Chapter 13: Coffee

Finding a place for Lauren and I to have a private confrontation was a chore. Jacob wanted me to argue for something outside, or at least away from town. Lauren argued for somewhere neutral, like a coffee shop, school grounds—somewhere she could assume I wouldn't be able to whack her and bury the body inconspicuously. Or maybe I was the only one with the werewolf mafia on my mind. After a lot of back and forth texting, and some checking in with my dad, Lauren agreed to meet at my home. He was out for the day; we'd be alone. It was the home of the chief of police—one of the safest places in town for humans. I wondered how Lauren would feel if she found out that one of the house's main residents was a frequent target of vampire obsession. Maybe it wasn't neutral, but it was relevant.

Lauren rang my doorbell at exactly noon. I was grateful that I hadn't been forced to pace the living room for an unpredictable amount of time, but I was also nervous to the point of jitters facing her. When I opened the door, she had one hand on her hip and one hand holding up her phone.

"The second you start lying to me, and seriously I'll know, I'm dialing the police," she warned. "You might have your dad on your side now, but I will not rest until every single person in Forks thinks you're insane and shuns you. Generations of shunning. Got it?"

I widened the door and stepped to the side. "Hello, Lauren."

She squeezed out a plastic smile. "Hi, Bella." She swooped through the doorway, already gracefully sliding off her heeled sandals. Her eyes looked about like a bird of prey, barely moving her neck, but obviously picking apart the details of my life. She probably saw that the dishwasher was ajar and assumed I was lazy. No doubt she saw that the pillows in the living room weren't fluffed and the furniture was all upholstered in dull, uninteresting shades. I had no interest in indoor design, something my dad and I had in common. Whatever the modern standards were, I had a distinct feeling Lauren would know—if only as yet another tool to mock people with.

I invited her to sit in the living room and offered her something to drink. Her lips pressed into a paper-thin line and her eyes narrowed.

"Just because you have so few friends to practice your social etiquette on doesn't mean I have time or care to have time."

I wondered if Jacob was listening yet. I hoped he'd missed that one. No doubt he'd have something to say. He'd already told his were-friends that Lauren was wicked.

Lauren sat on the couch and I moved to dad's beaten arm chair. She set her purse on the cushion beside her and crossed her arms. Her eyes locked hotly on me and she waited. She wasn't going to say one word of small talk.

"The man that attacked us—"

"The one you agreed was not human," Lauren interrupted. She tapped a perfectly rounded hot pink nail on her forearm.

"Yeah. He… His name was Laurent."

"Before giant-ass wolves killed him."

"He was a vampire."

Lauren's mouth opened ready for a clipped remark, but she stopped. She narrowed her at me, then looked down. Her eyebrows curled, tightened, and then relaxed. "A vampire."

"Did you notice his eyes were red?"

Lauren bit her lip. She unfolded her arms and looked at her phone. She stared at the screen, fingers tapping the edges. She had warned me she'd know if I was lying. I don't think she anticipated that some fiction was reality.

"During the day," she said. "A vampire."

"Not everything in myths are true," I ranted quickly. "Vampires can go out during the day. A stake through the heart would hurt, but apparently decapitation really is the key—and burning the body into oblivion—but vampires are faster and stronger than Olympian athletes, so I don't suggest you take on vampire slaying as a hobby."

"Whatever, Van Helsing. Vampires are real. Got it. Now is this some sort of evil science experiment or a little know disease that I can hopefully get a shot for?"

"Neither," I mumbled.

She crossed her arms again. "This is supernatural mumbo jumbo."

"Without the mumbo or the jumbo."

"Are you about to tell me those wolves were…" Her whole body tensed. "Shit, I don't even want to say it out loud it's so damn crazy." Her fingers pressed into her skin. "We were saved by werewolves?"

I nodded.

She stared at the floor for a long moment. She shook her head a couple times, and then suddenly stood. "Fricking werewolves." Her arms were tight at her sides. She paced in front of the couch. "Vampires?"

I nodded again.

"How the hell are there werewolves and vampires?" she shouted. "In Forks! Don't they have somewhere better to be!"

She continued pacing. Occasionally she mumbled swears or asked me if I was lying to her, threatening me with her phone, or shouted again about how crazy we both were to believe this. Eventually she started pacing in silence. Her arms were less tense. Her brow remained furrowed. She tossed her phone on the cushion beside her purse. She stopped and glared at it.

"Werewolves saved us from a vampire," she echoed for the thousandth time.

I was curled up on the armchair, hugging a cushion. I half expected her to run out the door screaming that she was alerting the media, or at least promising to expose me as a fraud and a lunatic, but she seemed to genuinely believe me.

Lauren collapsed on the couch and leaned back. "Forget what I said about practicing your social decorum, Bella. I need coffee. Black is fine."

Immediately I dropped the pillow and darted for the kitchen. If black coffee was the difference between keeping Jacob safe and Lauren silent, I would get her coffee.

After the coffee was ready, I brought her a cup. She had her legs sprawled out on the couch and she was staring blankly. She took the cup from me without looking. I returned to the armchair. We sat silently for a few minutes, me watching for signs she would start corroding and her pondering deeply into the dark brown pool she was holding.

"That vampire knew you. Why?"

I brought up my knees, hugged my arms around them, and rested my chin between my knees. "It's a story."

"I figured. I asked anyway."

"You…know my mom died."

"Yeah. The whole town knows." She paused. "I'm sorry."

I nodded. I hadn't expected even that much sympathy, but it was something. "The vampire that tried to kill us was friends with the one that killed my mom."

"He was after you. Oh, God, he followed you." She shuddered.

"The vampire that killed my mom—he was killed. He left behind…his mate, like a girlfriend, but more."

Lauren nodded. "The girlfriend was pissed he died and you didn't?" she guessed.

"Basically."

"She sent that vampire to find you. Because they were old buddies."

"I don't think he was supposed to kill me," I admittedly, half just to hear it out loud and half because talking to Lauren was surprisingly…simple. It made the crazy sound less crazy. In this small, suburban room, I was the expert. I was the one with all the answers.

"He was sent to make sure you'd be available to fall into the girlfriend's evil scheme," Lauren agreed. "What the hell did you do to get involved with a psycho murderer and his psycho girlfriend and his way psycho friend?"

I smirked and closed my eyes. "Would you believe me if I said it's all because of a boy?"

She turned her head and frowned at me. She tapped her coffee cup a couple of times. "You mean Edward Cullen." She rolled her eyes and ran a hand back over her forehead. "Holy…crap. The Cullens are vampires." She then listed off all the now obvious signs. How they stuck to their own. How they had scary pale skin and never ate cafeteria food—or ate anything. "Their eyes—not red."

"They're good vampires," I explained. "Vampire with red eyes kill humans—drink human blood. Typical Dracula stuff. Brown…shades of…amber brown…" My mind started recycling images of faces I was trying to ignore. I shook my head and refocused. "My point is, not red eyes means they only eat animals. The Cullens protect humans."

Lauren asked questions almost faster than I could answer. Could vampires turn into bats? Did they sleep in coffins? Did they live forever? Garlic? Being honest was unnervingly easy. Maybe I should try telling the truth to someone I actually liked. Was I wrong keeping Angela at arm's length? Now that the Cullens were gone, who would force me to keep their secrets? I didn't want to expose them, put them in danger, or put anyone I loved in danger. I had been warned the Volturi policed certain vampire rules, and secrecy was number one. But if I told my dad and Angela, two people I valued and actually cared about me, would some secret coven an ocean away really care?

"Enough about the mosquitoes. For now. Do you know more about the dogs?"

I pressed my lips together and raised an eyebrow. Not even supernatural revelations could keep Lauren from snarky, insulting comments. She waved at me, like she had the power to wave away my thoughts, and told me to focus. She wanted the whole truth. I decided to take Emily's advice.

"When we were attacked, I knew nothing." I laid my head back and stared at the ceiling. "Turns out the werewolves are good guys."

"Obviously. They saved us. Free of charge."

"It's their duty to protect humans from vampires. I met a—one. He explained it to me."

Lauren rolled her head back to stare at me over the arm of the couch. "He explained—and just like that you believed him?"

I shrugged. Better to stick close to the truth. "Turns out one of the wolves is a good friend of mine. He wasn't a werewolf until recently."

"He got bit?"

I shook my head lazily. "No. It's genetic. But it only happens if they're needed—if there are vampires, if people need to be protected. He became a werewolf recently. He wanted to hide it from me…"

"But you put two and two together—noticed one of your few friends was harrier than usual?"

I laughed. "No. He'd been…away. Ignoring me."

"Which is unusual for you?"

I raised my head and scowled. "Lauren. Seriously?"

She shrugged.

"When I saw him again it…clicked. After hanging around vampires, my spider-sense is more accurate," I said.

"Is it…is he safe?" Lauren shot up and moved to the edge of the couch. "Could I meet him?"

My mouth hung open. This wasn't a question I had the right to answer. Lauren's eyes were wide and she was grinning. She had always struck me as eternally disinterested—if it wasn't about her, she was better off ignoring it or pushing it down. It worried me that she was excited about meeting Jacob. Was this honest curiosity, or was she gathering whatever she could to use as ammunition?

It wasn't my decision to make. I was choosing honesty. She wouldn't like it, but Sam had given an order. No names. I shook my head. The glitter in Lauren's eyes faded. Lauren's expression hardened. She crossed one leg over the other and frowned. She didn't say anything. I was surprised she didn't chew me out immediately, or reach for her phone. She did nothing. We sat in silence. Lauren fumed. I nervously counted the seconds. Each second, I thought I was closer to seeing the real Lauren. I was waiting for the bomb to go off. Instead, the seconds calmed her. Her fuming was less hot, less tense. She uncrossed her legs. She was behaving…not at all like I'd imagined.

Lauren finally sighed and announced that she would give up. She wouldn't force me to reveal who this friend was—but she wasn't done talking. But she was interrupted when someone knocked at the door. Then he let himself in.

I sat up. Jacob walked in. Shirtless. I didn't like how this was looking. Or how Lauren was looking at him. Her eyes licked him up and down—and she was not afraid to be caught.

"Hello," she said, biting her lip. "Bella, have you lost your tongue or are you about to make an introduction?"

I exhaled sharply. "Lauren, Jacob. Jacob, Lauren." I stood and crossed the room. "Something wrong?"

"We met once. At the beach."

Lauren's forehead wrinkled. "I think I would remember."

"He's, ugh, changed since then," I said nervously. "Remember we were having a very loud chat?"

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "We were at the beach. I was pissed at you for flirting with yet another guy—oh." Her head shot up. "But that guy was a kid. You're…" She gestured at Jacob and her jaw dropped. "Holy crap, you're a werewolf." Her head spun and she moved across the room, grabbing my arm and hiding behind me. "Bella, this is the friend that recently became one of our four-legged protectors?"

Jacob smirked.

"Jacob. What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you. Here." I tried to subtly hint to Jacob that this might not be a great plan, but he ignored me.

"My pack saved your life," Jake said. He crossed his arm, chin raised as he stared down at Lauren.

Lauren's grip on me was boa-constrictor-tight. She whispered, "When you said a werewolf was you friend, I thought he'd be a little scrawny one."

"I am Bella's friend," Jacob threatened.

Lauren stepped back. She released my arm. She crossed her arms and forced her usual plastic scowl into place. "I see how it is, furry. You've got Bella's back. Fine. I have better things to do with my life than follow Bella around. You can have her. I won't cause her trouble and I won't cause you trouble. You told me the truth. Great. I'll take that as payment."

Jake nodded once. "Deal."

Lauren raised her chin and stepped forward, now in line with me facing Jacob. "Unfortunately, I now know you only needed to save my life because Bella gracelessly got me involved with her supernatural soap opera. You saving my life is only fair. Which means I need a really good reason to keep this truth to myself." She shot each of us wicked grin that was strong enough to register as a natural disaster. "I can already guess that you showing up right now is not dumb luck. Which means Bella broke her word to meet me alone. Fine. I get it."

Lauren went to the couch and picked up her phone. She tapped a few times and then showed the screen to Jacob. "I recorded the whole thing. I pressed the red button when Bella answered the door. I've uploaded the file already. Destroying my phone with your wolf powers is useless."

Jake's fists clenched. I stepped in front of him, cutting off his direct access to her—in case she got too feisty for his were-rage to bear. Jake put his hand on my shoulder, a gentle hint that he was fine.

"Here's what I want. It's simple, so even you can remember it, Bella." Lauren tucked her phone in the back pocket of her shorts. "I want to meet them. You're were-gang. What did you call them? Pack. Right."

My eyes popped. "You're threatening to expose a pack of werewolves in order to meet them?"

Lauren returned to the couch and grabbed her purse. "You might have had you share of adventure already, Bella, but I've lived in Forks my whole life. Nothing interesting ever happened here until the Cullens came. It was all gossip—boring, barely worth spreading, but enough to pass the time. Then you came." She set her hands on her hips, her smile curling. "I'm not going to sit on the sidelines, bored out of my mind, waiting for something interesting to happen to me when I can see the game playing fright in front of me. I want in, Bella. If you're worthy of all this adventure, I know I am."

I looked over my shoulder. Jake rolled his eyes at me. I wanted to act light-hearted about this as easily as he did, but I could see in his eyes this was not according to plan. Sam would not like this.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know this is a shorter one-compared to my usual rampage, but it just made sense to break it here. Hopefully Lauren is making sense. She's tricky to deal with, since she was one of the few characters from the books I really, really never liked. Yet, she's going to be a present character from here on out. I hope she grows on you (and me)!