Ahhh I know, it's been forever. I honestly haven't had time to write though, in my defense. Thank you for weekends! I hope you like the chapter…The good thing that came out of the time lapse was that I got plenty of muses (you know who you are) so more originality in chapters, hehehe. That'll be fun to write. Anything you assumed before may or may not be correct, lol.
Just saw Eagle Eye yesterday….it was interesting. A computer dominating the US--puts a new turn on things. It was like watching a two hour episode of '24.' I liked most of it, but NOT the end. Everything just always has to work out….
Enjoy and don't forget to leave a review: D
Disclaimer: I still don't own any of Stephanie Meyer's amazing characters--only sarcastic Tala and her very secretive dad.
Born To Be Wild
Chapter Fourteen:
"I love you," he whispered against my cheek.
"I love you, too."
The perfect end to the perfect date.
"Dad! Why did you put these in the trash?" I retrieved a pile of perfectly decent posters from the garbage bag and stacked them on the floor beside me. My father turned his head slightly to see what the problem was.
"Pititchu, we don't need to bring anything that we're not going to use. It was hard enough convincing the movers to help us---usually you have to book them weeks in advance." I sighed---this day was never-ending.
It was the morning after and I'm quite happy to note that my dad didn't catch Seth and me coming back from the park. Sadly, the werewolf couldn't hang with me during the day. I felt as if half of me had broken away.
It was depressing. And packing did nothingto brighten my mood.
Thankfully, a majority of the things that my dad and I had accumulated over the years were mostly papers and such. Nothing too big, or else boxing would be a pain in the ass. Yet, no matter how much truth was in those words, my sanctuary equaled the mess of a zoo. Dad knew that I would end of wreaking the perfectly spotless room somehow---there was no point of cleaning it.
"Tala, can you go check the attic? I'm pretty sure there are some old boxes up there." My dad motioned me to take a look. Grumbling and kicking a few rolls of tape, I dolefully climbed up the rickety stairs that were propped against a wall.
Safe, right?
Other than a few dust bunnies and some gigantic boxes, the attic was clear. My father must have tackled this project last night. I rubbed my hands together and prepared to try and lift one of the dusty brown containers.
It was light.
I dropped the box in surprise and watched as a couple dozen photo albums fell out. The thing must've weighed more than thirty pounds! Proven fact said that it was literally impossible for a girl with my finesse be able to easily carry that sort of mass.
"Pititchu, are you alright?"
"Fine," I shakily responded, crouching on my knees to clean up the mess I'd made. What a lie, 'fine' was the farthest thing I was feeling right now. Better words would have been shocked, surprised, tired, lonely, annoyed…
Not fine.
A sliver of a smile appeared on my face as I caught sight of my mother and I on the swings at the old playground in La Push. It had been taken in a simpler time, a time when I wasn't surrounded by lies and hidden secrets. A time when I had a complete family and where mythical creatures didn't exist on the reservation. I found myself turning the pages, having flashbacks of the past. I noticed that none of my relatives were photographed with me. I guess Sam and I really weren't that close. I proceeded to the next few albums and continued to glance through those as well.
There was a picture with three Native American teenage boys posing goofy grins. My heart stopped as I squinted in the sorry light to see who they were. Seth, Jacob, and …. Dad? I looked in closer. Why would Seth and Jake be messing around with my father in the rustic ages? They weren't that old. I scooted closer to the stain glass window and gasped. It was Harry and Billy. I guess they were childhood friends after all. I shuddered at the eerie likeness of fathers and sons and gently slid the piece of paper into my back pocket---it was something I was sure my dad didn't want to throw away.
The next photo caught me by surprise as well. My father was smack in the middle, a twin hanging on the right hand side. They both gave me toothy grins, baseball bats in hand. A frown formed on my face, why was I so awful at the guessing game today? I swore that my dad didn't have a twin…
I smacked my head in frustration.
It was my dad's brother. Joshua Uley. I was so stupid---this was Sam's father, my uncle. My dad always shied away from this particular topic as much as he could. Apparently, from the little information I could scrape out of him, the two used to be best friends until my uncle started hanging out with the wrong crowd. And from there it went downhill.
But of course, my father had to be the little saint in these memories. I rolled my eyes and kept flipping. My fingers stopped as they caught the edge of a rusty paper clip holding a faded piece of paper to the back of one of the scrapbooks that I'd discovered deeper in the box.
It was the obituary of Nina Uley. Her beautiful russet colored face smiled at me as I read the tragic death of my mother all over again. The words at the bottom were new to me though.
Child might be put in custody with father's sister-in-law until case is closed.
What case? That fine print just told me that I could have been living with Sam and his mother all this time with my dad…in jail? He didn't do anything, unless you count witnessing the massacre of his wife by wild animals. The world is messed up, I decided, before stuffing the article in my already filled pocket. I might need it later.
As I came down, my cell phone went off in my room, blaring my ringtone at full volume. My dad groaned---I put that little song on purposely for his enjoyment. Grinning, I threw the boxes down and hopped off to answer it.
One word beeped on the LCD screen.
ZACH
Huh. That was a first. I debated with myself, not really wanting to mess with him. With Zach always came drama, he was such a player at our school.
He just wants to say goodbye, a voice in my head pestered me. You are leaving tomorrow and he is your close friend. Not, I told it, already about to click the ignore button.
But my mind and body must've not been in sync, because my finger slipped and pushed 'talk.'
Dammit. I put the phone to my ear.
"Hey Zach. What's up?"
An awkward pause came from the other line---I guess he expected to leave a recording. "Tala?"
"Who else?" I snorted, tapping my foot impatiently on the wooden ground.
"Oh. I just wanted to say bye, we didn't get to talk much last night." I thanked my lucky stars on that one.
"Goodbye, then." I tried to act all teary and sincere, even though inside I was jumping with joy. The only reason we were friends was because of Becca and her raging hormones at age nine.
"I meant like face-to-face, you know a…hug or something?" I could just picture the wince and scrunching up of his face as he said that. In Zach's vocabulary, those sorts of words were practically non-existant.
"I don't know, Zach. I'm kind of busy packing for tomorrow." A small pang of guilt hit my stomach and I wanted to curse at it. He was a rotten friend, why should he be the one to send me off? But then my conscience starting nagging at me, screaming things like you're never going to see him again and some other cheesy lines.
"You don't want to say goodbye to a friend you've known since elementary. That's cold, Tal." Ugh, he used the 'we've been friends since blah blah blah' card. Jerk. He knew that would for sure set off my guilt alarm. Dumbass. Another round of curses almost flew out my mouth as I gritted my teeth and replied, "Okay, meet me at the park in five."
I hated him.
Hated him with a passion.
"Be back in a few, Dad," I shouted as I ran out the door. A hand caught the scruff of my neck and pulled me back. My father's stern face killed the perfectly good view.
"Where are you going? There is still plenty of packing to do before tomorrow, Pititchu. You can't just gallivant off to who knows where."
"I'm just saying bye to Zach, 'kay? It'll take ten minutes tops, I swear." His grip loosened and he peered at me suspiciously.
"Since when have you been close with Zachary Bell?"
"Since never," I snapped. "I'd rather stay here, which must be saying something. This place is a prison with boxes."
"Only him?" My father hinted skeptically, ignoring my sardonic comment. I nodded and waved my phone under his nose.
"Got my cell, Dad. I'll be fine. No evil monsters are going to come out and eat me."
He shook his head. "It's Texas. There's a reason I picked this place—sunlight."
So what was his point? Of course there's sun in this state, Can't say the same for Washington though… I smiled for a brief moment, pretending like I understood his cryptic remark, and trudged out of the house.
It was in the high nineties, my t-shirt already sticking to my skin. I licked my lips in attempt to cool them off and glanced around. Where was Seth? I for sure thought that he would attack me when I got out of my air conditioned house. My dad's favorite sound blasted again and I took a long look at that screen.
Meet me at rock instead.
Growling, I texted Zach an insulting reply and changed directions. Children's screams rang through my ears as I took a shortcut across the swing sets. The playground had been there for ages---I'd had my tenth birthday on the legendary slide. And for the umpteenth time that day I found my head stuck in ancient times.
I ran past the blue bench in seconds and started ascending a grassy hill to Zeus's Rock. Our group had been hiding out here on weekends ever since we were kids---it was our secret place that only we knew about. Zach was already up there, pacing.
Wonder what his problem was.
I forced my mouth into an amiable smile and waved. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me with the oddest expression.
Creepy.
"Hi Zach!" His eyes met my tawny ones filled with something foreign. Always had to be the mystery man…
"Nothing," he muttered, leaping off the stone in one swift movement. If I didn't know better, I'd say that was worthy of even vampiric skill. "How's packing?"
"Same old, same old. Just lots of boxes and tape." He gave me a small grin and pushed a pebble around with his foot.
"I heard about that guy," he began. "Are you moving off to nowheresville just for him?"
You wish, I thought sarcastically. "Why do you even care? And no, I'm not moving just for some guy, I'm moving because my dad said we're moving."
"Sure, whatever," was his only response. He didn't believe me. So what? I didn't owe anyone any explanations, him especially.
"So, that's it? You just came to interrogate me?" I spat, my feet already backing up. What a great goodbye. Zach came closer and I got a whiff of the alcohol that stained his breath. Damn, he must've gotten into his mom's top secret stash before coming here. He seemed coherent, though. My eyes flitted towards his open arms suspiciously. A hug seemed harmless enough.
Right when he was about to do that dreaded motion, Zach grabbed my hands and held them tightly to my sides. "No," he hissed, his voice turning smoother per second. "I came to do this."
And without any warning, Zachary Bell kissed me.
I gasped and tried escaping his hold, but he just went in harder. His tongue tried prying my mouth open, wanting to get inside. Yeah right. Tough luck, buddy. Zach's idea of kissing was hard and forceful, unlike the soft and gentle manner of Seth that I had become accustomed to.
"Tell me that you love me," his eyes flashed dangerously.
"Get off me you jerk," I managed to screech. He stopped, hurt lining his features.
"Why have you always avoided me? What did I ever do to you?"
"What the hell is your problem, Zach? Are you high?" A roar shook the trees and the lanky body of my savior came out of it. Seth strode up to where we were, shaking like a phone on vibrate. He was going to blow.
"Seth, go away," I breathed. He could not transform in front of the jackass of a friend. My protector stepped a few feet back.
"He hurt you." His fists were in balls, and I detected the quivers that were rocking down his spine. The fury in his brown eyes was so intense that it struck me to the core.
Crap. Not good.
"He's not in the right state of mind, just leave before anything bad happens." I begged him, wanting to kill myself for standing up for the man handler.
"Get lost, she doesn't want you," Zach sneered. That was the final straw. I wiggled one hand loose and slapped him. "No, I don't want you."
Stupid idiot wouldn't get it through his puny walnut-sized brain that I didn't like him and would never in my life like him. He had enough girls to toy with.
"I'll tell them that you brought you're little boyfriend here," Zach threatened, "especially your dad."
"Weak," I shot back. An evil idea must've struck him because he took one look at Seth and smacked my lips violently, me resisting with every ounce of strength I had.
That did it.
An inhuman snarl erupted and from the corner of my eye, I saw man turn into beast.
It was horrifying.
Without any clue what I was doing, I rolled out from under Zach and grabbed his arm, tugging the sick teenager in the opposite direction. No way was I going to let him get torn to pieces by Seth. No matter how keen I was on the idea, it was not in my, nor his, best interests.
I'd never realized how steep the hill was till that moment. Dragging a drunkard was hard enough, but running for both of our lives as well was a completely different story. I trusted Seth with my whole heart---just not when he was in his animal form. One glance at the sandy wolf's livid features made my legs turn into jelly.
I admit, I was scared to death. You would be too if your imprint only had bloody murder on his mind.
"What the hell!" Zach panted as I drove both of us into some trees. Seth was right on our tails, ready for revenge. "He...you…it…wolf."
Dammit, Seth. Just had to go 'were' on us.
Ok, I didn't just hate Zach. I loathed him and his messed up head.
We were cut off by my soulmate's snarls right ahead of us. His pools of darkness were intent on the boy I was supporting. My new equation for life: a wolf angry equals bad ending, very bad ending. I flinched as I noticed the wolf's teeth were bared and tail was raised in threat.
Was this what my mom saw before she died?
"Leave him alone," I said under my breath as menacingly as I could knowing full well that Seth would hear me. "He's not worth it."
That just got him angrier. Why was the dog so possessive?
"Zach," I turned on him. "Get out, now. I'll handle it." What a lie. I was about to pee in my pants, no joke.
"You're a girl, like you can handle anything." Zach scoffed. Red lined my vision for a brief instant and I punched the boy right in the face.
"I can handle that," I retorted loudly, pushing him away. "Now, get out."
"You're crazy. I saw…that wolf. Something's really messed up and I'm going to find out." Like I could care, nobody would believe him. I shoved his muscled body away harder until he started sprinting in a typical drunken fashion away from the clearing. Seth growled and moved forward. Did they keep their minds when they turned? I always figured, but he looked as if he were about to attack.
"Don't hurt me," I cried out before tripping over a log and falling on my butt. Graceful as always. He came closer, and I tried scuttling towards a tree stump in a hopeless attempt to save myself.
I was going to die. (Sadly that sentence was becoming popular.) My imprint had lost it.
Suddenly, Seth's shape blurred and a ferocious looking human stared into my face. "Hurt you?" He shouted indignantly. "Hurt you, Tala? Why did you protect him? He deserved to be---"
"What? Killed?" I interrupted, hot tears rolling down my cheeks. My eyes strayed from his expression in attempts to avoid it and I stopped. Mortified.
Seth was naked.
Oh my freakin' gosh. I blushed crimson and glanced down. I meant up.
"Tala." Seth tried reaching towards me to wipe the water off my fevered skin, but I recoiled and drew back.
"Get. Away. From. Me," I said, fear enveloping in my chest. Knowledge dawned on me as I all of the sudden realized how Emily received the scars that now marred her beautiful face.
Sam.
My cousin hurt her. He lost control.
That just frightened me more.
"Leave, Seth." My voice sounded strangled as I got up and steadied myself. He tried to catch me for support but I shook my head and took no notice of him. Seth then began to convulse---his expression was twisted in pain and sprinkled with rage.
I had to get out, and fast.
"Bye," I whispered softly, hoping he would calm down. Too late. I heard a ripping noise, and then, without a single glimpse back, I darted down the closest trail, running till my legs burned fire.
A wolf howled in the distance.
In mourning.
Poor Seth :( Tala is scared out of her wits though; she can't help it. Google an angry wolf and multiply it like 100 times. That was the Seth that Tala saw. I would be freaked. Anyway, lots of drama there….wow I planned a totally different direction for this chapter. Sorry for any typos, I wanted to put this up as soon as possible.
Zach is in my hate bk…arrgghhh he just had to go and ruin it. He is, by the way, now officially out of the picture. The next chapter hopefully won't take 2 wks like this time, I've already written 1,000 words since this update was originally planned to be like I just said, something completely different.
Please review! I honestly want to know what you guys thought...Feedback and critiques are ALWAYS welcome.