Chapter Seventeen
C.P.O.V
I stopped on the stairs for a moment my left leg suspended in mid-air as it was reaching for the next step, why was Quill's presence having this effect on me. I had, had crushes before but I had never acted like this before; I hadn't even heard Quill knock on the door or his voice and I somehow knew he was there. As if on queue there was a loud knock on the front door could be heard.
"Claire…are you alright?" Hannah called nervously from the end of the stairs, she was looking at me uncertainly as though she thought I had lost my mind. I shook my head to regain some semblance of normality "Yes…sorry I got a little wrapped up in my own world there for a minute!" I laughed as lightly as I could to redeem myself but thought that it sounded weak so quickly ended it. Hannah smiled seemingly placated by this, and started talking about how she would constantly day dream in class and not hear the teacher talking to her. I stopped listening and made my way rather nervously down the stairs, I was glad that Hannah was so easily swayed in her thoughts; apart from the whole Quill thing she seemed to prefer believing what I told her than anything else. Then again it might just be the case that she only listened and choose to believe what she wanted.
I could hear Quill talking to Sam now in the kitchen, Hannah had walked ahead leaving me standing in the hall, afraid to enter the room; however before I could do anything Riley came from behind me and smirked at me before grabbing my hand and dragging me into the kitchen after him. "No need to be scared Claire we don't bite…neither does Quill." Riley said quietly winking at me. I felt my jaw drop at this, did everyone know that I had some weird little crush on Quill? I could feel myself blush at the thought.
When I got into the kitchen no one seemed to be paying me any attention, I saw that mostly everyone was sitting down at the table, only Emily was standing and she quickly came over and brought me to the table. I could feel my breathing grow strained as I came near the table, Quill was sitting with his back turned to me but I knew that he would look gorgeous with the white shirt contrasting against his russet skin. There were two chairs left at the table and I immediately went for the one that was furthest from Quill, but Hannah who was sitting two seats down from him motioned for me to sit beside her; and while I was thinking about how to get away from sitting by her Emily sat in the other free seat by Sam. I groaned inwardly and clumsily manoeuvred myself into the seat between Quill and Hannah.
Hannah immediately started talking to me about something, but I was too aware of Quill beside me to even hear what she was saying. All around me people were talking merrily, laughing and joking, but I couldn't concentrate on any of them and could barely taste my food. That's when I noticed that even though there was a constant chatter at the table of people, I had yet to hear the one voice that I wanted to hear; Quill hadn't said a word since I had entered the room. I risked a glance at Quill to see what he was doing and he looked as though he had been forced to sit beside something incredibly unpleasant, he was sitting ramrod straight in his chair his expression looking pained. I quickly looked away afraid at what I had seen and felt utterly dejected, so that odd expression that I had seen on his face earlier after I had smiled at him was some sort of disgust; I could feel my eyes well up slightly at the thought of this and ate with increased speed.
After a while the chatter from around the table seemed to cease, it seemed that everyone knew not to speak to either myself or Quill, because from what I could tell no one had yet to speak to either of us; even Hannah which I found strange. Then the twins and Hannah suddenly got up, I looked up at this sudden movement, Hannah smiled at me "We've got classes down at the community centre.." Hannah began apologetically "I'm taking painting.." Hannah smiled again seemingly pleased with herself. Caleb piped up then rather excitedly "and I'm taking a culinary class!" Caleb blushed then at his own bravery, and I smiled at him encouragingly "That's really cool.. I really enjoyed dinner to by the way!" I finished, Caleb beamed at me. "So what are you doing then Reilly?" I asked curiously. "Well I'm taking what you would call an accompaniment class…" I looked at Reilly puzzled by this, Reilly grinned wickedly at me before continuing, "they take the classes and I accompany them!" Reilly laughed at his own joke and everyone else either groaned or rolled her eyes at him.
"It was great meeting you Claire" they all cajoled as they went out the door, "See you again soon right!" Hannah finished before she closed the front door after them. They had all picked up their rucksacks from the living room before they had left and their absence now left a large silence with the remaining guests. I blushed at the silence and the evident tension between myself and Quill which I'm sure Sam and Emily would both notice.
Instead of having to worry too much more about the silence, Sam began talking to Quill about the garage and how it was doing. Quill only ever gave mono-syllable answers which Sam didn't seem to mind, or in fact seem discouraged by. Emily then turned to me to begin her own conversation. "So Claire…are you going to start going to school here now too?" I thought about this for a moment before continuing, "I'm not entirely sure yet…to be honest I mostly came here to meet the rest of my family… and after the summer I might go back to London it would just be.." before I could finish though I heard someone choke beside me. Quill seemed to have swallowed some of his coffee the wrong way and was coughing loudly to clear his throat, he was looking at me again with another one of his odd expressions, he looked I thought upset by what I had said; but I quickly dismissed this thought why would my leaving upset him?
Following Quill's outburst Emily had decided that it was time to clean the dishes and I got up to help her leaving Sam and Quill alone. I could see Sam mumbling something to Quill, I was surprised that Quill could even hear him but he was mumbling something back in response so I figured that he could. Emily handed me a towel to dry the dishes and she washed. "So Claire.." she began in a quiet voice that I could barely hear "you said that you were thinking about going back to London for school…is that something that you want to do or is it something that your parents decided?". "Well.." I began, "they said that it was my decision as to whether I'd like to go back to London or go to school here instead, I guess it all depends on where Mam works and that…but if she lived near here then I might stay.." I blushed slightly at this, but Emily stopped and looked at me. "Honey I'm sorry that you never had us around for you when you were younger…but I promise that won't happen again we'll always be there for you….and I do hope that your mother lives nearby.." Emily finished with a small wink.
I was surprised by her show of affection and smiled to myself at the thought that she cared about me, now I wanted more than ever to live near here and my family. My thoughts quickly turned to Quill, and I angrily dismissed this, why should I care what about Quill, he didn't care about me!. My mother had said to me that we might end up living around here depending on where she ended up working, I thought about how good it would be to be able to call over to Emily's sometimes and see all my cousins. When I was growing up, I could never say that I was going to visit family over the weekend or holidays like my friends had, instead we would go on holiday for a thoroughly un-Christmassy Christmas.
Then a thought entered my head, Christmas in La Push….a proper family to call my own, I smiled to myself hoping that my mothers meeting had gone well.