Pen told me she was leaving on my 17th birthday, two days before she was supposed to leave.

I love her so much but I don't understand how we got to a point where avoiding a girl was a better option than leaving your family.

I was so angry at first, avoiding her for the rest of the day not understanding her motives.

But here I am standing in front of her dorm room door with tears going down my cheeks and knocking.

As soon as she sees me in this mess of a state, she pulls me inside and puts me into a bone crushing hug.

We both sob with each other until we can't anymore, knowing this 11 year friendship is going to shift.

When we fall asleep we are still holding each other in comfort.

When I wake up I see all the boxes in her room thanks to the sun shining through the curtains.

Stupid sun doesn't it know that today is a bad day.

Pen has a whole plan to get to this dance and be Josie's date before she leaves. Of course I help her with it, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't.

Just before she leaves for the dance it hits us that this is our last chance to say goodbye.

I can't go to the dance because I am under dorm arrest for pinning one of the vampires against the wall in a chokehold for being a dick.

I pull her into a hug. "I love you Pen, please be safe and please call."

"Trust me you will be tired of me by the end of the week."

It's a good joke, a great joke even but I can stop the tear that slips out.

There's a frown that hits her face as she lifts her hand to gently brush away my tear with her thumb.

"Just promise to keep an eye on JoJo for me. I love you and don't be afraid to visit. Goodbye Cypress."

"Goodbye Pen."

I lay in bed breaking down for the rest of the night.

I closed off for a little after that night.

How could you not, but then a year passed and although it was shitty without Pen, it got easier as I started to make friends again.

Mostly Jed.

Jade was cool for like the 3 days she was here, and I kept an eye on her and Josie like Pen had asked me to, but Jade was cool and I didn't mind her for Josie.

So it's usually just Jed and I, occasionally MG and Kaleb when they didn't have some stupid mission to go participate in.

That leads us to today, with me on facetime with Pen,(I have a phone because Dr. Saltzman has a problem saying no to wealthy parents of his students.) and her asking how Josie is.

Jed lets out a chuckle because we laugh a lot when we smoke, but also because he knows this is not going to go well.

I blow out the smoke of the hit I just took, blowing it in the general direction of the window.

"Um I don't know, she goes to mystic falls high now."

"You're joking, Cy I told you to keep an eye on her."

"Yes I know but she's a big girl and I am not going to cage her in. I mean hell I am practically on stalker level for you, its creepy Pen."

"Yes I understand that but–" I cut her off.

"No buts, plus this probably won't last long. I don't think she can stay away from this life for long, well at least Hope won't let her, speaking of, did I tell you I think she has a thing for Mikaelson?"

Jed actually laughs at that nodding enthusiastically while laying on my bed.

"Just please look after her, especially after the whole dark academia Megamind thing."

"I will as soon as I can, Love you Pen."

"Love you too Cy." She hangs up and I go lay down on my bed next to Jed. We make eye contact.

"That went accordingly." We both burst out laughing.

It's a couple days later when I am smoking a joint listening to Softcore by the Neighborhood filling the silence in my room. Then Jed walks into my room.

"God I fucking love this song."

"I know." I say with a smile pulling at my lips as he lays down next to me stealing the joint from my mouth.

"What the fuck." I say as I slap his arm playfully.

He's been really good since he's become the alpha again. It sucks the way it happened but Jed was missing a part of himself.

"How's the pack?"

"Sad about Raf, but healing."

I nod showing I am listening.

"You know you should come hang out with us more."

"Yeah I will."

"They respect you, you know? Even the newer ones because they think we're dating." He says wiggling his eyebrows at that last part. I punched him in the stomach this time.

It's not an uncommon assumption and Jed's cool but we don't hide away in my room to have sex, we come here because my room has the best ventilation. It's safe to say though that I am not Alyssa Chang's favorite person in the world.

He hands me back my weed and I take a hit.

"You know we should be expecting another member. Josie found a wolf at Mystic Falls, she's coming this Monday along with Josie."

Of course Josie would find the one wolf in town that we don't have at the school.

Then I catch the rest of his sentence. I whip my head in his direction.

"Wait Josie's coming back?"

"Yep, I am sure Pen won't be all too happy about that."

"Yeah, I intend on leaving the wolfy companion out of our next call."

"Good idea. Hey there's a party tonight at the Old Mill, all the wolves are going, you wanna be my plus one?"

"So I need an invite to my own pack's party, seems like your leadership has faults."

"Shut up Cy, it'll be fun come on."

"Okay sure, why not."

It actually was pretty fun.

We had a bonfire and passed around bottles of alcohol, and had music in the background that someone wasn't awfully DJing.

It was a good playlist after I made some tweaks to it, we both always know newer music thanks to my phone. It was chill, some of us were drinking, some of us were smoking and some were doing both.

By some, I mean Jed.

Surrounding myself with these people again, my people again, there was something calming about it.

Once the night had reached an end I dragged Jed back to his room and put him to bed, returning to mine to do the same.

The weekend went by in a hazy blur thanks to how hungover I was, but Sunday was spent in my bed listening to music and watching some marvel movies on my phone.

Nearing the later hours of the night I decided I should call Pen.

She picked up on the third ring and I let her in on the news that Josie was coming back tomorrow and that we were getting a new mutt as Pen likes to say it.

I guess I forgot how smart she was.

"So Josie's bringing some she-wolf back to the school."

"Yeah, seems like it."

"Are they together?"

"I don't know Pen, I don't even know the girl's name yet."

"Okay fine, so how are you?"

"I'm good, and you?"

We spent about an hour and a half catching up with each other. It felt normal, like everything was going to be okay.

Until it wasn't.