Alex eyed Jacob suspiciously as he bounced towards them, making his way through the cafeteria crowds with an even larger grin than usual on his face. It was no secret that Jacob was the eternal optimist in their little group – but his glowing smile seemed a little excessive for first thing on a Monday morning.

He sat down with what Alex could only describe as a longing sigh. When his happy gaze fell upon them, and he sighed again – Alex looked over at Quil, relieved to find that he looked as freaked out as she felt.

It was Embry who bit the bullet, clearing his throat a little nervously, and leaning around Alex slightly to meet Jacob's eyes. "Uh, what's up man?"

Jacob sat back, smile turning a little smug. "I met a girl. Or, like, re-met her, I guess." That spurred the immediate clamour of questioning from Quil and Embry. Alex just frowned, reasoning that the little pit in her stomach was residual worry from his dumb love-struck entrance. Jacob threw up his hands, "Guys – her name is Bella, and she's an old family friend."

"When does she start?" Alex asked, searching the cafeteria absently, as if she would find this mystery 'Bella' amongst the crowd of students.

"Oh, she's going to school off rez." Jacob's face twisted with momentary discomfort. "And she's… seventeen."

Quil burst into laughter, and even Embry sniggered – Quil punching Jacob's shoulder with no small amount of force. "NO WAY IS SHE INTO YOU!" he boomed, as Jacob rubbed his arm with a wince.

Alex cracked a smile. "Didn't know you were into cougars, Jake." She snarked, and he narrowed his eyes at her. The bell rang quickly after that, and she stood up as Quil made another crack about Jacob's love life. Embry moved with her, smiling at her. She grinned back. "Ready, Em?"

Embry sighed. "I'm never ready for literature."

Alex pulled a face, taking his tray from him to dump in the dirty crate with her own. "Emotionally or physically ready?"

"Both." Embry groaned. "I'm not spiritually ready either." He led their way through the hallways, stopping at her locker patiently.

Alex waggled her eyebrows at him, "For there again, against the glass ... was the hideous author of our woe — the white face of damnation!" she quoted at him. "I can't believe Henry James knew that Mr. Williams was a pale-face." Embry laughed hard, clutching at his stomach. Alex smiled, pleased at his reaction. Embry always laughed at her jokes – even if they weren't very good – but it didn't stop her from appreciating his reaction. He straightened, eyes twinkling with mirth still, trying to fight his smile. Alex liked him best like this; so happy he could barely contain it.

She knew he got down on himself a lot – his mother rode him about his grades, his friends, his hobbies, and he didn't know who his father was; a fact that his mother liked to lord over his head. He was quiet at the best of times, but Alex couldn't help but worry about him, always watched him carefully.

She reached out and poked his cheek. "You look so pretty when you smile." She told him, delighting at the way his eyes widened.

He made a choking noise, ducking away from her hand, and turning to busy himself with his locker. "Wh- we, uh – y-you bring the book?" he stuttered out. Alex raised an eyebrow at his bizarre reaction, noting the blush just visible on his russet skin. She slowly raised her copy of The Turn of the Screw and waved it at him. He nodded. "C-cool." He pivoted in place, and began to hurry towards their classroom.

Shaking her head to herself, Alex followed him. Weirdo.

"Snacks!" Quil entered his bedroom loudly, slamming his door closed with his foot. Alex ignored him, continuing to stare hard at Quil's fish tank, and the suspiciously still goldfish floating near the top. "I got juice, I got pizza rolls, I got cookies, I got-"

"Dude, I think your fish is dead." Alex interrupted him. Quil's head snapped up and he darted towards the tank, spilling the cookies everywhere. Alex rolled off his bed and lazily began gathering the sweet treats back up as Quil examined his fish mournfully.

Then he smiled. "Nah. He's just faking it." Alex stared at him incredulously as he stuck a finger into the tank and poked the fish. To her surprise, the goldfish wriggled in response and began to swim around the tank as if nothing had happened. "He likes to play dead."

"That's weird, man." Alex told him, handing him the cookies back and taking both cups of juice. He accepted the trade with a nod, and flopped back onto his bed. She re-joined him, kicking the math textbook to him. He opened it with one hand – shovelling a handful of cookies into his mouth with the other. She wrinkled her nose at the crumbs that went everywhere. Quil never seemed to care if he had company or not when he was being disgusting. Speaking of – "Where are the other two?" she asked, squinting at her own messy handwriting.

Quil looked up and around, as if only just realising they were alone. "Oh. Yeah." He shrugged. "Jake said he had to help his dad, and Embry…" he trailed off, turning to her slowly, like a character out of a horror movie, complete with a creepy grin. She recoiled against his bed head.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked him, raising her foot to warn him off as he scooted closer. He leant further still, ignoring her pushing at his chest with her bare feet. "Quil! Quit it!" she whined.

"Let me be a wingman here!" he protested, shoving at her feet. "And get your nasty feet off me!"

"They wouldn't be on you if you weren't being weird, and – wait, what did you say?" Alex narrowed her eyes, lowering her feet and setting aside her juices. Quil's eyebrows were doing that stupid little dance they did when he thought he was being clever. "Quil!" she barked, and he stilled, face going a little slack.

"Embryreallylikesyouandwantedmetoseeifyoulikedhimbackandifyouwantedtogooutsoon." Quil spilled his guts almost breathlessly, and Alex blinked rapidly – trying to process the mess of words. "Oh shit." He covered his mouth, shaking his head. "Embry's gonna kill me." He groaned, collapsing back.

Alex sat very still, thinking very hard.

Embry liked her.

'Oh shit' was right.

They were all as close as friends could be – but it seemed that she wasn't the only one who had been keeping a secret.

She chewed on her bottom lip, considering. She did not want to hurt Embry – but she didn't want to lie and say she felt something she didn't. She could, it would be very easy to like Embry too – he was sweet and kind, kept her calm, wasn't too hard on the eyes… but-

But.

So many buts.

No – she couldn't risk her secret, nor their group's dynamic.

"Quil – you cannot tell Embry I know." She said seriously, as her friend sat up, holding his gaze unblinkingly. He nodded.

"Don't worry – I won't." He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, "So, is that a… no? A yes? I don't get it."

Alex sniffed imperiously, bringing up her book to cover her face. "Don't worry about it, Quil."

"But-"

There was a thump and a grunt as a pizza roll hit Quil squarely in the forehead. He gave her an outraged look, meeting her glare over her notes.

"I said, don't worry about it."

Alex couldn't help but be more aware of Embry after that.

The way he held her books, opened doors for her, stuck close by her in gym, sat next to her at lunch, laughed at what she said, kept his eyes on her face – and whilst it didn't irritate her, it did irk her.

Because in all honesty – Alex could say that Embry Call deserved someone a lot better than her. Someone more like her sister; kind and sweet like him, small and cute; everything she wasn't.

Just one more to keep her up at night.

Jacob, bless him, at least seemed to be unaware of the weird tension between the other three; Quil with his guilty looks, Embry with his crush, and her with her constantly overanalysing brain.

So sue her, if she maybe was spending a little more time with Jacob – even if he brought up her sleeping habits and his kinda-not-really crush on his mystery Bella about twice every time they were together.

At least he wasn't making her feel bad.

"We should go to the beach soon." Jacob said casually, screwing down her skateboard's wheel. It was old, and had fallen apart far too many times; but now at least she had Jacob to fix it. Though he couldn't do much about the crack down the middle that she had desperately wrapped two rolls of duct-tape around six months ago, and had been holding together through sheer force of her will.

"We were just at the beach." She pointed out, frowning at his head of still-drying hair. It wasn't quite surf season yet, but Alex was just happy to swim, and if it took the promise of ice-cream to get Jacob in, so be it.

"Yeah – I mean like, all of us." He gave her board a pat, before rolling it back to her, where she was perched on his latest project; he'd decided he wanted to build car essentially from scratch. She admired it's smooth travel before stopping it with her foot.

"Thanks, Jake – and uh, yeah if you want…" She shrugged. "What's the occasion?"

"I don't know," Jacob took a big gulp of his soda, before eyeing her. "I just feel like something's been off with you guys."

Fuck. Okay, never mind – definitely not unaware.

Alex – foolish and childish person she was – stuttered through what was supposed to be speech before deciding to shut up and try again. "I-no idea what you mean, ha-ha." She grinned at him brightly and completely falsely.

He gave her a disbelieving look. "You know, you're usually a good liar – but that was just embarrassing."

Alex made a sound half-way between hysterical laughter and a scream. Jacob just watched her, trying not to smile. But she caught the twitching of his lips. "Don't laugh at me, Jake – I'm sensitive." She whined.

Jacob gave up and laughed at her, sobering after a minute to give her a sage look. "If there's anything you want to talk about, let me know." He lowered his voice, "Have they been… bothering you?" he asked.

Alex blanched, almost falling off the shell of the Rabbit in her haste to respond. "NO! God, no!" she shook her head, "No, it's – it's not that." Jacob stared at her for another minute; long enough that she began to feel self-conscious, and turned away from him as her cheeks began to heat automatically.

"Anyway. Did you wanna have dinner?" Jacob asked, and the moment passed, and they both forgot about it. Mostly.