Hey guys, hope you like this chapter, from here things are really going to start to pick up, so I hope you like it.

Please let me know what you think.

Chapter Ten- Come Away With Me

Nola

It had been almost three months since the trip to Seattle.

For a while things had been a little weird.

I think we were both just trying too hard to make everything so, not-weird, that they ended up being just that, if you get what I mean.

That night we'd driven back relatively peacefully.

After all that had been said back in the parking lot at the movie theatre, neither of us had much left to say. For the first hour or so of the trip back we sat in silence.

It was a comfortable silence, though. It wasn't awkward, not strained. We both just seemed to be comfortable in our own thoughts.

We'd spent the remaining part of the trip just having small conversations every now and then about nothing in particular. And then, before I knew it, we were pulling up outside my house and he was hugging me goodbye.

That night as I lay in bed, I'd felt quite optimistic about everything. It seemed that, despite the shittyness of the situation, we'd both decided to be mature about it. And, most importantly, we were still going to be friends.

Just a few days later school started up again.

Everything continued as normal, but, like I said, for a couple weeks everything did feel a little awkward. Maybe it was that we felt like we had gotten so close, that it was weird to be back in front of the world at school again. I didn't know, but I just kept on going with the usual routine, and, after a while, things seemed to sort themselves out.

Don't get me wrong, my feelings towards him haven't changed. And now that he knew how I felt I'd had to be even less conspicuous with my ogling.

But still, every now and again, one of us would catch the other out.

Or our eyes would meet, and just linger there for a little longer than normal, each of us knowing that, at that moment we were both feeling the same thing.

It was hard. Really, hard.

Way harder than before, because now, I didn't just think it was some ridiculous school girl crush. I'd always been convinced that it was embarrassing and one sided, but now that I knew he felt that way too, it was harder than ever to be 'just friends'.

But, as always it was better than nothing. I could go to school knowing that I'd see him everyday, and that was enough.

I seriously could hardly believe the point in the year we'd gotten to. It was almost April already, which meant I was getting scarily close to graduating.

For over a year now, I'd been thinking and talking about the whole college thing. At first, I was all for it, it just seemed like the natural course of action. But after a while I'd sort of realized that I really didn't feel ready. I didn't have any real immediate desire to go, and it wasn't that I wasn't a studious person. I mean, I did pretty well at school. But really, I didn't really know for sure what I was interested in. I felt like I wanted to experience stuff for real. I wanted to really see the world, to live for a bit before I made my life decisions. I thought this logic was a little immature and stupid, but when I finally go the courage to talk to mom and Pete about it, they'd been surprisingly cool.

Mom had never gone to college herself, and despite things going well for her, she'd always been really strong willed about me and Jordan getting a proper education.

But, as she'd said, she knew me well, and knew that I would go to college eventually I just didn't want to go right away.

Pete, himself had taken a year off before he'd gone, and he'd wound up a lawyer, so it wasn't as though I was taking the loser's route, I just wanted a bit of time.

So it had been decided that I would wait for one year. I would have an off year, where I could, live, work, move around, do whatever, before deciding on a major and going back to the books.

It was, to me the first plan that I'd been happy about. I was a pro-active person, so I trusted myself not to get caught up in a rut.

At some point, I planned to go and spend a few months in a foreign country, either Europe or South America, and learn the culture and language. That was something I'd always wanted to do, and both mom and Pete had been really encouraging about doing that type of thing while I was young.

For the last few months time just really seemed to have gotten ahead of me. I guess I'd just gone about everything in such a methodical way, just taking everything one day at a time, that I'd actually surprised myself with how many of those days had passed.

Kiera took me by surprise one afternoon, saying, "So have you thought about what you're going to be doing for Spring break?"

I had hardly realized it was even coming up, but then I clicked, if today was March 25, then Spring break was only like a week away.

"Oh, um, not really, you?"

"Going away with the family, unfortunately," she said with a sigh, "A bunch of people are heading down to California, which I'd love to join in on, but my mom won't let me out of our little trip. So I'll be road tripping with my parents and little brother to my Aunt's place in Michigan."

"yeah, I guess I'll just hang out, ya know, enjoy a bit of freedom for a few days," I said.

That night, in a weird coincidence, I got a call from Jordan.

We'd usually talk on the phone every now and then, so hearing from him wasn't exactly anything new, but his reason for calling was.

"So listen, we were thinking that you should definitely come down here during your spring break" He said almost immediately after I answered the phone.

"We won't actually be on vacation, our spring break was last week, but we could still hang out when we don't have classes, and I could show you around campus and everything, and, ya know, you could meet Isla." He said, with obvious enthusiasm.

I was immediately eager to go. But I didn't see how he thought I could, considering I didn't have a car, and wasn't really a confident driver anyhow.

"Jordan, that sounds awesome, but, I mean, how would I get there, and what would I do by myself while you guys are in class or whatever?" I asked skeptically.

"Thought of it." He said, cockily, obviously having pretty much planned this conversation before calling me up, "You're not getting out of it that easily, slick. Isn't it obvious? Don't come alone." He said, as though having just solved the crisis of world famine.

"What do you mean, I mean who should I bring?"

"You sure are a quick one, Nole. You'll bring the teacher of course."

For about a split second I thought it was a ridiculous idea. But then I thought about it. I mean, we did go to seattle together, and we were really good friends, I'm sure he'd be keen to go with me. Maybe Jordan had a point.

After I'd been silent for a while he went on.

"I know, you don't have to say it, I'm brilliant. I mean I've given you some more time with your…whatever. And there's the added bonus of you getting to see me. It's a perfect plan."

"Um, but I mean what about mom? I really don't want to lie to her again."

He was quiet for a while, as he thought it over.

"Well, he said, "why don't you tell her about him, even tell her his age if you want, I don't think she'll really have a problem with that part, I mean you'll be nineteen in August anyways. But maybe leave out the fact that he's your teacher, and that you're into him. Just say, he's a friend, and he's got a car, and he's taking you to see your darling brother"

He finished with a flourish.

He really did have a point, and the plan seemed pretty good.

After we said goodbye I thought about it a lot more.

I didn't really see why it wouldn't work out. It'd be a lot of fun, I mean, I guess we could just stay in motel or whatever, which might be a little bit weird, but then, it didn't have to be, I guess.

If we just carried on like we had been, there'd be no reason for it to be awkward or weird. Afterall, we were friends.

So walking to school the next day, I decided to ask him.

We were about five minutes away, and I resolved to just come out with it.

"Um, so Brady, I was talking to my brother on the phone last night, and he invited me to go visit him at Berkely over spring break"

"Oh, cool, that'll be fun" He replied, smiling.

"Yeah, but, so listen, I don't have car, and it wouldn't be much fun to go alone anyway so…well…I was wondering, would you maybe want to come with me?"

I studied his face while I asked the question. I'd been terrified he'd say no, I don't really know why, I just had this ominous feeling like maybe he'd reject it.

But it was impossible to miss the obvious excitement on his face, at me asking.

"Yeah, yeah, definitely, I mean, you really want me to go?"

"Absolutely, it'll be fun"

"Cool, yeah, thanks, it'll be awesome" He said happily, nodding his head.

I felt extremely elated, and now that it was in the works, incredibly excited. It would be awesome to see Jordan, and I really did want to meet Isla, as well as the fact that going with Brady meant that I could not wait.

Brady

I could hardly believe it, this time tomorrow I would be in Berkeley, with Nola. I wasn't even trying to contain my excitement, something which had earned me much ridicule from the guys in the past few hours.

I had everything I needed (which wasn't much, considering my wardrobe consisted of a few pairs of shorts and several interchangeable t-shirts) packed and ready to go.

I'd had the car checked over at Embry and Quil's place again yesterday, just to be on the safe side. Embry shook his head at me, well used to over-protective imprinted guys by now, whereas Quil could most definitely empathize.

I could hardly believe this was all even going ahead. We were planning on leaving from her place at seven am, nice and early to get on the road.

I'd booked us two singles at a Best Western in Berkeley that wasn't too far from campus. It wouldn't exactly be flash, but it'd do.

Five whole days with Nola. This was better than I ever could have hoped for.

I could hardly believe it had been like, over six months since I'd met her. Back then, I would have never thought that we could have been this good of friends, without being, something more. Especially not six months in.

But somehow I'd managed it, and I was determined to keep out friendship strong.

The other day I'd gone round to her place to meet her mom.

Her step dad wasn't home, but her mom seemed really cool about everything.

Nola warned me before the visit that she had sort of deliberately left out the detail about me being her teacher, she'd just said that we'd met through some mutual friends or something. I think her mom, who'd insisted I call her Paula, had found it hard to believe we were really just friends. But if she had her doubts, she didn't voice them, and she was still letting Nola and me go away together, which in my book was very cool of her.

The next morning I woke up around six, and showered quickly before throwing on my clothes for the day- some cut off jean shorts and a blue t-shirt, before I went to grab a quick breakfast in the kitchen.

I got everything ready and loaded into the car before heading off to pick up Nola.

I pulled up outside her house right on time, and practically skipped up the cobbled path to her front door.

I was well aware it was early in the morning, so debated for a second whether or not I should knock, just in case her parents were sleeping. I didn't have to dispute long though, because right then, Nola opened the front door, ready to step out.

"Oh," she laughed, surprised to find herself inches away from my face.

"Hey" I said, smiling down at her. God, she was cute, I thought, as she blushed and stepped back.

"Ready to go?" I asked, enthusiastically.

"Absolutely."

We got into the car and got straight on the road. We had a long trip to make, and probably wouldn't arrive until tonight, anyway.

She sat next to me, in the passenger seat, looking like utter perfection in a simple plain white t-shirt and tight jeans. Always with the figure hugging clothes! Was she trying to do me in?

"It's so cool you're gonna meet Jordan," she said perkily, "I think you guys'll get on great. It's kind of weird to think that you're like, the same age as he is, but he's still in college and everything- but I mean, you started earlier right? Because you got your GED?"

"Very good." I joked. "So you really do listen to what I say, here I thought you just hung around me for my obvious good looks."

She laughed her amazing musical laugh. "Oh, no, you should know by now, I just hang around for the free car rides, if anything- but I figured, I better lay some ground work first, ya know."

We carried on chatting and joking away for the first couple hours of the journey, which went by quickly, taking me by surprise when I realized it was past ten am.

At that point we were driving through some small township, and I noticed a sign for a gas station up ahead.

"Okay, snacks stop," I said cheerfully, pulling in.

We both got out of the car and raided the place, stocking up on chips, chocolate, and a bunch of other candy for the rest of the trip.

I grabbed us a couple of cokes, and paid for it all, before we returned to the car.

We snacked and joked for the next couple of hours, listening to some good music and having a cool time.

Next to me in the seat she busted open a big bag of milk duds, one of my favorites.

"Could you ever do that thing where you.." she said, as she threw a milk dud into the air, attempting to catch it in her mouth.

She'd thrown it directly above her face and tilted her head upwards to catch it, only to have it fall down, hitting her straight in the face. She laughed, her face adorably scrunched up as it hit her.

"Okay, okay, bow down to the master." I said, feigning cockiness, "Prepare to be schooled"

"Okay then, master" she laughed, sarcastically.

"Seriously, I don't think you've come to terms with what a fine art this is, let me show you how it's done. Hit me." I said.

Giggling, she threw a milk dud into the air, as I took my eyes off the road to face her, watching the dud soar through the air, and opening my mouth to catch it at the perfect moment.

I gave her a smug grin afterwards.

She laughed, "I'm very impressed."

Later, we stopped in Portland, Oregon, and grabbed some fast food to eat for lunch on the road.

The drive was long enough, so we didn't want to have to make many long stops. People would think I was crazy for making the drive in a day, but when you patrolled all night, you learned to stay alert, no matter how tired you were. Besides, with my wolf senses, I seriously doubted I'd ever get in an accident, which meant I could drive just a little faster than usual, as well.

By six that night we were a couple of hours away from our destination. We'd made good time, and had been in the car all day, so I didn't blame Nola for being exhausted. She was now sleeping peacefully beside me.

With her asleep, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the road at all.

She looked so god damn beautiful. Her face completely relaxed, her full, pale pink lips curled upwards slightly. She looked so comfortable, so content and happy.

As I drove on, trying to remind myself the reasons why we couldn't be together, I was taken by surprise at the sound of my name.

At first, I thought she had woken up, but the way she said it should have told me that she wasn't.

As I turned my head to face her, confused, she did it again.

"…Brady.." she sighed, in a quiet voice, higher and slightly different to her usual one. I then realized that she was talking in her sleep.

She looked so happy.

An indescribable feeling of warmth spread through me, I felt illuminated at the sound.

She was dreaming about me.

She was dreaming about me, and, from the look on her face, it was a good dream.