C9 THE FIRST STEP

It was on a night that Kurt transformed in the middle of nowhere that he met Jack for real. Jack was already transformed when he found Kurt too close to the street in the changing phase and pushed him into the woods, after the transformation was over, he approached him again and the two ran together, and hunted together. The next morning, Jack had put on his spare clothes and stood watching Kurt still unconscious, he thought that maybe it wouldn't be a problem if he knew he was a wolf too, and so he stood there, waiting for him to wake up. When he did, he just threw him some clothes and said, “I'll take you home”. After that, they started a friendship, they shared the same secret, the same mysteries, and they were no longer alone, they had to deal with it, and it was hard. When the new term started, and they were in separate rooms, they didn't think they could handle it, as they noticed a certain worsening in their condition. Now they were worried about her.

A short time later, Kurt left the apartment and Jack received a message from Cassie. It was unusual for her to text.

“I need to talk to someone” - Cassie

“I'm reasonably better, but for some reason, I need to talk to someone and I just randomly clicked on any company contact” - Cassie

“Hi Cassie, I don't know if I'm the best person for that” - Jack

“I'm trying to deal with it too, it's very heavy” - Jack

“It's just for now, to see if I can forget a little bit about things and how everything is. It's been a few days since my boyfriend broke up with me and everything seems to have come full circle now" - Cassie

“I'm sorry, Cassie. I hope you get better" - Jack.

“Thank you, Jack. It means a lot" - Cassie.

Then her chat icon warned “offline”. That relieved Jack, talking to her and having to read the grief of what happened would shake him more. Finally, he managed to text Kurt, wanting to know how he was doing. He answered almost as soon as Jack sent the message. For a few hours, they talked a little about what had happened, in an extremely discreet way, and it didn't lead to anything. Through codes, they agreed to meet just before 6 pm every day, to monitor their transformations. The company had declared a seven-day mourning period, with a total ban on the site until they returned.

With the day off, Jack finally found time to take care of the car. Kurt offered to help him but had to insist until Jack agreed. They went down to the parking lot and finally began the cleaning. They filled the car with sweet, strong smells so that it could stand out from the wolf smell.

“It's quite nice that we don't have company, just imagine her getting in this stinky car,” Kurt commented, scrubbing the car.

“At least it's mine. You'd have to borrow it, moreover”, Jack retorted, not too happy with his friend's comment. They both laughed seconds later. “I was thinking, Kurt. We're not the only ones in town,” his friend commented, making quick eye contact. “Before we met, I had transformed other times, and it still took a while to discover you, but now with this wolf in the area…”

Jack had first transformed when he was trying to stop his old group of gang members from making dogs fight each other. That day he realized how problematic everything that his colleagues, and even he, did was. His gang days were filled with a lot of drinking, whoring, and drugs. When he tried to stop the confrontation with the dogs, he was drastically lynched by his colleagues, who left him there, sore and extremely bruised. Suddenly, he was transformed, so it started happening more often. He never understood why.

Kurt, on the other hand, was having sex with a girl. He ended up noticing some strange sensations that he had never felt before, so he went into the bathroom. When he noticed his body aching a lot and noticed body changes, he decided to sneak out the window. When he finally got away from the house, he transformed, and then it started to become part of the routine. He also had no idea where it came from.

The seven days of mourning were over, and everyone was called back to work. During those seven days, the friends had changed four times.

At work, they held a minute's silence for the victims. Lightning was excited to work with NS, and the same was true for the other company. Everything looked like it would get better with the two joinings, so the whole job expanded to other floors of the building, which would make the work even closer to the apartments.

Cassie was fairly down when Jack finally approached her, with a cup of coffee. “Are you okay?” he asked, being responsive to her. Cassie turned around, showing her face, still apathetic about everything that had occurred.

“Thank you so much,” she said, taking the cup. “Very kind of you, Jack,” he thanked her, trying to smile, but failing. “I'm sorry, I'm still not quite right about everything that happened,” she said, sincerely. Jack asked if she wanted to talk about it, and she said maybe.

“If you want to talk, I'm willing to listen,” he said, almost having a heart attack with embarrassment, as he hadn't imagined that he would one day get to talk to her. To his surprise, she gave a slightly truer smile than before. “We can have lunch together today,” he suggested.

“Okay, Jack. Where are we going?” she asked. Jack stammered for a few seconds, as he hadn't been so used to going out to eat since his “outlaw” days. “There's a diner I like. It's about ten minutes from here too,” she smiled, looking at him directly. He felt his heart racing, then realized he could hear hers doing the same. For a few seconds, he stood looking at the area of her heart, concentrating on the beats. “Jack?” she asked, noticing the distraction he was in. He finally came to his senses and agreed to go to the cafeteria with her at lunchtime.