Hellooo! Sorry I'm late! *bends over to catch breath* It's been pretty cray on this side of the woods with the pandemic and all that but managed to finish off not only this chapter but start off the next one as well! (Ain't curfew grand? Not). The sounds of the Chromatics with their version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is my inspiration for this. The perfect song you wanna drink and vent about boys to. Anyhoo, enjoy!
Edit: Something went wrong the first time I uploaded it! My apologies!
-At 8PM I grudgingly answered the door to see an equally miserable-looking Leah holding a bottle of Tequila and some snacks.
"We need to talk"
"Look, Leah, if this has anything to do with Ja..."
She whirled around with a ferocity that made me gulp... audibly.
"Can we. For once. NOT talk about that great big furball? I'm here to talk about me and Jacob might... MIGHT come up but tonight is not about him and you and whatever fucked up arrangement you guys have. Capiche? "
A Jake-free night. I could almost hug her.
Almost. I was not in the mood to fast track my way to the afterlife.
I held up my hands in mock surrender.
"Capiche, and that's the best thing I've heard all day"
"Considering that you live with my brother, that's not too hard to believe"
Seth's voice floated down, "Hey I heard that!"
Aside from the hormones, his Wolf-ey senses were definitely tingling.
"Shut up Seth," we chorused without even hesitating, sharing an awkward smile in the process.
"What's up?"
"Let's drink first."
The evening was going better than I thought but Leah refused the mention anything about her problem for the next few hours. Thankfully the hours passed with little reference to Jake except when she protested violently against the inappropriate thoughts that seemed to slip from his control.
"Yeah, so we've all pretty much seen you butt naked,"
This nagged at the seemingly rational part of my brain that would have caused me to cry in a bathtub but a few tequilas and some beers later, that part of my brain was pretty much numb to any kind of shame. I held myself back from asking if she liked what she saw and mentally calculated how much I've had to drink.
Liquor before beer, never fear...
"So Mom wants me to date"
Beer before liquor, the plot gets thicker.
"Oh"
It had only taken oh... until 1 am to get to the point and honestly I didn't want to press the issues earlier in the fear of having my face mauled off, but I guess this was it.
"Any reason why?"
"She thinks I'm not going to handle the wedding well. And with everyone around me either getting married or imprinting, she thinks I'm gonna eventually shift and kinda... stay there... so that I don't have to be alone as a human."
I laid a sympathetic hand over hers. "Leah I'm sorry" She shrugged it off casually. "Nothing to apologise for. Mom just thinks I need to get out more. Meet new people. People off the rez and widen the net."
"And you don't..."
"I don't want to cause I'm scared that one day I'll wake up and I'll be over Sam. Like completely. That I'll never think about him the way I do. It took me a long time to get to a place where I wasn't resenting him, and Em. But to be completely over it... That's what happens when you imprint. To Sam, it's like everything we had just went poof. Gone. Nothing. No first kiss, no first date, heck, no great sex. I don't want to forget."
And he will.
It was as if the confession broke a dam inside of her. A dam holding back a shit tonne of liquor cause in an hour, the sassy, composed, badass Leah had turned into a ditzy sorority chick.
" You know Bella, I know I said I won't talk about Jake but I want to talk about Jake... To you... About him but I can't. But all I can say is... He loves you. Ew... Why did I say that? Like some stupid cupid. Oh my gosh I love that song. Love yeah, so yeah Jake loves you and so do I. You're awesome."
" As a friend"
"Best friends", she corrected.
"Yeah that's all I'll be."
Leah grabbed me by the shoulders and I winced in pain. Looking me straight in the eyes to the point of awkwardness she began,
Pick an eye dude.
"Bells, Jake... JACOB frikin' Black wants to have the babies"
What the fuck.
"Beautiful babies. With long hair," she pulled at mine, "and they'll get his asshole attitude. And you guys will live together forever and ever, like that movie..." she clicked her fingers trying to recall...
"Teen Wolf?" I deadpanned.
"No. Star Wars. Luke and Leia and Chewbacca for a pet. Or a kid. Depends on whose genes they get."
I had a feeling I wasn't going to remember any of this in the morning. I could already feel the hangover throbbing at my temples. I knocked back the last shot of Tequila and in a drunken fit of obsessive cleaning, decided to wash up while Leah lolled on the couch.
Bella, so subtle with the hints. Please go home cause the drunk girl is washing the glasses.
"So are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Going to look around?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not." I could see her sinking down the couch as her words tapered off.
Wolf girl or not she's going to need a blanket. I made a quick mental note to get her one before I passed out too.
Leah broke my thought, waking up with a quick snort and looking disoriented for a fraction of a second before realising I was still in the kitchen. Her eyes almost immediately fluttered closed,
"Bella?"
"Hmmm?"
"I love you"
"I know"
I headed to bed after checking up on Leah, still almost motionless on the couch. Seth had fallen asleep fully dressed so I closed the laptop for him. Everything seemed a blur by this point and all I wanted to do was sleep. I checked my phone. No calls. No messages. My heart hurt irrationally, Leah's words replaying in my head. When Jake imprints I won't even be a memory. Like a pale, awkward, sexy blur. So why am I investing myself in a relationship that won't even matter in whatever the unit of time it takes for him to go all Pepe le Peu on some random girl? The alcohol was doing its work.
God's work.
I dialled his number. I knew it was late and he probably wasn't even awake but I needed to get this off my chest. I was right. It went straight to voicemail.
"Jake..."
Please let this sound like a calm and clear explanation and not like an intoxicated goose honking for bread.
I woke up with a start at 3 am.
Isn't that exorcist hour? Great, add that to the nope list.
I had a vivid dream about him. Like super vivid and I woke up expecting his arms around me. I got further under the covers, fighting off sleep and a hangover and hugged myself trying to bring back the sensation. I vaguely remembered calling him at some point but I couldn't for the life of me figure out if it was real or what I had even said. I dialled his number again., nodding off the whole time.
"Jake, I know it's late but I thought you should know... I... I want more than this...arrangement. I know it's a lot right now and I don't know what's going to happen in the future but I'm ok with that, well, with a few conditions." I could hear myself drawl as I fought to stay awake." but Jake, I want you to pick me. I want you to imprint on me... Fuck that sounds stupid. But I don't know if I can see you with someone else cause... I love you". It took a herculean effort to get those last words out and everything faded to black as I felt the phone slip out of my hands and thankfully not onto my face.
Ah... Blissful sleep.
"Hey, you've reached Jake. I'm out on the prowl so drop me a message and I'll call you back." *Beep*
Wait, what?
Did he get it? Did our heroine say the three words out loud? What was on the first voicemail? Was there even a first voicemail? Don't hangovers suck? Find out more in the next chapter with some Jacob POV goodness.
Also let me know how you feel! Stay safe and have a great week!