There's always some truth in legends, you know?
Of course, I knew that too. But, like the idiot I am, I continued to sit there and believe that they were just silly old legends and that Uley, Lahote, and Cameron were all buff and running at temperatures that should kill someone because of steroids.
Then, my brother and I got the fever. We felt fine, but every time someone made skin contact with us, they'd freak out over how hot our skin was. Then, there was the major growth spurts. Seeing that we are fifteen going on sixteen, I knew we were going to keep growing, but hitting six feet (and counting, in Embry's case) in the span of two and a half weeks was a little outrageous.
My name is Micah Call, I'm fifteen and am the older twin sister of Embry Call. My interests include dance and music, I enjoy long walks on First Beach and the occasional cliff dive, and I am a Protector.
Embry's temper had been ridiculous lately. Nearly anything would piss him off, and if it really bothered him, he'd start trembling, and there was only so much I could do to keep him calm y'know? After about a week of him throwing fits, I finally forced him to stay home. Going to school without my brother was as unnerving as it usually was whenever we were separated. I mean we did a lot of stuff without each other, but seeing as we were both running dangerously high fevers, it was okay for me to feel lonely and worried. Even though the fever had Embry exploding at every slight annoyance, I was just really overheated. I was sweating constantly, and nothing I could do would help keep me cool.
"Micah, you do realize you're like two inches short of getting a dress code violation, right?"
I threw a small grin at Jake and Quil as they walked up to my locker where I was gathering my books for my first classes. "Ehhh, it's not that bad. Are you sure it's not hot in here? I've been feeling so hot for the past couple of weeks now." I grumbled, my messy bun flopping on my head as it tried to contain my waist length hair. I looked down at my clothes, eyeing my denim shorts and sleeveless classic rock tee warily. "I have a flannel if they try to tell me something, but I doubt I'll need it." I mumbled.
I felt Quil's thicker arm wrap around my waist as he started leading me to our first class. "I wouldn't say the school is any warmer than normal, however you, my dear, have been looking like straight fire! Well, more fire than usual." Quil complimented. While a little greasy, Quil's compliments never failed to put me in a better mood. Jake snorted and smacked the back of Quil's head with his notebook. I let out a cackle as Quil whined and rubbed the back of his head.
"On a serious note," I sighed. "My fevers getting worse, and Embry's just getting more and more sick. I'll probably leave school after lunch and go spend the rest of the day with him. What were you guys gonna do today in the garage?"
Quil immediately began snickering as Jake turned beet red. "Ahhhh," I grinned evilly. "Bella's coming over again, huh?"
"Well, see you in Chem, Micah." Jake rushed out as he sped off to his first period.
Aaaaaaaaand there lies my first of many problems.
You'd think that the growth spurt, and the fever would be at the top of my list of problems, right? Well, with me being the hopeless idiot that I am, my main problem was Jake. Jake, who I have been in love with since we were 12. If we're being totally honest here, it's probably been way longer, but ew, cooties.
But, it's all for nothing, because Jake's been in love with Bella Swan since we were toddlers. Now, it's none of my business what Jake decides to do with his love life, but as his best friend? Yes, it is my business. I'm not Bella's biggest fan. At all. In fact, I don't think I've ever disliked another girl more than I do her. She constantly leads Jake on, but then goes back to her pale and twiggy Cullen as soon as he so much as glances in her direction. Granted, the Cullens are gone now, but I still don't trust her after the year she spent dangling her relationship in Jakes face.
You might be speculating favoritism, but you're wrong. I'm overprotective of all my boys, especially Embry and Seth. Quil doesn't take rejection to heart, seeing as he's more into the flirty side of relationships rather than, you know, a real relationship. Embry and Seth however, fall hard. Seth, my actual baby, mind you, has no business looking for a relationship seeing as he's a freshman and needs to focus on school. Embry, well, he's just a hopeless romantic. Our mom probably saw it coming since she named him after a soap opera star.
And Jake, well, he's a special case. Sure, there's that special part of me that hopes Bella fucks up and the Bella/Jake train will crash and burn, but the majority of me wants Jake to be happy. And if it so happens that she makes him happy, I can just continue to slowly die as long as she keeps him that way.
Quil was staring at me with that annoyingly cute sympathetic look on his face, and it took all I could to not smack him and his puppy dog eyes up the head. While he was ignorant about a lot of things, he was annoyingly intuitive to my emotions in particular, picking up on my crush on Jacob even before Embry (who is still clueless.) I rolled my eyes as I looped my arm through his and started tugging him to our seats.
"Micah," he drawled.
"Not now, Quil."
"It's never time to talk about it." He points out.
"Which should be a big indicator that I don't ever want to talk about it." I mumbled, eyes narrowed in an attempt to glare. He just raised an eyebrow at me, face unimpressed. At that moment, our history teacher, Mr. Dwyer, walked in and I took the opportunity to end the conversation as I pulled out my notebook and pencil.
Thankfully, Quil's attention span is that of a squirrels', so when history ended he was more focused on complaining about our research paper to continue nagging me. As we walked out of the classroom and began walking towards our next classes, a pair of skinny arms wrapped around my shoulders as a head of messy hair struggled to peek over my shoulder.
"Micah!" Seth grinned. "Please stop growing, it's hard for me to hug you." He pouted.
I turned around to hug him fully, a grin breaking out on my face. "Seth!" I cheered. I swung my arms around him and smooshed him into my body. "How's my favorite freshman?" I cooed. Quil made a jealous face at me, and when I looked down, I found Seth's faced pressed into my chest. I just raised an eyebrow at Quil, daring him to challenge me. Meanwhile, Seth was pushing lightly at my waist, face burning as he tried to put a little bit more space between us. "Micah…" He whined. I pouted as I reluctantly released him stepping back to let him speak.
"My mom wanted to know if you and Em were going to be over for dinner sometime this week. I know Leah's been a little…testy lately," Quil snorted at that. Leah, Seth's older sister, had been completely unbearable ever since Sam broke up their engagement, and I really don't blame her. Sam was a douche for doing what he did to her, and I don't know how he managed to drag sweet Emily into this shit show. Seth shot a glare at Quil before continuing. "…but she's a little less angry when you're around." I just raised my eyebrows at Seth in an unimpressed fashion.
"Seth, she only likes me a lot right now because I don't try to make her talk to me. We literally just sit there and watch the goriest scary movies while she imagines different ways to murder Sam."
"But, she's happier with you and that's all that matters!" Seth retorted, smiling widely.
"Seth I really wish I could, but Em and I just keep getting more and more si—'' My sentence was cut off as my vision went black, I could feel myself swinging backwards until a pair of slightly muscled arms caught me. "Quil..." I murmured.
"Micah!" The two boys exclaimed.
"I think you shouldn't wait until after lunch." Quil rushed out as he placed his hand on my forehead. "In fact," he continued speaking quickly. "I think you need to go home right now. C'mon, I'll sign you out and drive you home."
I just nodded my head in agreement, waving my hand limply at Seth as Quil began to lead me towards the main office.
By the time we got to the truck, I was blacked out.
I groaned as I felt someone throw my arm over their shoulder, but calmed slightly when I took in the scent of Embry.
"She just blacked out?!" he angrily whispered. I could hear Quil nervously adjust in his seat as he tried to keep calm.
"Listen, Em, I brought her home as soon as it happened, I would have sent her home right away if I had known she was that sick!" Quil whispered back. Embry didn't bother to reply before he slammed the door of the truck close and carried me into our house. I slowly raised my hand and patted him on the arm.
"Could've been nicer to 'im…" I mumbled. "He didn't do anything wrong. 'ts my fault… shouldn have gone to school…"
Embry just grumbled to himself as he took me inside and placed me at a chair at our kitchen table. I slowly lowered my forehead to the cool table as Embry went around the kitchen before coming back with a glass of water and two Ibuprofen.
"You know," I started, pausing to drink my medicine. "We're probably sick because you went skinny dipping at first beach that one time when it was 20 degrees out."
Embry scoffs, and I know I've already ticked him off. "Well I didn't see you stopping me. Actually, you were betting on me!" He argues. I don't really know why he got defensive so quickly, but the weirder part is that I'm getting defensive just as quickly.
"Oh, that's great Embry, just blame everything on me, that makes everything easier, doesn't it?" I grumbled, rolling my eyes as I took my glass to the sink. A loud snap broke the tense air of the house, my eyes snapped back towards Embry to see the top of our wooden kitchen chair splintering in his closed fist. His right hand was clenched tightly by his side, and his whole body was shaking.
Before I knew it, I was screaming. "Jesus Christ, Embry, that's just freaking amazing! Break all of our furniture while you're at it! I mean it's not like we're struggling to survive!" I could feel tremors making their way through my whole body, and had to force myself outside.
When had it got so hot?
"We can just get Jake to fix all that shit!" Embry snarled. I heard his huge gorilla feet stomping behind me as he followed me to the woods that resided behind the edge of our backyard.
"And that's another thing!" He started as he caught up to me. "Don't think I don't know your little secret!" The silence that followed that statement was sickening and I could feel my heart climb up inside my throat. But, of course, my stupid self couldn't just leave it at that. "Oh yeah?" I egged on, turning around to face him as I continued to lead us through the woods backwards.
"Yeah! It's so obvious that you like Jake!" Embry hissed.
See, if I was smart, I would have managed to keep a straight face. Maybe even deny the accusation. But, I'm a dumbass, so I let the shock, terror, and embarrassment be expressed clearly on my face. Fuck, was I spluttering?
My so-called twin began to grin at me, but it wasn't his usual warm grin, or the grin he wore when he heard a geeky joke that had him laughing so hard he wanted to cry. No, he was baring his teeth at me, and whatever he was going to say next, he wanted it to hurt.
"Embry, you need to stop!" I growled, not even noticing that a growl was actually rumbling in my throat.
"The best part though," He chuckles. "The best part though, is that you keep having this pathetic crush on Jake, when-"
"EMBRY!" I'm snarling, the holler tears from my throat as he stalks forward to get in my face and snarl.
"When he won't ever love you! Because he's so obsessed with Isabella fucking Swan!"
I can't believe him why would he say that he's supposed to be my brother why is it so goddamn hothothothothot – All the rage boiling up inside me has me pouncing on Embry with a furious yell, but as I'm flying through the air, a strange RIP rings out in the stark silence of the forest, the forest still except for the sound of Embry and I bursting out of our skin and the impact of our bodies smacking together.
Except, it's not our bodies anymore.
Well, not our human ones.