CHAPTER SEVEN
Somehow we did manage to find more time to be together, mostly in my shed. At least twice a week Embry would come over after school, having told his Mom we were working on a school project in pairs. However, that only lasted as long as the end of the semester and then we were free for the holidays. The only difficulty then was keeping Quil out of the picture without hurting his feelings too much. The three girls he had attempted to woo saw him as nothing more than a friend they could take advantage of and his brief period of being a stud was long forgotten.
It was three days before Christmas when Embry came over late one evening after we had already spent the day together and reluctantly parted at nine o'clock. It was almost eleven when he tapped on my window. I was still up, sitting on my bed in shorts and t-shirt checking emails on my laptop. The light tap made me jump and I put the computer down and pushed the curtain back, then opened the window.
"Embry! Shit, what happened?"
He was crying and I could see in the light from my window that a deep bruise was developing across his cheekbone.
"Come in," I prompted, backing out of the way.
He scrambled in through the window and sat on the bed, kicking his boots off and wiping his sleeve across his eyes.
"Sorry," he said shakily.
"Tell me what happened." I slid my arms around him and he leaned against me, shivering. "Who hit you?"
"My Mom," Embry sniffed.
"What? Why?"
"She found out. About everything. She went through my room earlier when I was here. There's some stuff under my bed, magazines and things and...God, I'm really sorry...I had some pictures of you in one of my drawers."
"It doesn't matter," I said at once. It did matter - I was horrified that his Mom knew because it meant my Dad was going to be next to find out and probably much sooner than I'd hoped, but I just wanted to make him feel better.
"It does matter. She hates that I'm gay and she's not going to let me come over here any more. In fact she's taking me away for nearly two weeks over Christmas. We're leaving in the morning to go and visit her sister in Seattle."
"Oh, God," I groaned. Two weeks without him? And even then we wouldn't see each other except at school if he was banned from seeing me. I hugged him tighter and he slid his arms around my neck. "How did you get out?" I asked.
"Same way I got in here. Through the window," Embry sniffed.
I stroked my hand over his hair and kissed his bruised cheek lightly, tasting salt. I had no idea how to help. If only my Mom was still alive, I wouldn't have found it so hard telling her and she might have had words with Embry's Mom, at least about hitting Embry.
"Maybe I should just tell my Dad," I said doubtfully.
"Don't," said Embry in alarm, backing off a little. "Your Dad's great; I don't want him to be mad with you. And he'd probably hate me."
"Of course he wouldn't. Anyway, your Mom might tell him."
"She won't. She's so ashamed of me, she said she doesn't want anyone finding out. I wish I was already sixteen; I'd leave."
Embry was four months younger than me, his sixteenth birthday not until the middle of May.
"She might come around," I said. "She just got a shock."
"Yeah; I doubt it." Embry smiled wanly.
"What are you doing with photos of me anyway?" I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "I didn't know you had any."
"Don't you remember that day in the summer when you, me and Quil were all down on the beach? He had that new camera he was messing around with. Neither of you seemed to notice me snapping away with my cellphone." He smirked suddenly. "I was stupid though; I put the pictures on my computer and printed some. That's what Mom found. I'm sorry."
"Stop saying you're sorry," I told him. "You can make it up to me by sending me some pictures of you, since I don't have any other than some from when we were little kids."
Embry grinned wider. "I guess I can do that. Look, I better go before Mom finds out I'm not there. I'm not going to see you again until the New Year."
His face fell again immediately and I moved closer to him and brushed my lips against his.
"Just wait a minute. I better give you your Christmas gift early." I slid off the bed and went to the wardrobe.
"You got me a gift?" Embry said sounding surprised.
"Yeah, didn't you get me one?" I teased.
"Yes, I did, but..."
"It's not much," I added. "I'm broke from spending so much on the Rabbit."
"Me too, actually. Mom halved my allowance since they cut her hours at work."
I handed the package wrapped in red paper to him. I had agonised over what to get for him. He and Quil and I usually only exchanged Christmas cards, but now things were different between us I had wanted to buy him a gift, but panicked over whether to go for a casual thing or something more intimate. In the end I thought I'd save intimate for his birthday and instead bought him the latest Star Wars DVD which had come out earlier that year, which he was mad on for some reason I couldn't fathom, and Korn's recently released CD which was Embry's current favourite band.
Much to my relief, Embry was delighted with both and said he would take them with him to Seattle to cheer himself up over Christmas. At least his Mom hadn't taken his cellphone away from him, so we could still talk to each other.
When he left a few minutes later, I immediately felt lost and lonely. He would be away for twelve days and it seemed like an interminable length of time. Embry sent me a text when he got home to say his Mom was asleep and hadn't noticed he was missing and that he would try to call me the next evening from Seattle.
I barely slept that night, missing him already even though he was still only a few minutes' walk away. I tossed and turned, longing for him and feeling sick and anxious as I thought about him leaving in just a few hours. He would be away less than two weeks and I didn't know how I was going to stand it. I felt like crying too and I knew it had to be much worse for him, with his Mom angry at him, punishing him just for being himself.
When I woke in the morning after a brief period of restless sleep, I showered and drank juice and then stayed in my room sulking and staring at my phone in the hopes that somehow Embry might find the opportunity to call me. Nine o'clock came and went and the hands on my clock continued crawling around towards ten. My phone didn't ring and I knew he would be gone by now. I felt miserable and empty and worried that Embry would be having a lousy time with his Mom. By the time Quil turned up just before eleven I was pacing around the small room considering going out and running on the beach or something before I went crazy.
"God, I hope you're not going to look like that for the next two weeks," Quil exclaimed, throwing himself onto the end of my bed. "Like someone died."
"Fuck off," I muttered. "I take it you heard."
"Yeah, I can't believe his Mom hit him. He called me this morning sounding like you look." Quil smirked suddenly. "He's more bothered about being dragged off to Seattle than anything else though. Aww, it must be love."
"Shut the hell up, Quil!" I snapped. I knew I was turning red and the worst thing was that I was beginning to feel like I did love him and being without him for so long was going to be torture.
"Alright, put a lid on it. I brought you something." Quil opened up a plastic bag he had with him which I hadn't noticed initially, and took out a large flat parcel covered in silver paper.
"What's that?"
"Present from Embry." He grinned at me. "He asked me to run over before they left. Should I leave the room while you open it?"
"Don't be stupid."
"And he said not to text him before three this afternoon or his Mom will probably catch him."
"Thanks, Quil."
I cheered up slightly and opened the gift. It was a glossy hardback book about my favourite car in the whole world - the Shelby Mustang GT500. I grinned and flicked through the pages. I didn't even think I had mentioned the Shelby for some months, but Embry had remembered it was my dream car.
"I don't know how you can get so excited over a hunk of metal," Quil scoffed.
He hung around for a few hours and I was glad of his company, knowing I would have spent the time moping about as I had all morning otherwise. He left just after three and within minutes I had a text from Embry to say he had arrived in Seattle. His Mom and her sister were so busy gossiping that they had already forgotten about him and he was in the box room where he was to be sleeping.
'I miss you,' I typed at once. 'Thank you for the book, I love it.'
My phone beeped again a couple of minutes later and when I opened the message, it was a picture of Embry's head and shoulders as he apparently lay on his back on a bed, his hair spread around him. The shot was angled slightly from one side so the bruise on his face wasn't visible. I grinned and opened up my phone's camera function to take a photo of myself. I didn't know what pictures he had of me from the summer, but he certainly didn't have any of me looking at the camera. I sent him the photo and then sat staring at the phone, awaiting his reply.
'Call me?'
I punched the green button twice immediately - his number was always the last one I had called. We talked for an hour and he confessed unhappily that he only had ten dollars of credit left on his phone and his Mom had refused to give him any money for more. I told him to save what he had to text me to let me know when I could call him and when we finished talking, I went out and bought fifty dollars worth of credit to ensure that I wouldn't run out for a while. It was the only money I had left and I just hoped it would last.
What followed was the longest Christmas and New Year I had ever had. Dad and I went over to the Clearwaters' for Christmas dinner and a couple of days later we went into Forks and spent a day with Charlie and Bella, during which I mostly sat in Bella's room, driving her mad with my whining about how I missed Embry. To her credit she didn't complain, but did her best to cheer me up instead. When she finally revealed that Edward Cullen had gone away and that she was heartbroken over it, I felt like a complete shit for dumping all my problems on her. At least Embry would be back in a week - Edward had apparently left for good.
I actually felt better by the time I went home. A week wasn't so bad. Bella said she felt like a hole had been punched through her because Edward had said he didn't want her any more. Embry was just as desperate to be with me as I was him and knowing that made being apart more bearable. I told him about Bella on the phone that night.
"God, poor Bella," he said. "I hope you never get sick of me."
"I'm not going to do that, Em, I love you," I said without even thinking about what I was saying until it was out of my mouth. I immediately felt myself blushing and I held my breath until he answered. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe it was too soon and he didn't feel the same.
"I love you too, Jacob, I wanted to tell you before."
I grinned stupidly. "I can't wait to see you," I said.
"Me too. I don't care what my Mom says. Even if she grounds me, she can't be there all the time to check up on me. She has to get back to work the day after we come home."
The rest of the week crawled by. I spent as much time as I could with either Quil or Bella during the day and talked to Embry every night, sometimes for a couple of hours. My phone credit was lasting better than I thought it would and I didn't really have to limit the amount of time I talked to him. Finally on New Year's Eve he told me that he would only be away one more day. His Mom planned for them to leave early on January second as she had been contacted by her job and asked to go in on the third rather than the fourth. Only two more nights and he would be back in La Push.
However, before that I was in for a surprise. I spent most of New Year's Day with Dad at the Clearwaters'. Sue cooked another huge meal as she had on Christmas Day and we all over-ate; then I played computer games with Seth, the youngest Clearwater for a while. It was about four o'clock when my phone bleeped with a message and I fumbled it out of my pocket quickly. I was disappointed when I saw it was from Quil.
'Can you come over now? Got something for you.'
'Can't it wait?' I replied.
'No. Hurry up.'
I asked Dad and then Sue if they minded me excusing myself. Neither cared and since Harry had collected us in his truck to save Dad driving, I didn't have to worry about being there to help him get home either. I grabbed my jacket and headed over to Quil's, muttering to myself about what on earth could be so urgent that he had to show it to me there and then. His room was right above the front door and I could see him looking out of the window as I walked up the drive. He disappeared quickly and the door opened before I had even stepped up onto the porch.
"What do you want?" I muttered. "I was over at the Clearwaters' with Dad."
"It's a surprise. Go on up to my room, I'll catch up with you in a minute," Quil said, grinning like a fool.
"Just tell me." I knew I would be hearing from Embry before too long and I didn't want to be stuck with Quil so I couldn't call him.
"Please, just trust me, for once in your life," sighed Quil.
"Fine." I pulled my boots off and headed up the stairs. I suppose I should have had an idea what was going on, but I just didn't; how could I know when I thought he was still in Seattle? I opened Quil's door and there was Embry sitting on the bed, biting his lip and looking a touch nervous like he had when everything first started.
"Oh, my God! Embry!" I shoved the door closed quickly before Quil's Mom and Gramps heard me and Embry stood up slowly. "What are you doing here?" I flung my arms around him and hugged him tightly.
"Mom decided to leave early this morning rather than leave it until tomorrow and then not have time to do anything before she goes back to work." He slid his arms around me and pressed his face into my neck. "I missed you so much."
"Me too." I sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled him down with me. "How did you get here?"
"Mom dropped me off. She said she'd come back for me in an hour."
I grinned; that explained Quil's message. I stopped wasting time talking and kissed him instead. Quil would be coming up at any moment and I at least wanted one kiss. It had been far too long. I touched his face and brushed my lips against his. He deepened it immediately, his lips parting to admit my tongue, his own sliding out to explore, his hands gripping me tightly. My heart began to pound and I quickly grew uncomfortably hard, despite the fact that we were in Quil's house with Quil about to come in at any minute. I wanted him so badly and I couldn't wait for us to find some time alone again. He whimpered into my mouth and I guessed he was feeling the same way I was, which only excited me more.
The door opened slowly and we leaped apart. Quil sidled in with his eyes shut and closed the door after him.
"Sorry, I can't very well knock on my own door, Mom will ask questions," he grinned.
"It's alright, you can look," Embry said, red-faced. I smirked and silently willed my erection to go down again.
We spent the rest of the time Embry had left before his Mom picked him up talking about our respective Christmases. Embry's vacation in Seattle had been nothing less than boring. His Mom and her sister, who was also single, had gone out at least every other night, leaving him in the house alone and he hadn't seen another soul except for a couple of other friends of his aunt. He had already told me on the phone that his Mom hadn't mentioned what had happened before they left any more and she hadn't reiterated that he was stay away from me when they got back either. He promised to text or call me the next day if he could escape, but otherwise his Mom went back to work the day after and we could be together then.
When the car pulled up outside, I stayed in Quil's room while he and Embry went down to the door and when Quil returned, I hung around another ten minutes before I made my way home. Dad still wasn't back and I went into my room and switched on the laptop, onto which I had downloaded the photos Embry sent me - half a dozen in all, one without his shirt which showed his muscles appeared to have grown even more since he'd left La Push. I stared at that one, imagining he was there with me, kissing me, touching me, sucking me, while I jacked off vigorously and then again more slowly when once proved not to be enough. Just one more night - or two at most - and I would be doing this with Embry again for real.