Chapter 9 – The Talk
I held Claire's hand as we walked on the beach. Claire was spending the summer in La Push. It was her reward for getting good grades during the past school year. Claire loved La Push and wanted to spend every moment she could on my reservation.
She told me once while we were talking on the phone that when she wasn't in La Push, she missed it so much it actually hurt. I didn't know if that was because she generally liked the area, she was being overly dramatic, or if it was because her subconscious was starting to feel the pull between us getting stronger. No matter what the reason, I was incredibly happy that Claire was so close by.
Emily and Sam had graciously opened their home to Claire for the summer. Claire got to hang out with her cousins Nate, who was now eight, and Gracie who was six, and I got to spend time with Claire. Nate loved having his cousin nearby. He had been really upset for a long time after the Cullens and Jacob and his family had moved last year.
The Cullens had moved to Vermont. Dr. Cullen had gotten a job at a hospital there. They had moved to a wooded area that had a lot of wild game in it. Though they loved Forks, they had already stayed there a lot longer than they normally would live in an area. They had decided to leave after someone made a comment to the doc about how young he looked for his age. Stacy had pestered me about that once, but Ronnie told her to leave me alone. He had said "the Quileutes just have good genes, now stop bugging him."
With Jacob in Vermont, Seth, Embry, and I had switched our loyalties back to Sam and rejoined his pack under Jacob's request. It was another reason Sam welcomed Claire into his home for the summer. He already had to deal with Embry's longing for his imprint. With Claire nearby, he didn't have to put up with me longing for Claire.
The pack still had to be on our guard in regards to vampires coming to the area. After the Volturi had tried to attack the Cullens years ago, some of the Cullens' vampire friends who had stood by the Cullens, had fallen in love with the area. Some would occasionally come back to Forks and would use the Cullens' vacant house as a vacation spot. The Cullens okayed this under two conditions. One, their friends couldn't hunt in the area. And two, they had to meet with Sam and the pack before staying at the house.
Sam would get a call from the Cullens letting him know that friends would be in the area.
The pack would then meet with the guests at the Cullens' house so that we could smell their scent. We didn't want to wrongly attack one of their friends. The agreement was though that if the friends didn't check in with Sam first, or if they hunted in the region, we would have free will to attack them. Luckily, we hadn't had any incidents yet.
I looked down at Claire as we walked on the beach. In a couple of months she would be starting junior high. I had brought her down to the beach to give her an early birthday present. I was taking Claire to see her favorite boy band. It was still a couple of months before her 12th birthday, but the band was coming to Seattle this weekend.
I glanced down at her again and was surprised by some of the physical changes I took in. Claire had started to get a lot taller in the past year and was even carrying herself differently. There was a slight sway to her hips as she walked now. Much to my chagrin, I couldn't help but notice that Claire was also starting to develop curves that hadn't been there last year. It felt almost incestuous to think of her that way, but she was becoming a beautiful young woman.
I knew she was popular too, which was why I found her request to spend the summer in La Push a little odd. Even though she might long to be on my reservation, I was surprised that she didn't want to spend her summer with her friends. Last time she had confided in me, she and her boyfriend Jon, were still going strong.
Poor Matt Miller hadn't even lasted the bus ride home from the roller rink. A few months, later, she had developed a crush on some kid named Tyler. Then Jon moved to the Makah reservation halfway through Claire's 6th grade year and Claire had declared him "uber cute."
I thought Jon was more fitting for Claire anyway. He was a jock and more importantly, he was an avid Seahawks fan. I couldn't help but like the kid. Of course, when I first met him, I had given him "the look." You know the, "If you mess with Claire or break her heart, I'll kill you" look.
Emily had asked me once how I handled Claire being interested in so many boys and if I was jealous. The honest answer was no, I wasn't jealous. To be jealous to me meant I was romantically interested in Claire, which I wasn't. I still didn't see her in any romantic light. I wondered sometimes if that was weird. But the truth was, as long as Claire was happy then I was happy. She was acting just like anyone else her age, which was all I wanted for her.
We stopped walking and Claire went to sit down. As she didn't let go of my hand, I sat down next to her. I reached into the pocket of my shorts where I had hidden the tickets, but froze as I noticed the look on her face. There was something bothering her.
"What's up Claire-bear?" I asked which earned an eye roll.
"Quil, have you ever had sex?" Claire asked, turning slightly towards me.
"What?" I asked in shock.
'Have you ever, you know, done it before?" Claire repeated, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Why are you asking about that?"
Claire hesitated before saying, "I just wondered when someone should have sex."
"In your case, not until you're married." I told her earnestly.
Claire laughed at that. "What if I don't get married until I'm 40?"
"Then you don't have sex until your 40," I said, satisfied and yet oddly disgruntled at that idea all at the same time.
"I'm serious Quil," Claire said. She had brought her knees up so that they were under her chin. She put my hand on her knee and rested her cheek on top of it as she stared at me.
"Is this something to do with Jon?" I asked, going into "protector" mode. If that kid was pressuring her to have sex, I'd kick the shit out of him, I didn't care if he was a Seahawks fan or not.
"No, Jon and I broke up. He was much too juvenile for me," Claire stated as she let our entwined hands fall to the sand. I snorted. Claire just got out of 6th grade and she thought that Jon was too immature for her?
"Why are you worried about sex?" I questioned.
"Jon and I kissed and I just wondered if maybe that was what he expected next." Claire said blushing.
"Your first kiss, huh?" I said with amusement. "How'd it go?"
"It was..umm…really wet. He got slobber all over my chin," Claire said, looking both embarrassed and disgusted. I turned my head to hide the smile on my face. It sounded exactly like my first kiss.
"Claire, you don't need to worry about sex yet. When the time comes, you'll know. But do me a favor and don't even think about it until you're out of high school." I implored.
"Is that what you did?"
I looked at waves again. Dammit, how did I even get myself in this conversation? I didn't even know if it was appropriate for me to be talking to her about this, but I was her best friend. We didn't hide things from each other. Still, I didn't want to confide the truth either. What kind of example was I setting?
When I continued to ignore her, she squeezed my hand. "Come on Quil, have you ever had sex before?"
I opened my mouth to lie and say no, but instead a "yes" popped out. I cursed myself. Stupid imprint magic. Why couldn't we lie to our imprints just once?
"Really?" Claire said. To my shame she actually looked disappointed in me. She let go of my hand and wrapped her arms around her legs. The loss of her hand was as symbolic as a smack across the face.
"It was a while ago," I tried to explain and didn't know why I felt so guilty. Hell, I slept with Jessica months before I even imprinted on Claire. Before I even knew she existed!
"How old were you when you did it the first time?" Claire asked somewhat stiffly. The first time? What'd she think I was now, some sex crazed gigolo?
"Sixteen." Again I answered truthfully. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Claire looked at me like I had just crawled out from under a rock. "So I'm not allowed to have sex until I'm either out of high school or I'm 40, but you had sex when you were 16? That's kind of hypocritical of you, don't you think?"
"True." I joked, but by the angry set of her shoulders, I knew Claire wasn't in the mood to laugh.
Sighing I spoke again, "Listen Claire, I should have waited to have sex until I found someone I loved and wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn't. All I can ask from you is that you wait until you find someone you truly love before you decide to go that far. It's a big decision to make and it's also something you shouldn't even be considering right now. You're not even 12 yet. Enjoy being your age and don't worry about sex yet, okay?"
Claire nodded, but her shoulders were still stiff.
"Promise me Claire," I begged. The idea of someone her age even thinking about having sex made me feel slightly ill.
"Fine," Claire finally responded, but she still didn't look at me. I sighed.
"So I asked you to come down here because I wanted to give you an early birthday present. Are you interested?' I asked, gently nudging her arm with my elbow. She flinched when I made contact with her skin and I felt it like a punch to the stomach. Did I ruin her perception of me from what I had unwillingly admitted?
"What is it?" Claire asked after hesitating for a minute.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out the tickets for the concert and gave them to her. I saw her eyes widen as she took in the name on the tickets.
"Really?" Claire questioned, a slight smile slowly creeping along her lips.
"Yes, really," I told her and laughed as she squealed and threw her arms around my neck. "Your mom is bringing your sister down tomorrow morning and I'm taking both of you."
"Thank you Quil…thank you!" Claire said, kissing my cheek before she got up and started jumping up and down, holding the tickets to her chest and screaming. I laughed as Claire finally acted her age.
The next morning we waited patiently for Cora to arrive, or at least I did. Claire kept pacing and glancing at the clock as she chatted excitedly to Emily about the upcoming concert. Ryan was lying on the floor drawing in a coloring book with Gracie. Nate was leaning against his father's arm as they sat together on the couch watching TV.
When I first told Sam where I was taking the girls, he laughed at me. Now he kept shaking his head and saying things like "you have no clue what you're getting yourself in to." I heard a car pull up to the house and a minute later Cora and Stacy walked in.
"Aren't you sooo excited?" Claire asked as she ran to her sister after hugging her mom.
"I guess," Cora said in an obnoxious teenage tone and rolled her eyes. She didn't fool me though. I knew she was as excited about this concert as her sister was.
She glanced over at Ryan and stiffened. Somewhere around the time that Cora had turned 13, she had developed a major crush on Ryan who was always at Sam's house whenever she came to visit. She had flirted with him to the best of her capabilities, but he had ignored her, his attention completely fixated on Gracie. Because of that rejection, you normally had to drag Cora kicking and screaming to La Push.
We said our goodbyes and got into the car and started the long drive to Seattle. We stopped to eat on our way, but still made it to the concert in time. About 10 minutes into the show, I finally understood what Sam was laughing about.
The audience consisted of mostly tween or young teenaged girls. The rest of the audience was made up of long suffering parents. The screaming that resonated through the stadium was enough to make my overly sensitive ears want to bleed. When the boys started singing a ballad in a whiney, nasally tone and the screams reached pandemonium level, I made the girls leave their seats to come with me to a souvenir stand we had passed earlier so that I could buy some earplugs.
While we were there, Cora talked Claire into talking me into buying them both concert t-shirts. They raced to the women's bathroom to change into their new shirts as I waited nervously outside the bathroom entrance. I didn't like either girl being out of my sight in this crowd.
Finally, they both came back into view and we made our way back to our seats. Claire went to reach for my hand but hesitated. I reached down and grabbed it anyway. We had always had such an easy relationship before our conversation on the beach yesterday. I hated the idea that anything had changed between us.
Claire looked up at me and smiled somewhat sadly. I gently squeezed her hand. As we sat in our seats, I went to let go of her hand, but she held on to it tightly. We watched the rest of the show that way. By the time we headed towards the car at the end of the concert, my head was killing me and my ears were ringing. The girls both fell asleep in the car as I drove the five hour trip back.
When we got home, I woke the girls up and they both made their way tiredly to the guest bedroom at Sam's house. After they changed into their pajamas, I went in to say goodnight to them. Cora was already sleeping. Claire was just climbing into bed. As I walked over to whisper goodnight to her, she rolled over on her side so that she was facing away from me.
"Goodnight Quil, thank you again for my birthday present," Claire said and there was a new maturity in her voice that I hadn't noticed until that moment.
My heart ached slightly as I realized that something had definitely changed between us. We would never have the same relationship again.
A/N – Ok everyone, I hope you've enjoyed seeing Claire's youth because from this point on, it's on to the teen years! Please leave me a review.
