Phases
Chapter Ten

I stared at Jared, positive that a mixture of disbelief and confusion was planted on my face.

Maybe I hadn't heard him right; did he really ask me to—

"Go cliff diving?" I repeated slowly. "Like... we jump. Off cliffs."

"Yeah, why not?" he replied, looking past me where I'm sure he wanted us to jump and fall into the ocean. "It'll be freaking awesome; the guys and I do it all the time."

Did he realize... "My wrist," I said, holding it up as a reminder. "The doctor told me no strenuous activity, and I'm positive that jumping off a forty-foot ledge is one of them."

"Well," he began rather sheepishly, avoiding my eyes, "you don't necessarily have to jump. I could, um, hold you..." He then added quickly, "If that's okay, of course. I mean, I'm sure if you just... curled your hand into your chest then it wouldn't be too bad, right? I'll be taking most of the impact anyway."

I had unknowingly tuned him out after Jared said he would hold me.

Did he know how much I weighed? Well, I didn't know how much I weighed but him holding me was... completely out of the question. What if I ended up heavier than he thought? I would slowly but surely die of mortification. Especially if he struggled to keep me in his arms... god. Everything that could go wrong flashed through my mind, and I could feel my insides churn at the thought of it.

Jared must have seen my grimace because his expression fell.

"Ah, never mind. It was a stupid idea," he said, forcing out a chuckle. "It's just that cliff diving really gives you that rush of adrenaline, and I thought we could, you know, do it... together. But it was a dumb idea, I should have thought it through. We can do something else."

"I would love to go cliff diving," I assured quickly - too quickly. "Just... some other time. Like, maybe when I'm not wearing this, uh, thing. Or you know, if we're still—"

I paused, not sure if I should finish the sentence— could finish the sentence. But Jared seemed like he knew where my thoughts were headed because in that second he grabbed my good hand, effortlessly making me blush for the nth time that day, and looked straight into my eyes. Usually at this point I would have averted my gaze, especially since I can't maintain eye contact with anyone to save my life, but something kept my eyes glued to his.

"Of course we'll still be friends," he said earnestly. Then his brows furrowed, something I realized that he did often around me. "Unless you don't want to..."

He frowned.

It took me a while to get the hint that that was my cue to reassure him.

"I'll always want to be friends with you," I replied with a little too much enthusiasm. I mentally berated myself for sounding so pathetic.

"Good." He smiled, looking more relieved and less edgy than he did before. "So... no cliff diving, right?"

"Right. For now," I confirmed. "We could always... take a walk? Wait, never mind. You're probably sick of walking."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I mean, you're always patrolling right? I didn't notice any cars so I just assumed..."

"Oh, right. Well you er, get used to it," Jared said, not sounding at all sure of himself. "It gets relaxing after a while, and my pa—friends are always with me."

"That's good," I commented, discreetly trying to pull my hand away from his - not that I didn't like it or anything. Just that his hand was blazing with heat, which in turn made my hand start to sweat... "Do you guys spend a lot of time tog—"

.

I felt Jared stiffen beside me before my mind registered that he had all but grabbed me by my waist and hoisted me into his arms. Still shocked to do anything, I remained still - my mind still grasping onto the fact that Jared had lifted me like it was nothing - and stared at my crush as he basically ran across the field back to Emily's house, snarling while he did so. They were harsh sounds and growls that were rumbling from deep within his chest, sounding animalistic and not at all human, and for the first time—I was terrified.

It didn't help that his eyes were everywhere, as if scanning the area for potential attacks despite the fact that he seemed to be going a hundred miles per second (Okay, I was exaggerating - but still). Jared's paranoia and the way his nails were slightly digging into my skin signaled that I should be scared absolutely shitless, but his uneasiness overruled my terror and I felt myself wanting to comfort him.

And somehow find it in myself to keep the queasiness at bay so I could at least ask him what was wrong. But as fate would have it, Jared refused to look at me, choosing to keep his attention on every little movement and noise.

So I kept my mouth shut throughout the short trip until we - finally - reached Emily's.

When we reached the house, all of his friends were waiting outside on the porch, as if they sensed Jared's distress. He had switched to walking as Emily and Sam's home came into view, but his tight and protective grip on me didn't lessen any. As we finally made our way onto their yard, Jared let out a puff of air through his nose, and looked down at me.

"Kim!" Emily shouted from her front door, waving for me. "Why don't we start on dinner while the boys talk?" She looked at Jared, sending him a look. "Jared?"

He reluctantly let me go, setting me down on my feet, a rush of dizziness passing through me until I managed to stand upright without feeling the least bit intoxicated. I opened my mouth to say something - anything - but the tension in the air forced me to stay silent and follow Emily into her home.

Jared's eyes never left my back until I was safely inside.

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"So," Emily started, attempting to distract me from the current situation, "what did you two end up doing?"

Too focused on making out the conversation outside, her voice sounded muffled and distant.

I craned my neck, hoping it would somewhat help.

.

.

"Fuck Sam, she was there."

"Jared, you need to calm down."

"Where did you smell the leech?"

"North." I heard a growl, instantly recognizing it as Jared's. "God damn it, I shouldn't have been so distracted. Kim could have—"

.

.

"Kim?"

"Uh, yes?" I replied, startled. What were they arguing about?

"What did you guys end up doing?" Emily asked again, not the least bit annoyed at my lack of attention.

"Oh. Jared suggested cliff diving, but you know..." I trailed off, biting my lip. After a moment of hesitation, I decided to ask the question that had been nagging at me for quite some time. "Emily, what's a leech?"

If I hadn't been staring so intently at her, I wouldn't have noticed the way she froze. Emily then tried to play it off by continuing to stir the large bowl of cracked eggs, taking her time to answer. If she was going to answer.

"I—well..." She paused, contemplating. For a few moments, only the sound of her stirring and the hushed voices outside were all there was. "Maybe you should ask Jared when he comes back."

For some reason, I wasn't particularly satisfied.

"But he's busy," I reasoned, handing her the butter and earning a small thanks in return. "Can't you tell me yourself?"

"It's not my place," she said, her brows knitting together. "I'm positive if there's anything - anything at all - that you want to know, the best person to ask would be Jared."

I didn't want to push Emily for more information, seeing as how she seemed uncomfortable, so I let it drop. But it was strange, what exactly did Jared and the rest of the group do? I never questioned it before, satisfied with the fact that they were doing the community a huge favor by protecting us from any type of danger. But there were rarely any crimes on the Reservation, especially since we've all known each other for the majority of our lives.

Any type of robbery or small feud usually only happened when folks from out of town were visiting. Not to mention, they were always rambling about some "leech" that were crossing their territory. If I remembered correctly, Jared had almost let the word slip when he used it to describe Dr. Cullen down in Forks.

It might have been just a derogatory term... but did these certain type of people have a certain stench to them? It really made no sense. Before I could think about it any further, the shrill ringing of the phone snapped me out of my thoughts as I watched Emily drop her spatula to answer it.

"Hello?"

I moved my gaze down to the table, absent-mindedly picking at the crumbs and waiting to ask Emily a few more questions to satisfy my curiosity. I immediately knew something was wrong when I heard her gasp, covering her mouth in shock. At that exact moment, the rest of the group barged into the room, Sam plowing through the large bodies to get to his wife who stood there, a look of absolute despair on her face.

"Em, what is it?" Sam asked, pulling her into his arms.

She looked up at him, reluctantly pulling the phone away from her ear.

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"Harry Clearwater had a heart attack," she said finally, choking back a sob. "He's in the hospital."

Author's Note: Yes, I know... short chapter. Extremely short compared to my past ones, but what can you do. I needed a good transition before the plot takes a turn, and writing everything into one would be... too long. I actually had to re-read New Moon because I forgot what happened during this time period, but I think it was a wasted effort because things will be slightly out of order anyway.

But thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!