Disclaimer: No recognisable characters, settings, etc are owned by me.
A/N: Most of this was written in an air-port, at about 3am my time, having sat in Melbourne Airport for the last 9 hours, so I am just hoping it makes sense, let alone is grammatically correct. Please ignore any errors, and I will try to fix them up after I get home.
Chapter 10
"Wakey, wakey. Come on, you know you want to wake up."
An angel's voice started drifting through my unconscious.
I opened my eyes to the most beautiful sight. In all my life, I would never get used to waking up with Kate. Never, not at all.
There is nothing more perfect in this world then having my darling as the last thing I see when I fall asleep, and the first thing I see when I wake up.
I made a vow to be sure that after high school I would marry her, wake up to this every day for the rest of my life.
"Good morning" I said, smiling up at her.
"Good morning, you in the mood for breakfast?" She asked, as she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of bed.
"Always." I replied, as I pulled on my jeans and followed her downstairs to the kitchen.
We settled down at the table with cereal. Kate was reading the paper, and I was watching her.
She looked up from the paper about half through the meal and asked,
"Hey, how did you go helping Sam last night?"
Shit! Sam! I completely forgot I was meant to return on patrol last night, I fell asleep instead.
Oh my God, he was going to kill me.
"Not good then?" She asked, smiling at the look of horror on my face.
"No, it's just that I promised him I would go back to help him, but I fell asleep.
"He'll get over it." She told me.
"I am not sure he will, I have been doing this kind of thing a lot lately." I answered.
"You fell asleep, he can't blame you for being tired." She replied.
"He will blame me. But I'll deal with him later. What's the time? Do we need to get going soon?"
She checked her phone, and gave a sheepish look.
"Yeah, we are a little late." She told me.
"How late?" I asked.
"Well, if we rush we can make it in time for second lesson." She replied.
I shook my head, and headed upstairs to find the rest of my clothes.
After we were both dressed and ready, with only minimal interruptions (which were all her fault of course, she is the one who chose to walk around in just her bra) we made it out the door off to school.
By the time she pulled her convertible into the car park, it was three quarters of the way through second period.
After she got us out of trouble easily with the teachers, we took our seats with Jared and Paul, and that's when the teasing began.
"Walk of shame!" Paul laughed, too low for anyone but myself and Jared to hear.
"Hey Embry, weren't you wearing something awfully similar yesterday? I swear I have seen that top before." Jared added.
"You must have had a pretty good night to be walking in with Kate at this hour." Paul added, before wolf whistling under his breath. (A/N no pun intended.)
I gave him a swift punch to the arm in hopes of shutting him up.
At this Kate gave me a weird look, I forgot she couldn't hear us, but shrugged, and turned her attention back to the front.
The rest of the day followed the same sort of pattern, with the guys taking the piss of me whenever they could without Kate hearing, and a lot of the rest of the school giving me strange looks, but not having the balls to actually come up and comment on my wardrobe choice for the day.
It was so nice to get to maths, where it was just the two of us at the back of the classroom.
Not long into the lecture, Kate rested her head on my shoulder. I tilted my head so it was leaning on hers.
I could feel her body move up and down with each breath, and there was something surprisingly intimate about.
"Tired?" I asked, just loud enough for her to hear.
"Yeah, heaps. And I am meant to go out this weekend. I so can't be screwed." She repsoned.
"So don't." I said, trying not to sound patronizing.
"I promised. Plus, I backed out last weekend cause of Abby's thing on Friday, and our movie night on Saturday." She told me, and I instantly felt slightly elated that she had put me before other plans, I wasn't just some last resort.
"Well there is no rule the you have to go out every weekend, surely you can take another weekend off." I tried to reason with her, truth be told I was being slightly selfish, I wanted her curled up with me all weekend.
"Not this weekend, it is my sister's weekend off, and we never get to go out together. Plus it is our friend Jess' 21st on Saturday night, so I have go with her to that too."
"If you really have to go, then I recommend you get a very good night's sleep tonight."
"Mmmm…or I could just sleep here for the rest of the lesson." She snuggled deeper into my neck, and I put my arm around her and pulled her closer.
The teacher raised her eyebrow at us, but didn't say anything, so I didn't let her go.
Too soon, the bell for next lesson rang, so we slowly got up and headed for last lesson.
"Wanna come this weekend? Chances are I could do I'm gonna need a pillow while we're out." She asked as we headed toward her locker, and my mood instantly brightened.
"Sure, where is exactly are you planning on going?" I responded, trying to keep it cool.
"Not sure yet, probably Port Angeles. Jess is having a costume party, so we will have to get you something to wear. We will probably end up staying in Port Angeles overnight, so we can pick something up for you the next day." She told me, half talking to herself as well.
"What are you wearing?" I asked, half hoping it would be something that I would have to punch every guy in the room for looking at her, and half wanting to see her in an outfit that would need me to do just that.
"It's a surprise." She smirked at me, before walking into the art room and taking a seat at our table.
"Here are our favourite couple." Seth announced as we sat down.
"Yeah, just when we thought you had ditched last lesson to have some 'couple time'" Jacob added.
The pack all burst out laughing, as did Kate, ignoring the daggers I sent their way.
"Sorry to disappoint boys, we're not a couple. We just been hanging out a lot lately." Kate responded.
I almost fell off my chair when she announced that. I thought I meant a lot more to her then just hanging out.
The guys all seemed too stunned to replies, so thankfully Kim broke the awkward silence by commenting on how much fan she had had at dinner last night.
I was pretty much silent for the rest of the class, and I think Kate picked up on it, but she didn't say anything.
What does this mean, where do we stand? I am so confused.
The final bell sounded, and we all started to pack up.
"You need a ride home?" Kate asked. I considered asking Jake or Quil for a ride, but I desperately wanted to work out where I stood.
"Yeah, that would be good thanks." I responded.
We grabbed our stuff and walked out to the car in silence.
"You okay?" She asked as soon as we were out of the car park.
"Yeah, just a bit confused." I responded, not sure how to bring it up.
Finally I just told myself to grow a pair and ask her straight out.
"What did you mean when you said we weren't a couple?" I asked, looking at her, even though she kept her eyes on the road.
She was silent for a second, then opened her mouth,
"Look… Well… I…" She fell silent again.
By this time we had pulled up out the front of mine, but I made no move to get out the car, I was going to get an answer.
She turned to face me,
"I told you from the start, I wasn't interested in a relationship. I thought you understood that."
"I do, I just…I guess I thought I meant more to you then just hanging out." I replied. I couldn't help feeling like our roles were reversed, and for some reason I was playing the chick in the relationship.
"Of course you do Embry, I just don't see the need to label it. Ok?" Her tone made it clear the conversation was over, so I turned and started to get out of the car before she called me back.
"I think you were right earlier, I really need a good night's sleep tonight. Would you mind coming over later? I always seem to sleep much better when you're around." She looked away from me when she said the last part, as if she felt ashamed or something.
I pulled my hand on her chin, and pulled her eyes back to meet mine.
"I would love to." I gave her a chaste kiss on the lips, before shutting the car door and heading inside.
Mum had left the front door unlocked again, so I headed straight in and dumped my stuff on the couch, before almost having a heart attack when I saw Sam was sitting there.
"Hi." He said, his expression unreadable, "Why don't you take a seat?"
I sat down on the coffee table facing him, surprised that I had managed to forget all about patrol when I made my plans with Kate. Then I remembered last night.
I swear, something about that girl just wipes my brain of other thoughts then her.
"Hi." I responded warily.
"I don't know where to start. You let you wolf form be seen by a human, so I gave you extra patrols. You neglected these patrols, so I threatened you with more. You then skipped all but an hours of last nights patrol, and now I hear you making other plans for tonight." He paused, and I felt the guilt and apprehension build up.
"Clearly, you do not respond well to punishment" He paused again.
I sat there staring at my feet, feeling just like the little boy who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"So I think it is time for a different approach. Authority seems to mean nothing to you, so lets try friendship." Another pause, this time I was wondering where he was going with this.
"I am removing all extra patrols that were given to you, and I will even give you this weekend off. As you friend, and as someone who knows how it feels to be young and in love, I want you to know I understand. I also want you to respect me, and do patrols now when I ask them of you. I ask as your friend, that if you do you best not to let me down again, then I will do my best to give you as much time with Kate as possible."
I sat there, stunned. I couldn't believe Sam was being so…reasonable.
"So do we have a deal?" He asked, smiling at my rare bout of speechlessness.
"Yeah absolutely." We shook hands, and he got up to leave, just as he was out the door my senses finally returned to me,
"Hey Sam…Thanks."