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

Chapter Seven

Astoria hasn't been able to stop thinking about the pair of glowing eyes she thought that she had seen the other night, the girl kept reassuring herself that what she saw was real and not just her imagination. Even though she only saw them for a brief moment, she felt some sort of familiarity — which she kept telling herself was impossible.

"Hey, are you okay?" Daphne asked worriedly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I noticed that you kept on spacing out a lot today."

She flashed a reassuring smile at Daphne. "Sorry, I was trying to remember if I forgot to do something before leaving the house this morning," Astoria lied.

Her friend sighed, reluctantly believing her answer, "Well, if you say so," Daphne muttered. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Astoria nodded, waving at Daphne then her eyes wandered around the crowded school hallway as if looking for someone. She felt her heart drop when the one person that she was looking for was not in sight.

"Looking for someone?" somebody asked out of nowhere.

The voice almost made her jump then turned swiftly to see who it was, "Jared?"

"The one and only."

If Jared was here, shouldn't Paul be at school too? She thought, not noticing the sneaky grin on Jared's face.

"If you're looking for Paul, he took an off from school," Jared told her as if he had read her mind.

Astoria narrowed her eyes at him. "Why? Did something happen?" she asked, eagerly awaiting an answer.

"Some sort of family emergency, he didn't say much when I saw him this morning on the way to school," he lied, trying his best to sound believable. Jared knew the real reason why Paul had skipped school, his patrol with Quil ended pretty late last night because of the looming threat of a certain redheaded vampire.

She pursed her lips, "Is he alright though?"

"Paul is a tough guy, he'll be alright. Plus, I know he's going to be over the moon when I tell him that you're worried about him," Jared teased, winking at her.

Astoria felt her cheeks heat up a bit, playfully hitting the boy in the arm with a book that she was holding. "Oh, shut up," she grumbled, leaving Jared laughing to himself near the lockers.

That night, she found herself waiting out in the back terrace again. Astoria knew he might not show up, but she opted to wait for him anyway just in case. A soft sigh escaped from her lips as she plopped down on the loveseat, her eyes never breaking away from the sea.

"Waiting for a certain someone? Or should I say, a boy named Paul Lahote?" Ezra teased, interrupting her alone time.

"You're home early, how's university life going so far?"

Her older brother chuckled as she tried to change the subject, "Nice try, squirt, but that's not going to stop me from asking about Paul again," he stated, sitting down beside her. "Spill it, sis."

Astoria rolled her eyes at him. "Fine," she grumbled.

"So? What's with you and that boy? Are you two a thing? Do you like him? Should I start going to karate classes again to get my black belt so I can beat him if he hurts you or make you cry?" he continuously asked her questions, causing the younger girl to gape at him.

"Ezra?"

"Yep?"

"Please, chill."

He grinned sheepishly, "Right, sorry."

"To answer your questions, we're not a thing. Paul and I are friends, he seems nice even though from what I heard he has quite a temper that causes him to get in trouble most of the time but I still think he's a good person, maybe just a bit misunderstood," Astoria admitted, smiling softly.

Ezra observed his sister with an amused look on his face as she talked about Paul Lahote, there was this odd glow around her that Evan had mentioned to him when they talked the other.

"So, do you like him?" he asked her again.

Astoria shrugged, "I don't know, but I always feel this weird pull whenever he's around. Does that mean anything?"

He shrugged, "Maybe? I don't know, I'm not the best person to ask when it comes to loving or liking someone, you should try getting a bit of love advice from Asher," Ezra suggested then burst out laughing when he saw the look on his sister's face. "But, if there comes a time when you're sure what you feel, just be careful," he reminded, patting her thigh softly.

She nodded, resting her head on her brother's shoulder, "Thanks Ezra, I'll keep that in mind."

"Oh right! I almost forgot Gideon is looking for you," he blurted out, nudging his sister's side. "I think it has something to do with that absurd skincare routine of his."

"Oh no, he's going to make me go through hell again," Astoria complained, not wanting to go through her other brother's ridiculous skincare routine again.

"Just go, it might not be that bad this time," Ezra chuckled.

"It's a twenty-five step routine," she groaned, using the puppy eyes technique on Ezra to persuade him from escaping Gideon's wrath.

Her brother ruffled her hair, seemingly not getting fazed by his younger sister's usual persuasion technique, "Good luck coming out of the bathroom alive then."

"*Oppa!"

It was a miracle that the dark bags under her eyes were pretty much nonexistent as she took a quick look at herself in the mirror. Astoria went through hell last night because of Gideon's unnecessarily long skincare routine. Her brother was insistent on making her go through all of the steps for better results and to look good for the party — or so he says.

A faint smile appeared on her face as Astoria took another look at her outfit for the party; she was wearing a cream & navy blue colored dress embroidered with orchid flowers and a pair of beige chunky heels to match the dress. She may not be a huge fan of wearing dresses or just dressing up in general, but after seeing the dress that Daphne had helped her picked out the other day at a shop in Port Angeles, she knew that she had to buy it.

"Hey, Evan just got here. He's at the back terrace with Ezra," Tobias announced, leaning against the door. "You don't look so bad whenever Gideon doesn't interfere with your clothing choices," he complimented.

Astoria quickly turned to look at her younger brother. "Is that your way of saying that I look good?" she grinned, walking towards Tobias to mess with his hair.

"If it's going to help you sleep at night," he teased, slowly backing away from her but stopped. "Also, make sure to be careful on your way back after the party," he added.

She narrowed her eyes towards where Tobias stood but shrugged it off as nothing then ran downstairs to greet Evan.

Paul was done waiting, he had finally decided that he was going to tell Astoria everything — about the legends and imprinting — with or without Sam's approval. Just thinking about what her reaction would be is already starting to make him anxious and that kind of feeling was slightly foreign to him but whatever the outcome is, he was ready to accept it — even if it would cause him a kind of pain that he would never heal from.

I'm going to tell her tomorrow, Paul told Sam through their link while they were running along towards the direction of the Reed household with Jared. She already saw me in my wolf form, he added.

What? No way! What happened? Did she scream? Run? Jared teased, earning a growl from Paul

I told you to wait a bit more Paul, Sam responded.

To hell with waiting, man. I say tell her, if she runs away after that then it's her loss and not yours, Jared urged him, causing Sam to growl warningly at him, which the younger boy just ignored.

As soon as they got near the Reeds' house, the three wolves quickly phased back into their human forms and clothed themselves with the extra ones that they had wrapped around their legs.

Everything seems to have stopped again around him as his gaze immediately landed on the girl he had been wanting to see again after a rough week, Astoria's eyes met his then gave him the sweetest smile and a tiny wave. Paul was pretty sure that he had heard Jared snort then took a mental note of beating his ass up later when they were alone in the wolf forms without Sam.

"Hey, guys, everything alright?" Astoria asked, walking towards them.

Paul nodded, "Yeah, are you heading out tonight?"

This time it was her turn to nod. "I'm going to a family friend's birthday party in Seattle," she replied.

"That explains why you look even more beautiful today, huh?" he complimented smoothly, making Astoria blush.

Jared watched the two with an amused look on his face. "Don't mind us, you lovebirds just enjoy your moment together," he joked.

Paul wanted to strangle his friend right then and there but managed to cool himself down as he didn't want to scare Astoria away; he instead shot him one of the nastiest glares he could ever give which Jared just ignored.

Sam interjected before something bad or idiotic could even happen. "We just came by to warn you about a couple of stray deers lurking around at this time of the year."

"Some of them tend to come out of nowhere, which tends to cause most of the car accidents in the area," Paul explained.

Astoria nodded in response, "Thanks for the heads up, we'll be careful."

"We?"

Just then, a familiar figure came out of the house along with Astoria's eldest brother.

"Ready, pumpkin?" the stranger asked while Paul was secretly shooting daggers at him, which made Jared elbow him in the arm.

"Oh! This is Evan," Astoria introduced the stranger to the three boys across from them. "He's a childhood friend from New York," she added, patting Evan on the back.

"Pleasure to meet you, gentlemen, but if you'll excuse us, this beautiful weirdo and I have somewhere else to be before my grandmother hires a search party for us," Evan joked, leaving the others to open the passenger's door of his car for Astoria.

"Make sure to have her back before midnight or else," Ezra warned while Evan just saluted in response.

Astoria turned to Paul and the others. "I'll see you guys around. Thanks again for the heads up," she thanked them then bid everyone 'goodbye' before getting inside Evan's car. She gazed at Paul longingly through the car's side mirror while they were driving off.

[A/N: Oppa - a term for older brother in Korean]