A/N: This is a lot overdue, I'm very sorry. I kept writing and then going away and coming back to it and then I finally got the initiative to finish it. I'm going to apologize in advance for this chapter because I know a lot of you will want to throw shoes at my head. Please refrain from doing so, for it might damage your computer screen.

And you wouldn't be able to write me a nice, long review. I beta myself, all mistakes are my own, and a happy New Year to everyone! Much love.

This is bad, this is so bad.

We were sitting in silence, side by side at our easels. She had pulled me into the classroom by my elbow to talk, yet she hadn't said one word. "Summer?" I asked timidly.

She turned, opened her mouth and froze, turning back around. She repeated that three times, spluttering nonsense. I waited for her as she stopped stammering and finally decided what to say. "What the hell?" She accused. "How could you do this to me? To Jake!?"

"What are you-" Summer cut me off.

"I can't believe this! I stood up for you! I trusted you and damn it, I took your side! Just friends, my ass! You look at him like he's everything you ever needed." She stopped screaming at me to glare at all the nosy people who were sitting near us, listening intently and when they backed off, she turned to me again. "My God! I was on your side and I argued for hours with Quil about this!"

Shut up, shut up, shut up! She was making me feel really guilty, even though I didn't have anything to be guilty about right? "What is it with you and Jacob about sides? There are no sides to choose from!"

"Oh, so now he's Jacob?" Crap, I never called him Jacob. She dropped her paintbrush and started packing up all her stuff. In a calm voice, she said, "You were the one who drew the line that created the sides, Kim. And until you get your act together, I'm with Jake on this." Then she got up and moved to an empty easel.

My heart plummeted into my stomach and she didn't even look back at me. She just started talking to Amy Winters four seats down from me. "Great. That's just perfect." I muttered, grabbing my book bag and starting to walk away without cleaning up my station.

Everyone was watching me, I could feel their eyes. "Kim, the period has just started." The teacher pointed out as I placed one hand on the doorknob.

I turned to face her. "Actually for me, the class just ended. Bye." And I, the shy and scared Kimberly Anne Spencer, stormed out of class before it had ended, a door slam echoing on the way out.

Standing outside the door, I could hear Paul's loud laughter and his thundering applause and I smiled to myself, feeling a sense of pride.

And then I realised I should probably get out of the hallway before Mrs. Long paged the office and I got caught.

As I sunk down the silent hallway awkwardly, I realised that I had never skipped before and had no idea what in the world I was doing. I considered just going home, only for a short minute before I remember that Jared was waiting for me after school.

No, I couldn't possibly leave now.

I mentally slapped myself for the giddy feeling that I got in my stomach and my chest when I thought about him. Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jared, Jared-

Bad Kim!

It was hopeless. I still had feelings for Jared, and Jared knew it.

Unfortunately, so did Jake

What was I supposed to do? I had Jake. Jake was reassurance. Jake was comfortable, Jake was real, Jake was home. He was my now, he was the feeling I got when he kissed me, that lasted all the way to my toes. He was the smile I had in the morning. He was acceptance, he was mine.

And then there was Jared. God, even the thought of his name makes my knees go weak. Jared was the unattainable… Until recently. All he seems to want is me now. Jared's fascinating, he's adventure, he's excitement and he's probably the sweetest person I've ever met.

I was torn… Great.

My mind was racing as I stepped outside into the freezing cold, forgetting that I hadn't stopped to retrieve my jacket from my locker. But I kept walking, lost in my own thoughts.

And then it started raining. It started as small, fat raindrops just falling into my hair before the downpour started. I could feel the heavy rain soak my blue sweater, the freezing raindrops falling through the material and chilling my skin. My hair matted to my face, I kept walking.

I hadn't realised where I was walking to, and I found myself at the local park, standing in front of the very swing where I first met Jared.

The rain was pouring in my eyes and everything was a bit blurry, but I sat on the cold seat, ignoring the water that soaked into the butt of my pants and gripped the metal bars with my trembling hands, the left grip tighter than the right one.

And I kicked off from the ground, pumping my legs faster and faster and closing my eyes as the swing moved higher into the sky. I could feel the ice cold wind blowing against my face. I braced myself, cradling my wrist before I let myself lean forward and jump off of it.

For a second, I felt like I was flying. My arms and legs were weightless as I plummeted closer to the ground. I landed on my feet gracefully, before falling to my knees and letting myself slump to the ground. I took in a breath, wet gravel stuck to the side of my cheek, and I started to cry.

Someone approached me. I could hear their footsteps hesitantly coming towards me.

And as much as I hoped that it was Jake coming to scoop me up and tell me everything was okay and then kiss me passionately, we all know how life works these days.

So I didn't look up as Jared lowered himself next to me. "Isn't it funny?" I muttered to him. "How the person you're closest to can make you feel so distant? Isn't it funny how someone who can always make you feel good about yourself, can make you feel your worst?"

"Kim, get off the ground." He said soothingly, his hot hand reaching over and tucking one side of my hair behind my ear.

"Go away."

He sighed. "Kim sweetheart, it's freezing out. You're going to get sick again."

My stomach bubbled up with excitement furiously and I hated the feeling. "Leave me alone Jared. Don't call me that."

"Don't call you what, Kim? That's sort of your name." He joked. I didn't laugh. "Kim please, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."

I screamed, startled. "Don't touch me!" I yelled, as both his arms tried to pull me closer. "You don't have that right. You're not allowed to touch me!" I pulled myself a good two feet away from him and curled my knees up to my chest. "You want to know what's wrong. Everything is falling apart because of you! God, why now?! Why now, Jared? Can't you just leave me alone?!"

I watched as he closed his eyes, even in the rain I could tell he was crying. "I wish it were that simple. But it's not." He crawled towards me and I saw the gravel sticking to his hands. "I want you Kim and I will do whatever it takes to get you. Nothing will ever change that."

"Damn it!" I moaned, frustrated. "I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate-" I stopped talking, because his wet hands, full of gravel, came up to cup my face and pull my lips to his.

I've dreamt about this moment so many times. I dreamt about us kissing on the beach, or in a bed before we made love. I never imagined it would be in a park, during school hours, in the pouring rain, both of us crying, angry and frustrated.

But the feeling was better than I could describe.

I pressed myself against him. I could feel his warm skin immediately drying the front of my sweater. Our tongues tangled angrily and our lips were smashed together. My hands rose up and I went to grab his hair, like I would with Jacob, but he didn't have any hair, so my hands clenched tightly around his skin.

And then my grip faltered. Jacob.

I tore away from him hurriedly, panting, tasting the tears that ran onto my lips along with the rain. I pressed my palms into my face. "I shouldn't have done that." I whispered, out of breath. "That was so wrong."

"That wasn't wrong, Kim. It was right and you could feel it, I know you could. We belong together." Jared insisted.

"No we don't, Jared. There is no such thing as soul mates. Just stop it okay? I'm sorry, that was wrong of me to lead you on like that. I have to go." I scrambled to my feet before he could stop me, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and speed walking away.

He ran after me, much faster, and grabbed my arm. "Wait, please just wait." I jerked away from him. "Will you just listen to me?!" He yelled as I walked faster. He finally stopped following me. Good.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to hear it! There is nothing you could say right now that could fix-"

"I'm a werewolf!" He shouted at me. My steps faltered. Did he just say that he was a…? "I'm a werewolf." He said softer.

Oh my God. "Jared, I really want to be your friend. I'm trying so hard to have sort of platonic relationship with you. But when you feed me bullshit like this, it makes it so hard. Do me a favour and stop hanging out around Sam Uley. Lay off the drugs and maybe get some help."

"I'm not lying, Kim. The legends are true. And you're my imprint." Oh lovely, there he goes bringing up the damn legends again. My father was on the council before he died, he was obsessed with those legends. Thankfully I wasn't a huge freak and I knew it was all superstition. "Wait, where are you going?"

I kept on walking and shouted back at him as I walked, "I have to get back to school, Jared. Science is starting soon."

"I just told you my biggest secret and you're just going to walk away casually and pretend like everything is normal? Aren't you terrified? Curious?" He asked as he jogged to catch up with me. "You don't care that I'm a werewolf?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Nope, I don't care at all. You go ahead and be a werewolf, whatever you want." I bit back at him, sarcastically.

He didn't seem to catch it and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Well that went easier than I expected. I never really guessed it would go that well, with what happened with Sam and-" He caught sight of the look on my face. "You think I'm crazy."

"Well what else am I supposed to think?!" I muttered. "You just told me you were a werewolf out of nowhere. I don't know if that's a side effect of the drugs but…"

"I'm not on drugs!"

I gave him an exasperated sigh. "Well how do you explain all of that?" I pointed to his muscles. "And this?" I pointed to his head and made circles around my ear.

"Kim, I just told you. I'm a werewolf!" Jared exclaimed.

"Yeah, right. And I'm a vampire." That was obviously the wrong thing to say. Jared started shaking and he looked so angry that I was almost terrified. But I didn't want to show it, so I tried to put a bitter edge in my trembling voice. "Oh no, what are you going to do now? Turn into a werewolf?"

His eyes narrowed at me. "Not in front of you, I'm not." I heard him mumble. "I have to go."

"Wait, does that mean I'm not getting a ride?!" I called after him as he started running into the trees.

He didn't even look back at me and all of a sudden, I couldn't hear him anymore. It was like he vanished into thin air. Oh man, what did I do? Now everyone was mad at me.

I trekked back to school in the pouring rain, down on my spirits and extremely cold. I was dripping wet by the time I got to science and I pushed my hair out of my face before I sat down in my seat with a loud, sopping splat. My lab partner gave me a calculating look before he got up and went over to where Paul sat.

Now I remember his name, Daniel Cope, one of Paul and Jared's good friends. Or ex friend by the way Paul glared at him. I couldn't hear what he said, but it was obviously something about me because they both suddenly turned and looked my way. Daniel was looking at me with open disgust but Paul smirked at me.

Paul started walking over to me. "Grab your stuff and follow me." He told me quickly, turning away just as fast. I obeyed and ran to catch up with him as he was already out the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the hall. I secretly revelled in the heat of his hand that covered my wet, freezing one.

We stopped in front of a locker and he let go of me and started muttering something under his breath as he entered the combination on the locker. I don't know what he was looking for, but his locker was a pigsty. There were papers and garbage and books that he just tossed around. Finally he pulled out two pieces of folded fabric and thrust it into my hands.

"What's this?" I asked curiously.

He rolled his eyes, slammed the locker shut again and started pushing me towards the girl's bathroom. "Just get changed okay? I know I'll get my ass beat if I let you walk around like that and catch a cold."

"But the bell's going to ring." I protested, trying to shove against his hand.

He was too strong and he literally pushed me into the door and it swung open. "Get changed." Obediently, like a good and scared little girl, I shut myself into a stall and stood there awkwardly for two minutes.

I unfolded the clothes and just looked at them for a minute. There was a pair of black Adidas jogging pants and a blue button up shirt. "Um Paul?"

He didn't answer me and I had a feeling he wasn't going to say anything until I came out. So I peeled off my jeans, my sweater, my shirt and my tank top until I was just standing in my underwear.

After I was dressed and just buttoning up the shirt, I realised that it was a bit- no, way too big for me so that the top button just came to the middle of my chest and you could see the top of my breasts.

I'll give this shirt one thing. It does wonders for my non-existent cleavage. "I don't want to come out." I complained from the other side of the bathroom door.

"There's no one around, Kim. I might drag you out." He threatened. "I'm not afraid of the girl's bathroom."

Busted. "Alright, alright." I complied, grabbing my wet clothes and my backpack and making my way out. He was leaning against the wall, looking completely uninterested until he looked at me and did sort of a double take to my chest.

"Jared won't believe he missed this." He muttered, ogling me.

I perked up and grabbed his arm excitedly. "What, why? Have you talked to him today? He's been acting really weird…"

I shoved my wet clothes in my bag, not caring about the books and papers in it, and swung it around my shoulder. "What do you mean weird?" Paul asked curiously.

"Okay I-" I stopped talking and snorted. "So you won't believe this, but Jared told me that he was a-" I burst out into giggles. "A werewolf!" I gasped.

I bit my lip, trying to hold in my smile and waiting for Paul to laugh along with me. His angry face suddenly got narrower, harder. "What happened?"

So I recounted the incident, leaving out all the parts before that and trusting that hopefully Jared would keep our kiss a secret. "And then he ran off shaking. He wouldn't even look at m- hey!" I cried after him as he broke into a run down the hall. "Where are you going?!"

I was left standing awkwardly in the hallway as he disappeared around the corner. So silently, I walked back to my class.

The bell rang and I nearly tripped over my own feet trying to get to my locker and outside quickly. I was planning to run to Emily's and then get home as fast as I could, because it was still raining. But when I looked up from under my hood, I saw Jared leaning out the window of a shiny black four wheel drive.

He waved at me and I looked around for any signs of Summer, Embry or Quil before I booked it into the passenger's seat. And I was greeted with a smile so big and so genuine that it was like nothing awkward had ever passed between us. "Good afternoon Kim." He greeted.

"Hi Jared." I murmured, fiddling with a piece of string from the pant leg.

His smile got wider, which looked like it was going to split his face open. "You look beautiful in my clothes." I'm sure that my face lit up like a Christmas tree because I hadn't thought that these were Jared's clothes. I felt my cheeks burning a hole in my face and I sort of ducked away. "Don't be embarrassed, you look beautiful in everything."

I looked away from him even more. "Thank you for picking me up. I didn't think you were coming back."

He shrugged happily. "Well I wasn't going to leave you to walk alone in the freezing rain when I was going to be there anyway. Seriously, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me because I would do anything for you."

Why? Why is making this so hard for me? But I don't say that, I just nod and give him a really fake, overdone smile that he can totally see right through because he frowns at me before I turn away to look out the window once again.

And the rest of the ride was silent. I mean literally so silent you could hear an ant sneeze.

So I was immensely relieved when we pulled into Emily's driveway and I could escape the extreme awkwardness. I reached hurriedly for the door handle but my hand fell into air. I looked up in surprise and noted that before I could even register it, Jared had managed to get out of his side of the truck and open mine.

"Werewolf speed." He said to my surprised look.

I avoided his held out hand and jumped to the ground. "Uh huh."

I kept walking and his hands came out to rest on my shoulders, stopping me from moving any further. "How do you know that I'm lying, huh?" He accused.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" I countered back, shrugging his arms off my shoulder and walking up the porch steps.

"I'll show you!"

"Alright, be sure to call me up when there's a full moon." I babbled in sarcastic excitement.

He groaned. "Kim…"

I ignored him. "Emily?" I called, walking in as I usually saw Jared do. I found her, Sam and Lakota all gathered in the living room.

"You got here fast." Sam noted, eyeing my clothes and seemingly holding back a smile on his serious face. "Hi Jared." He called out to the empty hallway.

The door slammed and Jared entered, smiling like a madman. "Hey Sam, how's it?" I was shocked. How did they hear each other from that far apart? Jared, as if he read my mind, put a hand on my shoulder and laughed. "Werewolf hearing, remember?"

I watched Sam and Emily turn to each other in horror before I shut my eyes and groaned. "Enough with the werewolf stuff!" I complained. "Sam, do me a favour and check Jared into the mental hospital or something? I'd do it myself but I really need to go. Come on Lakota."

Jared offered us a ride home and I begrudgingly accepted. This ride was better, filled with friendly chatter. Jared didn't make any inappropriate comments to make me feel uncomfortable and I felt as though we were lifelong friends. It was a nice feeling, a good feeling.

He pulled up to my house and opened my door for me again. This time I thanked him, and took the hand that he offered to help both me and Lakota down. I noticed how happy he was now, much different than earlier when he ran off shaking. "Thank you for the ride, really." I smiled up at him as Jeff opened the door and pulled Lakota into his arms.

It had stopped raining, so we were standing outside my house on the front step. "Anytime." He offered, opening his arms.

He wanted a hug, I could tell by the eyebrow that he raised at my reluctance. Despite the awkwardness that this gesture will cause, I complied, throwing my arms around his waist and locking my fingers together.

I heard Jared's content sigh and I pressed my face into his shirt. Something touched the top of my head, I'm pretty sure it was his lips, but I didn't mention it as I smiled shyly in goodbye before shutting the door and biting my lip, trying to hold back my contentment, feeling like a little girl with her first crush.

And that's when I realised what I had to do.

I thundered upstairs with my heart in my throat nervously, throwing off Jared's clothes and hiding them under my bed, secretly hoping he'd forget about them. Then I threw on my own jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a massive hoodie that I had taken from my brother's closet one time and put my frizzed out hair in a pathetic bun.

And then I left to take the five minute walk over to Jacob's house.

I got there, suddenly afraid that he was still mad at me. But bravely, I knocked on the door and held my breath.

Billy answered and suddenly I got even more nervous. "Well hello, you must be Kim?" He asked, holding out his hand to shake. But there was a look in his eye, a look that showed me he really knew who I was. I shook his hand once with both of mine.

"Yes sir, I am. Is Jake home?"

Just then, he appeared in the doorway of what I assumed to be his room, judging by the way his hair was sticking up everywhere. His eyes brightened when he saw me. "Kim!"

Billy politely wheeled out of the way and I moved past his wheelchair towards Jake. "I'm sorry!" We both said at the same time. He came up towards me and his lips went in for a kiss. I turned my head at the last second so he caught my cheek and gave him a pointed look and subtly gestured towards Billy.

They both chuckled at the same time and I blushed. "Can we talk outside?" I murmured.

He wasn't fazed. He didn't even look suspicious or worried. "Sure!" He said like his normal, cheerful self. We stepped out the door and he sat on the edge of his porch, patting the spot beside him. But I stood silently, regretfully, knowing I wasn't going to be there long. He gazed at me, one long, hard look and suddenly his whole face changed. "So that's it?"

My heart fell out of my throat and dropped all the way down into my butt when I realised how well he knew me already. "Jacob…"

"That's it? We're done, over?" He whispered pitifully. "It's Jared, right?"

I wasn't going to lie to him. "Partly. But you know what, most of this is me." I told him truthfully. "I- God, Jake. You have no idea how I'm feeling. I need to figure things out for me, but mostly for you too. You don't want me, not like this."

"What do you mean, like this?"

"I really, really like you. I honestly and truly do. But then Jared comes back and all of a sudden, I can't take my eyes off of him again. But Jacob, you are always my first choice. And right now, I need to be me. I don't want to have choices to be made." I pleaded with him. "I need you, though, Jake. Please don't be angry with me."

"Don't do this." He whispered, standing up and taking my hands. "Kim please, I'll do anything. I can be better. We'll hang out all the time. I'll try not to get so jealous…" I watched in horror as a tear fell down the corner of his eye. "Please, don't walk away from me."

I wiped it, watching as he leant into my touch like it was the softest feather in the world. "Jacob I'm not walking away. We can be friends, like before."

"There was never a before, Kim. We can't be friends like before because we were never just friends and you know it. This is it, Kim. This is us, there's no other way. We can't be friends. I won't be able to sit around and call you a buddy while you and Jared play tongue tag in front of my face!"

"This isn't about Jared! This whole thing is about me, it's about us! I don't want to be with Jared, I just want completely platonic relationships with both of you!" I cried.

More tears, from both of us. "Well you can't always have what you want, Kim. There is nothing platonic about your relationship with Jared, damn it Kim, I've seen it! You promised! I thought you weren't like that, I don't know why I thought different."

"Jake, it's not like that!" I argued. "This isn't about Jared. I told you that, it's about me! Please, we can be friends, I know it!"

Jake wiped away all of his tears and his pleading eyes hardened. "It doesn't work like that, and maybe you should have thought about that before you came here and crushed my heart. Go home, Kim. I don't want you here. Go home, don't come back and never talk to me again."

"No Jake, please-"

"Go!" He roared.

I obeyed, walking backwards off of his porch and keeping eye contact. "I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I whispered before he slammed his front door shut and I flinched before running away in tears.

And then it started raining again.

Fuck, my, life.

I didn't stop the whole way home, not even to catch my breath. And when I got into my room, I grabbed my radio, which was playing some stupid, cheesy love song about love and soul mates and I threw it across the room so hard that it hit the wall and shattered, the stupid song skipping and drowning out.

Good riddance, nothing is ever as simple as a song says.

When morning came, I reluctantly got in the car with my brother, who knew all about what happened, and went to school. But the thing was, I couldn't concentrate on anything that was happening in class so it ended up actually being a waste of my time.

When lunch came, I was a nervous wreck. I knew that I couldn't sit at my usual table and that I was going to sit alone, but I still didn't want to see the haunted, betrayed and angry faces of my former friends, especially Jacob.

I managed to avoid looking over there, until I was out of the lunch line and scanning the crowd for an empty table. I couldn't find one, but I did find the faces of Jake, Summer, Embry and Quil.

Jacob looked, to say the least, horrible. Summer looked angry and was probably glaring at the back of my head when I wasn't looking because when I turned around, she was still glaring and it looked like she had been for a while. Quil looked upset with me, but not on his own accord, more because of his best friend and girlfriend.

But Embry caught my eye and he tentatively smiled at me. And for that one smile, I was forever grateful.

I decided that, since there were no empty seats, I was going to go outside. So I went to turn around when someone caught my arm, surprising me. I knew who it was, because of the heat, but the suddenness made me jump. "Woah there." Jared chuckled.

"You scared me." I accused moodily.

He frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Jake and I broke up." I mumbled as he steered me and my tray over to where Paul was sitting. He gave me a smile of comradeship and I waved to him.

Jared gave me a huge grin. "Yeah I heard about that! That's too bad."

"Yeah I can tell you're torn up about it." I muttered sarcastically. "So how's being a werewolf these days? I thought that last night was a full moon but then I realised it wasn't."

"Wow, aren't you just a sour bitch today." Paul commented, earning himself a smack from Jared.

"Don't call her that." He chided in a voice that made me seem that he didn't really care. I shrugged and started picking my sandwich to bits. "Oh hey Kim," Jared commented, leaning forward. "I'm really glad that you chose me. I meant it when I said that Jake wasn't the right guy for you."

I looked at him incredulously, and he gave me a smile. "I didn't choose you!" I yelled angrily. "And actually, Jared, I don't think we should be friends anymore. You're rude, pushy and obnoxious and even though you have a really pretty smile, I don't think I want to hang around you anymore. Please, refrain from following me like you always do when I tell you not to."

And I left my lunch, storming out of the cafeteria and fuming all the way home, where I proceeded to throw myself onto my bed and cry my eyes out.

A/N: And they finally kiss. Don't hurt me. That's all I have to say, it had to be done.