Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga, only my original characters (Astoria, Ezra, Asher, Gideon, Tobias, Dr. Reed, and Evan). Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Stars shone above her as Astoria admired how they twinkle in the dark sky. She always held on to the belief that when a person passes away, they become stars to guide the people they have left behind. That night she sat outside of their home with her toes dipped in the sand, silently praying to the stars that her late mother was listening to her thoughts. She was beginning to question herself, if she was doing the right thing by leaving her little brother be and what more could she do for him to be able to help him cope from losing the one person who held them all together.

"I guess I'm failing at being the big sister," she muttered to herself, chuckling sadly as she shook her head. "If Ezra was home, maybe things would be different." She Astoria sighed, hugging her knees to her chest. She had always known that her eldest brother was much better at talking some sense to Tobias than her.

"You know, people usually stay away from the beach at this time of night. There might be some kind of creep or creatures lurking around," a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts causing the girl to turn her head towards where the voice came from.

"When you meant some kind of creep, were you describing yourself, Lahote?" she joked, a small smile forming on her lips but then her eyes suddenly widened upon seeing him half-naked and only wearing a pair of cargo shorts. She cleared her throat then looked away, thankful to the dark surroundings for hiding the tinge of pink on her cheeks.

Paul chuckled, walking towards where she sat. "You wound me, Reed. Why are you even out here anyway?"

"Stargazing," she simply replied, telling him a little white lie because she didn't want to worry him, which was weird. She pulled her blanket a little closer for some warmth. "I could ask you the same question; shouldn't you be at home? Don't tell me you were stargazing too," Astoria laughed.

"Uhh...yeah, I was stargazing too."

"Right," Astoria snorted, not believing him. "Who even stargazes looking like that?" she looked up at him, squinting her eyes at his response.

"Apparently, I do," he answered jokingly.

"Here, wrap this around you. It's starting to get chilly lately," Astoria instructed, handing him a spare blanket. Paul was about to decline since he doesn't need it because he was already plenty warm — one of the many perks of being a Quileute shape-shifter — but quickly backed off when he saw the worried yet soft look in his imprint's eyes.

Fuck, those eyes are going to be the death of me, he thought, his heart began pounding so fast when she moved closer to wrap the blanket around him.

"Thanks," he muttered, flashing a soft smile at her — which was pretty seemed out of character for him.

The pair sat in comfortable silence for a while, admiring the stars and listening to the waves until Astoria spoke.

"Do you ever feel like a failure sometimes?" she asked, biting her lower lip.

"Yeah, but 'sometimes' seems more like an understatement," Paul replied, there was bitterness in his laugh. It was true, most of the time he always felt like he could have done a lot more to prevent all the changes that happened to him in the past. But all those failures and mistakes made him want to become better, especially with Astoria now as the center of his everything.

"Me too, these days I feel like I'm going in circles with my little brother," she trailed off, pursing her lips. "My dumb and dumber twin brothers aren't being helpful either. With Ezra and Dad not being around as much, I have no idea what I'm going to do anymore," Astoria groaned, burying her face in her arms.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, he'll eventually come around," Paul convinced her, placing a warm hand on her shoulder.

She wiped the brimming beads of tears forming in her eyes away, "I just want him to be okay, mom will surely be disappointed if she knew I wasn't taking care of him well."

"I'm pretty sure your mom knows you're already doing so much for him," he stated, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Shivers ran down her spine when Astoria felt his touch, her already pink cheeks got redder. "Thanks," she murmured, thanking him for bringing her mood up. She realized that being around Paul somehow makes her feel better; there was something that she couldn't pinpoint as to why she was drawn to him in some kind of way.

"Anytime," he nodded, leaning away from her.

The pair talked a lot within the next half hour, and in between those talks Astoria found out that he didn't exactly have the best situation at home which made her want to give him a comforting hug and reassure him that things will soon be better for him. But she felt that it would probably be too forward or even make things awkward for the two of them, in the end, Astoria just gave him a gentle squeeze in the arm instead.

"It's getting late, I should head back inside," she announced halfheartedly, not wanting their late-night talk to end but she had to as it was a school night.

Paul nodded, flashing her a tight smile. He did not want to let her go either but he knew that he has to since it was almost midnight. "Here, thanks for this," he said while he was about to take the blanket off of him but Astoria stopped him midway.

"No, it's okay you can keep it," she insisted, fixing the blanket around him to keep him a bit warm. "See you at school," Astoria bid him goodbye with a sweet smile before heading inside the house.

When Paul was sure that she had already gone back inside and turned in for the night, he made his way towards the woods and phased after tying the blanket around his ankle along with his other clothing so that it wouldn't be ruined. He quickly ran to the deepest parts, checking for any threats around the border.

Somebody seems very happy, Jared jeered as he appeared beside Paul, already knowing what was going on in his mind.

He had a great time, that's for sure, Quil snickered, joining in on teasing the older boy.

Oh, I know, I saw it too, Jared cackled, shoving Quil playfully, trying to rile up Paul a bit more.

That blanket on your ankle looks nice too, Quil added, circling Paul.

Paul growled at the two wolves across from him, Will you morons just shut the hell up?

Hearing each other's thoughts was the one thing Paul found the most annoying about being in a pack and this was one of the times that he wished he could just block everyone from seeing and hearing everything that night because he only wanted to keep that moment for himself. But knowing two other wolves, they would never let him live it down and continued teasing him for the rest of their patrol together.

Back at the Reed household, Astoria was smiling to herself while making rounds inside the house checking if everything was locked. She was still reeling from the talk she had with Paul; thinking that he had surprised her in so many ways. Back at school and whenever he was with Jared Cameron and their little group, he could be a little cocky and sometimes brooding but somehow whenever they see each other, he was calm and sweet.

She was about to head back to her room but stopped in her tracks when she saw Tobias coming back inside through the front door.

"Where have you been? I hope you didn't forget that it's a school night," she warned him, narrowing her eyes at Tobias who just stood silently across from her and was avoiding her gaze.

"Just leave me alone, Tori," her younger brother grumbled, walking past her but was stopped when Astoria grabbed him by the arm.

"I won't ever leave you alone when you're being like this," she sighed. "And I, for sure, know that mom hates seeing you acting this way."

Tobias froze upon the mention of their mother, a sad sigh escaped out of his lips and shook his head. Not wanting to upset her even more, he gently removed his sister's hand on his arm, "Good night, Tori," he muttered before heading to his room.

Astoria stood alone in the foyer for a moment, trying to compose herself when the sound of her phone breaking from her trance. "What in the world?" she mumbled, taking the device out from her jacket's pocket. Her eyes immediately brightened upon seeing the name of the person who had sent her a text message.

From: Evan S.
Message:
Guess which favorite person of yours is back?