Chapter One: Hot Chocolate & Movies
Our winter home was decently sized. It reminded me of a cottage, but a lot more modern and practical. The lawn, the roof, the window sills, everything was blanketed in sparkling snow. A tall lamp was on one side of a patterned rock path, emitting a warm orange glow. I helped Courtney unload our suitcases and I dragged them (I tried to lift them, but my arms are as built as spaghetti noodles.) along the cobblestone path, leading up the the door.
She unlocked the door and we both hurried inside. Snowflakes were sprinkled all over our hair and clothes. The interior was just very home-y. The first room in view was the living room and a kitchen to the left side of it. The living room had bookshelves stacked on either side of a really high tech looking flat screen TV.
"I'm gonna call one of the bedrooms," I declared as I slipped off my boots. I dusted the snowflakes off my bags and lugged them up the wooden spiral staircase.
"Don't take the master bedroom, I drove for hours to get here," Courtney warned.
I dropped everything at the door and took a look around my new room. One thing that caught my eye was the very wide semi circle window. I walked over to the window and pushed the shades to either side. There wasn't much of a view, I could see onto the neighbor's house and property. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, I was staring at a tanned, muscular, teenaged boy take off his shirt through the neighbor's house's window. I felt my face heat up. This is so wrong, Angelina! Look away! The boy turned around, but with my semi fast reflexes, I sunk underneath the window. Jesus, that was close.
The doorbell rang from downstairs and I swear I almost had a heart attack. There was enthusiastic chatter coming from the living room. I guess our neighbors showed up to welcome us? I hopped down the stairs and saw my sister with a middle aged lady.
"Hi! I'm Angelina," I gave the lady a small wave as I walked across the room towards them.
"I'm Sue, your neighbor. I was just asking your sister if you girls would like to come over for dinner," she warmly invited us.
My eyes lit up. Someone would cook for us? I looked over to my sister, to see if it was a good idea or not. She was already looking at me for reactions, however.
"Sure! We'll be over in a couple of minutes," I exclaimed with so much enthusiasm at the thought of warm food. Sue laughed and welcomed us to La Push, then went back to her home to do some last minute preparations.
"I'm so happy," I babbled, "We're gonna be warm and full tonight." I sighed at the daydream of me stuffing my face with chocolate cake while sitting by an open fire.
"That's really fat of you," my sister joked as she threw one of the couch cushions at my face, "At least we can put off grocery shopping until later."
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Sue's house looked similar to ours, except it had more furniture and pictures on its walls. My sister complimented her house, mimicking my thoughts.
"Girls, you can sit down around the table. Pick any seat you like. I'm having my son bring out the plates soon," Sue said.
Courtney and I sat on opposite sides of the rectangular table from Sue. I did it so that it would be easier to talk to Sue. Soon after, who seemed to be Sue's son came from the kitchen and brought out platters of food and sparkling clean clear plates.
"I feel like a princess," I whispered to Courtney. Sue's son overheard and chuckled. He set down the food as he looked to see which one of us had just spoke. His almond eyes set on mine. I saw that he was caught by surprise. It mostly looked like he was in awe. I smiled at him, not knowing what else to do. He quickly recovered and returned it with a wolfy grin.
The teenager sat down next to Sue and introduced himself. His name is Seth. Heat rose to my cheeks as I realized that this must be the boy that I saw from my window. Oh no. I checked for reactions on Seth's face, but it seems like he didn't even know that I saw him. That was good.
The four of us chattered for a while, no one dared to take the first bite of food to try to be the most polite. Seth tried to sneak peaks at me, but after the first time I caught eye contact, he stopped. Eventually, I finally broke first and decided to feed myself a forkful of bow-tie pasta. It was so buttery and good, I melted in my seat. The others followed along and munched happily.
After we finished eating, I helped clear up the table, even after Sue insisted not to. "The more you tell me not to help, the more I want to," I playfully argued. I scrubbed the dishes, trying to make sure they were as sparkly as when we first got them. I inspected one of the plates carefully. Did this look shiny enough? Hm, I can't tell.
"Do you need help with that," Seth chuckled behind me. I was so caught of guard, I let the plate slip out of my hands. I fumbled to try to catch it, but Seth's hand shot out and caught it in one go.
"Oh my God, sorry," I laughed nervously, "You scared me."
He smiled a very cute smile at me, "Scoot over." He took over washing the dishes while I dried them.
When we finished, he joked, "You and I are one hell of a team."
"Yeah call us the Good Looking Squad," I semi sarcastically replied. I smacked my face. I'm so lame, I'm embarrassing myself. Did I actually say that out loud?
I peaked through my fingers and I saw Seth grinning broadly at me. He gently pulled my hand off my face. "So, I'm good looking, huh?" I didn't reply because I didn't want to lie or admit that he was actually really cute. "Well, anyway, my friends are coming over soon to watch a movie here. Do you want to stay over a little longer for it," he invited me.
"I'm not sure if I should, I might have to start unpacking things today," I responded with uncertainty. I looked up at his puppy dog face. Oh no, I don't want to hurt his feelings either. "But I want to," I quickly tried to recover.
"You should stay, Angelina. Learn how to cook from Sue and don't come home until you do," my sister called from the living room. She was already walking out the door. I heard her thank Sue and say goodnight. Wow. She left me alone with strangers just like that.
"So, I'm taking that as a you can stay and sleepover," Seth joked.
"Mhm," I agreed with a little bit of sarcasm. I walked past him and plopped down on their leathery couch. He followed and sat a safe distance close to me. "What movie?"
He shrugged, "Is horror fine?" There was a little glint in his eyes. I teasingly mimicked his shrug as a response, resulting in a small playful shove to me and a few chuckles from him. He used his TV to use Netflix and put on The Cabin in the Woods. He paused as soon as the movie finished loading.
Just then, the door flew open, inviting a small flurry of snowflakes and huge gusts of frigid air inside. More muscular russet colored Quileutes walked in. They were all attractive. They were all laughing at some joke that must've been told before they came in. Guess what? They all had pretty deep voices too!
"Guys, this is Angelina. She's my new neighbor," Seth cheerily introduced me, "And this is Embry, Quil, Paul, and Jake. Jared and Kim are probably out on a date and Sam and Emily like to have nights to themselves." I waved and said a polite "Hi" from the couch. I'm not going to remember all these names, oh no.
They all gave me a "Hey" or a "What's up, cutie," as they made their way to the couch. There obviously wasn't enough space for everyone on the couch. Jake and Paul squeezed into the couch, forcing me into the corner of it. Seth's legs were so conveniently close, I had a huge urge to put my legs over his to save space, but instead, I double crossed my legs and tried to give everyone breathing space.
"You guys can sit on my lap," Paul jokingly indicated to his, well you know.
"Alright," Quil and Embry agreed in unison as they sat and crushed Paul. I could literally feel Paul's anger heat waves from here as he shoved both of them off his lap. Quil and Embry slid off the couch and rested underneath it, using the bottom of the couch as a back rest.
Sue walked into the living room with a tray of hot chocolates and a big bowl of buttered popcorn. "I'm going to bed now, but if you need anything, I'm here," she vowed mostly to me and partly to the boys.
"No, no. Thank you for everything Ms. Clearwater, and by the way, your cooking is amazing," I reassured Sue. "Goodnight."
We all picked up a cup of hot chocolate after Sue walked upstairs. The hot chocolate was so pretty; it had a stick of cinnamon leaning against the inside of the clear mug, whipped cream, and a slice of strawberry.
"Are you gonna drink that," Jake joked with an empty mug in his hand. I looked up, oh he was talking to me. Haha my bad. All the boys were already done with their drinks. Woah, that was fast.
"Of course," I replied with fake shock in my voice. I even widened my eyes for effect. I should be an actor. "It was just so pretty," I continued, dropping my 4 second acting career, "Seth, your mom is really nice."
"I know," he smiled at me.
"Are we going to watch this tonight? Or...," Paul asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Seth picked up the remote and hit the play button.
The movie was considerably not horrible. In the beginning, there was this part where one of the main characters was dared to make out with a head of a wolf wall decoration. She used tongue. It was pretty gross. The boys didn't seem to mind that part much, though.
There were some pop up scenes that made me jump. "I want to hug you to calm your jumpiness down, but," Seth whispered to me when I jumped for the second time. Jake and Quil threw popcorn at him while very loudly "shhh"ing him. I knew where Seth was going with his sentence; 'but we just met.' I smiled at Jake and Quil's little food fight and nodded to Seth in understanding. I hugged his arm as my own way of saying 'thanks but I'm fine.'
When the movie ended the boys animatedly chattered with one another. "The ending was so retarded," Paul criticized.
"Yeah," Embry and Quil agreed. Quil took the cinnamon stick from his empty mug and reenacted the ending with Embry. "Sorry for ending the world," Embry mimicked the movie. Quil took a pretend drag of smoke from his cinnamon stick cigarette. He gave Embry a small shrug and passed his 'cigarette' to Quil. The boys erupted in laughter. I just smiled at their jokes, boys are dumb.
"How do you think it was," Seth asked me with genuinely curious eyes.
"It was-" I was cut off by my cellphone ringing. I gave Seth an apologetic look before answering,
Courtney was semi worriedly rambling on the other line, "I'm stuck in the car on a road somewhere! I was just going to find a supermarket to get groceries for this week! Help! It snowed like a whole foot! I can't even drive! The car is stuck!"
The boys could hear the yells even without my phone being on speaker.
"Um," I panicked, "You could wait for the snow plows in the morning maybe? Or just use an app to tell me your location and I'll try to pick you up." By picking her up, I meant dragging my legs through the snow to keep her company in the car. I can't drive haha. I walked to the living room window to check the amount of snowfall. My sister was exaggerating a little bit, but there still was a lot of snow on the ground.
"There's something out he-" Courtney tried to say. Her voice was all crackly and full of static. The call ended after 8 seconds of static and "I can't hear you"s.
"I gotta go," I told the boys as I pulled on my brown combat boots. I tried pushing open the door, but it was no use. It was stuck.
"Here, let me help you," Seth offered as he jammed the door forward. A gust of air escaped inside through the little crack Seth managed to open. The snow was falling in. There was more than 5 inches of snow on the ground outside. Ugh.
The boys came over to see how bad it was. "You guys can sleep here tonight or until we can shovel the door out," Seth offered. "Angelina, sorry, I can't let you go out in this weather. Your sister will be fine, she's in a car, right," Seth asked. I nodded. "See? So, she can't get too cold," he continued to reassure me. The heater is broken in our little Fiat. We were going to get it fixed, but I guess it's kind of too late now.
I slumped in defeat as Seth guided me back to the living room. I guess I really was sleeping over the neighbor's house.
Seth offered to sleep on the couch so that I could use his bed. I told him he didn't have to, I remembered that he had a sister, so I thought maybe I could use her's. Jake replied to that with, "Nooo, Angel. Leah will rip our heads off if anyone touches her stuff. It's nothing personal, but it would be safer if she were here, so we could ask her in person. Sometimes, when she's mad, she's even scarier than Paul."
"It's best if you just use my bed. I'm going to take out extra blankets for you," Seth assured me.
"No! You don't have to. What about everyone else? Where are they going to sleep?"
"We're fine, sweetheart," Paul sarcastically answered. "We're always hot." Quil and Embry flexed and kissed their biceps at that, while making a sizzling sound.
I giggled at them until Seth took my hand and lead me upstairs. He opened up a closet and picked out a huge thick blue comforter, with one arm! I bet that thing weighed 20 pounds! With his free hand, he lead me to his bedroom. It was actually cleaner and neater than my bedroom in New York. Seth let go of my hand to turn the light on. He flapped the comforter free of any dust particles, then set it neatly on his oversized queen bed.
"Here you go," he proudly spoke. "I hope this keeps you warm. Oh, and there's a lock on the door, just in case, you know?"
"Thank you, Mr. Muscles, but you didn't have to set your bed for me too."
"Don't worry, Angel, it's nothing" He insisted. He looked me and his room over and looked content enough. He walked to the door and called back a soft "Goodnight." before gently closing the door.
"Goodnight," I sighed back to the door. I kicked off my boots and fell on the bed. It was a Temperpedic bed and it felt like heaven. I sank into the bed and checked my phone. Courtney didn't call again. I texted her a: are you okay? stay put we're coming in the morning.
I looked around Seth's room. Its theme was mostly pale blue and washed out white. He had some posters of unfamiliar people, a brown wooden desk, a closet, a door leading to a bathroom, and that was about it. Did this kid not have anything embarrassing?
I decided not to dig through his drawers or anything because I was trying to respect his privacy. I walked to the bathroom and tied my hair in a messy bun and leaned against the sink counter. I stared at myself through the mirror. My long wavy dark brown hair was on point. Also, my mascara was good today, it made my brown eyes look entrancing. I like gassing myself up, haha.
I washed my makeup off and did all the bathroom stuff. While I was walking back towards the bed, my heart clenched and I gasped for air. I collapsed on the bed and starting dry heaving. What's happening to me?!
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Hey, guys! As promised, here's Chapter Two! Did you like my dumb attempt at creating a cliff hanger. The heart attack Angelina has is actually pretty significant! Anyway, isn't Seth a sweetheart? He set his bed for her, aww. By the way, I'm making Quil and Embry very close and giving them both very playful personalities. Since they're both sweet and caring, I thought I'd give them another fun trait!
SOO how was it? Horrible? Amazing? Should I post more chapters? Should I just stop? Please let me know! Do you guys like it? I'm going to keep writing until you tell me to stop! Who's your favorite pairing? I gotta know, guys! So, tell me what you think by giving me reviews! Please? The next chapter would focus on what's happening to Courtney out in the snowstorm! Is she safe? Definitely not! Chapter Two is going to have some major action! Stay tuned!