Chapter Three

Over and Over Again

Whitlock, Bree-Lynn Tanner . . . 555-7172.

Over and over again, he looked at the number in the university directory he'd found in Collin's office. He made sure no one saw him sneak back there to find the number. He ripped out the page, waded it up, and stuck it in his jean's pocket.

He'd dialed the number more than two dozen times but never pressed the 'send' button to complete the call. He stared at the writing on the crumbled piece of paper, trying to get up enough nerve to call her, and her name grew unfocused on the page.

It had been three days since the kiss, the one that epitomized everything he'd ever known about love – or what could grow into love. He couldn't fathom how he'd reached this point. He'd never been intimidated by a girl, and this girl certainly scared him. He knew she had him around her finger, and his fate rested in what she decided to do with him.

The well-built, russet-skinned man had no trouble asking a girl out; it was natural to him – that is, until Bree came into the picture. He stopped for a moment and closed his eyes, remembering her fingers trailing down his back during that kiss. He could still feel the soft pressure of those fingers. Unconsciously, he licked his lips when he remembered the taste of her mouth. It was like nothing he could describe, and it was better than anything he'd ever tasted before.

"Five, five, five, seven, one, seven, two," he said to himself as he dialed his cell phone. Hidden behind the maintenance building, he made the phone call. He didn't want Jared to overhear the conversation, and he certainly didn't need Collin to know that the only girl he'd ever obsessed about attended this school.

"Come on, Breelie, answer," he said. He liked the name 'Breelie' though he didn't know why. He could claim that ashisname for her. He liked the sound of her being only his. Only his to hold, touch...maybe even love.

"Hi, this is Bree. Leave a message," answered her voice mailbox. Seth heard loud music and various feminine squeals in the background.

"Um, Breelie, I mean, Bree, hi. This is Seth Clearwater . . . from the other day. I helped you to the infirmary. Anyway, call me. My number is 555-0987," he said, leaving what he thought was an awkward message. He tried not to worry too much about it because all he really wanted was to see her again.

~o~O~o~

Bree was late again; she hated hobbling around on her crutches. Always on the go, she never thought about slowing down. She always stayed busy, and she liked keeping her life that way. It kept her mind off the things she had to do – the things she was expected to do. However, since her injury, she had extra time on her hands, which meant she had time to think about a lot of things, including Seth. He always managed to creep into her subconscious, and she was angry at him for making her think of him too much.

Bree shook her head, as if doing so would make the memory of him leave her brain. She thought that she was crazy for having asked to see him again. Yes, she felt an attraction to him unlike any she had experienced before; she still had dreams about kissing him. Yes, he took such tender care of her, in a way that her boyfriend had never come close to matching. (Riley was anything but tender.) And, yes, Seth was the handsomest guy she had ever seen. She blushed at the thought of him without his shirt on. Even Riley, who worked out everyday, didn't have a body like Seth's.

"Damnit!" Bree cried as her crutch found loose gravel on the parking lot she was crossing. Luckily, she corrected herself before she crashed into the hard ground. "Leave it to me to hurt myself again just trying to walk," she said, scolding herself.

Bree never appreciated her healthy body until it was injured. Aside from the occasional shin splints and sore muscles, she had always been healthy. She couldn't remember a time when she'd been kept from doing the one thing in life she truly loved – running. It was her only release – the only thing she did that was allhers… and she just happened to be damn good at it too. No one in her family controlled it. They could force her into med school and into joining a sorority, but they didn't have to force her to run.

This morning, Bree had to walk clear across campus just to make it to the stadium for treatment on her ankle at the athletic training room. She had to finish it before her 9:30 organic chemistry class. She hoped to hurry the process and talk her trainer into allowing her to spend less time submerging her ankle in the torturous tub of ice water. She wondered if the trek across campus was even worth it, but she quickly dismissed the thought because she knew it would help her heal faster so she could get back to running.

But thoughts of her training session were interrupted by the one thing she wished her mind would let her forget.

She saw Seth and his friend, Jared, unloading equipment from the Gator that had carried her to the infirmary that day. She had no idea what they were doing at the stadium, but she didn't question their activities because they were, after all, the maintenance guys.

Bree didn't realize she had stopped short of the entrance to the stadium to stare at him. She lost all train of thought and didn't get it back before he looked up and saw her. He waved to her, and she panicked. She clumsily made her way into the stadium without acknowledging his greeting.

She hated herself for ignoring him.

~o~O~o~

Seth had made several attempts to talk to Bree, but he kept getting the cold shoulder. He realized that it had been over a week since she had so blatantly ignored him while he was working at the stadium that morning. Even though she was the one who asked to see him again, he had not heard from her. Seth tried not to be angry – his pride wouldn't let him – but deep down, it hurt him.

"Man, I'm so glad it's the weekend. I have got to find me somebody tonight, Seth, or I'm gonna pop!" Jared complained as the two rode the Gator to the library. They were spending the day weed-eating around the flower beds and mowing the commons area.

The sun shone brightly that day, and the boys from the reservation hated the stiffness of their starched uniforms. They hated to be confined to anything, especially resenting such an unnecessary item as a shirt. But Collin had his rules; they had to wear their work shirts whenever they were out on campus duty.

They were used to hot days like this back home – they'd been known to play a rough game of tackle football wearing nothing but their shorts. That's how life was on the reservation. Life there was simple – nothing fancy about it. Their idea of a party was a keg on the beach, a bonfire, and loud music. None of them had much in the way of worldly goods, but they had one another. Seth, Jared, and their friends at home, Jacob, Quil, Paul and Embry, – each would take a bullet for another. That's the way it had been their whole lives.

Seth laughed at his friend's one-track mind and how Jared only thought about getting laid. Jared never had a problem finding someone to fill his needs; his tall frame and long muscles accentuated a face that any girl would want. His short, brown hair and brown eyes also appealed to the opposite sex. In fact, most of the boys from the rez were the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome.

"Brass Monkey tonight?" Seth asked.

The local bar was a staple every Friday for all of them. Tucked away on the seedier side of town, the bar was, for the most part, frequented by working class people. The strip, which ran a couple of blocks from school, hosted the college crowd most weekends. The railroad tracks that split the town were like the Mason-Dixon line of Forks. The west side of the tracks were held down by the blue-collar workers who had lived here their whole lives in the modest, framed houses beaten down by the constant rain. On the east, there was the college, where the privileged students from rich families lived and studied before moving on every four to five years. Also east of the tracks were many nicer clubs, restaurants, hotels, and Seth's recent discovery, the sprawling Whitlock's estate.

"Of course! It's always the Brass Monkey! I'm ready to get shit-faced. Maybe we can both find a hottie tonight. We can find you someone to get your mind off the chick you won't talk about. You haven't said anything about her, but I know you, Seth. I know she's got you sprung," Jared teased. Seth knew Jared was right. But he kept his mouth shut because he knew better than to talk girls with his friend. This girl mattered to him, and he wouldn't let Jared cheapen it with his immaturity.

"Dude, don't look now, but I think that's your girl leaving the Admin building." Jared pointed toward the girl. Seth immediately straightened and turned to look where Jared was pointing. His eyes scanned the crowd for her. Even though she had ignored his attempts to talk to her, he still couldn't help himself.

He finally spotted her as she moved slowly in his direction, and he felt his lungs begin to take shorter breaths that he couldn't control. He swallowed the lump in his throat because his mouth had suddenly become parched. Then he caught sight of her face. She looked displeased. She draped her messenger bag across her body, and it fell between her breasts, pulling her baggy shirt tight around them. She seemed to be cursing the crutches she had to use. Her injured ankle was wrapped in an ace bandage, and she sported a bulky, medical shoe.

Watching her move as if she were in slow motion, Seth couldn't take his eyes off her. Here was the girl he wanted, and he was helpless without her, unsure if she felt anything for him. Bree finally noticed Seth and looked twice, as if to make sure it were really him. She stopped her uneasy swagger for just a moment, perhaps considering heading his way.

But before Seth could begin to make his way to her, a tall, brownish blonde man approached her from behind, making her stumble with his aggressive hug. He looked familiar, but from this angle, Seth couldn't figure out who the guy was. She didn't look as thrilled to see him as he did her. He hugged her from behind and lightly kissed her neck.That hurts, Seth though as he described the basic effect her kissing another guy had on him. She wasn't evenhis, and he was jealous. He was so jealous, in fact, that he considered dismembering his competition.

Bree looked one more time at Seth with apologetic eyes, but Seth got the message. She's taken. He started the weed-eater immediately with a swift pull of the cord, turned his back on the couple, and began his work. He was screaming inside, berating himself. How could I have been so stupid? How would she even be interested in me?

Jared walked to him and placed his hand on Seth's shoulder. Seth shut off his machine. "Sorry, man," said Jared. "She's got a boyfriend, dude, and it's not just any guy. It's Riley Biers."

Seth couldn't care less who the boyfriend was; all he wanted was for his friend to shut up. "Jared, I'm gonna drink you under the table tonight. I feel like getting shit-faced too."

"You know I can drink you under the table, Clearwater! It's on!" Jared yelled. "I still think we should find you some other hottie tonight. There's a lot of girls out there who wouldn't say no to you, Seth." Seth had no reply to his friend's reassurances and, instead, resumed his mindless duties.

Seth needed to forget about Bree tonight and drinking was the only thing that sounded like it would remotely help. For the rest of the day, Seth focused on his work and looked forward to drowning his sorrows at the Brass Monkey with all his buddies. He already knew that he wouldn't take Jared's advice and find another girl tonight. He'd had enough of women for a while, and he wasn't sure when he'd feel up to trying again.

~o~O~o~

"Could you not play that song again, Embry? You play that one over and over every week," Paul yelled from behind the bar. He tended the bar at the Brass Monkey and had to deal with the craziness of his friends most weekends. He enjoyed it though; he got them drunk and then laughed at their drunken antics. "Dude, I'm getting sick of that song, and it's a classic."

Embry selected, AC/DC's, 'You Shook Me All Night Long', on the juke box again. It blared throughout the bar, and the guys had to scream at one another in order to be heard.

"I think he's just hoping that he can find someone who would want to shake him all night long," crowed Quil, and all the guys laughed. Embry shot him the finger from across the bar.

Paul served Seth another beer where he sat alone at a back table. He worried about his friend, who was obviously trying to drown something in the alcohol. Paul approached Jared, hoping he'd know what had made their happy-go-lucky friend so upset.

"What's wrong with Seth? I haven't seen him this upset since he couldn't take that scholarship," Paul asked.

A tremendous athlete, Seth had been recruited to play football at a university a few hours away from Forks. It would have been a full ride, and he would have been playing the game he loved so much. In fact, many universities wanted him, but life had other plans for Seth. His father had a boating accident while fishing, and Seth became the sole caretaker and breadwinner of their family. Seth never mentioned the scholarship to his father, Sam. He'd made all the guys swear they would never say anything to his dad either, and they had all kept their word, like always.

"Dude, it's worse than that. He fell hard for a chick with a boyfriend. He's that Riley Biers's girl, no less. Seth can't compete with that guy," Jared said. Riley Biers just happened to be the All-American quarterback for the University of Forks. His excellence on the team had given the university the kind of notoriety it had never seen before. He was quite good, and the guys had even watched a few of the games this year because of it. They all knew that the quarterback sitting next to them in the stands was better than the one on the field, but none of them brought it up.

"Jared, I'm sure Seth could make that Biers punk look like a peewee football player. Don't you remember how he played, dude? Seth can hold his own. It's Riley Biers who couldn't compete with Seth, man," Paul finished, rather worked up.

"Look, I remember how Seth played,and I remember how good he used to be. I'm just saying that Bree isn't going to give him the time of day as long as she's got Biers," Jared argued. Riley had Bree, and Jared knew that it was a hard pill for Seth to swallow.

"Are you saying guys like us can't get girls like her?" Paul snapped, defensive of not only Seth, but all of them. "You better get out of my face now if you want me to even think about serving you another beer." And with that threat from Paul, Jared staggered over to the increasingly competitive dart game brewing between Jacob and Quil.

The night wore on, and the guys settled around the back corner table, working on the picture of beer that Paul kept refilling for them. Seth had stayed quiet, thinking to himself. It had been an hour or so since his last drink, and he wondered if ought to drink more or sober up, so he could drive home. He didn't have much time to deliberate because his answer came to him as soon as the door swung open.

Obviously, they weren't Brass Monkey regulars. Most of them weren't from Forks, and everyone in the bar turned to stare. A small group of college students, who were drunk, brazenly walked into the bar as if it were their regular hang out. The crowd in the bar grew quiet, and most of the new group of students laughed at the reaction they received.

The one who didn't laugh was the last girl Seth wanted to see. Bree had come in with the obnoxious group of people, which included her boyfriend. He seemed to be the leader of them, too. He was three sheets to the wind and acting like an idiot. Bree, who didn't have her crutches with her tonight, scanned the room with a worried look. Seth saw her first and watched her look around nervously. He could tell she was uncomfortable being in a place like this, and her jerk of a boyfriend wasn't helping matters either.

"What the hell are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen well-dressed people before?" Riley glanced around, yelling at everyone in his beer haze. "I guess not," he laughed, amused by his own joke. The small group of friends, about five in total, staggered over to the bar, taking up all but one of the bar stools, and kept Paul busy with new drink orders. Seth recognized the only other girl in group as Lucy. She started doing tequila shots with one of the guys, and they all started getting loud.

Bree clutched her purse and tried to make herself comfortable as she stood next to her friends at the bar, but it wasn't working. She knew her friends were acting like fools, and her eyes darted around the room again to see who was watching the spectacle they were making. That's when she saw Seth in the back corner with a group of guys. She stared briefly at the man with the deep, brown eyes who invaded her thoughts daily, no matter how badly she needed him to go away. Thus far, the thought of him had done everythingbutgo away.

"Hey, babe. Why don't you come over here and sit on my lap?" Riley yelled at Bree. She could rather have died than done such a thing, and she told him so. His girlfriend's refusal only made Riley louder.

"Come on, Bree. I bet Lucy would come and sit with me if I asked her." Bree knew that to be true. Lucy would do anything to win attention from the opposite sex, and she'd wanted Riley as long as Bree had known her.

"Riley, sometimes you're an insensitive jerk. I need to go to the restroom; excuse me," she said as she limped back to the ladies room. She had no idea what to do or how to act when Seth happened to be in the same room with her. Locking the door behind her, Bree stood still and tried to breathe. She stared in the mirror and averted her eyes to the floor; she couldn't stand to look at herself. She'd intentionally ignored the person who'd helped her when she'd injured her ankle. She'd even sent his call to voice mail when she saw the caller ID, though she saved the message and replayed it to herself multiple times a day.

She wanted to see him, but she knew that wasn't the way things could be. Her family would never understand why she would think about dating a maintenance guy from the local reservation when she had Riley, who had the brightest of futures. Her father reminded her of the list of Riley's 'pros' all the time, and he never mentioned the 'cons.' Her father, Jasper, liked Riley and the perceived opportunity a relationship with him offered his daughter. Their betrothal had been planned since the two of them were younger, as the Biers and the Whitlocks were good friends.

Jasper envisioned Bree and Riley's future together, living the good life. She would be a doctor, just like her father and his father before him. Riley had a future in law to fall back on, though his football career would help him for the rest of his life. If she traded that in for Seth, she would never have the support of her parents. She didn't know how to handle their disapproval.

Getting more agitated by the minute watching Riley, Seth decided he should leave. He watched Lucy and Riley flirt, which caused his blood to boil. If Bree were his, he wouldn't even look at another women; Riley didn't seem to appreciate what he had.

Seth figured that leaving while she was in the restroom would be a wise decision. His buddies remained quiet, well aware of why Seth was on edge. They all knew who Bree was now, and they all secretly wanted a reason to kick Riley's pretty ass.

"Guys, I'm gone. I need to bail," was all he said. He threw some money down on the table to cover his share of the beer and headed out the door.

Seth didn't see that Bree had emerged from the bathroom, just as she didn't see him heading out the door. He also didn't see her return to the bar to find Lucy sitting on Riley's lap. She wondered why she hadn't assumed that Lucy would take Riley up on his offer in her absence. That girl had been attempting to pounce on Riley every chance she could. Lucy was obviously grinding her ass onto Riley's crotch, and Riley was encouraging her with his hands on her hips – all while Bree looked on.

"Really, guys? You can help each other home tonight. I'm leaving," Bree yelled.

"At least I know Lucy's going to put out. She's not a stuck-up cocktease like you," Riley shouted back. Bree clutched her purse tightly, feeling the sting of his words. Embarrassed, well aware that everyone in the bar had heard, she limped out the door as tears welled up in her eyes. Seth didn't hear the heartless words her poor excuse for a boyfriend threw at her before she left. He wasn't there to witness her humiliation, but her friends were. It took every restraint that the explosive Paul had to refrain from shoving a beer bottle up Riley's ass.

The truth of the matter was that Bree had never felt a passion for Riley; the arranged relationship had been forced upon her by her family. She thought of him more like a brother than a lover, and she couldn't even imagine having sex with him. She had liked him at first, thinking that he was what she wanted in a boyfriend. But as time went on, she realized she didn't like him and could never love him. The longer she stayed with him, the harder it became to break up with him. The thought of her family's disappointment kept her trapped in a loveless and somewhat emotional-abusive relationship.

As soon as she felt the night air, her focus was to get go home and curl up with a bucket of ice cream and watch an old movie. She thought Seth was still in the bar laughing at her humiliation, and she was far too embarrassed to approach him now. He couldn't possibly still care for anyway, considering how horribly she'd acted toward him for the past week or so.

She slowly hobbled down the sidewalk towards the parking lot.I can take my own car, thank you very much. His drunk ass can find its own way home with that whore, she thought. She was tired of Riley's foolishness and wondered how she could break it off without disappointing her parents. She spotted her car in the lot and relief came to her, knowing she'd be home soon. But fate had other plans, and the last thing she was expecting tonight was to run into Seth.

And there he was.