"If Kris would just stop kidding himself, this would be a lot more painless for everyone," Luhan sighed, sitting on his bed across from me. He was leaning against his headboard while I was bent over his economics textbook that was laid open between us, a scattering of papers and handouts blanketing the rest of the bed.

After he had carried me out of the woods, I had managed to convince him that I was alright enough to walk the rest of the way to the house, when in reality I didn't want anyone fussing over me anymore than was necessary. Luhan claimed he was still concerned that I had hurt myself somehow while I had been having the vision, but I had thrown off his concerns by mentioning helping him with economics. But now he was distracted again and had jumped to a different subject that had thrown me off guard.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, shooting him a look as I glanced up from the textbook.

Leaning forward, he put his elbows against his knees and propped his chin in his hands before replying. "You know, he's kidding himself. He's acting like he's not interested in you, but it's pretty obvious he is."

"You're crazy, Lu," I objected, dismissing the conversation as I tried to return my attention to the book. But he wasn't going to let it go that easily.

"Nope, I'm not crazy. In fact, he's probably more concerned about you than any of us, maybe even me, but he won't open himself up to that kind of vulnerability. He's too worried that he'll lose the respect of the rest of the pack, when in actuality we all know that it would be better for him. That you're good for him, rather than isolation."

I thought for a moment, considering the logic of what he was saying. Then, I mirrored his position with one of my hands, making a fist and placing my chin on top of it. "Oh yeah? If that's the case, then what's the real reason he's been so cold toward me?"

Luhan pondered this for a few minutes, and when I finally thought he simply wasn't going to respond, he looked at me and said, "Knowing what he is, he's scared he's going to end up hurting you in some way." He paused, taking a deep breath, before adding, "It's a common enough concern for werewolves. We've all heard stories about those who chose to have a relationship with a human, and sometimes it doesn't work out well."

I dropped my gaze to the textbook again, my thoughts jumbled as I registered what he was telling me. True, there was a very good chance Kris was hiding his real feelings, but it was unlikely he would ever openly reveal them, to me or anyone else.

But as I was looking down, my gaze wandered over to my phone which was laying near the open book, and I saw that the screen was lit up, showing a new text message. I quickly grabbed it and unlocked the screen, revealing a short text from Jamye.

"Can't wait to see you in a couple of hours! Don't forget. (:"

I immediately smacked my forehead because I had actually forgotten all about the movie with my friends. I mentally punched myself for telling Jamye before that I would be there; I had no idea how I would work that out, considering where I was and whom I was with.

Glancing up again, I raised one eyebrow at Luhan before saying, "I hate to jump subjects like this, but how would you like to go to a movie?"

~

I don't know how it happened, but every boy in the house somehow found out about the movie and decided he wanted to go, even Kris, which shocked me the most. I couldn't blame most of them though; it was Saturday, and any teenager would kill for a reason to get out of their house.

So, a little over an hour later, we were all packed into Kris's Range Rover, with Kris, Chen, and Tao in the front and Xiumin, Luhan, myself, and Lay squeezed into the backseat. I wasn't entirely uncomfortable; I was small enough that we weren't too close, and I had gotten to know Luhan and Lay so it wasn't weird.

The drive didn't take too long since it was only a fifteen minute drive into town, and the movie theater was near the town's old-fashioned square. Kris parked the car near the front of the parking lot, and as soon as he cut the engine off, everyone scrambled to get out of the vehicle without tripping over each other.

Before the rest of the group could catch up, I grabbed Luhan by the wrist and pulled him toward the front doors of the theater. I figured my friends would already be inside, and I was a bit too nervous to walk in with all the boys at once. With just Luhan, it was more manageable for me.

"Lu, what am I going to tell my friends?" I asked quickly as I stopped at the front door. The rest of the boys were still at the car, apparently trying to get organized enough to get to the door.

"What, about us? Why you're hanging out with six werewolves, or in this case, foreign exchange students?"

"Exactly," I replied, agitated with the situation. "Especially Jamye; she can see right through me when I'm lying."

"Wouldn't it be funny if one of the other guys fell for her? Then we'd have to let her in on the secret too." He snickered at the thought of it, clearly thinking himself very clever.

"Well, since that isn't very likely to happen, I'll just have to figure out something else," I huffed, rolling my eyes at him before opening the door and stepping inside.

I assumed Luhan would follow me, but I didn't wait to see because I spotted my friends grouped around one of the tables in the lobby. Most of them didn't notice me, but I caught Jamye's attention almost immediately. Waving my hand, I motioned for her to come over and talk to me for a minute.

"Hey, Elle. What's up?" she asked. Then her eyes moved toward Luhan who had finally followed me in through the door. She stared for just a second before moving her gaze back to me and whispering, "Did he come with you?"

The surprise written all over her face was pretty obvious, and I thought she looked ridiculous, but I knew I couldn't laugh at her for it because she wouldn't take me seriously after that. Instead, I took a deep breath and answered her in a hushed tone.

"It's a really, really long story, most of which you wouldn't believe. But the gist is that, actually, I came with all six of them."

"All six?!" she hissed, apparently shocked now as well as surprised. "You didn't know any of them yesterday, and now you're showing up with all of them in the same clothes you were wearing yesterday?!" She paused and then added, "Does this have to do with your mom thinking you're with me?"

I bit my lip a little, worrying at it, before mumbling, "Uh, well, yeah, it does. But that wasn't my doing. Like I said, it's a long story." Then another thought popped into my head and I added, "But I really want you to meet one of them."

"What?" I think that threw her off guard more than anything since she had been expecting me to give her some strange explanation as to why I had been so weird since the day before. But there was no way I could tell her anything without giving away everything, and I didn't have the right to reveal the boys' secret to anyone, even my best friend.

"Yeah, I think you'll really like one of them." All things considered, this wasn't a lie; I had thought of Jamye the first time I had talked to Lay, and I couldn't forget how had he made me think that she might like him. The way they dressed made it seem like they were made for each other, and they were both kind of out there in terms of personality, so it couldn't hurt.

I was lucky because Lay had walked through the door after Luhan, so I went over and grabbed him by the wrist, my only explanation being, "I want to introduce you to someone." He didn't object, allowing me to drag him back to Jamye, with Luhan tagging along behind us pretty closely.

"Jamye, this is Lay," I stated, sort of presenting him to her. "Lay, this is my best friend, Jamye."

At first, neither of them said a single word, and they didn't move either. I looked back and forth between them, and then I looked to Luhan who looked as confused as I felt.

Then I glanced back at Jamye for just a moment, but that moment was enough for me to catch the expression in her eyes, the look that came before her flirty side set in. I wasn't sure about Lay, but I was sure he would be fine too.

"Um, so, yeah, I'll just leave you two to kind of get to know each other a bit," I said slowly as I back away from them, grabbing Luhan and pulling him away as well. When we were far enough away and out of earshot, I told Luhan, "They're good. She already likes him."

"Really? How can you tell?" he asked incredulously.

I smirked and replied, "I'm her best friend. It's my job to be able to pick up on this sort of thing with her. Just like how she knew I was being sketchy about the whole situation with you guys. Luckily, I didn't say anything specific, and then Lay made a nice distraction from that too."

"I was right, though," Luhan added, grinning. "If they get into a serious relationship, we'll have to tell her. It's one of the werewolf laws now, so it's required for us to tell her."

"It probably wouldn't surprise her. She actually guessed that you all were werewolves yesterday when we were discussing it in the parking lot. Of course, none of our other friends believed her because they thought it was ridiculous, so it shouldn't be too difficult to keep it a secret from them."

Luhan nodded in response, and the. glanced at me sideways before saying, "You know, this would be a good opportunity for you and Kris to get on better terms." He wasn't joking around this time; when I looked up at his face, he was completely serious.

I sighed and said, "I'm not opposed to that. But I'm not holding my breath for it either."

As I looked around, I noticed that all of the boys had finally made it inside, and I knew I would have to make introductions between the two groups soon. But before I could even consider what I would say in order to do that, Luhan elbowed me in the shoulder (which was only because he was so much taller than me) and caught my attention. When I had completely snapped out of my thoughts, I finally noticed that Kris had approached us and was holding out some slip of paper to me.

"I, uh, thought I'd go ahead and buy your ticket," he mumbled, not meeting my gaze as I looked up at him. "You know, since you don't really have any money with you."

He continued to look everywhere but at my face as I took the ticket from his hand and stuttered, "Um, th-thanks."

He nodded once and then turned to walk back over to the rest of the boys who had convened next to the ticket booth. My eyes were wide as I turned to Luhan, and he nearly ripped my arm out of its socket as he shook it with excitement.

"Progress!" he yelled before realizing how loud he was and blushing a deep red from embarrassment. I patted his shoulder in mock comfort, though I was forcing back a laugh that would have been just as loud as his exclamation.

~

The introductions were uneventful, besides Jamye and Lay never leaving each other's sides. I thought I saw something flicker in Erica's eyes when I introduced Chen, but I couldn't be sure; she was too good at hiding her emotions for me to pick up on something that small.

When we got into the actual theater, the group seemed to splinter back into the two respective friend groups for the most part, with Jasper, Erica, and Jamye sitting together on one row, while Chen, Tao, and Xiumin slipped into the seats directly in front of them. As we walked up the stairs, I saw Lay hesitate before I pushed him toward the row where Jamye was. He looked back at me for a moment, concerned, but I nodded encouragement to him, letting him know it was alright.

When he had settled into the seat beside Jamye, I noticed that Luhan had snuck into the seat next to Xiumin and was currently stacking up the boys' jackets on the empty seat next to him. I glared at him, but he winked and pointed to the two seats beside Lay. I knew what he was doing; he was going to force me and Kris to sit next to each other, whether we wanted to or not. With a sigh of defeat, I trudged up the stairs and sat down in the seat next to Lay, just as Kris walked around the corner into the theater.

I tried to hide the fact that I was secretly happy about having to sit next to Kris; maybe he would actually be kind, though hoping for anything more than that would have been wishful thinking, in my mind. So as he sat down, I kept myself from looking up at him too much, giving him only a casual glance once.

Then, as the theater lights began to slowly dim, I realized that I had no idea what movie we were watching. I hadn't looked at the ticket once, so I tried to fish it out of my pocket without seeming too obvious, but I must have shoved it too deep into my pocket because I couldn't feel it. Glancing sideways at Kris, I asked, "What movie is this anyway?"

"Uh, I think it's called Paranormal Activity. Tao and Lay picked it," he responded, his tone deep and gravelly as he tried to keep his voice down.

I felt my eyes widen as a reaction to this; I had heard of and seen previews for Paranormal Activity, and I hadn't ever had any intentions of seeing it. I had never been a huge fan of scary movies, and this one was supposed to be pretty bad, especially since it was about violent ghosts. Of course, that was one of my biggest fears since I had a strong belief in the paranormal and spirits clinging to the earth after their bodies have deteriorated.

Before I could say a word in response, I felt my hands shaking a little, and though I tried to get them to stop, it was in vain. I would have gotten up and gone to the bathroom, but the movie was starting and I didn't want to be a nuisance to anyone else watching the movie, particularly my friends.

Noticing my hands, Lay leaned over a little and whispered, "Elle, are you alright?" He sounded genuinely worried, which didn't surprise me very much considering we were on pretty good terms now and he obviously liked Jamye.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled, moving to stick my hands into the pockets of the jacket so I wouldn't bother anyone else. But before I could get my right hand tucked away, I felt a larger hand close around my fingers, causing me to nearly gasp in surprise.

I followed the arm of the hand up to see Kris's face looking down at me, his eyes considerably less cold and glaring than normal, even in the dim light. He squeezed my hand in his and, in a raspy voice, he whispered, "It's alright if you're scared. I don't like ghosts either, but I'll be here for you."