"Blake," I sighed as I finally heard his voice on the other side of the line. I had called twice within the hour and he hadn't answered either time.
"Oh, hey, Ren," his voice sung like a child's. Oh poor, sweet, innocent Blake. He had no burdens or anything to worry about until now; would he feel remorse when I left?
"Blake," I paused for a second, the silence feeling like it wasn't long enough, I didn't want to say what I needed to say, "What's up?"
"Uh, nothing," he laughed. "Did you call for something?"
Yes. Yes. Yes. A million times yes.
"No, not really," I lied, taking a seat on the couch in the living room. Aunt Rose was standing behind me braiding my hair, humming almost silently.
"Well, it's nice to talk to you then, where have you been the last few days?" he joked. I knew he wasn't being serious, just asking a simple question to keep the conversation flowing, but I froze for a split second afraid he had heard that I 'ran away'.
"Oh, just hanging around, I haven't had much time to call," I folded up my knees under my seat.
"Same here," he said.
Again came the silence, scarier than hell. I knew a silence would mean good-bye, and I couldn't just hang up on Blake without him knowing the news.
"Hey Blake," I asked, as if I was calling him over to me. "If I tell you something, you promise you won't get mad at me?"
His childlike voice turned more serious, "Of course not! What's wrong, Ren?"
"My family," I breathed heavily twice, "We're moving. To Minnesota; all of us."
The scary silence came back.
"That's..." he trailed off, "That sucks. Are you glad you're moving?"
In a way I was, but I couldn't tell him that, "No, I agree. It totally sucks. Do you think you can tell everyone at school, about it? We're going to be packing up and stuff all week."
"Yeah, yeah, I can totally do that."
"Thanks Blake, you're a live saver. And- and I'm sorry for short notice, I just figured out myself an hour or so ago." The tears welled up, and my voice cracked, so I didn't say much more.
"No problem. Thank you for being my friend when nobody else would..." He said a bunch more and made a great monologue of it; and I barely heard it over my sobbing. He begged me to stop. So I promised I would and we said our good-byes fast.
When I hung up the phone, I tossed it to the floor and curled up on the arm of the couch. Aunt Rose put down my hair and held me as I cried for another twenty minutes, not "shh"ing me or telling me "it'll be all right" and that was fine with me. I didn't want to be told it was all right when I knew it wasn't.
My tears and sobs stopped abruptly when I felt my Aunt tense beside me. I looked over at her, opening my eyes wide open.
"What?" I pressed her. She continued to sniff the air. "What!?" I asked again, louder, tapping her shoulder lightly, "Aunt Rose, what do you smell?"
Her nose crinkled, "Chayton's back," and then she got up and tried to hide the gag as she left the room. "Why does he smell ten times worse than the others?" She called from the other room.
Chayton was here? Again? What did he want? Should I still be mad at him?
I asked myself millions of questions before popping off the couch and to the front door of the house. I was surprised that I was first to get the door. I opened it slowly and saw him standing there with his hands shoved into his jean pockets. He was wearing a shirt; such a rare sight.
"Hey, Ness," his smile almost made me brighten it up. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. I took a step forward and gave him a weak hug. His arms winded around me and he stepped in the house with me still wrapped up in him.
My father and mother both made their way into the room, mom was squeezing my father's hand; I saw; restraining him from whatever he was thinking about doing.
"Chayton," my mother rejoiced, reaching out towards him as he set me down, "It's great seeing you again. You know, I never got to thanking you for taking care of our Renesmee. Thank you so much!" She gave him a quick hug; not lingering too much. My father then got control of himself and held out his hand towards Chayton.
"Yes," his eyes brightened as he took a glance down at me for a second, then back up to Chayton, "Thank you very, very much. Our daughter is a handful and it must have been a hard deal to make sure she was safe twenty-four, seven," a smile lifted from his face was when I knew he was joking. Chayton took his hand and shook it firmly.
"It was," he breathed in heavily while looking down at me, "My pleasure."
I looked over at my father for a brief moment and saw his face was strained. He must have been trying to tune in to Chayton's thoughts; which was impossible. I don't know why my father couldn't hear Chayton, but it was freaky.
"Do you need anything else?" I tried to ask as politely as it was possible. I still wasn't totally happy about him coming to see us. I was still not over what had happened what seemed like months ago. Because it all happened when Jacob was here. And now he was not.
"Yes, actually, I-I," he all of a sudden got nervous and started to stutter, "I know it's a lot to ask of, but I need a place to stay; and Nessie," he almost reached out his hand to touch me; but brought it back when he saw my father's face, "I can't stand to stay away from you much longer, and I wouldn't be a bother...."
He wanted to live here? In a house of vampires? Was he crazy? Why was this so sudden? Then it hit me; Jacob was gone; now it was Chayton was here. I don't know why. Was he trying to win me over? Well, he wouldn't, I had my eyes only on one guy. Jacob Black. And whether he was coming back or not; he was the only guy I would ever be with ever, I vowed myself.
Had he heard about my pregnancy somehow? Would that be possible? I sighed, no, it couldn't have been then reason; nobody knew except the family.
"I can sleep on the couch, I won't eat much food; I'll go hunting a lot. Please, please, the pack practically hates me and I just--"
"Say no more," my father put his hand out, protesting further words from Chayton, "Of course you can stay here. In fact, you can help us move, we've just decided that we're moving up to Northern Minnesota. Perhaps Nessie can clue you in," he gestured towards me.
I glared over at my father; still upset that we had to move in the first place, "I didn't figure out that long ago, myself," I droned on, then saw the face my father was giving me, "But perhaps we could catch up, anyways, let's go take a seat in the living room." I tried not to sound like I didn't want to, but it was hard to lie to myself. My father smiled at me and then my mother and him left the room. Chayton and I walked towards the living room; keeping at least a foot away from each other; and sat only inches away on the couch; which made me a bit uncomfortable.
"Minnesota, huh?" He asked of me as he relaxed his back against the back of the couch.
"Yup, not my first choice, but it's in the best interest of the family. And whatever they want; I'm glad to please them. I don't really have any ties hear in Forks anymore," I said realizing I said more than was needed.
"Oh, yeah," he looked over at me quizzically and I immediately knew what he was about to bring about this conversation, "Jacob's gone, isn't he?"
I looked away, hoping maybe it would stop the tears. It sort of did.
"Oh, shit, Ness, I'm sorry," he pulled me so I was locked into his right arm; and I felt very awkward at that moment, "I won't bring it up again. Tell me something else, how have you been?"
I stared up at him, "No, talking just makes it worse, why don't you tell me more about how you've been?"
He took a deep breath; I could feel his chest inhale then exhale, "Sam wants to make me alpha."
This confused me and I felt a need to ask a question, "I thought the pack practically hates you since you imprinted on me?"
"Well, yeah," he admitted. "Nessie, I have to tell you something."
I think he was waiting for me to say 'go ahead' or something like that, but after more moments of silence, he continued you on.
"I never really got to telling you about myself, I guess. My life story; it's a crazy one. I'll start with my mother and father. Their from a Quiluete tribe that were a bit different then everyone else. Most of the wolves ancestors thought as the Quiluete rules to be of a religion. My parents had joined almost a anti-religion Quiluete one, you get what I'm saying?"
"No," I said quickly.
"They believed as Quiluete in being a philosophy instead. So, that's probably why you've never heard of them; they were hated by the regular Quiluetes. It goes back a long ways; two brothers being split in half or something... I don't want to tell the story, I'm afraid I'll tell it wrong or something. But anyways, that's how my parents met; they were both in the Quiluete philosophy. And they were both shape shifters; my mom being another so called "rare" females wolves."
This took me aback, "Both of your parents were werewolves?"
"Yes," and he smiled at the thought, "They're all dead now, though, eventually they had to "rid" of the unhealthy teachings of the Quiluetes. The whole idea of philosophy is dead now; eventually I just accepted it as a religion, afraid I would be killed also."
He stopped just enough for me to say, "Oh, that's horrible Chayton!"
I felt his shoulders shrug from underneath me, "It's all right. It was years ago. But anyways, since I'm 100% wolf, while all the rest of them are only 50%; I'm just more wolven. I'm stronger than the rest of them, I'm faster, and that's exactly why your father can't read my mind. Quiluetes are known for their dark eye color; that's why mine are darker than the rest."
A question quickly popped into my mind, "Does this have anything doing with the fact that your fur is ghost white?"
"Well, I'm not sure. For some reason, I think it had to do with the fact that I'm more of a wolf than the rest of them, but I'm not sure."
A minute of silence was then there, as I thought it all through. I had known Chayton, but never really known him all that well.
"And the best part is that I can block my thoughts while I'm with the pack, it's real easy for me to only think what I need to say. That's the reason Sam wants me to be alpha; I'm stronger than the rest of them."
This alerted me, "Sam's giving up his alpha position, why?"
"Well," by the sound of his voice, I could tell it was a long explanation, "As you know, Sam imprinted on Emily years ago. And now she's growing older; while Sam continues to stay the same age. It didn't bother her at first, but now she's bit older than him then she'd like to be. She finally talked to Sam about this and of course he agreed to stop phasing so they could start growing old together. But before he gives up he stops phasing, they want to get pregnant. Emily's afraid that if he stops phasing and then they conceive a child, he won't grow up to be a shape shifter... so as soon as they figure out she's pregnant, Sam's going to give it all up. And even then it will be a few months before he actually stops aging."
"Oh," I took in the information again. "That's cool, I bet their baby will be really beautiful." That was the first thing to pop into my mind; I didn't know why. This brought us toward the whole pregnant topic. Perhaps now was the time to tell him? No, I'd wait until tomorrow, I decided. I was too tired and cried out to deal with anything controversial.
"I think I'm gonna hit the hay," I yawned as I casually got my way out of his arms, glad to be able to stretch.
"You want me to walk you to the cottage?" He was to his feet in a millisecond, right after I.
"No." Actually, I did want to sleep in my bed again, but I knew that if I slept in the cottage, Chayton would probably end up sleeping on the ground outside my window. If I slept in my dad's old room; he would be comfortable on the couch. Plus, if anything went wrong with my 'pregnancy' I wasn't far away from Carlisle. "I'll sleep in my father's room tonight. I've just grown so accustomed to it, you know what I mean?"
He nodded and then wished me sweet dreams. I said the same thing back and retreated up the stairs; ready to bawl my eyes out once more until I was finally asleep.
