Lesson 18- Be curious and ask questions. Exploring and learning about the world is fun and important.

The speaker is a guy sitting on a stool at the far side of the bar. He already has a drink in front of him so I assume that Laura has already served him.
“Oh, uh… Thanks I guess?” My words are a question, but I’m not totally sure what I’m even asking. Maybe, ‘why were you even watching in the first place?’ Or maybe ‘is there a reason you’re talking to me right now?’ The guy stands up, grabs his drink and moves to sit closer to me.
“So, you’re the human who has started livin’ in this bar.” He begins and I raise an eyebrow. Is that supposed to be common knowledge? I didn’t really think it was something that we were going around telling everyone. It’s kind of weird to be honest.
“Living here is one way to put it I suppose. Did Laura tell you?” I ask. She doesn’t seem like the gossipy type, but I don’t know her that well yet so it is possible. Although this isn’t the type of guy I would imagine her gossiping with anyway. He’s fairly average height but his build is fairly muscular. He has reddish brown hair and a friendly expression. In a single word I would describe him as approachable. He’s handsome enough I suppose, but not the kind of handsome that you see on TV. More like the guy you could imagine bringing home flowers to his wife and playing with his kids. He has some serious golden retriever energy. Actually, a better word than approachable might be wholesome. At a glance I don’t see a ring on his finger, so maybe my theory about the wife and kids isn’t quite accurate, but it’s easy to picture. Then again, I don’t even know this guy’s name, much less what he’s like as a person. It’s just the vibe that he gives off. Normally I’d be a little intimidated having a guy approach to talk to me like this, but I’m not concerned by him at all. Maybe it’s just the contrast between his approach and Elijah’s far more seductive demeanour.
“Nope. Laura didn’t say a word.” He answers with a grin. I frown.
“Then how did you know?” I ask.
“I’m Jackson Lauder. Werewolf. It’s nice to meet you.” He holds out a hand for me to shake. It doesn’t escape me that he never answered my question, but I answer anyway.
“Carina Akari. You already know that I’m human.” I respond, lightly grasping his hand and shaking it. He yanks his hand away quickly with a frown but quickly smiles at me again. A little weird but whatever. He’s the first person to introduce himself by just TELLING me what he is. It’s kind of nice to not have to guess.
“That I do. Although what I don’t know is what a human is doing living and working in a bar for the supernatural. You shouldn’t even know about us.” Jackson’s tone is curious. He isn’t outright ASKING for an explanation but I can tell that he’s hoping for one. Screw it, it’s not like it’s some big secret. No one has forbidden me from telling the truth.
“Some guy with claws and a bad attitude attacked me on the street. Torin saved me but apparently I saw a little bit too much. Rather than risk… Damaging me by messing with my memory he decided to just keep me here instead. It’s all been a little wild to be honest. I’m still trying to catch up.” I admit. Something about this werewolf makes me comfortable confiding in him. This might be a stupid decision, but really what is he going to do with this information? I guess the worst he could really do is just tell everyone. Jackson nods along sympathetically.
“I get it. I only found out about all this a few years back and I’m still figurin’ things out.” He confesses.
“Huh? Have you not always been a werewolf then? How did that happen?” I ask curiously. Sure I’ve seen all the movies and TV shows where people get bitten and turned into werewolves, but I’m not taking anything for granted here. I don’t want to make any assumptions. For all I know they’re super offensive. Then again, asking how a guy ended up turning into a werewolf could also be rude but I have to learn somehow and Jackson seems nice.
“Aww, well it’s a long story but basically I got a bad blood transfusion after a nasty car wreck.” He doesn’t sound all that bothered by it.
“Seriously? How does that even happen? And if that can happen, why doesn’t it happen more often?” I ask, totally fascinated.
“Oh, well it usually doesn't. Supernaturals don’t generally donate blood. But every now and then there’s someone with supernatural blood who doesn’t know it. I looked into it. The guy who donated the blood was a quarter werewolf. Apparently the blood was dormant or something and the guy’s parents never bothered to tell him about it since they didn’t want him to feel excluded. They were horrified to find out he donated blood. Even then it wasn’t likely that the small amount of blood would actually do anything to me, it was like a one in a million fluke that somehow the blood decided to kick in and here I am. It was confusing as hell at first, all these other werewolves kept insisting that I’m supposed to be part of a pack or whatever. Took forever for me to get them to leave me alone.” He grumbles.
“What, you don’t want a pack then?” I wonder. Jackson shrugs.
“I’d rather make my own friends than have a bunch of people hoverin’ around me because I share some blood with them and happen to get fangs and fur every few weeks.” He says firmly.
“I get that.” I agree. Blood definitely isn’t everything.

I spend a few minutes serving other customers then I try asking again how Jackson knows I’m living here but he refuses to answer.
“Seriously? But that’s mean.” I whine and he laughs.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Let me pretend to be mysterious a little longer.” He says dramatically and I laugh.
“Fine, fine. But you better not make me wait too long to find out.” I narrow my eyes and Jackson holds up his hands in surrender.
“I won’t. Promise, you’ll have all your answers by this time tomorrow.” He promises and I raise an eyebrow. Is there something happening tomorrow I should know about? I hold out my pinky finger.
“Promise?” Jackson rolls his eyes and links his pinky with mine. We pinky promise but as soon as we’re done he yanks his hand back.
“Alright, that's the second time you’ve done that now. What’s up with that?” I demand. Jackson shrugs.
“It’s no big deal. Turns out being a werewolf comes with a severe silver allergy. You’re wearing a silver bracelet. It just burns a bit when it touches me.” He explains. I frown and roll my eyes.
“Why didn’t you say so? That’s easily fixed.” I remove my bracelet. It was a gift from my brother a few years back. At least I was wearing it so it didn’t get ruined along with all my other stuff. I realise I don’t have any pockets so I slip the bracelet into my bra.
“There, all gone. I won’t wear it here anymore. Not sure where else I’m GOING to wear it since this is the only place I can actually go. But I’ll figure something out.” I think aloud. Jackson grins and we re-do the pinky promise without the flinching away and pain. Jackson furrows his brow and his eyes fall on something behind me. I turn to see Torin is behind the bar. I still need to apologise so I take a step towards him, trying to catch his eye. Before I can even open my mouth to say his name, Torin heads back out the door and is gone again. Okay I’m starting to think he’s avoiding me. Damn.