Chapter 3

There was no getting rid of Claire. I did my best, I really did, but ever since last monday she has made it a mission of her own to become my friend. How she was able to get me to the mall in Port Angeles I had no idea, but I had no choice. Claire all of a sudden had shown up at my door to ask if I wanted to come. I wanted to say no, but gran ushered me outside before I could even say something. Happy that someone wanted to do something with me.

"So, what do you think?" she asked me when we walked through the mall of Port Angeles. Claire had dragged me here on a friday afternoon. Told me she needed new clothes.

"Huh?" I asked her, confused. What had she been talking about?

"Okay, what is keeping your mind so busy?" she asked. I sighed. I wanted to tell her, but couldn't. I wasn't sure if she was aware of the supernatural.

"Luna. It is okay. You can tell me. I know what you are." I stopped walking. Turned around, faced her. In shock.

"How…?" I asked her confused. I didn't tell her. I never said anything about my secret in the past week to her. In fact. She was always the one talking. I usually listened, only commented when it was absolutely necessary. If she had not show up at my house this afternoon all of a sudden I wouldn't even be here.

"Quil, my boyfriend…. He is one. He actually is the one who you met in the forest earlier this week." She carefully began. I closed my eyes for a moment. They knew…. Of course they knew…

"Oh…" was all I could say. I didn't know what else to say. Claire nervously whipped from one foot to another when I stayed quiet for a few minutes.

"I… Let's go home." I muttered. I wasn't in the mood anymore to shop. I turned around, wanted to walk away, but Claire grasped my arm.

"So that is it?" she began, irritated with me. "You hear what we know about you and you turn your back on it? You don't want to face it?"

I hesitated. She was right at that. I didn't want to face, but now I had to.

"Can we talk somewhere private?" I asked her. I didn't want to talk openly about why I had come to live with my grandma in the mall.

"How about we have some dinner somewhere?" she suggested. I agreed with that. It was around 7PM anyways. Aside from that, no one would be paying attention to our conversation in a restaurant. We decided to take a break on shopping (I was not looking for any clothes at all. Claire was though. She needed new clothes). Claire led me to a cute, but small restaurant. A waiter showed us to our spot.

When we sat down the waiter came to give us our menu's and asked for our drinks. When he left I looked at Claire.

"Promise me you won't say anything to Quil or his friends." I didn't want to say pack just in case anyone was listening in.

Claire nodded in agreement.

"I promise. I won't." She said. I looked at her. Knew she was really promising me that. For this one moment I trusted her. I sighed. Took a sip from my drink that was just brought to us by the waiter before I started to tell her half of the story that happened in Langundo.

Claire listened intently the entire time. The waiter came back to take our order so I had to stop for a moment, but when he was gone I continued. Told her what happened with Nathan, how I survived, because he saved, but that Nathan got bitten by a vampire. How everyone thought it was my fault that Nathan died, while it wasn't.

"So that is when the chief banished me from the reservation." I told her in all honesty. Claire looked up in shock.

"Banished you?" she asked, disbelieving. I nodded.

"Yeah… And my family somehow didn't want to move to La Push or Forks with me." I sighed. I still have no idea why they didn't want to move back. They just refused. Especially dad was against it. He didn't even like it that we used to visit grandma (without him of course).

Mom dropped us off and then left. Never wanted to stay for long.

"Well, that is weird." Claire admitted. I agreed with her. I knew dad was keeping a secret, but had yet to figure out what it was, but not right now.

"I agree, but what is done is done. Gran was thankfully sweet enough to take me in." I said. Feeling grateful for what gran is doing for me. Gran didn't hesitate. She just said 'yes' when we asked her.

"You're really lucky to have her." Claire said just when our food came. We had ordered a short while ago, but only now I felt how hungry I was. Claire looked at her phone for a moment, but then put it back in her bag.

"Everything okay?" I asked her carefully while taking a bite from food. It was delicious. Claire for sure picked out the best restaurant. Which I was very thankful for.

"Quil has called me, again." She muttered. Well, now I knew why her phone was going off a lot over the past few hours. I didn't want to say anything to her, but she clearly knew.

"Why?" I asked her, confused. She sighed.

"I haven't told him that I left town for a few hours. I just…" she seemed to be looking for the right words.

"I just wanted to show him I can do things on my own. Without their protection you know and I was hoping that hanging out with you…"

"Would ease his mind?" I asked her. Claire nodded. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I did understand her. I was a shape shifter after all. I could protect her from vampires, I think… I knew I wasn't strong enough to actually defeat one, but still.

"Yeah… But I have a feeling he is still going to be really angry at me when I get back home." I shook my head at that.

"I am sure he will be relieved and happy that you're still okay and came back home in one piece." I reassured her. Claire shrugged.

"I highly doubt it." She muttered. I looked at her. She was really worried about Quil's reaction when she would come home.

"You're his imprint aren't you?" I asked her curiously. Claire smiled softly when I mentioned that.

"Yeah. We met about two to three years ago. Was visiting my cousin Emily when he walked in the house. He looked in my eyes and we knew from that moment on we would be together for the rest of our life's." Claire began. I smiled. That was something I was hoping for one day would happen to me. Not right now. Not with everything that is going, but just, one day I hope to find the love of my life.

"Six months after we met my parents and I moved from the Makah Reservation to La Push. They learned about the truth of the supernatural through Billy, the chief of the reservation." I gulped. There was a chief? I didn't want to believe it, but here I sat. Right across the table from Claire where she told me La Push had in fact a chief. Great, just great.

"Quil and I can now see each Other whenever we want. We don't have to be so far apart from each other, which is nice, but…" Somehow I had a feeling that more was coming.

"He can also be quite protective. Which is the case with most of the shape shifters once they have found their soulmates." Claire sighed. Took a bite from her food, but I stayed quiet. Had a feeling she was not done talking just yet.

"Which is fine of course. I love to have the feeling that I'll always be protected, but, I would also love it if he would just let me go out on my own for once you know." She said. I could understand it.

"Yeah. I understand. When I dated Blake, before everything happened, he also was quite protective. Commanding from time to time, but still… And I wasn't even his soulmate, but I guess it's part of who they are?" I suggested. Claire agreed to that. I had to admit, it was nice having someone to talk to about all of this stuff. I had Grandma of course, but to just have one friend who understood it all was really nice. Deep down I am glad that Claire didn't give up on me.

"And it only gets stronger with having a soulmate." She said, smiling lightly now. I was glad I could help her feel less worried about it all.

We ate the rest of our food in silence, when the waiter came with our paycheck I wanted to be the one to pay for the food. Claire protested, but I didn't want to have any of it.

"It's fine. Really." I said to her. Reassuring her it was indeed absolutely fine.

"Any word from Quil?" I asked her once we were back at my car.

"Yeah, just got like the fiftieth call…" she sighed. I rested my hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it will be fine." I told her, but she shrugged. I looked at my mobile phone to see it was about 10PM. That late already? We wouldn't be home until 11PM.

"Hey, you want to stay over?" I asked Claire once we got in my car and I drove away. She looked at me. Seemed to hesitate.

"It's late. Once we're in Forks it's about eleven and then we still have to go to La Push." I explained to her when I drove through Port Angeles.

"I didn't bring anything with me though." Claire answered when we left Port Angeles behind us and I rode on Olympic Highway.

"That is okay. You can borrow something from me. It may be a bit too big, but still…" I offered her. I didn't really want to drive all the way to La Push this late.

"Yeah. That is okay, thanks." A silence fell over us. There wasn't much we had to say. We still had a twenty minute ride left when I saw Claire looking out the window, worried. I could tell she was tensed about something.

"You okay?" I asked her. Claire shook her head.

"I thought…" she seemed to be looking for words. "I thought I saw something. Quil maybe. Could you please…?" I knew what she was trying to say. I looked to my right for a moment, but didn't see anything. Listened, but didn't hear anything. That is when Claire called out my name in panic. I looked up. Only to be blinded by the big lights from a huge truck. It was swaying from left to right. My eyes opened wide in shock. I turned my steering wheel to the right, in an attempt to avoid the truck, but wasn't fast enough. Claire screamed when The truck hit us with such a speed that we toppled over a few times until my car crashed against a tree.