Hi, friends! As promised, I'm back in a timely manner with the next chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who's reading and reviewing and favoriting and following. Y'all are the best. I'm not going to drag this one, but I want to say one thing real quick:

I don't abandon stories. If there is ever a point where I decide not to complete a story, I won't leave y'all hanging. I'll make a note, then take the story down after a fair amount of time. I've done this twice before, in my beginner days of posting. I put a lot more thought into which stories I choose to begin posting now, so I don't foresee myself discontinuing anything I've got going right now. Sometimes, however, I DO kind of drop off the ff grid. Because, you know, life. But please know that when I do this, I WILL be back and I WILL complete my stories. It just takes time. I've got multiple stories going on and I don't always balance work between them well (see: my poor Secret Circle fic I haven't had the time to write for in a WHILE), along with school and work and blah blah blah I'm boring myself. Y'all get the point. I appreciate you so much for caring about my story(ies) enough to worry about them getting abandoned. I appreciate it so much, I just want to put your mind at ease. :)

Now, on to the chapter. Enjoy! :)

Chapter Five

Anna

I was all kinds of twitchy the next day, my eyes swiveling everywhere trying to see if Felicity was anywhere around as Alex and I walked through campus. It'd been over twelve hours. I'd slept on it. I was ready to pretend the whole thing with her friend never happened. But I figured the odds of her doing the same were slim to none, so I wanted to avoid that confrontation as long as possible.

"You're ridiculous," Alex muttered, a small smile on his lips.

I scoffed at him. "No one asked you."

His smile grew, then something caught his eye to my side. I was about to look over when he said, "Hey, Felicity."

I jumped practically an entire foot off the ground, spinning in the direction he was looking. Of course there was no one there. "You're an asshole."

"Love you, too, sis," he laughed. "But really, she's nice. Not like she's going to bitch you out for something her friend said. She'll probably apologize, then want to move on just as much as you do. Don't worry so much."

If only it were as easy as not worrying so much. I couldn't control how my brain worked. How anxious this made me. How nervous. If I could simply decide to get over it and that actually work, I'd have done so in a heartbeat. But that wasn't the way I was.

So when we parted ways, I was still fidgeting away trying to appear calm while also keeping as aware of my surroundings as possible. This worked well enough for me for the beginning of the day—until I had to go to gym. Which I shared with Felicity. And where we'd probably end up partnering up for some sort of sporty activity, thus leaving lots of time to chat. For her to bring up the day before.

My stomach churned as I walked reluctantly into the gym. I quickly dressed out and went into the gym without seeing her.

But as I sat against the wall, she finally appeared.

And walked straight toward me.

Please, please, please don't throw up, I thought to myself as my stomach flipped. I hated this. It wasn't even that serious. My reaction was stupid. Alex was right, I was ridiculous. But I felt sick anyway, and now I was sweating. I pulled in a deep breath.

"Hey, Anna," Felicity said as I blew out a big gust of air.

"Hey," I said quietly, unable to manage anything more.

Apparently she took my response to set the tone of my mood toward her, as opposed to my overwhelming anxiety for the situation. Logical, since she didn't know me at all. She rushed out, "Anna, I am so sorry. Paul…he was tired. He wasn't thinking. He'd just got done with a double shift and was practically dead on his feet. And, well, if you knew Paul you'd probably understand better. But he's crass on a good day. Bone tired the way he was? He had no filter. Didn't think his words through. And he knows it—he knows he said something stupid and he's sorry. I swear, Anna, he's so sorry. That's why we tried to talk to you yesterday." She paused, pulling in a deep breath as her eyes widened. "Not that we hold it against you that you didn't want to. We get it, and you had every right to be upset." She paused again. "Not that you need my validation for your feelings, or anyone's…I'm making a mess of this."

Somehow her rambling did what I didn't think was possible—it calmed me down. I even let out a short, relieved giggle. "It's really not a big deal. I overreacted."

She shook her head immediately. "No. You didn't. He was a jerk. And he knows it. He wants to apologize to you, as soon as you're comfortable with it." She bit her lip. "Though he'd probably appreciate it being sooner rather than later. He feels terrible."

Now it was my turn to shake my head. "It's really not necessary. All I want is to forget the whole thing ever happened, honestly."

"I get that. But could you just let him apologize real quick? Like, it can be a short sorry and then we'll all move on and hang out and eat food or watch TV or play games or whatever to show we can get along without anyone being overtly rude."

I blinked. That seemed like a very mixed sentence. When did I agree to hanging out? And why did an apology automatically equal all that extra? "You want to hang out with me?" I couldn't remember the last time someone had asked me to spend time with them outside of school for anything other than a school project—or trying to get my brother somewhere by tagging along with me. Not that the latter tactic ever worked, but whatever.

She blushed. "Wow, I didn't even really ask, did I? I just assumed. Would you hang out with me later? Full disclosure, my boyfriend will be there. And Paul, since he's my roommate so I can't really kick him out."

This was so strange. I didn't know how to respond. My palms began to sweat again. "I don't know…"

"Everyone will be nice, I promise!" she said enthusiastically. "I don't want to sound desperate, but…I kind of am. With all my drama at this school, I don't have many friends. I just have Jacob and Paul and all their friends. And they're all great. I just…"

"Want a friend of your own," I finished. I could understand that. Not only could I understand that—I lived that. I'd just never had the guts to do anything about it. But here Felicity was, putting herself out there. Because, for whatever reason, she wanted to be friends with me. "Okay, I'll hang out with you and your friends." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I backtracked. "Oh, wait. I can't today. We're going to have dinner at my grandpa's. I can't really back out of that." Nor did I want to, but that was neither here nor there. "Could we do it tomorrow?"

She nodded before I was even done with the question. "Totally! Tomorrow! It'll be great!"

I smiled slightly in response as the teacher finally got class started, hoping Felicity was right.

Paul

After spending the day running patrol with Leah and Kai—and somehow managing not to spill the beans on my new imprint—I paced the living room of the apartment waiting for Felicity to get home. Since when did it take her so long to get back from school? Was she taking extra time just to drive me mad?

"Chill, dude," Jake said as he stumbled into the living room from the kitchen. He'd emerged from Felicity's room a few minutes ago and ran into two walls on his way to acquiring the bag of Doritos he was currently stuffing blindly into his mouth. He settled onto the couch with his eyes still closed. "Imprints are meant to work out. It'll be fine."

Easy for him to say. He was on the verge of domestic bliss with his imprint. You know, if only they would admit they were in love and needed to take it to the next level. The most the two did was hold hands, hug, and place the smallest kisses on each other's mouths. With how attached at the hip those two were most of the time, it was surprising their strategy of taking it slow remained in place.

But whatever. Their relationship, their decisions, their problems. I had my own shit to worry about.

With that thought, Felicity finally slipped through the door. Her gaze immediately went to Jake, whose eyes were now open and warm on her. "Hey, you," she said softly. "You come here to sleep?"

He smiled. "Yeah. I'm on again later tonight."

She sighed as she set her backpack down next to the couch. "I hope this vampire problem gets resolved soon. Losing so much sleep isn't good for you."

He twined his non-cheesy fingers through hers. "This situation is exactly why we exist. We're built for it. Don't worry about me."

"Hard not to," she murmured, her free hand rising to trace a dark circle under one of his eyes.

I cleared my throat. Loudly. "Hi. Remember me? Best friend and badass roommate? I'm here and not in any mood to see you two being gag worthy cute. Spill it, doll. What did she say?"

She blushed, the hand on Jake's face dropping to her side. "Oh. Yeah. You."

My gaze narrowed on her. "Not funny."

She grinned. "You'll live. Especially when I tell you…" she trailed off, taunting me on fucking purpose.

I pressed my hand to my chest. "You wound me. It's painful. Oh, the pain." My voice was monotone; I was not anywhere close to amused right now.

"Okay, okay," she said, sliding down onto the couch next to Jake and snatching a chip from the bag at his side. "So she was…really uncomfortable."

My face paled—I literally felt all the blood leaving it, heading to my heart which stopped and then began again in double time. "She wants nothing to do with any of us."

"Actually—"

"—she hates me. I hurt her feelings and now she doesn't want to be your friend, and she never ever wants to even see my face again. She hates me." My voice broke a little toward the end. It would have been embarrassing if not for the terrible circumstances. Instead, all I could focus on was the agony of my imprint rejecting me. Damn, I was such an idiot. Why couldn't I just think before I spoke? Why did I have to try to make shitty jokes all the time?

"PAUL!" Felicity shouted, throwing a pillow at my face and effectively gaining my attention. "She's coming over to hang out tomorrow."

I blinked, my mouth hanging open. Blinked again. And again, and again. All I could fucking do was blink, apparently.

Felicity took this rare moment of my speechlessness to give more details. "She was super uncomfortable. Wanted to just forget the whole thing happened. I told her that you felt like a total jerk and it would help if she'd let you apologize. That you'd give her a short sorry, then we'd all do something fun to show we can get along without anyone hurting feelings. I actually tried to get it for today, but her family has dinner at her grandpa's, so we agreed to tomorrow."

Finally I felt like I could pull in a breath. She didn't hate me. She was willing to talk to me. To spend time with me. "Thank you," I told Felicity, tone full of sincerity.

She shrugged. "It's as much for me as it is for you. I want her to be my friend." She perked up and turned to Jake. "And I think she wants to be my friend too! She seemed on the same page when we were talking earlier."

Her smiled encouragingly, wrapping a hand around her neck. "That's great. I can't wait to meet her." He faced me. "You're going to have to let at least Sam know about your imprint."

I stared at him, my brain not thinking fast enough to connect the dots. "Why?"

"To make sure you have the time off from patrol. I definitely will, since I'm running tonight, but I have no idea about you."

He had a point. "I'll give him a call later," I said, albeit reluctantly. I wanted to keep this under wraps as long as possible—ideally until I knew she and I were on good terms. I didn't need the whole pack as audience to me fucking up the most important thing to ever happen to me.

"He'll keep it quiet for now," Jacob said, apparently reading my mind. Or just familiar with the thoughts of a new imprint.

"I want to make sure I haven't ruined it for myself before I bring the rest of the pack into this."

Felicity frowned. "You haven't ruined anything. And we'll be here with you tomorrow to make sure you don't make a total fool of yourself."

"Yeah," Jake agreed. "You'll only seem a little foolish, as opposed to totally."

I flipped him off before finally sitting down. "Fuck you."

He laughed.

Felicity ignored the exchange entirely. "What are we going to do with her? We should probably put some thought into that, right? I doubt she wants to come over here so we can all stare at each other."

She had a point. "Boardgames?" I suggested uncertainly.

Jake shrugged. "I'd be in for that."

"Not a bad idea," Felicity agreed. "Could you go to the store and grab a game or two and some snacks?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. I refuse to go pick up supplies to lull my own beautiful imprint into a sense of ease while trying to get to know me. Of course not. You do it."

"Don't be an ass," Jake said, but his lips were tilting upward.

"So," Felicity broke in before an argument, however lighthearted, could really begin, "we have a plan for tomorrow?"

Jake nodded. "Sounds like it."

I was about to say the same, but then my mind stalled. "Yeah…except how am I supposed to apologize? What do I say? What if I mess up even worse? Shit." Pushing to my feet, I began pacing again.

"I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're making it," Felicity said cautiously, her eyes tracking me as I strode back and forth.

Frowning, I asked, "How so?"

"She didn't seem super invested in the apology. I told you, she was just uncomfortable. I think more than anything she wants us all to move on. So get whatever you have to say off your chest and then act normal. It doesn't matter what you say in the apology—you know, so long as you don't insult her again."

Stopping in my tracks, I leveled her with a look. "I'm not that much of an idiot, doll."

She smiled. "I know. You'll be fine, Paulie. It'll go great. You'll see."

I wished I could have Felicity's confidence. She seemed so sure. Then again, she didn't have quite as much to lose. Still, she seemed sincere. She really thought it'd go well—great, even. I hoped she was right.

That's it for this one! I'd LOVE it if you'd let me know your thoughts. Please review! I'll post chapter six soon. :)