this is me trying
chapter eight: let's skip
seth
I stand outside of Cade's house feeling like a teenage boy picking up a girl for a first date. My stomach is filled with butterflies. I chuckle at my nervous self. I can't believe I am acting like this. The imprint is really getting to me.
I reach the front door and I ring the doorbell. I fidget with my long sleeve shirt feeling hot all of a sudden. Shit, am I sweating through my shirt? I peak down just as the door opens. I jerk my eyes away and look to Tatum, who is dressed in an oversized beige sweater topped with a black overall dress. She looks flawless.
"Hi." Tatum greets with a glow in her green eyes. "Come in." She says ushering me into the house.
It smells great in here. A hint of pumpkin and cinnamon. My eyes follow Tatum as she shuts the door behind me. "You look beautiful." I slip out before I can even say hi.
Tatum blushes as she tucks a strand of her curled blonde hair behind her ear. "Thank you, Seth." Her voice is so sweet and delicate. I just want to wrap her up in my arms. "Wanna crack open a beer?" She asks as she leads the way into the kitchen, her heels of her booties clicking as she walks.
"Sure." I say as I stop at the counter. I watch Tatum move to the fridge and bend down to grab us two beers. I can't help but look at her beautiful ass before I force myself to look away. I need to not think about that, I scold myself. Tatum slides over a beer. "Thank you." I say sending her a smile.
I twist off the bottle cap before taking a drink. "Thank you again for the beer." Tatum says as she twists off her own bottle cap. "And thanks for coming over so I don't have to go to dinner alone." She sounds relieved at the idea of not going to dinner alone.
"No problem." I say, smiling. I am so happy to be here. She didn't have to thank me. I am happy to be spending time with her.
Tatum takes a sip before her eyes widen. "Also, do you know what we are celebrating tonight?" She asks before giggling. "My mom was on the phone with your mom planning the dinner tonight. She was talking about some sort of celebration." She shrugs.
I know exactly what we are celebrating. My mom nearly screamed when I had called her earlier to inform her of my imprinting on Tatum. She did, however, cry over the phone to me. She was so happy for me as she gushed about how much she loved Tatum and how we would make the cutest babies. She chatted ecstatically to me for an hour before I finally found an excuse to end the conversion. I told her I wanted to get Tatum a welcome home gift and needed to go to the store.
"I'm not really sure." I lie smoothly. "But knowing the two of them, it doesn't have to be a whole lot for a celebration to occur." I tease, even though, this time it is a whole lot. I freaking imprinted!
"True." Tatum smirks. "This town…" She begins before shaking her head with a soft laugh coming out of her mouth. "It's just as I remembered… The gossip. The many get-togethers. It doesn't change." She concludes before taking a sip of her beer.
"There is nothing like La Push." I say with a shrug. It is quiet between the two of us as we enjoy the beers in our hands. "Is it weird to be back?" I question.
Tatum sets the beer down on the counter and rests her hands down so that she is leaning toward me. By her leaning in, I am able to see the details of her face even clearer. I can see the little specks in her green eyes. I can see the smoothness of her pale skin. "I have to admit it's a little strange." Tatum quickly stands up straight again. "But I needed to stop traveling. It gets exhausting."
"I can imagine." I say. "How many countries did you end up going to?"
"Forty-seven." Tatum's shy smile emerges that makes me want to lean over and kiss her.
I chuckle. "Woah. And I have barely been out of the state of Washington."
Tatum points her beer bottle in my direction. "Well, you need to get out and see the world." She teases.
I shake my head in humor. "I would love to. But I think I am going to need a tour guide." I look at her with an expecting look. I can't think of a better travel partner. Seeing the world with my soulmate…
Tatum lets out a soft laugh. "I'm a little exhausted from traveling. But hit me up in a few years… and that's still a maybe." She responds with a wide grin on her thin red lips. Before I can respond, Tatum speaks up again. "Are you in college?" She questions before sipping her beer.
I swallow, suddenly nervous about how she would respond. I have this urge to please her. I don't want to upset her or put her off. But a little voice rings in my head: "Remember, the tribal spirits chose her for you!" "Um, no." I admit honestly, looking down to avoid her disappointed look. I barely finished high school. With phasing so early, it was a challenge to keep up with school. But Sam and Jake had encouraged me to continue to go to school when I could. And eventually I was able to get my GED.
"Oh, are you working then?" Tatum asks. "I always thought college was overrated anyways… even when I was in college I thought that. It's a waste of money really."
A weight is lifted off my shoulders as I listen to her words. She is not upset by my lack of education. "Yeah, I work at an auto repair shop with a bunch of the guys in La Push." I reply.
"Ooo, a mechanic." She says playfully. "Girls always love it when a guy is all greased up and fixing up a car." Her green eyes twinkle in the low lighting of the kitchen as she teases me.
I want to tell her I didn't care about what other girls thought about mechanics. But a part of me wonders, if she too had a weak spot for guys greased up and fixing up cars. I quickly shake the thought out of my head in fear of turning into a creep. I laugh at her teasing. "Now that you bring it up, we do seem to have a large female clientele." I joke back with her, even though it is true.
Tatum lets out a belly laugh, tossing her head back allowing her blonde locks of hair to cascade down her back. "I'm telling you. It's some kind of fetish or something. Maybe a damsel in distress kind of vibe." She shrugs before thinking for a second. "How come you haven't picked up a girl? I'm sure you've had girls throwing themselves at you or slipped you a couple of phone numbers. Are your standards really high?" She leans forward and cups a hand over half of her mouth looking like a child with a secret. "Or do you bat for the other team?" She asks jokingly.
My mouth immediately falls open at her joke. Did she really think I could be gay? "I am definitely straight." I reassure her with a small laugh. "And I guess I just haven't found the right girl yet." I can't help but stare into her beautiful green eyes, trying to somehow portray to her that she was the girl that I have been looking for.
"So standards are high. Noted." Tatum laughs before finishing off her beer. Tatum looks to the clock on the wall in the kitchen and lets out a sigh. "Would it be bad if we skipped?" She asks hopefully.
I wouldn't mind having her all to myself. I would honestly get more time with her if we did skip and just spent time with each other. "Do you want to?" I ask her seriously.
Tatum's tongue darts out to wet her lips as she thinks silently. "I really should go. My mom will kill me if I skip another dinner. But…" She trails off before nodding her head. "Let's skip." She concludes before grinning.
"What should we do while we skip this 'oh-so-important' dinner?" I ask after finishing up my beer.
Tatum taps her finger on her chin in a non-serious thinking gesture. "Well… some guy did drop a 12-pack of beer off at my house today and I have been dying to go to First Beach." She says.
"Let's go then." I stand up from the chair. "Do you want me to grab the beer?" I offer as Tatum walks to her fridge to grab the beer that I had dropped off earlier for her. Tatum pulls it out of the fridge and hands it to me.
I lead the way out to my truck and before no time, we are off to First Beach. I park in the vacant parking lot and pull out the beer before grabbing a spare blanket I had in my backseat. Tatum and I walk through the sand toward the water.
"This is a perfect spot." Tatum announces when she stops in the sand twenty feet from the ocean. She helps me lay out the blanket before we both settle down and pop open some more beers. "This is so much better than dinner." She says happily, staring off into the ocean before us. I couldn't agree more. The happiness clearly emits from Tatum as she takes in her surroundings. "It's been so long since I've last been here." She whispers.
I watch her stare blankly at the ocean. Her blonde hair that was perfectly curled is being messed up by the wind. "How many years?" I ask in response.
A sigh is released from Tatum's mouth before she leans back on her hands. "At least five." She says quietly. "I was here with Cade last." I watch her face shift from happy to sad within seconds of his name being said. The wolf inside of me whines for me to fix her sadness but I am drawing a blank.
"We used to play soccer on the beach here. My sisters would never come so it would just be the two of us." Tatum comments before letting out a sad laugh. "He would always beat me even though I was the soccer star during high school." She shakes her head and looks into her lap. "The last time I was here, Cade and I came out to play soccer one last time before I went off to college. I was really nervous about the dramatic change but it helped being out here with him." She lets out a shaky breath. "I never would have thought that would be the last time we would play soccer together." A tear falls from her eye but she quickly wipes it away.
The sound of waves take over the silence as we both sit quietly trying to figure out what to say. I want so badly to say something to make her feel better, but I know that a person will never truly get over the loss of someone they love. Instead, I lean over and rest my hand gently on hers.
"This place just holds so many memories." Tatum finally speaks up after a few moments. "I'm glad to be back and fully accepting his death. I had run from it for two years." She takes a sip from her beer before looking over to me. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to turn all depressing."
I give her hand a squeeze. "Don't worry about it. You know you can always talk to me whenever you need." I assure her.
Tatum just nods her head and refocuses her gaze to the waves crashing on the shore. "Do you think the water is cold?" She questions after another few moments of silence.
"I'm sure it is. It's always cold." I remind her. Tatum immediately stands up and kicks her boots off her feet. "Are you planning on going in?" I ask in disbelief.
I'm surprised she isn't cold enough with the wind blowing. She is still wearing the dress she was going to wear to dinner for crying out loud. She will freeze if she gets into the water.
"No." She says as she walks to the water, not persuading me otherwise.
I follow her lead, taking my shoes off as well before jogging after her. When I catch up, Tatum stops at the edge of where the water is coming up onto the shore. Her feet are barely touching the water. "You know, I have never been cliff diving." She confirms looking up to me with a shy smile.
I shake my head. "Not today." I say immediately. I would give her pretty much anything if she asked. But I feared what would happen if we went cliff diving in this weather. It was way too cold for her to get into the water right now.
Tatum huffs. "I know not today, silly." She responds. "I am just saying that when it warms up we should go cliff diving as a group of friends." Dang, there I am again being friend zoned.
"Yeah, for sure." I respond.
"You've been before, right?"
I nod my head. "Plenty of times."
"Is it scary?" Tatum looks over with wide curious eyes.
I shrug. "I don't think so. But I think it depends on the person." Most of the guys in the pack were fearless but I know many of the imprints were scared to jump.
"I went sky diving." Tatum announces. "When I was in South Africa. It was terrifying. I nearly threw up before leaving the plane." She giggles.
I laugh too at her memory. "Well, I'm sure you would be fine jumping off the cliff." I promise. "There's at least water at the bottom."
"Let's go back to the blanket." Tatum says after a few more minutes of letting the salty water wash our feet. "I'm starting to get cold."
"Do you want to head back to your place?" I question, suddenly worried that she was cold.
"No, no." She argues. "I want to stay longer. I like talking out here with you." My heart swells with pride. I'm glad she is enjoying my presence. I wonder if she felt any kind of pull from the imprint bond. Some imprints had said that they could feel the pull just like the pack could.
By the time we get to the blanket, Tatum is shivering. I curse myself for letting her get in the water, even if it was just her feet. I pull my side of the blanket up and wrap it over her bare legs.
"You didn't have to do that." Tatum argues but gratefully accepts the warmth. "Now I feel bad you are sitting in the sand getting all sandy." A small pout forms on her lips. It takes every ounce of control within me to not lean over and press my lips to her.
"Don't worry about me. Sand won't hurt." I assure her.
Tatum tugs the blanket around her and her shivering thankfully subsides. "I applied to some jobs today." She says peaking over to me as if to check for a reaction.
"Really? That's exciting, T." I say, slipping out the old nickname of hers. "Hopefully you will hear back from the jobs soon and you will be stuck here."
Tatum chuckles. "Hopefully." She whispers.
"We really need to do that hiking trip that we were talking about at Ness and Jake's place." I remind her.
"Oh, yes!" Tatum says excitedly. "Is it supposed to warm up anytime soon?"
"We will have to check." I say. "I bet if I get Nessie on it, she will have it all planned by tomorrow."
Tatum smiles at what she thinks is exaggeration. "Nessie seems super sweet." She comments.
"She is." I agree. "She is very genuine and kind-hearted. But she has picked up some traits from her over the top family. Everything she does, she does out of love. Jake got a good one."
Tatum nods her head. "So Nessie is from Forks?" She questions and I nod my head. "I just don't recognize her from school." Tatum and her triplet sisters were three of the very few pale faces that lived on the reservation. But having been adopted into a tribal family, there weren't traditional pale faces to the people on the reservation. They were tribal members. However, I'm sure Tatum knew or at least was familiar with some people from Forks.
The wind picks up as the sun slowly starts to go down. Tatum and I finish off several beers before we decide to pack up and head back to the car. "This was so much better than the dinner." Tatum says when she settles in the passenger side of my truck.
"Well, I'm glad." I beam. "I really enjoy this." I say, referring to our time on the beach. I wish that time would stop just so I could spend more time with her.
"You better get Nessie planning a hiking trip." She points out. "I'm expecting it now."
It is only a few minutes before I pull into her driveway. "You'll have to let me know how the job hunting goes." I say as I turn off my car. There was no way I would let her walk to the door alone. That is so ungentleman-like. Plus, I want more time with her.
We both get out of the car. "Hopefully, I will hear back from some of the places I applied to in the next few days." Tatum says. If only I knew what places she had applied to… I would be on my hands and knees begging for them to give her a job. Anything to make sure she stays in La Push. I watch as she unlocks the front door before she turns back to me. "I had a really good time." She says quietly.
"Me too." I confirm. "We will have to do it again sometime." Hopefully, sometime soon.
Tatum smiles shyly. "I would like that…" She pulls me in for a hug, wrapping me up in her thin fragile arms. I instinctively wrap my arms around her body in response. I quickly breathe in her cinnamon smell. "Good night, Seth. Thank you… for everything." She says pulling away way too soon.
"No need to thank me." I smile at her. "Good night, T." I walk back to my truck before climbing in. When I shut my car door, I look to the front door to make sure she is inside before I leave.
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