A/N: Thanks for all the feedback, guys! TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY! It's always nice to hear that people are reading this story, it makes it that much more fun ;) Same rule applies, except I'm bumping it up! SIX reviews before I update!
Disclaimer: I only own Kate, Kate's mom, Aunt Julie and the plot. Stephenie Meyer owns anything you recognize!
Chapter 4: Freaks and Secrets
I kept my eyes shut when I woke up from my drug-induced sleep. I worked to keep my breathing even and tried hard not to move. I could hear Aunt Julie and Paul talking about me quietly. Paul was standing somewhere near the couch and Julie was in the chair next to it. Paul walked over to where I was laying and gently picked up my feet. I tried not to protest as he sat on the end of the couch and put my feet in his lap. Grr.
"She seemed pretty mad earlier," Aunt Julie mused.
"Yeah. I kind of said something I shouldn't have," Paul mumbled. I could imagine Julie's questioning gaze as she lifted her eyebrow like she always did. He sighed. "I…well…I may have said…" he cleared his throat nervously. I wondered if he'd lie; this wasn't something you tell the girl's aunt. I felt him shift under me and then he rushed out the rest of his sentence. "I may have told her not to kick me in the crotch because then she wouldn't be able to have my babies." He took a deep breath at the end and let it out shakily. Julie laughed quietly.
"That may have scared her off just a bit, Paul," she said, laughter evident in her voice. "Way to be subtle."
"Well it's not my fault! I get all nervous around her! I mean, she's my imprint but she's also really pretty!" I held back my girlish giggle and prayed that I didn't blush. "God, she's hot," he mumbled under his breath, too quiet for anyone but me to hear. I tried to figure out what he meant by "imprint." I racked my brain. Nope, I definitely didn't know that word.
"I know how you feel about her, but keep in mind that she doesn't." Oh sure, I'm completely oblivious. Like he hadn't made his strange fixation clear enough with all those weird advances.
"I think I made it obvious with all the awkward flirting things I tried." Ha, he was right with me in his line of thinking. Julie sighed.
"Maybe. But I think you're going about it all wrong. After all, that sort of thing doesn't really show how much you feel for her." Oh god, this was worse than I thought. I think I needed to discourage him.
"She's just been doing everything to discourage me!" He he, that's twice now.
"Just…don't be so creepy about it," she suggested. Yes! Score one for Aunt Julie. "You need to prove that you care, not that you just want a relationship with her. There's a lot of things you need to build up before you can get her to love you. One of those things is a friendship." I agreed with the whole "friendship first" thing, but why did everyone expect me to love him!?
"I'm not meaning to creep her out," Paul started uncertainly. Well, you're definitely succeeding with the creepiness. "I just…I can't handle myself around her and that stuff just sort of happens." Oh, so he wasn't a creeper by nature. It was cool and all that he cared, but I severely doubted that I could manage to hold a conversation with him if he was going to act like that all the time, regardless of whether or not he was trying. The conversation dwindled into small talk, so I decided it was time for me to "wake up." Paul's hands were tracing my calves and I didn't want him to get too comfortable with it. I yawned and stretched my arms. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, feigning confusion at my surroundings.
"What time is it?" I asked to no one in particular.
"Just after nine in the morning," I heard Paul answer. I groaned and stretched again. When I finally had the nerve, I looked at Paul.
"Paul? How did you get in here?" I asked, pulling my legs off his lap and tucking them under me. I saw his hand twitch to hold them when I first pulled away, but he got it together. Good boy. He nodded at Aunt Julie with a small smile. I looked back at her and she smiled too. She got up and left the room, though, leaving me alone with Paul. I looked back at him; he was still smiling. I smiled back to be pleasant, and his smirk turned into a full-blown grin. I laughed and his face fell just a little.
"What? What's wrong? Do you want me to leave? 'Cause I can leave if you want…" He trailed off. I shook my head, still laughing.
"No, it's fine. I was laughing at your face." His brow furrowed; he was confused. "Your smile," I clarified. "It looked like it was going to break your face." I snickered a little more and he laughed too. My stomach grumbled and his did the same, making us both laugh more. I got up to go get us food, but apparently it was a bit too fast. I got light-headed and started to fall. Great, I could go back to the hospital and see the hot doctor!
It took me a minute to realize that the floor was no longer rushing towards my face and that there was a hot, hard arm wrapped around my waist. Paul pulled me up but I just fell the opposite way and into his chest. His arm constricted around me.
"Paul…" I said warningly.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," he let go of me and I regained my balance. He stood there rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"Good job," I complimented. He finally made eye contact, but he seemed confused again. "You actually let go for once." I winked and walked into the kitchen. I heard him pull out a chair and sit as I opened the fridge door and looked inside for something to make. I bent over and reached for the eggs; they were fast and easy. I paused.
"Paul, stop staring at my ass," I said with a laugh. He cleared his throat.
"I wasn't," he said defensively, clearly lying. After a second, he added, "How did you know that?" I laughed again.
"I didn't, your answer said it all." He groaned and I turned around in time to see him drop his head on the table with a bang.
"I suck at this," he muttered, his voice muffled by the table.
"It's fine," I reassured him. Even though it was creepy. "You're a guy." He snickered but seemed to relax. I pulled out the eggs and set them on the counter, as well as a pack of bacon. "I'm having two eggs, how many do you want?"
"I'll have the rest of the carton," he replied nonchalantly. I gaped. He must be kidding.
"You're going to eat ten eggs by yourself?" He nodded, so I shrugged and prepared the entire carton. I decided to make scrambled eggs; anything else would take forever. As I mixed everything together and poured it into the pan, Paul tried to make small chat.
"So…how are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks." Insert painfully awkward pause here.
"Want to hang out today?" I sighed. Here we go.
"No thanks."
"Oh."
"Yup."
"Well, can I hang around here?"
"I'd rather you didn't."
"Kaaaate," he whined.
"Paullllll," I whined back. He snickered.
"Can we just do something? I promise I won't do anything weird!" I severely doubted that. "I won't even make eye contact if you don't want me to!" And I was right.
"You see, that in itself would be weird." He groaned loudly and started hitting his head on the table.
"I. Can't. Do. Anything. Right!" He hit his head on each word. I threw an eggshell at him.
"No committing suicide at the table or you don't get any eggs." He stopped hitting his head but sighed again.
"Aren't you supposed to tell me that I'm doing something right? Not just bribe me to stop committing suicide with promises of eggs?" He asked seriously. I laughed.
"I'm not gonna lie. You're doing a LOT of things wrong." He groaned again. "But want to know what you can do?" He nodded enthusiastically. "Come cut up some tomatoes." He snickered and got up to help. I handed him the knife and the cutting board, as well as the bowl of washed tomatoes. He got to work straight away, clearly trying to get in my good books. We did it in silence, the only sounds being the knife on the cutting board and the eggs and bacon sizzling in their pans.
"So you should come to the bonfire tonight," Paul said, effectively breaking the silence.
"What bonfire?" I asked. Was I supposed to know about it?
"Well, if you would have given me a chance to explain, you would already know." He replied snippily. I snorted.
"Fine, go ahead. What is this bonfire?" I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to know. I assumed that Jake and everyone would be there if I did go, but I wasn't in the mood for trying to salvage mine and Paul's nonexistent friendship. Which I was sure would be the case by the end of it. He was way too strange to allow for much other than that.
"Well, all the people in La Push come out to the cliffs every so often to go listen to the elders tell stories and there's food and stuff," he told me, seeming to think it was a big deal that I go, judging by the earnestness in his voice.
"Oh yeah, Jake told me about that." He stared at me before frowning.
"When did he tell you? Why did he tell you?" I just looked at him. What was his problem with Jake and me being friends? He kept going without letting me answer. "He knew it was my job to tell you, he knew that! Stupid kid, I'll kill him," he kept muttering. I jumped in when he stopped to take a breath.
"He told me when he was explaining why he didn't know my aunt very well. He told me she never came out to the bonfires. Jeez, Paul! Cool it, would you? No need to snap over everything." He just continued to grumble to himself and started cutting the tomatoes faster and harder.
"OUCH! DAMNIT! THAT HURTS!" I jumped and turned to see what was wrong. Paul had sliced clear through his hand. The blood was dripping onto the cutting board and the red-covered knife clattered to the floor. I paled. Paul was still yelling out every curse word imaginable while I leaned over the bloody mess to get a cloth to clean up his hand. But, as I watched, it started to heal. I froze and observed it, equally disgusted, horrified, and fascinated. It scabbed over and then began to fade in colour. It went from a dark red to a dark pink with puckered edges to a pale line on his palm, and then faded into nothing. Over the course of about thirty seconds. I looked up and into Paul's eyes. His expression was cautious, and he was watching my every move.
"You…it…but the knife…" I couldn't form a whole sentence. I was freaking out. I tried to explain what I had just seen, but I really couldn't. Was I insane? Was I still asleep? Was I dreaming? No, I couldn't have been. My broken arm still hurt like crazy. You weren't supposed to feel things in dreams, right? I pinched myself. Ow. Yeah, I was awake.
"Kate…" Paul took a step towards me. There was something severely wrong with him. That sort of thing shouldn't happen. I held my hands up in defence and slowly backed away, completely terrified. There was no way this guy was human.
"D-Don't touch me! Stay away from me!" He was still walking forward and watching me. I hoped he wouldn't kill me or something. I wouldn't heal in a matter of a few seconds… I kept backing up, matching him step for step, feeling along the wall for some sort of escape. My hand closed around the handle of the back door. I flung it open and sprinted as fast as I could into the woods behind the house. I kept running, periodically tripping over a root or stone. I ignored Paul's pleas to stop and wait, I just threw myself further. Eventually, when his calls ceased, I stopped. I looked around. I had no clue where I was anymore. I heard a twig snap behind me and I whirled around. I couldn't see anything there, but I felt something watching me. I started to panic and I slid down a tree, my back to it and my legs pulled up tight against me.
I needed to get out of this town; it was nothing but freaks and secrets. How many people were involved in this? It was absolutely ridiculous. I understood that I was already registered for school and everything, and that I was sent specifically here by my parents, but maybe I could get them to send me to my Aunt and Uncle in Albuquerque. I hear it's quite nice there. And there probably weren't crazy people who heal too fast or a big town-wide secret that people can't tell newcomers about. I would have to call my mom, who probably wasn't all to pleased with me at the moment. But what else could I do? There was no way of getting out of stupid La Push without it. I sucked in a huge breath and decided that I would do just that. Once I found my way out of these godforsaken woods, I'd call home and demand that I be sent for punishment in another city. I could handle the whole being exiled thing. I just didn't want the drama or the stress. I steeled myself and prepared to get up. My mom couldn't bite me through the phone.
That's when it stepped out of the trees. It could probably bite me. It probably wanted to. All fears of my mother or Paul's crazy fast healing were completely forgotten in that moment.
It was huge; it sort of looked like a dog or a wolf, but there was no way. This thing was the size of a horse. It had razor sharp, white teeth. It's muzzle was pulled back over them menacingly and it was growling as its eyes scanned the area where I was sitting. It had steely gray fur that looked coarse. I sucked in a huge breath and its gaze darted over to me on the forest floor, partially concealed by the bush I was sitting next to. I'm sure my eyes were twice their regular size at this point as they bugged out of their sockets. I started to hyperventilate as I stayed sitting but slid further away from the animal. It stepped forward when I moved back. Ha, it reminded me of Paul. He always did that.
I mentally slapped myself. This was hardly the time to be thinking of him. It was his fault I was in this situation. I hit another tree in my haste. Now there was nowhere to go. Great, fantastic, I was going to die.
The thing stepped forward even further, but stopped when it heard something I didn't. Its ear twitched to the right, so I looked over there too. Nothing happened, but the wolf growled again, low and menacing. It stalked forward, and suddenly another wolf/horse thing leaped out of the woods. It was sandy brown and much smaller, yet still way too massive for me to actually be comfortable with it. It jumped straight onto the gray one's back and both tumbled to the ground. They clawed at each other, snarls escaping both frequently. They rolled in my direction and I scrambled to get out of the way. I stood up while they were preoccupied (probably fighting over who got to eat me) and turned to run. Only to come face to face with yet another of the creatures. This one was by far the largest and was a reddish brown colour. It looked at me briefly before going over to the two that were fighting. I was frozen in place. I couldn't even run anymore. The fight was getting close to me, but I still couldn't move. Huh, I must've been in shock. Whatever the reason, I was about to get knocked over by two animals trying to kill me.
The mass of light brown and gray fur rolled towards me, knocking my feet out from under me. I felt and heard the sickening crack of my head against a rock as I fell down. I felt warmth spreading through my scalp as the pain increased. The animals didn't even seem to notice that I was lying there, bleeding. I was completely defenceless. I tried to stand but only ended up falling onto my stomach. The reddish brown wolf had now joined the fight. They rolled off into the bushes and out of my sight. I started to see black spots in my vision, but I was determined to not pass out here. It couldn't be a good idea to faint while there are three massive things fighting over me. Suddenly, the sandy wolf came back out of the bushes. Huh, he must've won. I got ready for him to kill me, holding my breath and squeezing my eyes shut. They snapped open when I heard another snarl. The gray wolf was back. It lunged at the sandy one, who dodged out of the way. Its huge paw was now officially coming at me. I shut my eyes again but opened them as I felt the shredding pain run from the nape of my neck to my lower back. Blood seeped down my shirt and saturated my skin, the liquid warmth pooling underneath me. My eyes lingered on the stupid little doodle of the massive wolf on my cast as my eyelids drooped. I hoped it wasn't the last thing I'd ever see.
I screamed as loud as I could and promptly passed out.
A/N: DRAMAAAAA. Hahaha. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. It speeds up the story a lot and hopefully things will get a little more interesting from this point forward. I had to include the wolves eventually! Hopefully she'll make a connection sooner than later ;) Oh, and don't bother asking why Paul didn't realize she was hurt or why he didn't help her when she fell. ALLLLL will be explained :) REVIEW, PEOPLE!
Quick question, though. I got a review asking if I could do a Paul POV sometime soon. I was thinking of doing one at a later point as an interlude kind of thing, but would you guys prefer that I just add it into the actual story and forget about doing the one on the side?
Love,
Sarah Yoko!
