Chapter 18: Slower Days
"Time waits for no one,
So do you want to waste some time?
Oh, woah, tonight?"
Illuminated
Angie
"Before your first argumentative essay is assigned to you, as I've had this issue with classes before, we are going back to the meaning of writing terms, and the proper use of compound sentences."
Are you kidding?
"I am not kidding."
Damn.
"Now I can see you all rolling your eyes," Mrs. George's voice rose, to conduct all of the students to pay attention to her instead of wallowing in our internal frustration with all things English, "But I have actually had students who've failed that essay. Furthermore, their mistakes were mostly with simple, common knowledge grammar."
Maybe it wasn't so common knowledge if they weren't getting it, I thought, snickering to myself. The smirk died off almost as quickly as it had arrived, as I looked across the room where Quil should've been sitting, up at the front so he wouldn't get in trouble, and realized that the boys weren't going to be here for a long time. I drummed my nails against the desk, lowering my cheek to my folded arms, and hid behind the girl in front of me while I relaxed and ignored my English teacher's relentless rant.
The first few weeks of school were filled up with plagiarism form due dates, practise, recaps of the previous year's lessons, and seven hours of what I already knew. I was good in school, although my grades didn't often reflect my intelligence. I could effortlessly pass, and so I didn't normally apply myself out of sheer laziness. A nasty habit, and I was aware of it. However, if I was genuinely interested in what was being taught to me, I could get perfect marks left, right, and centre. Given that, I suppose the problem lied in my unwillingness to cooperate with boredom.
And without many familiar faces in my classes at all this year, I was left alone with my thoughts and entire notebooks that I'd be dedicating to aimless doodling. I sighed heavily.
"Ms. Bennett?" I moved so quickly that I cracked my elbow off the back of the chair. I nursed my throbbing arm, wincing.
"Yes, Ms. George?"
"Can you tell me what an antonym is?" Her cold voice rung throughout the entire classroom, and even the whisperers had gone quiet, waiting expectantly for my answer. No doubt they assumed I'd get it horribly wrong and wanted to see my cheeks burn with humiliation.
"It's the word that is opposite from the word that is mentioned."
"Mhm- Wait, I mean, yes." The students around me whispered excitedly. I heard someone quietly cat call in the back. "Pay attention, Ms. Bennett." The older woman snapped, probably to redeem her wounded ego. I just smiled politely and leaned back, rubbing my sore arm, and blankly watched what she wrote on the board until the bell rang for lunch.
As I closed my locker door, I coughed at the wall of cologne I was faced with on my way to the lunchroom.
"Ugh, seriously, do they bathe in it?"
I jumped, pushing my hand into my chest and above my heart in hopes to slow its frantic pace. When I spoke, my voice was a tad high. "Seth, hi."
"Heya, Angie!" He said happily, swaggering next to me. Around his right wrist, a lunch bag dangled next to him, and with his dark hoodie on I probably would've mistaken him for Quil out of the corner of my eye. "You sitting with us for lunch again?"
"Well, only if you insist." I teased, elbowing him gently. As per usual, Seth was taller than me, but not by much. He was still just a kid, a lot like everyone's little brother, instead of just Leah's.
"Don't make it seem like you've got anywhere else to go." He said.
"Ow!" I touched my chest in mock hurt. "Ugh! As if."
Seth laughed and settled an arm over my shoulders, pulling me into his side as we entered the cafeteria. We didn't actually eat in here, it was too crowded and smelled weird, but Seth and his friends met up in here, in order to sneak out to the back of the school and eat by the green box that held spare gym equipment. As we approached the table, I saw some familiar faces, and smiled politely in their direction as Seth discreetly guided them towards the back doors.
Among them, I was always aware of Travis Humin, who stayed behind my line of friends and looked at me with guilty eyes. Last year, before I'd confessed the episode of Seattle to Jacob, he'd approached me and apologized, fitting his fingerprints with bruises I'd been marked with. I was never able to really speak with him about what happened, and my unwillingness combined with his humiliation, making it a hard topic to bring up.
He looked up, and I turned my head sharply, leaning into Seth's warm torso, wondering where my little band of troublemakers were.
Jacob
Quil was bored. Very obviously bored, as a matter of fact. On our way out of the woods- human, and fully clothed so as not to attract suspicion from any bystanders in La Push's shopping centre- He would not shut his mouth for more than fifteen seconds at a time. Currently, he was singing in the tune of Whitney Houston's I will always love you,
"I-yee-I, am so fricken bored~"
"Can you just shut your trap, please?" I hissed, rubbing my eyes.
"Okay one more chorus, performed beautifully by Quil motherfu-" I covered his mouth, but the source of his craziness was now a bit more understandable, after hearing the sleepy slur forming in his voice.
I glared at him from the corner of my eye, "No."
"Mer muf hur wheb- Feagh." He pointed across the parking lot. I stubbornly kept my hand in place, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
"Hey, guys," The familiar voice sent a chill down my spine. Quil licked my hand and I released his mouth in disgust, wiping my hand on my jeans.
Quil scratched the back of his head, "Um, hey, Leah. What's... How's it going?"
"I'm alright, thanks for asking." I heard Quil release a breath he had been holding.
Her brown eyes turned to me, and I fought the urge to squirm under her stare. What would we say about Sam? What would Sam want us to say? Would she be angry if we were forced to lie?
"So- Oh, hey, Embry." The second she looked away I remembered that breathing was a good thing and took a deep breath of cold air.
Embry stepped out of the forest, fixing the sleeve of his grey flannel shirt, and nodded her way. "Leah."
"Have you seen Sam?"
Embry smirked a little, running his fingers through the layered hair that barely reached the bottom of his neck. It was still strange, having short hair. Seeing it on my closest friends after so many years of having long hair was a surreal feeling, though. I remember Angie's reaction to seeing all of us with cropped hair. For a moment I'd been afraid she might break down in tears. "If I do see him, I'll send him your way, alright?"
Leah chewed on the inside of her lip. "...Alright. Thanks, guys." And without any argument, she turned on her heel and left.
Quil whirled when Leah was out of earshot and raised his forearms, palms up, before asking, "How?! How do you sweet talk girls so easily?"
"I don't sweet talk," He countered in his usual quiet tone, looking both ways and crossing the parking lot in the direction of the pharmacy.
I scoffed, following his pace easily, Quil walked at my heels. "That's bull. Neither of us would have accomplished having Leah walk away without a snarky remark."
"Yeah, well, it's just luck, I suppose." We walked through the door and into the small shop. We all gravitated towards the candy section. Embry grabbed a package of Reese's peanut butter cups and a Mars bar, and headed towards the counter to pay.
"It's talent." I corrected. The cashier murmured the price and Embry dug around in his pocket for change.
"Whatever it is, it must be impressive, to appease Leah and win over Angie." Quil said, immediately watching Embry's features for a reaction. He thanked the man as we began to walk, and he held the candy up like evidence.
"Or maybe the chocolate was how I won her over." He said with a grin, setting it back in his bag. "And as for Leah, you just need to promise her action, and you're golden."
Quil rolled his eyes. I smiled, finding myself wondering how Angie was. Much as I hated school, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her anymore. She had assignments to do, homework to complete. We had patrol and, when we had our breaks, we absolutely had to sleep if we wanted to survive. Finding myself suppressing a sigh, I focused instead on the road, as Quil tried and failed to collect blackmail on Embry to present to Kangee.
It'd been a long, long day.
Angie
As soon as the final bell rang, signifying the end of the day, I had my books tucked in the crook of my arm, slipping between slower students. I smoothly unlocked my locker, stuffed what I absolutely needed into my bag, and closed the metal door without turning to check if the lock was secured or not. By the time I'd unwound my headphones from around my phone and checked the time as I headed for the forest path that lead to my house, only four minutes had passed since the bell.
The weather was beginning to get rather brisk, my cheeks tingling in contact with the wind. Gooseflesh crawled over my neck with a shiver that excited my spine, and I pulled my scarf tighter around the skin above my cardigan. I looped the headphones under my shirt and sweater, playing Juliette by Hollerado and hiding my phone away in my pocket.
Stuffing my hands in my sweater pockets, I bee-lined my way to the path at the edge of the lawn and kept walking without falter across the frozen ground. So in the zone I was, that I didn't hear someone begin to approach me from behind. I certainly didn't hear them call for me, nor did I sense them reaching for my shoulder-
Until a nimble hand pressed into the curve where my socket moved. Unable to move my arm, I twisted and threw a sharp elbow towards the strangers stomach out of pure instinct before I noticed who it was.
"/Leah/," I breathed, clutching my chest while dropping one of my headphones to dangle over my chest, "You scared me."
"Sorry! I was just getting back from town and saw you cut into the path- I didn't mean to frighten you." She laughed nervously, scratching the back of her neck.
We carried on, and I took a deep breath of the autumn air. "So, how is everything going? Have you been able to talk to Sam alone yet?"
Her head dropped, and it was all the answer I needed, but she continued, "Nope. I guess he's too engaged in certain affairs to even explain himself to little ol' me."
I gave her an empathetic look, and wrapped my arm around her waist in a walking hug. "Well, just so you know, if he's going to be acting this way I can't help but think you'll be better off in a long run. Maybe we should spend a little more time together on the weekend and go shopping. You deserve a little 'me' time."
"I guess so. I deserve some form of an explanation, though. Even if its just him telling me that he loves Emily more," Her voice broke, and I was about to answer when I noticed Embry, Jacob, and Quil, all sat on my staircase. Happy as I was to see them, I found myself quickly glancing in my peripheral vision at Leah, wondering if she would be pressing them for questions.
Leah scoffed and tucked her hair behind her ear, "This is the second time I've seen them today. The difference is that they actually look pleased to see you."
I hushed her, as she was speaking quite loudly. Leah didn't really care for subtlety, and I often mediated her speak-before-you-think attitude, "It's gotta be awkward for them, too, Leah. They don't know what to tell you."
"They hang around Sam enough. I don't think that they're conspiring with him, but I don't think they're putting a word in for me, either."
"Come on, Lee. Brighten up."
"C'mon, Lee, brighten up," She mocked my voice by nearly singing the words. I supressed a deep breath.
"Tell you what- If you give me until the weekend, I'll get a hold of Sam and half-walk half-drag his sorry butt over here. I want to know whats going on just as much as you do. I only have one condition: Settle down, enjoy yourself at least an hour a day, and quit hounding people looking for answers. I've got you. Promise."
Her dark eyes met mine, shining with trust and worry that sparked a flame of pity through my core. "Okay. Thanks, Ang."
"It's no problem- I love you, yknow." I smiled at her, and she returned the gesture. Leah was one of those people who could smile, and every hard line in her face disappeared in nothing but content and happiness. Now, if only I could make her smile more often.
"Sorry, are we disturbing a chick flick moment?" Quil teased, as we paced our way to the first of the porch steps to my house.
Leah glared, looking as though she very much wanted to stick her tongue out, and I laughed. "From what I've heard, my "chick flick" moment amounted to more of an answer than you've given her all week."
"We really /are/ sorry about that, Leah," Jacob apologized. "Sam isn't really keeping in touch with anyone at all lately. He's been, uh, busy."
"Busy is one word for it," Quil muttered. I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head in a seriously gesture. I knew he was talking about running perimeter, but Leah didn't know that, obviously. Only one thing had to be going through her head right now and, when I turned to check if she was alright, she looked as though her skin were crawling.
"I think I might go," She said uneasily, struggling to keep composure.
"Okay. Bye, lovely," I set my bag down on the ground and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
After a brief return of the hold she strutted away for the forest, calling a goodbye to the boys from over her shoulder. They all acknowledged her with a rumble or murmur of departure.
Once she was safely under the cover of the trees and out of sight, I turned to Quil, "Nice work, big mouth. She was doing pretty well, too."
The aforementioned man pouted, his eyebrows lifting to the hairline above his forehead. I was still trying to get used to the short hair. "Well, I /tried/ to get Embry to teach me how to talk to girls! Wait, no, that sounds pathetic. I mean, earlier he was able to calm Leah down like /that/," He snapped for emphasis, then continued, "And I need to know how to deal with emotional girls."
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow, "Well for one, don't call girls emotional, or they'll beat your ass."
"See! I make mistakes with you and you're basically one of the guys!"
"Excuse me?"
"I think you might want to be quiet now, Ateara." Embry muttered from the back, trying to stifle the wide grin that was breaking out on his face from the awkward conversation laying itself out before him.
"Yeah. Besides, you could just talk to your Grandpa. I'm sure he was quite the player back in his day, making the ladies drop right and left." I giggled at the image Jacob had just painted in my mind.
Quil rolled his eyes, "Much as a name such as mine is powerful and certainly had that annotation, I really don't think Grampa would hit it off very well with the ladies anymore than he used to."
"Well he had to have succeeded once," I suggested, "I mean, you're here."
"And that's supposed to be an accomplishment?"
"Jacob! That's so mean!" But we were all laughing. Instantaneously, the long and lonely day I'd had early washed away, and I was back home. I only wished that I could count on tomorrow being the exact same the moment that I walked through the school doors.
"What's wrong?" I looked up at Jacob, who was watching me, looking heavy with concern.
I shrugged, running a hand through my hair, "It's lonely at school without you guys. I wish you were around more often. And I guess I understand that, now that we're getting older, I wouldn't have too much time with you all anyways, but," I lowered my voice in case anyone was around on the paths, "This whole wolf thing is getting a bit tiring."
"You're telling us," Quil said, rubbing his eyes.
"Trust me, we know just as well as you did. You'd think that having a free pass out of school would be amazing, but oh-ho!" Jacob shook his head.
I scoffed, "Oh, I don't think you'd be so easily throwing a free get out of jail free pass out the window if you were in English with me again this year." I stepped by everyone and rummaged around, finally pulling out my keys and unlocking my front door while I spoke, "We just got an argumentative essay. But, before we begin, we have to study compound sentences because so many people can't keep up with common grammar and have marks docked off because of it. It's ridiculous." I pushed open the front door, knowing my Dad would be just getting out of the office and heading to the Grocer for some food, so we had the house to ourselves. "But first, how about some food and a movie?"
"Yeeees!" Quil enthused, basically running into the kitchen. Jacob grinned and followed, warning him against getting into the cookie jar that sat on top of our fridge. Embry waited for me. I felt my heart swell in his presence, and warmth crept into my bones and cheeks.
"I actually brought you a snack of your own," He reached into his pocket, pulling out a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. After the long week I'd been having, this simple little gift was perfect.
"You are honestly my favourite person in the entire world." I took the candy gently, setting it in the water bottle pouch on the side of my backpack to use later.
The moment I turned to look at him after I'd put the candy away, warm hands cupped my face and a soft kiss pressed into my lips. My hands fluttered for a moment, unsure where to go, until they found the flannel fabric that covered his stomach. My fingertips grazed the hot skin beneath and he hummed gently. I giggled, smiling into the next sloppy kiss until he pulled away, needing air just as much as I did.
I rested my forehead against his. "Hm. You'd think after being on the receiving end of the gift, I'd have thanked you with that kiss. I feel as though I'm empty handed now, I don't have anything to give you, unless a warm meal counts."
He chuckled, and my heart did a little flip flop in my chest. "You agreed to being with me. I don't think there's much else I could ask for."
And then he strolled in the door like what he said was the most natural thing in the world. Pressing the cool heels of my hands to my burning cheeks, I silently cursed and blessed him and his presence in my life, following him inside where the autumn air no longer bit at my fingers, and Jacob and Quil already argued over what movie they wanted to watch.
Jacob
Later that night, we all managed to untangle ourselves from the warm blankets Ang had offered. The movie was a longer one, leaning closer to two hours than an hour and a half, and I'm fairly sure all of us had fallen asleep at one point or another. Quil took the love seat on an angle that gave him the best access to the kitchen for snacks and stretched out so that he had the entire place to himself. Embry sat at one end of the true couch, which would have normally seated the three of us. Angie had been leaning against his chest when she dozed off. During her rest her feet stretched out, making it impossible for me to find room on the couch. I made due by seating myself on the floor, leaning on the structure, my arm outstretched. It was a little surreal for me, seeing that the length of one of my arms managed to be equivalent to the length from the crown of her head, to her mid thigh. A month ago I would've said she seemed to be shrinking, but now I could tell I was just getting massive.
The size difference was a sharp contrast to how I felt, though. If not for the werewolf grace gene, I'd probably have made a habit of falling over my own feet and the length of my legs. Graceful or no, I still banged my head off doorways back at my own house, if I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing. And although my preteen self always dreamed of looking the way I did- i mean, even I could admit I was beginning to look like a super successful body builder- the change was so sudden that I had a hard time coping with it. I'd adopted a soft of slouch to make up for the huge height advantage I'd obtained, but it made little difference. Of course, half of the slouch was just me being exhausted more often than not, as well.
The longer I spent in this lifestyle, the more I realized just how easy my life had been up until this point. Angie was right, earlier, in her own way. However, it wasn't just time apart that gave the impression that we were older, and had our own lives to live. It was constantly being put to work, needing rest, going through the motions and not truly living our lives anymore. It felt like we were already middle aged, overworked, and searching for our youth again. Yet here we are, only sixteen.
I was incredibly thankful for the movie night that Angie had suggested, which gave us all a chance to relax and find an excuse to sleep, because at around ten o'clock a howl cut through the distance. I knew Quil didn't have to leave, he'd already run a double shift, but I had to run my second upon hearing the call, and Embry was here to run his first after having two days off for rest and homework. How he was managing to do what we as wolves do /and/ keep track of his grades, I'll never know. All I knew was that it was a good cover, because his Mom, Tiffany, didn't know about the wolves. We'd all told him it would be fine to tell her, that it would make things a lot easier for him, but he refused. I don't think he believed his Mother would truly listen to him, and in a little less than a year he would have the right to do his own business anyways. As the oldest of us, he was already seventeen.
The howl cut through the darkness outside, and we all opened our eyes and looked around. Angie lifted herself onto her palms, her eyes only half open and her hair messy. The light blue of her eyes showed, even in the dim light of the room, her full lips were pouted naturally, and her shirt was slipping up over her naturally slim waist-
That's about the moment I realized I was staring and decided to look anywhere but her. I made the potential mistake of looking at Embry, but he was obviously as invested in how she looked as I was. Quil just rolled over and groaned, throwing a pillow over his eyes.
"Five more minutes!" He called outside.
A low rumble. Or a growl. It wasn't too distinguishable.
"Fine, fine..."
I uncurled the blanket from around my form and got up, letting them know that we were getting ready and not just complaining. I heard them padding away.
"Hey, wait!" Angie got up suddenly, jumping over the arm of the chair and through the hall. We all looked at each other until we heard her tug the front door open and go inside and decided we should probably try and figure out whats going on.
She was still running when we got to the front door. Sam had stopped and emerged from the forest as though she'd called him. I slipped over the railing of her porch and into the dark at the side of her house, tugging off my shirt and shorts, tying them to the cord around my ankle, and phased quickly.
As soon as I shook out the burning under my skin, I noticed I could hear the conversation in crystal clear quality in my new form.
"-you will be here, tomorrow, after I get home from school."
Through Embry's eyes, who'd changed a little while before me and now stood not five feet from her, I could see Angie's chin lifted with pride, her crossed arms, shoulders pulled back and straightened. Her eyes were hard, and it was evident that she wasn't making what she requested an option.
Sam rumbled to her ears, saying in his head, Is she always this persistent?
Yup.
Is there any point in avoiding it?
It's not a good idea. Besides, Leah's really hurt. You can't just avoid her. That kind of makes you an ass.
Sam turned to Embry and growled. Embry merely rolled his great shoulders, without blinking or shifting in discomfort. Being the quietest of us all, it was hard to get angry at him, but even at the sign of confrontation he didn't cower away. Quil was the loudest of us all, but he knew when he crossed the line. I drifted through the motions and reacted according to instinct. The three of us would probably make a good enough pack on our own.
Angie judged the silence and smirked, "And if you plan on ditching out on me, I'll be sure have a nice little chat with Emily and personally drag you here by the tail."
Sam shook his head in surprise. I barked a laugh along with Quil- still in his human form- and Embry stood in admiration of his girlfriend's resolve.
Sam looked left, then right, as though begging us for an alternative before nodding his great head to indicate to her that he understood, and disappeared into the forest.
She's definitely a keeper.
Oh, but she is.
C'mon! The command was an audible growl from in the woods and I snickered to myself.
Angie was smiling to herself. I lowered my head and nudged her on my way past her and into the forest. "Yeah, yeah, see you later." She remarked. I could see that Quil was waiting for a ride from Mr. Bennett, and I didn't blame him. He still looked dead on his feet even after at least three and a half hours of rest. I turned, waiting for Embry on my flank as we started patrol.
The sleek, swift grey wolf trotted the short distance over to Angie and circled her, running his slim form against her back. When he completed the circle, he pressed his cold nose to her forehead.
"I love you," She murmured, meeting his eyes. His chest thrummed in response, a rougher version of a purr, an awful side effect that effortlessly gave away the depth of loyalty and care that existed within him for her.
And then he was trotting up behind me, catching my eye only briefly enough for us both to see that we were now in watch mode, acting as brothers in arms instead of best friends. I think we were both struggling to keep that mindset as we left our closest friends behind us to perform a task required of a form we both never asked for.
Author's Note:
Thanks for your patience, and all of your amazing support! I know this was another slow chapter but it'll pick up upon the next update, which I already have plotted and I will be writing sooner than usual. As usual, Read, Favorite, and Review if it suits your fancy! Love you all!