I hold out hope that I can become cool by sheer osmosis, like hanging around cool people will make me cooler. That never worked with Thalia (the coolest), but it could work with someone else. Maybe hanging out with Whitebrow will make me cool and tough and then I’ll be able to stand up to a pack of wolves.

Or at least a bug. Please.

I shrink a little as Whitebrow starts ranting about his mum; my ears flop down, my tail hangs between my legs and I hunch my shoulders a bit to make myself look smaller. I try to arrange my facial features into something agreeable and understanding, but really I’m just confused. So… all women are trouble because this guy’s mum left him? I left my mum and sister (accidentally), so does that mean all small guy wolves who apparently pass as female are trouble too? I don’t think anyone’s ever described me as trouble in my life. Nuisance is usually closer to the mark.

There’s another part of this monologue which is throwing me a bit.

“Okay.” I try not to sound too much like an idiot. “But, um… my dad left me, and my mum was there for me… so…?” My mum’s not a ‘real prick’, either. My mum’s the best. She always leaves me and Thalia the best bits of her kill, she smiles a lot and she hugs me whenever a moth flies into our den. Or… or at least she used to. I guess I don’t have a mum anymore either. Maybe Whitebrow would argue that my mum should have come and found me after we got separated, and that she’s not such a great mum after all. It’s a weird thought. “Okay,” I repeat in a small voice, mostly because I don’t want to sound like I’m arguing with him.

I seem to have one some respect (or pity). Whitebrow calls me a bro. That’s me. Lefty the bro.

Also, it’s kind of rude to call my name weird when he hasn’t even told me his. I guess I can’t keep calling him ‘Whitebrow’.

“Um, okay.” Okay is becoming my second favourite word after um. “Um, so what’s your name?”

If Lefty’s a weird name, then what’s a not-weird name? John? Barry? Somehow, Whitebrow doesn’t look like much of a Barry.

I nod along with him when he nods and give my tail a little wave, just so it seems like I completely agree. Yeah. Screw women? They… suck?

LEFTERIS
homeless two year-old cub. bugs suck.