Chapter one
"W-what?" I said uneasy, shock ringing through my voice.
"I said I've been dating Drew for awhile and well… we're getting married!!!!" She said happily.
I just sat there like I have been with my mouth hung open, tears building up around the edges of my eyes, thinking that life was pointless. When the ones you think will always be here just disappear in a blink of an eye. Ever since Harry died no one would even bring up the subject, let alone try and actually replace my father. No one ever will.
I sat there for a second longer before I ran as fast as I could out of the house and in the safety of the forest where no one would be able to hear me crying. Lately it seemed that's all I ever did now was cry. You probably would to if your boyfriend left you for your cousin shortly after your dad died. I cried by a near fallen log thinking what did I do to deserve this punishment. Feeling numb I just starred into the forest aimlessly, scared that if I moved the pain would start. I hated feeling weak, it made me seem stupid and fragile. Letting everything out had it's benefits, I actually felt a little better. I was still mad at my mom, don't get me wrong but it feels as if a weight has been lifted or some stupid crap like that. I let out a long sigh and snapped my head in the direction I heard a stick snap.
"Who's their?" I let out a shaky breath feeling sort of frightened seeing as it was getting darker outside by the minute. No one answered and I figured that was enough for me, I winced as I got up and started to walk back home feeling flooded by all the emotions. I knew I'd be in trouble for darting out of the house like that. I didn't care anymore; everyone I loved was gone, besides my brother Seth. I didn't dare look back into the forest as I walked onto the porch, instead I let out breath I didn't know I was holding and opened the door afraid to witness my mothers reaction.
"And just where and the hell did you go?!" My mother yelled at me.
"No where" I muttered and started walking up the stairs to my room figuring I had a chance at avoiding talking to her for much longer.
"Oh no you don't, get your butt back down here Leah Clearwater right now!" She said even more aggravated that I had tried to ignore her.
"What mom?" I said frustrated. She gave me this dirty look that made me even more annoyed.
"Do you have a problem with me marrying Drew, Leah?" She asked raising her left eyebrow.
"No…" I said looking out the window, still feeling a little weird from what happened in the forest and by the fact that she was asking if I wanted them to even get married, yeah like I'd really say No mom, I don't want you to marry that jerk and him replace dad. I did a double take looking out the window when I thought I saw glowing yellow eyes shine through the window as if I light was pointed towards what ever was out there. I looked back at my mom quickly trying to get rid of the weird feeling.
"Positive?" Hell no.
"Yes." How could I honestly be okay with my mom remarrying another man that wasn't my father? I was getting ticked off by the second so I stormed upstairs to my room shutting and locking the door before she could possibly comprehend what just happened. I laid on my bed putting my headphones in my ears and cranking the volume up all the way up only to fall asleep soon after.
I woke up to a soft knock on my door. I walked slowly to open it wondering how I could have heard that and looked at my IPod to see that it was dead, figures. I opened the door and was surprised to see Seth's face right in front of me.
"Hey Leah" He said looking at the ground like he was embarrassed about something.
"What's up bro?" I said wondering what he was here for.
"Can I talk to you about something?" He asked looking like a sad puppy.
"Sure, about what?" I sat back on my bed while Seth came and sat right beside me.
"Leah, I want you to give mom and her boyfriend a chance." He stated boldly.
"Excuse me?"
"I just want you to give him a chance, I want mom to be happy" I couldn't believe my brother; he was actually willing to give this jerk a chance! We don't even know him for crying out loud!
"I never said I didn't want mom to be happy, I just don't want him thinking he can replace dad." I snapped.
"Leah, you know no one could ever do that. I'm just asking that you give the guy a chance, for mom?" He looked me straight in the eye looking for an answer, smiling.
"I guess." I said a minute later smiling at my little brother with everything I could muster up. He got up off my bed and walked out; shutting my door leaving me to think about what he had asked me. Could I give this guy a chance for mom's sake?
Everything was quiet through out the rest of the day until Seth came into my room and said that there was going to be a bonfire later tonight and asked if I wanted to go. I instantly got nervous knowing that Sam and Emily would be there. I honestly didn't know if I could handle seeing them cuddle and whisper lovingly into each others ears, like Sam had once done with me. I suddenly felt a shock of pain right in my chest and winced.
"Are you alright Leah?" Seth worried. He knew about me and Sam breaking up and him getting with Emily shortly after. He wouldn't blame me for not wanting to go if I declined his offer.
"Yeah, just freaking peachy." I sighed. I had gotten a bit of an attitude after Sam had left. Seth ignored my rude remarks and tones but mom wouldn't take it. She even threatened to kick me out if I didn't straighten up. Like I care, right?
"So, you want to go or not Lee?" He asked again a little annoyed by my rudeness. I thought for a second, I haven't done anything fun in awhile and I was getting pretty freaking sick of staying locked up in the house all the time. I figured I would just ignore Sam and Emily and just enjoy the night while I could.
"Sure" He looked at me as if asking me if I could go through the night with knowing who would be their.
"I'll be fine" I assured him. I could feel his eyes on my back as I went up the stairs to shower and change. I felt something I hadn't in awhile, I actually felt kind of excited for once, I smiled at that.
I let my hair down from the towel I had it in when I was safely in my room. My hair fell right above my waist giving it a nice long silky look. I loved my hair, it was midnight black and the only part of me I cared about. I walked to my closet to find something nice to wear, something pretty. I took out my white sundress and knew right away it would look good. I blow dried and straightened my hair and slipped the dress on with ease. I didn't really care for makeup much and just put some eyeliner on. I slipped on my white flats and walked down stairs. Seth looked at me when I entered the living room and I could of swore his eyes were about to bulge out of his head.
"Uh, what?" I asked nervously. Did I have something in my hair? On my dress? I started looking down at what I had on and didn't see anything wrong with it.
"Nothing Leah, you just look like my beautiful sister again" Awe. I felt touched by what my brother had just told me. After everything happened and so close together I started to not care about anything, including what I wear. I guess you could say this is as far I've gotten since dad died, and to tell you the truth, I felt pretty.
"Thank-you" I smiled up at him. I now knew why I loved my little brother so much.
"You ready to go now?" He asked cautiously
"Yep." I smiled
"You seem better Leah, why are you so happy all of a sudden?"
"I don't know, I just want to have a good night and for once I actually feel pretty." I admitted to him
"You've always been pretty Leah; you just went through some tough times." We got in the car and started driving to the bonfire location. We didn't talk the whole way and I focused more on what my brother said to me, do I really look that happy? I felt the car come to a stop and I turned my head to see a fire off in the distance. I looked up at Seth who was already waiting for me outside of the car. For a moment I just sat there looking at my brother and wondering when did he get the sudden growth spur? He looked like he was over 6 feet tall, and when did my brother get muscles?
"Are you taking steroids Seth? He looked taken aback because he stopped walking right as I said it.
"No, why do you ask that? He chuckled.
"Oh, nothing." I looked up at my now giant brother and smiled. I walked behind him, afraid that I might not want to see the first thing my eyes landed on. Feeling more hesitant I made sure my small figure was well hidden behind Seth's giant one. We neared the fire and started hearing jumbled conversations all at once.
"Hey Seth did Le-"Seth had moved out of the way, exposing me to everyone instead of answering Embry's question. I glared at Seth and he just smiled back. Asshole.
I turned my gaze back to everyone and saw everyone's eyes on me. I felt a blush start creeping to my cheeks. Turning my frantic eyes to the ground I got a small glimpse of a pair of eyes that were all to familiar to me and a sharp pain went through my chest as I saw his arm around my cousins' waist. I quickly regained my pose and looked at Seth who just smiled apologetically at me.
"H-hi" I muttered to everyone and started making my way to Seth who was making his way to a log around the fire across from Jake, Embry and Quil. They all looked as big as my brother, if not then bigger. I wondered when all these growth spurs happened. I didn't think that I had been wallowing in self pity for that long. No one came up to me so I just sat there staring into the flames of the bonfire until I heard Billy's voice through the trees being wheeled in by Jake. I looked where Jake had been sitting and saw that it was empty. I guessed I zoned out a lot more than I thought. He was about to speak until he saw me, a smiled stretching across his face.
"Well hello there Leah it's nice to see you." He said, still smiling. A little disturbed by the awkward silence that followed I muttered a hi just like I had earlier. Everyone fell into there own conversation like before and I just sat there wondering if they could even see me. I stared into the flames once more just thinking why I even bothered coming, no one was even trying to make a conversation with me. Out of no where like he read my mind, I saw Jake get up and make his way around the fire and sat down with a loud thump on the log beside me. He didn't say anything at first so I stared back at the fire and he followed my gaze and did the same. I peeked through my long lashes and saw that he was watching me with very curious eyes.
"Hi." He said simply.
"Hi."
"You doing okay?" He asked and for a second it actually looked like he cared about my answer.
"Surviving." I didn't feel like spilling my guts to Jake, even though I knew him since we were kids I didn't feel like I could just blurt out everything to him.
"You look pretty" His response surprised me. I slowly turned my head from the fire to look at him. I gave him a dirty look, grunted and looked back at the fire. He smirked at my reaction and elbowed me in the ribs. I winced automatically. Either this boy got a lot stronger or I've just gotten wimpy because that actually hurt and I knew it was going to leave a stupid bruise.
"Oh Leah are you okay? I didn't think it would hurt, I'm sorry!" He said frantically. I motioned for him to shut up.
"It's okay." I stated, clearly pain in my voice. I looked up and saw that Sam had an angry look on his face that scared the crap out of me. He was making his way over here and I slipped off the log not noticing how close I was on the edge. Nice one Leah, fall on your butt in front of your ex, real nice.
"What did you do Jacob?" Sam yelled at Jake. I wondered how he could have possibly heard us. I looked up at Jake feeling bad. It took all the courage I had to find my voice.
" Don't yell at him, It's not your concern anyway." I snapped. Sam looked at me shocked that I had spoken. Jacob turned to look at me and frowned. Sam looked so taken aback he didn't know what to say. He walked away dumbfounded with a dazed look and I giggled. I had actually told my ex-boyfriend off and didn't feel the slightest pain at all. I loved this feeling it made me feel so free.
"Did Leah Clearwater just giggle?" I turned and saw Jacob staring at me with the biggest grin I had ever seen on his face forgetting all about what just happened. I busted out laughing causing a few glances from some people but I didn't really care at the moment.
"Yeah, I think I just did." I looked over and caught Seth looking over at me smiling; I knew he had heard me laugh so I just smiled back at him to know that I think I was slowly getting over Sam.
After awhile Billy started to tell everyone to sit down so he could start telling us the legends. I sat there by Jacob staring up at Billy waiting for him to start. The next couple hours were the best I've had in weeks. I loved hearing about my tribes old legend's, they were fascinating and made you wonder what if? I noticed that some of the things he described also seemed to describe my brother and Jake, including some of his friends, but they were only legends right? I looked over at Jacob that he couldn't possibly be a shape-shifter; he was the kid down the street that I use to make mud pies with when I was little not some werewolf who fought off vampires. I shuddered at the thought of the cold ones. It had gotten quiet when everyone started to drift apart after Billy was finished. I saw Jake get up and pull out his phone.
"Hey Bel.." I tuned him out after that. I didn't really know what to think of Bella Swan, I just had a bad feeling about her. I sat there not wanting to move and just stared into the fire once again. I heard a stick break again in the forest and instantly thought of the night I ran out of the house. I looked around and saw that everyone was either walking back to the houses or dipping there feet in the ocean before heading back. Freaking out just a little I got up and tried to get a better look. I couldn't see anything but felt that something was there. As soon as I was about to turn back I saw those same pair of glowing yellow eyes shine at me right before they disappeared again. I stumbled back to far to fast that I tripped over the log everyone was sitting on during the stories. I waited for the impact of the hard rocks but shockingly it never came, I felt these warm arms wrapped around my waist. I looked up instantly and wished I didn't. The person who was now holding my waist for no apparent reason now was none other than my ex-boyfriend, Sam. Anger started taking over me, I glared at him long and hard not liking him touching me there at all and stormed off without looking back.
"Leah, wait!" I started running, tying to avoid him as much as possible. No way in hell was I about to sit there and listen to his bullshit. I hated how his arm sat still around my waist when I was perfectly set on my feet again.
"Fuck off!" I snapped at him and kept running until, might I add out of no where, I ran into something hard and warm. What the fuck? I looked up from the ground and saw Jake looking down at me with a frown.
"Are you okay Leah? I didn't mean to make you fall." He said sincerely. I didn't bother responding and just got up and started walking right past him towards my house. To pissed off to say anything I just left Jake standing there with a confused look on his face. I have no clue why I was getting madder by the second. I felt weird too, like I could knock down a tree or something if I wanted to. I reached the porch and stopped right where I was. Right when I was about to open the door I heard giggling. What the fuck? I knew Seth wasn't home so I also knew there wouldn't be any girl's in the house unless… but mom wouldn't do that, would she? I don't know.. So what did I do? I opened the door and witnessed the most gruesome disgusting image I could have ever laid my eyes on. On the couch was none other than my mom with her dress hiked up almost to her waist with her so called 'husband' on top of her groping her like there's no tomorrow. Apparently they didn't hear me open the door so I slammed it nice and hard. My mother jumped up off the couch horror written all over her face. On her 'husband's' face was pure anger. I guess I ruined his happy moment. Perv.
"Leah!!" My mom screamed.
"You guys are sickening, oh and its nice to meet you dad." I sneered at him making the best glare I could come up with and stomped my way to my room. I slammed my door and locked it nice and good. Sorry Seth, deals off.
I woke up Later that night seeing as I feel asleep when I heard someone messing with my door. I looked over towards it not seeing clearly still half asleep. Then I heard the clicking noise as whoever was on the other side was twisting the knob farther than it should be going when it's locked and the knob gave in. I couldn't see the persons face clearly but could only make out that he was male.
"Seth?" My voice trailed on not really knowing who this person was. The next thing I knew I was being pinned down on my bed unable to comprehend what just happened. I let out a scream only to have a hand clumped over my mouth.
"Shut the fuck up!" He snapped. This is definitely not Seth. Tears started to pour out of my eyes like leaking water facets not knowing what's going to happen next. I felt a hard impact on my cheek and stared in horror at the person on top of me. Right on cue the moon light came threw my window and I instantly tried to let out another scream. On top of me was the person I hated more than Sam. I couldn't believe my eyes. I tired squirming to get lose but he had me pinned down good. This made me cry even harder knowing what may come next. I prayed to whatever's out there to save me. I suddenly heard someone calling my name faintly.
"Leah, Leah, LEAH!!!" The person yelled shaking me. I opened my eyes slowly meeting Seth's worried face. It was all a dream? I felt tears about to spill out as I thought of what I dreamt about. I felt so scared at that moment that I didn't care if Seth saw me cry. I felt so defenseless and fragile. I busted out crying and Seth pulled me into a hug and just rocked me back and forth whispering words of comfort. I felt so relieved to have a brother like Seth.
"Shh Leah, it's okay." He whispered. That only made me cry harder thinking I didn't deserve someone like him. After awhile my crying turned to sobs and I looked at my loving brother.
"Thank-you." I whispered not knowing if he actually heard me.
"You want to tell me about it?"
"…"
"Okay, you don't have to, just know if you wanted to talk about anything I'm here, got it?" He said looking at my face being serious. I always took my brother as the funny type until now.
I stayed in my room until late afternoon to try and clear my head I noticed my legs were really sore for some reason but I just ignored it. I wouldn't even look at my mom after what I caught her doing. After about walking for thirty minutes in the forest aimlessly I took in my surroundings, not really carrying if I did get lost. I kept walking without an actual destination until I was walking up the porch steps of Jacobs's house. Not that I know why I was there, I just was. I was about to knock when Jake opened the door as my hand was about to come down and I accidently hit his chest. Oops, damn he has something going on under that shirt! Uhhh… feeling a little shocked that I had just thought that I found the courage to say hi.
"Hey." He said looking at me curiously, probably wondering why I was there in the first place. I faintly heard someone giggle in the background and ask who was at the door. I ignored it though, possibly knowing who it was.
"Um, you wana go do something?" I said nervously looking down at my feet. I heard tiny footsteps heading towards us. I looked up to see Bella Swan looking at me with a small glare. I felt the urge to rip her face off and give her a new make over. I had no idea where all this anger came from, I was getting a lot of it lately and it made me frustrated. So, being me I smiled knowing that it pissed people off when you act nice back to them in a smartass way when there only reason for acting towards you is to piss you off but in the end they walk off pissed off. 'Bitch' I thought rudely.
"Jakey come back in the house pwease.." Was Bella seriously flirty with Jacob? I know I didn't know Bella all that well but I knew she had a boyfriend. Then I saw that glare in her eye as she took a glance at me and she gave me a small smirk. That bitch is doing this on purpose, what I whore! But for some damn strange reason, it actually ticked me off.
"Never mind, I can see that you're busy." I said slowly, clearly disappointment in my voice.
"That's right bitch" I faintly heard Bella-Bitch mutter so quietly I barely heard. Barely. At that moment I turned around slightly shaking from anger at her comment. I quickly looked at Jake who was standing there shock written all over his face. I guess he heard. I don't know what came over me but I tried everything I could to keep my hands to myself.
"What did you say?" I snapped. I looked her straight in the eye and glared. She obviously didn't expect me to hear her. But I did.
"I didn't say anything." She said quickly. Pfft yeah right, I'm not stupid.
"That's what I thought." I sat there glaring at her for a second more. I turned my head back to Jake to see him glaring at Bella. I started turn and walk away when Jake grabbed my hand and pulled me back. A tiny shock went through my hand and I let out a little gasp. What the hell? Did he feel that too? I looked up at him to see him smiling down at me. Bella-Bitch didn't like it and faked a cough. Jake turned towards her looking down.
"Bella I'm going to hang out with Leah for awhile, I'll talk to you later or something." Clearly he was disappointed by how she acted towards me. I stifled a giggle at the look on Bella's face. Bella-Bitch being rejected by Jacob? Priceless. She took one more glance at me, glared, stomped her way to her truck, got in and sped off. After she was out of sight I busted out laughing.
"Sorry about that. I don't know why she acted like that." Jake said apologetically.
"It's fine. You really didn't have to leave Bella for me. I could have just gone back home and done something." I said quickly looking at the ground feeling a blush creeping up to my cheeks.
"After what she called you I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. She was acting like a bitch towards you and I didn't like it." He stated matter of fact. I looked up at him and he was looking straight ahead avoiding my gaze.
"Okay.."
We just ended up walking around aimlessly like I had done before I came to Jake's. I turned my head to look at him noticing he didn't look as tall as I thought he was. Or maybe I just grew… Had I grew? I looked down and noticed I did seem a little more off the ground than I'm use to. Couple minutes later Jake wanted to play twenty question's, agreeing we spent the rest of the afternoon walking and asking each other questions about everything that wasn't to personal. I liked talking to Jake he was nice, and actually listened. Did I mention he's super easy to talk to? You could talk about the most stupid thing you could think of and he'd listen. I didn't think he would be good at anything but eating. The sun was setting and we were starting to head back when I got a glimpse of a swift movement to my right. Jake snapped his head towards the creature and mumbled something to low for me to hear. I ignored everything else that night until we were both on my front porch. I looked around trying to find something other than Jake's face to look at. My eye's betrayed me and met his curious daze.
"What?" I asked dumbly. Why does he always stare at me like that?
"Nothing, goodnight Leah." He said lightly with a smile plastered on his face.
"Night Jake." I opened the door and was about to walk up the stairs when I heard something coming from the kitchen. I peeked my head around the corner seeing my mom wrapped up in the arms of her 'husband' once again. I coughed interrupting there little moment. I looked over at there faces, mom seemed embarrassed and her 'husband' gave me a deadly glare. I suddenly remembered my nightmare and darted straight up to me room and locked the door. That frightful dream seemed so real…