2007
First Beach
"Are you ready to go?" Seth asked. It was my first time going back to La Push since I had moved in with my father, and I was nervous to be here. It was summer and everyone was the on the beach, the only thing that made me feel better was having both Seth and Tyler at my sides. They knew that I was scared and they were here to help me. Seth knew just how bad it could get, Tyler had no idea. I had just told him that I didn't have any friends here.
"We don't have to go down to the beach, we could just stay here in the forest. We already have a blanket and some snacks" Tyler suggested, and I would have said yes if I didn't know just how badly he wanted to be down on the beach. Tyler had gone through puberty and he was the tallest guy in the class, almost as tall as the teachers, and he had some muscle on his arms from helping his neighbours fix their roofs. He had talked about how nice he thought he would look on the beach, I didn't know who he wanted to impress but he was desperate for this moment.
"No, we're going...you two wanted to go cliff diving. We should get going then" I exhaled. Truthfully I was nervous, after the confrontation with Jacob last year the Chief and the other members of the council had found out everything. My father and Mr Crowley had made sure that Jacob was punished, not that they needed to Seth said that Chief Black and Chief Swan were both very hard on him, and they had even replaced a teacher at the Res school. My mother still hadn't spoken to me and I had long given up on trying to call her, so I didn't know how she felt about everything coming out. But everyone now knew why I had left her and the school.
"Okay, we'll sit down for a while and maybe swim for a bit, then we'll go diving" Tyler compromised. The short walk to the beach was over before I knew it and we had managed to find a good spot to set ourselves up on. Seth took off for the cliff as soon as he had made sure that none of the other boys were near, Tyler pulled off his shirt and sat down on the other side of the blanket. He looked...I couldn't even look at him without his shirt on. His muscles weren't very big but there was more than any of the other boys had. He would definitely get some girls attention, and I didn't want to be upset about it but I was. A girlfriend might take my best friend away from me.
I followed Tyler's lead and pulled my shirt and shorts off, I didn't have a bikini like the other girls but I did have on a nice black one piece. It even had a matching sarong that I coukd wrap around my waist if I wanted to. My ponytail was a little loose so I had to redo it so that I wouldn't lose my hair tie in the water, but I did see Tyler looking my way out of tbe corner of my eye. "So you...uh...getting into the water now?" he asked with his eyes on the floor. There were times where I wondered about Tyler and this was one of them, he was looking down at his shoes while he spoke. Was he embarrassed because I wasn't dressed like everyone else? Because I was still in a kiddie suit?
"Not yet, but you can go so long. I'll just sit here for a bit" I said. If I stood up to go to the water there would be attention on me, and I still wanted some time to be brave before I did that. "Uh...okay. I'll just...go" and he took off like a rocket. He was having moments like that recently, he'd disappear to his room or the bathroom when we were still in the middle of something, or go to bed early for no reason. Some nights he'd be okay with us being on the same bed and other nights he'd just have to be alone. I couldn't figure out what was going on, I was afraid that he didn't want tobe friends anymore.
"Kim..." the voice was familiar and I felt myself cringe, why was he here? Why did he have to talk to me? "Kim? I really need to talk to you" he tried again. My eyes flickered from Tyler to Jacob Black, he was standing awkwardly at the foot of my towel. My mouth felt dry, there was no way I could express how much I didn't want to talk to him. I froze. But he seemed to think that I was okay talking to him because he stepped on to the towel and took a seat, he even looked behind him where I saw Chief Black watching us both. Maybe his father had sent him over her.
"I just...last year was a bust for me. I tried to say sorry but I didn't do it right, I wanted you to forgive me so thst Bella would think that I was good. I wanted her to like me" he started. I had known that he hadn't meant his apology but I didn't know that Bella was the reason why. "But after that she stopped speaking to me, she said that I was still being a bully and I didn't get why, but I do now. I was forcing you to forgive me, that isn't why you say sorry. But I do mean it now, and it isn't for anything other reason this time. I'm really sorry Kim" he said quietly.
"What are you doing here Black? I thought that you were staying away" Seth suddenly said from behind me. I hadn't heardor seen him come this way, but my attention had been on Tyler before Jacob had come to sit beside me. "I know that you want to beat me up, and I get it. But she deserves an apology and I had to give it to her...you can still beat me up though" Jacob didn't even seem afraid when he spoke. Did he really think that about me? "Kim, are you okay?" Tyler asked. He was dripping water on to both Jacob and the towel and he didn't seem to care.
"I'm fine. You can go Jacob, I don't want anyone to get beaten up" I said loudly, Seth wanted to do the same thing that they had done to me. And that was wrong. Jacob stood up and made his way back to his father, no one missed the way that he looked back when he walked. "Did he touch you?" Seth wanted to know, I shook my head no. "What did he want?" Tyler asked. "To say sorry" I replied.
Later that day
The hours on the beach had been fun, even with Jacob giving me the occasional look. I knew that I hadn't told him if I had forgiven him or not, but I wasn't sure. I still didn't know if it was sincere or not. But Tyler and I had still managed to have fun swimming in the water, he even grabbed my hand again but he didn't hug me. It seemed that whatever it was that was bothering him was no longer an issue.
"Kimberly, why don't you and your friend join us for the bonfire? Seth will be there" Chief Black asked. I hadn't seen him during the day but he had seemed to make a reappearance. "I'd have to adk my father first, he's supposed to come and pick us up, sir" I answered quickly. Chief Black had slways seemed nice but I had always thought that he was just a little bit scary. Chief Swan was scary too until he had started being friends with my mother, he would still do the occasional magic trick when I saw him around town. But they both seemed very relaxed today. "Charlie will call up your father amd ask, in the meantime go and warm up by the fire. You don't want to catch a cold" he smiled. i nodded my head and felt Tyler slip his hand in mine as we walked to the fire.
"Let's go sit near Seth" I whispered. Seth was sitting next on a log next to Rachel and Rebecca Black, they were both talking to him about a project when Tyler and I took our seats. Tyler had put his shirt back on but he had wrapped his polar fleece around my shoulders, I had shot him a grateful smile and turned my attention back to the fire. "Hey Kim, who's your friend?" Rebecca asked. She was very obviously nudging Rachel to look at Tyler. "I'm Tyler Crowley" he answered quickly, his arm was still around me and I felt him pull me in a bit when the attention landed on us. "Wow, Tyler. Are you Kim's boyfriend?" Rachel asked.
Tyler no longer got upset when people at school asked if we were dating but I didn't know if that would change here on the Res. He had seen a small part of how I was treated, and he kept saying that he still wanted to be my friend bug I didn't know. "Kim is my best friend, no one knows me better than her" he smiled, but his eyes were still on Jacob. Every time I had caught Jacob looking at me Tyler would look annoyed, but I also knew that Tyler wad still upset about last year. "So then you don't have a boyfriend Kim?" Rachel asked. My eyes searched for an adult, I didn't want to have to go through questions like these again. "Lay off Rachel. Be nice" Rebecca hissed.
"Kimberly, your father doesn't mind you staying for an hour or two, Charlie will take you two back home" Chief Black boomed from the second bonfire where all the adults were. "Thank you" I replied and he nodded back. "I wasn't trying yo be mean Kim I was just asking. He just acts like a boyftiend" Rachel told me. My cheeks started to burn, sometimes he'd hold my hand like boyfriends did but he wasn't my boyfriend. Girls kissed their boyfriends and Tyler and I had never kissed.
"It's fine" I shrugged. Jacob and Quil started to hand out some hotdogs while everyone went back to their own conversations. "I wonder how Chief Swan got your dad to let ypu to stay out late here, he was worried that you might get hurt" Tyler mused. Truthfully I had wondered the same thing, the only thing that could have changed his mind was a police escort home and tnat was what Chief Swan would do, he only ever drove the squad car. I shared my thoughts with Tyler and he burst out laughing, he was hoping that we'd get to sit in the back like the criminals on TV.
But his good mood vanished when Jacob handed our hotdogs to us, he didn't even let me take mine myself instead he ripped it out of Jacob's hand. He had been a little off all day but this was too much, he was the one who kept saying that I should get passed what had happened and he was doing the opposite. Clearly I needed to talk to him before a fight or something else broke out, especially if it happened between the two Chiefs-they would definitely tell our parents about that fight and we'd both get in trouble. "Tyler can we talk for a minute?" I asked him. He placed our hotdogs on the cooler and followed me diwn the beach.
We were only a little ways down from the bonfire but it was so dark that I could hardly see them, so I stopped. My back hit the trunk of a tree as I sighed and thought of what I wanted to say. "I know that I'm being mean" he started. That was good, I didn't have to point it out. "Why? Jacob is trying to be nice, isn't that what we wanted?" I asked. He shrugged and sat down on the forest floor, I sat down beside him. "I just-I didn't think that he would like you like that" he huffed. "Like what?" I wanted to know. And he took a deep breath before he kissed me.
His kiss was clumsy, and it felt like he was trying to lick my lips but I was finally kissing Tyler. His one hand was on my waist and the other on my hip, and it was nice, it was even nicer when he calmed down enough for me to kiss him back. But he didn't stay on my lips very long, soon his kisses were on my neck and my feelings were all over the place. It was nice, very nice, but it was also weird. It felt like more was supposed to happen and I didn't know what more meant. "Kim! Tyler! Time to go" Chief Swan yelled, and we jumped apart before he came looking for us