++ AUTHORS NOTES FIRST, GUYS: FIRST OF ALL I'D LIKE TO THANK E VERYONE WHO'S TAKEN THE TIME TO FAVORITE AND FOLLOW MY STORY AND ESPECIALLY THE ONES KIND ENOUGH TO REVIEW AND ENCOURAGE ME ALONG. I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I WAS SCARED TO DEATH, I MEAN I'M ONLY A PARTIAL TWILIGHT FAN AT BEST.. I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU PRECIOUS ADORABLE PEOPLE WHO HAVE FAVORITED AND FOLLOWED AND REVIEWED. I'VE HAD A SORT OF SPLIT IN SUGGESTIONS FOR PAIRING/IMPRINTER AND TO HONOR THAT, I THREW BOTH OF THEM INTO THIS CHAPTER.. BUT PAUL IS THE MORE PROMINENT ONE IN THIS CHAPTER. DON'T WORRY, JACOB WILL HAVE HIS TURN TOO. I'M STILL TORN BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM. JACOB IS IN THE CHAPTER TOO BUT HE'S IN IT MORE SUBTLY. LIKE WITH STARING AND LOOKS AND STUFF. JUST TO MAKE THINGS INTERESTING. :) ++

CHAPTER TWO

Almost as soon as my feet hit the sand, my clothes were coming off. I hit the water with a loud splash that was followed closely by a shriek when I realized that yes, the water was like ice today. Shivering and pouting a little, I swam my way back to the shore and flopped down onto the sand lazily next to my friend Gemma.

"I told you, Ari, it wasn't going to be warm enough to swim in." Gemma remarked in a bored tone after she stopped reading her magazine. She stretched and then said with a wicked gleam in her eye, "Wanna take a quiz?"

"Not particularly, no. Those things are never accurate." I answered as I slid the straw into a Capri Sun and sipped slowly, looked up at the clouds while shielding my eyes from the sun with one hand. A soccer ball rolled to a lazy stop near my bare feet and I looked at the ball and then the person who'd kicked the ball in my direction.

"Sorry." the guy smiled, the smile was more a smirk than a smile. I shrugged and then said "It's not like you hit my head with it." as I sipped my Capri Sun and held his gaze a few moments. He sort of looks familiar, I'm almost certain I've seen the guy before.

I happened to look down the beach and I saw Jacob with three other guys, at least one of them was Embry Call, I've met him before. They were watching the guy who'd smirked at me as if he were committing some kind of deadly sin.

Maybe, about this one thing, the thing with Uley having a cult.. Maybe Bella's dead on about that much. It shocked me though, I mean Bella and I both heard Jacob's thoughts on the way Embry ditched him not too long ago to start following around Uley. Why the hell would he start too?

I bit my lower lip as I thought it over and then I realized that yes, there was definitely something shady at play.. Because not even five minutes before I'd come to First Beach with Gemma and two other girls and Mike, Bella told me that Jacob did answer a text and it was to blow her off yet again.. He said he was sick.

I stared Jacob down over the rim of my favorite sunglasses.. He looked like a lot of things but sick.. it wasn't exactly the first one that came to my mind at that particular point in time. He's grown at least three inches in a month.. And he's gotten muscular.. He cut off his long jet black hair that I used to dream about tangling my fingers in too, I noticed.

Our eyes met and he diverted his gaze. I did notice that he was glaring at the guy who'd kicked a soccer ball over onto my beach towel. And when I looked up, I noticed that the guy who'd kicked the ball and come to get it was looking at me. I held out his ball and raked my hands through my hair, my teeth grazing my lower lip a few moments. "Aria..And your name is?" I asked finally, just so I could take my mind off of just how supremely weird this entire incident was turning out to be. He blinked and then coughed, his large and rough looking hand trailed slowly over short and close cropped hair as he said with a casual smirk, "Yeah.. I've seen you around, I kinda knew that. Paul.. My name's Paul."

"Well, Paul.. It was cool to meet you but I think that Uley's about to give that leash he's got you on a huge yank. Might wanna go check on that." I quipped, giving him a playful smile. He sort of grumbled, I shrugged and watched him walk away covertly, shaking my head as I laughed a little.

If I hadn't looked back up I wouldn't have seen Jacob standing there just sort of staring at me. Not in a creepy way but just.. Sort of staring.. Like he was really seeing me and not just looking at me. I felt my skin heating up, I'd never felt more naked than I did right now under Jacob's gaze -and Paul's, definitely Paul's gaze, it was kind of like this too I found myself thinking- and all things considered yes, it was a little awkward.

I'm not ashamed of my body, do not go assuming I am.. I've just known Jacob my entire life and somehow in that time frame he has not seen me in a bikini? Yeah, I'm totally going with that excuse. And the way that Paul looked at me.. I dug my toes in the sand and Gemma laughed.

"What?"

"You, Ari. That whole thing just now." Gemma said as she shook her head and then explained, "My cousin goes to school with that guy Paul. She said he's a ladies man and he's always getting into trouble for fights.. Until recently, he's all about some Sam Uley guy lately. Suffice to say he's probably trouble. And we all know how much you love trouble." as she smiled at me.

"Haha, you're not funny, burn in hades." I grumbled and went to speak up, defend myself.. Then I realized that while Bella might be into dating douchebags that have the tendency to get her and me nearly killed and abandon her to go to some pissant little town in Italy for some weird reason, I have the habit apparently of dating bums.

There was Benjamin, last year.. Real nice guy until you get a few drinks in him and then he thinks he's fucking Zeus or something.. Or Sawyer, the guy who thought it was cool that I wasn't going to give it up, that I had standards or , he thought he'd get me to cave only to discover that I was one hundred percent deadly serious about not screwing him. And when he found out that no he was not getting in these panties and he wasn't going to uncover Victoria's Secret until I was ready for it to happen (probably never in his case) he bailed. But only after he told the entire school we did it because god forbid I tell him no and wound his fragile ego..

And that all leads me to Lucky.. Lucky was probably the worst one of them. It's safe to say Charlie was thrilled when I let him answer the door after he showed up a third time to get in my face about dumping him.

I sat there for a few moments just thinking about all my mistakes and I burst into laughter.

Gemma sat there looking at me like I'd lost it, her brow raised the entire time. "Something funny, Ari?"

"Only me. I sit here and say that my sister's the messed up one.." I said but Gemma butted in and said calmly, "And she is.. But your point?"

"Look at the guys I've dated since I moved here, Gemma. I mean Mike is probably the first decent one and even he can be a horndog sometimes. I mean one thing I can say about Sir Douchebag is that he wasn't some skeezing pervert. He's been decent to my sister despite her being, ya know.. Her." I finished, going silent for a few moments. I ultimately shrugged it off and then stretched as I said with a smile, "I do not feel like having life changing epiphanies today. Let's go to the boardwalk and get a slushie or something, damn."

Gemma stood and brushed the sand off herself and I sprang up from the sand and tied the beach towel I'd been lying on around my waist so that it sort of served as a coverup because I noticed that Sam Uley

and his minions, which now apparently included my almost lifelong best guy friend Jacob, were still lingering up the beach near the boardwalk, hovered around a bonfire, from where I stood it almost looked like they were conspiring or something.

As we walked past, I could've sworn I heard a whistle and felt this intense sensation that I was being watched as I walked by, but I didn't look over to see.

Parts of me, the antagonistic ones I mean, they were anxious to get back to Charlie's and tell Bella what her precious backup boy was really up to today.. But parts of me, the parts that cared a little too much for Jacob Black.. They were worried about Jacob.

And I just got this feeling.. If I told Bella I'd seen him today, that he'd been with Sam Uley and his 'followers', well.. She'd do something crazy and desperate.

Hell, I can't lie.. I saw the fearful look in Jacob's eyes when he was talking about Embry and how he'd abandoned him not so long ago and I had thoughts about going over and doing something desperate and crazy.

Because he's my friend, damn it and I care.