Paul POV

"Remind me again why I agreed to this shit?" I sighed as I indicated into the parking lot

"Because you owe me for dragging me to a god damn strip club as my birthday present last month" Leah rolled her eyes

"Hey you said you were down for a stripper"

"I said that as a joke and I meant a male stripper" Leah growled, "Any way, Jake was gonna come but he had to patrol and you owe me so sit down and shut up"

"I really don't care about some leech lovers dance recital" I groaned as i followed behind Leah into the building

"You've never even met Bella before so shut up with the patheti names and for the third time, you owe me" She repeated herself making sure to enunciated the last three words, "You can hang out with hot dancers afterwards and it will finally give you a chance to meet the packs best friend" She smirked at the disgusted look on my face

"Why we put up with some bitch that sleeps with the enemy I'll never know" I muttered under my breath as I sat down on a too small seat with too little leg room

"Because she's been mine and Jake's best friend since we were kids...And she doesn't sleep with him" Leah rolled her eyes as I tried and failed to rearrange myself so I wasn't cramped

"Oh she doesn't sleep with him that makes me feel so much better about the fact she's all clingy to a bunch of vampires" I mumbled sarcastically as the lights went down

"Shut up" Leah hissed losing her patience for me already, to be fair it had been a fairly long car journey, if I had known I had to drive all the way to Port Angeles for some shitty dance thing when I had arranged the strip club trip as a joke I would never have...Nah I still would have the look on Leah's face was totally worth it

The first group came out and I immediately slid down in my seat wishing I was deaf for a while so then I wouldn't need to listen to the damn bass and over-enthusiastic parents cheering for their daughters. Looking around the room I didn't see anyone else that I recognised, no sign of the Cullen's thankfully and neither of Bella's parents were here. That was weird right? That apparently the important people in this girls life weren't here when apparently this was a big deal?

"What's the deal with this thing again?" I whispered to Leah as an old woman next to me glared as she tried to film the show

"It's her first solo, the show isn't a big deal but it's a big deal for her, she's really nervous" Leah whispered back, she even seemed a bit nervous for her friend

"Where's her family and yknow?"

"Charlie's working late, as usual and Renee is at some work thing as well I think" Leah sighed, "Cullen's are out of town"

He wouldn't tell her but it was kinda sad that if this was her first big thing that she didn't have anyone here for her, "Is that why you made such a big deal to come tonight?"

"I'm her best friend" Leah said simply

Nodding my head I shut up and turned back to the 'dancing' that was going on. They were alright, a couple of the girls I made a note to talk to afterwards but I just kinda hoped not many of them hoped to make a future out of dancing cos they weren't that great.

This thing was going on way too long for my liking, the hall getting more and more clammy as the night went on, even Leah was beginning to look bored.

"If I need to sit through this shit you do too" Leah elbowed me in the ribs as I began to shut my eyes

"Remind me to punch Jake when I get home" I growled sitting up straighter, hearing someone mutter behind me about how they couldn't see, really I was doing them a favour

For a brief moment everything in the hall went quiet as the few dancers left the stage, the lights went down and the music shut off and I took a moment to sigh in relief at the peace before it was fucking shattered again.

But it was quiet this time, there weren't any harsh lights or extremely loud pop music, there weren't over ten girls wearing overly sparkly outfits and covered in tan. Everything in the hall was silent as the girl slowly stepped out to the stage and stood in the center of the stage under a spot light. She looked so tiny on the stage, it looked as if the whole building could swallow her up. Although she was tiny when the music started she seemed to hold herself up straighter and it was as if she became bigger as she moved across the stage. She still looked like most of the other girls that came before her, hair tied up into a tight bun, wearing the weird leotard things with sparkles and shit but there was a difference to her.

"That's her" Leah whispered a smile in her voice as she watched her friend move almost seamlessly across the stage

I nodded in answer, she was one of the few decent dancers I'd seen tonight and the fact that she didn't have music and lights that hurt my senses made me appreciate her a small bit. You could tell she was nervous, her body shook slightly as she moved but she had this determination on her face that was surprising for the small girl. A part of him could understand the leech's...thing with the girl. She was pretty, dark hair and eyes, toned body, she was pretty, she was normal. She was normal so how the fuck did this normal girl manage to get herself wrapped up with the supernatural?

"You almost look impressed Lahote" Leah smirked at me

"She's not bad" Was my reply

"Yknow I think if you weren't such an asshole you two would get along" Leah smiled as began to clap as her friend walked off the stage with the biggest smile on her face

"You look like a proud mum right now" I told Leah clapping along with her a lot less enthusiastically

"And you look like you might actually have enjoyed that"

"Wow I like watching girls prance around in barely any clothes, big surprise"I rolled my eyes at her

"Come on, let's go see her" Leah nudged me as she stood up and began clambering over the audience to get to the aisle in the dark

Following along silently I held the door open as she pranced forward into a room that smelled strongly of hair spray and fake tan filled with girls and mum's either stretching or getting helped with hair and crap

"We're allowed her right?" I asked quietly as Leah walked in scanning the room

"Yeah just don't, yknow try and feel anyone up" She smirked as she began moving again through the small clusters of people and clouds of sprays

"How can you stand this shit?" I asked her, "And I don't just randomly feel girls up, there's a build up to that shit"

"Of course there is" She rolled her eyes, "Bells!" Her voice went unusually high as she ran across the room before enveloping the girl in a hug

"Hey Lee!" Bella shouted at the same level as Leah, "I didn't fuck up!" Was the next thing out of her mouth as she wrapped her arms around the other girl

"No you didn't, you did great" Leah smiled at the small girl, I had never seen Leah like this with a friend that wasn't pack before it was nice and weird to see, "Bells, this is the always lovely and charming Paul Lahote" Leah introduced as she turned around to face me giving me the first good look at the riny dancer

Looking down at her he felt the floor fall out from under him as he simultaneously crashed down face first in the dirt. He hated and loved the feeling, he felt different but the same because everything was the same, he was the same, the room was the same but there was a weird clarity to everything now. The god damn normal girl had fucked it all up.

"Hey" He nodded at her not really knowing how to go about the situation now

"So you're the infamous Paul Lahote" She smirked at him, "Would never have thought this would be your kind of thing"He was surprised by the way she spoke as if she knew him, as if they were friends

"I owed Lee a favour" I explained to her, "So, you been talking about me Lee?"

"Well yknow you're just so amazing and incredible I'd be depriving poor Bella if I didn't share stories of you" She grinned at me and a part of my stomach twisted at the thought of what she could have told her

"Nice work with the stripper thing by the way" Bella smirked

"Thanks, you were pretty good out there" I told her as Leah grinned as I begrudgingly complimented her friend

"Thanks, thanks for coming by the way, I know it must have been pretty boring and stuff" She mumbled

"Eh I've had worse Friday nights" I smiled at her

"Bella you coming?!" A girl from the other side of the room called

"Maybe, if I don't I'll see you later" Bella told her

"Going where?" Leah asked

"They're all going to some club or something in town" Bella mumbled as she turned and started putting away things in a bag

"You don't want to go?" She asked with a raised manicured eyebrow

"I'm just a bit tired and Renee will be home soon..." It was pretty obvious that these were excuses she had used before going by the look on Leah's face

"Bells, Renee will not mind if you come home a bit late, you deserve to go out for a drink to celebrate"

"I don't know Lee-"

"If this is about him I swear to god-"

"It isn't about him" Bella cut her off defensively, clearly this was a very over-done argument between the two girls, "I'm just not feeling it, but hey you and Paul feel free to go out, I'm the girls would love to meet you" She smiled at me

"I'm sure they would" I answered as I watched Leah roll her eyes

"I'd say you get used to his shit but you really don't" Leah muttered to Bella, "Come on Bella one drink and then we'll go" She begged her friend

"Fine one drink" Bella sighed trying to hide a smile as she pulled a jumper over her head and slipped on a pair of converse, "I'll be back in a second, I'm gonna go say bye to Angela" She told Leah before turning and walking around the corner

"You imprinted!" Leah screeched as soon as she disappeared

"Fucking hell Leah, say it louder I think there's someone out in the parking lot who didn't quite hear you" I growled at her

"Do you have any idea how great this is?" She continued ignoring me, "Now she has a reason to leave Cullen and you can stop being a grumpy asshole all the damn time"

"Wait a fucking minute, I didn't even say I had imprinted on the leech lover and secondly even if I had, why the fuck would that affect her dating Cullen? I don't want anything to do with that shit"

"Don't even try that shit I saw the way you looked at her, it's the same look Jake had, the same look Jared and Sam had and it's the damn look you had so why the fuck wouldn't you be happy about this?" Leah pushed

"I'm not going to talk about this now and to you so fucking drop it Lee" I told her as Bella came back around the corner with a jacket in hand

"Everything alright?" Bella asked worriedly looking between me and Leah

"Everything's fine" I answered before Leah opened her mouth as she glared at me

"Angela give you a lift over here?" Leah asked her before she had a chance to question more

"Yeah, it alright if you drop me back home?" Bella asked her cheeks going red

"Sure" I answered considering I was driving

"Come on, I need a drink" Leah encouraged continuing to glare at me

Rolling my eyes at her I turned and walked to the end of the room holding the door open for the two girls as Leah picked up her friends bag and began to talk excitedly about how good she was and how she was so sorry Jake couldn't make it tonight.

He didn't think he was annoyed at the imprint, it was a 'gift from the gods' after all but something didn't sit right with him about the whole thing. Maybe it was because his imprint was already in a relationship, with a leech no less, maybe it's because when he heard the guys talk about the moment they imprinted they said it was magical and that it felt pergect and amazing and fireworks and all that bullshit. His felt like someone had threw a firework down his throat after pouring gas on him. Or maybe it was the fact that the whole thing just felt wrong. She seemed happy enough with the leech from what he had heard, even though it disgusted him he didn't want to break up a relationship, granted he wouldn't be sad if the relationship did come to an end.

She could do better, I decided. Not because she was abnormally beautiful or he was a horrible person, she could do better because she was normal and the supernatural had a bad habit for fucking up people's normal lives whether that was the teenage boy who turned into a wolf one day or the human who would get drained by a vamp one day. I didn't regret phasing and I wasn't annoyed by it, I was annoyed by the repurcussions of it. I was annoyed by the fact I had to lie to my mum constantly, I was annoyed by the fact my bad attitude seemed to increase with the fur, I was annoyed by the lack of choice I had. Maybe that's why I wasn't thrilled by the imprint. Maybe I was just a pathetic little boy and was annoyed by the fact I was having to come second to a vampire for a girl I wasn't even sure I particularly wanted.

I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed I realised as I saw her bend down to slide into the back seat of my car not missing the icy look Leah was sending my way.

"So, where to ladies?" I grinned