Chapter 8

Seth POV

"MELL", I growled at her playfully. There was no way I'd growl at her meaningfully and get away with it. Embry'd bite my leg off. I sprinted after her and the tub of heavenly goodness. Still, it is unknown to me how she escaped me. Damn this girl can run. Well, she can't stay there for long can she? Just until she eats the ice-cream, nagged a voice inside my head. Crap. I tried to play it cool by just trying to talk my way through.

"Hey Mel? Look, I know I've been kinda hogging the ice-cream, but I swear that if you come out now, we'll split evenly. Please Mel, pleaseeeeeeee", I begged.

No answer.

"Mel?"

No answer.

"So you're gonna give me the silent treatment huh? Fine, I'll stay here till you won't be peaceful enough to eat your little oreos.

Man was I jealous. I wished I was the one eating it, not HER. Don't get me wrong, I love the girl more than I love Leah, but still...

...10 minutes later...

I was banging on the bathroom door non stop. I was literally huffing and puffing and threatenig to knock the door down. Still no answer.

It was starting to get on my nerves. Chica sure knew how to play.

Then Tom came up, mouth over stacked with food. "What the hell's wrong with you? If you want to use the bathroom so badly, use Sam's and Emily's. Or why don't ya just go in the back yard and do your business? It's not like anyone hasn't seen you microscopic junk", he was howling with laughter at the end of his little speech.

"Dude! Keep your voice down. Chica's on the other side of the bathroom.. Eating. All. The. Oreos. MEL !" I all but whined, like a puppy.

Tom opened the one of the chest of drawers and held a key. "Here, just use the key to open it dumbass."

Stupid Seth, stupid.

I grabbed the key and wrenched the door open, only to find...

Nothing. No one.

" Uhhh Tom? Where the hell is she?!" I screeched like a maniac

"How the hell should I know! You were the one that ran after her", he said panicking too.

Oh man, Embry's gonna hang us."

"Hey I didn't do anything, you're the one that's in trouble."

Just as we were ranting on, Paul came into view.

"What the hell is wrong with you two? I just came inside and couldn't take more of your screeching ," Paul shouted.

I answered, "Oh sure you're not the one that's gonna die when Embry gets here!"

"Why- Wait, what'd you do?", Paul relaxed, with a smirk on his face. Jerk. Laughing at me.

I started rambling on and on and just couldn't stop until Tom hit me in the area. "Oh hell, why do I even bother trying to make sense come out of you?", he pursed his lips and then turned to Tom, who explained everything in one sentence.

"Dumbo here ran after Mel until she locked herself in the bathroom and now, when we opened the door, she wasn't there. It's like she vanished into thin air."

"Well that can't be possible, Have you searched downstairs?", asked Paul in a now worried stance. He cared for Mel. To be honest we all did, she's not just Embry's girl but she's like a sister to us; she's so down to earth and lively and happy, it isn't possible to hate this girl.

"Well, I was there but I didn't see her," answered Tom.

"Spread out and search everywhere," all but growled Paul.

"MEL" "MELLLL" "Melissa" was echoed all around the house.

" Oh man, Embry's bound to be here any minute", I screamed like a whimpering girl

Mel POV

I finally finished eating my ice cream peacefully on the roof watching the sun hiding behind the clouds and peeking out playfully. It reminded me of a young child. It was a moment of peace when I heard running and shouting coming from the inside. All yelling my name.

When I heard Seth praying I couldn't stay quiet anymore. I laughed so hard that I nearly fell so I held on more closely. Out of the tears coming from my eyes, I saw the rest of the guys and Leah with Emily and two other girls walking up the path.

Sam spoke up, "What's all the racket? SETH ?"

This is gonna be good.

Seth came out with Tom and Paul, all looking flustered as ever.

"Embry, man I'm so sorry, I don't know how but it just happened. We searched everywhere but- ," Seth was cut off.

"Seth, what happened? I can't make any sense out of what you're saying, not that I could've before but still," said Embry.

I prepared for the jump. This is gonna give Sethy a heart attack.

He scratched his head, on the edge of losing it. "You see, I found Mel at the grocery store and we walked back home, splitting a tub of ice cream between us... *Deep breath* Thenshewentupthestairsintothebathroomandnowshes-"

I jumped... and landed on Seth.

"Duuuh-duhh-dee-ww- Melllll!" Then I ended up getting crushed with one of his bone crunching hugs

He kissed my face all over and began prasing the Lord for being safe and present.

I couldn't stop laughing for a solid 5 minutes.

Paul came up to me, looking like a ghost, "Where the hell where you? We've been looking all over for you!" and then he hugged me too. A first for Paul.

"Oh I was around," was all I could say.

I pulled back from Paul, only to be swept up in Tom's arms, again.

It seemed that today was Hugging Day.

After Tom patted my head for the 12th time, he put me back on the ground and found everyone's eyes on me.

Embry looked as though he was hallucinating – he kept looking upwards and back to me - and the rest had either masks of shock on them or a smirk ready to burst out into laughter like a bomb.

Finally Embry came up to me and unlike the others, he put his palm on my cheek as if I were the most delicate thing he had ever touched. I felt so content and peaceful at the moment, something I haven't felt in years.

"Are you okay?" he said softly to me, with a worried look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just having a little fun," I smiled into his hand that was still on my cheek.

Then he hugged me tightly and I reciprocated. He smelled like the ocean spray and fresh pine. I've smelled that type of smell, but his was more... natural, like his skin was scented that way. Then he did an unexpected thing, he rubbed my back and kissed my forehead. How cute is that !

Emily came up beside me and addressed everyone by telling us that she's cooking and so everyone went inside like love sick puppies, with all my shenanigans forgotten.