Chapter 11

Bex POV

"THERE YOU ARE BEX!" Tawny yelled excitedly when I reached the beach a couple minutes later. I let go of Paul's hand and took off towards her - my first friend here in Washington. She threw her arm around me in a hug, but in our current state, it almost knocked us over. So we stumbled around drunkenly, giggling like crazy. We almost fell - that would have been so embarrassing. Thankfully we somehow remained on our feet.

"Woooow. It's so pretty out here!" I gasped once I'd gained my balance back. I'd finally taken a look at the beach. It had stopped raining for the moment, and you could see the stars twinkling, and the moon was reflecting off the water. It was beyond gorgeous.

All the alcohol I'd drank must have made me reckless, because the next thing I knew I was sprinting out towards the water.

"BEX! COME BACK! It's probably freezing!" Tawny yelled after me. I could tell she was laughing her ass of at my craziness though.

But she was right. That water was COLD! I couldn't hold back a little girly squeal when my toes first touched it. I don't know why I kept going. I just wanted to keep on, be a part of that beautiful scenery I guess…or maybe I was just drunk.

Yeah, probably the second one.

I started playing this little game with myself where every time a wave would reach me, I'd jump. I don't know why - it just seemed really fun at the time, throwing my head back and giggling up at the moon.

I think the liquor was helping block some of the cold, or at least it helped me not to notice it so much. On a normal day, I don't think I could have stood even going up to my ankles when It was this cold out, but now I went all the way up to my knees, just wadding around and turning in circles, waving to my fellow party-goes back on shore and throwing my head back in laughter when they waved back.

Paul was yelling after me as well, but I don't think he found it nearly as funny as everyone else did.

"Bex! Come ON! Its twenty degrees outside! You're gonna get sick!" He hollered. Tawny was cackling along, beside herself with amusement, but Paul looked really serious.

But God, it's just so beautiful out here at night. This view alone might be worth moving here. And I felt so alive. I turned away from the shore to watch the moon reflect off the water some more. The crazy hyper energy that had led me out here had disappeared, leaving me feeling oddly peaceful. Like I was at one with the universe or something. I stretched my arms out to the sky, trying to soak up this moment.

It was then that I heard splashing from behind me. I turned to find Paul wading his way through the water, not looking the least bit amused. In fact, he looked pretty annoyed.

"PAUL!" I screeched. Sloshing my way through the water towards him. Is it just me? Or is Paul reeeeeally good looking? I gave him a huge smile – for some reason really excited that he'd followed me out here. I threw myself on him as soon as I was close enough, wrapping my arms around him in the tightest, most exuberant hug I could manage.

His expression wavered for a second, like he was trying to stay stern looking, but a responding smile leaked out before he could stop it. He gave up trying to school himself, sighed, and shook his head at me before giving me a good smile and chuckling a little bit.

Dang he's good looking. My heart leaped, and then started beating overtime when I felt his arms snake gently around my waist and pull me close, hugging me back.

"Hi." I murmured against his shoulder.

"Hi." He said softly back.

We didn't say anything else for a while. We just stood there and he just held me, and it felt soooo great.

Man, he's a really good hugger. Like, really good. I could just stand here cuddling with him forever, never mind the fact that I barely know this guy and were standing in the middle of the ocean and there's about fifteen people standing back on the beach watching us. I don't care. He's really strong, and cute, and warm! Gosh, so warm! Or maybe I'm just really cold...I am standing knee deep in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of winter in what could quite possibly be the least warm dress ever...

Either way, Paul seemed warm to me, and it made me realize how cold I was. But that just gave me another excuse to cuddle up closer to Paul.

I couldn't feel my toes anymore - but what did that really matter when Paul is holding me like this?

My nose was getting pretty cold to, but I could do something about that: I stretched up onto my tippy-toes and laid my head against his shoulder, turning so that my nose rested where his shoulder meets his collar bone. It was nice and warm there.

"Your cold." Paul whispered.

Yeah, I was, but I didn't want to admit it and have this intense, yet oddly perfect moment end. So I shook my head no, like I wasn't. But he didn't believe me.

"Yeah, you are." He said, more firmly this time, and he started moving, pulling away a little. Dang it. "Come on, let's get you outa here."

He grabbed my hand and started trying to walk me back to the shore, but I wasn't having any of that. I didn't wanna go back.

"Noooo." I moaned, planting my feet and trying to pull him back towards me.

"Yes, come on. You've gotta go warm up." He said in a gentle, patient voice. He pulled on my arm again, and this time I stumbled forward a few steps before regaining my balance.

"Nooooo. I don't wanna go back. I wanna stay out here. With you." I half begged, pulling on his arm, but he didn't budge an inch. His lips turned up in a little smile though. He'd liked the way that sounded, I guess. I did to. But it didn't change his mind. He just did that sexy low chuckle that guys do sometimes, then continued hauling me towards the beach. And I kept on resisting and almost falling over.

"Come. ON. You're shaking like a leaf. This can't be good for you. You're gonna catch your death!" The longer I resisted, the more annoyed and concerned Paul seemed to get. But I still didn't want to go in yet.

"NO." I said firmly. I guess Paul had finally had enough though because, before I could even react, Paul had leaned down and reached his hand under the water, wrapping his arm around my leg, picking me up and hauling me over his shoulder. Then he proceeded to haul me all the way back to the beach with me half fighting and half laughing the whole way.

He gently sat me down a couple of yards away from all the rest of the party goers on the beach and told me to stay and that he'd be right back. And I actually listened to him for some reason. Maybe it's because he'd already won the battle by getting me back to shore...and I really was cold. And I couldn't feel my extremities anymore…

In any case, the only light on the beach was coming from the moon, so it was kind of hard to see and Paul disappeared from sight pretty quickly. So then I was just sitting there, with my knees pulled up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, trying to warm up.

I kind of got bored after a second though. I looked over to the group of party goers off to my left. I thought about getting up to join them but, Paul had told me to stay here...

After a second, a couple of figures that I couldn't quite make out detached from the group and made their way over to me. When they got closer, I recognized them: Tawny. And Haley Cuntner was walking next to her looking annoyed. She kept glancing back over her shoulder like she really hadn't wanted to leave the group at all. So why did she then? Ugh!

"TAWNY!" I greeted enthusiastically, throwing my arms wide to signal I wanted a hug. I didn't stand up though, so she plopped down next to me on the ground to give me a hug.

"Heeeey! Enjoy your swim?" She slurred a little bit.

I giggled and nodded my head, and she giggled back, and before I knew it we were both laughing. Like, legitimately, clutching our sides, hardcore laughing. I don't even know what about...probably nothing. We were just really happy drunks I guess. We trailed off and calmed down after a minute though.

Meanwhile, Haley was just standing next to us, with this rude look on her face and her arms crossed. Even though I really didn't like her, I decided to be nice and tell her hi. Especially because she'd been left out of Tawny and my little laugh-fest a second ago. So I pulled a polite smile on my face and turned to her.

"Hey Haley." I greeted.

"Yeah." She just brushed me of, not even looking at me, just looking out across the ocean and rolling her eyes, like word I uttered annoyed her to no end.

Ugh. Rude.

That's what I get for being nice to if I ever do it again!

Tawny caught my eye and pulled a face, which set me and her off laughing again.

And that's how Paul found me when he came back a second later.

"HEYYYY! YOU'RE BACK!" I slurred when I saw him.

I noticed Haley turning out of the corner of my eye, looking to see who I was talking too probably, noisy b-, and her eyes widened when she noticed how buff and tall and hot and generally perfect Paul is. This stupid a- smile worked its way on her face that she probably meant to be alluring, and she reached up and started twirling a lock of her hair around her finger.

Have I mentioned I don't like her?

But never mind. I stopped paying attention to her, because Paul was talking now.

"Haha, yeah." He chuckled. "Here." He said, gently tossing some stuff I hadn't even noticed he'd been holding my way. Hey! It was my jacket and boots! Aww. He'd gotten my stuff for me! "I got your stuff for you. It's probably not going to warm you up much, but..." He shrugged, as if saying it's the best he could do...which it kind of was. I gave him a big smile in thanks, and started pulling my stuff on.

"Your phone was in your boot." He continued. Oh thank Goodness! I'd forgotten about that! Good thing it hadn't fallen out when I'd ripped my boots off and tossing them around earlier. Thank God for small miracles! I reached out my hand to take it, but he pulled it out of my reach. "No way, I'm not giving it back to you now. You'll just loose it again!" He laughed, slipping it into his pocket.

"Fair point." I said.

"Come on," Paul said reaching out a hand and helping me stand. "Let's get out of here." He put his arm around my shoulder and made to usher me away, but Tawny stopped him.

"Whoa there speed racer!" She said in her no-nonsense tone of voice as she lurched to her feet. "Just where do you think you're taking her, mister." She walked right up to Paul and poked him in the chest.

I couldn't help but laugh, even though Tawny was just trying to be a good friend. I mean, for all she knew, this could be the first I'd ever seen of Paul. And she wasn't gonna let me go off with just anyone - even if she was drunk off her ass, she still cared. And I appreciated that, but it was just so funny to see Tawny (who was only a couple of inches taller than I am) standing up to Paul the muscle man himself.

Paul seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me, but he hadn't had nearly as much to drink as I had, so he managed to keep his composure. All he did was raise an eyebrow.

"Party's over for us, I'm afraid. Bex needs to go get warm and sleep off all this alcohol. She can't just keep walking around after jumping in the ocean like that, when it's this cold out." Paul reasoned.

"I agree." Tawny said, without a single slur. She almost seemed sober right about now. "But I don't know you. I'm not about to let you take my friend God knows where to do God knows what. Not uh, no way. Especially when she's so out of it." She put her hands on her hips and stared him down.

Aw! She called me her friend! And she's standing up for me! I'm touched! "Aw! Tawney!" I squealed as I rushed forward to hug her. Her heart was in the right place, even though I felt totally safe with Paul and would probably follow him to the worlds end. Tawny was being a really good friend, and I wanted her to know I appreciated it.

Tawny hugged me back, and stuck her tongue out at Paul as though my hug had meant she'd won the argument.

"She needs to get out of here." Paul insisted. "I know she came here with you guys, and it's obvious you're not ready to leave yet, so it just seems easier that I take her. I've hardly had anything to drink yet - I'm not even buzzed, so I'm still good to drive." He reasoned.

"Oh, come on!" Haley came forward and spoke for the first time. "Let Bex go with her super-hot new friend." She slurred. She winked at Paul, and it annoyed the crap out of me, so I sent a glare her way. "So, are you that Quileute cousin Bex has told us so much about?"

Yeah, if by 'so much about' you mean just mentioning that I have a Quileute cousin. Dumb b-.

"No." Paul said gruffly. Is it bad that it made me happy that he's so obviously annoyed by Haley? Maybe he's just annoyed that she's over here trying to flirt with him when he's just trying to get me home...Whatever...I don't care.

Tawny, however, just totally ignored Haley and the fact that she couldn't seem care less if I went home with some strange guy - beyond the joy she'd get from spreading rumors about it at school on Monday that is. Tawny continued on with her suspicions of Paul.

Tawny squinted up at him, as though she could see everything she needed to know about him just by looking hard enough. "Who are you?" She demanded. "And what are you gonna do with Bex?" She finished suspiciously.

"I'm Paul. Paul Lahote. I'm really good friends with that cousin of hers. His names Jacob Black. I don't know if you've met him yet. I think he's here tonight...I live here on the rez..." He trailed off awkwardly and sent her a questioning look, as though asking if that was enough of an introduction. I don't know what Tawny's expression was like, but it couldn't have been that bad because he continued on to the next question. "So...yeah, next question...Well, I can't take her to her house, 'cause she's completely wasted, and I don't think her dad would like that..." I nodded. He spoke the truth. "So I'll take her to Jakes..." This last part came out as more of a question though.

"Is this true?" Tawny asked turning to me. "Do you know this guy? Do you trust him?"

I took a moment to consider it. "Yeah." I said, then turned and looked straight at Paul. "I trust him."

Paul smiled that gorgeous crooked smile of his, and looked as though I'd just made his entire life.

"Okay then...I guess it's alright..." Tawny said, still seeming a little unsure. But as long as I was okay with it, I guess she was onboard.

"Here, let me just text your dad for you real quick." Paul said, pulling my phone out of his pocket. "I'll tell him you met up with Jake and decided to spend the night at his." His fingers flew quickly over the keys.

"You think of everything." I slurred. "He's amaaaaazing. And you're a good friend" I turned and said to Tawny, pulling her in another hug.

She threw back her head and laughed, but hugged me back. "Yep, you're drunk alright." She said, and then passed me over to Paul, who wrapped his hand around the top of my arm to help me balance. And he had the biggest smile on his face...oh yeah, I'd just called him amazing. Well, in my defense, he is.

"Wait!" Tawny shrieked when Paul made to lead me off. We looked up to find Tawny's phone aimed at us. I hadn't even processed this before a flash went off from it, blinding me...she'd taken a picture of us. She turned her phone around so we could see the picture and watch her save it. "I'll send it to the police if anything happens to Bex." She threatened.

Paul didn't seem the least bit offended. It actually kind of seemed like he appreciated Tawny worrying about me so much. "Don't worry. She'll be fine. Nothing will happen. She'll call you tomorrow." He assured her, then he grabbed my arm and started leading me away again - successfully this time. Well, semi-successfully at least. I kept tripping and stumbling around, and I guess Paul gave up on me making it all the way to where ever we were going in one piece, because after only about a minute or so he swooped me up in those big strong arms of his and carried me back all the way to where his truck was parked - on the other side of the party house.

He pulled the keys out of his pocket, unlocking it, and opening the door for me - all without setting me down. And it didn't even seem to be a struggle. Man, the boy is ripped!

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