Right now, Gary couldn’t help but feel a little awkward when trying to approach Kai. As such, he believed his next best bet would be to ask the two women that seemed to always be by his side. In a way, their background was just as mysterious as his.
Slowly, Gary inched his way over to the bar, cleaning away from where Austin was. Here, Marie had taken a break and was currently sitting on a stool with a notepad out. The high school girl also had her phone out, and from what he could see, she was busy using the calculator function and writing down some things.
“Hey, Marie-“
“Shhh!” The teenage girl didn’t even look up, rather shooing Gary away as if he was some pesky fly. It was clear that she didn’t want to be disturbed right now. His only other choice now was to question Miss Degrace who looked to be sorting through the leftover alcohol bottles.
‘How…do I start this one?’ Gary wondered.
“Is something troubling you, dear?” Miss Degrace asked. The middle-aged woman hadn’t even turned around. This action reminded him of his own mother, and it made him question whether having eyes on their back was a common trait shared by all mothers. Still, this was his chance.
“How did you know?” Gary chuckled as he moved closer and started to wipe the shelves where the bottles were. This way, his back was facing away from the others as they talked.
“You see, I was wondering if you could tell me more about Kai. …we’ve only started getting to know each other better over these last few days, but I recently realised that I really know nothing about him. On the other hand, it seems like you and Marie are quite close.” Gary explained his situation.
“In other words, you’re interested in your friend? Well, I can kinda understand why, he isn’t exactly your typical kid.” Miss Degrace replied, opening up one of the whisky bottles that still had a bit of substance on the bottom. She sniffed the air just above a few times and soon closed the cap again.
“However, if you’re really interested in him, why don’t you simply ask him yourself? I’m sure he would answer you as long as you don’t ask anything overly personal.”
Unfortunately, Gary didn’t think it would be as simple as that. Now that Kai at least suspected that he was hiding something from him, what right did the younger teenager have to learn anything about the other’s secrets?
“If you want my advice, and I don’t mean to insult you, but in hindsight most of the ‘problems’ I had as a teenager turned out to be far less problematic than I initially believed. Nevertheless, I too had the tendency to make things harder for myself than needed to be.” Miss Degrace sighed as she seemed to be reminiscing about her own youth, but then a certain thought struck her. “To be fair, it doesn’t seem to be exclusive to teenagers. Sometimes, I believe that if people around the world just spoke more to each other, about how they were feeling, or about all their issues, then others around us could help more than we might think.
“Think about it, if nobody knows what your difficulties are, how can they help? While I could share a few things about him, it’s really not my business to tell. I can tell you about myself, though. Me and Marie, we both owe him a lot. It may be hard to believe, but I owe him my life. For that reason, I’m more than happy to help him when he needs me. If only things wouldn’t have ended as they did, perhaps he could have led a normal life…” It sounded like she diverted a bit around the end, but Gary hadn’t heard her, as the high schooler had still been busy thinking about her last piece of advice.
“Let me tell you one thing, Kai is the type of person that as long as you put your trust in him, he will put all of his trust back in you as well. Think about it, why has he been helping you so much? Was it only because you agreed to help him with something in return?”
Multiple images of Gary and his first meetings with Kai flashed through his mind. It had started out as a deal, but the green haired teenager felt like he had hardly done anything to repay the other. Still, even despite all of that, his upperclassman had helped him on multiple occasions without asking too many questions.
“I think you have your answer, he thought you already trusted him, which is why he was happy to help. Trust me, with the way he’s been talking about you, I can assure you that talking with him will only help.”
The talk with Miss Degrace didn’t reveal a lot about Kai’s past, but it did help Gary get his head straight back on. The next few hours, the group continued to clean up, and they ended up making more progress than any of them had anticipated. What they had estimated to take an entire week, had taken just a single day.
Most of it was actually due to Gary and Austin. The former had demonstrated seemingly endless stamina, allowing him to work at a steady pace. At the same time, he had been working extra hard, regarding this as a form of penance for having acted so stupid. In the case of Austin, the large teenager had seen Gary put in the work, and he hadn’t wanted to lose out to him. As such, he had given his best to keep up with Gary, and succeeded as well.
“Great job, everyone! With this tempo, it will only be a couple more days until we might be able to open for business! It will take a while for the windows, but we can just make this like a private club of some sort.” Kai looked happy and decided to call it a day for the group.
However, as everyone left, and Miss Degrace was ready to lock up, Gary informed her that there was something he wanted to tell him. The middle-aged woman put on her coat, and gave the teenager a thumbs up and left him the keys.
With Marie having left before her mother, there were only two people left in the former pool club.
“I’m sorry.” Were the first words out of Gary’s mouth. “I felt crap all day because of what I said earlier. You’ve helped me out so much, so I decided that I want to tell you the truth…”
There was a pause between the two. Kai didn’t say anything as he waited for the other high schooler to continue.
“As you’ve seen, I’m not an Altered, at least I don’t think I am one…but I believe I’m not exactly completely human anymore either… Remember that suitcase that went missing? The one that is the whole reason the Underdogs are after me? I swear to you that I’m not joking, but… whatever was inside, it turned me into a W… W-were… Werewolf!” Gary finally blurted out.
When saying these words, he held his head down, worried about the reaction the other teenager would have. When he heard some chuckle, he looked up, only to see a giant grin on Kai’s face.
“Gary, I believe you, I believe every word you just said. I’ve already guessed as much after what happened in the park with Billy. However, before the test, and your confession just now, it seemed purely crazy.
“You actually being a Werewolf, rather than an Altered, is a thousand times better than I thought. Now, because you have told me the truth. I think we are ready to move forward, I have a little gift for you.”