Chapter 36

I raced all the way to Embry's house and climbed over the neighbor's fence in order to get into his backyard. Once there I counted the windows, the third from the left belonged to his bedroom and I tapped on it a couple times to get his attention. When he wouldn't answer, I tapped harder and by the third try, I began to bang on the glass so hard that it might actually break.

"WHAT!" he scream-whispered pushing up the window and talking through the screen. "It's two in the friggin' morning, Jake. Want to keep it down before you wake my mom?" he groaned.

"Look, you either come out or let me in."

"You're sweating like a dog and look like shit." he mumbled while popping out the screen and climbing out the window.

"Shit, shit, shit." I paced back and forth. I was frustrated, jittery, volatile... I was feeling too many emotions at the same time and felt I would explode at any moment.

"You keep saying shit over and over. Something on your mind? Constipation perhaps?"

"I think I just. No. I KNOW I just imprinted."

"Whoa dude." Embry raised both his hands, palms facing me and backed away. "We've been friends forever and I like you, Jake, just not that way. I refuse the imprint. There I said it. Wasn't that hard. I thought refusing an imprint was supposed to be a lot harder.

"Shut up you asshole!" I grabbed him by the front of the shirt and shook him like a rag doll.

"Hey, you show up at my house beating down my window, you say shit over and over then you stand there looking like an idiot and you tell me that you imprint. What the hell am I supposed to think without all the proper info?" he smiled and I thought of knocking out his teeth.

I paced back and forth in his yard trying to make sense of things. I'd been running around for hours trying to understand things on my own but I hadn't been able to figure out a single thing so I came to talk to my best friend and succeeded only into getting made a fool of.

"So are you going to tell me what happened or am I going to have to explain to my mom why there's a big track of dead grass on the back lawn?"

"I don't know what happened! I mean, I saw her and I couldn't fight it. You remember when we were kids and we took my dad's leaf blower and aimed it at our faces? No imagine if a leaf blower sucked as hard as it blew..."

"Are you high?"

"No! Listen to me! That's what it felt like. It was like my whole consciousness was sucked in her direction. All my thoughts, all my feelings, it was like... shit, I don't know what it was like, I can't describe it."

"And who's this she?"

"Leah."

"CLEARWATER?!"

"Clearwater."

"Holy shit!"

***

The humming of the microwave was replaced by it's intermittent beeps and Embry opened the door to reveal a couple dozen chicken pastries on top of a napkin.

"I still don't get what you're so hung up about." he said popping two into his mouth. "If you were already dating then what's the problem? She likes you, you like her. Get married and have puppies or whatever. Wait, she can't have babies, can she. Is that the problem cause you can always adopt or borrow or whatever."

"God, you're a moron." I rubbed my whole hand up and down my face. Pretty soon I was going to lose control, phase and wreck his whole kitchen. His mom would do the job for me and kill him on the spot. "Can't you see how wrong this is?"

"Obviously not."

"She mistook me for Quil. Quil of all people! She has no memory, you moron. It's friggin' wrong. She doesn't remember us, the concepts of phasing or imprinting. I have this friggin' urge to be with her all the time. Even right now it's pulling at me and I can't just go and hang out and be friends. I can't shower her with attention and pretend nothing is going on! It would feel like I'm trying to deceive her. She doesn't know... she doesn't understand."

"Seth said it was only temporary. Eventually she'll come through."

"What if it isn't. What if she doesn't want me?"

"She wanted you before, why wouldn't she want you now?"

"Because she's friggin' Leah Clearwater!"

"Your point is valid but I still say you're stressing over nothing when you should be celebrating instead."

"You can be so dense sometimes. I should have gone talked to Quil instead."

"Quil? Nice. He's probably sleeping under Strawberry Shortcake sheets right now."

"Yours are Star Wars." I snorted.

"So? At least I sleep on a real bed with a real mattress that I actually fit in."

"When you don't sneak out you sneak them in now? What the heck is going on, Embry?" Mrs. Call walked into the kitchen wearing pink socks and wrapped in a bathrobe.

"Jacob is having girl problems..."

"Alright, who'd you get pregnant?"

"What? It's not like that Mrs. Call."

"What do you mean it's not like that. You're standing in my kitchen, eating straight from the microwave without even a plate, you're sweaty, half naked and it's five in the morning... oh my god!"

"I'M NOT GAY, MOM!"

"I gotta go. Thanks for breakfast. Nice seeing you again, Mrs. Call."

.:

.:

"You're up early."

"I hardly got any sleep last night." I rubbed my temples.

"Headache? I got your prescription yesterday while you napped. Forgot to tell you."

"And I'm the one with amnesia?"

"Mornin'." Seth emerged from his room with the covers marked on his face.

"I think one of your friends dropped by last night." I swallowed one of the pills Mom set on the counter for me.

"Which one?"

"I don't know. He didn't say a word."

"Then how did you know he was my friend?"

"He wore cut off shorts and walked around shirtless like you do."

"What did he look like, specifically?"

"Super tall, brown, very good looking, abs you could do laundry on, short hair..."

"Wow, except for the good looking part, that could have been anyone of them." he took my glass of juice for himself. "We're going to need to work on your description skills."

"We're going to need to get your friend to understand the danger of walking around half naked during winter. Frostbite is very real and so is hypothermia, once the uncontrollable shaking starts..." it suddenly dawned on me, "OH MY GOD! I HAVE SCHOOL! IF I DON'T GO TO CLASS I'M GOING TO FAIL AND IF I DON'T GO TO WORK I'M GOING TO GET FIRED!" I got up and scrambled.

"Leah! Sweetie, relax!"

"How can I relax?"

"Dr. Carlisle wrote you a medical note and made some phone calls. You'll be able to take any tests you missed and return to class by the end of the week and your hostess job will be there too. Relax sweetie."

"God, I just remembered that! I'd completely forgotten!"

"That's why they call it amnesia. Many things will come back to you just like that. You'll remember many strange and unbelievable things but you have to remember to stay calm."

"The car was totaled. How am I supposed to return to work? Shit! My books! My books were in the back seat!"

"We got them and everything else out of the car plus we had insurance, hon. You'll get a rental until they give us a check for the car."

"Oh my god, this is so stressful!" I groaned and lay my head on the table. "And every single time I fell asleep last night I dreamt with wolves the size of horses. At some point I was even one of the wolves and I could hear other people's voices in my head... do you know what it's like to dream you're a wolf with schizophrenia?"

"This is going to get interesting very soon." Seth set the empty glass on the counter before walking back into his room and closing the door.

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Seems like I still have readers despite the fuck-up fairy paying the site daily visits. Woohoo! ^^

Congrats to Jada91 who pointed out that someone imprinted on Leah during the end of the last chapter.^^

Guys, I usually update every day unless I state I won't be able to or my internet dies. Pointing it out because we're so close to the end and the site just keeps fucking up! Right now it seems the story will have 42 chapters unless one of them is too short or too long.

Chapter 37 is already written. Come back tomorrow, you hear? \(^_^)/