"QUILEUTE ~ LA PUSH ~ CHALLENGE" Entry
Title: Well Ain't That Something
Pen name: Wolfpull85
Beta Name: Itslikenature
Genre: Romance/Comfort
Summary: Bella goes to La Push to confront Jake after he disappears but finds his friend instead and a whole world she didn't expect opens up.
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DISCLAIMER: Twilight characters and related likeness are owned by Stephenie Meyer,
Little Brown Publishing. No profits have been received in the production of this piece.
A/N A special thanks to itslikenature for reading and beta'ing for me on such short notice. xxoo
Well Ain't That Something
Bella sat in her living room staring at the phone willing it to ring. Of course it wouldn't, in never did. He promised he wouldn't hurt her, that he'd never do to her what Edward did but here she is, as Charlie looks on wondering what he can do to save her this time.
"Bells, he's just sick, Billy said…"
"Yeah well dad Billy is a liar!" Bella shocked herself with the anger she didn't know she was holding in and quickly apologized to Charlie for her outburst to which he just nodded in understanding. "I think maybe I'll go for a drive okay?"
"Yeah sure, Bells, why don't you go see Jessica or Angela?" She nodded at her father and took her keys climbing into the cab of her truck. Of course she had no intention of going to see her 'friends' she was going to figure out what happened to Jacob. One way or another she wasn't going to let one more person just walk out of her life without some answers.
The rain started coming down half way to La Push and it was difficult for her to see. As Bella entered the city limits she saw a tall muscular boy with long hair walking in the rain. JACOB?! Bella quickly pulled over to the side next the boy and leaned over the cab of her truck to roll down the window. Oh. "Quil?" she sighed in disappoint but smiled just the same at Jacob's friend.
Though she'd only met Quil once or twice she knew he was good people, friendly and flirty, and full of life just like Jake. "Quil, get in the truck before you get sick." He smiled at her and nodded climbing in the passenger's side just as she leaned back to the driver's side.
Bella quickly noticed that although it'd been a few weeks since she'd seen Quil that there was no possible way this was the same kid she remembered. He had grown at least six inches and the muscles all over his body rivaled those of Jacob's. She blushed and turned to face the front when he noticed her gawking.
Quil chuckled lightly to himself when he caught Bella checking out the 'new and improved' Quil Ateara. He was frankly pretty shocked and impressed with the new growth spurt himself. He turned himself halfway to face Bella and noticed she looked sad and tired, like she did when that ex boyfriend of hers left. He knew it was because of Jacob and for some reason it pissed him off.
Quil didn't know Bella well, just of what he heard Billy and Jake say, but he knew she was good people. "What are you doing here Bella? I know Jake didn't invite you." He scoffed at the same time she did and they smirked at each other.
"You too huh?" Bella asked. "At least I know it's not just me I guess."
"Yeah, he's um, he's with Sam all the time now. I tried following him and Em but lost them out there." Quil said looking toward the woods. Bella just nodded knowingly.
"So…" Bella suddenly felt awkward and unsure of what she should do or say next.
"Well…um…the rain isn't letting up and it's getting hard to see, do you want to go to my mom's shop for some hot chocolate and wait out the rain?" Quil asked and for some reason both he and Bella seemed hopeful for the chance to spend more time together.
"Sure," Bella answered with a nod and Quil's 100 watt smile lit up the cab of the truck causing Bella to blush and duck her head behind her hair.
"Alright then," Quil chuckled and moved his huge arm over to her steering wheel, "let's get this beast back on the road." Bella moved to grab the steering wheel too and brushed her hand against his, he felt warm but instead of being worried like she was for Jacob; Quil's touch seemed to ease her. They stared at each other briefly before clearing their throats and headed toward La Push.
Bella pulled up to a small grocery store and parked the truck. She turned to Quil, "this is your mom's shop?"
"Yeah well, she runs it but my sister just came back after a year away and I think she's going to take over for her. Come on, we've got an old school fountain counter in there." Quil opened his door and climbed out but quickly offered his hand to Bella as he took his coat of covering the area outside the truck waiting for her to stand under it like an umbrella.
'So thoughtful' Bella thought to herself and smiled as she scooted across the truck bench and took his hand to climb out of the truck. Once on the small porch to the store Quil took his coat from over their heads and shook it out before opening the door for Bella. She walked passed him and he inhaled, smelling the scent of wild flowers and spices coming from her damp hair. Mouthwatering he thought to himself, but quickly shook the idea out of his head.
Bella stepped inside the shop and waited by the door as Quil took his coat over to some hooks on the wall. She looked around and took in the quaintness of the shop and wondered how she never noticed it before, but then, she thought looking at Quil, seems she hadn't noticed a lot of things before. She blushed as he walked over to her with a small smile and put his hand on the small of her back leading her to the back of the store.
Quil offered Bella a stool at the old fashioned soda fountain that was built over fifty years prior when his grandpa Quil, Sr., opened the store. He quickly moved behind the counter and Bella propped her chin up on her hand and rested her elbow on the counter watching Quil work. Again she allowed herself a chance to look over him, his long hair tied behind him with a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His strong forearms flexed as he worked the fancy machine on the bar. His wet t-shirt allowed her unrestricted views of his muscular chest and back. Wow she thought to herself and was surprised by this reaction, no one had made her feel like that since…
"See something you like?" A low feminine voice sounded beside her and she quickly turned to see a beautiful young Quileute woman sitting on the stool next to her smirking.
"Wha? NO...I mean, ha, Bella had been busted, there was no use denying it.
"I'm Amy, Quil's sister," The young woman said offering her hand to Bella.
"Bella."
"Nice to meet you Bella, now tell me, what are you doing with the likes of him?" she said pointing to her brother, "you seem too normal for him." They all laughed including Quil who moved to set two mugs of warm cocoa in front of the women.
Bella spent the next two hours sitting and talking with the two younger members of the Ateara clan. They talked about everything, including a minor spit off about Jacob and Embry but quickly decided they weren't worth their time or energy. Amy talked about her year away from La Push after graduation. She was nineteen years old and ready to come back and start college.
Turns out that Amy had left after high school because of a bad break up with her high school boyfriend, Bella could relate and the girls quickly formed a tight bond. Quil leaned against the counter still on the opposite side of the girls and watched them interact. He loved the way that Bella twirled her hair aimlessly around her finger while she talked about books and school; she was beautiful he thought to himself.
Amy noticed how her brother and Bella seemed to keep sneaking looks at each other when the other wasn't watching and smiled to herself. She had to find out more about this Bella and what her connection was to Quil and Jacob. "So Bella, you and Quil met at the Black's? What is Jacob like your boyfriend or something?"
Quil shot his head up and gave his sister the death glare but quickly realized he was interested in hearing this himself and turned to Bella who was of course blushing.
Bella was immediately at a loss for words and nearly choked on her cocoa. She looked up to the girl whom she quickly felt a bond to that rivaled her bond with Alice and over to the boy, no man, that made her feel things she didn't think possible to feel for another person, not after Edward; funny how the thought of him didn't seem to have the same affect on her as it would have a few weeks ago.
"Um, no, definitely not boyfriend. Jacob is, well he's more like my best friend," she looked down at her cup and played with the napkin underneath. "Well he was anyway," Quil nodded in understanding; of course he knew how she felt because he felt the same way. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze and was surprised when she squeezed back holding it when he went to pull away.
~~**~~
Over the next two weeks Bella saw more and more of Quil and Amy Ateara. Amy filled her evenings and weekends with mindless girl talk that she was surprised she was interested in. Maybe being around serious, stuffy vampires made Bella lose out on that carefree girly stuff that seemed natural to her now. Quil was around too, not as much as Amy but he was there when she went to La Push, always with a smile and a joke. Life was good.
"So," Amy began as she sat on the floor of Bella's living room in her flannel pajamas with ice cream in hand. This had become their Friday and Saturday nights, slumber parties, really Bella Swan and slumber parties. "You and my brother?"
Bella looked at Amy sheepishly, "I don't know what you are talking about, we are friends. Just like you and I are friends, Amy rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at Bella who laughed it off.
"Amy, he makes me happy, he is my friend. I don't know if I can, I mean Edward and then Jake." Her thoughts were jumbled but Amy knew where Bella was coming from. Bella still had a lot of trust issues to work out but Amy knew that Quil had feelings for her new friend and that given the chance he could make her happy. Amy sighed and turned to the TV to watch their horror movie marathon.
Two days later Bella was on her way to La Push to see her friends and have dinner with them. Charlie was going to meet her there after work. Amy and Bella devised a plan at their last slumber party to get her single mother, Anne and Charlie together to see if anything would come of it. Bella laughed to herself as she school girl fantasized about her dad marrying Anne and being Amy's sister. But quickly was horror struck at the idea of being related to Quil. Why would it matter to her, he was just her friend anyway.
"AMY! QUIL!" Bella shouted as she made her way into the Ateara house which was located behind the shop, knocking was a formality that was no longer necessary for her at this house. But where was everyone? She made her way through the small home and headed to the kitchen knowing Quil would probably be in there eating everything in the house. Where he put all that food she had no idea.
Amy was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Bella. She wasn't happy with what she was about to do, she knew what would happen when she did. Her new friend, her sister, so damaged, she wouldn't be able to take this. "Bella," she said in a monotone voice which caused Bella's knees to buckle and her heart to sink.
"Amy? What's wrong?"
"Quil, he's not here." Okay? Bella was confused, why was he being out weighing so heavily on her friend?
"So…when will he be back? What should we cook for dinner everything has to be perfect," Bella tried to sound upbeat and change the subject.
"No, Bella, he's gone, he left two days ago. He's not QUIL anymore. He's…different."
Bella dropped her purse to the floor with a thud as she took in Amy's meaning. She was all too familiar with the look on Amy's face, "Sam." Was all Bella said and Amy nodded. Instead of getting sad and upset like she had when Jacob bailed on her she got angry, really, really angry.
"BELLA!" Amy shouted as she watched her friend run out of the house and jump into her truck then peeled out of the drive. But it was too late, Bella was gone. Amy paced around the house not sure what to do before she jumped in her own car and sped off in the general direction of Bella's beast of a truck.
Before long Bella had pulled up to the small house in the woods that she knew to be Sam Uley's. Jacob had shown it to her once when they were riding their bikes. Bella sighed, it seemed like a lifetime ago when she was with Jake and things were easier but this guy, this Sam, he was slowly taking away everything important to her and she was fed up.
Getting out of the truck, Bella stomped to the door and pounded on it. A small woman with copper skin that was marred with hideous scars opened the door. She looked annoyed to be bothered but Bella raised her chin up, she was not about to back down.
"Where are they?"
"Who?" The woman asked, "And who are you?"
"Bella!" Someone shouted from behind and she turned to find an out of breath Amy standing there.
"Bella? Bella Swan?" the woman asked and Bella turned back to her and nodded. Amy took her stance next to Bella's side and faced the woman too.
"Where are they?" Bella asked again.
"I assume you mean Sam and the guys. They aren't here, but they will be. You must be Amy?" The woman turned to Amy and shocked the both of them. "I'm Emily by the way; would you like to come in?"
"No," Bella insisted and looked to Amy for back up, which of course she offered.
"No, we'll wait; my brother has some questions to answer." Emily frowned, sad for the two young women in front of her. She knew it must be hard not knowing why their family and friends were avoiding them.
Bella and Amy sat on the porch arms tangled around each other leaning on each other for support while they waited; both women unsure of what to expect when Quil finally arrived. Bella secretly hoped that Jacob would be there too, although she was angry at him, she still missed her best friend.
They both stood when a round of deep laughter startled them out of their trance. Coming out of the woods was a huge hulk of a man followed by two other equally large men and Embry whom Bella recognized even though his hair was short and he'd grown tall just like the others.
Anger took over and Bella charged at the group with Amy on her tail. "What did you do? Why couldn't you leave them alone?" Bella pushed on the tall man whom she assumed to be Sam but Amy quickly grabbed her as the force of her push made them both fall backwards.
One of the men behind Sam started shaking violently and growled at the girls, Sam started pushing on the man telling him to calm down which sent Bella into further rage, who was this asshole getting mad at her? Bella started yelling louder and Paul as it seemed was his name was getting even madder.
"Bella!" She turned to the sound of the voice she would know anywhere, Quil. But he didn't look like Quil, not her Quil anyway. He was even bigger than before if that was possible and he'd cut his hair, now looking like the rest of the goons behind her. But as she took in his look from bottom to top she stopped when their eyes locked.
Quil never put much stock in the mythical tales his grandfather would tell while he was growing up, Shape shifting and vampires where the things stories were made of, not real life. But then one night, after seeing Jacob and Embry with Sam's gang he snapped, anger filled his body and before he knew it he was a wolf.
Everything about being a wolf was awesome to Quil, the power, the freedom, the pack; everything seemed so natural for him. But then there was the Alpha order. Stay away from everyone he loved until his phasing was controlled. Of course his mother understood, being on the tribal council and knowing the myths to be fact, but his sister she didn't understand.
And Bella, he knew she'd be hurt when she finally realized he had done the same thing to her that Jacob had. Jacob and he spent most of those first two days talking about that, and Bella and how they both felt about her. That was the reason Jacob was angry at him, the reason they were both still in the woods trying to phase back to human form and not having any success. Sam said they needed to calm down but the tete a tete they were having over Bella was making that very difficult.
"Jacob, we need to talk about this like human beings, she doesn't even feel the same way."
"Bull, I see in your head, the way she looked at you, and the way you swept in after I left and stole her from me. You can't have her Quil, she's not yours."
Quil was about to counter with the knowledge that Bella didn't belong to Jacob either. Then he replayed the conversation Amy, Bella and he had in the shop a few weeks ago. Jacob sighed in defeat and the two wolves stopped fighting long enough to phase back into human form.
As they left the woods Quil and Jacob both stopped as they heard shouting. Upon realizing it was Bella and Amy they both started running toward the house. Jacob froze just at the edge of the tree line unable to move, unable to think, unable to do anything. Quil looked back at him like he was crazy but kept running.
It wasn't until he was within a few yards that he too stopped. There fighting with his Alpha, fighting for him, was Bella. As if time stood still and everything blurred he looked at Bella with new eyes. Of course he always thought she was beautiful but now he saw her so much more clearly, he saw all the way to her soul, he saw their future and he knew what had just happened.
Quil and Jacob were both pulled out of their trances when they saw Bella fall into Amy and the two stumble back. "Bella!" Quil shouted and their eyes locked cementing the feelings he had for her and in that moment he knew she felt the same thing.
~~**~~
Bella stood in front of her bathroom mirror and brushed her hair smiling as she got ready for her date. It still made her head spin if she thought about it too long. Werewolves, shape shifters, whatever you wanted to call them were real, well vampires were so why not? But what really threw her for a loop was imprinting.
Bella might have been turned off by the idea of something out there telling her who to love but she knew, deep down in her heart that she had feelings for Quil before he imprinted on her and she knew their love was legit, nothing could change that.
The doorbell rang and a squeal erupted from Bella's room. "They're here!" Amy shouted running down the stairs two at a time. Bella rolled her eyes at her friend but was secretly squealing like a little girl on the inside too. As Bella descended the stairs she saw her best friend and her new friend, sister really, embrace in the most loving hug as Jacob placed a sweet kiss on his imprint's lips.
Quil walked in behind Jacob and almost gagged at the sight of one of his brothers with his sister, yeah that stuff took some getting used to. But all that flew out the window when he saw Bella on the stairs. He met her there and wrapped his warm arms around her and nuzzled into her neck basking in her scent.
The four left for their first double date, the first of many, many times together.