“Cody.” He stood over me a little longer before sighing and taking a step back. “Can I at least stay until next week?”
I had to look away from him because he was making that face again.
“Come on, Cody,” he prodded, a little whinier than before.
“God damn it! Fine. Just promise you won’t get me kicked out.” I walked over to the bed and sat on the mattress. “Ugh, I feel like shit. I don’t even want to argue anymore.”
“Wanna hear a story?” Roscoe asked, picking up the bag of weed and walking to the other side of the bed. The covers hadn’t been washed yet, so I didn’t object this time.
“You’re gonna smoke that in here?”
“Weare,” he said, leaning back against the wall. He pulled a lighter and a small pack of cigarette paper from the bag.
“I don’t smoke.”
He ignored me and rolled the joint anyway.
“I grew up in bumfuck nowhere Arkansas, and my parents were, uh… missing a lot of the time. When I was about seventeen, I never stayed at home. At night I’d sleep in barns, and during the day, I’d dig ditches or whatever else people wanted me to do to make a little money. It was pure shit, but when I went half-turn, that’s when things really got bad.” He took a drag of the joint before passing it to me.
“So, what happened?” I put the joint to my lips and took in a deeper drag than I intended. Roscoe slapped my back as I choked.
“Good shit, ain’t it?” he asked, gently taking the joint from my fingers.
“My lungs are on fire.”
He let out a deep laugh before resuming his story. “When you go half-turn, you get really horny. I mean, so horny it starts to hurt unless you got a werewolf to fuck ya. When the town found out what I was, they nearly ran me out with shotguns thinkin’ I was gonna start knocking up their daughters with werewolf babies.”
“Well, they had a point,” I said, feeling a little light-headed, but calmer. “When did all this happen?”
Roscoe took another puff before scratching his head. “The twenties? Thirties? Somewhere in that time. Hell, I don’t even remember if this is really my story.”
My eyes widened. “How old are you?”
He shrugged. “I did a lot of heavy drugs for a long time. I couldn’t remember if I tried. Maybe a hundred? Seventy?”
“You’re old enough to be my great grandfather,” I said, sounding more disgusted than I was. “Was your dad a werewolf?”
“Don’t know. He died in some war, I think. My momma said I must have gotten it from dad’s dad. Apparently, he was a huge Sicilian alpha. He ran the mafia before mafias were a thing.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “You’re Italian?”
“Uh, sure. Yeah.”
“So, if your grandfather had it, your dad probably did too, right?”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, kid. Most people who go half-turn have no idea they got the unlucky gene until it happens in their teens.” He passed me the joint again. “Curious. How old are you?”
“Twenty-two,” I said, and took a lighter drag. “So, did they end up running your ass out of town?”
“Didn’t need to. No one would hire me to do anymore work, so I had to find a place that was a little more progressive. You know, it’s funny. They were so worried about me fucking their daughters, they had no idea what I was doing to their sons. That was kinda how I survived for a little while. In exchange for not telling anyone they were sucking half-turned werewolf dick, they gave me food and hush-money until I had enough to hop a train and head up north. The rest is just a mess of hard drugs, psychedelics, weed and lots and lots of great sex.”
“Doesn’t sound like you really minded being a werewolf.”
“I wouldn’t have if society didn’t completely fuck me over after turnin’. It’s a lot harder than you think. You call me lazy, but I wasn’t always this way. I just stopped giving a fuck because anything I’d do never mattered. No one wants to hire a werewolf for the good jobs, so they make us do all the shit humans don’t want to.” He took one long drag until the joint almost disappeared. “And I say, fuck that.”
Even though his mood had shifted, he was being a lot more sincere.
“Why are you telling me this? Another werewolf said something similar on my way home, and he asked if I had a roommate.”
