this is me trying
chapter six: obsessed
SETH6
As soon as my eyes met her green eyes, it was as if the world started spinning slower. All movement around me seems to be happening in slow motion. Everything is so out of focus, except for her.
My eyes seem to be able to see every single detail about her. I can see the freckles on her nose and cheek bones. I can see how her green eyes stare back at me. Her beautiful long golden blonde hair is woven into two braids.
My whole being seems to change. I don't notice the little sounds around me anymore. I don't notice the people talking. Or the animals moving in the woods. Or the fire crackling. But I hear every whispered breath she breaths in. I hear her hushed words: "Oh my gosh."
I wonder if she too feels the pull. My body aches to move closer to her, to truly take in every detail of her beautiful appearance. I feel like my body is on fire as she stares at me, like a burning ball of flames.
My whole world seems to change in just a few seconds. With just one look. But I didn't care. As long as Tatum is mine and I am hers, the whole world could fall around us and I wouldn't so much as bat an eye.
Tatum's eyes are pulled from mine as Vanessa speaks to her. "That's Seth." Did Tatum not remember me? My heart didn't care, as long as she knows me now that's all I care about. "Fucking asshole." I hear Vanessa growl to me under her breath. She knows. Hell, probably most of the people around us know if they paid close enough attention. I had just imprinted on the most beautiful creature. "He's Sue Clearwater's son, I'm not sure that you've met her or not."
I watch Tatum intently, waiting to hear her beautiful voice that I haven't heard in years. "Um, yeah." Her words are so quiet yet sound so perfect. Her eyes pull away from mine again. "I was really good friends with Seth and Leah as a child." My heart slams loudly against my chest as I listen to her say my name. So she does remember me. It isn't long before her eyes look back to me, studying me.
I want so badly to go to her or her come here to stop this burning pull inside of me. I want to talk to her. I want her next to me so I can ensure that nothing would happen.
I watch as Vanessa tugs on Tatum's arm, I want so badly to growl a warning to Vanessa not to hurt her. But I know I am just being irrational so I bite back the warning. "Come on, let's eat before the guys eat all the food." Vanessa says to my imprint, again gaining her attention. Vanessa begins walking toward the bonfire where all the food is, leading Tatum my way.
I feel someone slap that back of my head, jerking me away from watching Tatum's graceful movements. "Oh my gosh." Nessie immediately wraps me up in her arms, squeezing me so tightly using all of her hybrid strength. She rests her hand on my forearm. "I told you so. I told you so." She sings in my head, using her tactile telepathy power. Her excitement radiates through my mind like a ball of sunshine. She pulls her hand off of me, flashing me a wide smile. "I am so happy for you." She whispers so quietly.
"Me too." Jake chuckles, grabbing onto Nessie's waist lovingly. "About time." He jokes.
I can't help but laugh. This is insane. I actually imprinted. I never thought there would come a day that I would find someone I liked let alone find my soulmate.
"Go talk to her." Nessie encourages before leaving to get food with Jacob.
My eyes find their way back to Tatum, who is glancing over at me. When she catches my eyes, she looks away with a rosy blush adorning her cheeks. Oh what a beautiful sight. I watch as she begins getting her hotdog ready for roasting before I think about what Nessie just told me. I need to talk to her.
I stand up and walk over to where the food is, feeling so light on my feet. The pull between Tatum and I seems to get stronger the closer I get to her. Instead of talking to her right away, I shy away, getting nervous. Rather, I too get a stick and prepare my hotdog for roasting.
"Hi." I hear a beautiful voice call out from beside me. I had just arrived at the firepit, standing right beside Tatum. I feel like I am towering over her. I look over, my mouth gaping open slightly like an idiot. Had she really just talked to me?
"Um-I, uh, hi." I stumble out like a nervous fool. I hear Vanessa cackle out a laugh from the other side of Tatum, laughing at my awkwardness.
Tatum smiles, looking down to her hotdog. "Do you remember me?" She asks.
"Oh course I do." I say immediately. "How could I forget you, Tatum Locklear?" When I say her name, that beautiful blush appears on her cheeks again.
She tries to fight a smile off of her lips. "It has been a long time." She says with a shrug. "I don't know…" She trails off. "You are so much taller than I last saw you. What are you like six feet tall, now?" She questions.
"Six-four." I correct, shamelessly.
"Wow." Tatum laughs. "What do they feed you guys here in La Push? I swear there must be something in the water. Something that I didn't seem to get." She says motioning to her short stature of around five-four. I want so badly to argue that I thought she is a perfect height but I don't want to weird her out.
"It's in the genes." I say cracking a smile.
"Must be." She shakes her head. Tatum pulls her stick out of the bonfire and checks on her hotdog. "Do you think this is done?" She asks as she holds out the stick for me to see. "I'm not really good at judging."
I want so badly to say no to her, hoping that she would stand at the fire with me a little longer. But there is no part of me that could lie to her. "I think it looks good." I say.
Tatum unfortunately moves away to grab herself a plate and more food to go with her hotdog. I quickly stick my hotdog further in the fire, hoping to finish this a little faster. When I get to the table of food, Tatum is still there. "Do you know where the drinks are?" She asks.
"I think they are over there." I say motioning to the table on the desk that has several coolers underneath the table.
"Okay." She says before moving over there. "Do you want anything, Seth or Vanessa?" Tatum calls to me over her shoulder.
"I'll take a beer." Vanessa responds as she pours potato chips onto her plate.
"Same here." I answer.
"Are you kidding me, Clearwater?" Vanessa huffs under her breath. "I actually really like her. I thought I was finally going to find a friend that isn't a guy and you have to go imprint on her."
Vanessa is so much like my sister it's scary. Vanessa and her family came down from the Makah reservation when her older brother had first phased. It wasn't long after that Vanessa phased becoming the second girl to be a shape-shifter. Leah was thrilled not to be the only girl in the tribe to be a shape-shifter for once.
"It's not like I can help it." I defend myself. "Sorry, you can't make friends." I tease her, earning myself an elbow in my side.
Tatum appears at our sides. "I'm going to grab us a table." She says motioning to the deck where Nessie and Jacob had set out several different tables.
"I hope she doesn't put up with any of your shit." Vanessa grumbles to me under her breath. I know she is somewhat joking but also has a truthful undertone. We follow Tatum's lead to a table where Nessie, Jacob, Embry, Quil, and Claire sit. My three pack mates give me a shit eating grin as I move to sit in the seat right beside Tatum.
"So, Tatum, what are your plans now that you are back in La Push?" Nessie asks curiously. I know part of that curiosity comes from my new connection with her. "Do you plan on staying long?"
Tatum nods her head due to her mouth being full, causing her blonde braids to bounce. When she swallows, she speaks up. "I am hoping to stay for a while." She says much to my relief. "I am looking for a job on Monday. I suppose that will determine how long I can stay." I pray to higher heavens that Tatum finds a perfect job so she never wants to leave.
"What kind of job are you looking for?" Jacob asks.
Tatum shrugs. "I'm not really sure. I don't think I am going to be very picky. I really just want to settle down for a while. But I am thinking about applying to one of the mental health care outreaches in Forks. I did a lot of work in women's health and mental health while I was traveling the past few years."
"That's really incredible." Nessie says in awe. I watch Tatum as she blushes, looking at her food. She is just the cutest thing.
Conversation moves away from Tatum unfortunately. Everyone begins talking about Jacob and Nessie's wedding. Tatum asks various questions like where is it going to be or what the colors were going to be. It seems like only Nessie and Tatum are enjoying the wedding talk. It must be a girl thing… Although, Vanessa didn't seem to join in. But Vanessa isn't really a girly girl.
"It's so weird to see you drinking a beer." Tatum giggles. We all have finished our food and now we are just chatting. I smirk at Tatum, internally happy that she had been watching me. Happy that she was thinking about me. Tatum smirks back at me with glowing green eyes staring me down. "It's just crazy. The last time I saw you, you were fourteen and a whole head shorter than me. Are you even old enough to drink?" She teases.
"Now I'm a whole foot taller than you. And yes, I am 21." I assure her, still smirking.
I hear Vanessa stand up from the table and grumble something under her breath about how annoying our flirting is. I know Tatum didn't hear her because she didn't even turn her head away from me. "Tatum, do you want to make some s'mores? I'm still hungry." Vanessa asks.
Tatum's beautiful eyes look away from mine. "Sure!" She chirps, standing up from her seat.
"I am going to join you guys." Nessie says following the other two girls. Quil takes Claire down to the bonfire as well which leaves Jacob, Embry, and I alone.
My eyes can't seem to leave my imprint as I watch her with Nessie and Vanessa, laughing and getting ready to roast marshmallows. "Man, you are already obsessed." Embry teases after looking over to me watching Tatum.
I jerk my head unwillingly away from Tatum. "I can't help it. It's just an imprinting thing. Do you remember Jake when Nessie was born? We could barely get him away from the Cullens' house." I remind him, sending a pointed look to Jacob.
"I'm happy for you, Seth." Jacob says, ignoring my jab. "She seems like a great girl." He pauses to look over to the group of girls. "What's your next move?"
Next move? I haven't even thought that far. I had just imprinted on her less than an hour ago. All I know is that I want to be around her. I want to make sure she is safe and feels loved. Of course, I thought she was beautiful. And of course, my childhood crush on her only multiplied by a couple million. But if she just wanted to be friends, I would be okay with that. If she sent me away and wanted nothing to do with me, I can convince myself to be okay with that.
"I don't know." I say with a shrug. My eyes move back to her. "I am just going to go with the flow. See how she reacts and go from there."
"You two have some major chemistry." Embry adds. "The flirting between the two of you is unreal. I definitely think she is interested in you, man."
"I wouldn't worry about it. Just go with the flow like you said." Jacob continues off of what Embry said. "I think it will come naturally. Relationships with imprints always seem to come naturally."
Not even several moments later, the girls come back to the table with s'mores in their hands. "I made one for you, babe." Nessie chirps as she sits on the arm of Jake's chair. She hands him a s'more.
"I made some extras too." I hear Tatum's soft voice add. Her green eyes darted to me before she looked at Embry. "So I made some for you two." She hands her extra s'mores to Embry and I.
"Thank you." I say, flashing her a smile.
Embry immediately digs in and with half of the s'more in his mouth he muffles out: "thank you." As we munch on our s'mores, Nessie talks to Tatum about needing to go on a shopping spree with her one day. I nearly roll my eyes because Alice has really rubbed off on her when it came to shopping.
Nessie and Jake get up to say goodbyes to some of the people leaving when Tatum leans over to me. Her arm nearly touches mine and it feels like every nerve ending in my arm is burning. "You have a little bit of chocolate." She mutters with a smile on her lips as she motions to the corner of my mouth.
Damn. How embarrassing. And in front of my imprint too.
"I'm grabbing another beer." Vanessa announces as she stands up. "Does anyone else want one?" She asks motioning to the group that remains: Embry, Tatum, and I.
"Sure, I will take one." Embry says as he leans back in his chair.
"Me too." I agree.
"I will take one too. Thank you, Vanessa." Tatum smiles. When Vanessa disappears to grab drinks, Tatum turns back to the table. "I don't think we have officially met. My name is Tatum Locklear." She directs to Embry across the table.
"I'm Embry Call." He says with a nod.
Tatum nods before looking around. Vanessa comes back with beers. "Welcome to the singles table." She teases as she passes them out to us.
"Hey, don't make any assumptions." Embry calls out before pointing to Tatum. "Tatum could have a man that we don't know about."
Tatum blushes. "No, no man for me. I definitely belong at the singles table." She says nodding. "I'm surprised that you guys aren't with anybody. It seems like everyone here is dating, engaged, or married." Isn't that the truth?
"Trust me, it's a hard life trying to fight the ladies off." Embry says jokingly.
"More like you are bouncing from bed to bed. I wouldn't call that a relationship but you aren't not seeing anyone." Vanessa jabs at Embry, calling him out for his man whore ways.
It is true though, several of the guys in the pack before imprinting or who haven't imprinted go from girl to girl. Mainly for sex as they claim. But me… that's not really my style.
"And you, Seth?" Tatum asks. "Got any girls?" She jokes.
I swallow as I stare at her flawless face and her cute braids. I want to say yes that I did have a girl and that I am staring straight at her. But that would be too creepy. "No, no girls." I answer simply before taking a sip of my beer.
Conversation continues at our singles table and after a while Vanessa pops back up to grab another round of beers. We chat about the people in La Push as Tatum asks about people that she can remember. We fill her in on the latest news. All while avoiding the whole subject of the tribe.
On our fifth round of beer, the party had completely died down to just us and the sun had long set. Nessie and Jake joined us in our conversation about planning a day to go hiking.
Tatum looks down at her phone in the middle of the conversation and her eyes widen. "Oh my, I didn't realize it was that late." She says softly. "I should probably head out soon." She says staggering to a stand. I quickly catch her by her forearm to stabilize her. "I swear I did not drink that much." Everyone laughs at her comment and her giggles join in.
"You probably shouldn't be driving yourself home." I say worried as everyone else begins to get up from the table. "I can drive you home." I offer. Plus, that's more time with her.
Tatum looks up at me. Her green eyes are mesmerizing yet appear sober. Her lips twist as she thinks about her response. "Honestly, I don't really know where I'm going so that would be nice." She admits truthfully. "But what about your car?" She asks.
Truth is I didn't bring my car. I just ran here in my wolf form. But I couldn't tell her that. "I rode here with Embry." I lie. I am thankful that Embry is helping Nessie and Jake clean up and is far even away not to join in on the conversation. "Plus, I can't leave you to get lost on your own."
Tatum smiles. "Okay, let's say bye to everyone." She says before walking toward the group cleaning up. "Do you need any help cleaning up?" She asks, noticing what they are doing.
"No, we are almost done. Don't worry about it." Nessie assures her. "You can head on home." She says before walking over. "It was so nice that you came tonight. I can't wait for our shopping spree soon."
Tatum grins. "Thank you for inviting me tonight. I had a real great time." She responds. "Thank you for hosting tonight. We will have to hang out really soon." She says hugging Nessie. "It was nice to meet you, Vanessa and Embry. We will definitely have to finish planning our hiking trip."
Embry and Vanessa say something back to her that I ignore as I focus on my imprint. "Are you heading out too, Seth?" Nessie asks with a knowing look. She knows I am not going to leave Tatum alone, even if I had to run alongside her car.
"Yeah, I am going to drive Tatum home. I will see you guys tomorrow." I say with a wave as we head out to Tatum's car out front. "Do you want me to drive?" I ask Tatum when we reach the car.
"Sure." Tatum says before giving me her keys. We slide into our seats and I start up the car. "Thank you for driving." Tatum says when we begin making our way to her house. "I would have definitely gotten lost again." She giggles.
"No problem." I smile. The drive is quiet but not awkward by any means as I drive out of the woods.
"Everyone was really cool tonight." Tatum breaks the silence. "I had a great time. It's been a long time since I've been to a big gathering like that and had a good time." She confesses. I want to ask more but I don't want to push her, knowing it is probably a hard topic if she isn't willing to put the information out.
"You will have to come next time too." I say shooting her a smile. "We are always having some kind of gathering. We can't seem to stay away from each other."
Tatum nods her head out of the corner of my eye. It is silent for a moment and I suddenly wish I could hear what she is thinking. "My mom has been wanting me to come over for dinner at her place with your family and the Blacks." She begins. "I missed dinner last night. I overslept."
I wonder what would have happened if she had come to dinner last night. I would have imprinted earlier. And there is no doubt in my mind that the Locklears along with my mom and Billy would have known that I had imprinted. How awkward. I'm glad it happened this way. I have more chances to talk to her now than I would have at dinner last night.
I think back to last night and how I was worried about her. And it suddenly makes sense. I was drawn to her by the imprint.
"She is probably going to have dinner again some time soon. Or so she says." Tatum continues, interrupting my thoughts. "I am not really looking forward to it." She confesses. "My family has been a little disappointed in my decisions the past few years. My sisters especially are hard on me."
"Well, I will make sure to come." I say, inviting myself. I didn't want Tatum to feel uncomfortable. "We can sit together and you won't have to talk to them." Wow, I sound like a protective boyfriend or something.
Tatum hums. "That does sound better than nagging sisters." I pulled the car into Cade's driveway and put the car in park. Damn, I wish that drive was a little longer. Actually a lot longer. Tatum unbuckles her seatbelt and turns to me. She stares into my eyes. And even though it is really dark outside, I can see every detail of her perfectly.
And then she does something so shocking. She leans in and presses her lips to mine. Before I can even register that her soft lips are on mine, they are gone.
"Oh my gosh." Tatum says as soon as she pulls away. "I'm so sorry. I can't believe I just did that." She rubs her hand over her face in embarrassment. "I am so so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I must have had more to drink than I thought." Her voice is muffled by her hands over her face.
I want to tell her that it's fine. That I am happy that she kissed me. But my words can't seem to form on my now numb lips.
"Seth, I'm sorry." Tatum apologizes for the third time. "I-I…" She doesn't continue. "I should go inside." She says grabbing the handle of the door.
"Let me walk you up to the door." I say finally forming words. I too get out of the car, following her.
When we reach the porch that is lit by a single porch light, Tatum stops to dig out her key. "Thank you for driving me home." She says avoiding eye contact. "You should take my car home with you. You shouldn't have to walk. You can bring it back tomorrow." Although I enjoyed the idea of having an excuse to see Tatum again, I am on patrol duty tonight and I am planning to go straight there.
"Don't worry about it. My apartment is just down the street." Which is true.
Tatum unlocks the front door and turns to me. "I'm sorry about the… thing in the car." She says motioning to her car. "I really had fun tonight. I hope that didn't ruin our friendship." Damn, I have just been friend zoned.
"Don't worry, Tatum, it was no big deal." I assure her. "Have a good night. I will see you soon."
Tatum smiles brightly at me. "Thank you again, Seth. I will see you soon. Please be safe walking home. Goodnight."