Quil Ateara and the Impossible Claire
Chapter Twelve: Running
Claire's POV


My second "first date" went really well. It was surprisingly normal. And uneventful in a good way. Even though Quil had said he had other plans, I still half-expected him to interfere somehow, even if he just texted me every five minutes. But he didn't do a thing. He casually asked me the next day how my date had gone, and that was it. Like it didn't even matter to him.

Another date with Tony followed, and afterwards he finally kissed me. It was sweet and awkward, and the opposite of kissing Quil. I mentally scolded myself for drawing that comparison. Tony didn't deserve that. After our third date, we actually went into a full on make out session, and it was good to feel so wanted, even if I kept second-guessing it.

The only indication Quil gave that he even had a clue that I was dating Tony was when he came over the Saturday morning following the third date. He came bounding into my room to wake me up and was leaning over me and tickling me to death when he suddenly froze. He leaned closer, causing me to freeze as well. He sniffed a couple times before straightening up and looking at me with furrowed brows.

"What?" I muttered, surprised at the sudden change in his demeanor. It was too early in the morning to decipher facial expressions.

"You smell like Tony," he replied.

"Well, I did go out with him last night."

"Right." Silence.

Add another tally mark under awkward conversations.

But other than that, he completely ignored it. Or simply didn't care. Maybe imprinting wasn't as strong as everyone seemed to think it was.

I was totally, completely cool with nonchalant Quil. It was definitely what I wanted. Definitely. Yep.

Then Carly made the comment that maybe Quil was as happy as I was to break the imprint.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

"Well, maybe he was only interested in you because he felt like he had to be," she said calmly as she brushed her hair. We were in the bathroom getting ready for school.

"And now he's happy because he's off the hook?" I asked, feeling a dark little rain cloud float into my stomach and not even knowing why.

Carly shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe. It's just something to think about. You can't not want him and then get all butt hurt at the thought of him not wanting you."

"I'm not butt hurt!" I insisted, accidentally smudging my eyeliner.

"Okay," she said. "It just seems that way."

"Well, whatever. I'm not." I fixed my eyeliner as a familiar quiet fell between my sister and I.

Carly finished getting ready before I did, as usual. She perched on the counter to wait for me. She was back to walking with me to and from school since she was single. "What do you want for your birthday?" she asked.

"My birthday is in two days and you haven't gotten me anything? I'm hurt."

"You haven't given me any ideas on what to get you, so it was kind of hard," Carly said primly.

"I don't want anything. Seriously," I said to her skeptical look. "I can't think of anything that I want."

"You aren't very helpful."

"Sorry," I said.

"Can I buy you clothes?" she asked hopefully.

"No," I replied flatly.

"Well, what do you want? Because I have to buy you something. It's your eighteenth birthday! It's an important one!"

I sighed heavily. "I don't care what you get me, Carly. You know me well enough to know what I like."

She huffed. "Fine. Auditions are today, right?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yep. After school."

"You'll do great," she said warmly before glancing at the clock on her cell phone. "Are you almost ready? We're going to be late for school."

"And that would be a tragedy," I quipped.

"You know, if you'd accept rides to school, you could take longer getting ready without having to worry about being late," she reasoned.

"When you get a driver's license, feel free to drive to school. And we won't be late, stop it."

We were late.


I felt the auditions went really well, and our drama teacher promised to have the cast list posted by October 13th – my birthday. I was hoping I'd get a good birthday surprise by being cast in the role of Maggie, the female lead.

The next two days dragged, and even though Tony, Carly, and Quil all assured me that I should stop worrying, I couldn't help it. The wait after an audition is killer. It didn't help that Quil wasn't around as much. He was always busy with Embry and Jake.


I awoke on the morning of my eighteenth birthday to Quil singing a loud, off key version of "Happy Birthday." I threw my stuffed dog Otis at him to get him to shut up, but he just sang louder. This was a yearly occurrence.

"Happy birthday, Miss Grown-up," he said after he'd finished singing and plopped down on the bed next to me.

"Yeah, I'm gonna run right out and buy porn and cigarettes," I grunted, burying my face into my pillow.

"Aw, come on, Claire. You have to be excited to be eighteen," he said, poking my side playfully.

I peeked at him and let a smile slip through. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm pretty excited."

"Good, because I'm excited and it's never as much fun when you're a downer."

"I'm never a downer."

"Right. I was thinking of someone else."

I smacked his upper arm and he acted wounded, although I think it hurt me more than him. "You can always leave," I snapped.

"Absolutely not!" he cried and gathered me into his arms. "I've been with you on every birthday since your third one. I can't ruin that streak now."

I nuzzled my nose into his neck to warm it up, temporarily forgetting the haze of awkwardness that had recently fallen over our friendship. "I should hope not," I murmured.

"Eighteen," he breathed. "I can't believe you're eighteen." He laughed quietly. "You old fart."

"You're thirty-three. You lose."

"My aging meter got busted a while back. You lose."

He rolled onto his back and I moved my head from my pillow to his chest, where I could hear his heart beating. "So when I'm, like, ninety, you'll still look like you're twenty-five?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I'll still hang out with you at the retirement center. We can play bingo," he joked.

"I'm serious," I pressed. I hadn't given his severely slowed aging much thought until now.

"Only if I never stop phasing," he said.

I frowned. "Don't you like being a wolf?"

"Sure I do. But eventually I'll retire. Sam's about to already," Quil told me.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Emily's starting to look noticeably older than him. He wants to grow old with her."

I smiled. "That's nice."

Quil said nothing else and I was just starting to doze off again when he shook me gently. "You gotta get up for school. It's a big day."

I suddenly remembered the cast list and shot upright.

"Don't make any plans tonight," Quil warned as I leapt out of bed. For once, I made it to school early.


Carly came into the acting classroom with me to see the list before class started. I saw Tony's name at the top of the list, as he'd been cast as Max, the lead. I went down one more name and saw, "Maggie – Claire Sparrow." I shrieked and started hopping up and down. Carly clapped excitedly and hugged me, and when Tony walked in a few moments later, I launched myself at him. He stumbled backwards as I threw my arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his mouth.

"I take it you got Maggie?" he asked with a laugh.

"Yes, and guess who you are?" I bubbled.

"I have no idea," he said.

"You're Max!"

A grin broke across his face and in his own subdued way I knew he was as excited as I was. "That's awesome. And hey, Birthday Girl!" he said. "You busy tonight?"

"Um," I said, shuffling my feet, "yeah. I think Quil – and my family," I added with a meaningful look at Carly, "have plans for me."

"Oh! Yeah, we have plans, for sure," Carly said helpfully.

"Okay, no problem." He grinned again. "I'll take you out later for your birthday. But I have something for you now." He handed me a little wrapped box. I opened it with glee, because I loved presents even if I pretended I didn't. Inside was a necklace. The pendant was a circle with little crystals all around it. It was beautiful, but it wasn't really...me.

I forced myself to be excited about it. "Sparkly!" I said, rather lamely.

"Ooh, it's beautiful!" Carly said with starry eyes. She was like a raccoon with shiny things.

"Thank you, Tony. It's sweet," I said and kissed his cheek. He helped me put the necklace on and walked me to my first class, and I couldn't help but feel like the necklace was a weight around my neck.


I was surprised to find Quil waiting for me in front of the school when I got out. He was leaning against the flag pole with his hands in his pockets, and in spite of the chilly October wind, he was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

As the girls from my school passed him on their way to the parking lot, they all stared. And then whispered to each other and giggled. What the hell? Okay. So he was good-looking. But gawking is unnecessary.

When he saw me, his face lit up and I freed my hand from Tony's, who was walking with me, to jog up to Quil. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked.

"I have a surprise for you," he said with an impish grin.

Tony then caught up to me. "Hey, Quil," he said tentatively.

"Hey, Tony. You mind if I steal Claire? Birthday surprise," he explained.

Tony looked to me for prompting, but I just shrugged. To be honest, I wanted to see what Quil had up his sleeve. He hadn't picked me up from school since I was thirteen and told him it was embarrassing.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll see you tomorrow, Claire. Happy birthday," Tony said and he pulled me forward to kiss me. I turned my face at the last second so that he kissed my cheek instead of my lips. Tony blinked and I felt bad, because I knew I'd hurt his feelings and I didn't really know what had caused me to do it in the first place, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he nodded to Quil again and left.

I watched Tony walk away until Quil cleared his throat. "Are you sure he's okay?" he asked.

"What? Oh, yeah. He'll...be okay. You know, let's just go," I said, shaking my head to clear it.

The gleeful look returned to Quil's face and he put his arm around me to steer me to his truck. I started to get in on the passenger side, but Quil stopped me. He took my bag from me and tossed it in before shutting the door again. "We aren't driving," he said mysteriously.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he lead me towards the woods that surrounded my school and the whole town.

"Nowhere in particular, actually," he admitted.

I snorted. "That makes no sense."

He looked at me and his eyes were dancing. "You'll see."

We entered the woods and we'd walked for a while before I spoke again. "Are we there yet?" I whined.

Quil laughed. "I guess this will do. Stay here," he said, putting his hands on my shoulders and sitting me down on a log.

I crossed my arms. "What's going on?" I demanded.

"Just stay here, Claire," was all he said before he turned and ran off.

"What the hell!" I cried. "Quil, you can't just abandon me in the woods!" I knew Quil would never abandon me in the woods. But whatever. I huffed indignantly and crossed my arms as I waited.

A few moments later, I thought I heard him coming back, so I stood up to see what this was all about. I was completely stunned when he came into view, because, yes, it was Quil, but he was in his wolf form. I dropped back down onto the log with surprise.

I had only seen him this way once before, and I'd fainted then. It was still amazing and shocking and terrifying and wonderful all at once. Even as a wolf, that light that was always in his eyes was still present, and of all things, that's what kept me from fainting again. After a moment of staring at him, and Quil staring back patiently, I lifted my hand towards him.

"Come here," I said.

Quil obeyed immediately, trotting over to me and wagging his tail.

Wagging his tail. Of course I'm the one who has a best friend with a tail, I thought disjointedly as Quil came up to me and nudged my hand with his massive head.

I took the hint and explored his wolf face with my hands. I ran my fingers along his snout, up between his eyes, over his ears. His fur was soft and warm, just like human-Quil's skin. The longer I touched him, the more real it seemed, and a slow smile came to my face as I looked into his eyes. And then I laughed, because that was all I could think to do, and I put my arms around his neck in a hug. I buried my face in his fur and breathed deeply, amazed that he could still smell the same as he did when he was human. Like pine needles and rain.

I laughed again as Quil sat down on his haunches and licked my cheek once. I released him from the hug and planted my hands on either side of his face. "You're amazing, you know that?" I asked him.

He yipped in what could only be agreement, and I felt lighter than air. Quil looked into my eyes pointedly, then shifted his gaze to his back. I was pretty sure I understood.

"You want me to get on your back?" I asked to make sure.

He nodded his head and wagged his tail again.

I did exactly that and was surprised at how far off the ground I was when he stood. I wrapped my arms tighter around his neck. "This is like extreme piggy-backing," I muttered into his ear. "Don't go too fast, okay?"

That was all it took for Quil to take off through the woods, leaping easily over any obstacle and dodging between trees so fast that I almost couldn't see them. I felt a cold wind blowing my hair back as we went and I could see the trees blurring together on either side of me, but I wasn't afraid. Because his balance was so perfect that I felt barely jostled as he ran. And because I knew Quil would never let anything bad happen.

"Oh, come on," I yelled over the sound of the wind. "You can go faster than this."

Quil let forth a joyful bark and sped up. I couldn't believe how fast we were going. I could understand instantly why he liked being a wolf. This – this was happiness, this was freedom, this was life.

I tightened my arms around him again, but not because I was afraid. "You really are amazing," I muttered into his fur, so quietly that I assumed there was no way he could hear it, but his speed suddenly increased even more all the same.