CHAPTER FIVE

I spent the rest of the day with Embry. He had said he wanted to just stay friends, so that's exactly what we were. Things were hardly any different from how they had been before the bonfire. We watched some trashy daytime television, played computer games and raided the freezer at lunchtime for frozen pizza and icecream.

The only difference was that when I left at three-thirty with the intention of getting home at the same time that I would have if I'd been at school, I gave him a hug. I couldn't help myself. We were standing in the hallway talking about going back to school tomorrow and I reached out to pull the door open to let myself out. Then on the spur of the moment I let go the handle, turned back and wrapped my arms around him. For a second he didn't move and then his arms slid around me and he hugged me back, his face pressed into my neck. I could feel his warm breath on my skin and my heart began to thump rapidly. I imagined myself kissing him again, but I just held him tighter for a moment and then backed off. He thought I didn't know what I wanted and I guessed if I did anything after he asked me not to, he'd think I was still experimenting.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said with a smile and let myself out.

I walked up the drive grinning and when I reached the street Quil was just approaching. His face took on a look of surprise when he saw me and he halted at once.

"You've been here all day?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Is Embry ok?"

"Yeah. We talked, it's fine."

"Oh! Well, I guess that's good. So what are you exactly? Friends? Something else?"

"Friends," I said firmly. "Are you going to see him?"

"Yeah, but I thought he was going to need cheering up."

I shook my head. "What did I miss at school?"

"Nothing much. Peters was sick so we had a temp take math and she didn't know what the hell she was doing. Biology was that frog dissection they were talking about on Friday and about four kids couldn't stomach it and left, so nobody missed you. English, I said you were sick and that your Dad called and left a message for Peters." He smirked at this point, obviously thinking himself incredibly witty. "We have to read Chapter 6 of 'Hamlet' for homework, but that's all. You got off easy."

"Great, well I better get home. If I read the chapter, hopefully Dad will be none the wiser."

"You are too lucky," Quil grumbled. "I can never get away with ditching. I'd have a week of detentions and Gramps would find out and ground me for a month."

I just laughed. "See you tomorrow."

Things continued as they always had for another couple of weeks with the three of us hanging out together all the time. I kept wishing I could get some more time alone with just Embry, but whenever I went over to his house Quil was there and with a sudden absence of girls in his life, he constantly planned things for the three of us to do on the weekends if they weren't hanging around the shed together while I worked on the car. It was beginning to frustrate me because by then I was certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that I did like Embry. In fact I found it difficult to keep my eyes off him and I had begun noticing every little detail; how long his hair was - almost to his waist - and how soft it looked; the fact that his eyes were the colour of dark chocolate, but with curious flecks of gold in them; the way his lips moved when he spoke; the fact that he seemed to be developing muscles in his arms and shoulders without even working out, unless he did it in secret in his room.

I was always worried Quil would catch me looking at him and say something, but I couldn't stop myself; it was as if he was a magnet and my eyes were iron filings. I didn't care that Embry noticed - he would often look up and find me staring at him and then smile at me, which only made things worse because it seemed like maybe he would have let me get closer if only there was an opportunity.

It was the second weekend in December when I decided enough was enough. I had been toying with the idea for a week and talking myself out of it, thinking he would just say no, but unless I went ahead and asked I would never know and he might even say yes.

The three of us had been hanging out after school with it being Friday and I got home at nine-thirty. Quil had left Embry's house at the same time I did, so I knew he would be alone now. I chatted to Dad for five minutes, then went to my room and pulled out my cellphone to call Embry. He answered on the first ring, as if he had been holding the phone.

"Hey, Jacob," he said softly. "Did you forget something?"

"No, I wanted to ask you something without Quil listening in," I said, suddenly terrified. My hands were so damp I almost dropped the phone and I wiped first one on my bed and then the other.

"Sorry; I'm sure he's been doing it on purpose."

"Yeah, he probably thinks I'll behave like a dick again if he doesn't keep an eye on me," I joked. Embry laughed.

"So what did you want to ask me?" he prompted.

I almost lost my nerve and made something stupid up. He was going to say no; I just knew it.

"I wondered if you wanted to...um...go to the movies or something...tomorrow," I blurted out.

"What's on?" Embry asked.

Shit. He was going to say no. He was just waiting for me to come out with a couple of movie titles so he would have the excuse of saying they sounded crap.

"Uh...'Derailed', 'King Kong'..." I said and restrained myself from adding 'Brokeback Mountain' which I'd read about - two gay cowboys romping in the mountains. My face began to turn red at the thought. Asking Embry to go out with me was one thing, but I didn't think sitting there watching two guys getting it on during our first date would be anything less than embarrassing.

"I saw a trailer for 'Derailed', it looks ok," I added.

"Are you asking me out, Jake?" said Embry.

"Yes," I said and then held my breath. 'Hurry up and say something, for God's sake,' I thought.

"Ok. What time is it showing?"

"Um...about seven, I think. We could get the bus into Forks."

"Cool. I've seen the trailer too, it looks pretty good," Embry said.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief. He said yes and I felt ridiculously excited.

"What about Quil?" he asked suddenly.

"What about him?" Surely he didn't think I meant for all of us to go? He asked if I was asking him out, so...

"What do you want to tell him? Anything? Or shall we just make something up about what we're doing?"

"Oh...um...maybe tell him some other time," I said.

"Ok."

I chatted to him for a few more minutes and then hung up. I caught sight of myself in the mirror on my wardrobe and saw I had a stupid grin on my face that I couldn't seem to wipe off. At last I would have him to myself for an evening and I just couldn't wait.

Somehow I managed to sleep that night, but the minute I woke up my stomach filled with butterflies and my heart began to pound. The worst thing was that the plan for the day was for Embry and Quil to come over and help me work on the Rabbit, which apart from the paintwork was almost finished now. I just wasn't sure how I would get through seven or eight hours without letting on to Quil that something was different. I would just have to try and not look at Embry too often.

They turned up a little after nine and I was already in the shed, fitting some secondhand seats Charlie Swan had managed to get for me, which were in much better condition than the ones I had removed from the car. Quil parked himself on the stool to watch and pulled out a bag of sweets to munch on. He could always be relied upon to watch us work and stuff his face rather than get his hands dirty.

Embry helped and much as I tried not to keep looking at him, our eyes met repeatedly and we kept smiling at each other. Quil, uttering a constant babble about the unfortunate lack of girls in his life over the past few weeks, didn't even seem to notice. It was about four-thirty when he suggested going into town for a change of scene.

"We haven't been into Forks for months," he said. "How do you two fancy going to that all-you-can-eat diner and catching a movie or something?"

I glanced at Embry and he smirked.

"I can't tonight, I promised Dad I'd spend some time with him for once," I said. "In fact I'm going to have to kick you two out soon; I said I'd be finished by five."

"What about you, Embry?" Quil asked.

"No, I was about to go home," he replied. "I feel crap, like I'm coming down with something."

"God, you two are so boring," grumbled Quil. "I guess I'm just going to be stuck playing computer games then."

I lowered my head to hide a grin as Embry got up and made to leave.

"Hope you soon feel better," I said, avoiding looking at him.

"Yeah, me too." He left before Quil, who hung around for another ten minutes or so. He was still there when my cellphone bleeped with a text message. I checked the phone and saw it was from Embry.

'See you at the bus stop at six.'

I started tapping out a response. 'Looking forward to it.'

"Who's that?" asked Quil.

"Bella. Sorry, Quil, I'm going to have to get in and start making some dinner for Dad."

"Yeah, yeah, ok, I'm going. See you tomorrow." Quil gave a long-suffering sigh and left me alone.

I closed up the shed, hurried into the house and took a shower, then put on clean jeans and a shirt.

"Are you going out again?" asked Dad.

"Yes, I'm going into Forks to see a movie," I said.

"With Quil and Embry?"

"Yes." Damnit, I was lying to everybody. I certainly wasn't going to tell him I was going on a date with Embry though. My face heated up at the thought. I wasn't sure quite how Dad would take an announcement like that.

I left the house at five-forty-five, hoping that by some poor stroke of luck I wasn't going to run into Quil again. However, I made it to the bus stop without seeing a soul, surprisingly for early Saturday evening. Embry was already there and I did my best not to beam from ear to ear when I reached him, but failed miserably. He looked just as pleased to see me as I was to see him and despite initially feeling nervous about the whole thing, the minute I was there we began chatting about anything and everything until the bus came and then on the half hour journey into Forks.

We reached the movie theatre twenty minutes before 'Derailed' was due to start and I went to buy tickets while Embry got popcorn and coke. I paid for the tickets and then turned around to find Bella standing behind me.

"Hey, Jacob," she said.

"Hey." I felt myself flushing, which was silly. I'd talked to her on the phone several times over the past few weeks and she knew by now how much I liked Embry. She was the only one I really could confide in, who I knew wouldn't tease me or give me lousy advice. I hadn't mentioned I was going to ask him out, however.

"Who are you here with?" she asked. "Quil and Embry?"

"Just Embry."

"Are you on a date?" she whispered.

I grinned. "Yeah."

"About time. I'm here with a friend from school, Jessica," Bella said. "We're going to see 'King Kong'. What about you?"

"Um...'Derailed'," I said, glancing past her at Embry who was hovering by the food counter, looking like he didn't know whether to come over or not.

"Well, don't waste time talking to me, get over there," Bella said. "Have fun."

"Yeah, see you later." I headed over to Embry, relieved Bella wasn't going to see the same movie.

In actual fact, hardly anyone was going to see the same movie as us. 'Derailed' had been showing for almost a month and I guessed most people who wanted to see it had already been. Two couples were in there, about halfway up the rows of seating and three girls sat together near the front; that was all. Embry headed up the steps to the last row and we sat down in the middle, stuck our feet up on the seats in front and began to munch our way through the bucket of popcorn as the trailers rolled.

I hadn't expected to feel so comfortable about being with Embry like this and I began to enjoy every second, although I did miss a fair amount of the movie. I kept looking at him instead of the screen and after about an hour or so, he leaned over to say something to me and I forgot about everything else. His hair trailed over my hand where it lay on the arm rest and his warm breath fanned the side of my face as he spoke. My heart began to pound and I turned my head so that I could brush my lips against his cheek. I was dying to kiss him properly and guessed that a peck on the cheek would give him the chance to pull away first if he was going to.

He pulled back an inch or two, his eyes lowered, and then his lips touched mine. My heart which was already hammering, sped up and I could barely breathe as I closed my eyes and kissed him. His lips parted and caressed mine warmly and I slid my tongue out, tasting the underside of his upper lip, exploring his mouth. I lifted my hands to his face, cupping it a moment before I slid them into his hair, holding it back from his face. I felt one of his hands land on my chest, the fingers touching my skin just below my throat where a couple of my shirt buttons were open and my heart skipped unevenly. I was hot and excited and I felt my jeans growing tighter as I began to stiffen. I plunged my tongue more urgently into his mouth and heard him groan as he kissed me back, his hand sliding down my chest to my stomach, and then around my waist.

I wanted more - so much more - although I knew that if we had been somewhere alone I wouldn't have had much of a clue as to what to do with him. I imagined myself taking his clothes off, touching him and then came to a stop, which was probably just as well as I was now uncomfortably hard. I wondered if our kissing was turning Embry on as much as it was me and guessed it was when he broke the kiss after another moment and turned his face into my neck, breathing fast and trembling against me. I stroked my hand over his hair and drew back a few more inches, thinking it would probably be a good idea to calm down before the movie ended and we had to walk out of the theatre looking all hot and bothered. I let go of Embry and grasped his hand instead, entwining our fingers, surprised at how natural everything felt. Thank God I had plucked up the courage to ask him out.

When the movie ended we went outside and headed for the bus stop. I realised I hadn't actually eaten anything that day other than a few of Quil's sweets and then the popcorn and I was starving. I suggested getting some food and we went into a fast food bar, picked up some fried chicken and fries and sat on a couple of bar stools in the corner while we ate. By the time we caught the bus back to La Push it was ten o'clock and the only other people on it were three other young guys whom I recognised vaguely from school. When we reached the reservation they took off in the opposite direction to us and I walked back to Embry's house with him, wanting to prolong the evening until the last possible minute and hoping for another opportunity to kiss him. The living room light was on at his house, but the curtains were closed and the rest of the house was in darkness.

"Mom will be waiting up for me," he said, stepping up onto the porch.

I followed slowly, suddenly not sure if he would want us to get close in case his Mom caught us, but he didn't seem concerned. He moved closer to me and rested his hands lightly on my chest. I slid my arms around him without hesitation and my pulse quickened as our lips touched. Things heated up rapidly until we were devouring each other, lips crushing each other's, tongues entwining, our bodies pressed together. I was getting hard again and almost pulled away until I felt that Embry was just as excited as I was. I could feel his erection through both our jeans against my thigh and it only aroused me more. I risked sliding my hand down his back to his butt to hold him tighter against me and he groaned into my mouth, shifting his body a little so that the hard-on trapped inside his jeans bumped against mine. Then after a couple more minutes he pulled his mouth away from mine, gasping for breath.

"Oh, God, Jake," he whispered.

I backed off a little and moved my hand back up to his waist, wishing we were somewhere other than his porch where really, anybody could catch us. I was so aroused that I ached and it was a completely new feeling for me. Obviously I'd had urges and jacked myself off in the privacy of my own room like any teenager, but I'd never had someone real - someone this close to me - make me feel so damned horny and eager.

"Do you...want to do this again?" Embry asked softly.

"Are you kidding?" I said at once. "I can't wait to do this again."

Embry took a step away from me and grinned. "We should probably tell Quil something though, or it's going to be awkward having to make shit up all the time."

"Yeah, I guess. I should probably get home," I said. "Are you coming over tomorrow?"

Embry nodded. "See you soon."

"Ok."

I stepped off the porch reluctantly and headed up the drive, glancing back over my shoulder several times and grinning at him before I reached the street and turned in the direction of home. I was excited and frustrated and incredibly happy all at the same time and I couldn't wait to see him again.