Disclaimer: I own nothing that can be considered Stephanie Meyer's. I do own Nikole though.
TRIGGER WARNING RAPE FOR THIS CHAPTER- NOTHING GRAPHIC BUT MENTIONING IT AS A PAST INCIDENT. SKIP THE CHAPTER UNTIL PAUL'S POV IF YOU WANT TO MISS IT.
Chapter 9
Spring break usually meant happiness to me- but with Bellas ominous existence it just made me wish I actually had somewhere that wasn't La Push to go. She spent all her time in my home, not caring about the subtle hints Emily tried to give her about going to Jacob's or back to her place. She considered herself so important to everyone that our lives had to be dedicated to waiting on her.
One day, and I was so done with her attitude and Jacob's silence that I forced Paul to give me a ride into Port Angeles, just so I could get some sanity- she killed everything around her with her idiocy.
We walked the long streets of the town, going into stores and laughing, clearing our minds of everything happening and talking about anything but the supernatural. It was perfect and I couldn't be happier to have him there, to have him and Leah as my allies.
It was the first time in ages that I had actually seen the sun, making me take my jacket off and let my blonde curls free from my standard ponytail. I felt complete, warmed up by the sun, laughing with someone I loved dearly and carrying bags of new clothes- shopping will always be the best therapy for me. I didn't notice how a man started walking closer to us when we were walking along the beach walk- soon enough following us. I didn't notice him at all, which, if I was back in Cali, I would have. I would have been constantly keeping my eyes out for him, trying to not let my heart go wild at the sight of any man that kept even a slight resemblance to him. No, I felt safe here, on the other side of the country, with large wolves protecting me.
"Hey! Nikole!" I froze, the voice making my heart beat so fast that I thought I'd throw up. The large blonde man ran up to me, a grin on his face as he embraced my frozen body tightly. "How are you sweetheart? No one even told me you'd be leaving! Do you live here now? I'm just visiting my grandparents before going off to college you know, since I graduated last year! Ah well, you probably remember my graduation party." He winked at me, one hand still on my lower back grazing the top off my bum. I couldn't open my mouth, my panicked state forcing it shut and my heart beating like a terrified bunny that had been caught by a fox and knew it would die.
I barely remembered his graduation party, Nick's graduation party. I had been force fed with alcohol since the beginning of it and as my drunken state was found by him and his friends they'd decided to "have some fun" with the school slut. It had taken me months being able to close my eyes without everything repeating itself in front of my eyes and even longer to be able to sleep for more than just a few hours at a time.
Paul looked worriedly at me, probably hearing my heart beating in it's frantic pace.
"And who is this? You move away and find a new guy in just the space of months? I really thought we had something together." He laughed falsely, knowing fully what he and his frieds had done to me, but continuing the farce of us being together that he had played since that evening.
"I'm Paul, Paul Lahote, and you are?" Paul's outstretched hand made my stomach knit itself together. I didn't want him to touch it. I didn't want him to meet this boy and his toxic attitude, I wanted to protect my older brother from everything in my past and seeing him being pulled into it made my insides scream. Nick took his hand while his other was caressing my bum harshly- hiding it from Paul.
"Oh, I'm Nikole's ex-boyfriend. We dated for a while, you know, quarterback and cheerleader. The ordinary high school story." A wink to Paul who looked suspicious.
"Well you mustn't have been to much of a boyfriend, she hasn't talked about you since she moved here ya know." Nick's grip on me stiffened as he laughed.
"I guess it was more of a high-school sweethearts story then, only applicable to school."
It had been. Our supposed relationship was a farce, him pretending it existed and me sleeping with other boys to prove him wrong. He had dictated his ownership of me on the first day he saw me, telling everyone that I would be his by the end of high school, that I would be licking his feet by the end of it. He was correct about that, only that it was while I was under death-threats and not by my own free will. Not that he cared. He had made me so scared of living that I barely was able to function, my last part of getting back together was when moving to Emily- successfully avoiding everything back in California.
Paul glared at him, noticing the other boy's hand om my body and pulled me to his side- effectively cutting off any possibility for Nick to touch me.
"Yeah, well. I think we need to go back home now actually." I was so cold, shivering in the warmth of the sun and trying to keep my lunch down.
"Can I walk you back? It was such a blessing seeing you here Nikole." His voice was like ice, giving me flashbacks of hell. "I'll walk you home honey, you must be exhausted after this amazing night." I was certain the cupcake Emily had given me this morning was on it's way up. "You are so blessed to have spent the whole night with me, God really has an eye out for you Nikole." I locked my jaws together, I wouldn't throw up in front of him. No sign of weakness here.
"I think we're good." Paul, my saviour.
"Really? Well then, Nikole, don't you want to give me a kiss goodbye- for old times sake I mean?" No, no, no. "Here, I'll just kiss that sad face off your lips- this isn't goodbye sweetling. I'll see you tomorrow again! Don't cry, you'll barely notice I'm gone."
"Dude. Fuck off, she obviously doesn't want you touching her. Just leave." Paul. I was swallowing my own puke, terrified of the boy standing in front of us. Paul put his arm around my shoulders, steering me back towards his car, occasionally looking back at the blonde standing watching us with a gruesome grin on his face.
"See ya Nikole!" I heard his words and couldn't stop myself any longer, rushing over to the fence down towards the beach and throwing my guts up- hearing his laugh both inside and outside my mind.
I locked myself up completely on the ride back to La Push, my silence making Paul speed to get back as quickly as possible to get help. I was curled up on the passenger seat, body tense and panic distorting my thoughts- would any of them be able to look at me the same way after they knew? Or would my shame twist their way of looking at me- creating tears in the life I had made for myself in La Push?
Those terrifying thoughts were at a constant repeat making me unable to hear Paul talking to someone on the phone, voice laced with concern.
"No, she just shut off. There was this guy that came up to her… Yeah, blonde and ugly as fuck. He was talking about some relationship but she didn't… Yeah completely terrified, heart beating like it was flying out her chest… We're in Forks in a bit, just be back at your place, cya." He turned the phone off and looked over at the small bundle of shivering that was I, placing a calloused hand on my head.
"You'll be fine love. We're all here for you, always."
Paul carried me into my room, followed by a worried Emily and Leah. Sam opted to stay in the doorway, forcing the others to stay out of my room as Paul put me down in my bed and tucked me in underneath the blankets. I was still panicking, however the worst of the attack had passed and I was laying underneath the pile of blankets listening to their soft voices and feeling Wolf-Leah lay down on my bed next to me, sticking her muzzle inside my little cave of safety and licked my arm.
"Oh I was hoping we didn't have to tell you, she really did want to leave it all behind her." Emily's voice laced with tears was heard through the room and I gripped my arms so tightly that my nails went through skin- probably leaving bloody half-crescents on my skin. "They, he, after the graduation party. They took advantage of her. She had to stay in the emergency ward for weeks- and her mother couldn't fathom it, she tried to hurt her and yes. That's why she moved here. I, oh lord I'm just so sorry baby." She was crying while stroking my back over the blankets, Leah snuggled in deeper and closer to me, forcing my arms around her instead of hurting myself. The boys were completely silent, the only thing being heard through the room being Emily's sobs and my teeth clanking together- I was still shivering from the fright of meeting Nick again.
"So, you mean that, that…" Paul's voice was choked. "And she can still spend time with us?" Jared continued his sentence and I could hear something break from the hallway.
"It's not like it was the end of her life. She won't ever let anyone have that kind of power over her." Sam's frosty voice cut through the thick silence as a fresh breeze. "Now, get out before you hurt something." The boys moved out of the room and I could hear them shifting once outside, the muffled sound of paws on grass running out in the forest. "Nika. Take your time. Remember that you are everything to us and nothing will change here. Nothing ever. We fight for you."
With that I heard him walk out of the room, leaving just me, Emily and Leah the wolf. They both snuggled closer to me, Emily alternating between singing softly and telling me how proud she was of me and Leah breathing calmly by my side. But all I could think of was the boy who wasn't here, the only one that I wanted to care for me. The one I wanted to break heaven and hell to make me happy, the one who should be petting my back and whispering soft things to me.
But he wasn't there, and I would have to live with it- because I was his second and probably always would be.
Paul's POV
I couldn't think, my wolf taking over completely in my furious state of mind. Just knowing that I had been in reach of the boy making her like this and not killing him fired me on and made everything around me a certain shade of scarlet that I'd never seen before.
I was running through the woods, Jared and the others by my side all with the same thoughts on our mind, unable to even think of anything else as we ran until we got to the cliffs Sam usually dared us to jump off when in a rage, stopping there and howling.
"Shit, isn't that Jacob and that Bella girl almost kissing?" Jared's voice through the pack-link made us all focus on the couple down on the beach- recognizing our pack-mate. She was clinging to his neck, trying to force his head down to hers while h protested and tried to pull her arms off his neck which only made her try harder. I couldn't focus, my aggressiveness spreading through the link. I couldn't understand how he would let her continue as his Imprint was laying in her bed so scared that she was barely able to breath.
I started down the mountain, the others following me, and as my paws met the cold sand of the beach I changed- my nakedness not bothering me the slightest. I walked towards the two, Jacob having pulled her off him completely, glaring at her while telling her off- much like one would tell a child that it had done something bad. Not how you would treat an adult, but having spent time with the girl for the past week I wasn't too sure she was anything more than a child screaming for any kind of attention.
"Jacob." The word came out more like a growl rather than words but he looked up, face tense as he saw me naked and the others in-between shifting. The girl gasped and said something, unimportant to me, about me being indecent and Jacob replied with sending her a growl. The change in his body language was striking and soothed my furious wolf slightly.
"What Paul?" His tense voice matched the rage in his eyes.
"It's Nikole, you should get back." All of us avoided his eyes- not wanting to tell him too much with the shame we all felt. He then ran past us, changing in the air and charging towards Emily's house leaving the rest of us with the vampire bitch- Bella.
"JACOB YOU CAN'T JUST RUN OFF AND LEAVE ME WITH A BUNCH OF NAKED MALES, I'LL GET RAPED AND WHAT WILL MY DAD SAY THEN." Her shrill voice echoed over the beach and in all my rage I just couldn't look at her. I turned around and shifted together with the others leaving her on the beach while dealing with Jacob's agony as he took part of all of our memories through the pack-link.
It seems like Jacob *finally* has seen the true Bella. Or something at least, sorry about the Nikole thing, however I think that I have been at least hinting on it in earlier chapters so it shouldn't be too shocking. Also, what did you think of Paul's POV? Something I should add more of?
To the most of you reviewing: Bella is just kinda boring to write, but her being the protagonist in the series makes it hard to completely ignore her ya know. But from here on there will only be bashing from all sides (including lil Jacob). THANK YOU.
.129: Well, I must say that I do not agree with you. I find Bella such a flat character because of her being a female actually. Her(and Emily's, Leah's, Rosalie's, Alice's and every other females in the saga) purpose is to let the male characters project their feelings and actions on so she can help them proceed to develop the story and/or themselves. Emily's scar, Leah's inability to forgive and Rosalie's harshness are the same thing- to let the male characters show some kind of depth instead of writing all characters with depth. Just look at "A song of ice and fire" (game of thrones) or "the Hunger games"- females with personalities, faults and characteristics that are easy to recognize yourself in (because everyone isn't just a strong person all the time) and they actually get to develop the stories themselves. Bella wasn't created for any kind of greatness but just to be paired up with the moody Edward. I'm actually quite sad for all the females in the Twilight saga that could have gotten so much more but didn't.
So now: Review, discuss and tell me what I'm doing right/wrong. Lots of love to all of you.
