So, guys. This is my new story. Enjoy!
"Do I really have to do this, Mom?", I whined, for at least the millionth time in the past thirty minutes. I've been practically begging my Mom to just let me skip High School and go straight for a job. But, being as lame as she was, she had insisted that I went to La Push's little tribal school. Actually, calling it little is a little, okay, a lot, exaggerating. The school is tiny. And when I say tiny I mean two hundred students tiny.
"Yes," she stated firmly, glaring at me. Well, that's how it went in the Midget's house lately. Yeah, my last name is Midget. You can laugh at me now. Anyway, the last couple of months, including the day we'd spent moving to hell, otherwise known as La Push, had been horrible. Never, ever, in my whole life had I spent so much time arguing with my mother. Actually, the both of us usually got along very well, I even called her my best friend. But that had quickly changed as she'd announced that we were moving in with her new boyfriend --- I cringed at the thought of him --- Michael. It's not like I hated him... He was actually a pretty decent guy, but I couldn't grasp how my mother could replace Dad so easily. It's been only two years since his death and I still haven't gotten over it. And, in fact, I'd thought the same from my mother. But then she'd come home with this huge --- Seriously, he was at least ten thousand feet high --- Quileute man from Washington, literally drooling over him and told me to pack my stuff because we were going to move across the whole country to live with him! Let me tell you, my temper and a hormonal mother don't fit together that well. The night had been spent with yelling at each other, throwing stuff to the ground and, finally, storming up into my room, slamming the door shut behind me and not coming out for at least... Twenty minutes. Because that's how long it had taken me to regret everything I'd said. It's pretty pathetic, really, how fast I feel guilty.
"Maylee Journey Destiny Treasure Midget," my slightly --- Yep, I'm sarcastic --- eccentric mother said, yanking me out of my thoughts. "Wipe away that pout or I'm going to kick you out of the car right now."
I rolled my eyes at her, knowing she would never kick me out. She hardly said a harsh --- as in really harsh --- word to me ever. What? Oh, yeah. Maylee Journey Destiny Treasure Midget is my full name. Why? Well, Maylee is my mother's favorite character in a sloppy romance novel --- you know, the perverted ones ---, so she just decided to name me after that. Awesome, right? Well, no. I hate it. Then Journey... Sometimes I think my mother really is a pervert. I mean, she gave me that name because I was, you know, made on a journey she'd been on with my Dad. Not really something you want to know, right? My last two names were rather cheesy, actually. My mother really believes in stuff like destiny. "It's destiny that I got you," she once had said to me. That would explain my third name. Treasure is so cheesy that it's almost embarrassing. Okay, scratch that. It's really embarrassing. She likes to think of me as the ultimate gift, you know, like a treasure. Gladly no one had ever asked me about my names, I think I would've died right then and there.
"Well, Margaret," I replied, smirking as I saw her cringe because of her name, "I wouldn't be pouting if you wouldn't be forcing me to go to this crappy madhouse called school."
"May, come on. We've had this conversation before. You can't just skip High School!" She sighed heavily, rubbing her swollen stomach, like she usually did when she was stressed out. Oh, yeah. I completely forgot about that. There was another reason we moved to La Push. She was pregnant. Yay, I was going to get a baby brother! As if I wanted that.
"Wow, Mom. Are you sure you're only four months pregnant?," I said, the evil smirk still on my face.
She side-glanced at me, a confused expression on her face. "Yeah, why?"
The smirk grew into a full blown grin as I said, "because you look like you just swallowed the moon."
"That's it!" The car came to a screeching halt as she stomped on the brake. "Get out!"
"What?", I gasped, my mouth hanging open. Was she seriously kicking me out of the car?
"I said: Get out!", she yelled back, her cheeks flushed. "You're walking to school."
"Mom!", I whined --- seriously, I couldn't even use another tone around her --- "You can't just let me walk! It's raining outside!"
"Well, I obviously can," she said, now very calm, pushing me towards the door.
"Fine," I huffed, getting out of the car. "I hope I get sick, or maybe even hit by a car!"
So much about never getting kicked out. Hormonal women are bad.
"I love you, sweetie," my mother sang, smiling brightly at me while leaning forward to shut the door.
I love you my ass.
I sighed as I pulled the hood of my black sweater up to cover my pink hair, starting to walk down the road.
There was another screech and I saw my mother's car stop. First I thought she'd come to her senses and wanted to drive me, but then she threw my bag out of the window and sped away. What the hell?
It took me twenty minutes to find the damn school, including at least ten of walking through the thick forest. Okay, maybe I should've just stayed on the street, but, hey, it's not my fault that I don't have something like a sense of orientation!
Anyway, you can imagine what I looked like when I walked into the school, searching for the registry. My hair was full of moss and leaves, my jeans had a huge hole at my knees because I tripped a couple times and there was blood smeared all over my face, which also came from tripping. Oh, and besides.... I was soaked. Really soaked.
I heard a few giggles from some stupid bitches as I walked down the hall, but silenced them quickly with my most intimidating glare. Ha! It actually worked! I grinned in victory as I opened the door to, god bless my obviously not fully vanished sense of orientation, the registry.
"Oh my god!", the elderly woman behind the desk gasped, clapping her wrinkly hands over her even more wrinkly face. "What happened to you, dear?"
"Oh, that's nothing," I snorted, waving her concern away. "I just tripped."
"I think we should get a doctor to examine your face. Maybe you need stitches!"
"Nah, I don't," I replied confidently. Believe me, I had enough experiences with stitches. By now I know when I need them.
"Are you sure?", the woman said skeptically, her eyebrows scrunched together in concern.
"Yep," I said, popping the 'p'. "Anyways, I'm Maylee Midget. The new student."
"Oh, right! Let me see... Ah, here...," she muttered while rummaging through the messy stack of papers on her desk. "Yeah, you need this one, too.... And this one.... Oh, this one, too."
How many papers did I need?! Thousands?
After about eleven papers --- not thousands---, tons of senseless chatting and ten minutes, I escaped the registry and started to walk towards my first class. Creative Writing. I loved that. Ever since I could think I wanted to become a famous author. I laughed out loud as I thought about my latest, and kind of silly, story. It was about a unicorn and a dragon falling in love with each other. Yeah, laugh at me. You'll stop as soon as you see it on TV and who knows where else. My friends, or rather one friend, Pete back in Oregon had laughed at me, too. Of course neither you, nor Pete understand the point of it. Well, in fact I don't, either. It had been just a random thought while I was having lunch at school, but it had seemed to haunt me until I'd written it down.
Oh, hey! The restroom! Probably a good idea, considering the state I was in. So I walked inside and examined myself in the mirror. Oh boy, I looked like hell. I did my best to get all the dirt, moss and leaves out of my messy hair and washed the blood away, revealing the ugly gash underneath. I'd been right, it wasn't that deep, so the stitches weren't needed. It just didn't look that nice.
"Whatever," I grumbled to myself, washing my face again to make sure all the dirt and blood was gone.
"What the heck?", a voice --- a male voice --- said from behind me, making me spin around. Well, fuck. A male voice could only mean two things: Either I was in the boy's restroom, or the boy, or man, standing in front of me with a very, very strange and dazed expression on his face was in the girl's restroom. The urinals at the wall then seemed to jump right at my face, yelling something like "Arrgh, pirate got the wrong door!". Yup, that's how my mind works... Whatever. Oh wow... .The guy was hot! His black hair was shaggy and hung into his eyes, which were a dark brown, almost black with golden flecks. Then there was his chest... Damn, those muscles! Maybe he took steroids, he certainly looked like it. And, oh swoon! His lips! I felt my inside turn into mush as my eyes roamed his body. Eek! Stop it!
The guy was still staring at me, not saying a word. Ha! A staring contest. I was got at these, I would easily stare him down. So I put on my best glare, staring right into his eyes and preparing myself to win. Oh boy, how wrong I was. After a couple of minutes I felt plain stupid, just standing there in the boy's restroom, staring at some random guy I didn't even know, so I tore my gaze away from his and started to walk out the door. I could feel his eyes on my back all the time, which was actually quite a lot, since I was walking in slow motion. What? I've always wanted to do that! But the guy actually freaked me out a little bit. But, even though he clearly was a creeper, I couldn't help but look back at him as I let the door close, grinning a little bit. The last thing I saw was a huge, blinding smile that lit his face up like a Christmas Tree.
Creeeeeeeeeeeeeper, Jade, otherwise known as my mind, sang in my head and I nodded in agreement, mumbling a "hell yeah".
Then I started to look for my classroom, my eyebrows scrunched together. For a school this small it definitely was confusing.
"Need help?", a husky voice said, making me jump, like almost to the moon. I turned around and saw no other than CreepyBoy --- yeah, my new nickname for him --- standing in front of me, the ridiculously large grin he'd worn in the restroom still on his face. "You look like you need it, considering the fact that you just were in the boy's restroom."
"Thanks, but no thanks," I said, turning away from him and blushing furiously. Seriously, this guy was creepy. First he'd just stared, not saying a word and now he offered me his help while teasing me about my oh-so-embarrassing mistake?
Creepy guys tend to do that, Jade told me, always being wise as hell.
I rolled my eyes at her, knowing that I probably should get my brain fixed, and started to walk towards a random direction.
"The Creating Writing class is over there," the guy suddenly said.
"What?", I spluttered, turning around in confusion. Why did he know where I had to go?
"I took your timetable," he grinned, pointing from my empty hands to his with his chin. What the heck? How did he get that without me noticing?
Run!, Jade screeched in my head, making me cringe slightly. Why the hell should I run?
Because he's CREEPY! Just run before he does anything!
Usually Jade was right, so I took her advice and just bolted, leaving an utterly confused CreepyBoy behind me. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea, considering the fact that I had a pretty bad asthma and wasn't used to running. After two short minutes of running I was wheezing, not getting any oxygen into my lungs. So I stopped in the middle of the hall and dropped to my knees, searching through my bag to find my inhaler. But I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it while having a freaking asthma attack!
So I emptied the contents of my bag onto the floor, frantically throwing stuff over my shoulder while still panting like an idiot.
"Fuck," I rasped, dropping the stuffed frog my best friend had given me a few months ago. I didn't have my fucking inhaler with me!
"I'm dying!", I yelled loudly. "I'm dying! I'm dying!"
Sure enough dark spots started to cover my sight and the sounds around me became dull and hollow. I didn't struggle as the black spots got bigger and bigger. Why fight when I was dying anyway?
Then I heard CreepyBoy's voice, yelling straight into my ear.
"Maylee!", he hollered, making me cringe. His voice was strangely clear. Why was he so loud?
"I'm not deaf," I mumbled, starting to collect my stuff and shoving it back into my bag. Then, with a jolt, I realized that I should be dead, not grabbing my stuff of the floor! I let myself fall backward, landing flat on my butt.
"Oh!", I gasped.
"What's wrong?", CreepyBoy yelled, still much to loud. "Maylee, what's wrong?"
"Why do you know my name?", I blurted, looking up at him.
"What?", he asked, completely sidetracked by my sudden outburst.
"You know damn well what I asked!", I shouted, my temper showing up.
"I... Uh...", he spluttered, and his face flushed a bright red. "Well..."
"Whatever," I muttered, grabbing my bag and starting to walk away. "Creeper."
You're so strange sometimes, Jade told me and I could hear the grin in her voice. I knew it wasn't normal to have a voice in your head, but whatever. I couldn't care less.
"Thanks," I replied, too low for anyone to hear.
I sighed in relief as I finally found my classroom, which turned out to be the first one when you enter the school.
"Hi," I said to the teacher, Ms. Call, making her look up at me. "I'm-"
"Maylee Midget!", she interrupted me with a smile on her face. "Here's your book, let me sign this... There you go. Please, take your seat in the back of the class."
"Thanks," I muttered as I made my way to my seat, tripping over someone's bag and landing flat on my face. Of course everyone in the class laughed at me, but I hardly noticed that anymore. I was used to embarrass myself in front of people.
"Ouch." I reached up to touch my nose, which felt kind of strange, as if it was broken, and sure enough there was blood flowing out of it.
"Great, just great," I mumbled to myself, pressing the sleeve of my sweater against it to stop the blood from dripping onto the floor.
"Maylee?" I groaned as I recognized the frantic voice of... CreepyBoy. Seriously, was he stalking me?
"Maylee, what happened? Who the hell did that to you?" He was still yelling and as I looked at him and his damn fine muscles... Err... My point was, that he was shaking. Really bad. I even thought his frame blurred at the edges.
"Jeez, get a grip," I muttered lowly and got up. Hey, despite the tiny whiney dizziness I felt totally fine!
"Ms. Call?", I asked, getting up while still pressing my arm against my nose. "Could I go to the nurse? I think it's broken."
"Of course, dear," she replied, a concerned look on her face. "Paul, sweetheart. Do me a favor and go with her."
Oh, CreepyBoy had a name! Paul. I liked that. It sounded nice and...
What the fuck? Jade screeched in my head, making me jump in response.
Wait, had she just told CreepyBoy to go with me?
"What? No! I can go alone," I protested, a scowl on my face.
"Nope, you can't," CreepyBoy said sternly. "You'll trip again and end up breaking your leg, too."
"Ms. Call?", I whined pathetically, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Please, I really don't need a babysitter. I can watch myself!"
"I think Paul should go with you, just to make sure."
"Fine," I huffed --- for the second time today --- and stalked out the classroom, CreepyBoy right behind me.
"Do I really look as if I need a babysitter?", I ranted, throwing him a dirty look.
He didn't respond, probably knowing that his answer would just piss me off. For once I was grateful, but then he pretty much ruined the moment.
"So, Maylee Journey Destiny Treasure Midget," he said. "Interesting name."
"Just leave me alone," I grunted, glaring daggers at him.
I still had my sleeve pressed to my nose, which was very painful as I tripped again and pushed against it.
"Ow!", I cried out as the sharp pain brought tears to my eyes.
"What?", CreepyBoy asked, his eyes filled with horror. "Are you alright? God, Maylee! What happened?"
"Nothing!", I yelled at him, silencing him instantly. "Jeez, it's just a broken nose! No need to freak out over it! Besides, it's my nose that hurts, not yours!"
He then mumbled something under his breath which sounded like "if you only knew". If I knew what?
I sighed, deciding to ignore him. That would probably be the best thing to do. But that was easier said than done.
"So, what's your favorite color?", he asked randomly. What the heck?
I just grunted, continuing to ignore him.
"Aw, come on! Talk to me," he whined, shooting me a pleading look.
I laughed at his expression, he looked like a puppy! Ouch, laughing wasn't such a good idea. It sent a throbbing pain through my face, making my eyes all watery again.
Suddenly I felt a very hot hand on my arm. And with very hot I mean like about to start boiling hot.
"Oh my gosh!," I gasped. "You're hot!"
"Thanks," he replied with a cocky smirk. I groaned, noticing the double-meaning in my sentence. Gosh, boys were sooooo immature.
"Ew, CreepyBoy," I said, wrinkling my nose. "I mean your body temperature. Are you sick?"
"CreepyBoy?", he asked, laughing really hard and completely ignoring my question.
I mumbled something incoherent before walking away, being extremely annoyed. Really, did he want to piss me off? Because it sure looked like it.
"Hey, wait!", he yelled, jogging to catch up with me and grinning like an idiot all the time.
Even though I could feel my face flush in anger, something I'd gotten from my mother, I kept quiet. No need for getting expelled from school because I hit CreepyBoy on my first day. I sighed as I pulled the sweater away, my nose had probably stopped bleeding.
"Does it hurt?", Creepy asked worriedly, his forehead scrunched up.
Instead of replying properly, I just huffed. Him being around wasn't exactly what I wanted, even though him being so concerned was kinda cute... Stop it! Thanks Jade, I needed that.
And then I lost my balance --- seriously, what the heck was wrong with me today?--- and started to fall. But my body never made contact with the cold floor, instead two strong and blazing hot arms caught me and then I was staring at Paul. As cliché as this sounds, but I found myself dazed by his gorgeous eyes. My mind went completely blank when I saw him lean forward, eyeing my warily; waiting for me to turn away. He was so close that I could feel his hot breath brush against my face, intoxicated by its smell. My eyes fluttered close and my breathing hitched. Just an inch closer...
Dammit! Stop it! Jade screeched at me again. My eyes snapped open and I turned away from Paul, startled. He immediately sensed my discomfort and released me.
What the fucking hell had that been? Did I really want Paul, the guy I didn't even know, to kiss me?
No, you don't, Jade snapped at me. Seriously, my mind just snapped at me!
"Shut up," I muttered, too low for Paul to hear. Or so I thought.
"What?", he asked, looking at me with a strange expression while I stood there, shifting my weight awkwardly from foot to foot.
"Nothing," I replied quickly, blushing a bright red and looking at anything but him. What was wrong with me? I never blushed! And I certainly never felt embarrassed! But why the heck were my cheeks hot and flushed and why the heck was my stomach churning?
He thinks you're weird. Jade's voice was smug as she thought, said or whatever... Seriously, what was she doing? Talking, thinking or what? Uh, yeah.... I got a little sidetracked. Whatever. The point is, that I never wanted to beat the crap out of her so much before. But it would probably hurt a lot... Plus I would definitely spend the rest of my life in a padded cell if I would just beat myself and then explain I wanted to slap my mind. That was talking to me. Yup, bad idea.
You're crazy. Maybe you should spend the rest of your life in a padded cell, Jade --- beat her up!--- pointed out, making me growl. Sometimes my mind was so annoying.
"What's wrong?", Paul asked , his forehead scrunched together as he tried to figure out what the heck I was doing.
My nose started to itch, so I reached up to scratch it. WORST. IDEA. EVER. Okay, maybe I'd had worse ideas before, like eating my fish a while ago.... Err, whatever. What I mean is that the second I scratched my nose it hurt like hell and started to bleed again. Awesome. I was completely useless today. Seriously, I couldn't even scratch my fucking nose without making it bleed!
"Fuck!" When his roar startled me, it was nothing compared to my reaction to what he did next. In one swift motion he lifted me up, pressing me against his hot and well defined chest while I shrieked and slapped his chest in a feeble attempt to get down. Then he broke into a run and I was beyond shrieking, slapping or doing anything else. In fact, I was even beyond breathing.
I was terrified. Paul moved way too fast, making me panic. Seriously, he was so fast! Oh boy. Second asthma attack today. Shit. This one was bad, even worse than the one before. Asthma and adrenaline are no good friends. In fact, you can say that they're arch enemies.
Paul continued racing down the empty hallway as my wheezing grew louder and more strangled, but he didn't seem to notice that. His eyes were fixed ahead.
"Paul," I rasped, hoping to catch his attention. But again, he didn't notice.
Maybe my voice was too low.
"Paul!" My voice was a shrill shriek by now. Still there was no reaction.
I knew he wouldn't notice me until I did something more.... Err...Noticeable? Yeah, thanks Jade. Slap him. Hmmm... He would definitely notice that, I supposed.
Keeping my hand flat, I slapped his chest. No reaction. What the hell? What was I supposed to do now?! Hit him harder. Ugh, sometimes I feel so stupid because Jade has to point out the obvious to me.
I put all my --- very limited, I might add --- strength into beating Paul. As soon as my fist connected with his hard chest, a sharp pain shot through my arm, making me cry out in pain and my eyes water. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!"
Something was definitely wrong today. I know that I'm always clumsy, but today I reached a whole new level. Seriously, two broken bones and two asthma attacks?
Well, at least Paul finally noticed me, because he suddenly skidded to an halt, almost dropping me in the process.
"What's wrong?", he asked frantically, his eyes wide, terrified and desperate.
"Wrist," I managed to choke out, still wheezing from my asthma attack. "You broke it."
Paul's face went completely blank as he stared down at me. "What?"
It seemed as if he didn't want to understand what I'd said, as if he wanted to deny it. Then he started shaking. Really badly. With me still in his arms. I really don't know why, but the shaking and the fact that his skin was getting hotter and hotter by the second seemed to awake my instincts or whatever. Suddenly I felt very unsafe being so close to him. His eyes had lost focus, they just stared off into space with a somewhat agonized look. I felt his hands clench into fists underneath my body as if he wanted to control the shaking. It didn't work, though, the shaking just increased until it was so violent that I almost fell out of Paul's arms, even though he held me so tightly. I needed to get away from him! FAST!
"Paul!", I squeaked, staring at him with wide eyes. "Let me down!"
He didn't react in any way, he just kept staring and shaking. Crap, crap, crap! My wheezing got worse as I panicked. I knew I wasn't safe in his arms right now and it scared the hell out of me.
"Paul!" This time I yelled as loud as I could, my voice echoing of the walls.
He still didn't react, but it seemed as if my yelling had alerted someone else, because suddenly there were two stranger Native Americans by his side as if they'd appeared out of thin air. I couldn't help but ogle them. Seriously, what did they feed those guys? Experimental growth hormones? One of the guys --- the right one --- was huge. Even taller than Paul and he was already around 6'4. This guy had to be at least 6'7. The left one was smaller, maybe around 6'2, but hell, he was buff. If Paul and the tall one were bodybuilders, he would be their boss. Well, but no one was near to being as handsome as Paul. What the fuck, Maylee? Oh come on, Jade. You have to admit it, he is friggin' attractive! No. Admit it! No! Yes! Fine, he's attractive! Happy? Yep, thanks.
Those guys were just about to drag Paul out of school when they noticed me in his arms. I stared up at them with wide eyes and blushed as they stared right back, freezing in their tracks, surprise edged into every feature of their faces.
There was an awkward silence and then suddenly the guys burst out laughing. More like roaring, actually. I suppressed the urge to cover my ears. Then I noticed the throbbing pain in my wrist and glared up at Paul to find him staring down at me, his mouth open in amazement or something like that. Maybe he was just disgusted at what he saw. Oh well.
"Let me down," I growled at him while trying to squirm out of his hold. He looked as if he wanted to refuse, but when he saw the determined look in my eyes he shrugged and set me on my feet and took a step back.
"You broke my wrist, idiot," "I said, briefly turning to shoot a death-glare at the two laughing guys who sobered in an instant.
"I'm sorry." Paul's voice was no more than a broken whisper and I immediately felt guilty for being so harsh. Stepping forward, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed the side of my face into his chest.
He froze for a moment but then hesitantly slipped his arms around me and held on as tightly as I held on to him.
After a while things were starting to get a little awkward, so I released him and stepped back, craning my head to look up at him. The smile that lit up his face was dazzling.
"Dude, you're weird," I said in a slightly accusing tone and jabbed my finger at his chest. Big mistake. I hissed at the pain that shot through my hand. When I saw Paul's expression turning frantic again I turned around to walk to the nurse.
"Hey, wait!", a voice I didn't know yelled. I paused and turned around to see HugeBoy --- aren't my nicknames goddamn creative?--- jog towards me. "Who are you?"
Adding a mysterious tone to my voice I said, "I'm you."
"What?", the guy asked, obviously confused.
"Never mind," I grinned. "I'm Maylee."
"Jacob Black, but call me Jake. And this is Quil Aterea," he said, pointing at the waving Buffy --- haha. Jacob paused and glanced at Paul who was still staring at me. "I suppose you already know Paul."
I raised an eyebrow. "Is he always like this?"
Jake shook his head, "No."
Shrugging, I lifted my hand. "I need to go to the nurse."
Paul suddenly seemed to be on full alert. "I'll go with you."
I shrugged again and turned around after waving at Jake and Quil. "Nice to meet you!"
Paul and I walked in silence and after a while he opened a door for me.
As I stepped through an elderly woman leaped up and all but ran towards me. "Oh, dear! What happened to you?"
I opened my mouth to speak, "I-"
"She broke her nose and wrist," Paul explained, wrapping an arm around my waist.
Glancing up at him I shot him an annoyed glare before turning to the nurse again. "I tripped."
"I don't think I can treat this here," she sighed. "I'll call an ambulance to get you to the hospital."
"What?", I shrieked, causing both Paul and the nurse to jump. "No! I don't need an ambulance! I... I can walk! I'm sure the hospital isn't far away!" I mean, come one. This town is so tiny!
"It's in Forks." Oh.
"Well, then.... I can drive!"
"I can't let you drive in your state, dear!"
"I can drive her," Paul suddenly offered.
The nurse gratefully looked at him and smiled. "That would be nice, dear."
I groaned and covered my eyes with my good hand. "Alright."
Five minutes later I stood in front of Paul's huge truck and tried to figure out how to get in without using my bad hand. Well, fuck.
Suddenly a pair of warm arms picked me up and put me into the truck. I smiled at Paul and said, "Thanks."
There was an awkward silence as Paul pulled out of the parking lot of the school, gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white. Looking up at his face I noticed that his jaw was clenched and that the corner of his mouth twitched from time to time.
"Spit it out already," I sighed, knowing he was about to burst.
And, as I'd predicted, the words started to flow out of his mouth. "I'm so sorry that I hurt you, Maylee. I know I should've been more careful, but... I got so pissed at myself for.... Not catching you when you tripped and... Argh! I'm so sorry! Does it hurt? Do you feel okay? I can drive faster, if you want. Oh god, I'm so stupid...."
I let him ramble on for a while, but after several minutes of 'Sorry's and 'Oh my god's I cut him off. "Hey, it's okay," I said softly, reaching out to squeeze his hand.
Paul stared at our hands and then up at me, a smile slowly spreading over his face.
When I was about to pull my hand back, he grabbed it and rested our intertwined hands on the arm rest of my seat. Butterflies assaulted my stomach as I unsuccessfully tried to force the blush down my cheeks again. Paul chuckled.
After a few minutes we reached the Forks Hospital. Before I could even move an inch Paul was by my side and opened the door for me. Smiling at him, I hopped out of the car and walked into the hospital.
"What can I do for you?", a young, blond girl with fake boobs asked, bored, as she popped her bubble gum before wrapping it around her manicured finger. Ew, gross. When she noticed Paul, she hid her hand underneath the desk and put a brilliant, flirtatious smile on her face. The fact that she leaned forward to emphasize her boobs went unnoticed by anyone but me.
"My girlfriend-" Yes, I gasped there, too. "- broke her nose and wrist. So we need a doctor."
The girl huffed in defeat before pointing to the hallway left to us.
"Girlfriend?", I asked, raising my eyebrow as we walked down the corridor. I was a little proud at myself for sounding so nonchalant when the truth was that I actually wanted to squeal like a baby and jump up and down.
Paul shrugged, "Yeah, I couldn't stand the way she hit on me."
"Oh." I forced the lump in my throat down before stepping through the door and into the doctor's room.
An hour later we left the office. I looked absolutely hideous with the band-aid on my nose and the bandaged arm. Well, but that was nothing compared to what I would look like tomorrow. Dr. Gerandy had said that my nose would probably bruise, which was going to make me look like I'd gotten into a fight. Awesome.
"Come on, I'll drive you home," Paul said, wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me closer to him.
"I can't go home," I protested, blushing.
"Why?"
I sighed, "I stayed at a hotel last night. I don't even know where the new house is."
Paul raised his eyebrows at me. "Why did you stay at a hotel?"
"I was mad at my Mom because she made me move here," I explained. "So I refused to sleep at Michael's house and insisted on a hotel room."
"Michael? As in Michael Crawford?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Ah, so you're Brady's new sister!"
"Huh," I replied, my forehead scrunching up. "Yeah, I guess."
"I can drive you to their house, if you want to," Paul offered, smiling down at me.
I shook my head --- and regretted it, by the way, because my nose hurt like hell.
"Well, then... We could go to my place."
I was so close to squealing right then and there, but I kept my mouth firmly shut and just nodded. Paul's place. I was going to see his house! And that is so special because....? I don't know, Jade. It just seems special. Weirdo.
***
"This is your house?", I asked incredulously, staring at the pretty, two-story building in front of me. (Check out my profile for a picture of it)
"Yep," Paul affirmed proudly and pulled me through the door, leading me into the bright, wide living room where we plopped down on the comfortable couch.
"Wow," I breathed, astonished. The house was amazing, both outside and inside. When I looked out of the window I could see the water softly rocking against the beach.
"Where are your parents?", I asked, noticing that there was no one here besides us.
Paul's face hardened and a brief flash of anger crossed his eyes. Just as I was about to apologize, he coldly said," They left a year ago."
My forehead scrunched together as I edged closer to him to wrap my arms around him again, comforting him. It felt so right to do it. His muscles loosened at the contact and he relaxed into my embrace.
"Do you want to talk about it?", I asked, pressing my face into his shoulder and breathing in his scent. He smelled like summer rain, moss and a little bit like chili.
Paul took a deep breath before answering," We never got a long, not even when I was a kid... I would always run around outside with Jake and the other guys and they would be working, sometimes even across the country. When I was 14 my mother got pregnant with my little sister Nova. Ever since then things started to get worse. They got violent, both of them, and started to hit me on regular bases. At the age of 16 I had this... growth spurt. They didn't dare to touch me after that, but they still had Nova. I protected her, of course. I mean, she was only 2 years old! When they noticed it was senseless to try it, they simply moved to New York or something. They give me loads of money every month so I can look out for Nova and myself. The first few months we lived with Sam, then I found this house here and bought it. It was a mess, but after two months it looked as if it was new."
"I'm sorry about your parents," I said softly, squeezing him a bit. "Where is your little sister now?"
"She's at Emily's right now, since I'm supposed to be at school," Paul replied just as softly and reached out to run a hand through my short hair. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. His hand started to caress the skin of my cheek and slowly made it's way down to my lips. After brushing it softly, he pulled back. "Do you want something to eat?"
Before I could answer my stomach rumbled loudly. Paul laughed and got up, pulling me along with him. We walked into the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen. I squeaked as Paul suddenly picked me up and carried me across the room to place me on the counter next to the fridge.
I watched him picking stuff out of the cabinets and fridge. "What are you cooking?", I asked after a while.
"Lasagna," he replied, turning to smile at me. My stomach fluttered at the sight and I automatically smiled back.
***
"Oh my god," I moaned. "This is so good."
Paul grinned at me, "I'm glad you like it."
"Like it? Love it fits it better," I munched, shoving another fork of his Lasagna into my mouth.
And then I suddenly remembered something. "Shit."
He instantly perked at my exclaim. "What?"
I sighed and hid my face with my hands. "You like me, right?", I asked, my voice sounding muffled.
"Of course I do," he replied without missing a beat. I smiled at that.
"Can I violate your kitchen?", I asked innocently, pulling my hands away to look at him.
Paul eyed me warily. "For what?"
"I need to apologize to my Mom, Michael and Brady," I grimaced. When he only looked puzzled I added, "Mom only accepts chocolate cupcakes as an apology."
"Ah," Paul said and nodded as if that was something completely reasonable. "Yeah, sure. I can help you making them, if you want."
I nodded enthusiastically and then grimaced again. "You have to do most of it. I can't do anything with my hand."
"Oh, right. No problem." The smile he send me was breathtaking.
"You're my hero," I said and leaned forward to hug him again. Then I hopped down from the counter. "So, where's all the stuff?"
***
In the end I didn't do anything except for ordering Paul around and stealing some batter from time to time. An hour later the cupcakes were done and Paul was completely white from all the flour I'd thrown at him. Much to my surprise he hadn't done anything against it.
"Don't!", I yelped and grabbed the bowl as he was about placed it in the sink to wash it. Then I wiped away the last remains of batter and licked them from my finger.
Looking up at Paul, I noticed he was staring at me with the strangest expression. I could see awe and something else I couldn't quite name. He stepped forward until he was standing between my legs and rested both his hands on the counter beside me. His face was so close that I could feel his hot breath on my skin. "You have some batter right there," he breathed and then closed the gap between us, pressing his lips to mine. My eyes automatically fluttered shut.
I actually forgot how to breathe as I felt his soft lips part and his tongue softly lick my lower lip. Giving in to his silent pleas, I opened my mouth and I swear that if I'd die now, I would die happy.
After several minutes Paul pulled away a little bit to rest his forehead against mine. The both of us were breathing heavily by now and the same, goofy smiles occupied our faces.
"Wow," I breathed happily.
"Wow," Paul agreed and leaned forward to kiss me again.