DISCLAIMER: Some of the text and characters are from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, which I do not own. Only the characters & text that were not in the original series are mine.
It seems as soon as summer began it was coming to a close, the seven vampires had not left the area, though the seemed to be traveling in the area less often. I was ecstatic about that, since my family decided that I would be all right in I ventured outside of the house and their line of sight every now and then.
The summer was fun between Josh, Hiro, McKenna and I, we had done all the usual stuff, swimming, cliff-diving, sleep overs (never at my house), campfires on the beach, and all the other fun stuff of summer.
On the last night of our summer vacation (at least for those of us that attended to Forks High School), we sat on the beach, a campfire burning. Our parents had all agreed that we could spend the night out on the beach; we had everything we needed from s'mores to tents!
It was nice, the fire warm, all of us were currently roasting hot dogs, even though we were all eyeing the Hershey's chocolate bag and marshmallows' bag.
Hiro was the first to pull his hot dog out of the fire, the hot dog mostly black. Smirking, Hiro grabbed the hot dog to put it on a bun. He yelped with pain and his hot dog landed right back in the fire, "Dang it!"
I laughed, "That's why you use the bun to take it off the stick, not your fingers!"
"Now I have to cook another hot dog!" Hiro grumbled, casting a look at the Hershey's bag.
Josh said, his tone teasing, "Don't worry, we'll save you enough chocolate for ONE s'more!"
"What?" Hiro said, amusement showing in his eyes.
McKenna fidgeted, and I felt a stab of sympathy for her. Even though most werewolves chose to tell the one person they imprinted on right away, McKenna had decided not to tell Hiro, it was killing her though, unable to show her affection for him. It didn't help that Hiro still seemed to have feelings for me, sitting on my right, while Josh sat on my left, McKenna on his left. Hiro seemed determined to show that he was still in the "competition" for my heart. What competition he was thinking of was beyond me, considering Josh was true to his word…we were simply friends.
Josh was the next one to pull his hot dog out of the campfire, using the bun to pull the hot dog off the stick. He stood up, and I had to do a double take. Now, I realize that with the seven vampires wandering around I hadn't been around my friends a lot, but Josh TOWERED over all of us, even if we had been standing, Hiro and I would have been up to his chest, and McKenna, would have been up to his shoulders, he was over six feet tall.
I glanced at McKenna, and she nodded. My appetite faded. McKenna's nod confirmed what she and I, along with the rest of the werewolves in La Push had been fearing; more of the "youth" (I use that term loosely) with the genetics for the transformation were starting to change thanks to the seven additional vampires in the area.
Josh glanced at the fire and commented as he sat down, "Are you purposely setting your hot dog on fire?"
I stared at him in confusion before turning my gaze to the fire, and jerking my burning hot dog out of the fire. "No! I didn't mean to set it on fire!" I blew/spat at the hot dog to put it out, setting the others into fits of laughter that lasted five minutes.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!" I grumbled, taking a bite out of my charcoal-hot dog. I glanced at the fire and smiled, "McKenna. Hiro. You're going to have the same problem I did."
They both glanced at the fire and their hot dogs, yanking them out of the flames and blowing on them, Josh and I laughed. If I had looked half as silly as Hiro and McKenna did, then I could see why they had laughed.
We each had one hot dog each, none of us trusting ourselves to make any more, considering that we were all prone to remembering the incidents of burning hot dogs and bursting out into laughter, causing the others to laugh.
So, the only logical thing to do was roast marshmallows. We all sat with about four marshmallows on each of our sticks and two bars of Hershey's chocolate sitting next to each of us. (Hey, that's what best friends do…they don't trust each other with chocolate!)
Josh and I had similar methods to roasting our marshmallows…set them in the flames, let them catch fire, blow them out. To say the least, McKenna and Hiro were right in not trusting us with the chocolate!
I reached for my chocolate, and felt my hand brush Josh's hand (he had also reached for his chocolate), we both stared at each other, and I could see it in his eyes, it was killing him, as much as it was killing me to be just friends, unable to see where our spark could take us.
I broke away from his gaze, grabbing my chocolate at the same time, feeling stupid, not to mention confused. I must be imagining things…he WANTED to be just friends! But that look… I glanced at him, and saw that he looked how I felt. A small sigh escaped him, before he glanced my way, I quickly looked away. No need to make our relationship any more complicated then it was.
Between the four of us, the chocolate was gone in no time, and so were the hot dogs, which we eventually finished without bursting into laughter.
Hiro glanced around, and asked, "What should we do now? It's still pretty earlier."
McKenna suggested a gleam in her eyes that made me wonder what she was scheming, "Why don't we look around the beach in pairs and see which pair can find the most interesting place or object?"
"Sure," Josh agreed.
Hiro nodded, "Sounds interesting."
"Why not?" I somewhat agreed. Now I understood the gleam in her eyes. I swear she should not be able to transform into a wolf, but a fox!
McKenna was beaming, "Hiro and I will be a team, and Josh and Sara can be another, we'll have…an hour to wander around and see what we can find."
We all nodded, before each pair headed in a different direction, Hiro and McKenna heading inland while Josh and I made our way towards the cliffs.
Josh had to pause several times, since I lagged behind, my short legs unable to keep up with his long ones, but neither of us minded. Reaching the tops of the cliffs, we both stared, open-mouthed, at the sight that greeted our eyes.
Minke whales were leaping out of the water, their dolphin-like shapes easy to distinguish, along with their speckled hides, and their length. Their bodies were completely out of the water a few times, as they leapt and splashed about. Even though there were only four of the whales, it was a magnificent site to see, the full moon above only adding to the effect they created.
Josh said, breaking the silence that had fallen between us as we watched the whales, "I've never seen them before, I only heard that they stay somewhat close to the shore."
"They're spectacular," I said, still in awe of their leaping abilities.
I felt Josh grab my hand, his skin warm against mine, but I took no notice, I looked at him, surprised. He said quietly, "They're not the only thing that's spectacular, and I know that I've been wasting both of our times saying that we should only be friends… I can't keep pretending that I like you as nothing more than a friend."
"I know how you feel," I murmured, unable to meet his gaze. Since he was close to going through the process of turning into a wolf, I had a feeling that his feelings for me would change drastically. Especially once he learned about my family. Josh heard something in my voice that made him pull his hand away. "But…" I said, deciding to lie a bit, "I'm going through some things at the moment that won't allow me to have a boyfriend."
Josh seemed crestfallen, but he said, "My feelings won't change. They'll still be the same whenever you can have a boyfriend." He winked then, a smile on his face as he took my hand again.
I couldn't pretend that I didn't like him holding my hand like that. It gave me a warm feeling inside, and a chill that ran up my spine, but it was a pleasant chill, the whole thing was pleasant to be honest.
My happiness with Josh wouldn't last long though, as I was, only too soon, to find out.