A House Lockdown

I didn't know what to do. I was frozen in position. One of the boys jumped up and ran to Kim giving her a hug and a peck on the cheek. I felt very out of place, like I was intruding.

Kim giggled before speaking up. "Everyone, this is Maddison. Maddison meet Jacob, Quil, Embry." She said his name with extra emphasis which confused me before continuing. "Paul, Seth, and Jared." She kissed the guy holding her named 'Jared' who I assume is her boyfriend.

All the boys were smiling at me with a look like they knew something I didn't. I glanced at all of them, but my eyes lingered on this 'Embry'. The boy who I kept making eye contact with at school.

"Uh, hi. Nice to meet you guys." I said with a small smile, I was so nervous. I turned to Kim. "I didn't realise you had a gathering at your place. I'll head off and leave you guys to it."

Kim rushed forward out of Jared's arms with her hands up. "No, you don't have to go. You don't want to go back out into the rain. And actually, this isn't exactly my house. It's Sam and Emily's, we just hang here a lot."

I gave a confused look. "Sam and Emily?"

"That would be us." A voice spoke from behind. I turned around to see a woman standing next to a large man. The man looked like the boys, just larger, he definitely didn't go to school. He had his arm wrapped around the woman who was beautiful but also had large scars down her face.

Kim did the introductions. "Sam, Emily, this is Maddison."

"It's nice to meet you." Sam spoke, his voice was deep.

"Nice to meet you too. Sorry for the intrusion." I said shyly. I was so overwhelmed. Everyone was staring at me.

Emily smiled. "There's nothing to be sorry for. It's a pleasure to have you here. But you two must be freezing. You can take showers here and get changed into clean clothes."

I was frozen not really sure what to do. Luckily Kim seemed to understand so she stepped forward and grabbed my arm, leading me down the hallway, away from the boys. I saw Emily follow us and I was thankful it was just us girls with no boys tagging along.

"Kim, you can use the main bathroom and you have some spare clothes, right?" Emily asked as she opened a wardrobe, passing a towel to Kim.

"Yep, thank you." Kim replied with a grin as she grabbed the towel and took off.

Emily reached for another towel, pulling it out. "Maddison, you can use the en-suite in our bedroom. You can borrow some of my clothes as well."

Emily guided me up some stairs to her and Sam's bedroom. I felt like I was invading their privacy by standing in their room. She filtered through her closet, pulling out a spare shirt and pants, and passing them to me.

"The bathroom is right through there." She gestured towards another door.

"Thank you. Uh, what do I do with these?" I asked, pointing to my wet clothes I was wearing.

"Oh, just bring them out when you're done, and we can hang them in the laundry to dry." She said with a smile before leaving me to have a shower.

I walked into their bathroom and shut the door behind me, locking it. I let out a sigh as I rested my head against the door. Why had my day turned to this? I was just supposed to drop Kim off and go and now I'm having a shower in a stranger's house.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent my parents a message just to let them know where I was. I didn't want them freaking out when I haven't returned home. I placed my phone on the counter and looked into the mirror. I looked like a drowned rat. My hair is usually tied into a ponytail, but now the rain has made it half fall out, with strands sticking all over my face. My skin looks pale from the cold and I was shivering.

I turned the shower on and started to undress. I let my hair down and sat my clothes in a pile. I stepped into the shower, the hot water warming my cold body temperature. I gave my hair a rinse under the running water as I cleaned myself and stopped shivering.

With a turn of the tap, I turned the shower off and stepped onto the mat on the ground. I used the towel Emily gave me to dry myself. I put on the clean clothes Emily leant me. I used the towel to mostly dry my hair but since I had no way to brush it, I left it down, still wet.

I grabbed my phone and my wet clothes before exiting the bathroom. I walked through their bedroom, back the way I had come up. I didn't know where the laundry was, so I guess I had to find Emily or Kim.

I walked back into the room where all the boys were. They were still sitting at the table talking loudly and laughing. I glanced around but couldn't see the girls anywhere, leaving me awkwardly standing there. I don't know if it was a good thing or not, but Paul drew attention to me. "Hey, you cleaned up well."

"Yeah, thanks?" I questioned more than stated. All the boys were now turned to face me. I felt heat rushing to my cheeks before asking. "Where is Emily?"

"I'm here." I heard her voice pipe up from the kitchen. She stepped back a bit, coming into my view. She was hidden behind one of the pillars. I visibly relaxed. I lifted my wet clothes up to gain her attention of what I needed. "Right." She said before walking in another direction while motioning for me. "Follow me."

I didn't need to be asked twice as I followed in her direction. She led me to the laundry where she helped me hang my clothes on the small clothesline. We met Kim in there, doing the same thing.

Once we had finished, we went back to where the boys were. Sam caught Emily in the kitchen, showering her face with kisses. Kim and I kept walking, not wanting to invade their moment. Kim walked straight over to Jared, sitting on his lap.

I didn't miss his expression light up when he saw her. His eyes were so full of love and happiness as he kissed her. I stood awkwardly for a second until Jacob called out to me. "Maddison, have a seat." He gestured to an empty chair at the table.

Not wanting to stand around like an idiot, I walked over and sat between Paul and Embry. There were muffins on the table, but the boys were devouring them.

"So, Maddison, tell us a bit about yourself." Quil spoke up as he grabbed a muffin and started munching on it.

"There's not really that much to tell." I said quietly, nervous from the attention.

"Start with where you're from." Paul said, also grabbing a muffin.

"Uh, well, I'm from Australia but my family moved to America about 2 years ago, and we moved to La Push last month." I explained, not knowing if that's what they wanted to hear.

"Why'd you decide to move to La Push?" A voice spoke from beside me. I turned to meet the gaze of Embry. I stared into his eyes, they were a deep brown colour. It's like his eyes were searching every inch of my face.

"No real reason. We just wanted to move to a small reservation and here we are. Guess we just happened to stumble upon it." I said before facing the rest of the table. The boys were giving me weird smiles once again, like they knew something I didn't. I worked up the courage and hesitantly asked. "W-What?"

The boys averted their gazes with a chorused mumbling of "Nothing." I gave them a small frown before brushing it off.

The conversation was more small talk the rest of the time, questions about school and La Push in general. I actually quite enjoyed my time spent with the boys. They were nothing like the rumours and even clarified that they weren't some cult that did steroids. Time flew by and the storm had passed.

It was starting to get dark and I decided it was time I better got home. I got up and went to get my clothes that were drying. They were still damp. Emily told me to keep her clothes and that I could return them some other time.

I thanked everyone and said my goodbyes as I headed towards the door. Embry got up and walked me out. The rain had stopped but the sky was still dark.

"Thanks for letting me stay, sorry for the intrusion." I told him honestly.

"No need to apologise. It was great to meet you. You should come over again sometime." He said with a smile that made my heart flutter. I don't know why I was feeling this way. Maybe it was because I was talking to a boy alone. Definitely something I'm not used to.

"Maybe." I replied, not wanting to make promises. I saw a flicker of sadness, but also hope, cross his eyes. My heart ached at that.

"Well, I'll let you go. Maybe I'll see you around the school?" He said more as a question than a statement.

I smiled at him. "Maybe I will." He returned the smile. "Thanks again. See ya." I said with a small wave as I climbed into my car. I started it up and drove away. I actually really enjoyed their company and had a good time. And deep in my heart, I think I wanted to do it again.