’t you been replying to us?!”
“We went to your office and Madison said you resigned.” That’s Alex, and Laura has to stop her jaw from going slack. “We tried calling and messaging you, but you’re obviously ignoring us.”
“One, I didn’t resign,” she then says. She reminds herself to confront Madison later on and send the woman a lengthy ‘love letter’. “And two, how did you do that to my door?!”
Alex and Nate look at one another, and Laura knows they’re already having a full-length conversation between them without saying anything. When Alex asks, “Don’t you work out?” Laura’s bullshit meter goes off.
“I’ll call the chauffeur to ask him to buy a door. Then, I’ll be the one to install it,” supplies Nate as he reaches for his phone in the pocket of his jeans. Of course, he’s avoiding her question. “Let me go call Ricky now.”
Laura doesn’t let him leave. “Hold up,” she says. “Seriously, how were you able to do that?”
“Do what?”
Laura lets out a heavy sigh and crosses her arms over her chest at the sight of the two men playing dumb. She then moves over to her doorway to block the way, even though they could easily just move or push her to the side.
“You’re hiding something from me.” When the two men make a move to open their mouths to reason out, Laura quickly cuts in, “I know because you’re doing the whole ‘communicating with your minds’ and purposely leaving me out of the conversation. Seriously. I may be an escort or prostitute or whatever the proper term is, but I’m not stupid.”
“We’d tell you, but then we’d have to kill you…”
Laura purses her lips for a second. “Ha-ha very funny.”
“You’re stubborn, aren’t you?” Alex then says, letting out a chuckle in an attempt to lighten up the mood. Then, he walks over to Laura and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “But seriously, we really do have to kill you if we tell you our secret.”
Laura cocks an eyebrow up towards him and bites the edge of her bottom lip. “You do know saying that kind of thing makes me want to know more, don’t you?”
For the nth time since they crashed her place, Alex and Nate give one another that look, and when they turn their heads back to meet Laura’s curious emerald eyes, Nate lets out a sigh and then says, “You’re not going to let this go, aren’t you?”
“I’ll even withhold speaking to you guys again.” When Alex tips the corner of his lips into a sly smirk, Laura knows exactly what he’s thinking. “And sex too.”
Alex breaks down laughing, shakes his head, and ruffles the top of Laura’s hair. “Of course, you will. You win, then. Don’t say we didn’t warn you when we have to slit your throat open and hide your body in a dumpster.”
Nate clicks his tongue. Being the more cautious of the two of them, he doesn’t agree with Alex’s decision. There’s no need to tell Laura. It’s for her own safety anyway.
“Alex…” Nate warns. “Are you sure…?”
“I’m just right here, guys…”
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
Nate barks out a bitter laugh and looks at his friend in disbelief. “Seriously? You’re trusting her with-”
“I can hear you, guys…”
“If you’re so adamant on not telling her, then you can leave,” Alex starts, growing impatient of Nate’s warning. “I’ll stay here. I can tell her on my own.”
“Alex…”
“Man, seriously…you think too much at times.” That’s Alex, running a stressed hand through his blond hair. “Worse comes to worst, I can handle her.”
Nate lets out an aggravated sigh. “Fuck you, man,” he says, although there’s a hint of a smirk on his lips. “If she runs away screaming, you take the front door and I’ll take the emergency staircase. That way, she can’t escape.”
When they finally tell her in the privacy of her bedroom their best-kept secret, Laura stares wide-eyed at them. Alex and Nate expect her to ask them to leave and slam her non-existent apartment door in front of their faces. Instead, she raises an eyebrow up into a look of confusion, and then says, “What’s a bear-shifter? Are you both high?”
When Alex stretches his arms out, closes his eyes, and lets the transformation take place, Laura’s emerald eyes widen by the second as Alex’s tanned arm turns into a thick coat of black and his fingers are replaced by claws resembling a bear’s. Then, he changes back to his previous form – nails, fingers, and an arm of thin, negligible hairs.
“What the-” Then Laura stops mid-speech. “You two definitely weren’t kidding…”