VI. Serendipity
Once again, to her dismay, Nina found it difficult to meet Kim's eyes when she picked her up the following morning. She yearned to return to normalcy, though the more she thought about it, the farther away such a thing seemed. Despite the short amount of time that had gone by, it felt as though everything had changed… she hadn't yet decided if it were for the worse or better.
"Feeling better today?" she asked, turning to face Kim as she drove. Kim nodded in response, sending a mild grin along with it.
"I can breathe today, so that's a plus."
Jared had began to sit with them at lunch. It was strange, but a small part of Nina felt that it was just right. He always sat beside Kim, giving both of them the opportunity to shoot Nina a look across the table- it also allowed Kim to blush with less of a chance of him noticing.
His eyes were smudged with purple marks again, and she wondered what kept him from getting sleep so frequently. She, herself, was a heavy sleeper. Having adjusted to ignoring the occasional all-night bender of her mother's, she could sleep through practically anything.
"What're you going to do without an art class?" Kim asked, taking a bite of the apple at hand.
Nina shook her head and shrugged, opening up the container of Emily's leftovers. She and Kim had been warming it up in the main office's lounge when they had heard that the school was suddenly without an art teacher.
"You're into art?" Jared asked, an eyebrow raised. He was shoving his mouth with the school's hamburger lunch but had seemed to come up for air when the subject related to Nina.
She stared at him dully across the table.
"Photography? Art in itself?"
"Okay, okay, I'm not dumb," he grumbled back at her, holding their eye-contact as he did so. "I just didn't connect the two," he rolled his eyes and chuckled as he took another bite of the burger.
"I'm just mad she didn't say anything to our class, you know?" Nina had broken their eye-contact and regarded both him and Kim when she spoke, the hand holding her fork moving animatedly. "If I was going to suddenly run out of town, I might mention it," she shrugged, "at least to the seniors," she chuckled.
"She just disappeared? Your teacher?" something twitched in Jared's eyes as he spoke, a flicker of insecurity that was foreign coming from him.
"That's basically what Principal Beck said," she nodded slowly.
"Huh…"
Their English class was spent proofreading their paper, and Nina found a small part of herself wishing the assignment wasn't nearly over. She glanced at Jared out the side of her eye occasionally as they worked, and he returned the glance almost every time. As with lunch, he had taken to accompanying Nina to her locker after the final bell, always finding some reason to squeeze at her elbow or gently clap a hand onto her shoulder blade before leaving. His temperature always alarmed her, but she tried her best to disregard it.
Long after school had ended and Kim had dropped her off at home, Nina lay in bed, completed history homework beside her. She was bored with high school and the simple work that came along with it. If not for Kim- and Jared- she would've considered doing something drastic and leaving the reservation ahead of time, perhaps seeking out one of her father's relatives and hoping they lived somewhere interesting.
She stood, wandering to the vanity beside her window and peering into the mirror.
Growing up, she had been quite jealous of all the other kids on the reservation who had dark eyes and prominent features that matched their culture, though as more time passed since she lost her father, she had grown rather fond of the things that tied her to him. She had his eyes, a rich blue that- as Jared had pointed out- resembled the sea. Her nose was fairly small like her father's as well, and her skin was slightly lighter than that of those around her. Her hair, while resembling her mother's in its inky color and straightness, was much thinner and softer than Kim's, and she made a point to keep it just longer than shoulder-length.
She was relaxed as she scanned over her features and nearly leapt from her skin at the drumming on her window, jumping backwards with a sharp gasp before her eyes found the source.
Jared.
She opened the window without a second thought, her eyebrows creasing with confusion.
"What're you-"
"Are you free?"
She raised an eyebrow as she cast a look over her shoulder, "Now?"
"Yes!" He nodded eagerly, his face stricken with worry- it unsettled her. "Please," he added, his tone softening.
She nodded.
Wordlessly, and seemingly catching his breath, Jared offered a hand up to her. She looked to her bedroom door once more, ensuring it was locked, before taking his hand and swinging her legs out the window frame.
"What's going on?" she asked, feet firmly meeting the ground, letting go of his hand as they did so. He began walking quickly.
"Emily, uh-" he squeezed his eyes shut, "Emily just got attacked by a bear, and her family's on their way from the Makah rez, but we need to go see if she's-"
"Attacked by a bear?"
He nodded, his jaw tensing up and the muscles of his cheek twitching.
"Where's Sam?"
He shut his eyes again and swallowed, hesitating before he spoke, "... with the council, explaining what happened and what to do."
His long legs were carrying him quickly through her backyard, and she struggled to keep up with merely walking. Her mind was racing as the gravity of the situation settled on her shoulders.
Emily attacked by a bear.
Nina had read of such instances in travel blogs she had discovered within the last month, but each seemed a million miles away- something that only happened in stories. And yet that kind, warm woman that had welcomed her into her home time and time again had become someone out of a story. She was horrified.
To her relief, Jared began speaking again. His voice was crackly and lacked its usual confidence, and she was slightly relieved to know that he, too, was struggling to accept what was going on.
"Paul's supposed to be picking us up to head over to the hospital," he muttered, swallowing hard.
They were walking alongside the road, heading in the general direction of Forks. It was raining, though Jared seemed unphased, and Nina merely tugged the hood of her sweatshirt up over her head, nervously tying the strings into a loose bow as she did so.
Like clockwork, a set of headlights turned onto the strip of road they walked on, the truck roaring as it slowed down beside them.
"There we go," Jared grabbed at her hand, a light tremor shuddering between them. He opened the passenger door for her before hopping into the bed of the truck, slapping roughly at the roof.
"Are you not…" she turned in her seat as she pulled the door shut, speaking out the back window to him.
"Motion sickness, remember?"
His hand snaked through the open window, warm and callused, and grabbed onto hers, squeezing it as he settled into the back. Paul began driving, white knuckles gripping at the wheel, and Jared's hand remained wrapped around hers. She left it as it was.
"Paul Lahote," he finally removed a hand from the steering wheel, crossing it over himself to shake her hand.
"Nina Nash," she returned the shake, nodding pleasantly.
"I know," Paul cracked a smirk, returning his hand to the wheel and casting a glance at Jared through the rearview mirror. Nina stared at him for just a moment longer before facing forwards once more. They rode in near silence through the dark of the night, a heavy air having set down on them. Every now and then, Jared would squeeze her hand a little tighter, and Nina found herself ignoring the guilt before it could even manifest itself.
When they arrived in Forks, Jared's grip became iron, and Paul's knuckles regained their pale strain against the steering wheel. Nina had been there only a handful of times, passing through with Kim or coming and going with her parents. She knew a good majority of the reservation felt weary towards the small town, and she had to admit that she had even allowed a small bit of that apprehension to set in herself.
The hospital was sterile and the lights hurt her eyes, but more than anything, Nina couldn't help the unease that settled in her chest as she was reminded of her last visit to a hospital. Even through the transition from parking-lot to reception area, Jared and her hands had remained interlocked, his heat radiating from his palm and fingertips and trickling up her wrist.
He and Paul honed in on a woman and began towards her. Nina recognized her, but the name didn't come to her until the boys started speaking.
"Sue," Jared spoke, his voice low and still trembling slightly, "how is she?"
"She's going to be fine," she assured him, bringing a hand to his upper arm, "they're stitching up what they can and bandaging everything else." He and Paul breathed simultaneous sighs of relief, Paul turning and plopping into the nearest chair. Nina could've sworn she heard the wood splinter under his weight.
"Jared…" Sue spoke again, her dark eyes finding Nina's with curiosity, "is this her?"
An eyebrow of Nina's quirked immediately, and she looked up to Jared's face as he grinned slightly, nodding back in response to Sue.
"It is," he lifted up his jaw with pride, an air of his normal confidence breathing back into him, "Sue, this is Nina Nash. Nina," he looked down at her for a moment, "Sue Clearwater."
After what had felt like an eternity, she released Jared's hand and reached it out to Sue, mustering a smile brought forth entirely from the relief of Emily's imminent recovery. Instead, Sue wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. Jared chuckled down at them quietly as Nina returned the embrace, her cheeks heating up.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Nina," Sue beamed, releasing her. "She's beautiful," she elbowed at Jared's side, sending a wink up at him.
He blushed slightly but nodded nonetheless, turning his attention back to Nina with a smile, "She sure is."
"Oh stop," Nina pushed at his abdomen, fighting the heat from erupting across her face. He caught her wrist quickly- faster than she had imagined possible- and was pulling her back against him. While she was unsure of where the affection had come from, and certainly unsure of what it meant, she allowed herself to relax against him and soak in the warmth, if for no other reason than the tragedies that had taken place that night.
The three of them settled into the waiting room chairs alongside Paul, and time ticked by tirelessly with no updates on Emily's condition. Nina was seated on the end with Jared by her side, and he had resumed his grip on her hand.
Her eyes found the round clock on the wall, the hands indicating it was nearing midnight. She thought of her finished homework on her bed, the radio humming along quietly to an empty room. She imagined her mother somewhere on the other side of the house, perhaps sprawled out uncomfortably in her own bedroom, remnants of whatever choice of poison still lingering in a coffee mug. As the image came alive in her mind, she peered down the line of seats at Sue Clearwater and found it hard to ever imagine her in such a vile position.
She derailed that train of thinking and yawned, pulling her feet up to tuck beneath herself.
"What happened with the bear, do you know?" She spoke quietly, tilting her face upwards to Jared's.
He sucked his cheeks in, thinking for a moment, before shaking his head slightly. His eyes settled onto the wall across the room from them, "She was probably just out exploring… probably got too close to some cubs."
With a slight nod of her own, she accepted his response, thinking for another moment.
"Who found her?"
Jared's eyes dropped back to her, "Me."
She subconsciously squeezed at his hand a little harder.
It wasn't until nearly two in the morning when Sue told Nina and the boys that they should go home. They had still received no further news on Emily's condition, and Paul was asleep in his seat, grumbling. The very thought of waking up in just over six hours was something Nina couldn't even- didn't want to even- fathom. She was still wondering as it was why Jared had asked her to come along to the hospital. In the moment, she hadn't questioned it- merely gone. But as they wandered sleepily back to Paul's truck, she was struck with just how strange it was that he had shown up to her house with such a request.
Exhaustion had set in so deeply that Nina didn't even protest when Paul pulled into her driveway, she doubted her mother was conscious enough to be awoken by the rumbling of the truck. Her hand was on the door handle when Jared's squeezed hers again. She released the handle and turned to face him once more through the back window.
His eyes were heavy looking at her, but there was still an essence of warmth that she found in them frequently.
"Thanks," he murmured, grinning softly.
She nodded and squeezed back at his hand before releasing it and hopping out.
Nina had never really minded waking up early.
When they were living in Vancouver with her father, it wasn't uncommon for him to wake her up- sometimes even in the middle of the night- to go on a sunrise hike. A small part of her even liked getting up before the sun, simply because of how amazing it had felt to see it with her father all those times.
The morning after spending the majority of the night in a hospital waiting room, however, did not invoke such excitement.
Not only was she merely unhappy about being overtired, but she was still searching for a reason as to why Jared had brought her along. She hadn't really seen him interact with anyone else at school, and she had assumed Sam was his closest friend, and even seeing Paul suddenly with them was strange in itself. As she trudged through her morning routine, she turned over each possible connection between it all- there had to be something that would bring it all together to make sense.
She had no explanation to Kim for her grogginess other than a mention of a "long night," and thankfully- as usual- Kim didn't pry. They instead began discussing what they could do or where they could go for a weekend outing. They still had nothing set when they arrived at school.
Even Nina, despite all the unbelievable things that had been happening in those last weeks, was shocked when Paul Lahote joined them for lunch that day.
He plopped down comfortably beside her, his burliness taking up the greater portion of the booth. Kim's eyes flashed to Nina, shock and question pooling up. When Nina looked to Jared, he was chuckling.
"Nice of you to join us," Jared teased.
Paul stared back at him with a mocking grin and narrowed eyes, "Yeah, well, I don't have another choice anymore, do I?"
Nina and Kim shared raised eyebrows, and all joking left Jared's face, his head shaking slightly back and forth.
"I know, I know," Paul grumbled, gesturing with his hands, palms facing outwards. He grabbed one of the sandwiches off of his tray and jammed half of it into his mouth, exaggeratedly rolling his eyes as he did so.
"Paul," Jared spoke pointedly, waiting for the other boy's attention, "this is Kim," he gestured to the girl besides him, and Nina saw her cheeks flush just at him speaking her name. Her face glowed lightly with amusement.
With the tilt of his head and a flicker between Kim and Jared, Paul nodded across the table at her.
"Hey," he swallowed his food, "you're Nina's friend?" He gestured between the two.
Kim nodded and sat up a little straighter, grinning.
"Sweet," he took his second, and final, bite of the first sandwich, Kim's eyes lingering on him with trepidation, "so you were all together when you went on that cool hike," he nodded to himself as he spoke, the gears turning in his head.
"It was incredible, Paul, you've got to see some of the pictures," Nina finally spoke, noticing Kim's apprehension towards him growing with every carnivorous attack of his lunch.
"Jared showed me," he shrugged casually, taking a sip of his drink.
Nina raised an eyebrow, glancing in Jared's direction briefly. He had paled.
"You took pictures from the top?" She turned her attention totally to him, struggling to remember even seeing his phone out.
His mouth opened slightly and cast a glare in Paul's direction before coming back to her, slowly nodding, "Yeah, I-uh- I got some when you were snapping yours," he looked off towards the windows, biting at his lip.
Nina stared at him for another moment, eyes narrowing. Kim had turned to look at him as well, though her face was softened- perhaps thinking of how happy she had been to have spent a whole day with him. Nina dropped her eyes and sucked in her own cheeks, swallowing down whatever had been daring to gather in her throat.
When she looked back up, Paul's eyes were- again- flickering back and forth between Kim and Jared. He shook his head and averted his eyes, something twitching in his jaw.
Later that day, as Kim drove Nina home, their discussion led them back to lunch.
"Why do you think Paul Lahote sat with us today?" Kim asked, glancing at Nina for a moment.
She thought about it, her questions from that morning still lingering in her head.
"I'm not sure, I guess him and Jared are friends now," she shrugged.
"Maybe he likes you," Kim wiggled her eyebrows, a hand reaching over the slap at her leg playfully.
Nina brought her eyes to the greenery passing by them, and while she wasn't sure what the reason actually was, she was positive that that wasn't it. She shook her head, her heart tumbling around her ribcage as she remembered Jared holding her hand the night before.
"I don't think that's it."