Seth P.O.V.
I could already tell it was going to be a slow, boring day of sitting around waiting for that vampire to come back again. I've been out here in the middle of the woods for hours upon hours—since seven o'clock…of yesterday—and I was beat; it had to have been early evening, if not later, and that meant it's been almost 36 hours hours without sleep.
I was leaning my shoulder against a tree, practically half asleep, when Jake's voice in my head startled me. "Seth." I stood up straight and my head spun slightly. "You know, it looks like there's not going to be too much action today, so you can go home and sleep if you want to. Sam, Collin, Brady, and Stephen are still out here. You too, Leah."
Leah and I didn't argue. We ran half-heartedly to reach our separate piles of clothes and phased back to our human selves.
I didn't wait for her to catch up because all I wanted to do was get to my bed and sleep for a few hours, but Leah eventually caught up to me. Neither of us talked, and a half-awkward, half-peaceful silence settled between us.
I think we were only walking for a few minutes when we started walking past the first house; it was Skye's house, and I suddenly perked up and subconsciously started walking a little faster.
Leah looked at me funny, but I ignored it when I saw Skye walking up her driveway towards her mailbox. When Leah saw her, I noticed a grimace spread across her face. Of course, that was the moment when Skye saw us.
She saw Leah first, but quickly looked away. When she saw me, Skye gave me a small smile. I walked the few feet left between us, and Leah followed leisurely behind with her arms across her chest.
"Hey," I said.
"Hi." Skye looked at Leah again quickly.
"Oh. This is my sister, Leah," I muttered reluctantly.
"Nice to meet you," Skye said, trying to sound polite.
"Hi." I could tell Leah was in a bad mood because of the lack of sleep, but she could've at least tried to be nice to the girl I imprinted on. "Seth, I'm going home to sleep. You know, you should get some, too. Jake will probably be calling us in a few hours to relieve Collin and Brady, anyway."
I gave Leah an annoyed look; she just couldn't understand what it meant by 'too much information,' could she? "I'm fine. I'll sleep…later. Just go home." I didn't even try to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
Leah just shrugged and walked away.
After she was turning around a bend, I turned back to Skye—who had a thoughtful look on her face. "Do you need to go home with you sister?" she asked.
"Nope," I said shortly.
"Okay." She eyed me strangely for a second and then reached into her mailbox—pulling out several envelopes.
She turned and started walking back to her house, and I followed after her.
"Do you ever where shoes?" she joked, glancing at my bare feet.
I shrugged. "I guess not."
"How come?" she wondered.
"It's just…more convenient," I said honestly.
Skye shook her head and grinned with an amused look on her face. We walked up the two front steps and into her house. I shut her front door behind me, and quickly observed what I could see of the first floor of the house; the walls and floor were paneled with wood, with a few family pictures hanging on the walls and sitting on tables. Skye through the mail onto a small table next to a picture of two younger-looking people—who were probably her mom and dad before they were separated.
"Who are Collin and Brady?" she asked randomly, leading us into what looked to be a living room—with a conch, two arm chairs, and a television.
"Um…" I tried to think of a good response. "They're just a couple friends of mine and Leah's."
"Oh." Skye was starting to confuse me with the random line of questioning.
She sat down on the end of the couch, crossing her legs, and I sat beside her—turning so I could look at her. We stared at each other for a second, and I couldn't help but notice that even though she was wearing an old pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt with her long dark brown hair in a messy ponytail, she still looked pretty.
"Wow," she muttered. "Leah was right."
"What?" I hadn't realized I completely zoned out for a second.
"You are tired."
I yawned in response, and she laughed.
"I'm fine," I yawned again.
"Okay," she said sarcastically. "Why did you follow me in here, anyway, if you're so tired?"
"Because I wanted to see you."
Skye looked away and tried to fight back a grin, and her cheeks turned pink. Then, I suddenly noticed a small shiver run through her, and goose bumps rose on her arms. I instinctively inched closer until I could press my arm against hers. She flinched at first and looked up again, but she didn't move away.
She pressed her fingers into my arm, and they were really cold compared to my skin. "Are you okay?" she asked, scrunching her eyebrows together and staring at her hand still on my arm.
"Perfectly okay," I answered.
"Then how come you feel like you have a fever?" she wondered.
I shrugged. "I've always had a higher body temperature than average. But it does come in handy a lot because I never get cold anymore." That was almost completely true; I haven't always been like this.
"Huh," she muttered simply. Skye looked like she was thinking really hard about something, a few lines embedded in between her eyebrows.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" I asked, laughing lightly at her concentrated expression.
"Nothing." Now she was starting to sound frustrated. She looked up at me, then. "I'm just trying to…figure you out."
"What do you mean?" I wondered.
"I've never met someone like you before. I know it might sound cliché, but it's true," she said.
I grinned down at Skye, and she smiled back. I wanted to kiss her again—and I considered it—but I didn't want to make things awkward again, like yesterday at the beach.
"How come I never see you at school anymore?" She asked another random question.
I had to think for a second because her question caught me off guard. "Leah and I usually try to avoid the first week, since everyone's still trying to figure out where they're going. And it's usually the most boring week to me, too."
"Oh, that makes sense," she mused. "So I'll see you at school eventually, then?"
I nodded, and I noticed her eyes light up ever so slightly.
"So what are you now?" she asked me. "Junior? Senior?"
"Junior," I answered.
"Really?" She seemed surprised. "You look like you could be a senior."
I chuckled. "I get that a lot."
"How old are you?"
"Almost seventeen. How old did you think I was?" I asked questioningly.
"You look like you're eighteen," Skye answered. When she paused for a second, I heard a cell phone almost silently ringing in the other room.
"You know, your phone's ringing," I said.
"What?" Skye stood up and walked into other room, and I heard her mutter, "How could he have possibly heard that?"
She answered with a 'hello' as she walked back into the room with her cell phone pressed against her ear, and I heard one of her friends on the other end of conversation.
"Hey, Skye," an excited voice answered.
"Hi, Pepper," Skye said back.
"Are you doing anything right now?" Piper asked.
Skye glanced at me quickly. "No," she said slowly, making it sound like a question.
"If you're busy, it's okay. Ruby and I were just going to go hang out with Aaron, Bailey, and Carl. You know, Aaron's been asking about you lately," I heard Piper say suggestively.
"He has?" Skye wondered.
I suddenly got extremely jealous and defensive hearing that another guy had been asking about Skye. She was my imprint, and I didn't want anyone else interested in her but me.
"Hey, are you okay?" I looked over to see Skye looking at me with a strange expression on her face and her phone turned away from her mouth. Then, I saw she was staring at my hand—which was shaking violently. I clenched it into a fist and tried to breathe evenly to possibly make it stop.
"Is someone there? Who are you talking to?" I heard Piper ask through the phone.
"Um…yeah, someone's here," Skye answered, still glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. "But you probably don't know him."
"Him?" Piper sounded surprised. "Well, who is it?"
Skye hesitated. "Seth Clearwater."
"Oh," Piper said shortly, sounding a little thrown off guard. "Are you not coming then?"
She looked at me again and gave me a look that said, "Do you care if I leave?" I shrugged in response, even though I really wished she would say no to her friend.
"I'll come," Skye answered finally, and I couldn't help but grimace.
"Okay, Ruby and I will stop by to get you in a few minutes."
"See you." Skye hung up and looked at me.
"Sorry," she apologized.
"Why are you apologizing?" I asked. "I was the one who followed you into your own house." I tried to sound casual and joking, like I didn't mind her leaving.
Skye half-smiled and laughed once. "I know. I just feel kind of bad." She paused. "But you can stay until they get here, if you want to." She sounded hopeful and like she really meant it.
She set her phone down on the coffee table and sat sideways on the couch next to me with her legs crossed—so she was facing me. Skye looked down at my hand, still loosely in a fist but not shaking anymore. I watched her as she slowly straightened out my fingers with a blank look on her face—seeming to do it without thinking. I smiled crookedly to myself, and when she looked up at my face, she gave me a small smile, too; our faces were also literally only a few inches away from each other.
I got the urge to kiss her again, but I didn't get a chance to because we were interrupted by a knock at the door; Piper and Ruby stayed true to their word when they said they'd be here in a few minutes. A few moments later, I heard the door open and close and the sound of Piper's voice.
"Skye?" she called, walking in and pausing in the entryway of the living room. "Oh, hi," Piper said when she saw us sitting together.
"Piper," Skye said a little uneasily, sitting up straighter. "You're here early."
"I said a few minutes," Piper answered, still eying me funny.
"Oh, well, I still have to get ready," Skye said.
Ruby and Piper stared at us for another second before Ruby said, "We'll just meet you outside, then."
"Okay." Ruby and Piper walked back out the door.
Skye sighed when the door closed again, and it sounded like she wished her friends hadn't come this early. It made me feel better that she wanted me to stay, like I wanted to.
"Do you not want to go with them?" I wondered as we both stood up.
"It's just what she said about Aaron," Skye said. "He's had this weird crush on me since almost ninth grade, and it's getting kind of…annoying."
I smirked and said, "I guess I'll leave you to your friends."
I started to turn and walk towards the door, but I was stopped by Skye saying, "Wait." She took another step toward me. "Do you want to come with us?" Her voice seemed to get higher as she said the question, like she was nervous.
I didn't know what to say; ninety-five percent of me wanted to say yes, but the other five percent wanted to say no because of the hesitant way Ruby and Piper had been looking at me. The ninety five percent ended up being able to speak before the other five percent.
"Sure, but are you sure your friends won't mind?" I asked.
"They won't." Skye ran out of the room and up the stairs. I heard a door shut above me and a few drawers and a closet door shut a couple times, too. A few minutes later, I heard her come down the stairs and go into the kitchen. She opened another drawer, pulled out a few things, and it sounded like she was writing something—probably a note letting her mom know where she would be.
Even though Skye wanted me to come and hang out with her and her friends, I was still a little uneasy about it. The thought was immediately brushed away when Skye came into the room—grabbing her cell phone off the table and newly changed into a dark blue hoodie and jeans with her hair down and pulled back from her face with a headband.
Skye P.O.V.
It was awkward, very awkward, on the walk down to the beach with Seth, Ruby, and Piper, so I could only imagine what it would be like when we were around the other guys—Bailey, Carl, and Aaron.
When we arrived at the beach, Aaron, Bailey, and Carl were already there. They saw Seth and got the same emotion on their faces—surprise. Seth stuck close behind me with a wary expression on his face.
Even though Seth did look kind of out of place around my friends, I was still glad he'd agreed to come with me because of what Piper had said about Aaron—who's had a crush on me since our freshman year—asking about me. Maybe if he'd see that I brought Seth with me, he'd get the idea that I wasn't interested in him at all.
When Aaron saw Seth, he got a weird expression on his face—like he was jealous but trying really hard to hide it. I walked to the other members of our group between Seth and Aaron.
"So how was your first week back?" Aaron asked me.
"It was okay," I answered. "It's still just same old La Push."
"Was it hard getting back in the routine here?" he wondered.
"Not really," I said shortly, not really wanting to continue with the casual conversation of my getting back to school.
To be honest, I really just wanted to talk to Seth—which was one of the other reasons I'd wanted him to come with us; I didn't know why, but I always had the urge to get to know him better and be closer to him when we were together.
Lucky for me, Bailey and Carl got Aaron's attention away from me to go collect driftwood to burn in the fire they were making.
There were a few bigger pieces of driftwood—resembling logs rather than sticks and twigs—that were in arranged in a messy semicircle around what was going to be the fire.
Ruby and Piper were already sitting on one, and I sat down on the log beside theirs with Seth.
"Is anyone else coming?" I asked the girls.
"Jade and Nora said they might come," Ruby answered. "So Jade will probably come with Eli." Eli was Jade's boyfriend, and they'd just recently started dating these past few days, so they were probably going to be clinging to each other all night—still in that new relationship daze.
I stared out at the water—not knowing what else there was to talk about. The sun was starting to set already, and the wind blowing off the ocean was especially cool.
"How are you not cold?" Piper asked Seth, eyeing him in his T-shirt, cut-off shorts, and bare feet.
Seth shrugged like he had before when I'd asked him. "I never really get cold."
"That is insane," Ruby laughed. Both she and Piper were wearing the exact same thing I was—a hoodie and a pair of jeans—but they were still cold and had their arms wrapped around their torsos.
I wasn't as cold as they seemed to be, but that could have been because of the heat that seemed to be radiating off of Seth. I hadn't realized he'd been inching closer to me until his arm was pressed up against mine—making me completely comfortable temperature-wise. I smiled up at his face and leaned closer into his side, stuffing my hands in the front pocket of my hoodie.
The guys came back, then, with armfuls of driftwood. They threw it all in the already-forming pile of wood, and Bailey pulled out a lighter and some paper to start the fire. Aaron glanced at Seth and me once, but didn't really bother us at all besides with a casual short conversation or two.
Before the sun was completely down—about a half an hour or so later—Nora, Jade, and Eli finally showed up. Jade and Eli were walking close together and hand in hand—like I'd predicted—with Nora trailing along beside them. The three of them were surprised to see Seth there, but they didn't seem to mind as much as my other friends had at first.
As the night wore on, my eight friends got used to Seth being around, and they actually started to make some real conversations with him—a good portion of them starting with how he wasn't cold. The night also unsurprisingly got colder, and since the fire didn't seem to be helping too much, Seth's arm ended up around me.
For the moment, everyone else seemed to be having their own quiet conversations, so me and Seth were left silent. I was watching the orange flames of the fire and still didn't say anything, but the silence with the crackling sounds from the fire was peaceful. I was only half-conscious of the fact that Seth's warm cheek was resting on the top of my head.
When I heard Seth breathing heavy, I turned my head slightly and saw that he was asleep. I tried to slowly move my head away without waking him, but I obviously failed.
Seth sat up straight, and I giggled at the dazed expression in his eyes.
"I think you should have gone home with Leah," I said.
Seth smirked and said, "I'd much rather be here. Trust me."
"How come?" I wondered.
"Leah can be…annoying sometimes." I could tell by the look on his face that he could have said more.
"Why are you so tired, anyway?" I asked. When I was talking to Seth, the questions—long or short—always seemed to come out after everything he said.
"I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately," he answered.
I could tell Seth was really exhausted by the bags forming under his eyes and the tired expression on his face.
"Do you want to leave?" I asked.
"I don't want to make you leave your friends."
I looked around all of my friends having their own conversations without me. "I don't think they'll miss me."
I stood up and started to walk—hopefully unnoticeably—away with Seth.
"Skye, are you leaving already?" I heard Aaron call from the other side of the fire.
I turned and saw everyone looking at me. "I'm tired, so I'm just going to go home. I'll see you guys later, okay?"
They all said good-bye to me and Seth, and we went on our way back up the beach.
As we walked up the street in the pitch black, I'm not going to lie and saw that it didn't freak me out at least a little bit. Seth seemed to notice the edgy vibe I must have been giving off and walked a little closer to me.
"Nothing's going to hurt you out here," he said after a few seconds.
"How do you know?" I questioned.
"Trust me. I've been out here thousands of times at night, and nothing's ever happened to me. I mean, I'm still standing here, aren't I?"
Even though Seth's words did comfort me, I was still extremely grateful that my house wasn't that far from the beach. When we got to my house, all the lights were off inside, and my mom was probably already asleep in her bed.
Seth paused outside my door. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing." It seemed like he had something to say, and I wished he would just spit it out. After a few moments, he did. "When can I see you again?"
The question slightly surprised me, but it still made me smile knowing that he wanted to see me again.
"Any time you want to," I answered, because it was the truth. Even though I'd known Seth for barely two days, I'd probably let him in my house at two in the morning if he came knocking.
Seth grinned and didn't hesitate to hug me—surprising me again. Like I said before, even though Seth and I had only known each for a couple days, I didn't want him to leave.
It was the weirdest feeling to feel like we could be together, even though we were barely friends.
