A/N: Oh, well, I suppose I should be posting chapter for some of my others fics, but...I'm in such a writer's block that I'm glad I got to finish this one. :cries: Anyway, I don't think this is much of a funny chapter but the good side is that I think we are about to see some fluffiness. I think. Still not sure how the two of them will manage being cute with each other, they keep coming up with bad attitude every time I try to picture them together in my head. Paul shakes and growls every time Rachel says she won't date a man who's smaller than her brother, so…Oh well, and speaking of brothers, please, don't hate Jake. He's being a little bitch but it's because he's going through such a rough phase, the poor kid. :T
Thanks to everyone who review and my dear anonymous, please, give me a name so I can answer you properly at least on the author notes, I feel bad not thanking you for all the good feedback!
Chapter 4: Sunday always comes too late
My last experience on a date happened long before I phased for the first time. Her name was Kristen and she was a redheaded cheerleader for whom I had a huge crush. I mean, let's face it, how fetish-alike can a girl get, right? But although people didn't exactly believe me, I really liked her. I had a picture of her on my bedroom desk and I wrote a few songs about her – Jared found them and threw them all on a garbage bin while burning them, said music itself was better off without those. But, as I said before, I was…fragile. Why would ever a cheerleader look at the moron on her Domestic Economy class? But then, one day, out of nowhere, I finally gathered enough courage to ask her out and, surprisingly enough, she accepted it. After giving it a lot of thought before, of course.
So, I got all my savings and took her to a romantic dinner – and by romantic I mean expensive – and we were amazingly getting along. About two hours after the date started she had stopped calling me Peter and was finally getting my name right. So, she turns to me during the second course and says:
"You know what, Paul? I wasn't going to accept in the first place, but then Rachel…" Rachel, unlike me, was the top of the pop back then. "When Rachel Black told me she was your friend and said that you were the sweetest of boys, I could not believe. She said she'd take it as personal offense if I denied the invitation, can you believe her? She said we were perfect for each other, and if you really wanna know…" she placed her hand on mine. "I'm really glad I heard her."
That moment I felt like the worst of all people in the world – Rachel included on the account, by the way. How could I have been such an ingrate? I knew "Rach", I knew that whenever she seemed to hurt me was just her way to show me she cared. How could I have been such a bad friend when all she wanted was my happiness? She had even come to my house earlier that day to "check on me" and now I knew it was just an excuse to see if I was doing ok. I really regretted throwing her out with holly water.
But those thoughts, of course, only lasted until three hours later when, by the end of the date, I noticed that the same Rachel Black had actually stolen my wallet a few minutes before the date, forcing me to ask Kristen to pay for a bill of over two hundred bucks. I think it's kind of pointless to explain why that was my last experience on dating in such a long time.
I parked my old Galaxie 65 in front of the Black's residence. I knew that place too well; the house next door had belonged to my parents for most of my life. I took a deep breath as to gain courage. I wanted to see her so bad, it was more like needing than wanting, I realized but yet I couldn't bring myself to move, to take my body closer to hers. I just stayed in the car for a while.
I felt abruptly stupid and obvious as I looked down at my outfit – I was way too dressed up to an informal date, and that wasn't even my biggest problem. I had put more effort on looking good tonight than most girls do on their prom night. Inside that house, two angry descendents of great chief Ephraim Black awaited for me to tell their daughter/sister that she was my imprint but, honestly that wasn't even really scary, not when I knew my imprint was the reincarnation of the evil Utlapa himself. I knocked on the door hesitantly.
I knew she would be the one to open even before I saw her, from inside the house I could already hear her heartbeat, a hurried and rhythmic beat, like the heart of a bird. Maybe it had to be faster to compensate the fact that it was five times smaller than normal human's hearts, I thought.
"Pauline?" She asked raising one of perfect curved eyebrows at me. "What are you doing here?" Maybe this is an imprinting thing, I don't know for sure, but I was suddenly aware of our hearts beating in the same tone, a perfect synchrony, like bass and drums on an old jazz song. I also noticed that hers failed for a second – right when she saw me – before it went back to its normal rushed thuds.
"Jake invited me for dinner." I answered. Rachel smiled her childish smile and let me in.
She wasn't ready for a visit at all; she was wearing socks, short and huge football jersey. Her hair was still wet from a recently taken shower and her whole body smelled like shampoo and soap, all mixed with her own scent that, although I had never felt it so strongly before, was astoundingly familiar. She noticed my eyes on her and looked at me suspiciously, her hands on her hips:
"What is it, Pauline?"
"I thought you didn't like sports." I said pointing to her shirt as to justify my staring. She chuckled, throwing her hair as she did it and a voice inside me whispered repeatedly "marry me, marry me, marry me…" while another one screamed its guts out in my head saying "the power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you!" a thousand times. Good to know I still had a conscience somewhere.
"I hate sports." She said rolling her eyes. "I bought this because I thought it made me look badass. I have a Mistfits shirt too and I have absolutely no idea of whom they are, I just thought they were rock because their symbol was a skull."
That's was typical of Rachel, she wouldn't get really close to stereotypes. Back when we were on high school, she would always show up with a different kind of attitude saying "today I'm a Spanish dancer" or "I'm feeling a little communist today, you know, Pauline?" so she just did whatever she wanted to do and everyone else just applauded and wished they were like her. I know that creating multiple personalities is the first sign of a psychopath but it was not like I didn't know her at all. So she had a little split personality disorder, who cares, right? All of her twenty eight personalities were adorable! In a way, I guess. Sure they scared the hell out of me, but they were still kinda cute.
"Jay, Paul is here!" My name on her mouth was my the most beautiful of sounds, especially when it happened to be name itself and not a feminine variation of it. Jacob came out from his room – that I knew once had belonged to Rachel – to meet us:
"Ugh, you really came." He said glaring at me.
"Of course I came." I said gritting my teeth and pretending it was a smile. I made sure to underline every word so he'd remember we had a deal. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
"Jeez, Paul, are you trying to date my brother?" Rachel whispered looking at the both of us.
"Oh, yeah. Right." Jacob answered me completely ignoring that he had to pretend to be happy. "It's so good to see you, man." He said like he was reading from a paper.
"Paulie said you invited him." She said raising both her eyebrows.
"Did I?" It was all he answered. "I don't recall…"He started but I cut him off mid-sentence:
"Hey, Jake, remember that time that Sam got really pissed off and forced you to do rounds with Leah only for like three months?" I whispered in a tone I knew only him would hear.
"That never happened."
"Oh, but keep acting like that, buddy, and I'm sure it will."
Rachel had her hands on her hips again:
"What's up with you two?"
"Nothing." We both answered at the same time, not taking our eyes from each other. Jake said:
"Oh, well, I remember now. I really did invite you, bro! Have a sit." He said pointing to the table. Ra! The Leah threat was unbeatable! Sam warned us to use it wisely, though. Poor Brady once used it in front of her and, honestly, it's a good thing we heal fast, otherwise the poor boy would still have the marks.
"Thanks, bro." I replied smugly while pulling a chair. "Where's Billy?"
"He went shopping with Mrs. Clearwater. They both had to buy new telephones." Rachel pointed to a spot on the wall where the paint was clearer. There were cracks all around the square spot where the phone used to be, like it had being ripped off from the wall. I looked at Jacob who seemed to be a little too unfocused on what his sister had to say. "Eerie, right? But daddy says it just fell from the wall because it was too heavy. Told me the same thing happened to Sue's a couple of days ago too." Note to self: Do not give good information about love life to Leah by phone. Bitterness may cause violent reactions. Also, it might not be smart to say it in person. Send letter from now on.
"Well, I better just start cooking dinner already, right?" She said heading towards the kitchen.
"Actually," I started, making her turn around. "I was kinda hoping we could order a pizza, my treat. I don't wanna be a burden."
"Then go home and imprint on someone else's sister." Jake said too low for Rachel to hear. I ignored him, Rachel smiled:
"Don't be stupid, Pauline, I can cook." She said but I had already grabbed my cell phone from my jeans pocket and dialed the numbers:
"No, seriously, I insist!" I cut a new sentence from hers by raising my hand, the lady from the pizza parlor answered and I made the order.
It looked very gentleman-ish but don't be fooled. I might have imprinted but I was had not became delusional. I was not one to give Rachel a chance of poisoning me. No way, not that easily.
--
"So, Rachel, you just graduated, right? What's your degree on?" The three of us were by the dinner table. Rachel was on the head while Jake and I were across from each other each on a different side of hers.
"Social Sciences." Jacob answered before her.
"Are you Rachel?"
"Are you still here?"
We glared at each other murderously while drinking coke from our straws. On the table in front of us laid the almost empty boxes of the two large pizzas me and Jacob had eaten and half the small pizza I had ordered for Rachel. Her head went from my face to Jake's five times before she started talking:
"Hm, yeah, it's Social Sciences; I'm specializing in History and Anthropology."
"Seriously? How did you even survive your classes?" I said turning around to face her, completely forgetting about her brother for a moment.
"Oh, Pauline, it's not boring at all! I just think it's fascinating, I got to understand so much more about our tribe and our birth, you know? I mean, I'd love to study more about our sacred legends; all that wolf crap must have some hidden science somewhere! A logical explanation, a metaphor, anything that explains our real origins! " I chocked on my soda and Jacob kicked me from under the table:
"Sure!" I answered. "Let's face it, men who turn into wolves, ha! That's utter nonsense!"
"I know, right?" She said guffawing. "And don't even let me get started on the imprinting thing, I mean, dude, how creepy can you get, right? I'm telling you, Pauline, if that ever happened to me, I'd be on a plane to Iceland in like two seconds!" She snapped her fingers and laughed harder. I pretended to laugh with her until all sounds ceased and the only thing left was a really awkward silence. Jacob had an evil smirk on his face.
"Now that you know what I've been doing, why don't you tell me what are you up to, Pauline? Any exciting new adventures?" She said on a mockery tone.
"No, not really, things really calmed down because…" I started "After you left." I corrected myself. I wasn't exactly lying. If you ignored the fact that I could now phase into a wolf form, was abusively strong, fast and healed magically and the ten or twelve vampires I killed, things had been pretty normal. Actually compared to what I had to face while I lived close to Rachel, life was really, a lot calmer than before.
"Really? That doesn't sound like you at all. Back at High School you were getting yourself into trouble." Correction, my beloved imprint, you were always getting me into trouble, was what I really wanted to say.
"Hm, yes, I guess I just changed." I said instead.
"Oh, do you remember that time when you got beaten up by those Goth kids?" She said not really holding back her laughter.
"I believe that happened because you pretended to return me a Spice Girls' CD that wasn't even mine in front of them, Rachel. Before that, we were great friends."
"Oh yeah, I remember now. You had your dark days too, always hanging around with those kids, wearing black eyeliner and painting your nails…" Jacob laughed out loud. "Whatever happened to that "Cradle of Filth" shirt you had?"
"I had to throw that out when the blood stains refused to fade." I said staring at my empty plate. "But it didn't really matter since they forbid me to wear anything that resembled Goth in any way after that; said I was insulting their name."
"Well, then I made you a favor!" She said patting me on the shoulder "You wouldn't want to be around people who can't like you just because you enjoy some pop music! Too bad for them!" Believe me or not, she actually meant every word she said.
"The CD wasn't even mine."I whispered gritting my teeth but she didn't listen. Her hand rested on my arm for a while and she stared at it with a lost gaze before whispering in a way she thought I wouldn't hear:
"Steroids." I felt…What the word I'm looking for? Goody-goody.
"What's the problem, Rach?" I said with a smile crashing the corner of my lips. Her hand still lying loosely on my biceps; Jake started chewing roughly.
"Oh, nothing." She answered dully, her eyes on my arm. "It's just…the heat, you know?" she lied "You're hot." I bet she thought that was a clever dubious answer. I chuckled:
"Oh yeah, it's gotta be from all those horse hormones I'm taking, right?" I said rolling my eyes. Her heart stopped again and then she blushed. I had never seen her blush before. Red with anger, yes; purple from choking on her own saliva because she was laughing maniacally at my suffering, yes, but never – not even once in the seventeen year I had learned to hate, then fear, than hate, then fear again, then love that woman – had she blushed. She started laughing again but it was easy to notice her laughter was uncomfortable.
"Yeah, you should really consider quitting them. Next thing you know, you'll have men boobs." She said with a fake composure, trying to make a joke. She attempted to take her hand off me but I grabbed it before it was back on the table. I compared the size of our hands by placing our palms against each other:
"Boys just grow, Rachel." I enjoyed the fraction of a second in which she hesitated then she took her hand away from mine, crossing her arms and snickering:
"Sure, Paul, sure. If you're really lucky, maybe someday you'll start growing hair on your chin." Her whole body language had changed as if she wasn't relaxed anymore. She had both her arms and legs crossed now but even though she looked nervous she also looked…flirty.
"I can assure you that he already grows hair in places you'd never imagine." Jake said wincing, making Rachel turn her head around to face him. With her gaze away from my face, my eyes narrowed and I bit my lips to avoid a howl from coming out. Jacob rolled his eyes. "Could you two cut it out? I'm really not in the mood to see that." He gestured to the both of us like we were just one item and in a second I wasn't so mad at him anymore. There was a really long silence and then Rachel stood up, avoiding my eyes. She clapped her hands together noisily and said:
"I'll go grab some ice cream from the fridge." She left us alone, her heartbeat gone crazy. Jacob rubbed his stomach and snatched a pen from his pocket. He started scribbling something down on a napkin with a little smirk on his face:
"What are you doing?" I asked already knowing I wouldn't like the answer.
"Just writing a note to myself, making sure I don't forget to check on plane tickets' prices to Iceland on the internet later." I tried to take the napkin away and he carved a knife on the middle of my hand.
My eyes were immediately covered by a sea of tears and my mouth popped open on a silent shriek of pain:
"You evil, evil creature!" I whispered in a high-pitched voice that proved my testicles had been shrunk to a size a hundred times smaller from all the pain. Jacob's grin grew wider and he kept the knife where it was. I took a fork from the table with my free hand and forced it against his forearm. He scowled and then pulled my hair, gluing my head to the table and smashing it hard against the wood three times.
"Oh, that's very mature, Jake, what are you gonna do now? Drown me in ketchup?" I said; my voice muffled because of my own cheek.
"Maybe I will!" He answered.
"Well, then go ahead and try but I already told, Jacob; Patrick Swayze, buddy, Patrick Swayze!" The knife came deeper in my skin and I flinched. "You know what? You can try as hard as you can but you know you can't kill me, you know you can't do anything! She'll eventually like me!" At least I hoped so. "And if I'm not wrong… Don't twins run in your family? It's gonna be so cute: two little Pauls running around the house while you baby-sit them and they scream "unca jay, unca jay!" won't it be adorable?" If I survived through this, the look on Jake's face that right moment, would be priceless to show the other the next time I phased. If I didn't, still I'd have the good memory to take with me to hell. He growled, I growled back.
Rachel's scream was followed by the sound of broken glass and then all the ice cream was spilled on the floor. There was blood all over the place and yet all I seemed to be able to think about was:
"Oh no! I really don't want her to see me with sauce all over my face!"
"What are the two of you doing?" Her eyes were red with an anger I knew way too much. Enough to know I didn't want to see it again in my life. I felt both mine and Jacob's body trembling. We took the silverware out from each other almost politely.
The clock on the wall showed that Sunday was over. The front door burst open and Billy wheeled in, followed by Sam and Seth Clearwater who looked at the whole scene with wide eyes and exclaimed:
"Oh man! Now I have to give Embry ten bucks!"
--
A/N:As I had suspected, they didn't survive through the whole thing without stabbing each other but that's ok, right? At least they heal fast. After I came up with the phone joke at chapter two, I reread Jake's part in BD and noticed that he breaks Billy's phone right before he leaves to attack the Cullens, I'm so sorry, Billy! I hope you get a refund! Well, next chapter is "Monday you can hold your head" and let's hope that Paul survives after he tells Rachel that he's the love of her life.
