Chapter Thirty-Three
Life was good, Kim recently came to the conclusion.
In the month since the Cullens left town, Sam scaled back patrols a bit, so that meant she had more time to spend with Jared outside of school. And since she was spending more time with Jared during the day, that meant he spent less time sneaking into her room at night.
Now, don't get her wrong, she loved having Jared secretly sleep over—why wouldn't she love the extra time spent with the boy she loved most? But the problem lay in the fact that their little sleepovers were a secret, as in Jared literally snuck into the house right under her mother's nose. And Kim wasn't stupid. Just because they hadn't been caught yet didn't mean they never would. Jared might claim his supernatural senses would prevent that, but he slept like the dead so excuse Kim for not having complete confidence in his ability to wake up before her mother—or, god forbid, Kylie, which would be so much worse—burst in one morning and discovered them in bed together.
But anyway, Kim digressed. The Cullens were gone, there hadn't been any vampire sightings in the area in the past month, and now Jared had more time to spend with her and less time spent sneaking in through her window with the threat of discovery imminent.
Like she'd already determined: life was good.
Fewer patrols also meant that Paul had more free time on his hands. Which in turn mean that he was also spending more of his free time over at the Connweller house.
Kim quickly found that she enjoyed having Paul over almost as much as she liked spending time with Jared. She knew from conversations with Jared that Paul was still struggling a lot to control his temper and thus his phasing; on more than one occasion at Sam and Emily's she'd seen Paul storm out of the house only to explode into a wolf in the yard. And she knew that he must be losing his temper at school sometimes, too, because he would disappear every so often for a few class periods at a time.
Truth be told, Kim felt kind of bad for Paul. Being a teenager was hard enough. But being a teenage shape-shifter controlled by your uncontrollable emotions…well, Kim was secretly glad that wasn't something she had to experience firsthand.
She still loved having Paul over, though. Because when Paul was at the Connweller house he wasn't Paul the temperamental teenaged spirit warrior shape-shifter. He was Paul the teenage boy who would do anything his newly-discovered little sister asked of him.
Take right now, for instance. Kylie was supposed to be spending the afternoon with her dad and Paul came over to pick her up (half an hour early, but by this point Kim was more than used to Paul 'forgetting' what time he was supposed to be picking Kylie up, because it always end with the two siblings spending more time together, which Kim had a feeling was Paul's underlying motive all along). But instead of leaving right away to go meet their dad, Paul had somehow ended up in Kylie's tiny closet of a bedroom, sitting on the bright pink rug playing with Kylie's dolls.
And it was freaking adorable.
"Paul," Kylie's voice drifted out in the hall where Kim was currently sitting—potentially eavesdropping, but she would neither confirm nor deny if that was actually what she was doing out there. "Just look at her hair; it's a disaster!"
"Well I can hardly brush Teresa's hair when you've been hogging it for Barbie," Paul retorted, though there was very clearly no real anger behind it.
"Next time you should just ask for it," Kylie informed him. "You should really know better than this by now. Teresa can't be seen in public like that!"
"Hmm…I guess her hair is a bit of a mess," came Paul's voice thoughtfully after that and Kim had to bite her fist to keep from laughing out loud and thus reveal herself (though, bit of a side note, if Paul was really expected to protest the entire rez from Cold Ones, he really should have a better awareness of his immediate surroundings, because there was really no reason Kim should have lasted this long in her less-than-secretive hiding spot). "I think she might need a new outfit, too, actually. This is exactly what she wore the last time she went to the mall with Barbie."
Kim honestly thought she was going to pass out, holding back her laughter at that one. If Paul knew she was listening in, there was no way she was going to alive much longer, imprint or not.
But seriously. So. Freaking. Adorable.
"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Kylie exclaimed suddenly. "It's a fashion emergency!"
Alas, Kim was unable to hear just how Paul and Kylie chose to sort out their dire emergency, because just then a knock sounded on the front door.
Quickly, Kim scrambled to her feet and made her way to the front of the house. She knew that knock…
"Jared!" She exclaimed happily after pulling the door open to find her boyfriend standing there. Having not seen him in more than twelve hours (as per her new determination not to be caught sneaking her boyfriend into her bedroom at night), her initial reaction was to throw her arms around him and kiss him in greeting. But then she remembered that Jared being here right now was not the plan they agreed on for this afternoon. Kim released him quickly and took a step back into the still-open doorway so that she could look up at him in confusion. "Wait…I thought I was supposed to be meeting you at Sam and Emily's after your patrol?"
"Hello to you, too," He smirked slightly. "And that was the plan, yes."
"Not the plan anymore, though?" She questioned with a slightly furrowed brow.
"Definitely not," Jared replied vehemently.
"Is something wrong?" Now Kim was worried. The only thing she could think of was that something bad must have happened between him and Sam for Jared to not want to go over there now. But they hadn't even been patrolling together just now, so what could it be?
"Everything is wrong!" Jared exclaimed suddenly, causing Kim to jump slightly in surprise, narrowly avoiding knocking into the door. "Emily is cooking."
Kim frowned at that. "I think I might be missing something. Isn't Emily always cooking?"
"Well, yes," Jared admitted, "But that's not the point. Today isn't like any other normal day when Emily cooks. Today she made pizza."
"How awful," Kim attempted to sympathize, not seeing at all what the issue was with that. She was quick to catch on, however, that this was clearly going to be another one of Jared's episodes of melodramatics. "Homemade pizza is the worst."
Now Jared frowned slightly at her. "Your sarcasm is not appreciated. Also, homemade pizza is definitely not the worst…unless Emily only asks Sam about toppings, which is what she did today. And do you know what he told her? Do you have any idea?"
"Er…pepperoni?" Kim offered, slightly taken aback by Jared's…er, enthusiasm. Though really, it was her own fault for temporarily forgetting how serious all of the wolves could get about their food.
"Pep—no!" Jared scoffed. "I actually like pepperoni. Sam asked for broccoli. Broccoli! On the pizza! It's basically the greatest travesty known to mankind. Who puts broccoli on their pizza?
"Well," Kim said thoughtfully, "As a matter of fact, I do on occasion. Because it's delicious. Sam has the right idea."
"You're crazy," Jared promptly informed her. "I love you, but you're crazy. And unfortunately, I think you're just too far gone to be reasoned with. Honestly," He muttered to himself now, "Broccoli on the pizza."
"And you're a drama queen," Kim retorted. "But I suppose I love you anyway, too. Now, moving on, I suppose this means I'm the one who's going to have to make you lunch, now, since you're so useless in the kitchen?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Jared stated, "Do I really seem like the kind of guy who would show up at his girlfriend's house basically unannounced, and demand that she make me food?"
"Hmm," Kim began thoughtfully, fighting back a smirk, "I seem to recall that exact scenario occurring just last Saturday."
"Totally all Paul's idea," Jared retorted immediately. "Sam kicked us out so that he could have 'alone time' with Emily, you know that. That's totally beside the point, though, because, in fact, I am not here to beg you to feed me. I am here to kidnap my completely gorgeous girlfriend for an impromptu lunch date at the friendly neighborhood diner."
"Next time," Kim advised him sagely, "You should probably lead with that."