Author's Note: YAY! I UPDATED! I FINALLY, FINALLY UPDATED! I know it's been MONTHS since I finished part II but trust me when I say that plot developing for Embry and Lilly and deciding how I wanted this first chapter to go was a lot of work! Also, I've been ridiculously busy. I promise the next updates will not be so far apart. That being said, welcome to Embry and Lilly: It's Complicated. Fair warning-If you have not read my other story, Quil and Claire: The Perfect Two, you probably shouldn't read this yet. I suggest reading that one first, as starting with this would not only spoil the other story, but also really confuse you. If you really hate Quil and Claire and insist on reading this story, I cannot stop you and will try to make this story as easy for you to understand as possible. I mean, you may still feel like you're missing a few details but—Oh, I'm rambling. You probably want to actually start reading the story now. ENJOY!

Lilly

Gray sky, but no rain. Not atypical weather for mid-March in the Olympic Peninsula. Spring hadn't yet shown its face, and the breeze blowing off of the Pacific cut through my coat like a knife does butter. I shivered, fisting my hands in my pockets. My normally ghost-white face was almost certainly rosy and flushed. I knew that I should probably head inside before dark, or I'd really freeze. My best friend, Eliza, was expecting me. After the events of the last six months, showing up more than five minutes late for anything could only mean I'd been captured by vampires, or worse. I couldn't keep her waiting.

But I also couldn't find the will to leave the beach. There was something almost comforting about the coldness. About the quiet and the loneliness. Just me and the crashing of the waves.

Of course, being at the beach brought up another emotion, too. Longing. And a memory . . .

Happy New Year, Lilly, Embry whispered, leaning over and kissing me on the cheek. My hand, which had been resting under his, tingled as his fingers slid along the skin of my knuckle. I shivered, though I certainly hadn't been cold while sitting next to Embry. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life. And then . . .

And then nothing. We talked about Quil and Claire, and school, and the weather, and it was as if nothing ever happened. And I'm sure for Embry, it was like nothing ever did. A New Year kiss on the cheek hardly meant a thing to him. I was his best friend, basically his younger sister. He wasn't romantically interested in a girl not even old enough to drive a car. He probably hadn't even thought of it once since then.

And I . . . Well, I was in love with him. One of my best friends, who was also a werewolf, and technically sixteen years older than me.

Sound complicated? Just wait, there's more.

I let out a deep breath, staring out at the ocean. A mist had settled over the beach, making it easy to believe that real magic existed there. It wasn't difficult to envision fourteen werewolves weaving through the forest, on the lookout for vampires. For crying out loud, a mermaid could come dancing out of the ocean and I probably wouldn't even give it a second look. When you grow up surrounded by werewolves and vampires, you find that very little surprises you anymore.

I met Embry when I was only nine years old. He found me—or rather, Renesmee found me—lost and afraid in the forest a couple of miles away from my house. It was around the time my parents split, and I was upset. Needing to be alone, I ran off into the forest. Of course, being a nine year old girl, I was almost immediately hopelessly lost. I probably would have died out there, had Renesmee and Embry (who'd been looking for Jacob at the time) not come across me. Embry was the first best friend I'd ever truly had. Then through the pack, I'd met Eliza, Claire's little sister who was just a few months older than me. I can't imagine what my life would be like without her. Don't get me wrong, Eliza had her fair share of faults, one of them being her hesitation to trust people, but that had never mattered to me.

When asked, I told people I had two best friends, but that wasn't true. Eliza was my best friend. Embry was . . . Embry.

My heart beat furiously just thinking about him. I'd begun secretly crushing on him last June and the feelings had grown significantly since then. Now I couldn't look at him without feeling weak in the knees. How pathetic was that?

My phone beeped. I let out another deep breath and pulled it from my pocket. 1 New Message from Eliza: Are you alive?

I wasn't exaggerating about the kidnapped by vampires thing.

Yeah, on my way, I replied, turning away from the ocean and leaving the beach behind me.

Is this really you? Eliza texted back, What's the password?

Camille is an ugly whore, I typed, the corner of my mouth pulling up into a smile.

See you soon :) Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Oh yeah, I kept forgetting . . .

It was March 15th. I was fifteen years old today.

My mother joked that I was actually an adult and trapped in the body of a teenager. Maybe I'd find that funny, if I couldn't name several people off the top of my head who actually were.

The walk from the beach to the Uleys' house was short. When Eliza had lived there, we would often race to the beach, laughing and shoving each other as we went. That was before last August, when out of the blue, Eliza and Claire's father had returned to the reservation. Now they lived in northern La Push, where the houses were a little newer and a little bigger.

But on some nights, nights like this one, Eliza would go over to her aunt and uncle's to babysit her cousin, Amelia. Normally, babysitting Amelia was Claire's responsibility, since she was the one with a car and all, but tonight Quil didn't have to run patrols, so they were going out. If, of course, one could consider hooking up in Quil's truck "going out." According to Eliza, ever since New Year, when Quil moved in with the Youngs, the two had been even more obnoxiously in love than usual. Although, Eliza hardly had room to criticize anymore. She'd started dating Brady Fuller at the same time and since then I'd barely seen Eliza outside of school without Brady by her side. For a girl who'd denied even somewhat liking Brady for five months, Eliza sure couldn't stand to be away from him. Not that I was bitter. I was happy for Eliza. I was happy for Claire, too.

I was happy for every perfect happy couple who were just so perfect and happy.

I was just so, so happy.

Definitely no bitterness.

None.

The sun was sinking into the horizon when I reached Sam and Emily's house. Rather than throw a party, I'd volunteered to help Eliza babysit. I'd never cared much for birthday parties, and the only person who I'd really want to be there had to work tonight.

Once all of the vampire drama settled down, Jacob went back to insisting that the pack find jobs (a little hypocritical, if you ask me, considering that Nessie forbid him from getting a job of his own. Talk about obnoxiously in love couples…) and Embry didn't have much of a say in the matter. Over the past three months, we discovered that Embry actually wasn't very good at having a job. He'd gotten fired from a restaurant in Forks, kindly asked to leave his job at the library (apparently, getting into a screaming fight with a soccer mom was grounds for termination) and was now employed at the Forks Movie Theater, which had opened last year. He was hoping to find a better, more adult job, like Quil and Nolan had with some construction company in Port Angeles, but with no luck.

He'd only started working at the theater two weeks ago, and had been unable to get the night off. Part of me was crushed. Being away from Embry was like a gaping hole in the middle of my chest. Part of me was relieved. Being around Embry was like a knife constantly being driven through my heart.

Stop thinking about him, it's girls' night, I reminded myself.

The front door swung open. "You're here! Finally!" Eliza exclaimed, running over to me, "Melia is driving me crazy."

"I can hear you!" Amelia, who was ten years old with the maturity of a seven year old and the wit of a twenty-seven year old, yelled, appearing in the doorway. Although they were cousins, Eliza looked much more like my relative than Melia's. That was, of course, because Amelia and Eliza weren't actually related at all. She'd been adopted by the Youngs as a baby. Over the course of our friendship, we'd often been mistaken as sisters. We both had curly blonde hair, although my curls weren't quite as loose and my hair was more whitish than hers. In addition, we shared the same light skin, although she at least could be considered fair, whereas I was just plain pale. I was also taller, and my eyes were dark blue while hers were green, but I could see where the confusion came from.

As an only child, Eliza was the closest thing to a sister I'd ever had. When we were younger, we would actually pretend that we were long-lost sisters who had miraculously found each other, completely ignoring the fact that we were only five months apart in age and being sisters was physically impossible. I was nostalgic for those days.

"Happy Birthday!" Eliza cheered, ignoring her whining cousin and pulling me in for a hug. "Sam and Emily are already gone. Come in, we're going to watch a movie."

"I think my socks are frozen to my feet," I shared as we walked up the front steps and into the house.

"Happy Birthday, Lilly," Amelia said as I passed her, "Where's Embry?"

"What?" I asked, feeling suddenly nervous. It was an innocent enough question, but I knew how perceptive Amelia could be.

"Where's Embry?" Melia repeated. "You two don't hang out as much together anymore. Is it because of Travis?"

My breathing stopped. Remember what I said about there being more complications? Amelia was referring to Travis Newton, my boyfriend.

I wish I could come up with some grand explanation for why I was continuing to date Travis when I was clearly in love with someone else, but I can't. I dated Travis because he was a distraction. Because I wanted so badly to like him the way he liked me. Because I needed to push my dreams of Embry aside and not wait around for a relationship that would never happen. Because I was selfish.

Travis had wanted so badly to take me out on my birthday, and I'd told him no. That I had plans with Eliza. So instead, he was taking me out to dinner tomorrow. And I'd have to spend an hour and a half sitting across a table from him and feeling awkward.

I really, really needed to break up with Travis. I knew that. It wasn't right to string him along. But I couldn't bear to break his heart, either. Talk about a lose-lose situation.

I had to admit, though, it did unsettle me that Amelia noticed the connection between Embry's recent absence and Travis's presence. If Travis was around, Embry was nowhere to be seen, and the other way around. There was obviously some tension there, though I had no idea why. I understood that Embry was protective of me, but Travis was just a sweet guy. And I got that Travis was probably jealous when I hung out with other guys, but he knew that there was nothing romantic between Embry and I (at least not for Embry).

"Hello? Earth to birthday girl?" Eliza snapped in front of my face.

"Hmm?" I asked, falling back to the real world.

"Are you going to stand outside in the cold all night?" I was still standing on the top step, and Eliza stood a foot away from me. I hadn't even noticed her approach.

"Oh. No." I shook my head, trying to clear away all thoughts of Embry, and passed through the threshold of the Uley house. Although Eliza's new house was bigger, I would always have a soft spot for this one. It was cozy and warm and very much like a home should be.

"So what do you want to watch?" Eliza asked, plopping down on the couch. "I personally vote Magic Mike. Channing Tatum is delicious."

"Isn't he like forty or something? That movie is old."

"He will always be delicious," Eliza laughed. "Don't tell Brady I said that."

Brady and Eliza had been dating for the past two months and had been absolutely inseparable since then. And I mean inseparable. Today was the first time outside of school in the past three weeks that I had actually seen Eliza without Brady at her side. To say he was completely in love with her was a massive understatement. Brady had been obsessing over Eliza since the summer and had nearly driven himself half crazy getting Eliza to admit that she loved him too. And I was happy for them, I was, but it was nice to have this night alone with Eliza. Seeing her and Brady together was just a harsh reminder that there were some couples who actually were head over heels for each other.

"No, I don't want to watch Magic Mike. What about something else?"

"The Vow? 21 Jump Street? Step Up? Dear John? She's the—"

"No Channing Tatum," I told her firmly.

Eliza pouted and plopped down on the couch. "You're lucky it's your birthday. What do you want to watch, then?"

Anything that can take my mind off of Embry for more than two seconds…

I knew that I should just talk to Eliza about how I was feeling. She was my best friend, I was supposed to be able to tell her anything. But the idea of actually admitting out loud that I was in love with Embry was ridiculous. The only person I had ever admitted that to was… Claire. Of all people. That day at the barbeque way back in July I had told her how I felt about Embry. She promised to keep it a secret. But I never mentioned it to her again, and she'd never asked. That was the good thing about Claire, she didn't pry.

"Um," I contemplated for a moment.

"How about Red Riding Hood? I like when the sexy blonde runs away with the werewolf," said a familiar male voice. Brady. He was standing in the threshold of the house, the front door now wide open and letting in the cool evening wind.

"Brady! I told you this is girls' night!" Eliza chided, although I noticed she couldn't completely mask her giddiness at his arrival. She crossed over to him and started trying to shove him back through the door. "No boyfriends allowed!"

Brady tried to look innocent, "Is that what you said? Oops. Hey, Lilly, happy birthday!"

"Hi Brady," I said, smiling somewhat insincerely. Brady was one of my favorite people in the world, he really was, but I didn't think I could spend another night of his and Eliza's cute couple moments.

"Out!" Eliza demanded.

"Come on, Angel. Let me stay, I'll behave!"

"You never behave," Eliza reminded him, a sly smile on her face.

"Well, I'll give it the old college try."

"Brady," Eliza sighed. I could see in her eyes that she didn't want to send him away, but she was trying to do whatever she thought would make me happy.

"He can stay," I consented, somewhat begrudgingly.

Brady nor Eliza noticed my animosity.

"Thanks, Lilly! I love ya!"

"Did you really refer to Amanda Seyfried as the sexy blonde?" Eliza frowned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You're one to talk, Mrs. Tatum," Brady retorted, bouncing a finger off of her nose.

"Were you spying on us?"

"Accidental overhearing, maybe," Brady grinned.

"I hate you!"

"Yeah, right."

Oh great, more of Eliza and Brady's cute couple bickering.

"So… are we going to watch a movie or what?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound cranky.

They both turned to me."Yeah," they said in almost perfect synchronization. Then they looked at each other and smiled. It was impossible to not be happy for them when they did adorable things like that.

"Please, not a movie with lots of kissing. That's gross," Amelia stated. I'd nearly forgotten that she was here, that Eliza and I were supposed to be babysitting her.

"I agree, Melia," I said, stroking her hair and smiling down at her. Most ten year olds were completely obnoxious and agitating, but Amelia was as precious as ever. Perhaps more perceptive than she used to be, but precious all the same. "Kissing movies are gross."

"I feel like Claire and Quil live in a kissing movie. I'm glad Claire doesn't live here anymore. Her and Quil kiss a lot. Who wants to see that? Besides, now I have her bedroom. It's my room now," she chattered animatedly. Eliza laughed.

"But you miss me living here, don't you Melia?"

"No. You were messy. And you snored."

"I did not!" Eliza screeched.

"You're a very cute snorer," Brady chuckled. Eliza punched him lightly on the arm.

Eventually we decided on some typical zombie movie that had Amelia scared in about ten minutes. She went to her room to play with her dolls, and I nearly joined her. The movie wasn't bad, but Eliza and Brady cuddling on the other side of the couch was a tad distracting. All I wanted was to take my mind off of romance for an hour and a half, but apparently that was just too much to ask for.

I had almost managed to immerse myself in the movie—a zombie was hiding in the main character's back seat and he had no idea. Idiot.—when there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," I stated, eager to get away from the lovebirds.

"Thanks, Lilly," Eliza said, although she didn't take her eyes off of Brady. I wondered if I'd ever be accustomed to seeing her so openly displaying her affection.

"Wonder who it is," Brady questioned aloud, sounding like he already was sure of the answer. I didn't think to be suspicious till it was too late and I was opening the door.

My heart lurched. Of course. Of course just when I was maybe getting close to distracting myself.

Embry. Smiling. Holding flowers. "Happy Birthday, Lilly!" He said, pulling me into his arms and hugging me tightly. Being around Embry was like finally breathing oxygen after hours of holding my breath. Ironic, considering that being around him was also the reason I couldn't breathe in the first place.

"Hi, you're crushing me," I told him, even though it wasn't true. If I hugged him any longer I probably wouldn't have let go at all.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Embry released me, holding up the flowers.

"Lilies. Really, Embry?" I asked.

He smirked and shrugged.

"I thought you had to work tonight? What are you doing here?"

"I had a little . . . disagreement with the manager."

"A disagreement?" I questioned, stepping aside to let him in the house.

"Well, I splashed coke in his face. And got fired."

"Embry!"

"I was provoked! Besides, I hated that job anyway. Trying to make me work on your birthday, yeah right." He placed the flowers in my hands and shut the door behind him.

"What are we going to do with you?" I giggled, heading to the kitchen to find a vase for the lilies.

"I guess you'll just have to sell me in exchange for a few loaves of bread," Embry replied, his voice much closer than I had originally thought. I jumped.

"You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that," I chided. When I turned around he was less than a foot away from me. My face felt hot. He was so tall. So handsome. So . . . infuriating.

"Are we finishing the movie or what?" Eliza asked, popping her head into the kitchen.

"What are you guys watching?"

"I don't remember the name. Some zombie movie."

"Zombies are ridiculously unrealistic," Embry scoffed, making his way into the living room.

"Says the werewolf," Eliza noted.

"Whatever," he huffed, "Lilly, you coming?"

No. No. No. I wanted to leave. I would rather run as far away from this house as possible. Bury my head in the slushy remains of snow on the sidewalks. Drown myself in the ocean. Hide in the tallest tree in the deepest part of the forest. I did not want to be around Embry and pretend like everything was absolutely normal. I did not want to sit on a couch wedged between the world's happiest new couple and the guy I wanted to kiss more than anything. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't—

"Yeah, I'm coming."

This chapter was kind of a shorty, I'm expecting the other ones to be longer. See you all next time! PLEASE REVIEW! Love you, my sunshines.