Chapter 30 part 2

Laying in bed that night next to Paul Angela still didn't know what to think of anything that she'd heard throughout the day. She knew she wasn't told everything but she wasn't completely sure if it was due to time constraint or agreement to keep things from per Paul's wishes. What she did know was enough for now. Thing was Angela needed to process what she'd heard, what her life was going to become. What she'd said to Paul was true, after school she had every intention of coming back to Forks, to staying and living the rest of her life in the town where she had grown up. She loved Forks, always had, she had never been one of those people that wanted to move away to something big and better. What she had was the best, she just needed to make Paul realize that, the fear that he wouldn't kept her awake until morning.

~U~

"So what'd he do?"

Angela snorted, her hands gripping the coffee cup in front of her, "How do you know he did something, what if it was me?"

Blake raised an eyebrow at her then took a big gulp of his drink, "He can be stupid sometimes like his old man. You had a smile on your face since before you walked in the door a couple of days ago. Now you've got bags under those pretty little eyes."

"Are you saying I look like shit?"

Blake's eyebrows shot into his hairline, "Don't want to talk about it with me do you?"

"I'm sorry," Angela muttered. "Yes we had a bit of a disagreement last night but we're fine now."

"Doesn't look like it to me."

"Another jab at my looks."

Blake snorted leaning back in his chair, "You're a firecracker."

"I try," Angela muttered rolling her eyes at him.

Blake crossed his arms over his chest, "I just want to know what's got you down, I don't like seeing you like this, and since you're leaving later today you have to give me a reason as to why Paul is going to make the next several weeks of my life a living hell with his sour puss attitude."

Angela sat for a bit wanting to confide in his dad realizing how hard it was going to be to do this for the rest of her life, "Why did you come back here?"

"Is this line of questioning going to help me when you leave?"

Shaking her head Angela scooted forward in her chair and pushed her coffee cup away, "I'll get there."

"I left something here a long time ago unfinished, I never should have done that."

"Care to elaborate."

"I will eventually but that doesn't really fit into this conversation," Blake said his eyes going distant.

"Are you going to leave when you finish that business?"

"Don't plan on leaving the rez again, I like it here."

"I do too!" Angela screeched jerking up right in her chair, "Paul doesn't get that though."

"What's this about?"

"He doesn't believe me that I want to move back here after school, and I know it's about his mom and you, but honestly I like living here. Chicago is ok but it's too loud and there are too many people, I don't mind going to school there but I can't live there."

"Have you told him this?"

Angela jerked her head, "He won't even listen, just tells me that I'm too young, and what is that? I'm not much younger than him."

"You ready to go?"

Angela's head snapped toward Paul's voice, before shooting back toward his dad, "I still have to pack, my flight isn't until this afternoon."

With a jerk of his head Paul started toward the hall.

~U~

Angela almost felt sorry for the clothes as she jammed them into the bag, they were wrinkled so bad that she wasn't sure if she'd ever get them out, "You know if you wanted me out of your hair so bad you could have done this yourself." Fairly certain that she heard a growl from the corner where Paul was leaning against the wall Angela snarled under her breath and jammed the rest of her clothes into the bag.

~U~

Paul sat in his truck fingers drumming in sync with the metal song that poured through the speakers. He wasn't a huge fan of music normally but he didn't know what to say to Angela without starting a fight. As she was packing he wanted to tell her that he didn't want her to leave, but he couldn't, she needed time to figure out where she wanted to go from here.

"I'm sure Bella would have brought me home, since this is obviously such a burden for you."

The anger in Angela's tone caused Paul's hands to grip the steering wheel so tight his knuckles began to turn white. "It's not a burden."

"Of course," Angela yelled arms flapping out in front of her, "how silly of me, how could getting rid of me be a burden for you, you didn't even want me in the first place."

"I've wanted you from the second I laid eyes on you."

"Oh give it a rest." Angela snarled while shifting her body toward the door.

Paul opened his mouth to say something but then took her in, her heart was beating wildly in her chest, her hands clenched in her lap, she was pale but sweating.

Slamming on the brakes Paul's arm shot to the right pinning her to the seat even though the seatbelt did its job. Shifting toward her he gripped her chin, "Do not for one second think that I don't want you. Even now with the way you're acting I want every piece of you."

"The way I'm acting." Angela began before Paul planted one large finger over her lips.

"You're acting like a little brat, I'm half tempted to turn you over my knee and spank you for how annoying it is." For a split second Paul thought he may have made a mistake, then the cab filled with the scent of her arousal, "You like that? The thought of me spanking your little ass Angel? Well keep this shit up and it's going to happen, I don't think you'll like it though."

He watched; a glint in his eyes as Angela's eyes popped wide and her mouth dropped open. Then just as quickly the smile dropped, her brows jammed down and she jerked the door handle and jumped out.

Slamming his hands into the steering wheel Paul jerked the door open and rounded the front of the truck just in time to latch on to her wrist, "Where are you going?"

~U~

Angela jerked her arm back happy when Paul let her slender wrist slip through his fingers, "This is not me acting like a brat, this is me being hurt by the fact that you won't even listen to a damn thing that I say. You're sitting here making all these decisions for me this entire time, from the second you laid eyes on me and I didn't even know it."

Angela paced in a small circle before stopping and jamming her finger into her chest, "You have no right to say how I feel or what I want, you have no clue Paul. You have this little scenario worked out in your head and you aren't going to let a damn thing that I say change your mind. It is so frustrating that you think so little of me, you think that just because I'm two years younger than you that I can't possibly know what I want out of my life. You know what I think, I think you don't know what you want out of yours, and you're angry and taking it out on me. You ask any person that knows me what I want and they will tell you. I want Washington, I want Forks and up until last night I wanted every second I had in both to be with you."

Paul moved forward in an attempt to stop her pacing.

"Don't you even think about touching me right now."

Dropping his hands Paul stood in front of her a knot forming in his stomach.

"I need you to take me home, I wouldn't be surprised if I missed my flight because of this mess."

~U~

Paul watched as Angela made her way slowly into the house not looking back as she closed the door. Knowing that he fucked up but unsure how to fix it, he popped the door and climbed out. Just was his foot hit the bottom step on the sidewalk the door swung open and Angela's dad stepped out tension marring his face.

"She seems upset, and not in the I don't want to leave my boyfriend kind of way."

Paul nodded and met her father in the middle of the path, "Unfortunately that's the truth."

"Care to talk about it."

Paul dragged his hands across his face, settling his hands on his hips, "Not sure you'd like me much after I told you what is going on. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me take her to Seattle to try to fix things."

Angela's dad looked at Paul then back at the door, "You know when you first started coming around I didn't think you would be any good for her." Paul nodded his head in agreement, "But seeing the two of you, how you act with each other, how you act without each other, I'm pretty sure you're the best thing for each other." Paul nodded his head again. "However you two seem to be having more and more troubles as the time goes on, I'm not sure what they are about and I'm not going to ask but I think you really need to listen to her, and she you. Usually when a couple is having relationship issues it's because the line of communication isn't there. Open up to her, and let her do the same, and Paul, actually listen to what she has to say." Paul nodded again and took a step back when the door opened and Angela stepped out still looking angry as ever.

"Honey Paul is going to be taking you to the airport today, I think you two have things you need to work out before heading back to Chicago." With that her dad opened the door and made his way into the house.

~U~

So she was still pissed, it wasn't easy to come to that conclusion seeing as how they were nearly halfway to Seattle and she hadn't spoken a word to him. The thing was Paul wanted her to talk, even if it was her screeching at him like she had been on the way to Forks from the Rez.

"So are you ever going to talk to me again?"

"I don't know Paul, do you plan on actually listening to what I have to say?"

"Yes"

Angela let out a huff and turned toward him, "I love you." That made his heart warm and some of the tension slip from his shoulders, "Even with everything you've told me I do Paul, it's just that it hurts to think that you couldn't trust me from the beginning with this."

"It's not that I couldn't trust you, you know that."

"You say you didn't want me pulled into this life, but Paul you didn't even give me a choice!"

"I wasn't given a choice! Why the hell do you think I'm so angry about all of this! Do you think I wanted to become a fucking wolf; that I want to spend my time on all fours chasing around these fucking leeches all because your bestie couldn't pull herself away from a fucking vampire even after she almost died? Do you think that I wanted the girl that I'm supposed to be with forever chosen for me?"

"No," Angela murmured a wobble in her voice, "but that's the exact reason why you should have let me have a choice, so I wouldn't be hurt or angry like you are. So I wouldn't be carrying it around with me letting it eat me up."

Paul smacked the steering wheel when she sniffled, "Damn it babe I'm not trying to hurt you. But this is how I feel, I'm not the only one that's pissed off that these choices aren't ours to make. Jake is just as angry as I am about it and no matter what he tells us, what he thinks he knows he is scared to fucking death that someone is going to come along that he's going to imprint on, and guess what, she won't have a choice either."

"Does Bella know that he's scared?"

"Bella is scared! She's not a fucking idiot not matter how much she acts like one."

"But it's her choice, don't you see. No matter how scared she is she is making the choice to be with Jake because she loves him. She loves him enough to stand with him even though it could break her heart in the end."

Pulling to the side of the road Paul slammed the truck into park and scooted across the bench seat to cup her chin, "The only choice I can make, the only choice I'm trying to make is the one that doesn't fuck me in the end. Call me a selfish bastard but Angel after having you I just can't fucking lose you."

"But you could be."

Paul sucked in a deep breath then let it out gently, her eyes slid close as it fanned across her face, "You're a part of me now Angel, I just can't do this to you, I won't tie you to me like this, I can't."

A tear slid down Angela's check but he quickly caught it with his thumbs, which he noticed were shaking.

"I don't want you hurt."

"Baby you being tied up in something that you don't deserve will hurt me more than whatever the ancestors and this curse have in store for me."

~U~

Angela's heart was breaking; the pain steady hum radiating through her entire body as she sat pressed into Paul's side. She looked at his profile as he drove down the road, his eyes were pinched and she wondered if he was feeling even an ounce of what she was. Was it really true, as a wolf could he feel how badly she hurt because of his actions, could he suffer because what he was making her go through. At the surface Angela hoped that he was; the angry part of her wanted him to suffer to feel the pain, to be miserable right along with her. But she knew better, the love she had for him would always out weigh the hurt or anger she was feeling and that was the chunk of her soul that didn't want him to hurt, that didn't want to see anything but mischief and light in his eyes. All she could do was hope that maybe unlike what Embry went through with Leah she would be the one suffering and not her wolf.

~U~

Some would say he was a fucking idiot; at this very second his imprint was walking away from him sobbing and he wasn't doing a damn thing about it. Funny thing though, Paul didn't agree; he wasn't an idiot. No fucking way could keeping the girl he loved; shit the only girl he would ever love safe and free was an idiotic thing to do, and no fucking way could keeping his heart protected be that stupid either. No what he was doing was right, and maybe the fact that he wasn't paralyzed with pain proof enough that he was doing the right thing.

Paul nodded to himself yeah, he was doing the right thing.