FOUR
{ EDEN }
The door to her bedroom was being banged on. Eden rose up in bed, glaring at the door through a curtain of long and wild dark brown hair, blowing at strands as they slipped down and right into her eyes. She stretched lazily and the knocking persisted.
"Bells, knock it off. It's Saturday, for fucks sake." Eden grumbled out to her sister as she hurried to slip on a pair of gray sweats and her cropped Aerosmith long sleeve. She grumbled when she realized that naturally, the Aerosmith shirt had ketchup stains on it and she discarded it, letting it settle into a pile on the floor. Grabbing a white cropped tank top and pulling it down over her head. Nearly shooting three feet into the air when the door to her room burst open and Bella stepped inside, letting the door bang shut softly behind her.
"You're just waking up?" Bella questioned.
"Did you just totally miss the fact that I stayed up until two playing Grand Theft Auto last night or..?" Eden questioned, flipping her head over to gather all her hair up into a messy bun. Once she'd tied a bandanna around her hair to catch loose and wildly overgrown bangs and keep them out of her eyes, she stood up. Gazing at her sister with a brow raised. "Why are you up so early anyway, hm?"
"I couldn't sleep." Bella yawned. Gathering Eden's pile of dirty clothes. Eden took them from her and gave a cranky look, shaking her head. "I'm not a child."
"Sorry." Bella apologized. The tension between them was still thick enough to pluck out of thin air.
Eden had barely said more than three words to her since Sam Uley saw fit to tell Eden everything, from what they were exactly to why they began shifting in the first place. It annoyed Bella because it wasn't like Eden needed yet another reason to distrust the Cullens or Edward and yet, Sam and the others in the pack had gladly just offered her one without realizing it.
"About the other day…" Bella started, shaking her head and going silent. "Forget it."
"That's probably the best thing for both of us to do, Bells. Because you don't want my honest opinion. You couldn't handle it."
"Why do you hate Edward so much?" Bella asked quietly. Grimacing at the glare her sister gave and the way her sister tensed up all over. Feeling bad about it, but at the same time, feeling like Eden didn't understand and she was too young to understand.
"I don't hate him. I just don't like the way he treats you. I don't like the fact that since you met him you've become this whole different person. I don't like the person you are whenever he's part of the equation, okay? Forget it… it's not like you're going to listen to anything anyone else has to say anyway. You haven't yet."
"Hey, hey… I'm trying, okay? I really am."
"And yet, what'd you do the second Jacob needed a break, hm?" Eden folded her arms over her chest, tapping a bare foot against the wooden floor of her bedroom. Sighing when Bella faltered and tried to excuse anything she'd done since January of the year before when she met the damn guy in the first place.
"I will admit. You are trying. You're not hiding away in your room anymore." Eden gave her that much. Giving a quiet huff as she held open the door to her bedroom and leaned against the doorway, gazing at her older sister. "If you're wondering if I'm gonna tell Dad, you don't have to. I still can't get my head around everything I've been told since that day and I'm not even going to attempt trying to convince our poor dad that we're not both losing our minds. So.. if that's what you came in here to ask, you have nothing to worry about out of me."
"Actually, Eden.." Bella took a deep breath and gazed at her younger sister, patting the spot on Eden's messy bed next to the spot she sat on. Eden sank down.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Paul."
"That guy who hates me for no apparent fucking reason?"
"He doesn't hate you."
"Fine. Then I annoy him for no apparent fucking reason. Same difference." Eden shrugged. Gazing at her sister. Reaching for a drumstick she'd discarded on her nightstand, turning it over in her hands because she wasn't entirely sure why, but talking or even thinking about the guy kind of.. Overwhelmed her. And the crux to this was that lately, he wasn't ever far from her mind at all.
" Maybe he's not such a bad guy." Bella made a sour face as she said it. She wouldn't even have been bothering to say it if it weren't for the strong gut feeling that there was so much more to the situation than she could begin to even fathom.
He may have told Bella to keep Eden away from him but Bella got this deep seated feeling in her gut that Paul didn't mean a word of it, deep down.
All of this went without saying, she definitely wasn't going to trust the guy easily around her little sister. He'd have to prove himself.
Eden reached out, placing the back of her hand against her sister's forehead. Shaking her head as she laughed. Bella raised a brow, "What was that for?"
"Just wondering if you had a fever." Eden muttered, shrugging.
"No. I don't. I just didn't want you to do that thing you tend to where someone does something one time and you kind of shut down and don't consider the possibility that they may not have been in the best situation."
"So you're admitting that if you hadn't gone to try and drag Jacob back from the ledge kicking and screaming, Paul never would've lost his shit and wolfed out… Right?"
"I guess so?" Bella questioned. Eden nodded. Smirking a little. "We all would've been so much better off if you hadn't gone. The things I've learned since that night are.. Look, I'm the one who prides herself on having an open mind here and I'm even having a little bit of a hard time processing it all, okay?" Eden laughed softly. Swinging her feet against the side of the bed.
"It is a lot to take in."
"One thing irritates me. You, my own sister.. You couldn't be bothered to take the time to tell me what Edward, what his family were. I had to learn it from people I barely know. I thought we were different than that, Bells." Eden sighed. Raising a hand, rubbing at her temples. She had a dull headache thanks to lack of sleep lately.
Her mind just kept replaying it all. Trying desperately to make sense of everything she now knew to be true without question.
"I wanted to keep you out of a lot of it, okay? I.. Look, you're my little sister. I had to stop and think about your safety."
"I'm not a child. I deserved to know. Maybe if I had known the whole story, I wouldn't have been such an unbearable twat when you first started bringing Edward around?" Eden admitted, gazing at her sister. Bella nodded. Managing a weak smile. Stating calmly, "It doesn't matter. Edward's gone. Now we're kind of left with what we do going forward."
"That we are." Eden mused. Standing, holding her hand out to her sister. Pulling Bella up off the bed. "C'mon. I'm freaking starving and if I'm gonna be awake at 8 am on a Saturday, I'm going to have Froot Loops and watch mindless television."
Bella laughed, going quiet. Following her younger sister down the stairs. The two of them fixing their bowls of cereal and migrating to the den. Sitting down and turning on the television set, getting lost in mindless television for a few hours.
{PAUL}
"Oh my god will you stop thinking about her?" Jacob grimaced, shooting Paul a dirty look. Paul flipped him off and trained his eyes on the treeline. They'd caught the scent of a Cold One earlier and given that it was dangerously close to the home Eden lived in, Paul had taken to wolf form. Staying in the forest. Listening. Stalking. Waiting on a leech to be stupid enough to make their presence known.
Sam apparently thought that if he sent Jacob out to help that Paul might go back to human form and come back in. All he'd managed to do was annoy an already irritable Paul Lahote even more.
And this all circled back to the fact that despite telling anyone and everyone who would listen that he fully intended to fight the fucking bond tooth and nail, the fact remained.. Eden Swan was his imprint and nothing was going to fall onto her because of her sister's questionable taste in the male species. Nope. Not on his watch.
"Ya know, for a guy who swears on his miserable, rotten life that you're going to fight the bond.. You think about her a lot." Jacob mused. Smirking to himself when Paul's head snapped towards him on a pivot and he was inches from Jacob, snarling and begging for a fight.
Jacob wasn't stupid. He'd figured Paul out already. All the fights lately were just Paul's way of getting Sam to keep him under lock and key. It was easier to fight the imprint bond if Paul couldn't just run the risk of exposing himself to said imprint by chance.
"You know fucking nothing, okay? I'm staying away and breaking imprint for her own fucking good. Trust me." Paul muttered after a few seconds. Shaking his head. Jacob chuckled. "Or you're doing it because deep down you're afraid she's gonna realize that being an imprint means she's going to be stuck with you."
Paul shrugged. "Pretty much what I fucking said already, Black. Maybe try cleaning out your damned ears now and then, kid?"
"So you're not the badass everyone thinks you are. Interesting." Jacob was doing it again, pushing his buttons.
The fact that Paul had managed to keep himself from exploding in rage twice now in the space of ten minutes told way more than Paul would ever allow himself to admit. It told Jacob just how hard it was to fight the bond.
And deep down, that didn't sit well with Jacob Black, not at all. He already hated that he had this self proclaimed curse and now, thanks to the Cullens and the other vampires arrival to the area, he'd been deprived of a normal life of any sort going forward. The last fucking thing Jacob Black wanted?
To lose his right to choose who he spent the rest of his fucked up life with. Because if he were going to choose, and he'd been bending over backwards to try and do that lately, it would be Bella.
But apparently, not only was it impossible to fight an imprint bond when one was made. It was impossible to will one to be made in the first place.
And somehow, knowing that Bella was not the one his inner wolf would choose for him hurt more than he'd realized.
Paul eyed Jacob. Smirking.
"Hell of a situation, hm?"
"What?" Jacob grumbled.
"I don't want to imprint on her, I never wanted my choice taken want to imprint but no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that it'll happen and it'll be Bella, it's not. And it eats at you because you know it."
"Like you know anything." Jacob scoffed, tensing just enough that Paul Lahote smirked in satisfaction because he knew full well his words hit their intended mark. The rest of the time spent in the little clearing just beyond the fence of the house that belonged to Charlie Swan was spent in silence.
Peaceful silence.
Silence that was shattered when Jacob spoke up quietly. " If I imprinted on Eden I don't think I'd try to fight it. You don't know how lucky you are, man. At least your inner wolf chose someone, Lahote. Think about the rest of us."
Paul shrugged. "Yeah, well I didn't fucking ask for it to happen. And I'm not about to cave in either."
"Funny, because in my mind that makes you weak. The fact that you're fighting this one thing so hard. People only fight something as hard as you're fighting when they feel like their back is against the wall and they're freaking out."
"Let's get one thing clear you little prick. I'm not fucking afraid." Paul was on his feet, squared up to Jacob. Towering over him by half an inch. Practically growling the words. Daring Jacob Black to take the first swing. To be the one who pushed him yet again and caused Sam to make the time spent away from Eden last that much longer.
Jacob chuckled and stepped back. Shaking his head. "Nope. Uh uh. I am not giving you the satisfaction, you dumb fucking idiot."
"C'mon, Black? You afraid I'll hand your ass to you again, hm?"
"Nope, not at all. I think it's pretty fucking pathetic, actually."
Paul was shaking he was so angry. Jacob took his cue to leave and Paul sat there, punching tree trunks, watching the forest for any sign of the Cold One he'd caught the scent of earlier and letting Jacob's parting words eat away at him.
"I'm not scared. I just don't fucking want it to happen. And if she really knew me, she wouldn't either. My own mother couldn't stick around… what the hell makes me think she'd be any different?" Paul mused to himself as he sat in the darkness. Watching. Waiting.
Daring any Cold One or unseen threat to take a shot and try him. He was angry enough it would most certainly be their last mistake.
[ post script ] Oh my goodness, you all are going to make me cry, I'm literally over here smiling so much right now. I'm just blown away that even one person has read this attempt at a Twilight fanfiction, let alone more than one? And that you guys seem to want me to keep going, ah... I just can't.. Like, I have no words right now to properly express the joy that your encouragement and kind words have had on me.
This chapter is kind of my own little glimpse into the parallels between Jacob's situation with imprinting (because anybody could see he wanted desperately to imprint Bella in my own personal opinion) and Paul's. I kind of really wanted to give them that moment where they are faced with the truth in both of their cases. I just hope I did what I wanted to do in a way that felt realistic for both characters. I hope you all enjoy this.