This is coming out so much later than I wanted it. I'm sorry once again. I'll save the excuses because I know you guys are tired of them. Chapter 2 is sort of a filler(sucks i know). But I'll try to make chapter 3 insanely juicy for you guys. Special thanks to all the reviewers, favorites, and readers of the first chapter. I'll make sure to shout all you guys out next update. :)
I popped my head around the corner half expecting the same guys stuck in my memories. They were the same, considering they were lounging around watching reruns of Rob and Big, but like everything else in my life they had changed.
Muscle ,that is how I would describe them. You would think I was seeing the break room at a body building competition, minus all the douche complexes and fake tans, instead of Sue's living room. But low and behold it was just the boys. Their ponytails were gone and all traces of adolescence were out the window.
"Take a picture, it lasts longer." My observation was cut short when Paul opened his mouth. That boy could ruin any mood with those yapping lips of his. I rolled my eyes but ran a quick gaze over him. He was lounging on the love seat by himself, feet hanging off the arm rest. He had on an undershirt that left his toned arms out. His face was spread in its famous smirk. Even if Paul was a class A asshole, he had it going on. He was fine as hell but trouble all the same.
"I doubt you last long in anything, Paul." I snipped back followed by the guffaws by Quil, Embry, and Jared.
"And I'll be more than happy to prove you wrong." Paul winked back. I rolled my eyes and couldn't help the smile that spread across my face.
"You haven't changed, other than the obvious." I shook my head at him and he smiled back.
"Same to you." Paul smirked again and I thanked God I couldn't read minds.
"Anywho." I turned away from Paul to give Quil and Embry a quick dap, and flick Jared's ear.
"What's been up with you guys?" I pushed Paul's feet aside and seated my self on the sofa. I disregarded his grumble and leaned my head back on the sofa.
"Nothing much, just hanging out." Quil jumped his shoulders. He was the biggest out of the bunch. Not in height so much, but in weight. He was a lot stockier than he was four years ago. Looking over them again, my mind start to turn wheels and possibilities began to surface. I wasn't sure but I couldn't help but think maybe the boys had "changed" also. It was silly of me to consider this so early on when they only present one "symptom". I had been a wolf for almost two years and I still wasn't clear on all that came with it.
"How you been?" Embry spoke up. I quirked an eyebrow at this, Embry wasn't really a talker. Or maybe it was the outspoken nature of the guys that made him seem quieter than he really was. I smiled faintly.
"Good. One day at a time, I guess." My smile became strained as I felt heat crawl up my spine. It was a reflex whenever some mentioned my dad or asked how I was doing. My wolf was restless and I couldn't blame her. I was hungry for the truth also. But I had to keep my intentions under wraps for awhile, before I started poking around.
"We're missing a few people." I noted mostly to myself but that didn't stop Paul from commenting. Shocking!
"You're not that popular anymore, sweet cakes." I gave him a glare and he chuckled.
"Jake and Seth are running errands for Sue. And Emily will be over in a bit."
"With her double chocolate chip muffins." Quil whopped followed by a high five with Embry.
Jared snorted. "I bet she brings blueberry." He sighed dreamily from the floor and I couldn't help laughing at the immaturity that revolved around the prospect of food. But my stomach growled loudly in spite of this and Paul smirked.
"I haven't had anything to eat all day." I shrugged. That damn vampire really screwed up my snack break. I still wanted to know why the hell she was up here.
"Me neither." Quil grumbled and patted his stomach. Jared sat up and snorted. "Liar. You ate like 7 biscuits this morning."
"Ten." Embry corrected.
"That was at eight. Its time to eat again." Quil frowned.
Jared shook his head. "And you wonder why you can't run from here to the hallway without giving out of breath. You seriously need to get away from the table, dude."
"You are getting a bit slow." Embry said somewhat reluctantly.
"Quil isn't that big, Jared." I felt the need to intervene. I didn't like the way Jared was chewing into Quil about his weight. Quil had always been a little chubby but now muscles replaced his baby fat. Jared sounded like a little stuck up girl riding on Quil like that.
Jared threw me a glance that seemed to say, look who's talking, but I know he wasn't crazy enough to say that crap out loud. He valued his face too much. Seeing my glare, Jared kept his lips shut and went back to lying on the floor.
As things chilled down for a bit and another Rob and Big episode trekked by, I made myself comfortable on the couch. I was surrounded by my crew, well at least half, and I felt pretty good. I still had yet to see Leah, and the guys didn't mention her at all. I wasn't sure how to take that. Something was wrong.
Leah and I were like two peas in a pod or any other clichéd idiom you want to use to describe our relationship. We were alike in a lot of ways but we still had our own identities. She was outspoken, stood up for herself, and didn't mind a little trash talking now and then. She didn't have a problem stating her opinions, but she wasn't opinionated. Nothing could bring that girl down.
Unknowingly I had dozed off for a bit, and woke up when I heard new voices in the house. I looked over to see Paul sunk down in the couch with his mouth open. He was propelling a mean snore, and I was surprised I wasn't awoken earlier just by the noise he was making.
" Naomi!" My head snapped around to the call of my name and I was immediately out of my seat. Paul snoring stopped and he looked around as if something was about to pop off, but once he saw who it was he rolled back over.
"Seth." I ran over to Seth in a flash, wrapping my arms around him with all my might. He was taller, much taller. I was able to get over the other guys growth spurt, but Seth was different. You can't compare a little scrawny twelve year old with the brawny teenager that I was hugging currently. Ha! Scrawny Brawny. It rhymes. I remembered babysitting Seth since he was about six; he was always a very happy child. He had a goofy little grin and dimples that could get him out of anything.
While most boys his age would have been playing with toy trucks and throwing dirt on girls, Seth always had one thing he wanted to do. He always wanted to go to the beach. His love of the ocean was uncanny. When he was too young to go off on his own, Harry would take him down to the tide pools. Sue always got worried when he got to close, like he was really going to drown in a foot of water.
"Look at you!" I step back to get a good look at him. His cheeks were raised and those dimples were making their appearance. "You've grown, squirt." He laughed at my astonishment.
"I can say the same."I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"So how's school and stuff? Good grades, right?" Seth looked amused by my question then nodded.
"Yeah, I'll be a junior this fall." Okay, now I really feel old.
"You're lying!" Seth shook his head, grinning from ear to ear.
"I've missed a lot." I said mostly to myself and Seth picked up on my change in attitude. He patted my shoulder in unspoken reassurance, but I still felt kind of bad.
"Oh, gotta go. Here comes your biggest fan." Seth gave me a wink then went over to get the guys up. I wasn't sure what he was talking about. But when I heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall, I became interested. Aside from the heartbeats thumping in the room, this one was different. It was crazy how my ears picked up on this one in particular. It was calming, the music that the heartbeat made even though it was just a thump-thump rhythm. I turned around ready for this big fan of mine.
Coming into the living room, swallowing up the small archway was a very big guy. My eyes looked over his weathered boots, dark wash jeans and fitted gray short sleeve. He stopped short about 5 feet away from me and I was sure he was looking me over too. Moving up from his insanely muscular upper body, I moved up to his face. He had a slight chin dimple that lived right under nice pink lips.
"So I guess you're all out of hugs, right?" I snapped out of it before I was able to analyze the rest of his face and smiled. It was a little bit huskier, but it was Jake's voice.
"Nah, I still got one left." I closed the distance between us and felt him take me up into his arms. He was hot. Besides the obvious, I mean physically hot. Gosh why do I feel the need to edit my thoughts? I was so used to feeling the normal human temperature that I was shocked at how warm Jake was.
"I'm glad you're back, Omi." I chuckled and kissed the side of his face. Jake was the only person in the world who called me Omi. When he was three he couldn't pronounce Naomi, so Omi was the next best thing. I still laughed about it sometimes.
He twirled us around once, and then set me back on my feet. I usually wasn't one for those types of couple like, giddy moments but I was pretty happy to see Jacob.
" Damn, Jake. I've got to give it to you, you look good." I smiled, stepping away to get another look at his body. I smiled brighter as I met his eyes. They were still dark as ever, but they had a new light to them. A very weird light if I should say so. Okay now this was just creepy!
The light in his eyes got brighter and I couldn't help but feel some sort of pull towards them. Jake was staring at me like I was the only person in the room. His mouth was open a bit and a slight hiccup sound came out. His heart rate picked up enormously and I patted his arm to keep him from having a heart attack. This only seemed to make things worse as his heart started to beat faster than the wings of a hummingbird.
"Seth! Something's wrong with Jake." I looked back at Seth who was standing there frozen too. He snapped out of it once he heard me call his name, a dark blush covered his whole face.
I turned back to Jake and he was still in a weird trance. I was damn near shaking his arm out of the socket by now, but he still wouldn't budge. I let my eyes lock with his for a moment but they only bore back into mine. He still didn't budge.
"Jake. Jake." Seth patted his shoulder and then snapped his fingers in front of Jakes face a few times. I could see Seth was trying to stay calm but he was getting flustered.
"Hey, what's going on?" Paul stirred awake and looked around.
"Jake's a little… zoned out." Seth flushed again and this time my nosiness got the best of me.
"Does he do this all the time? What's wrong with him? Does he have some kinda condition?" My voice had raised an octave and I looked around for answers. This was some weird stuff especially coming from Jacob. He didn't seem like the type of guy to zone in and out of reality like this.
"Coming through!" Paul pushed through me and Seth, making a clear path to Jacob. He looked him over once, and then sighed almost pitifully. "Quil come take your cousin for some fresh air. Embry and Seth, go with him."
Amazingly the boys got up with no complaint. I watched them haul Jacob away, his eyes still locked on me. I wasn't sure why, but I felt as if I should be helping him. Not them.
Once I heard them leave, I turned back to Paul who was fluffing the couch pillows. "What the hell was that?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest to keep them from shaking. I was usually calm under pressure, but now my nerves were acting up. Being agitated gave my wolf enough reason to start stirring. The last thing I wanted to do was phase under Sue's roof.
"Don't worry he'll be fine." He threw over his shoulder nonchalantly. Wrong thing for him to do since I was in a good position to kick him in the ass.
"He'llbe fine. That was some real freaky shit, Paul. Does this kind of thing happen all the time?" I thumped him on the side of the head. "Should I be prepared for the next "episode"?"
"You're going to need a lot of preparing for what's coming your way, sweet cakes." Paul brushed off the snort from Jared, who still was occupying the floor. "How about we go with something like, Jake is really glad to see you. Does that do the trick?" Paul winked and my confusion for Jacob turned into annoyance for Paul. I swear this boy got on my damn nerves. He couldn't be serious for one damn minute.
"Why can't you give me one straight answer?" I shifted my weight to my right leg and waited. Paul ignored me and glanced around. I watched as his eyes landed on the gold clock that sat above the fireplace.
"Hmm. Leah should be waking up from hibernation by now. Go up and see her, but be careful she's snappy." He smirked but I knew that he was being truthful for some reason. But you never knew about Paul. I took his advice readily, no one had brought Leah up at all today and I wanted to see her. I gave him a heated glare before I was out in the main hallway again, making my way to Leah's room.
The door was closed. It was white like every other door in the house. The only difference was the worn stickers that spelled out her name, plastered against the wood. I smoothed out the corner of the "L" that was lifting. It only stayed for two seconds before it popped back up again. I could've stood there all day, smoothing that corner over and over.
I shook my head and quickly knocked on the door before I actually considered my previous thought. I had to keep my head clear. It was the only thing I had left that I could control, but even now it seemed like it would wander off on its own.
"Just come in, Naomi."
I twisted the knob and let myself in.
Please give me your feedback. I know Jacob's part was like so small, nearly nonexistent, but he will definitely have some big parts coming up soon. How do you guys think Leah and Naomi are going to react to each other? Give me your feedback because I love it, good or bad.
Hugs and Love, Glo