Chapter 42 The L-word

Cathryn's POV

A rain drop hit my forehead. I sighed. I had known this would happen. When it is six o'clock at night and the sjy had been threatening to open up all day, the smartest thing to do is typically not go on an outdoor date with your boyfriend. However, if said boyfriend had been planning this after suffering through a torturous outing with your beloved but jerkish friends, you don't really have a choice. It was Monday, and the first time we had talked since the beach. Which was where we were now. And where I wanted to get away from. Tides, you know. Not the best place to be during a rainstorm. Another drop hit me. "Ethan." I said calmly.

"Don't worry," Ethan reassured me, squeezing my hand. "It'll pass." Thunder cracked over head just as he said this. Seconds later, a lightning both cut across the sky.

"Ethan!" I said, not so calm this time. The drops were coming faster. And I was wearing a white sundress. Ugh, I know. I was whering a dress. In my defence, Lizzie had found out that I was going on a date and had refuse to drive me there unless I let her dress me. Anyway, the point was that no matter how serious Ethan and I were getting, I wasn't too keen on letting the water drnch my clothes and have him see what was under them.

"Er..." Ethan looked around. I rolled my eyes. This would probably the first time he noticed that there was nobody else around. Except for, you know, the werewolves. Embry had told me that a few of the Cullen's friends were viseting, so they were probably working overtime. But it wasn't likw we could see them. and Ethan didn't know that they were around. "Maybe we should..."

That was all the encouragement I needed. I took his hand and dragged him, skirts flying, to the cliffs. Seth and Keilly had shown me this place once, where there was a hollow in the rock. Like a cave, if you will. I hunted around until I found it. When I did, I imediately ducked in, Ethan on my heels. It was exactly what we needed right now. Or at least, thats what I thought in my current state of mind. Looking back though, it had been a really stupid move. Like hiding under a tree, or something. Because it was a really deep cave, and those tended to have a tendancey to have people get lost in them or die due to lack of oxygen and stuff. And it was right near the waters edge. The water not rising up and drowning us in there was nothing short of a miracle. Not to mention that the people who had shown us the cave in the first place had probably done things in there that I really didn't want to think about.

But, as I said before, none of this occured to me at the time.

Ethan leaned against the rack, breathing heavily and looking at me in a not-quite-honorable way. I looked suspiciously down. Sure enough, the rain had soken through, leaving me in a just above transparent dress. I blushed and crossed my arms. But I didn't look away. Because Ethan was looking rather...interesting himself. His hair was sticking out in all these crazy directions, and under the copperness of his skin his cheeks were ruddy with exertion. This, coupled with the fact that his chest was moving up and down rather dratsically, gave him a somewhat maddened appearance. But on the crazed face was the eyes. And they were the exact opposite. They were a liquid golden color, usually only seen on vampires. Sweet, like butterscotch.

I liked butterscotch. Almost as much as I like Ethan.

"Cat," Ethan said softly, leaning in so that his lips were to my ear. "I love you."

Now. Most girls, when they hear those words, gpo completely blank with shock for about five seconds before soaking in what had just been said to them. After they have, they usually go all giddy and happy inside, so much so that they feel almost as if they might explode. And they think to themselves, wow. This is what its like to fall in love. Regrettably, and for probably the first time in my entire life, I was no exception. What I was thinking behind Ethans kisses was so pathetically teenage-girlish that it was puke inducing. And when he pulled away, the words on my lips did not suprise me. "I love you to.

Somewhere, off in the distance, almost to far away for me to hear, I heard a howl. The sound was the most agonized, hurt, hauntingly sad sound I had ever heard, even that far away. Like it was crying, almost. The sound raised the hairs on my arms, and I shivered, feeling sort of hollow behind all my first-love high. Being the idiot that I was, it didn't really occur to me that this might be one of the werewolves. I just thought that it was a coyote or a real wolf or something, in the middle of chidbirth or being eaten or something incredibly painful. Still though. I knew, in the itty-bitty back of my mind, that it had something to do with me.

Chapter 42 Late Learning to Fall-Boys Like Girls

Embry's POV

It was my own stupid fault. I shouldn't have been listening in on them like that. I mean, what did I expect? It was raining, they were teenagers, they were trapped in the same freaking cave that both Seth and Keilly lost their virginity in. I should have been on my knees, thanking God that she hadn't been the one to lose her virginity. Instead, I was on my knees and leaning against a tree and thnking about how much my life sucked. Because this was worse. This was way worse. I of all people knew that having sex had nothing to do with how much you cared about someone. I hadnt even known half the girl's names. But love? Saying that to someone? Her saying that to him? Yeah, that meant something. That meant a big something. And it wasn't fair. That should have been me.

Almost immediately after hearing her say that to him and screaming by far the loudest howl I had ever uttered, Jacob made me change back to human form. The rest of my pack couldn't take it, you see. They couldn't stomach that level of pain. I couldn't even stomach it. And that was when I had my head spread out all over theirs, giving everyone a peice of it. How in the world was I supposed to make it on my own? I guess I could sort of say that a loot of them had already had their share of heartache-well, only Sam and Jacob, Leah hadn't even really-but I didn't really care. I couldn't bring my self to think about, to care about anything. I was just trying to remember how to breathe. And that was in my wolf form.

Because see, in an animal's body, you are an animal. Animal emotions. As bad as I felt about Cat then, it was only the watered down version, the doggy aproximation. Human? There weren't words. As soon as I had fully phased and had yanked on my stupid jeans, I crumbled againt a tree and just sort of laid there. Not to say that I like couldn't find the stregnth in my wounded body to get up or anything. There just didn't seem to be a point. In anything. Especially not getting up and trying to pretend that this wasn't killing me, because I would fail miserably.