Hi everyone! As always, thank you so much for all the love and support! This chapter is a little bit of a filler chapter and leading into things, so I'll be back with another update soon. Sending all my love!
Chapter 19-
Days were passing by happily with Embry, and Aria was easily falling into the spirit of cheek kisses and hand holding along the way. She continued to turn down the invitations from both Embry and Jacob about joining them for lunch at their table- even Kim, Jared's… imprint had approached her on the subject, but she remained seated with Quil, who was slowly getting past his malice towards the others.
"So, you'll never guess who gave me a ride home the other day," Quil began, jamming half of his sandwich into his mouth.
Aria cringed as he loudly chewed but raised an eyebrow nonetheless, "who?"
Quil held up a finger, telling her to wait, as he jammed another bite in and chewed it aggressively. Aria murmured something in disgust and took a bite from the fruit salad in front of her.
"Bella Swan, who else?"
With a sputter and a choking cough, Aria stared incredulously at him from across the table. The squeak of a chair leg from somewhere behind her cued her into the fact that Embry was listening to her nearly choke on a piece of cantaloupe.
"Was she lurking around the rez again?" She asked, taking a sip of water.
"Of course," Quil rolled his eyes, "you-know-who still isn't speaking to her, and she's not taking no for an answer."
"Yikes," Aria mumbled, the corner of her mouth moving for a split second, "it wouldn't surprise me if she's staking out his place," she chuckled.
Quil laughed and gestured his hands towards her, "you literally peeked into his windows at five a.m. to see if he was lying about being sick."
Aria dropped her mouth in mock-insult and pointed back across the table at him, "you helped!"
"Yeah, and we still didn't get any answers about that," Quil rolled his eyes again and went back to his sandwich. Aria pursed her lips and couldn't stop herself from casting a look over her shoulder.
Embry was already watching her with a small smile on his face.
"Okay, okay, okay, so Quil is gonna phase or whatever, too?" Aria was, for the first time, chattering excitedly about something wolf related. She and Embry were walking to her house after school, the rain having let up for the afternoon.
"He's gotta," Embry shrugged, his eyes twinkling at Aria's willingness to talk about such a subject, "he's an Ateara, he's definitely got the gene. And he's our age."
"I can't wait until he knows and he can start coming to Emily's," Aria smiled, shaking her head and looking up at her house as they approached it. Along with getting used to Embry's affection, she had also gotten used to him walking her home- Reanna was still not speaking to her or giving her rides home from school.
"Speaking of," Embry turned on her with squinted eyes, stopping in the yard and pointing a finger at her, "you've gotta start coming to Emily's before Quil beats you to it."
"Okay, okay," Aria giggled, gesturing with her hands.
Soon, the weekend had arrived again, and Aria found herself bustling about the house in preparation of going to Emily's, as she had promised Embry she would do. He was on patrol but had assured her that he would be there by lunch, and she nearly cringed at the fact that that thought made her chest flutter with delight. Imprint or not, she couldn't deny that being with Embry brought her more happiness and peace than she could ever remember feeling before.
"Aria, will you make sure to remind Emily that we'll be going to Seattle next weekend to sell art? I want her to have plenty of time to finish anything up."
She murmured a yes to her mother as she was slipping on her shoes. Behind her, Reanna stomped down the stairs.
"You're going to her house?" Reanna sneered, her lip curling in the same way that Aria's always did- something they had clearly inherited from the Clearwater side of the family.
With a sigh, Aria turned around and nodded, raising an eyebrow in challenge to her sister, "I am. Want me to send along a message from you, too?"
"Ya know, I've got one for you: piss off, Aria."
Aria's mouth opened, the corners twisting up with amusement.
"Reanna Elizabeth," their mother gasped, "don't you speak to your sister like that."
The smirk was wiped off of Reanna's face but seemed to find home on Aria's instead as their mother stared scornfully at the older girl. With a wink in Reanna's direction, Aria was back on her feet and walking out the door, only pausing to say goodbye to her mother on the way out.
While she wasn't crazy about the walk to Emily's, it hadn't rained yet that morning, and a strange part of her enjoyed the prospect of peeking into the woods and seeing a glimpse of one of the boys in their wolf form. She'd chuckle at herself every time she thought such a thing and pretend that same idea didn't make her cringe.
Emily was waiting on the porch when she got there, and the older girl's face looked as though she were about to burst with excitement. Aria hadn't even made it to the bottom steps before Emily was squealing.
"Aria, it happened!"
Aria had raised an eyebrow just a second before Emily flicked her left hand out, a small diamond ring adorning the proper finger, and then Aria's face had lit up and mouth opened with delight. In just a second, Emily was running down the front steps and throwing her arms around Aria with such enthusiasm it nearly took her breath away.
As the initial excitement and hugs died down, the two wandered inside where Emily was hard at work throwing together the batter for blueberry muffins. Aria seated herself at the table and was listening diligently as Emily told her of Sam's proposal on the front porch just the night before.
"Alright, enough about me," Emily smiled, leaning forward on the counter, "let's talk about prom."
Aria lightheartedly rolled her eyes and shrugged, "what about prom?"
"When are we going dress shopping?" Emily's face faltered for a moment, "if you still want me to take you?"
"Oh my God, yes, yes," Aria spoke quickly, "yes, I still want you to take me."
Emily smiled and nodded, relief etching her scarred features.
"And I'm assuming Embry's taking you, right? We'll have to make sure he gets a haircut right before- just remind me, I've been doing them for all the boys, but I'll make sure I take my time with his," Emily chattered on, her eyes faraway as she planned. When she turned back to Aria, her lips were puckered and her cheeks red. She raised an eyebrow.
"Embry hasn't asked me," Aria shrugged.
Emily rolled her eyes and grinned at the younger girl, "well of course he's going to. That boy would die before he disappointed you, and I don't even think most of that is because of the imprint."
Aria blushed at her words and shrugged again, settling back into her seat as Emily began talking about what types of dress shapes would look best on Aria's small body and what colors would look good against her skin. She couldn't help the way her mind wandered to what colors may look nice on Embry, though she quickly decided that any color would look good on him.
Their morning passed peacefully, and Aria wondered why she had waited so long before coming back, though the information about the wolves surely did play into it.
Emily was pulling a tray of muffins out of the oven and talking about the art fair her and Naomi were going to when the harsh rumble of a truck pulling in broke the peaceful atmosphere. They looked at one another with raised eyebrows. When 'whoops' were heard from the driveway, their eyes narrowed and traveled to the door.
Jared entered first, twinkling eyes and a daring smile, his eyes honing in on the fresh muffins almost immediately. He was reaching for one when the door opened again, Embry coming in behind him.
In one swift motion, he had lifted Aria from her seat, sat down in it, and placed her back on his lap. He smiled at her cheekily and rubbed at her arm before reaching in for a muffin and handing it to her. Jared rolled his eyes dramatically, and Embry snagged one for himself.
"Hey, you," Embry pressed his warm nose to her jawbone for a moment before starting in on the muffin.
"Hey!" Emily scolded, swatting at Jared's hand as he reached for another muffin, "save some for your brothers," she chuckled.
The screen door opened again, and Aria and Emily simultaneously looked towards it.
In stepped Bella Swan.
"Who's this?" Emily murmured, looking to Jared and Embry.
Aria groaned, rather loudly, and dropped her head back onto Embry's shoulder, shutting her eyes and pleading in her mind that it wasn't true. She felt the rumble of Embry's laughter vibrate through her and vaguely heard Jared reply to Emily with, "Bella Swan, who else?"
The hand of Embry's that rested along her hip squeezed gently, and she took that as a cue to raise her head and open her eyes. She did so begrudgingly and he patted at her thigh in return.
"So you're the vampire girl…" Emily mused. Aria chuckled and cast a look over her shoulder at Bella.
"So you're the wolf girl," Bella returned, pressing her weight on the doorway.
"Guess so. Well, an engaged one," Emily glowed, waving her hand in Bella's direction.
Aria tuned out of the forced conversation at that point, opting to wiggle in Embry's lap to look at his face. She smiled without even thinking about it and allowed a finger to carefully trace his cheekbone and land in his hair, peacefully admiring him as she did so. Beneath her touch, he was practically glowing, the muffin in his hand long forgotten.
It was only once Sam had entered and pulled Emily into his arms that Aria came back to earth. Paul and Jacob shoved at one another through the doorway, Paul joining them at the table with a smirk. A tense fog set down in the small house and was only lifted when Jacob cocked his head and Bella and him left.
The screen door had only just shut behind them when Aria planted her palms on the table and looked around the room expectantly. Both Paul and Jared's eyes met hers with amusement.
"What was that all about?" Aria asked, the corners of her mouth turning upwards as she looked between them and Embry.
"Why don't you tell her, big shot?" Jared jabbed at Paul with his elbow, smirking.
"Yeah, since you're the one who caused this shit to happen," Embry added in, his eyebrows flexing upwards as he did so.
Paul smirked, and Aria turned her attention back to him, noticing the way that Embry had finished his muffins and brought both hands to sit comfortably on her hip bones. She tried to ignore the redness in her face as she listened to Paul start speaking.
"Listen, listen," he chuckled darkly, "leech lover was stalking around Jake's again, comes up, hits me," he gestured incredulously, "and I phased." He shrugged casually and jammed a muffin into his mouth, paper and all.
Aria felt her face twist and looked back at Embry with a raised eyebrow. He puckered his lips and nodded with a shrug. A moment later, while processing Paul's words, she felt her mouth open slightly with confusion.
"... wait," she held up a finger, "leech lover?"
Jared and Paul chuckled, sharing a glance with one another, and even Sam and Emily smirked slightly. Aria turned to face Embry again.
He tried to hide his amusement as he spoke, "ya know, how leeches… drink blood, and," he blew some air out of his nose with a laugh, "so do… vampires?"
Aria couldn't even attempt to hide the disgust on her face, and just moments passed by before laughter rang throughout the small house. Even once the laughter died down, Aria's upper lip was still curled with distaste as she processed the implications of such a name being given to Bella Swan.
"So that means…" she mused, looking around the room for validation. With a nod from Jared, the corners of her mouth curved downwards and her nose crinkled, "Bella Swan is- what? Dating a… a," she struggled still to come to terms with the truth of the situation, her brain still refusing to accept such a reality in its entirety, "… vampire?"
Once again, the room filled with laughter, and while she couldn't ignore the disdain for Bella Swan, Aria relished in the light and happiness that was surrounding her. And while she would probably always struggle to accept all that was supposed to be considered her "new normal," she was overwhelmed with comfort and relaxation in those moments with everyone.
Aria spent the rest of the day at Emily's, and in that time, the boys came and went from patrols. It wasn't until just before dinner that Aria begrudgingly stood from Emily's table and began to get her shoes on.
"Oh!" Emily exclaimed, half of her face smiling excitedly at Aria from across the room. The younger girl raised an eyebrow. "Your birthday is next week!"
Aria chuckled lightly and nodded, standing once her shoes were successfully on.
"I'll call your mom, we'll figure something out for it."