Chapter Twenty: On the Mend

Things were getting better as the first days of April blew in. I began missing Sue less and less each time that I thought about her until all I got was a pleasant feeling of remembrance. I would always miss her, but time made the pain lessen just a little bit.

It was April in school, and with April came back the brightly glittered posters that screamed, 'Support you school! Come to the Junior and Senior prom! Tickets are on sale now!' As if anyone gave a fuck, which no one did, of course.

But I was going, for some sick reason. For some reason the idea didn't repulse me half as much as it probably should have, or would have on a normal day. And besides, it would be kind of nice to have Seth there with me. It would be our first 'real' date, and that fact alone made me think about prom differently.

Besides, I like getting dressed up, and my hair done. It might be kind of fun. Thoughts like that were swirling around my head as Seth picked me up from school just like he always had.

"Would you ever consider going to prom?" I asked him as I got into his car.

"I already told you yes when you asked me the first time," Seth told me with a duh evident in his voice. "Of course," he laughed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." I really had. My birthday was really fun, I loved going ice skating with Seth, and it made me feel good to know that skating was something that I could share with him, even though he sucked. Horribly, but still. It was also funny to take him shopping with me, but he didn't get bored with shopping. I mean, that was a little weird, but I'll take him, even if he's kind of on the girly side.

"Is there anything new on the reservation?" I asked, looking for something to talk about, I didn't want to talk about my high school days, which I would be getting out of soon, thank the gods. Seth never got bored with me, but it made me uncomfortable to talk about it. Plus, to me school was dead boring.

"No, not really. The reservation is really quite boring when it comes right down to it, except for the occasional werewolf vampire fight that happens now and then," I was insanely worried for a second, thinking about how badly he could get hurt, and I looked alarmed into Seth's eyes.

Seth laughed at my facial expression and grabbed my hand while he was driving. I sighed, content and leaned my head against the seat of Seth's car. The feeling of his hand in mine was the most natural thing in the world to me now.

"Seth, do you ever think about going to college?" I asked him without thinking, which is something that I do all the time. I wanted to stuff the words back in my mouth. Sophie, I scolded myself, shut the hell up!

"I've thought about it for a while, but I couldn't go anywhere too far away. And, technically, I wouldn't need to go since I work towards protecting the reservation. They basically pay for everything for me, so getting a well paying job really isn't necessary." He completely missed the point, thank god.

I had been having fantasies in my head about the two of us at college together, sharing a dorm, walking to class together… the whole bit, actually. I was glad to put that to a rest, or at least that was what I was telling myself.

But Seth saw right through me, "But that's not what you're talking about, is it?" he asked.

"No, I was actually wondering if you would come to college with me. I think it would be cool to do together, and it's not like you couldn't get it. You had awesome grades, and you had high SAT scores, just like me. We could easily get into the same college together, if we wanted to. I really want some strawberries, too. They're totally not in season so it would be totally impossible to get them, but still they'd be nice too. Ooh, don't chocolate covered ones sound divine right now?" I was babbling, but I was trying to get off the subject.

He was silent for a while, and I could tell by his expression that he was heavily weighing his words with what he was about to say. I got ready for disappointment. "Um, strawberries, Soph? Really? And I think that going to college right now wouldn't be the best thing in the world right now. I mean, I still have to work on the reservation. I mean, I can't exactly leave now. I mean we just caught some fresh vampire trails, and we can't exactly ignore that…" he told me. He looked like he was going to say some other things, but I cut him off.

"Vampire trails?"I asked him. Oh shit. They couldn't be coming after me now, could they? Not now, everything was going perfect now! Oh no, no, no, no, no.

"Yes, but it doesn't seem like too many. It's kind of fun to kill vampires. Well, the bad ones at least," he tacked on as an after thought.

He thought this was fun? He could die! "We're going to investigate later today. They aren't too near La Push or any of the surrounding territory really, so we don't need to worry about them, but still it would be nice. Quil's starting to get bored."

Oh, that was good. That meant that the Volturi wouldn't be coming after all, which was comforting. I feel back into my seat again, relieved.

"Now, back to the whole college thing, before you totally spazzed out on me. I don't think that I could go to college right now. Later, certainly, but not now." I stuck out my tongue at him. I didn't spazz. I worried in a slightly frightening way.

I nodded, that seemed reasonable. I could wait a few years. It's not like I was dying to be a doctor or anything really important. I could wait too.

"Could we go to La Push today? I want to go visit Emily." Ever since Sue's funeral Emily and I had gotten to know her better than I had Leah. It was surprising to me too, how well I got along with everyone on the reservation, when I could barely stand people back in Hoquiam. Emily was extremely kind and warm. She could cook phenomenally, and she was such a cheerful little person, always having something to do to keep her tiny house immaculate.

"Sure, I told her you might be coming over later today anyway. I have to work. Embry's mom has a new boyfriend over at her house that Embry needs to meet for the first time, and I offered to take his shift" I nodded. The Quileute boys traded off every other day or so, since there were so many of them now that they could afford to do that. Sam probably would have to work too, so it would probably be just Emily and I today. Kim probably wanted to be with Jared on his day off.

Kim and I had gotten fairly close as well she was such a sweetheart. It was kind of funny how easily you could bond with someone who also got imprinted on. It was like we were all destined to be some kind of big happy family. The only other imprinted girls that I had met, but that I had yet to talk to was Renesmee and Rachel. But Rachel was on a vacation to go see her sister Rebecca down in Hawaii, and I just hadn't gotten to meet Renesmee, even though I really, really wanted to.

I think she would be so interesting to meet, but every time that I mentioned it, Seth started acting kind of strange, and changed the subject as soon as he possibly could. It was like… he was uncomfortable or something, but he also told me that Edward, before he met me, was sort of like his best friend along with Brady and Collin. I couldn't imagine why he wouldn't let me go over there… but oh well. I was sure that I would meet her soon enough anyway, so it really didn't bother me all that much.

Emily's house was so adorable, it was the kind of house that if there was one for rent, I would totally rent so that I could live in La Push after high school ended. Emily was standing outside, painting the door an even brighter blue than it was before, if that was even possible. You could tell that she had just finished painting it because she was standing a little ways back with a hand on her hip looking satisfied, admiring her handy work.

"Did you just finish?" I asked as I walked up to her. Seth had just turned around towards the woods after giving me a kiss on the lips that made my lips tingle. He started running, seeming to vibrate as he went.

She nodded, still smiling at her results. "Yeah, it took me forever too. Now I have to go do wedding arrangements," she told me with a sigh. It was obvious that she wasn't having much fun.

"You and Sam aren't married yet?" I asked, surprised. Seth had told me that Sam had proposed to her a while back.

"Well, we were going to get married earlier, but then he got into some mess with vampires, and we decided to post pone everything. But we've," she smiled sheepishly, "okay; I've been putting it off. But I'm ready now, and Sam's been ready. I think everything is going to be perfect. I hope. Oh, won't you be one of the bridesmaids? I want all of us 'wolf girls' to be in it." Emily grinned at me and I nodded.

"Who's the maid of honor?" I asked.

"Kim, but I probably should have asked Rachel. She can organize anything and everything," Emily rolled her eyes. "Now I have to figure out who I'm going to invite, and all that jazz. It's hard when you have such a huge family." I had a feeling that she wasn't talking about her cousins and stuff; I had a feeling that she was talking about the wolves. I felt the sharp pain of jealously, it wasn't fair that she got to know them better than I did.

I mean, I talked to Collin and Brady a few times, and Seth was a no brainer, but not everyone else, not since the funeral.

"We're having another engagement party in a few weeks, when it gets warmer. You should come; I think that Jacob's pack is coming too."

I nodded. I was coming; there was no need to worry about that. We began to talk about other things as we did the dishes together, but it wasn't like she had any. Her house was way cleaner than mine would be if I was in the same situation.

I felt a pair of arms come around me and I smiled, Seth was back.

The drive home seemed much faster than it normally did. I wished that school was out already, so that I could go live in La Push. I had more than enough money since mom's job paid so well. I could probably buy a small island if I so chose.

"Seth, what would you say if I asked to live with you?" It was a hard question to ask, but I needed to know. Seth didn't even sleep over that often, and we didn't do more than kiss. Moving in together would be a big step, but I think that we were mature enough to handle it.

"I don't know. You were just saying that you wanted a house like Emily's the other day. That sounds like a good arrangement to me." He was so trying to get off the subject, but I wasn't letting him off the hook as easy as I had the first time.

"That would be good, but you never even stay over here! I mean, my mom is never at home anyway, we always have the house to ourselves. If you can't even stay over here, how am I supposed to know that you'll stay over in La Push?"

"How about I stay over here more often?" he asked, trying to compromise with me. It was working to an extent, and maybe I could rent out Emily's old house, if she and Sam were renting it out by the time I could rent it.

"That sounds fine, though you have to stay tonight," I announced to him, and then I kissed him, harder than usual.

He responded enthusiastically, more enthusiastically than usual, probably to get my mind off the whole moving in with him thing. I wasn't complaining. He kissed me suddenly, and I obliged. I opened my mouth, and he slipped his tongue in, and then our tongues wrestled for a little bit before I tugged on his bottom lip gently with my teeth. I heard him moan before he pulled away.

There were questions in my eyes, but he didn't offer any sort of explanation, and I wasn't complaining. He rarely kissed me like that, but I didn't know why not. It's not exactly like I'm pure or anything…

I took his hand and pulled him up the stairs to my bedroom and lied down on my bed. He came behind me and put his arms around me. I turned around to face him, I needed to see him.

"Seth, I love you," I told him, and he smiled at me serenely. I loved the way the words just slipped off my tongue, the way they just felt so natural. It felt good to say them too, like relief.

"I love you too. I'll always love you," he told me, and with those words I was content. I only needed him and my life was complete.

If only I knew how soon it would be before that peace shattered.

A/N: Ugh, I can't write fluff to save my life. And can you say foreshadowing? Please review!

Yes, and I'd like to apologize for not updating in a while.

Love,

Dicey