Chapter 9 - A Date, Jail and a Wedding Oh My! PART 2
I expected it would take Rachel at least an hour or two to get here and readied myself for a nice, relaxing nap. Not fifteen minutes later I heard the front door bang open. Man, I really needed to start locking my front door. All the people that mattered had keys anyway; each pack member had a key, it was like part of the initiation into our renegade wolf pack; 'join our pack and get a key to the Clearwater's place so that you can bug Leah until she cracks'. Ha, that should be our pack motto.
"Anybody home?" I heard Rachel call out and I groaned shoving a pillow on my face. Why did she have to sound so damn happy all the time? I swung my legs out of bed and got up sighing.
"What is it with the Black family? Can you not learn to knock?" I grouched coming from the bedroom to see Rachel running around the living room, pushing chairs out of the way and setting up a makeshift beauty salon. I'm surprised she managed to lug all the beauty cases and bags here. She was a machine. Rachel came to hug me then sat me down on a chair.
"I bought you a dress too," Rachel held up said dress. It was a red dress that showed a lot of leg and was very simple. I took it giving a smile. She was redeemed from the nap interruption.
"Thanks."
I was beginning to remember why Rachel and I had been friends in high school. She was bubbly, cheerful, optimistic; she was everything I wasn't. I used to be just like her, and then I got the short end of the genetic stick and turned into the big bad wolf while she got her fairytale ending. I missed Rebecca; she was Rachel's twin sister. She had gotten married to a Hawaiian surfer and was living in Honolulu far away from the Res. She was the lucky one; she got out of here before everything went to hell. Rachel came around me and inspected my shoulder length hair, before leaning in and sniffing. She made a face at me.
"When was the last time you washed your hair?" Rachel asked, her face twisting into one of disgust and I shrugged.
"I dunno."
"Eww, come on," Rachel hauled me to my feet then marched me into the bathroom. She turned away as I got undressed and stepped into the shower then she handed me some shampoo and conditioner and took a seat on the toilet. Rachel had no concept of personal space, which I should be used to, but still; having her in the bathroom while I was showering was still a little weird. And it only got weirder when she started talking.
"I would kill for your body," she said longingly.
I could stand buck naked in front of my whole pack but I was embarrassed about being naked in the shower in front of Rachel Black.
"All you've gotta sacrifice is your humanity and the ability to reproduce and all this could be yours," I retorted dryly gesturing to myself and Rachel laughed. She was one of the only people who could take my bitching and moaning and self pity without being offended. I lathered up my hair and started scrubbing.
"So dating both Jacob and Embry huh? Sounds naughty."
Well Rachel didn't waste any time getting down to the nitty gritty, always so direct. I loved that about her.
"I can't believe he told you," I muttered angrily, as I began to rinse the shampoo out vigorously while mentally concocting all the ways that I could murder Jacob.
"I won't tell Paul or any of the others, I promise. Jacob just needed someone to talk to," Rachel hurried to assure me, but that wasn't enough to stop me from making a note to at least harm Jacob a little. This whole thing was supposed to be a secret dammit. Rachel inspected herself in the mirror then she turned to look at me, "He loves you. I'm sure Embry does too but Jacob really loves you."
Now I got all the warm fuzzy feelings in my stomach at the thought that Jacob loved me. Like fluffy little butterflies were fluttering around in there.
I quickly conditioned then rinsed my hair while Rachel chattered to me about Paul and how they were planning on buying a house together.
Once I was done Rachel wrapped me in a robe, grabbed the hairdryer and led me back out to the living room sitting me back in the chair. She plugged in the dryer and started drying my hair. This felt nice, having someone take care of me. Obviously no one else does. Rachel finished drying my hair, and then rubbed some cream on my face before getting to work on my nails. They were looking a little tragic. OK, so that was a major understatement. They were more like talons than nails. And not nice pretty talons either. They were all broken up and had so much dirt crammed under them that I could probably re-pot some of the house plants.
"What happened to us Rach?" I blurted out and Rachel looked up from applying the nail polish and frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"We had dreams, you were going to be a lawyer, I was going to be a doctor. We were leaving the Res for bigger and better things, and now look at us. Stuck here in La Push all because our ancestors decided that they had an affinity with wolves and a hatred for the 'Cold Ones'," I looked down at my hands and inspected my nails, "At least you've got it good here, I guess I wouldn't mind being stuck in La Push if I was an imprintee."
Rachel paused her actions to stare at me in disbelief.
"You think I like being stuck here?"
My silence said 'yes Rachel, I think you do like being stuck here with stinking Paul as your soul mate forever and ever'. Rachel, as though reading my mind, rolled her eyes.
"You think I like not being able to go anywhere without Paul sniffing me out, or not being able to talk to any guy who isn't my family because Paul will kick his butt? You think I like knowing that the only option for my future is being a breeding tool for the wolf line to continue? I can't ever leave Leah, I tried; I got on that goddamn bus and I made it all the way to Seattle before it hurt too much, I missed Paul too much. I missed that stupid, beer guzzling, food munching, gas excreting bastard. I'm trapped here living a perfect life, and all I really want is to be somewhere else, anywhere else," Rachel revealed, her voice tight with emotion and I stared at her in shock. I had no idea how hard it was for the imprintee. I'd always blamed Emily, thinking that she could have just told Sam she didn't want him but now knowing that it physically hurt the imprintee to be away from her wolf made me feel a little less betrayed.
"Shit Rach, now you've made me feel like an asshole," I cursed in the form of an apology, which was how pretty much all my apologies sounded, and Rachel shrugged.
"Life is what it is," she sighed then returned to my nails. Instinctively I hugged her and she laughed pulling away from me.
"You'll ruin your nail polish," she scolded me pulling away. I watched Rachel's beautiful face and I knew she was thinking what I was thinking. Rebecca was the lucky one.
**************
By six Rachel had me ready to go and I had bought pretty much every beauty product known to man. Rachel had curled my hair at the ends, I was wearing the tight red dress, and make up and perfume; I didn't look too bad at all. Seth came out of his room hesitantly.
"Is it safe to come out?" he asked and Rachel beckoned him to come stand with her and admire me. His mouth dropped open, "Leah, you look beautiful."
"Thanks Sethy," I grinned feeling happier than I'd felt in years. I felt like the old me.
There was a knock on the door. I raced over and swing the door open to reveal Embry and Jacob. They were both dressed in a nice pair of jeans, ironed long sleeved shirts and jackets as well. They both smiled when they saw me.
"Looking very nice Leah," Jacob was the first to speak and he winked at me appreciatively.
"You look amazing," Embry added his compliment and I felt myself blushing bright red.
I linked both of their arms and smiled up at them.
"Let's get this show on the road."
***************
Seth had been right, this was a nightmare. When we got to the movies Embry and Jacob had a fight over who would buy my movie ticket. Then we got to the candy bar and there was another fight over who would buy my snacks. During the movie I had to put a ban on touching me because they kept glaring at each other over my head and it was distracting me. After the movie we had decided to stop for ice cream and take a walk in the park. It should have been a nice way to end the evening but instead there had been another fight over who would buy my ice cream. Now we were walking to the park and Embry and Jacob were still fighting over Jacob paying for my ice cream. I was trailing behind them munching down my cookies and cream. It was the one good thing that had happened on this date. Mmm…so, so good.
"You're such a jerk!" Jacob growled at Embry pushing him backwards and Embry drew himself up to his full height.
"Piss off dude," Embry spat right back at him then they started to scuffle and Embry put Jacob in a head lock.
"Oww, let go of my head Embry," Jacob hissed before elbowing him in the guts forcing Embry to back away clutching at his stomach. They glared at each other before the scuffle started again. And I'd had just about enough of this. I threw my ice cream at them.
"Hey you morons, this is the worst triple date I've ever been on!"
They ignored me of course. They were too full of competitiveness and testosterone to pay attention to what the girl they supposedly loved wanted. I felt a wave of fury rush through me. These two idiots ruined my whole night and now they weren't even paying attention to me. I dressed up for this! I went through endless beauty torture to watch these stubborn jerks fight! I growled and grabbed the nearest projectile item, which just so happened to be a park bench, and held it above my head ready to throw it at them. Right about then was when I heard the siren. Cops. Shit. Embry and Jacob stopped fighting, and pulled away from each other guiltily. I dropped the park bench like it was a hot potato and tried to smile innocently.
The headlights were shining in all our eyes and both Embry and Jacob came over to me protectively. Still pissed beyond reason, I growled warningly and they both backed off. Charlie Swan stepped out of the car and came over to us quickly as another patrol car pulled up. Thank God it was only Charlie who had seen me picking up that park bench, if it was anyone else that would have raised a lot of questions that we couldn't answer.
"Charlie it isn't what it looks like," I hastened to explain and Charlie raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest awkwardly.
"You were about to hit them both over the head with that park bench," Charlie stated surely and I hesitated. Aww crap, I hated it when I got caught out. I heard Jacob and Embry snicker behind me. Oh so now they were friends? Traitors.
"Ok…it is what it looked like, but they wouldn't have been hurt," I said hurriedly, batting my eyelashes hoping that he understood and Charlie looked uncomfortable.
"Need to know stuff?" Charlie whispered and when I nodded he gave a gruff cough, "Right, well I still need to take you all in, people reported you for public disturbance."
"Are you arresting us?" I asked in disbelief. I thought letting him sleep with my mom had some benefits, like not getting me arrested, but apparently I was wrong. This sucked. I was not getting Charlie a Christmas present.
"I'll just take you guys in, pretend you're drunk or something, I'll let you out tomorrow morning with a warning," Charlie replied and I relaxed slightly. This was a marginally better outcome; I'd get him some underwear for Christmas. I felt Jacob take my hand, I don't know how I knew that hand belonged to him, but I knew it did.
"Don't call my mom Charlie please, I'm begging you," I pleaded and Charlie nodded then addressed his deputy who had approached us. The deputy took in Jacob and Embry's height and build and I swear I could smell the fear coming off him. Jacob grinned at him and the deputy looked scared out of his wits.
"It's ok Tim, I'll take it from here," Charlie told him and the deputy nodded and returned back to his car driving off as fast as he could go.
Charlie led us to his car and Jacob and Embry slid into the back seat while Charlie let me sit up the front with him.
"Hey, can you play the siren?" Embry asked from the back seat and Charlie shrugged turning the siren on.
"Sure."
Charlie was pretty cool. I'd buy him some underwear and a six pack for Christmas to show my appreciation.
***************
I was placed in a separate cell to Jacob and Embry, all by myself. Charlie made sure I had extra blankets and lots of snacks.
"I'm so sorry Leah," Embry called to be from the cell he was sharing with Jacob and Jacob too looked apologetic.
"Me too."
"You should be, this is both your faults," I retorted not bothering to look at them. I sat down on the hard bed and folded my arms across my chest. Charlie came in and handed me a mug of tea which I was in the process of enjoying when the night got a whole lot worse. What could be worse than a ruined triple date and having to spend the night in jail? Two words; Sue Clearwater. Even worse than that? Angry Sue Clearwater.
"Leah Clearwater, you are in so much trouble!" I heard my mother's shrill voice ring out angrily from the door to the police station and I glanced at Charlie horrified.
"Charlie you called my mom?" I asked appalled at him for breaking the promise and Charlie looked apologetic as he backed away from my cell since I was standing threateningly at the bars.
"I'm sorry, but if she found out about this and I didn't tell her she would stop cooking for me, and I really love your mother's cooking," Charlie whispered backing away and I heard my mother's heels clacking up the hallway towards us.
"Pig," I muttered at Charlie.
Charlie was definitely off my Christmas list and would never be able to get back on it.
"I don't see you for weeks even though you promised to come visit me and then I get a call that you have been arrested! Arrested Leah! I don't know if I can show my face on the Res now that my daughter is a criminal," Sue wailed as she waltzed into the room and came to stand at the bars to my cell. I backed away and sat back down on the bed. Oh did I say angry? Yeah, I meant livid.
"I'm hardly a criminal mom," I said sarcastically and Sue gave up yelling at me for the moment as she turned to Jacob and Embry who both looked like they wished they were elsewhere. That made three of us.
"And you two," Sue advanced towards them and both boys cringed under her gaze. My mom was freaking scary, "Your mother is going to kill you Embry and as for Billy…"
"Mom, don't tell Billy," I interrupted quickly and Sue shook her head, staring right at Jacob who looked to the ground. Embry placed a hand on Jacob's shoulder.
"I intend to tell Billy, Jacob Black, so that he can punish you. Just because you are an Alpha does not give you the right to create a public disturbance," Sue lectured pointing a finger at Jacob furiously.
"Mom, please don't tell Billy," I begged again and Sue looked over at me, and then back at Jacob who looked like he was holding in tears. I wished that I could hug him right now. Sue turned to look at me suspiciously.
"What's going on?"
"Billy's dying mom, please," I said reluctantly and Sue gasped.
"Oh dear god."
"What?" Charlie decided to take that moment to reenter the conversation which was very inconvenient. I knew Billy hadn't told anyone about his cancer, and I'm sure he certainly didn't want me spilling the beans but I couldn't let mom tell Billy about this. I didn't want him to worry about Jacob any more than he had to.
"Please don't say anything, either of you," I pleaded and Sue and Charlie looked at each other and nodded then Charlie cleared his throat gruffly.
"Let's get you three home," Charlie said walking over to unlock our cells and I gaped at him in disbelief.
"You mean you could have just let us go before?" I asked and when Charlie shrugged a yes, and I glared at him, "You suck Chief Swan."
***************
It was Saturday, and I was at Emily and Sam's wedding. I turned up alone, but sat between Jacob and Embry for the ceremony. I thought watching Emily and Sam get married would be harder for me than it actually was. Between Jacob making goofy faces at me and Embry's warm hands tracing calming circles on my back, I was having a wonderful time. As I sat there I tried to imagine which one of the two men at my sides I could picture getting married too, but even in my daydreams I couldn't choose between them. I was startled from my wedding daydreams by clapping and cheering as I realized that Sam had kissed his bride.
Sam and Emily came running back up the aisle grinning like idiots and I hugged her, then him before falling back into the crowd. Once we got to the reception, which was being held in town at the local hall, I downed two glasses of champagne before taking my seat at the designated table where, surprise surprise, I was seated in between Jacob and Embry. Quil, Seth, Collin and Brady were also at our table, though Quil was doting on Claire who was a flower girl so I didn't expect to see him much throughout the reception. We ate and drank, listened to speeches where Sam went on about how when he saw Emily it was love at first sight and all that crap. Then Sam and Emily had their first dance.
I noticed Embry get up offering to get the next round of drinks, and I asked him to get me another champagne. The second he was gone, Jacob touched my hand, his warm skin creating fire on mine.
"May I have this dance?" he asked smiling sweetly and I nodded giving a grin.
"You may," I allowed him to pull me to my feet and then he led me to the dance floor.
In that moment I ceased to be Leah Clearwater, bitter bitch and Sam Uley's ex; I was just Leah, dancing with my Jacob. I gazed up into Jacob's eyes dreamily. I was sure I looked stupid but I didn't care. For this one moment, everything felt so perfect, so right. Jacob pulled me closer to him, an arm wrapping around my waist and I rested my head on his shoulder. We danced in comfortable silence, while I felt Jacob's warm breath on my hair. Suddenly he tensed.
"May I cut in," a deep voice interrupted and Jacob retorted quickly.
"No."
I pulled away from Jacob to see Embry standing there but he wasn't looking at me, he was glaring at Jacob. I backed away from the both of them. These constant shows of testosterone were getting annoying.
"I wasn't asking you," Embry said to Jacob darkly.
They growled at each other warningly, drawing the attention of pretty much everyone. Sam and Emily even paused their dance to glance over at the three of us curiously.
"Back off Embry," Jacob ordered and Embry puffed out his chest defiantly.
"No."
And then it started again, a replay of Nessie's birthday party. Embry reeled back his fist and punched Jacob to which Jacob responded by tackling him to the ground. I stepped back further to avoid being hit and sighed.
"Knock it off you knuckleheads," I scolded them both but they were way past caring about who saw them.
Jacob pushed Embry off him and Embry flew through the air a little before colliding with a table. I looked around and saw the amazed faces at Jacob's feat of strength. Embry got to his feet, his whole form shaking dangerously.
"I just don't know what these boys eat on the Res but they are growing nice and strong," I commented fanning my face with mock admiration then I discreetly kicked Jacob in the shin and whispered, "If you must be juvenile take it outside. Right. Now."
Jacob grabbed Embry by the sleeve of his jacket and the two struggled against each other all the way to the door. Emily and Sam ran over, as did the rest of his pack, a look on confusion on their faces. I couldn't blame them, even I was confused.
"What the heck is going on?" Sam demanded furiously and I smiled innocently at them.
"Nothing, just let them work it out," I said dismissively then glanced at my brother who had come running, "Seth, make sure they don't kill each other."
Seth nodded his head at me confirming he understood the order then he went running out of the door towards the woods. In the distance I could hear the wolves howling. Fantastic. This could not have gone worse.
"Are they fighting over you again?" Quil babbled as he came running up with Claire in his arms. Never mind, it just all went to hell.
Great, my moron pack member had just blabbed to my ex-boyfriend on his wedding day that the two men who ruined his wedding were actually fighting over me, his ex-girlfriend. Beating him to a pile of Quil mashed potatoes sounded extremely appealing right now.
"Let's just go," I said dejectedly ignoring the shocked faces of the other pack, I smiled at Emily and Sam, "Congratulations and all that."
AN: So thats what happens when you go on a date with two testosterone charged werewolves :) Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I think Leah is going to have to make her decision soon. Next chapter...hmm...I'm pretty sure Leah gets to slap Sam's face...and the boys decide to have their last ditch attempt at getting Leah to choose them. They each get to take her on a date seperately.
Read and review!
