Their eyes flick to you as they lean against the decaying, dusty water fountain the mayor of this small town had bothered to put up decades ago. Not that it mattered much. By now, the prosperous neighborhood your and their parents had lived in when they were kids had decayed, neglected and left to rot by a town with a too-tight pocketbook and a renewed interest in the neighborhood up north, near the center. Ironic, considering back when this water fountain was put up, that was the neighborhood that their mom described as “rotten.” Suppose the new landlords looking for somewhere cheap to renovate really found their golden goose.

Really, the whole town is a mess of some kind or another. Down here, the straggler pack of werewolves causing accidental bites left and right, up there, corruption and coin trading places in some effort to make the place look nicer and chase out all the poor people they were displacing back down to here.

Orion smiles, despite themself, not entirely sure what to say. Instead, they stay quiet, turning their attention back to the passers-by, the way they move around them, the odd stares and glares they got. It’s too small down here. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows someone who’s been bitten. And everybody that knows anybody knows that Orion and their family were born werewolves. With the rise in bites, it’s only natural that they’ve been targetted. Doesn’t matter that their family has lived here for centuries. Doesn’t matter that noone in their family has bitten anyone without consent for 5 generations. Werewolves are out here causing problems, and they’re a werewolf.

Still, you’re different. You’ve never been off about them like everyone else has. Maybe it’s just because you took a chance on them in highschool. Maybe it’s because you moved back into this town late enough that you were willing to give just about anyone a chance at first. Either way, they really don’t want to mess up with you. It’s been years since you first met. You two have graduated now. It’s hard to say what will happen next. They pause for a moment, glancing back at you. Orion knows where they’ll be, really. Their family has ran the local grocer for as long as the town has existed, and they have no reason to dig their heels in and risk leaving this place an actual food desert for the foreseeable future. Besides, Orion knows themself. Their territory is here. The family’s territory is here. Even if they left, they’d end up back in this too-small town and these woods by the beginning of spring.

You had no such attachments to this place…

They don’t really know if they want to tell you to run, get that degree while you can, and find someplace with some actual opportunity, or be selfish and keep you here with them instead.

“So… have you thought about it? College, I mean.” They finally speak up, gulping ever-so-slightly as they try to prepare themself to swallow whatever choice you end up making.