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

Chapter Four

The smile on her face grew wider from the moment she opened the latest text message from her childhood friend slash former neighbor slash partner-in-crime, Evan Sato. Ever since he had told her that he was back from Japan for his university break and would be visiting her before heading to Seattle to stay with his *obaasan, she was more than excited; the two have not seen each other since he left to go to Japan for college a year ago.

From: Evan S.
Message: I bought you a pack of toilet candies and eel pretzels, thought you might enjoy them.

Astoria couldn't help but roll her eyes at the silliness of her friend after reading his message. What a weirdo, she thought while composing a reply.

To: Evan S.
Message: Ugh gross, I almost forgot how much you suck.

From: Evan S.
Message: You still love me anyway.

"What are you so happy about? Is it because of a boy?" Daphne teased after seeing the huge smile on her face, Astoria met her from her creative writing club and immediately bonded.

She let out a short laugh, shaking her head as she shoved her phone back inside her jacket's pocket. "No, it's this childhood friend of mine. He's back from his university break and is coming to visit."

"Liar," her friend snorted. "I can tell by the way that friend of yours is making an effort to travel thousands of miles away just to see you isn't just an ordinary childhood friend," she implied.

"Oh, shut up," Astoria waved her hand, dismissing what Daphne just told her.

What her friend said was not that far off from what she and Evan were, she considered him as her first crush, or a childhood sweetheart if you will, but as they grew up those feelings gradually disappeared and he was nothing more than an older brother to her.

"What does he look like anyway? He can't be that bad for you to not have feelings for him," Daphne asked curiously, wiggling her brows at the girl.

"Nope, I'm not showing you," she shook her head, refusing to show what Evan looked like. Daphne would surely be all over him if she saw how good-looking her childhood friend was. "You're boy crazy," Astoria remarked, leaving her friend standing alone and was about to walk away when she caught Paul staring at her with a longing look in his eyes. She blinked then flashed him a soft smile before strolling off to the cafeteria.

Jared watched the two with an amused look on his face and already had this huge shit-eating grin Paul hated the most. "That was cute, but you could've at least waved instead of just looking at her like a lovesick puppy," he joked.

Paul shot a deathly glare towards his friend to shut him up. "Fuck off," he growled and then flipping him off.

He was already trying to think of ways on how to approach his imprint and it didn't help to hear the things the girls were talking about. A childhood friend who was — just his luck — a boy. His sight followed Astoria who stopped in her tracks after spotting her youngest sibling seated at the steps and joined him.

"Go away, Tori," she heard Tobias say in an annoyed tone, which made him slightly agitated then walked away before he could do something he might regret later on.

"Don't you have class?" Tobias asked his sister who was digging through her bag then pulling out a small plastic container which revealed a huge slice of chocolate cake inside it.

The older girl shook her head. "Nope," she replied, taking out the wooden forks she had in her messenger bag. "I have a free period before the club meeting, plus a chocolate cake. So, I figured I should find you and grace you with my presence," Astoria joked, trying to get a smile out of Tobias but got a small twitch at the corner of his lips instead. "Here, let's share," she handed him the extra wooden fork.

They both ate in silence for almost an hour and were able to finish the cake just before the bell for the last period rang. Tobias got up, taking the container and utensils from his sister. "I'll take this home. See you later," he muttered, leaving his sister at the steps with a pleased look on her face.

I think we're making progress, she thought to herself.

That night, Astoria was situated at the railings of the back terrace of their home, already lost in her own world as she continued to write her thoughts in her journal. She wrote about how good it felt to see her little brother smile even though it was for a short while, for Astoria it was small progress and she's planning to work harder to help him out, then thought about Evan's visit instead and made a mental note to tell everyone except for the twins; she was worried that Gideon and Asher would make a huge fuss and do something idiotic.

Her mind then drifted towards a certain hothead. She chewed on the top of her pen while remembering the way he was looking at her just this morning – he had this longing look in his eyes or maybe she was just imagining it. Astoria felt her cheeks warm up a little then slapped herself gently, trying to forget about it. But the person she was trying to forget just now was walking near the waves. The girl had to blink a couple of times then rubbed her eyes to check if she wasn't hallucinating.

"Paul? What are you doing here?" Astoria called out, noticing that he was half-naked yet again. He sure does hate wearing shirts at night, she thought.

"Stargazing," he joked, laughing afterward. "Also, I went for a run."

"Isn't it a little bit cold tonight? You could get sick!" she scolded him, hopping off the railings then quickly grabbing the blanket from the couch and made her down to where he was. Just like the previous night, Paul watched her wrap the blanket on him quietly, amused at the way that she was fussing around him. He had to admit, Paul liked the attention that he was receiving from his imprint but was broken out of his reverie when she took his hand and lead him up to the terrace.

"Wait here while I make you something warm to drink," Astoria ordered, motioning towards the loveseat at the far end of the terrace. "Make yourself at home," she said before disappearing inside to get a warm drink.

A minute passed by when she returned with two cups of hot chocolate in her hands. "Thanks, you didn't have to trouble yourself with all of this," he stated, taking a sip from his steaming cup.

"I know, but I wanted to," she reassured him, smiling softly. "I didn't see you for the rest of the day, did something happen?"

"I had to help Jacob with the truck that he was fixing," Paul lied even though he hated doing it to her but he was still waiting for the right moment to tell her about the legends as well as him imprinting on her.

Astoria eyed him for a moment, trying to figure out what was going through his mind. She was worried about him; Paul had been skipping school a lot lately. Daphne had told her it wasn't a new occurrence and that has been going on since last year after he started hanging around Sam Uley.

"I think I'm making progress with Tobias, but I'm not getting my hopes up," she suddenly revealed to him.

"It's still progress though," Paul assured, shifting a bit so he could face her.

"You know, it only took a slice of chocolate cake to get him to smile," she beamed, smiling widely. "Although he just lifted a corner of his lips," she added.

"Is lifting the corner of your lips considered smiling?" he teased.

Astoria huffed as she crossed her arms and shot him a fake annoyed look, "It is, in my book."

Paul laughed loudly, "I'm just messing with you."

The pair continued to talk for the next hour, sharing weird stories, not noticing a tall figure entering the kitchen. Asher quietly tiptoed towards the windows where he saw his younger sister and Paul Lahote at the back terrace, somewhat acting all cozy.

A huge grin appeared on his face, "Oh, the others are going to freak when I tell them about this," he muttered to himself, rubbing his hands together.

Asher headed back upstairs to tell the others what he has just seen, which resulted in him getting hit with a Funko pop figure by a very sleep deprived Gideon who had just finished his "25-step skincare routine" — which still confuses and amazes the hell out of Asher on how his twin brother does it every morning and every night so religiously without skipping one single step — and being door-slammed on the face by Tobias. But it didn't faze him, so he bombarded their phones with tons of messages about what he just saw and made a mental note to tease Astoria tomorrow.

[A/N: Obaasan means Grandmother in Japanese.]