DISClaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer. I make no profit from this.
Hope you enjoy this.
-x-
I pulled my jacket on and left the house, looked up and down the street and saw her, the new girl at La Push high, as she walked down the street with her dog. Towards me. I bristled as I walked down the street, just going down to the store. That's all it was, going for a freaking walk to the store, and she was there.
I looked up at her as she walked past, the black German Shepherd dog she had on a leash barking twice in my direction. She didn't look at me, just stepped forward, held the dog's collar to stop him rushing at me. Every day for the past week that dog had barked at me. I hated dogs. I used to be allergic, but Quil got one when he was eight and I built up my resistance to the mutt. I smiled as I thought of Quil. He hadn't been well for a couple of weeks, something about glandular fever, or… whatever.
I was bored of going out without him, and I thought about going over to see how he was, but I knew his dad wouldn't want to risk me getting sick either. I sighed and pulled my jacket up around my neck as it started to rain, picking up pace as I did so, just desperate to get out of the rain.
I yelped as I heard a voice yelling at me.
"Hey! Mate, just stand still!" I turned around at breakneck speed, and wished almost immediately that I hadn't. The Alsatian was barking at me, pounding down the street at top pace. She was tearing after it, trying to stop him, racing toward him, as he raced toward me. "Zach! Zach, Stay!" She commanded, and the dog froze, turned around to look at her for a long second. Zach had been less that three feet from jumping me when she had stopped him
My heart was pounding as she grabbed his collar and made him sit. His hackles were raised and he was growling as she held him still.
"That was…" She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "terrifying…" Within half a second, she was up on my level again. "I'm so sorry, Embry."
She knew my name? Aww. Crap. I'd not taken a second look at her when she'd joined class. She just melted into the group of kids that me, Quil and Jake avoided because they didn't get the whole… mechanics thing.
"That's alright." I nodded and tried to pass it off, but the sentence sounded incomplete without her name. I was still wracking my brains to think of it, but nothing was coming. To change the direction of the conversation, I crouched down to look the dog in the eye and it growled again. "No harm done. Only severe emotional trauma." I grinned up at her, trying my best to pull her name from my memory. Nothing was forthcoming. Damn.
"He's just weird around new people." She smiled, "I'm really sorry, his lead broke-" She held up the frayed end of the leash and made a face. "Really, I had no idea he'd go for someone… he never used to-"
"Well…" I paused, "I guess accidents happen, right?"
"Yeah." She nodded and smiled at me, offering me her hand. "Well, I'd better go and get the spare." She sighed and slipped her fingers under the dog's collar and held him from there. It was only a few houses down the street, but she looked like she was dragging her feet as she moved.
Within five minutes, she was back out the door, still holding the dog on a fresh leash, and looking at me strangely.
"You haven't moved." She said, her eyes wide, obviously surprised. "What happened? Harry Potter walk past and Stun you?" I forced myself to laugh.
"Nah," She grinned at me, "Just wanted to make sure your dog didn't escape." another pause, "And if it did, I wanted to be the one laughing as I watched you run down the street after him." She laughed.
"Very funny. Maybe I shouldn't've stopped him biting you?"
"Maybe not." Another pause, "But then again, I wouldn't've been here to make that marvellous joke."
"Hmm." She grinned again, "Well, I'll be going." She gestured up the street towards my place. "I'll see you at school, alright Embry?"
"Cool." I nodded, "I'll see you later…" I hated not knowing her name. It made the sentence trail off awkwardly again.
"The name's Dougie, Embry." She grinned at me.
"But Dougie's a-"
"Guy's name, I know…" She paused and smiled at me, "Sascha Douglas, remember?" She shook her head, her tone changing from soft and fluffy to bored and annoyed when I didn't speak. "Whatever. I'll see you later, Embry." She strode off down the street at a run, the dog jogging beside her.
I folded my arms and shook my head, turning back down the street, towards my original intended destination. I walked quicker in the rain, unable to wipe a stupid grin off my face, unsure of where it had originated.
Sascha Douglas.
I said her name to myself as I walked down the street. Dougie. I grinned. Stupid, but very cute. I made a mental note of the time she had gone out walking the dog, and promised myself I would see her tomorrow, just going down to the store.-x-
I rubbed my hands together and shoved them in my pockets. Five thirty. Maybe today she'd ask me to walk with her. I'd been watching from my window for ten minutes, jolting as I realised the dog was barking. That meant he was ready for his walk.
Sighing, I pulled my jacket on and went downstairs into the garden, trying to avoid looking into the garden three doors down. She would be coming out of the door about… I checked my watch, knowing that as soon as the dog started to bark, she'd take six minutes to get him ready. Today she was out in five.
I rubbed my hands together again, cold suddenly. She slammed their front door and looked up and down the street, smiling as she saw me dawdling by our gate.
"You do know that you don't have to be here to talk to me, don't you?" She laughed as Zach pulled on the leash, trying to bite me. "Damn, Zach. Sit!" She looked at him and he seemed to bark an apology. She patted his head and looked at me.
"What?"
"We don't have to be exclusive out-of-school-mates, Embry." She grinned. "I don't zip my mouth up when I walk through the La Push high gates."
"Very funny." I went to go, I really did, but I was slightly afraid of the dog blocking my way.
"You should relax, Embry. I'm joking, man." She grinned again and shook her head, "And he can sense it." She indicated the dog and watched me for a second. "Hold out your hand,"
"Sorry?" But I found I was doing it anyway. She carefully guided my hand to the dog, showing me to him, so he could sniff my scent, so he could get accustomed to me. I flinched as he licked my knuckles but laughed out loud as he attempted to bowl me over and lick my face.
"Zach. Sit." Sascha patted his head again as he did what he was told.
"Thanks, Sascha."
"No problems." She nodded. "And call me Dougie," another pause, "All my friends do."
"Oh, right." I nodded.
"So, where are you going?"
"I don't know, really, was just gonna go down to the store, see the guys, maybe?"
"Oh, how's Quil?" She seemed genuinely concerned for him, "I heard he's been ill… that's why he's on the register but I've not met him yet."
"Oh, he's better, should be back in school in a few days, really."
"Good." a pause, "So it wasn't glandular fever?"
"Nah, Measles." She shuddered. "Yeah." She smiled at me and gestured that she was going to take the dog and go. I held out my hand and caught her shoulder. "Sascha?"
"Dougie." She repeated simply, "But yeah?"
"Can I walk with you?" I had realised she wasn't going to ask me to come with her. Let's make the first move, Embry Call. "I mean, I'm sure you could use some company, right?" Another pause, "And maybe we could go up to this place I know in the forest - he could run around as long as he wanted and we could just chat… if you want?"
She seemed to evaluate whether she wanted to know me any longer, watching me for a long minute, smiling softly as a joke I didn't hear flew through her mind.
"Sure."
She started walking before I'd actually registered the statement, so I had to run up the street after her like an idiot. She stopped on the corner on the way up to the forest and waited patiently for me. Her hands looked cold, so without thinking, I swept her left hand into my right. She shuddered in my grip but didn't pull away. She grinned sideways at me but kept walking without a word.
I would take that, happily. It was nice enough to walk with someone without being forced to talk to them, but it was especially nice for me for it to be a girl. I had my mom, sure, but none of the girls at school talked to me much - I wasn't particularly attractive, I wasn't particularly interesting at all.
But she wanted to talk to me. I closed my eyes as we strode along the forest path, enjoying the darkness, and enjoying walking with her.
-x-
She sucked in a breath as she fell backwards off the fence we had perched on. Within half a second I had caught her in my arms. She laughed as I pulled her upright and jumped off the wood as a counterweight.
"What, am I that heavy?" She said, mock-affronted, I shrugged but held out my arms for her to jump into. "Well, you're gonna find out." She launched into my arms and wrapped her legs around my torso, her arms around my neck. My arms had wrapped around her body reflexively as she fell so we ended up in a tangle of people, her eyes on a level with mine.
"You're very pretty," I murmured, losing the rest of the world in that moment. She was there, I was sure, and so was the dog, because I could hear him, but the rest of it was seeping into the background, turned down like a radio running out of batteries. "You know that?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever." She smiled and closed her eyes for a second, breaking a spell I didn't know had been cast. I swallowed and dropped my hands from her back, and she unlocked her legs from my hips and dropped to the floor, but never took her fingers from the hair at the base of my neck.
"Sascha…" I sighed her name and she closed her eyes, "I-" I wrung my hands awkwardly for a second, and then shoved them deep down into my pockets. "Don't worry."
"Right." She nodded and dropped her arms, folding them across her chest, then brought her fingers up to her lips and whistled for Zach to come back. "Whatever, Embry."
I watched her fold her arms, pull the leash she had hooked over the fence down into her hands and clip it to the dog's collar. He licked her fingers as she gave him a treat, she wiped her hand down her tracksuit trousers - her dog walking trousers, as she called them. Disgusting, but kind of cute. She started to walk before I could catch up to her, before I could process what I had done.
I used to enjoy walking with her, in silence, when we'd first started out, but now I felt really… awful as I walked with her in the silence. Her hands shook as she held the leash and I hoped it wasn't because of what I had nearly said. We had been friends for a month and a half, and I wondered whether it was natural to have certain feelings for her, or whether it was kind of weird. I didn't want to ask, just in case. She liked sitting with me, Jake and Quil at lunch, but she never said much to us. I sighed as I got to my driveway and looked at her, she kept walking down the street, her head down, talking to Zach as she let him off the leash and he ran back into the house.
She shot a long look at me as she made her way into the house, looking into my eyes for half a minute. A small smile lit her face for a second as she caught me watching her.
-x-
Three months later and the inevitable happened - she was moving again. I managed to catch her as she left La Push High on her bike.
"Dougie!" I yelled after her, she skidded to a halt.
"It's taken you two months to actually learn my name, Embry Call." She bumped fists with me and laughed. "Just one of the guys, eh?" She said with a little more remorse than I would have thought. "Well… I want you to come over, tonight, yeah?"
"Why?"
"I wanted to say some stuff before I left… just so…" She looked at me longer and blushed. I smiled back and offered her my hand. "What, a high five?" The question was so laden with sarcasm that the words hit me like bricks.
"Not if you don't want it to be." I looked at her and she offered me a half-smile. "I'll be over at six, alright?" She nodded sadly and pushed off on her bike. Jacob caught up with me fifteen seconds later and winked.
"Pretty, that one." He laughed, "Why the hell was she talking to you?" I walloped him in the arm and he winced. "That hurt, man."
"Good." I frowned and folded my arms. "She lives down the road." Another pause, "You know her, she's in our class-"
"Oh, I know Sascha." He smiled, but I knew he obviously didn't know her that well, because I knew from experience her best friends always called her Dougie.
We had bonded over walking that stupid dog of hers. He still didn't like me - he still tried to bite me at every opportunity, but I was getting on with her much better. I closed my eyes as the breeze hit me in the face, remembering how I'd shown her how to get to a huge meadow where she could let him off the lead and we could sit and chat for an hour or so. She didn't seem to care about people at school - there was nobody she really hung out with, she just got on with all of it on her own. She was still new… a figurative outcast. But she always smiled at me when we passed in the corridors, she always did her best to talk to Quil and Jacob when they were with me.
Seth Clearwater, one of the kids in the class below the class below us, was really starting to like her too - she was nice to him once when he fell down the stairs. He nearly broke his ankle - he would have done had she not caught him under the arms as she was walking the opposite way, catching him, freezing him in the position he nearly fell in, legs akimbo, books flying all over the place. As it was, he got off lightly with a sprain because of the angle he landed at.
I rubbed my eyes as the breeze started to sting, my breath catching in my throat. I was only fifteen. My birthday wasn't for weeks. I couldn't be in love, could I? I mean… we got on brilliantly, and she was such a laugh to be around… but I couldn't love her, right?
I shook my head and sighed as I realised the stinging wasn't because of the wind. It had taken me months to realise that, just looking at her, talking to her every morning and night for the past month as I walked her dog with her, that we had become more than friends, stuck on the edge of the social world, in our own, little, tiny bubble, in the field behind the main entrance to the forest.
-x-
She sat down on the bed and watched me. I had never been into her room, a couple of times I'd been into the living room, and we'd sat in the garden, soaking up the rare spots of sunlight that seemed to only appear in her yard. Her room was nice, I mean, it was all boxes, at the moment - they were moving at short notice because of her dad's job, but I forgot about that and looked around at the bright blue bedcovers, the weeks worth of clothes that were slowly slipping away, counting down the days until she left, sets of underwear on the shelf that I had to blush at, a pile of T-shirts that were dishevelled, a light green one marked for tomorrow by the pair of socks that looked like they would stretch up to her thighs.
Noticing the light blue skirt that was hanging up on the wardrobe, I blinked a couple of times. It looked new and she blushed as she caught me staring. I smiled wryly as I thought about the conversation we'd had earlier. She wouldn't be one of the guys in those clothes. I smiled to myself as she curled her knees up on her duvet.
"So, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I wanted to say thank you."
"For what?"
"I've been here for four months, Embry, and I think I've made about… three friends." She looked away and shut her eyes for an age, her face bright pink and darkening with every second which passed. "And you've been the best. I know a lot of it is… a little bit too late to say, I guess," She looked like it was taking everything she had not to get up and run for miles as she spoke. I sat down beside her and she looked away from me again.
"What's too late?" I asked softly.
"I think I fancy you." She said softly, forcing herself to look at me, "And it's far too bloody late to do anything about it." I put my arm around her as she stopped talking, pulling her closer to me and hugging her tight. When she spoke next she sounded as though her throat was stopping her breathing and her chest was tight. I was sure she was crying, but I didn't want to look down, didn't want to be sure of it.
"Dougi-"
"Don't. I know it's too late, and I don't want to start something and not be able to finish it-"
"Then don't." I looked down at her, "What do they call it? A one night stand…" She blushed, "Oh! God, no… not like that!" She looked at me, "I mean one date. A single, stupid date."
"But I don't have time to date you… I mean… the thing tonight, with dad's work, and…" She trailed off, wiping her eyes very slightly, "And then tomorrow, the whole… forced leaving party." Not that she was being forced to leave, but she was being forced to have a party. There were eight people coming, all guys. She didn't have many real friends. "I leave the day after." She swallowed and looked away for a long minute.
"Then…" I took a minute or so to consider it. Her fingers wound through her hair for a long minute and she sighed in the silence between us. "Then you'll have to come back."
"I'm sorry?"
"You'll have to come back, because you can't go out tonight."
"I still don't-"
"You'll have to come back and see me again." I smiled at her and watched her shut her eyes, a wide smile lighting her face. "So we can have our one night stand." She laughed and shook her head.
"Fine." She grinned, "As long as you stop calling it that."
"What?" I was just teasing now, "A one night stand?" She shoved me and laughed, then stopped and looked at me, for a long minute, "What?" I repeated, sarcasm-heavy.
"I want a kiss." Suddenly she was the forward one.
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me. A kiss to seal the deal."
She leaned forward and stared into my eyes.
"You know we barely know each other?" She laughed.
"I know what I need to know." Another soft laugh as I spoke.
Her fingers slid down my collar, down my shirt buttons and rested on the breast pocket. I hadn't really wanted to wear this, but mom had thought it was a nice thing for me to put on, seeing as she is the only girl I really hang out with, and she's leaving me.
My fingers slid down her back, wrapping my arms around her torso, pulling her close as she gripped the collar of the shirt I was wearing and pressed her lips to mine.
My world felt like it was imploding, sheer desire coursing through my every movement. The fingers that slid through my hair, the eyelashes that, as she leaned a little closer, flickered over my skin, the lips that moved so gently against mine… things about that long, sweet second that wouldn't ever dissipate.
I opened my eyes as she pulled away, feeling the tears on my cheeks. My eyes searched for the traces of tears on her cheeks. There were none. I breathed out and wiped my eyes.
Yeah. There they were.
-x-
A/N: Please review and let me know how I did... I'm seriously keen to know what you think of this fic?... and you know... stuff lol
Love ya
xxx