THREE: Light.
Alternate title: Murder
I hate mud. It gets everywhere and it's thick and annoying. Stupid mud. Unfortunately, when you live in a place where there is a hell of a lot of rain, you tend to get a hell of a lot of mud.
Mud is the reason that I showed up at the Clearwaters shoeless. I had originally been wearing some old pair of sneakers that my dad had dug out of my closet when I had asked for new shoes. He was always doing things like that. "You don't need any shoes," he would insist, then start going through my room. It didn't take him long to find whatever I needed. "You have some right here."
I guess I would have to either go get those old sneakers (which I had accidentally ran out of when they got stuck in mud) or tell my dad I shredded them because I phased in them. This wouldn't be that good of a lie… I had always tried to kick my shoes off before I went wolf. And I didn't phase that much anymore, either. None of us did, with the Cullens gone and all.
Being shoeless didn't bother me that much. I had ran around as a wolf a few years ago. Not much bothered me anymore. Especially not something as little as not having shoes.
Still. I made a mental note to go back and try to find them before I headed home.
My flashlight bobbed all over the trees around the Clearwater home as I slowed to a jog. Leah's light was off, which was weird. Normally she stayed up a long time. I'm telling you – the girl knows how to pull all nighters.
"Leah," I called quietly as I stepped near her window. Ha, I could see her bare footprints in the mud from where she had climbed into her house at night. There was even a muddy print on her windowsill. I rubbed it off with my thumb. Billy didn't care that I snuck out at night. I think he was better at understanding that even though I wasn't phasing as much anymore, I still got restless a lot. That's why Leah and I (sometimes Seth or some of the other guys, too) always went for runs every couple of nights. We ran in our human forms, since our hair had become too long to be comfortable as wolves. Leah had let hers grow down past her shoulders and mine was still kept just below my chin, so it wouldn't be fun to be a wolf with super long fur.
There was a muffled sound from inside. I pressed my forehead against her window, my eyes trying to see into her room. But my flashlight was making it hard to see anything besides my own reflection in the glass. I switched it off with a small click.
"Leah," I said again, this time louder. "I came to, uh, run." Wow. That sounded so lame. Even though it was true…. God. Lame sounding.
There was another muffled sound (which sounded like feet hitting the floor) and then her window slid open. I noticed it opened with some difficulty. Maybe I could fix that for her later. As thanks for running around with me at night. Without her, I think I would've gone crazy.
"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked sleepily, stepping away from the window so I could climb into her room. Faintly, it reminded me of climbing into another girl's window to apologize, but this time it was easier. Leah's room was on the first floor, so I didn't have to climb a tree to get into her room.
"Running," I reminded her. Why wouldn't she know what I was talking about? She had only gone on runs with me for, what? A year? Maybe a little under one. "Are you on drugs?"
"Yes," she said flatly, heading back to her bed. It was only when she turned that I realized that she was in her pajamas (a 'Quileute Pride 2005' shirt and some shorts), instead of in her jeans like she normally was dressed in when I showed up. It was weird. I mean, I've always known that Leah was a girl. I'm not a moron or anything. But when did her legs get so freaking long and tan like that? They were always dark, but now they seemed… I don't know. I followed her, sitting on the floor beside her bed. My back rested against her mattress, my head turned away from her and her long legs. "Could I get some sleep?"
"Nope," I told her, stretching my legs out. "We're supposed to be running right now."
I heard her bed creak as she moved. "I already ran. I came home. Now I'm trying to sleep, but there's a wolf boy in my bedroom who wants to ask me questions when all I want to do is sleep."
What? When had I… oh, yeah. I remembered stretching out on my bed to wait for her, but then I had started to snore. "Well, I'm ready to run now."
"Good for you," she snorted, her hand moving to touch my hair. Well, touch wasn't exactly the right word… it was more of a yank. "I'll alert the media that His Royal Highness demands that I run with him right now."
I scowled, pulling her hand out of my hair. Placing it back onto her bed, I stretched out on my back. "It's not fun to run by yourself. You should've woken me up."
"I didn't run by myself," she said with a yawn, her bed creaking again. "I ran with Embry."
Embry.
I would kill him.