CHAPTER X

AN: Welcome to 2010 people! Last night was fun, fireworks are awesome ;)

Just some quick notes before the story starts:

I THINK it might be winding down. Then again, I thought that five chapters ago. I'm just going to keep writing. I'm not sure how it'll end but Seth & Kaylie's story will continue in another one, about the mass of the pack... but you'll see that one when it uploads :D

I was looking up other songs that have the theme of "You Belong With Me", but from a guy's point of view, and the best ones were Like It Like That, by Guy Sebastian, but my favourite one, and probably the theme song for this chapter, is I Wanna Be by Chris Brown. If you don't like Chris Brown *cough*Indie*cough* then just look up the lyrics, they're really cute.

Enough of me rambling on... quick disclaimer: in the previous chapter I do NOT own the lyrics of You Belong With Me

Lena xo

*********

"He's been gone for three weeks! You guys aren't even doing anything! Aren't you trying to find him?" I realised my voice was about an octave higher than normal.

"We don't need to find him. He knows where he's going and he can come back when he wants to. He's a werewolf, Kaylie, it's not as if there's anything out there that can get him," said Colin reasonably. Brady and Leah were there too, and I heard Leah mutter something under her breath.

"But it doesn't make sense," I said desperately. "Why would he leave in the first place?"

Colin flung Brady a 'look' and Brady shrugged. Colin turned back to me. "That's for him to tell you."

"Leah?" I asked imploring, but she shook her head.

"He asked us to pass on a message to you, by the way," said Colin. My hopes lifted. "Yeah?"

"Keep studying. Don't fail your finals."

Oh.

"Yeah. Ok. And you tell him that he better come back soon."

**********

While I was … away… I decided.

I couldn't leave things like this.

I had to tell her.

Under the cover of night, in the forest behind Kaylie's house, I phased and pulled my sweatpants back on, before creeping to the edge of the forest as a clumsy human.

Damn, I thought. I can't see her room from here. I eyed the tree next to me, a huge oak. Hopefully it could hold my weight.

I started pulling myself up the huge tree until I was high enough for the branches to not break below me. I looked into her bedroom, which was dark.

Damnit. It wasn't that late was it?

That's when the voices started to get louder.

"Maybe I don't want to go to college, Dad! Maybe I want to stay here."

"In this backwater town?!"

"Yeah, in this backwater town! It's my home, Dad, I don't want to be anywhere else but here."

There was a pause. "It's not about Seth Clearwater, is it?"

"What are you talking about Dad!"

"I'm just saying, your judgement at the moment may be…"

"This isn't about Seth Clearwater! It's about ME and MY choices and I might make the same choices as you but I won't regret mine!"

The light in her bedroom switched off and I heard slamming doors. I leaned forward, trying to peer into her bedroom window, but the lace curtains were down and I couldn't see clearly. I tried to think back. Kaylie's Dad was at home, which was kind of unusual. He had been one of my Dad's best friends, but was a complete workaholic. He ran the garage that most of the Pack worked at, and since the mechanics in Forks stopped working they'd been getting more than enough business. My mind flashed back to a conversation Kaylie and I had about her Dad a few months ago.

"I love my Dad, honestly. He works hard so that me and Mum get everything we'll ever need. I just wish that he'd be home a little more."

Suddenly the backdoor slammed open and Kaylie walked out, with her schoolbag on her back. I withdrew into the shadows of the branches, but she didn't look up, just marched straight into the forest.

She shouldn't be in the forest by herself, not at night, was my first thought. As silently as I could I climbed down the tree, dropping to the floor.

She was about ten metres in front of me, and as soon as I hit the floor she whipped around, eyes squinting in the dark.

By the moonlight I saw the teardrops running down her face.

"Kaylie."

She jumped, then as I walked out of the tree's shadows she relaxed. "Seth."

Then she turned around and kept walking into the forest.

"Wait! Where do you think you're going?" I hissed, running to catch up with her. She rubbed her eyes, trying to dry the tears.

"I don't know. I don't care. You shouldn't, either."

"Oi," I said frowning. Stop, now, and tell me what I've missed."

"Why did you leave anyway?!" she suddenly shrieked at me. "I needed you Seth and you upped and left!"

"It's complicated," I said softly, trying to reach towards her, but she flinched away from me. I winced, as if she'd hit me. "Please don't," she whispered. "I just… I need to think… I need…" I reached forward again, slower this time, and stopped when my hand was an inch from her face. When she didn't move, excruciatingly slowly I brushed the tears from her face.

"You need to breathe," I whispered. The rings around her eyes seemed even more prominent in the moonlight. I was curious because usually I slept, in wolf-form, in the forest outside her house, but when I was awake in the really early hours of the morning, the light in her bedroom was never on.

She sighed, and slowly sat down, removing her backpack. I reached for it, asking, "What did you put in here anyway?"

"I don't know," she murmured. "Clothes. Chocolate."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the last one as I sat down next to her. "What's been going on?"

"I don't know, Seth. I just don't know. I can't do it. I'm barely struggling through my exams at the moment. And then I'll have to leave La Push for New York! I stayed there, at my aunts once. It was awful," she shivered. I automatically put my arm around her, and she leaned into me. "I couldn't sleep," she whispered. "It was too noisy."

I chuckled again. "I don't think you've been sleeping too much lately anyway."

She shook her head, sighing and leaning back into me even more. "That's… that's something else. But this… it's like my dad is trying to make my decisions for me."

"He wants what's best for you."

"I want what's best for me, too."

"Still," I said lightly. "Tell me exactly what's going on."

"When he was my age," she said quietly, "he wanted to travel. He went to college, but later dropped out, and worked on a ship or something as the mechanic there. When he came back, he met my Mum, and they married, and they stayed in La Push. But he doesn't like it here. He said he wants me to be… more. I want to travel too," Kaylie said, suddenly sitting up. "But I want to come back. I want to come home. I don't want to leave home yet. Do you know what I really want to be?"

"No," I said, pulling my arm back. She sighed yet again and shifted closer to me, but didn't do anything else.

"I want you to guess," she said. I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I want to see how well you know me."

I thought about it, about her grades. She was best in maths, and with the exception of chemistry, was brilliant at science.

I stopped looking at her grades and looked at her, and how I knew her. Finally I muttered, "You'd hate being a doctor. You would never be able to control everything you know."

She stared at me for a moment, then leaned back into me.

"I don't like it when you go. It gets cold," she whispered, and her eyelids started to drop. I sighed, liking the feeling of her against me, then started to stand up. "Kaylie, we can't stay here."

"Why not?" she mumbled, but I laughed. "And what if your dad walked in on us in the middle of the forest sleeping next to each other?"

She jumped up. I couldn't be sure but I think she was blushing. Kaylie cleared her throat.

"Well, ok… where can we go? Your place is too far." I frowned. Typical that my house would be on the other side of La Push to that of my imprints. It was the reason that I used a car for transport more than my wolf form.

Wolf form.

"Stay here," I ordered. "And when I come back, you have to jump on my back."

"What?" she asked, confused. I looked at her bag. "And you might want to stick that on your back," I added as I walked off into the trees.

In the cover of the deep forest, I stripped off, tying my sweatpants to my leg with my leather cord. Then I phased.

The feeling was smooth, and I immediately felt my senses sharpen – she was ten metres to the east, but I could hear her heart beating as if she were right next to me. I also heard the voices.

"Seth? You're back?" asked Leah, surprised. She, Quil and Jared had patrol at the moment. Jared and Quil were to the east of the Rez, both their minds on their imprints.

"Yeah."

"You're going to tell her."

"Not now," I answered as I started walking back to Kaylie. "Not after this." I heard Leah mentally growl. "Don't you dare change your mind. You have to tell her, at the very least that you're in love with her."

"At the very least," I repeated as Kaylie came into my view. I whined, and her head flipped up, looking at me. "Seth?" I heard her breathe. She'd only seen me in my wolf form once. I whined again, then let my tongue loll out like a puppy. She giggled, then stopped abruptly.

"Jump on your back? Are you kidding me?" I let out a low bark, walking so I was right next to her. She sighed. "I trust you too much," she whispered as she threaded her hands through my fur. "What do I do? Just jump up? You know that I have no experience in this whatsoever. I haven't even ridden a horse before." I let out a low growl and she laughed.

"Yeah, I know, you're not a horse." I walked, on all fours, to the nearest tree stump and barked. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"This would've been a lot easier if you'd brought your truck," she muttered as she stepped onto the tree trunk and then jumped onto my bag. Her arms went around my neck and she buried her face into my fur. I let out a happy bark.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered, and I started running.

I stopped as soon as I heard her scream.

"No, don't stop. It's just that you go so fast. I wasn't expecting it." I kept running, my paws hitting the ground at a steady rhythm. Her fingers, threaded into the fur at the front of my neck, tightened their grip.

It took only minutes for me to get to my place. I stopped at our back lawn, and dropped down into a lying position. Kaylie giggled and slid off my back. I walked off into the forest to phase.

When I came back, Kaylie was lying on her back looking at the cloudy sky. Her schoolbag had been dumped a few metres from where she was, and I went over and lay down next to her.

"Do you always run that fast?" she said quietly. I laughed. "No. Usually faster. Depends on what we're chasing," I added in an undertone, but Kaylie shook her head. "That… it's amazing…you can feel the wind through your hair and it's like you're flying…it's impossible to describe," she said enraptured. Then she sighed. "I still don't know what I'm going to do about college."

I took her hand, lacing her fingers through mine. "Whatever happens, you're a legal adult in like two months. Technically, you can make your own choices after then." She sighed, closing her eyes. "Yeah, but after that I don't have anywhere to live, unless I go to college. Besides, I already filed the application. It's not like I can withdraw it."

"You can always decline," I pointed out. "Look, don't worry about that. You can bunk at my place for a couple days, Mum won't mind. Just try and…well, sort yourself out I guess. We still have school tomorrow."

"We?" repeated Kaylie. "You missed three weeks worth of exams. You've more or less flunked, you know."

I shrugged. "There's more to life than college," I pointed out. "There's vampires, and family, and love and friendship," I garbled on. "And, you know. Being a wolf."

"Yeah, the wolf part's pretty cool," said Kaylie, her voice drifting. "Night, Seth."

I'll tell her tomorrow, I thought as I stood up, leaned down and scooped her into my arms. I walked into the house and upstairs as quietly as I could, putting her down on my bed and tucking the blankets around her. Mum would figure out what was going on, and if not, Leah would tell her.

I went back outside and phased, running to Sam's. There was going to be hell to pay from my alpha.

XxX

*****

I woke up, feeling a little dizzy, and rolled over, looking at the digital alarm clock on my bedside table. 11? Already? What the…

I was in Seth's bed. He'd probably dumped me here after I'd fallen asleep on his lawn last night.

I shuddered. Last night. I'd call Dad, and tell him I was alright, tell him where I was. Clearwater was right – I needed the time to think through…

I looked back at the bedside table. There were three pictures, but the one that caught my eye was the one of me and him outside my house.

It was sweet, how he kept the picture right next to his bed. He'd told me I was his best friend outside of the pack, and I honestly had felt honoured at that.

But maybe it was best that he didn't know that that picture was my computer's wallpaper.

*****

I walked inside the house to smell eggs frying and I could hear Mum, Leah and Kaylie moving around the kitchen. When I walked in, though, it was Mum and Leah sitting down at the dining table and Kaylie at the stove.

"You're cooking breakfast?" I asked as I sat down next to Leah. For some reason I had the strongest impulse to walk up to Kaylie, wrap my arms around her and plant a kiss on her lips. I realised that the image was in sync with how Sam greeted Emily, and how Jared greeted Kim, each morning.

"Actually," said Kaylie as she served the food out on three plates, "I'm cooking lunch. And I didn't make any for you, shapeshifter," she added as she served the plates up on the table, "So you can eat mine or wait for more."

"Nah," I replied nonchalantly, "I ate at Emily's." The smell of the eggs was making my mouthwater. "Besides, I couldn't eat your food. You need it more than I do." It was true, too. In the light of the kitchen I could see how pale she looked, and she seemed skinnier than normal. Or maybe that was just me paired with the paranoia of the imprint.

To my surprise Kaylie didn't argue, but sat down and started eating with my sister and my mother.

I walked to the fridge, pulling out some sausages wrapped in tin foil, and put them in the microwave to heat up. I grabbed a bottle of orange juice and chugged the whole thing down, before pulling the sausages out, smothering them in tomato sauce, and shoving the sausages in my mouth.

From across the table, my mum frowned. "Seth, have a little more decorum." Leah snorted. "Mum, he has the best table manners out of the whole pack. Except for me," she added. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was the food in my mouth… and the girl sitting to the left of me. I watched Kaylie eat and she wasn't wolfing it down, but cutting it into tiny, perfectly-shaped pieces and eating it piece by piece.

I swallowed. "Kay, do you have to eat so slowly?" She flashed me a smile, but kept eating at her excruciatingly slow pace.

When Mum was done she went back into the laundry to do the washing. The phone rang and Leah, with surprising speed, sprinted out of the kitchen to answer it. I looked at Kaylie, but she hadn't noticed anything.

Leah walked in with the phone in her hand. "Seth? It's for you."

I frowned, wondering who would call me. The pack didn't normally use phones to talk, usually just dropping in at each other's houses, it was easy enough. I took the phone out of Leah's hand.

"Hello, Seth Clearwater speaking."

"Hello, Seth." The voice had the smooth and velvet texture that could belong to only one person.

"Hello, Edward."