Chapter 10 Careful
Embry's POV
I was bored.
You would think, wouldn't you, that when you are bored, you would be up for anything? Like if somebody asked if anybody would pick the lint off their shirt, you would jump at the opportunity? But it seemed like the border I got, the less I wanted to do. And it wasn't even ten o'clock yet.
It was Saturday. I didn't have patrol. I had imprinted, so it wasn't like I would get any sort of thrill from going up to Port Angles. Practicing soccer was of no use whatsoever. Moon pie was somewhere in the neighborhood, chasing a cat or whatever.
I sat down on the couch and glared at the TV for a moment. Maybe if I stared at it long enough, it would turn on and be something that I was halfway interested in watching.
Nothing happened.
I took out my cell phone and fiddled with it for a moment, debating. I could always get her number from Seth….
He answered on the fourth ring.
"Hey Embry. What's up?" He asked cheerfully.
"I was wondering if you had Cathryn's phone number."
"Oh," He laughed. "Right. Uh, sure."
About ten seconds later I was dialing her phone number.
"Who the heck is this?" She murmured sleepily.
"Embry. Were you asleep?"
"How'd you get my number?" She demanded, ignoring my question.
"From Seth. Did I wake you up?" I persisted.
"Yeah, you did. You ruined my beauty sleep."
"Like you need that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Crap. I'd said that out loud.
"It means that compared to all the girls I've dated, you're gorgeous." It was a half-truth. Compared to all the girls I'd ever seen, she was gorgeous.
"No," She disagreed. "Your girlfriend from the store was amazing looking."
"Was not. And she isn't my girlfriend. Anymore. I dumped her like two seconds after saving a life."
"If you keep going back to that because you're looking for some gratitude, you're never going to get it."
"So you would rather I have let you die."
"It would have saved me from ever meeting you." She pointed out.
"Some day you are going to say something like that to somebody, and they'll be emotionally unstable, and they will kill you for it." I told her.
"I'm terrified."
"You should be. I never lie."
"Then tell me why you were so desperate to get me away from the beach last night."
I probably should have lied. I probably should have joked around, told her that I didn't want to cause our friends any more annoyance by having her be there. But the thing was, lying to your imprint was really, really hard. And had been dumb of me to have not let her hear the legends in the first place. I'd panicked. But letting her hear them, planting the idea in her head before introducing her to the reality would be a much less traumatic translation.
So I told her..
Not everything, obviously. That would not have gone over well. I left out the parts about the Cullens, and the treaty, and everything that had even the tiniest thing to do with imprints. And, of course, the part about it all being true. But I told her everything else. The spirit warriors, the werewolves, the vampires, the not aging.
To my surprise, she was interested. She didn't even pretend not to care. She asked questions and commented like a normal person. She didn't even use sarcasm. I was in shock. Gradually though, that subject faded and was replaced with more normal talk, such as her impending school year. Or my already started school year. She told me everything that there was to know about Florida, and listed all the reasons why it was better than here. I explained to her about all the people at the council meeting that she didn't know.
When we finally hung up, I was amazed by what time it was.
We had been on the phone for five hours.
Chapter 11 First Day
Cathryn's POV
I grinned in relief when I saw Embry's car pull up to the school. The day before had been spent with Lelsie and Keilly, shopping for clothes to wear today, with one quick phone call from Embry telling me that Seth had wanted him to pick me up and take me home from school. I was wearing a dark denim mini skirt with a simple black fitted top. Not that the way I looked had helped at all.
This had been, by far, the worst first day of school I'd ever had. Drew was in exactly none of my classes, and the only time I got to see him and the others was during lunch when Drew had skateboarded over to the high school with me riding piggyback. I didn't like him carrying me. I would have to learn soon.
I got in the car. Embry grinned at me.
"So? Still hate this place?" He asked me.
"Uh, Yeah. These people suck."
"Thanks so much."
"Is there something wrong with Drew?"
"No. Why?"
"Because when people saw me leave with him at lunch, they avoided me like the plague. Not that they weren't avoiding me like the plague anyway, but…."
"Listen." He interrupted. "Quil, Jacob, Renesmee, Keilly, Seth, and Sam are all going to Emily's restaurant tonight to celebrate you guys not dying today. You know, that bar and grill place. You can come."
"Oh, Joy," I rolled my eyes. What made him think that I could possibly enjoy stuffing my face with saturated fats while listening to guys talk about football and girls talk about clothes?
"Fine. Don't. Be alone." Embry said carelessly.
Crap. I was a sucker for reverse psychology.
"Tell Seth to pick me up." I grumbled.
Seriously. Why me?
I mean, its not like I don't already have enough to deal with, considering the state of my middle school social life, my lack of vehicle or even learner's permanent, being unable to eat anything unhealthy due to Lelsie lecturing me on the amount of calories and fats in a cheeseburger. I haven't eaten one of those since May. Its September. And the worst part was, her theory was proven correct. Not that, you know, it wasn't proven correct anyway; I know that eating bad food and not exercising makes you flubby.
But now it had happened to me. I'd lost twenty pounds.
So what was I supposed to eat?
At the place though, when I'd complained about this to Embry, he'd just rolled his eyes and asked the waitress to bring me something with fruits and vegetables that wasn't fried. He knew her personally; apparently he worked there.
Sometimes I think that boys are from a different planet.
Like if I'd told something like that to Keilly, she would have complained about it with me, then we would have ended up purging on a hot fudge Sunday while we talked about how fat it would make us.
Embry, though, he just tells the waitress to get me what I want.
I mean, who does that?
Its just too simple.
However, I'm not writing about this occurrence because of the food there. Something of consequence did actually happen.
"Caffin. Paff da raws," Quil told me from across the table, his mouth full of who knew what. I stared at him blankly.
He swallowed noisily. "I said, Pass the rolls."
More food. Of course.
Emily, who had taken off for the night, hit him on the head indulgently. "You know, at this diner, we have something called a main course. You should try it."
"Oh, I'm going to," Quil assured her before shoving a roll in his mouth, all in one bite.
Renesmee smiled slightly and looked down. She hadn't touched anything, not even her drink. She hadn't eaten anything at the campfire either. I wondered vaguely if she was anorexic. She didn't look it, though. She was thin, but soft. Not skinny, not bony. Of course, her thick bronze curls could just be hiding it. I'd never seen hair that long. She was beautiful. Even I couldn't deny that.
For some reason, her not liking me bothered me a little. Maybe because she couldn't have been older than ten years old. Or because she didn't know me at all. Either way, it was unnerving. I was used to not caring what people thought, to hearing about somebody trashing me and laughing to myself. But with Renesmee…I don't know. There was this weird desire to please her, to make her happy. She was so sweet to every body else. Except that chick with the lip ring. Cocoa. Renesmee didn't seem to like her all that much either. She was here again today, scowling and tearing her role into tiny pieces.
Leslie could so take her.
Just then, the door at the front of the restaurant opened. A guy walked in with his parents. I'd seen him before, earlier that day, in my homeroom. I hadn't really noticed him before, but I did now. He was cute. "Hey, Keilly," I asked, pointing. "Who is that guy?"
"Oh, him? That's Ethan Allen."
Ethan looked up at the sound of his name. He saw me looking at him. I blushed a little, and smiled. He smiled back, and waved.
"You know that guy, Cat?" Embry asked.
"Nope. Not even a little bit. He's hot, though."
Embry was suddenly as sullen as Cocoa. He wasn't the only one, though. The second I'd said the word 'hot', the entire atmosphere at the table changed. People exchanged worried, furtive glances.
It was Renesmee's reaction though, that was the strongest. She stood up abruptly. "Cathryn," She said crisply," Come with me."
I went, not because I was being obedient, but because I had a feeling that whatever it was she had to say to me, it would be dramatic. And I was right.
She lead me out of Young's and around the side, in a little alley where the dumpster was. She leaned against the brick and stared at me a moment. Her expression was…searching. Searching for what? I had no idea.
I was patient enough to let her do that for about three seconds. "Look," I said. "Renesmee, I-"
"Its Nessie," She interrupted.
I waited for her to say more, but she didn't. "What do you want, Nessie?" I asked bluntly.
She took a deep breath. "You're…you're not like us." She began cautiously.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know," She waved her hand, "Emily. Keilly. Kim. You don't…you're not…." She trailed off, seeming to lose her nerve.
"Not what?" I persisted, trying to help her out a little.
"Listen," She said. Her voice was quiet, even, but I could see the resentment in her dark eyes. "I just think you should be more careful. About the things you say. The way you act. Because I don't think you care about them." She nodded her head back towards the diner. "I don't know why you're leading them on this way. Its really mean."
I looked at her for a moment, a little shocked. "What the hell," I asked finally, "Is that supposed to mean?"
Anger flashed in her dark eyes. "I would throw myself under a bus to keep Jacob from getting hurt." She told me. Her words came faster now, more forceful "You would throw Embry under a bus just for fun. And he deserves better."
That was when she lost me.
"What do Embry and Jacob have to do with this?" I asked her.
She drew back, her eyes widening in horror, realizing that she'd said something wrong. Or something that she shouldn't. "Nothing," She said quickly. She turned on her heel and walked back in.
By the time we had gotten back, my food had arrived. I wasn't hungry. Both Embry and Keilly tried to talk to me, but I gave them nothing to work with. Because for the first time, I felt like an outsider with them. I felt like they were hiding something.
I just didn't know what.